Seceding Link
Ch 4: Be With You
By Somebody's Angel
The young couple looked so in love, an old woman reflected as she watched the two laugh and play on the beach from her seat at a beachfront café on Catalina Island. The curly-haired boy grinned at his bikini-clad girlfriend conspiratorially before picking her up and hoisting her over his shoulder. Despite her laughing protests and flailing legs, he carried her down to the water, wading in up to his waist before tossing her in gently. Her shriek echoed around the small beach, and her boyfriend's self-satisfied smirk quickly faded when she whipped her head around, sprinkling him with water from her wet hair, and levelled a glare at him. He backed up a few feet, trying to placate her with words, but when it didn't seem to be working he turned on his heel to run. He only made it a few steps before she jumped on his back, wrapping her legs around his waist at the same time as she smacked him over the head.
The woman smiled when she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking up from her seat to see the lined face of her husband gazing down at her. He motioned to her empty glass from the table next to her, silently asking if she wanted a refill. She nodded and turned her attention back to the beach, to the teenage couple that reminded her of her and her husband in their younger days. Apparently the short brunette girl had punished her boyfriend enough for getting her hair wet, for she discontinued hitting him and allowed him to pull her from his back, keeping her legs around his waist so she swivelled to face him. He enclosed her in his arms to prevent her falling backwards as she cupped his smooth face in her hands and kissed him softly.
They waded out of the water hand-in-hand, making their way to their towels. When the girl bent over to retrieve something from her bag, her boyfriend playfully smacked her on the behind. This earned him an elbow in the ribs, which he dodged, laughing. While he was enjoying his victory his girlfriend discreetly compacted a ball of sand in her right hand. And just as he turned to collect the towels, she threw it full force at the side of his head. The boy turned, his lips pulled into a thin line. He ran at her and tackled her to the ground. He poked her in the ribs, and pinned her to the spot, tickling her till she cried for mercy. Satisfied that he'd served her just punishment, he helped her to her feet. She had laughed so hard that were tearstains down the side of her face.
After collecting their belongings the pair walked down the street with arms around one another – until the boy said something that offended his girlfriend and she pushed him away from her, chasing him down the street until the woman could no longer see them.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Cohen?" I said, lifting my head off his shoulder to look at him.
"Yeah Summer?"
"It's been two weeks." I replied, and the look that came over his face told me he knew what I hadn't put into words.
He nodded and stopped walking, taking his arm from around my shoulders so I could stand in front of him, "So do you wanna go this afternoon, or tomorrow morning?"
I thought about it; this afternoon meant I could check on Marissa that much sooner, although I knew exactly what I would be greeted with the moment I walked into her new bedroom – I had seen it way too many times at her old house to even suspect that this time would be any different. On the other hand, tomorrow morning meant I could spend one more night with Seth. "Tomorrow morning." I knew that Seth's parents would enforce some kind of punishment on him as soon as we got home, and it would most likely be a grounding from girls as well as outings. As much as I wanted to make sure my best friend wasn't lying on her bedroom floor with alcohol poisoning, I also wanted to spend as much time with Seth as possible. I had lifted the sex-ban pretty much as soon as we got on the water – watching him do all the things to make the boat sail in the right direction made him really desirable.
Seth grinned at me, probably thinking along similar lines to me, and grabbed my hand, enticing me to begin moving again.
I was amazed that we had spent two weeks in each other's constant company and hadn't broken up or killed one another. Apart from the time I had spent getting pampered at the spa in the resort we were staying in, Seth and I had pretty much been within sight of one another the entire two weeks we had been here, yet we hadn't fought…well, no more than usual. To tell the truth it freaked me out a little bit, how much at ease we were in one another's company; even mundane things like getting changed – though many a time Seth helped me undress – or nighttime rituals were merely performed, no awkwardness to speak of – though I did draw the line at going to the toilet while Seth was in the shower, something he seemed to have no problem with.
