Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Josh Schwartz, Dave Bartis, Doug Liman, and McG, Warner Brothers Television, Hypnotic Productions, and the Fox Network. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

When She Left

Chapter 3

"Oh by the way, our exes are dating each other now... Marissa and Alex, no longer welcome in the red states."

Arms and legs spread in different directions Ryan was laying on his bed, going over the same thing in his mind, over and over again. Loosing Lindsey had been difficult; she was the sweetest girl he'd ever met. With her long red hair that would follow the wind's sudden movements, her funny weird little quirks, her adorable glasses and odd looking Freud-slippers. But him and Marissa, that was something else. And Lindsey, she had been nothing like Marissa. There had been no fistfights involved in winning her heart, there hadn't exactly been any saving her after alcohol had joined in the picture. Sure, there had been that one time, but that time Marissa had been very present. Marissa, that girl had trouble written all over her.

But it didn't matter how much, just how much, he knew that, there was something about her that drove him to her. He was the moth and she was the flame, he just couldn't stay away from her. But Lindsey, she had been his cure, with her he knew how to quit Marissa, but with her gone Marissa had started to light up again just as he slowly started to transform back into that moth.

Then, then there was Alex.

At first the idea of the two of them, two extremely gorgeous girls, together, had been very appealing. He had envied Seth for having discovered it. But then again, Lindsey had left shortly after the discovery of how his ex and Seth's ex had been hooking up behind their backs. After that, the discovery; not so hot anymore.

Walking out of Alex's, and Marissa's, apartment Ryan started to make his way down the street when, suddenly, a beer can comes flying towards him. Alex barely having missed his head gets out of her car and slams the door. Having been slightly taken aback Ryan looks suspiciously at the blonde in front of him.

'What do you think you're doing?' Ryan asks her, confused and on the verge of being, well, Ryan.

'Let me put it in a way you will understand,' starts Alex looking seriously pissed off, shoving Ryan ' Stay away from her.'

'There's nothing going on,' says Ryan bewildered, laughing slightly at the accusation.

'What are you talking about? Studying late together, sharing a sleeping bag,' Alex yells angrily at her girlfriend's ex, 'yeah there's nothing going on at all Ryan,' she finished as she shoves him again.

'Hey! Listen to me,' Ryan starts, clearly turning into part-old-Ryan, but Alex breaks him off.

'No no. You listen to me. Don't go near my girlfriend again,' she starts, she's marking her territory, 'You understand me now?' she finish he sentence by shoving him one more time, it's her girlfriend, she's hers now, he'd better back off.

'Walk away,' says Ryan calmly, staring at the very angry blonde who just wont stop shoving him.

'I'm gone,' Alex mocks him and head back to her apartment, her girlfriend.

Being Ryan, and being Marissa, there, of course, had to be fighting involved. He knew had she'd felt, Alex that is. He had been there himself, his girlfriend, Marissa in his case too, spending an awful lot of time with some guy. And being Alex, she wasn't stupid. She saw it, he felt it and Marissa must have seen it coming. It was after all the two of them and he couldn't blame the pretty blonde bartender for her confrontation. Then again, it was him who just the next day had stormed into her apartment looking for her girlfriend.

'What the hell are you doing here?' starts Alex, clearly pissed off at the bare sight of him in her apartment.

'I'm here for Marissa,' answers Ryan, not as politely as Kirsten would've wanted him to, but this is not a time for being polite.

'This is you staying away?' questions Alex as her temper is slowly rising to a mad-Ryan level.

'It's not about me I'm here because of her mom,' answers Ryan, truthfully.

'Oh what you and Julie Cooper are a team now?' asks Alex ironically, seeing as the statement isn't exactly likely.

'Yeah, where is she?' asks Ryan, clearly ignoring Alex's pissed-off-curiosity.

'She's at her little bonfire,' answers Alex, practically spitting out the answer.

'Alright,' states Ryan and makes it clear that he got what he came for and is heading over to the beach to find Marissa.

'Oh no no, you remember what I told you last night you stay away from her!' yells Alex, making sure he knows what's coming.

'Or what?' asks Ryan with a smirk, looking at Alex as though she was just another water polo player.

'You wanna find out?' threatens Alex and, for a nanosecond, you can almost mistake her for Ryan.

'Sure,' answers Ryan with the same smirk, telling her to bring it on.

'You go down there, IT'S ON!' Alex threatens at the verge of "at the top of her lungs". But Ryan, he's not that easy to threaten, especially if you're almost as skinny as Marissa and well, a girl.

'Great!' comes the great Ryan-comeback, 'You know this sort of thing used to be my specialty,' states the old school-Ryan as he walks out of the apartment, 'Oh, a little word of advice,' he starts, smirking at Alex, 'if you got to work this hard,' he stops, just to state the obvious, 'its not working.'

And looking back to his fight with Alex, their fight over Marissa, made him realize that he wouldn't stop pining for her. He'd love her, and he just hoped that some day, she'd love him back again.

'Hello!' came a very familiar voice from the hallway in the great Cohen mansion, Seths' voice barely making its way to the pool house, 'anyone home!'