Seth Cohen stepped to the end of his driveway with a sigh in his throat. He hated this. He was so tired of this New Port life. He sighed running his hands through his hair. His Cohen 'fro. He smirked to himself, ah good one Seth.

"Who are you?"

His head turned to see the object of his affection. He smiled a little, irony. She couldn't even recognize him.

"Uh your neighbor, Seth Cohen." He said turning towards her some. "You know I live right here, sixteen years now."

Bitter? Nice Cohen.

"Oh, sorry I couldn't see you in the dark."

He opened his mouth to speak but before he could she had turned and walked into her house, smashing the cigarette out with her perfect foot.

Seth groaned. He really needed friends.

"So Ryan." He said standing proudly beside his boat. "What do you think?"

Ryan nodded to the boat some while inspecting it. "It's cool."

Seth nodded some. Note to self, new friend isn't much for words. "Yeah I plan to sail to Tahiti." He said smiling some.

"All alone?" Ryan asked looking up.

Seth shrugged looking at his new friend. "Well I plan to take…this girl." He said rubbing the back of his dark curly locks. "Her name's Marissa." He said shrugging some.

"Is Seth talking about Marissa again?" Sandy Cohen asked smirking at his son and patting his shoulder. "Maybe you can help him talk to her, Ryan."

Ryan smiled. Wait he smiled? "Sure Mr. Cohen."

"Sandy." He said good heartedly.

"Sandy." He repeated as he looked at Seth. "So this girl Summer said she was having a party."

Seth smiled. "You met Summer huh? First night here, wow that has got to be record speed, even for Summer."

Ryan laughed a little before going back to his default brooding expression. "So this Marissa?"

Seth's shoulders slumped some. "Well I've never really talked to her, but wait yes I did last night for like two point zero seconds but she's beautiful and..." he shrugged, "I just want to know her."

Ryan nodded some, obviously uncomfortable, "That's really cool, Seth."

He shrugged. "Yeah…in like a comic book world."

"You like comics?"

Seth smiled. "Welcome to the dark side, my friend."

Ties. Seth Cohen hated ties. They seemed to choke his very existence make his breathing slower and less fulfilling. If anyone else saw it his way, no one would wear a tie.

He sighed seeing his mom and dad walk towards the pool house. Rolling his eyes he wondered if his mom had been joking about locking up her jewelry.

He walked into the living room, wondering if Marissa would be at the party they were going to attend after the fashion show. Of course she would, Marissa was Summer's best friend.

Not that it would matter anyway, Marissa would never show him the time of day, he was awkward, lanky, and somewhat on the geeky side. He tried to remind himself that geek was chic but he had to remember that was just what he told himself to make him feel better about having no friends in a town that was far too small for so many snobs.

"Seth?"

Seth turned at the voice and saw his mother smiling at him. "Oh yeah mom, I'm ready." He said before she could even ask the question.

"You look nice honey." She said smiling proudly at her son. His mom never failed to make him feel better.

Seth smiled a little his dimples showing. "You too."

Kirsten smiled at him. "Thank you honey, now c'mon Ryan is waiting for you."

Seth Cohen had made a friend. The start of a new year, never know what it can bring.

Seth walked through the crowd of people attempting to find a place for Ryan and himself to sit. He found a place among what were defiantly people of the lower class, well in age at least.

"Hi Chester," he started. "Are you ready for your next sailing lesson?" he asked sitting down.

He felt Ryan slip into the seat beside him as the young Chester only stared at him with a smile.

"I'm so glad we had this time to catch up." he said with sarcasm dripping from his words.

Ryan glanced at him giving him a look that only could be described as what-the-fuck Seth just shook his head. "Nothing."

Ryan nodded some turning his head to the stage as he saw Summer waltz out on to it. Seth couldn't help but roll his eyes at her. Her dark hair was up and her make up could only be described as prostitute-like. The overbearing eye make up made him cringe internally.

He saw Ryan's expression when Summer winked at him and laughed some. He was in for some trouble.

His somber expression didn't go unnoticed by Ryan. The expression when Marissa Cooper walked on stage also didn't go unnoticed.

Her body turned and smiled, he pretended it was for him. The way the dress fit over her curved features made his heart beat faster and catch his breath in his throat. He pretended to blame it on the damn tie.

Ryan turned his head to him. "Is that…Marissa?" he asked.