Our two weeks away had been something of an experience, especially for me, as, not only has I never been sailing before, but I also had literally no clothes to wear. As soon as we arrived in Catalina I had dragged Seth off to the nearest department store to buy myself some essentials – bikini, underwear, toiletries – however my love of shopping kicked in as soon as I felt the air conditioning of the first store, and we ended up spending almost the whole day there, maxing out my father's credit card. I still wore many of Seth's clothes – I found his novelty tees were a great cover-up over a bikini, or as a nightshirt.
Seth nudged my shoulder, succeeding in jolting me out of my thoughts also, and pointed out that it was almost five. I squinted at him, and swiped his sunglasses off his face, putting them on so I could actually see him.
"Hey!" Seth exclaimed, but at my look he didn't attempt to retrieve his sunglasses. He shrugged and continued with his previous line of thought, "So what do you want to do now? If you're hungry, we could go for an early dinner, or we could keep walking and eat later, or…"
I merely smiled as he continued to reel off ideas, amazed at the capacity of his imagination. "Cohen, it's our last night here." I began, cutting him off in the middle of his sixteenth idea, "I want to make it special. Let's go back to the hotel now, and we can get dressed up to have a nice dinner later tonight." Then I remembered that I was trying to be less controlling in our relationship, "Is that OK with you? What do you want to do?"
Seth grinned and wrapped an arm around me. "I'm fine with that Jay, I just want to spend time with you."
I chuckled, "You are so sweet," putting my hands on his cheeks and leading his lips to mine. I kissed him deeply, softly exploring his mouth with my tongue as I invited his to do the same in mine.
We walked back to the hotel to spend some quality time together before our last evening meal on the island.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
I woke an hour and a half later with a huge grin on my face, due to the extremely pleasant dreams Seth had given me. Still smiling, I slid my very warm, sweat-slicked body along Seth's and then rolled over so that I was stretched atop him, gazing into his beautiful, sleepy eyes. God, I love his eyes. No matter how hard he tries to hide it, I can always see everything he's feeling in his eyes.
"Hey, you," I said softly. "We'd better get moving, or we're going to be late." Seth had made reservations at a five-star restaurant when we returned to our suite.
"Summer, you're on top of me. If anyone's going to move it'd better be you." He tapped his hands playfully on my bottom.
"Knock it off, Cohen!" I tried to reach for his hands and felt myself sliding off him. His laughter feathered through my body as he wrapped his arms around me, rolling me back under him and then kissing me until we were both breathless.
I shoved him away, and accidentally-on-purpose pushed him too hard, in a move that would have cause him to fall off the bed had we been at home in his double. However our bed in the suite was a king, so he merely rolled over a few times before sitting up and smirking at me – he knew the manoeuvre, had been victim to it many times.
I rolled my eyes at him and wrapped the sheet around my naked body before going to the wardrobe to pick out some clothes. It wasn't that I was embarrassed or ashamed at my nakedness – we spent way too much time naked together to be embarrassed as we had the first time we had seen one another unclothed – but I knew that if either of us walked around naked we would never leave the room, and I actually wanted to spend my last night in Catalina experiencing the island, not just Seth.
Picking out Seth's new favorite lingerie – a fuchsia bra and brazilian cut panty set – and a hot pink halter-neck dress, I slipped into the bathroom to get ready.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Summer, come on!" Seth banged on the bathroom door for the third time in as many minutes. "If you don't come out of there in the next thirty seconds we're going to be late, and you know they won't hold the reservations for very long."
The door wasn't locked, but Seth knew better than to interrupt me before I was ready – I believe the last time involved him with a bruised hipbone from falling down the stairs and me livid and having to do my hair all over again; needless to say we were more than late to that particular event. "Two secs!" I swiped my lips with gloss once more, then shoved the tiny stick into my purse – no doubt the gloss would come off within minutes of Seth seeing me, and I wasn't about to walk around with unglossed lips all night.
Taking one last look in the mirror to ensure I looked awesome, I yelled at Seth to move away from the door, then exited the bathroom.
The look on Seth's face when he saw me was well worth the forty minutes it had taken to get ready. His mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide and he didn't blink for several moments. I stood there waiting for the ogling to stop – knowing that it would ruin the image if I moved before he was ready to look away.
