Behind Enemy Lines

Love

What was the point of it? Was it supposed to make the heart grow fonder? Or was it in Seth's case, destined to only bring misery and heartbreak? Seth was having a serious problem seeing any upsides to it.

After leaving the pool house, where he joined Ryan in weeping and pondering in excruciating silence, Seth trudged up the stairs and straight to bed. Bed sounded like heaven to him. He dimmed the lights and closed the blinds so he could have some sort of relaxation in his upcoming brooding stage.

God knows Seth needed it though. In one day of returning to school, it had been one hell of a roller coaster. He had already been thrown around, beaten up, and walked in on his ex-girlfriend in a heavy make out session. Ex? He never imagined the day would come that Summer would be his ex. He always thought the day he'd eventually get her to fall in love with him, he would be set and never give it up. But in true Cohen fashion, he had screwed that up.

Was it really time to finally let go of Summer? Get over her? Move on? He never dreamed of the day this would happen, because still to this day, his dreams are flooded with spending the rest of his life with her. He didn't want to be haunted by poisonous images of moving on from Summer and finding someone knew.

His eyes slowly closed shut and faded away into the darkness of his room, still heavy in thought about Summer and most importantly, his future.

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The Valley, open ice cream container, Kleenex's flooding the room

Sounds like your typical girls night in, which was supposed to inspire hope and cheer during your darkest of times. This was a sacred event, shared with those closest to you, to help you during your grieving process. Though to Summer, nothing sounded better than this. Which was scary all on its own, nobody looks forward to being comforted with feign sympathy by those supposedly closest to you, because that is only indication your life is falling apart. But right now, this all sounded like heaven to Summer.

Everything was so screwed up. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Actually, she had everything all planned out, it was supposed to be Seth on his knees begging for forgiveness and Summer savoring the power and control she would've been in.

But now it was the complete opposite. She was almost certain that Seth was hurt and disappointed about what had happened earlier in her room with Zach. Which meant her plans were going to be seriously reversed, and to make matters even worse, the thought of losing Seth all together was really beginning to tear away at her heart. Everything was turning out horribly, this was never planned so that she lost Seth altogether. No It was meant for them to reevaluate their relationship and savior it for what it truly is. Not completely shatter it with one completely meaningless kiss.

Kiss

Who would've ever thought that a kiss could completely destroy a relationship. Sure it could be a really bad kiss, but it was usually something to overcome and improve on. But now, one kiss, one incredibly tasteless, meaningless, unnecessary kiss may have just ruined her life.

Summer's room was lit up only by the flittering images of The Valley gracing her lonesome TV, in her even more lonesome room. If it wasn't for her TV, it was a safe bet it would be complete darkness, the only sounds being those of distant sniffles. For some reason, she felt more depressed than the day she found out her mother had left. Maybe it was because she was dealing with someone completely different, Seth. Losing her mother at the time felt like life was ripping her heart out and stomping on it. But just the possibility of losing Seth, was beginning to make her realize that for the second time in her life, she was losing someone.

Her eyes dozed off into a deep slumber, with only one thought grazing her overloading mind. Getting back her Cohen

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"Hey man, how you doing?" Ryan's voice boomed and echoed through Seth's room as he entered with a coffee and bagel in hand. It was now morning, and Seth was still buried amongst his blankets, desperately hoping they would absorb him altogether. He was dreading this day. He never even got any sleep, instead opting to play his stereo all night just low enough for his distant ears to hear. Ryan peered around the room, taking one look at the room gave him the insight on how Seth's night must've been.

"Ah, Boys II Men..That great of a night?" Ryan walked across the room and shut off the stereo. He returned to Seth's bedside and set the coffee and bagel down on his night table.

Seth groaned, and shoved the blankets off angrily and sitting himself upright to see Ryan. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was stained in dried tears. Ryan sighed frustratingly and sat at the end of Seth's bed. He hated seeing Seth so downbeat.

"Yes, my night was just grand." Seth deadpanned and grabbed the coffee mug and took a big gulp of it. He really could care less if he burned his mouth, at least it would be a distraction to the burning in his heart.

