Ugh, I'm such a horrible updater. Sorry, sorry, sorry! Blame life – I do, frequently.
She woke him up with a kiss. He'd once told her the only thing that could manage to wake him up in the morning–excluding coffee–was when her lips were on his and massaging each other's lips. So, she decided, on the morning of his 21st birthday, she'd wake him up in his favorite possible way.
"Mmm," He moaned in protest as Summer pulled back from his lips. Not only had he lost the feeling of her lips against his, he was now very much awake at 8am on a Sunday. Which was not good. And so not the best way to start the day.
"Happy birthday, baby," She cooed in his ear. She only used term's of endearment on special occasions–basically Chrismukkah and birthdays–because every time she called someone 'baby' or 'babe' she'd suddenly get a high school flashback to when she used to think that a night at Holly's beach house, getting drunk, and hooking up with randoms, was fun. So, in an attempt to wipe them memories away, she only used the nicknames when she felt it was needed.
With his eyes still snapped shut, he let the huge grin overcome his face as he was reminded what day it was. He slowly opened his eyes letting the lazy smile still roam the features, he looked at his girlfriend who had since cupped his face, and stared at her.
When he failed to get out of bed, to which she rolled her eyes at, she decided another reminder was need, "You're 21, Cohen," He nodded and her hands were still underneath his chin and she was now straddling his legs.
"C'mon, you have to get out of bed," She said once more as she saw his eyes droop for the fifth time in the last 2 minutes.
"I would if you weren't making my legs go dead, woman," He said as he pointed out the fact she was on top of him still. She smiled and quickly jumped off of him and onto the other side of the bed. "Thank you," He said, swinging his legs round and out of the bed as he put his head in his hands.
Summer immediately came round behind him, she wrapped her arms around his front and leaned her head on his shoulder, "C'mon, I made breakfast. We have loads to do today!" She exclaimed as she tried pushing him off the bed. And, of course, she succeeded because he was skinnier than her and he was still tired so forcing his movements was the way forward.
And he didn't even completely wake up until she had pulled him into the kitchen of their 1 bedroom studio apartment and he saw the delicious meal Summer had set out.
It was kinda tradition for them, ever since Summer's birthday in the summer after Junior year–with Seth on his 'little trip' for her birthday, and her dating Zach for his birthday–they would go to one another's house, and make them a celebratory breakfast. Of course, Summer would get help from the whole Cohen clan–Ryan, Sandy, Kirsten–while Dr. Roberts would let Seth in while he was on his way to work, with a grunt towards the boy and a "Tell Summer to call me," being the only help he got.
Seth had been surprised that Summer had still cooked for him. And he wasn't sure why. He'd made her breakfast for her 20th birthday that was just 2 months ago, bearing in mind it had only been 2 pop tarts and cup of coffee due to the fact that they'd just moved to Providence and all there stuff was still in boxes and that was the only food they had in the cupboard. But still he'd put it on a tray with a rose and brought it into her. Because it was their tradition, and who were they to break tradition?
Seth looked down at Summer who was clasping his hand and smiled, before planting her lips with a small kiss. Showing his thankfulness for the meal. Because Seth and Summer were all about kisses nowadays. And Seth guessed it was because they'd grown up, and so had their love. Their relationship had once been about keeping everything on the quiet, but now it was Summer initiating kissing, holding hands, or general PDA's. And it was different, but still the same.
And when they both took their seats opposite one another on their old dining table that only just earned the title of 'table' let alone 'dining table' that could only just fit into their too small apartment, it reminded them both briefly of the little trip down to TJ sitting in the old booth as they worked in a routine that was new but felt so synced.
But, of course, with Seth being little hyper because it was his 21st birthday, the silence that had engulfed them just had to be broken. "So…," He let out an overdrawn 'o' hoping that Summer would catch on to what he meant by it. When she looked up at him with her eyebrows arched in question he continued. "Where are my presents?" He said, clapping his hands that had previously had a knife and fork in that were digging at the chocolate chips pancakes Summer had made, together. And rubbing them, like a greedy child.
"What presents?" Summer played him along, hinting that there weren't presents.
Seth's mouth hung in shock as she went back to eating her pancakes like it wasn't a big deal. Like he wasn't expecting a birthday present off her. She looked up at him and chuckled a bit, before pulling a straight face. "Well you can't expect me to buy you presents, and make you breakfast it's one of the other, buddy."