However, after two whole minutes he still hadn't stopped staring, and was now rambling on about how beautiful I looked, still standing in the exact place he had been when I left the bathroom. "You should really stop staring, Cohen. It's rude," I finally said with a smirk.
"I'm only staring cause you're gorgeous," he replied, rambling over. He moved forward and kissed me, slowly, sensually. I kissed him back, but pulled away quickly, reminding him of our reservations.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
After dinner – during which Seth learned which lingerie set I was wearing, the discovery of which led to an impromptu bathroom rendezvous – we took a walk along the beach, enjoying the solitude that came with the darkness as we munched on the ice cream cones we had purchased from a stall, catching the vendor just before he closed for the night.
"You know what I love about ice cream?" Seth began, but I cut him off before he could ruin the tranquillity with his incessant babbling.
"You know what I love about it? It shuts you up." I interrupted, and placed a finger over his mouth before he allowed a thoughtless retort to escape. "Just shut up and enjoy the silence, for once."
The sand crunched under our feet and a sea breeze ran its fingers through my curly hair and toyed with the bottom of my pink dress. Finishing his ice cream – and mine – Seth wrapped an arm around my waist as we moved closer to the edge of the water.
"Cold?" he whispered in my ear, making me shiver.
"I'm good," I replied, resting my head on his shoulder. Despite my assurance, Seth took off his suit jacket – another of our purchases during our first day here – and draped it over my shoulders. I rolled my eyes at his prince charming act, but snuggled into the warmth nonetheless.
Seth looked out over the ocean, and I could see in his eyes that he was remembering the trip we had taken to get here – it wasn't exactly smooth sailing, either with the weather, or with me, the unexperienced first mate. Remnants of the day's events remained on the beach: an abandoned towel, a small, red shovel sticking out of the ground, but the life that had possessed the beach had left. We were the only two people walking among the sands of the beach now.
I gripped his waist tighter, trying to remember when I had last felt this happy. Certainly not before dating Seth…come to think of it, even the last couple of weeks hadn't been all that happy – what with the discovery of Teresa's pregnancy and the disastrous lunch with my father, not to mention "the Julie and Caleb union". In fact, thinking about it properly, the last time I had been this happy was just after the engagement – after Seth and I had fixed up Marissa's room at Jimmy's place. The four of us had spent the night in the newly-painted room – now that I think about it, it probably wasn't such a good idea, the fumes…
FLASHBACK
"Come on mom!" Seth groaned as his mother shot him down once more, "All four of us are here, it's not like we're going to hold a service party or anything!" He pouted like a little kid and shoved his cell phone at Ryan, "You reason with her."
I grabbed Seth's arm as he sat back down on the bed, leaning on him as Marissa, Seth and I watched Ryan attempt to persuade Mrs Cohen that he should let us have a slumber party.
"…we just want to cheer her up a bit, she's a little shocked about the engagement…sure we will…No, we won't…OK, we'll call you before we come home tomorrow." Ryan snapped the phone shut and tossed it at Seth, who failed to catch it, "Your mom said it's fine, she's a little preoccupied with Julie anyway, and she isn't feeling all that great either – she didn't take the news particularly well."
We all nodded knowingly – "not feeling well" was Newport-speak for "hungover" – and then Marissa and I broke into huge grins. "So what are we going to do first?" She asked, getting up from the bed and grabbing a sweater from her dresser.
"None of us really ate dinner, so how about some takeout?" Ryan raised his eyebrows in question.
"Good idea, man." Seth nodded enthusiastically, and pulled me up off the bed as he rose to follow Marissa and Ryan into the kitchen.
"Pizza?" Marissa asked, phone in hand. We nodded and mumbled our agreements, sitting down on the couch, Seth and Ryan on either side of me. Marissa sat on the arm next to Ryan, "So what do we want on the pizza?"
"Pepperoni." Ryan and I answered in unison, then looked at one another in surprise.
"Dude, how boring can you get?" Seth commented before I could contemplate the meaning of mine and Ryan's choice, "I say we get one with everything."