Seth nodded. "The one and only Marissa Cooper."

Ryan nodded some and glanced back to the stage, obviously impressed but not impressed enough to go after her.

In the short time he had known Ryan Atwood; he already knew he wasn't that kind of guy.

"Hi," Summer Roberts smiled coming up to Ryan. "So my friend Hollie, or actually her parents are letting us use her beach house, you know because of all our hard work for charity, you should come." She said glowing at him a wicked smile taking over her lips. "And if you need a ride or…anything, remember I'm Summer." She said as she traced her hand down his chest before skipping off to what Ryan assumed was her friend Hollie.

Ryan shook his head some and walked over to Seth. His eyes never moved from the tiny brunette as he turned his head to him. "So that Summer girl invited me…us to that party at that girl Hollie's house." He said shrugging. "Wanna go?"

Seth shook his head. "Probably not a good idea, resident geek here."

"Marissa will be there." Ryan taunted knowing how to persuade his new friend into going to the party.

Seth looked at him and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Yeah…yeah uh we should go to that party." He said patting Ryan on the back.

"C'mon!" Summer shouted waving them over with a broad smile.

"Yeah okay, so let's go." Seth said mostly for his own benefit so he wouldn't change his mind.

"Look what I brought!" Summer said happily in a sing-song tone while skipping over to Marissa while nodding to the two boys walking in the door.

Marissa tilted her head before taking a sip from her cup. "You brought Seth Cohen?" she asked quirking her brow.

"Who?" Summer asked rolling her eyes. "No new hot…boy!"

"Oh." Marissa nodded. "I knew what you meant."

The blonde beside Summer looked over toward the two. "Isn't that Cohen boy your neighbor?" she asked.

Marissa smiled some and nodded. "Yeah."

"He is such a loser!" the blonde laughed.

Marissa faked a smile before pouring a bit more vodka into her already spiked drink.

"Wow Ryan," Seth said looking around. "This is…awesome. This is awesome right?" he asked looking to the shorter young man for an answer.

Ryan couldn't help but smile and nodded. "Yeah man, this is awesome." He patted his back and glanced at Seth. "Don't…drink anything, your parents already think I'm a bad influence."

"Oh sure, right Ryan." He said before walking off to explore the rest of the party.

Marissa Cooper's eyes darted to a dark headed, obviously confused Seth Cohen standing by the keg with a perplexed look on his face. Marissa walked over slowly as if not to scare the boy in front of her.

"Confused?" she smiled not bothering to hide the amusement in her voice.

Seth turned around somewhat stunned to see Marissa standing there. "Oh no I um…" he stuttered.

The brunette smiled and picked up the cup in his hands. "Here…" she said letting the beer flow freely into his cup. "A little help for the first timer." She said handing the cup back and winking at him before walking away from him, leaving him not shockingly breathless.

"Ryan!" Seth said walking over hurriedly to the shorter young man. "Dude, Marissa just talked to me for like…eight seconds!"

Ryan laughed some at Seth's sense of humor and patted his back again, "You counted."

"Yes!" he grinned.

The light atmosphere of the room changed when a tall muscular man walked up to Seth and Ryan. "Hey queer, what the hell are you doing here? This is my turf if you don't remember."

Seth stammered, "Well you know Luke, nice uh muscles there, uh it's a funny story actually."

Luke grabbed his shirt and pulled him up. "I don't want to hear it queer."

"You really need some new material, I mean queer, so unoriginal." He stammered again.

"Leave him alone."

Luke looked to him. "Who the hell are you? Another queer."

Ryan laughed bitterly. "How about you just leave him the hell alone and we settle this."

"Really Ryan, I've got it covered, see my face, Luke's fist…it's all been planned out. Predictable but planned out."

Ryan looked at Seth in a way that only Ryan could do to make him shut up.

Luke pushed Seth to the floor. "Sure, what's the difference from beating down one queer from beating down another?"

Ryan shrugged pursing his lips some. "Well I don't know, maybe this." He said sending a punch his way and the contact cracking Luke's nose.

"Shit!" Luke howled as Ryan nodded for Seth and they left the party in a slow job, some would say but to Seth he'd have to say…almost getting beat up and seeing Luke Ward get punched in the face was reason enough to be the best night ever, but then Marissa Cooper talked to him making it even better.