Seth had caught on to the fact that she was playing him along; although Summer was unpredictable and he couldn't be 100 percent sure that she hadn't got him anything. He raised his eyebrows sceptically. "Really?" He asked, Summer just nodded slowly, and calmly, and not faltering in the new technique Seth was using. "You haven't got me one single thing, even though I bought you a pretty expensive matching necklace and earrings for your birthday?" Seth said, as dull as he could.
He picked up the newspaper that Summer had put out, and started reading it as if he didn't really care. Summer frowned and wondered why Seth wasn't moaning and complaining about the fact he had no presents. "Yeah, pretty much," She said, although the confidence and spunk that had previously been in her statements had disappeared.
"Mmm," Seth said, and nodded as he lifted the newspaper to cover his face where he was hiding his laughter by biting his lip. The same silence they had started the meal off with was back, but with a whole new edge. Summer was in shock that Seth wasn't begging her to go out and buy him some presents and Seth wasn't talking in fear that his smooth cover would be blown by the slightest bit of laughter.
"Okay, okay," Summer said after a couple of minutes of deciding she didn't like the silence. "I have got you presents, I was just playing with you," She confessed and sighed.
Seth brought his head out of the newspaper and stared at her in the eyes, "Is that so?" He said, in a mock British accent. Before bursting into laughter.
Although, his laughter was cut short when he felt a sharp kick in his leg. He looked up to see an evil glint in her eye. "What?" He asked as he leant down and rubbed his leg that was turning a darker color then the rest of his pale body. "I shouldn't have to get hurt. While I have to be your slave on your birthday, you shouldn't hit me on mine," He commented.
Summer meekly shrugged but smiled at the same time, "Okay, but seriously," She said as Seth brought his hand from his leg and to the white coffee cup on the table to bring it to his lips. "I do have some presents for you."
"So…," Summer said as she sat on their bed, once more. Her hands were in a ball in her lap as she looked at Seth expectantly. "What'd you think?" She hand gestured towards the gift in his hands.
He turned round to her, dumbstruck before cupping her face and bringing her lips closer to his. She wet her lips and closed her eyes but when their lips got closer so they were a millimetre a part he whispered, "I love it," and then went on to kiss her.
And Summer smiled into the kiss. And wondered how the hell someone could make her feel like this. When she had been a flat chested 13-year-old that would do anything to get a boyfriend she'd never thought being in a relationship. Being in love would feel like this. And then her mom had left and she'd grown colder against the world, and assumed there was no such thing as 'love' in the world. But now, here she was, at 20. Being in love.
"So, you don't think it's like inappropriate or whatever? 'Cause I mean you don't even skateboard or whatever anymore, and y'know it seems a little vein maybe I should take it back and get you another present…?" Summer rambled on, with one of her closest friends being a rambler and her best friend and boyfriend being a rambler, it was no surprise Summer was one, too.
"Summer!" Seth exclaimed as he lifted up the deck in his lap, "I love it, it's the best gift ever!"
She'd thought long and hard about what to get Seth for his birthday. He was the easiest person she knew to buy for – probably because she knew everything about him. But she didn't want it to be easy. She wanted it to be original and she wanted him to be memorised and never forget what it was. So, she'd decided to mix 3 of his passions in together. She'd dug up an old drawing of her self in the characteristic form – Little Miss Vixen, and had it imprinted into a skateboard deck. Of course she'd only remembered that he hadn't skateboarded in… well, she couldn't even remember, when he'd been opening the present.
But she could tell from his facial features that he loved it, she just hoped her interpretations were correct.
"Are you-," She was cut off as his lips crashed into hers into a forceful yet soft kiss she'd grown accustomed to. She moaned out 'sure' into his lips at the beginning of the kiss before bringing her hand to run through his curls.
"I'm sure," He whispered to go with the intensity of the moment, before he jumped up, "We should go test it, like, now," He exclaimed dropping the gift onto the bed before racing off into his closet.
She smiled before following him, making sure his outfit was 'color co-ordinated.'
"Hey, bro," Seth said into his phone as he saw the caller display read 'Ryan.'
"Hey, man, happy birthday!" Ryan said into the phone with a soft laughter filling the phone.
"I know, I can buy alcohol legally now!" Seth said. "I don't need to use the good ole' fake ID anymore," Seth grinned into the phone and suddenly sorta missed Newport. In Newport him and Ryan would be able to have conversations like this at least 5 times a day. Now they were lucky to get their witty brotherly banter every other day.
"Yeah, you can go under the name of Seth Cohen and still get turned down for having a Fake ID," Ryan commented dryly but in his good nature.