I wrinkled my nose, "No anchovies, eww!"
Seth rolled his eyes and conceded, "Fine, no anchovies."
Marissa and Ryan shared a look at Seth's instant compliance which I ignored – we all knew Seth was whipped, but then again so was Ryan. "I don't want any meat," she added, "So one pepperoni, one half everything hold the anchovies, half veggie?" She moved away before any of us could respond.
An hour later the leftover pizza was in the fridge and we had moved onto arguing over movies. Marissa and I had changed into pyjamas bottoms and tank tops – I borrowed some from her – while the boys were putting away the leftovers.
"The Goonies is a classic! We have to watch it." Seth said, holding the movie away from Ryan as if his brother was trying to take it – which he wasn't.
"Seth, not everyone likes The Goonies as much as you do, why don't we watch something that we can all enjoy?" Ryan continued searching through Marissa's large collection of DVDs, which were strewn across the coffee table.
"Can't we watch Intolerable Cruelty?" My voice was bordering on a whine, and I knew it was childish, but I also knew that a whine was more likely to get results. I moved around to the other side of the knee-high table, tripping over the too-long legs of my borrowed pyjama pants as I did so.
"No way, it's so stupid! The womanising lawyer who falls in love with a gold-digging client?" Seth scoffed, "How cliché."
"The Goonies?" I retorted, still on the floor, "What are you, eight?"
"On the inside, yes." Seth quipped, and straddled my waist, tickling me until I punched him in the stomach.
"I have a feeling we're never going to agree on anything." Marissa stated as Seth finally let me up, and all three of us shot her identical "way to state the obvious" looks. "So let's do something else," she continued, holding up a pack of cards, "who's up for some gambling?"
Poker quickly turned into strip poker, and it was only when Marissa brought out the vodka that Ryan began losing – it was a good thing we had started drinking before we began stripping. He was down to pants and boxers – apparently he couldn't hold his liquor as well as his Chino upbringing led us to believe – while Seth and I had each lost one item of clothing.
Marissa was down to her bra and underwear, and concentrating extremely hard on her cards, in a desperate attempt to preserve some modesty. No manner of bluffing could convince any of us that she had any cards that were worth anything, that is until she laid down a royal flush. She grinned around the table. "Read 'm an' weep. This means all you's needa start strippen'." We had all had more than a few shots, trading in monetary winning bonuses for alcoholic losing penalties. For some reason vodka didn't affect Seth in the same way champagne and beer did – he was probably the most sober one out of all of us.
I frowned as I wriggled around trying to get out of my pyjama pants without having to actually get up from the table. Ryan nonchalantly stood up to take off his jeans, while Seth sat there visibly debating whether to take off his shirt or his jeans – his socks had counted as one item of clothing, according to Marissa, since he was the only one wearing footwear.
"C'mon already, Coh'n." Marissa rolled her eyes at his indecision.
Finally Seth pulled his shirt off, leaving his bare chest exposed. "It was gettin' a lil' hot in here anyway."
I smirked and nudged him in the ribs. "You jus' keep tellin' y'self that, Cohen."
Another two rounds saw Marissa and Seth lose simultaneously, and we allowed them to keep their humility by calling it quits. By this time Ryan and Seth were drunk enough to agree to watching a so-called 'chick-flick', so the four of us put our clothes back on and settled down in Marissa's newly redecorated room to watch Sweet Home Alabama.
That night was the first time in a long time that Seth and I spent the whole night together, and while the accommodation wasn't all that flash – a mattress on the floor of Marissa's room – the company more than made up for it.
I woke in the middle of the night and, looking around, tried to remember what had roused me. Then I remembered it wasn't a sound but a feeling. I turned back to my bedmate and, sure enough, he was staring at me.
Seth brushed a stray lock of hair from my eyes after a moment of our eyes being interlocked. "You're so beautiful," he whispered.
"I'm already in bed with you. You don't have to give me those lines anymore," I joked, but stopped smiling when I realized he was staring intently at me.
"I'm serious. I'm the luckiest man in the world," he said before our lips met in a feverish kiss.
