Disclaimer: I don't own The OC and the title of the story is from The Beatles.

A/N-This has been on my computer for about a month half finished and I finally could not longer fight the urge to finish and post it. So yea, it's another AU Seth and Summer story, which so far I really like. Hopefully you all think so too. Thanks to Meg for editing this (twice) for me.

Seth crossed his arms unhappily. He looked over at Taylor and Ryan who were giving him a disgusting PDA show.

This was not why he had decided to come. Hell, he hadn't event wanted to come.

Ryan and Taylor had made him. Okay, more accurately Taylor had made him. Ryan could care less if Seth lived on their couch for the rest of their lives.

Taylor on the other hand, seemed to mind a lot. It was probably because she had thought he was going to be living with them for a week, a month tops.

One year later and he still called their couch home.

It wasn't his fault that his life had basically crumbled a year ago. He had a great life then. He had this job that he loved, he had an amazing girlfriend, Alex, and a good apartment with her.

Well, he got fired from his job because of pay cuts, and Alex suddenly decided that she was way more into girls and she took his apartment from him. Therefore, he was left girlfriendless, homeless, and penniless. All in all it was a fan-freakin-tastic life that he was living.

Ryan had taken pity on him. It had taken much persuading from Taylor to let him stay on the couch. There had been some words exchanged between the two when they were having a 'hushed' conversation that he had never wanted to hear. Mostly about Wednesday nights, that had been the most scarring. He almost boycotted the couch as he really didn't want to hear any more sexual going ons between his brother and his wife.

Somehow, they compromised. Seth would get out of the apartment on Wednesday nights and on the occasional Saturday he would take their two kids out so they could have more alone time.

Taylor had apparently only signed up for the month. Seth hadn't done anything in the whole year that he had been living in the apartment. It wasn't a large apartment to begin with and when you added a two and a four year old plus a 29 year old grown man-well it was crowded. He really wanted to leave the apartment, but he found that he was incapable of doing anything. More accurately, he was incapable of getting a job. Apparently, at job interviews, telling them you lived with your brother and his wife wasn't what they were looking for.

He was thankful for Taylor and Ryan. He had actually grown quite accustomed to their couch. He loved taking care of his niece and nephew, Hannah and Sam. They loved having their uncle Seth always there-they considered him to be pretty awesome.

So all in all, Seth was satisfied with his life. He thought that Ryan and Taylor were okay with it too. Hello, they got their Wednesday nights plus a live in babysitter. To him, it was a nice living arrangement.

Ryan and Taylor had expressed otherwise to him the other day. They had sat him down in the kitchen and talked to him about their future.

They were going to buy a house. Seth had gotten really excited, almost like a kid in a candy store, because he was thinking that they were going to buy a house with an extra room and he would get to live with them still. As much as he loved their couch, it was doing horrible things to his back. He needed the feel of a nice fluffy mattress under him. He had already been dreaming of which mattress to get (Sealy or Serta? Such a difficult decision) when they broke the news.

Taylor was pregnant again. After receiving some death glares about her being Fertile Myrtle, he had expressed his sincere (not a word used often with Seth) excitement about the future Atwood baby number 3. He then put in his input that they should name the baby Seth, regardless of its gender. And then made an offhand comment about how great those Wednesday nights must be or something ridiculous.

And that was when Taylor started screaming at him.

He had to agree with thoughts expressed from Ryan when she was pregnant with Luke two years ago: she was a scary woman when pregnant. He had never had firsthand experience with it before and he wasn't too pleased.

But he wanted them to know he was supportive of them. He shared how he would totally learn how to take care of the baby and that he would take care of Taylor's late night cravings and all since Ryan actually had a job to get to while he could sleep all throughout the day. Then he stated something about going to birthing classes and learning 'the ropes' just in case Taylor went into early labor.

Apparently that pissed Taylor off even more, as she told him he wasn't allowed to live with them anymore. He was beside himself and had blamed it on her hormones. He even stated that-well big mistake there. She had left the room in tears of frustration and then Ryan put his 'serious Ryan talk' face on. That was when Seth knew.

He was once again homeless, jobless, and penniless.

Life really does come full circle.

And that was how he ended up at a bowling alley. A bowling alley of all freakin places. He hated bowling alleys. They had a weird smell to them, the bowling balls were greasy, and the whole wearing shoes that multiple people had worn before really didn't sit well with him.

It was all Ryan's idea-or Taylor's idea expressed from Ryan. They weren't going to leave him completely in the dust. They had decided to at least try and help him get a job before they moved. So their first mission was to get him a job. They had also made it very clear that this was their only mission, getting him a job. After this, he was on his own.

Apparently, the only place willing to hire him was a bowling alley. How…depressing.

He walked ahead of Ryan and Taylor, considering he was sick of watching their walking (literally) PDA show. It was a little old, really, he got that they were in love and whatever, but he didn't need to see it 24/7.

He walked inside and saw all the…bowlers. God. He shook his head. Had he really gone from working at a prestigious comic book company to a bowling alley? Life really did suck.

He looked around, wondering what he was supposed to do. He looked at Ryan and Taylor expectantly. He was glad to note that they had managed to keep their hands off of each other for several minutes.

"I'm going to go over there and get some French fries," Taylor said.

She walked away, leaving Ryan to help Seth. Seth gave him another look.