"Yeah, well I was 21 first, so in your face," Seth laughed into the phone as he started walking around his apartment touching random stuff, running his hands along surfaces and trying to dodge any out-sticking furniture that would catch his leg that he'd done so many times.
"So what'd Summer get you?" Ryan said, even though he already knew, Summer had phoned him up at the end of August asking him what to get for Seth's birthday and Ryan had told her that he 'Was having trouble with his own present so she was on her own' to which she'd called him an 'unhelpful ass' she'd then phoned him back about a week before Seth's birthday with an apology, a suggestion towards his own present for Seth and a confession as to what she'd bought him.
It's why he liked the new Summer, she was still her bitchy, bossy, old self yet she was more remorseful about it.
"Oh, she just got me a skateboard deck with Little Miss Vixen on it," Seth said as he ran his hand over the Television set. He looked at his hand and saw all the dust and scrunched his nose up before wiping his hand on his jeans. He fell back onto the couch ungracefully, "So how's the life of Ryan Atwood then?" Seth asked.
"God, Seth, you've changed," Ryan laughed, "It's your birthday and you're inquiring about my life?" He asked feigning shock. Seth rolled his eyes, and opened his mouth to say something Ryan butted in, "An eye-roll? Now there's the old Seth Cohen."
Seth stopped his mouth from moving and looked round and expected to see Ryan behind the curtain or something, how would Ryan know he was rolling his eyes? "How'd you kno-?"
"I know everything, man," Ryan said, which caused Seth to snort, "Okay, it's pretty obvious, it's what you do, someone says something at your expense you roll your eyes and then make a smart ass comment. It's how you work. It why you and Summer get on so well," Ryan said in a reply to the gracious snort Seth had given him.
Seth then went to say something else but before he could he could hear talking that wasn't him or Ryan. "Summer?" He heard Taylor Townsend's voice asked. He had to roll his eyes but smile, like Ryan said, it was just who he was to do that. "Give me the phone, Ryan," Taylor said holding her hand out expectantly with her hand on her hip waiting to talk to her closest girlfriend, even if they were nowhere near close in the literal sense, with an Atlantic ocean separating them.
"It's Seth, remember, it's his birthday," Ryan spoke slowly as if talking to a 5-year-old.
"Oh," She let out a disappointed sigh.
"Aww, it's nice to be loved," Seth also let out a sigh as he said it.
"I'm sorry, Seth," Taylor bellowed into the earpiece, obviously Ryan still had the phone and she was trying to talk to Seth without taking the phone, "I just want to talk to Summer, can you put her on?"
"You know, you could've added a 'Happy birthday, Seth, I miss you, too, can I please speak to Summer'."
"Okay," Taylor sighed again as she looked at her boyfriend and cursed him for having a complicated best friend/brother, Ryan just shrugged and held out the phone closer to her mouth so she wouldn't have to shout and so Seth could here her, "Happy birthday, Seth, I miss you as well as Summer, now may I please speak to her!" She pleaded into the phone.
"I'm afraid, Taylor, that she's gone out," Seth said trying hard not to laugh. He'd gotten her to recite a whole sentence just to talk to Summer, and Summer wasn't even home.
"What!?" Taylor asked, infuriated, one at Seth for stringing her along, and then at Summer for not being home, "Well could you tell her to ring me whenever, please?" Taylor grumbled handing the phone back to a hysterical Ryan.
"That was a good one, man," Ryan said as he watched his girlfriend pout on his dorm bed. He smiled and then burst into another fit of giggles.
"I don't see what's so funny," Taylor blushed.
"Haha, tell Taylor I'm sorry, but before that, I need your advice," Seth said, turning the funny and playful mood into a more serious one.
"Ahh, there's the real Seth Cohen, well seen as it's your birthday, what can I do?" Ryan asked.
Seth grinned, "Well…," he started.
Seth drummed his fingers on the table as Summer's eyes scanned the menu, she frowned and looked over her choices, "Cohen," Suddenly Seth's head snapped up and looked at Summer, he raised his eyebrows, "Can you stop doing that, please? I'm trying to decide on what to have."
"Yeah, because I'm sure that deciding what you want from a menu is the hardest decision ever," Seth said, raising his hands to face level and waving them, as if a big catastrophe had happened, Summer glared at him, then deciding that she'd managed to stopped his fingers from tapping, so proceeded to go on and look at the menu.