"Whoever said you're a man?" I quipped as I pulled away, expecting Seth to merely pout at my insinuation.
Instead he buried his face into my neck and whispered into my ear, "You turned me into one."
I couldn't argue with that, so I wrapped my arms around him as he rested his head on my chest, both of us drifting back to sleep.
END FLASHBACK
"Summer?" Seth's voice brought me out of the past, and I realised that we had walked all the way back to the hotel while I was reminiscing. He handed me my bag without a word, and I looked through it.
"Here, Cohen." I handed Seth the key to our suite – he had been unsuccessful at trying to find the card in my purse.
He bounded into the room as soon as the door was open, tossing the keycard in the direction of the bedside table – and missing, of course – before he flopped onto the bed, remote in hand and kicked off his shoes.
I followed him and sat down by his feet, stepping out of my heels as I did so. He ignored me, entranced in some action flick that was on TV, so in retaliation I played my hands across the bottom of his trousers, occasionally brushing the top of his foot with my fingers. I felt his foot jerk out from under my hand and looked at him, raising my eyebrows. "Are you ticklish, Cohen?"
"No!"
I smiled mischievously and grabbed his foot, hard, with both of my hands to keep him from moving. "You are, aren't you?"
"You know, Summer, all I have to do is flick my foot once and you'll go flying off the end of the bed."
"I'll take my chances." I responded and started to tickle the bottom his foot with my fingertips.
Seth made a short, sharp movement with his foot, sending me sailing off the end of the bed and colliding with the floor. I knew Seth's point of view would have been funny; all he would have been able to see was my arms and legs shooting up in the air as I fell with a thump. He started laughing, no doubt predicting my next movement to be standing up before him at the bottom of the bed. I decided not to stand up, instead moving to the side of the bed, making sure to keep out of sight.
"Summer?" He said through giggles. He moved to peer over the bed where I had fallen, however, all his eyes came in contact with was the deep blue carpet.
As soon as Seth looked over the edge I stood up and launched myself at him, crashing into the side of him, and causing both of us to fly off the bed and roll onto the floor in a heap. I was above him, laughing hysterically at my 'stealthiness', while he laughed and winced at the same time.
"Owww, Summer that hurt!" He whined, and I simply laughed harder at his high-pitched voice.
Our legs were tangled together and our hips met each other's, but my hands either side of Seth's head were supporting the weight of my torso. I stared straight into Seth's eyes and ceased my laughter at the serious look in them. He looked right back at me, silently begging me to lower myself to him, to allow him to feel my lips against his. I obliged, but pulled back almost immediately, as a punishment for kicking me off the bed. I began to lift myself off him, but stopped when I felt Seth's hand connect with my cheek, his thumb gently caressing it and then, moving slowly down, it brushed my lips. A playful smile appeared on his face.
"Maybe I am just a tiny bit ticklish. Now are you going to get off me or am I going to have to use force?"
"Force? Are you a mind reader?" I grinned as he rolled us over so that his body was now covering my smaller one. Leaning up to kiss him, I felt Seth's hands link together behind my head, supporting my neck. He gently lowered my head to the floor, never breaking the connection of our lips, while I worked on undoing the buttons of his shirt.
I ran my hands over his newly exposed chest, lifting it off his shoulders for him to shrug off. His fingers were busy ridding me of my dress – or attempting to anyway – one hand lifting the hem while the other fumbled with the zipper under my left arm. I rolled my eyes – he always sucked at opening zippers with one hand – and unzipped my dress myself.
Forcing him onto his back, I removed my dress and straddled his waist. His hands immediately came up to my back, caressing my skin and arousing me further. I simply looked at him, and a huge wave of emotion crashed through me as I watched his tongue peek out of the side of his mouth as he attempted to undo my bra with one hand. He always tried so hard to make it – make everything – good for me, even if he had to relinquish his own desires to make it better for me. I could tell how much Seth cared about me every time I looked into his eyes; every emotion he felt for me was there, and it was all I could do not to cry at the intensity of what I felt at that moment.