"What do you want me to do?" Ryan asked.

"Do I really have to get a job here?" Seth whined. "It's the shoes. They bug me."

"Shut up Seth. The only reason we're getting you a job here is because Taylor knows someone who works here and she was nice enough to talk to her boss about making you their latest employee. Be happy we got you anything."

"And I thank you for that, I really do. But she couldn't, oh I don't know, picked the friend who worked at a clothing store? Or somewhere where people don't wear other people's shoes?" Seth shuddered just at the thought of that.

"Seth. You're almost 30 years old."

"29 and ¾," Seth muttered. He didn't like to admit that he was almost 30. He tried to pretend that he wasn't anywhere close to it. He was basically in major denial.

Ryan, as usual, ignored Seth's mumblings. "You need to get a real job."

"And a job at a bowling alley is one?"

"No. It's your job to get you money so you can get your own apartment before you can get a job that is nice and pays well."

"Oh. Right," he paused. "No clothing stores at all?"

They approached the counter, looking for someone. No one came over to them.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Seth called. "Oh look Ryan, no one is here. Guess that means they have an adequate amount of people working for them."

"Oh no, you're not getting out of just like that," Ryan said. He looked at the slip of paper in his hand that Taylor had given him. "Uh…is there someone named Summer here? Summer Roberts?"

A head popped up suddenly. Seth was rather dumbstruck when he saw her.

She was officially the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Really and truly. All thoughts of Alex were gone from his head (those images had stayed with him for a while too) and it was all about this girl. He didn't even know her name and he already liked her. He told himself that it was wrong to base feelings just based on looks but he couldn't help it. He could tell that there was something about her, something that told him she was the kind of girl he had been looking for all his life.

It's funny how just seeing a face can change your whole attitude on everything.

"Are you looking for me?" she asked impatiently.

"Uh yea. My wife, Taylor Atwood, sent me for my brother here," Ryan gestured to Seth.

"Oh right. She called me about him. She said he was a special case." Summer studied him for a minute. She shook her head and then turned back to what she was doing.

"So, do I have a job?" Seth asked eagerly.

She looked at him again, obviously scrutinizing him. She shrugged. "Yea. We need more people working here. You wouldn't be my first choice, but Taylor begged me, so I talked to Jeff-that's our boss-for her."

"We thank you very much for that," Ryan commented.

"So when can I start?"

Summer looked surprised at his eagerness. Seth was even surprised himself at the excitement that was in his voice.

"You can start now I guess. Maura called in sick tonight."

"Okay. I'll start now then," Seth said, a smile on his face.

Ryan shook his head at his brother. "I'm going to go get Taylor and we're going to leave. Here."

He had tried to shove some money into Seth's hands. Well, if there was ever a way to impress a girl, his brother shoving money at him was not one of them.

"What are you doing Ryan?" Seth hissed.

"How else are you going to get home? I know that your wallet is empty."

"Dude, seriously?" Seth shot his glance towards Summer. "This is not cool."

Ryan just rolled his eyes, taking the money back. "Fine, you can walk home then."

Ryan left Seth alone, who turned and looked at Summer. She just shook her head then walked away from him.

Seth looked around. He wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do. He just kind of stood awkwardly for a few minutes. Should he have followed Summer? Wow, he was pretty sure that he was already failing at his new job.

Summer came back, a shirt in hand. "Okay, here's your shirt." She thrust it at him. "It's Cohen right?"

"Well, that's my last name, it's actually-"

"So today, one of the genius employees that Jeff hired decided it would be fun to screw around and put all the shoes in different spots. Your job is to fix all of them, putting them where they belong."

Seth stopped in his tracks. He seriously had to touch the shoes all night? Of course this would happen to him.

"It's not that hard."

Summer started explaining to him what he was supposed to do, but he stopped paying attention after she started talking. He hoped that Summer would continue working with him. He wanted to talk to her. Perhaps after work she would want to go get a drink or something. He wasn't really sure what people liked to do after they worked anymore, it had been so long since he had done so.

"…Okay, so do you understand what you have to do?" Summer asked.

Seth had no clue what she just said, but decided to just agree anyways. She didn't seem like the type of the person who would take kindly to him not paying attention to her. He just nodded his head.

"Here's your shirt. Good luck," she said.

Just then Seth noticed that she had her coat and purse with her. "You're not working anymore?"

She gave him a weird look, which he didn't blame her, as it was kind of creepy that he had even decided to ask that, but answered him anyways. "My shift is over. You're working with him now." She gestured to a man standing at the counter.

Seth wasn't going to lie; he was more than a little alarmed at the sight of this man. He looked like he could squish Seth just by sitting on him and the tattoos up and down his arm weren't much of a confidence builder in Seth. He gulped before looking back to Summer.

"I'm working with him."

She nodded. "Yep, that's Bubba."

He was working with a man who could probably squish him whose name was Bubba. It was official: this job was ridiculous.

"His name is really Bubba?"

"That's what we've always called him," she shrugged, obviously not too concerned. "Whatever, not like it matters. I really have to go now."

Before Seth could even say goodbye, she had left the bowling alley. He sighed, realizing that now that she was gone, work just didn't seem like it was going to be fun.

He looked down at all of the shoes that were piled. All of the shoes that had been worn by hundreds of people over many many years. And he had to touch every single one of them.

Work was definitely not fun at all.