For the record

If only Summer hadn't turned and walked away after Seth told her that the boat was named after her, things would be different.

"They sent me out to find you. Found you!" she attempted, he laughed for her sake. "I thought you'd be stuffing your pockets with cocktail weenies." She smiled and he laughed a little at her and a little at himself. Was he really that pathetic?

"You can still see him. Chino's not that far away."

"I still can't believe he's leaving. I mean, he was my first friendmy only friend."

"You have Me." she offered touching his arm.

"Yah but that's not the same, you have no idea. I was the biggest dork in Newport. This place was hell for me, I-I just can't picture what it'll be like without him." She nodded, a little hurt by how sure he was with his first statement. She looked at him, wanting desperately to be able to reach out to him. She had never seen him like this and it kind of scared her. She brushed his face with the back of her hand and tried to sooth him a little, "We'll make it through thisI promise." He didn't believe her, he barely trusted her, and she could see it in his face. He turned to her, "Could you tell them I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Sure." She felt hurt. Hurt for him and hurt that he wouldn't let her in now. She stood and carefully tried to step through the grass in her high heels. She was about 2 meters away from him when he spoke again, "For the record," his face seemed emotionless, almost like he was mocking her in a condescending way, she turned for him to finish, "the boat was named after you."

She didn't smile. She didn't laugh. She knew it was named after her, she knew a lot more too. Instead, she looked down and slowly sat back down beside him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders from the side and rested her head on his shoulder. "Thank you." She almost whispered. His face didn't change much. He furrowed his brow; this had not been part of his plan. She was making this so much harder, it hurt more now. She wormed her arms through his so that they were wrapped more around his chest and he rested his hand on her waist and looked out onto the water ahead. "Can we stay like this forever and forget everything else that's going wrong?" his wish seemed so simple and so small, like he was a small child asking his parents to stop fighting. She wished so hard herself that she could say yes' and the wish could come true. Why did he have to make her care so much? She sniffled and turned her head to face him, "Seth"

"Summer, why did things have to go so wrong? They were going so great."

"I know."

"I just, I wish we could rewind and go back to that one moment where things got ruined."

"When was that?"
"I don't know, when Oliver came, I guess."

"Do you think he'll come back if the baby isn't his?"

"I hope so. But I'm not so sure, I mean, if it's Eddie's, he's not going to let her go back with Eddie. It's all so screwed up right now."

"I wish we could escape and leave it all behind."

"Do you mean it?"

"Huh?"

"If you were given the opportunity to escape, right now, would you take it?" his question seemed anxious and almost dangerous. She looked down and thought about it. "Only if you came with me."

"If I came with you, you'd do it?"
"In a heartbeat."
"Let's go then."

"What?"
"Let's go." He stood up and put out his hand for her to take; "Do you trust me?" She grabbed his hand and jumped up. "Where to?"

"You have no idea how long I've dreamed of asking you this question, but, would you come with me to Tahiti, Summer?" her eyes were confused and scared but excited and gleeful like a child all at the same time.

"It would be my pleasure, Seth." he smiled for the first time in what seemed like eternity. She had called him Seth. He took her hand and they walked away from the wedding where it seemed like they were leaving their hurt behind.

Seth waited in the car as his beloved brunette packed a bag or two for their trip. She had been 15 minutes inside when she appeared back in the doorway, and hopped back into the passenger seat beside him. "Did you leave a note?"

"My dad won't be back until August and my stepmom won't notice I'm gone."

"But"

"But I left one for my dad anyway." She seemed so calm; he wasn't calm at all, although his outward appearance said otherwise.

"Do you still need to pack a bag?"

"No, mine's already packed."

"You were going to go." she stated more than asked. There was a long pause.

"Well what about me?" she sounded so innocent and small.

"Well I"

"You would have left me a note." How did she know all of this? "Seth, I knew. I could see your whole plan written all over your face when we were talking about your boat."

"But when we were talking I told you that I was selling it."

"I know. But I knew that you wanted to run away. I knew you had planned a trip to Tahiti. And I knew that originally it was supposed to be with me. I knew that your boat was named after me. I know a lot more than I let on."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Try and stop you?"

"Yah."

"I don't know, I guess I just didn't know if you'd actually go through with it or not."

"I'm sorry."

"That's okay. I know I can't know what you're going through right now. I mean, yah sure, my mom left me but I was like, six. It's a lot different from losing your brother and your only friend. But hey, at least you know where he'll be. Let's just go. Forget apologies, forget the hurt and the blame, and go."

"Sounds like a dream come true." his dimples showed through again and she smiled and took his hand in hers. They drove out to the harbor as the sun slowly began its descending in the orange sky before them.

They had been on the water for one uneasy night. They were filled with indecision. Were they being selfish? Were they discarding the feelings of those they had left behind in Newport? Summer sighed happily. "Are we there yet?" she laughed. He turned over on his back and faced her. They had not done anything romantic, their minds almost racked with guilt at the thought of leaving everyone at home in frantic worry while they were taking a romantic getaway. It had not been discussed but mutually decided. Besides, neither of them had packed for such a "passionate" situation to occur. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, the sun was just peaking on the horizon. He grabbed his compass from the sail rod and adjusted the sail. "I wonder where we are?" she thought to herself out loud.

"Well," he answered intelligently and pulled out his map, "we are in this general vicinity."

"Ahh, in the big blue."

"Yes, very good."

"How long will it take to get there?"

"21 days. 1 down, 20 to go."

"That's long."

"Yep."

"So, what do we eat?"

"Well, I brought my grill and there's a whack of food in my cooler bag, so we can eat that andfish."

"I guess we should ration it then?"

"Yah, but there's like, millions of islands on our way to Tahiti so its not like we're spending 21 days in isolation on this boat." he could see her sigh of relief. "Squint your eyes straight ahead, do you see it?"

"Oh, an island!"

"That's Calasais. We should get there sometime in the late afternoon. See?" he showed her on the map. "I've been there a few times before."

"Just by yourself?"

"I took Capt. Oats once, just because I had told him so much about it, he just needed to see for himself."

"Oh. Oh, I brought a few disposable cameras!"

"Perfect."

"If my math is correct, we have enough for 5 pictures a day, of course, we should really use them as we please." He nodded, impressed.

"Are you hungry?"

"A bit." He rummaged around for his fishing pole and bait. "There are some peaches in my bag if you want while you wait."

"Great." she pulled out a peach and gobbled it down, it had been the first thing she'd eaten since they'd left. An hour later she was taking a picture of Seth holding up his first catch and then turning away as he cleaned it and cooked it. It wasn't actually bad, she had to admit, it was the most fun of all. A half-hour later they were laughing and eating fish and sipping on Kool-Aid. Much to Seth's surprise, mostly from lack of experience, Summer was easy to have an intelligent conversation with. He guesses that it was because out here there was nobody to impress and no popular people spying on them and she didn't have to be that person. He definitely liked this person. She surprised him again when she suggested that they go back. This threw him back a lot. He didn't understand. She told him that she wanted to go back and that his parents would be worried sick. She argued that they weren't to far to go back and that they would forgive him a lot faster. She started to plead when he started to ignore her. She was begging him.

"Please, Seth! Let's go home. I wanna go home! C'mon! Come home! Come home! Come home." She started to cry and he realized that she wasn't sitting across from him on the Summer Breeze' she was in fact sitting on her bed bawling her eyes out for him to come home, in her hand, his note. That's when he woke up from one of the most terrible dreams he had ever had. He looked around him at the vast expanses of waves. Where was he going? What had he done?