Seth saw the tears in my eyes and immediately stopped kissing my skin. "What's wrong, Summer? Do you want to stop?"
I smiled through my tears, and saw his shoulders sag with relief as he realised there was nothing wrong. This was just another thing I cherished about Seth – how he was always so worried about me, how I felt, what I did. I leaned down to kiss him, whispering against his lips, "I adore you," so he felt the words as well as heard them.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Hey, gorgeous," Seth said the next morning, kissing my shoulder as a hand ran over my hip and down my thigh. We were spooned together, my bare back against his naked chest, our legs intertwined and hands clasped together on my stomach – well, now my two and his left, seeing as his right hand had taken up residence drawing patterns on the outside of my thigh.
"Hey you." I replied, twisting to kiss his lips.
"You look sexy in the morning," he said. I laughed.
"Yeah, it's the touseled hair and no make-up, I'm sure."
"You're perfect," he replied, kissing gently me a few times and running his hands through my hair.
I rolled my eyes at his cheesiness, "It's too early for cheddar, Cohen." I checked the bedside clock over his shoulder, "What time do we have to check out?"
"Not 'til eleven." He answered, leaning in to kiss me again.
I placed my fingers on his lips before they reached mine. "It's after ten, Cohen."
"So?" He kissed my fingers in lieu of my lips, hands reaching for my hips again.
"So, we have to pack." I said, pulling his hands off me and sitting up. "That's gonna take at least half an hour, especially since you only brought one bag, so we have to fit all of my clothes plus your new ones in my bags." I continued as I picked up Seth's undershirt from the night before and pulled it over my head, "And then we have to shower, and get dressed, and have breakfast-"
"Summer, would you please shut up?" he asked agreeably, grinning.
After a moment, I gave in, narrowing my eyes and smirking at him. "Make me."
Seth finished pulling on his boxers and, standing up, pulled me off the bed and hoisted me over his shoulder in one movement. "Right," he said, "you got it."
"Nice butt!" I exclaimed, patting the navy blue silk.
"Do not drum on my butt, Jay."
"Why not?" I giggled.
He rolled his eyes, depositing me to my feet outside the bathroom. "You wanna shower first?" I shook my head silently, "You want me to shower first so you can pack my stuff." It was more of a statement than a question, but I still answered him with another silent shake of my head – it was amusing getting him to try and guess my thoughts. He was silent for a moment, seemingly waiting for me to offer another solution. Then his eyes lit up as if a lightbulb had gone off inside his head, and he grinned. I nodded and sauntered into the bathroom, leaving Seth following me like a little puppy.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Cohen!" I yelped as he kissed my collarbone – he knew how much it tickled, and thus deserved the smack I gave him.
"Summer!" He mimicked, kissing my collarbone again as I fumbled to get the key in the door. I shoved him off and finally succeeded in opening the front door.
Seth grabbed me around the waist as I entered, and I playfully slapped his hands away. He slapped my hands in retaliation and we both giggled, moving closer to one another, still slapping jokingly.
"Ahem."
Seth and I instantly parted, all humor gone. We turned to face two identically irate faces, one blonde, one brunette.
"Seth Ezekiel!"
So this is two months after the last instalment, but it's also over 5000 words long, so hopefully that will somewhat make up for the long wait. I was going to just have them coming home, but friends persuaded me to show them in Catalina too. I felt that this flashback was a little forced, and thus this chapter is not my favourite, but I hope that you guys liked it. We're actually getting into the plot now – which is part of the reason why it took me so long to write this part – so there will be less introspection and more action, but I hope I can make the transition somewhat smooth.
Thanks to all my reviewers! I-Believe-In-The-Butterflies, bfan2good4u, PrincessSparkle09, mel, Abby,Wherefore L'amour,Doves30, kursk,jann Lamonde nuemann, Samantha P,vicky, Krystal, fatallyyoursxx.
Huge thanks to friendsfan808 and octobersmoke for your long reviews - they always make my day!
And especially Candy.07 and Quicksilvre, you two have reviewed every chapter so far!
And finally to cdgeiger and crazymack69, thanks for helping me out you guys!