Seth looked over Summer's shoulder and saw the short, old, Chinese lady coming out from the kitchen with the Fortune Cookies, his palms started sweating and he looked at his glass of water that had already been placed on his table when he'd arrived.
He was nervous. His leg was bobbing up and down under the table and he was trying to concentrate on the water glass in front of him, instead of looking at Summer directly. "Cohen?" Summer asked concernedly, "Are you okay?" She asked, Seth nodded and she brought her hand over and covered his, rubbing it, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap," She said, now the woman and owner of the restaurant was at the table.
"Here you go," She said with a distinctively Chinese accent and a wink in Seth's direction. Seth nodded back.
Summer frowned, "Why are we eating fortune cookie's before dinner?" she asked once the woman was out of earshot. She really didn't feel like being on 'Chinese women gone wild' tonight.
Seth shrugged and laughed nervously, "Why don't we just open them anyways?" He asked.
"Cohen, you're acting weird."
"Aren't I always acting weird?" Seth shrugged it off with a smart remark shot as himself.
"I guess…" Summer said as she frowned and searched Seth's 'reluctant to look at her' eyes.
Seth opened up his own and read it aloud, "Jump now, the net will form later," He frowned, "Well that's a load of crap," He said trying to be normal Seth Cohen esque, but he wasn't sure Summer was buying it as she was still searching his face for any hint of why he was acting weirder then normal Seth Cohen weird.
She cracked open the cookie and started reading her message. Seth felt like he couldn't breathe for 5 seconds while he watched her facial expressional change several times.
Summer read and re-read her small little slip of paper so many times and yet she still couldn't comprehend the words. When she looked up at Seth, she'd seen he'd pushed something towards her in a little black box with his shaking hands.
She let the slip of paper that read 'Marry me, Summer Roberts. Love Cohen' drop to the table as tears filled her eyes and she picked up the black – even though it was more a deep purple – velvet, box up and using both her hands opened it.
She was shaking. As was Seth as he tried to watch her reaction but also trying to avoid eye contact. He gulped and nearly felt tears stinging his eyes, one because of the intensity of the moment, and the thought that she might say no. And Seth wasn't sure he could handle another no.
And suddenly Seth was very self-conscious; maybe he should've waited. Maybe he should've done it after they'd both graduated college. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Seth could've really done with a shot in that moment. Actually, make that 2. Or even 3.
And if he could've got away from that moment, he realised, he would've been able to, legally.
His hands were in a ball on the table as he played with them, trying to distract himself. But Summer covered his fidgeting hands with her own hand. And when Seth saw the sparkling ring on the ring finger, left hand. His heart soared. He looked up quickly to see Summer's face decorated with mascara tears. But a glowing smile on her face. She nodded, furiously, and whispered, "Yes."
And then, Seth felt like he was in an entirely different universe. The last time he'd proposed, he'd seen uncertainty, fear, and worst of all guilt. But this time he'd seen love, devotion, and happiness. The things he'd hoped and expected for. And this time she leaned over and kissed him, it was fiery and passionate and loving and tender and so many other adjectives that Seth just couldn't list at that moment.
This was how it was supposed to be, really. Not some meek, awkward hug they'd shared on her bedroom floor with a negative pregnancy test next to them, a sigh of relief from both parties, and a glow in the dark ring that was sure to make Summer's finger green.
It was supposed to be in some big fancy restaurant with them dressed up. It was supposed to be a sparkling diamond and white gold ring that cost more money than Seth had. It was supposed to be like this.
This was fate. It was supposed to happen, as Zach and the gay dude that used to own his parents' house had said; 'You can't fight fate' and it'd taken Seth 21 years to the day to figure it out. But nothing was more truthful than that statement.
They'd proved it so many times. They'd tried to date other people, they'd tried taking time out for their own dreams, but they still kept coming back to each other.
It was destiny.
It was inevitable.
It was fate.
So I hope that wasn't too cheesy or anything. I hate Cheesy. So I would like to say thanks to; Sarah (SarPinky) for the idea of Seth's gift. And I want to say sorry to Jordan (Mrs. Cohen) for using the idea that I said I wouldn't use but I completely ran out of ideas.
And I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed. 15 reviews!? For 1 chapter! I've never got that before. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Even though I don't deserve it for not updating. Please review again. It'd be awesome and make me stop studying, and doing homework, just to finish with the last chapter. Although I was thinking of maybe turning it into a 4-parter. Yay, or neigh?
Okay, go review! It's a dying child's wish. I have yet to find the dying child.