"Well hey man, look on the bright side. At least now you can get more ladies to swoon to the ol'Cohen charm." Ryan tried to excite him and shook Seth's dangling feet from the end of the bed, and plastered on his best emphasized smile. It clearly failed, as Seth was staring incredulously at him.

"The bright side?!" Seth stared in sheer shock and frustration. "What possible bright side do you see from this?" Seth shook his head angrily and scoffed. He rose from his bed and moved toward his dresser to slip on his robe. "Sorry man, but I just don't see anything to be cheerful about…thanks for the coffee.." Seth grumbled and began to trudge down the stairs to do the mandatory Cohen family morning greeting.

Seth's mind was doing summersaults, twisting his brain, straddling his conscience. He really didn't need Ryan's ill fated motivational speech, which turned out disasterously. Didn't he know what it felt like to be in love? Was he even in love with Marissa? Seth shook off the thoughts and sheer realization hit him. Ryan and Marissa's relationship had absolutely no bearings to that of his and Summer's.

"Hello mother…father.." Seth smiled weakly and joined his parents by the dinner table. Minutes later, Ryan came moping into the kitchen with his head lowered. Kirsten and Sandy both watched as their son's looked completely and utterly miserable. This was so not the way they were planning Ryan's first day back into the house. Ryan seated himself beside Seth, still with his head lowered.

"So Ryan." Kirsten smiled as she was finally able to get the boy to look her in the eye. "How's it feel to be back in Newport again?" Sandy shot Kirsten a look and her face drowned of all color once she realized she may have just triggered a whole new wave of emotions within the boys.

"Just grand." Ryan looked at Seth and smirked, Seth stared on aimlessly at his mug, but a faint smile creased onto his lips.

"I'm sensing sarcasm, but nonetheless, this time around will be better." Kirsten sipped on her mug but kept her gaze fixed on her dreary boys. Sandy watched on as the boys showed no emotion to Kirsten's desperate attempts of getting them to open up, so he decided to take a stab at it.

"So Seth, how does it feel to be home after being away from us all summer?" Seth's face dropped as he took extreme notice to the end of Sandy's comment. Kirsten shot a glare at Sandy and he literally smacked himself on the head. Seth and Ryan grinned at the loud noise that came from Sandy's skull.

"Gee dad, that sounded hollow. Almost as if nothing's in it." Seth pried his mouth open and faked a shocked look, and covered his mouth with his hand. They all grinned but that was all. No laughing, no Sandy Cohen one liner retaliations.

"Seth you really are a Cohen." Ryan stated knowingly, which caused Seth to stare confusedly at him until he eventually got the point.

"We make jokes in the worst of situations…I mean during the worst situations.." The 4 fell into an awkward silence, and this time no one attempted to break it. Instead choosing to sit silently, the only noise coming from the sipping of coffee.

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"Oh god dude, don't leave me." Seth gripped onto the arm rest and stared frighteningly out the window. Ever since Ryan returned, he never once thought about the amount of time he'd still have to endure until Ryan got reinstated back into the school. Which hopefully only took a day.

"Its just school Seth, relax." Ryan scoffed and kept his eyes set on the road.

"That's just it man…Its school! Complete with everyone making fun of me and talking about summer" Ryan perked his eyes over at Seth and frowned his eyebrows. "I mean their summers…the season dude, not..the person."

"It'll be fine. You already went one day without me, I'm sure the second can't be too bad."

"That one day was hell"

"Well you'll have to deal with it man. So I'll see you at the house after school." Ryan parked the car in the drop off zone and waited for Seth to get out.

"I don't want to go I hate school" Ryan smirked as Seth rambled on, knowing exactly the reason why Seth hated it. Sure the taunting and humiliating played a part in it, but iwas mainly centered around Summer and wherever her and him stood that week. It always depended on the week.

"Maybe Summer won't be there."

"You think? God I hope so, cause I don't know what I'll do if I see her. I might let something slip unintentionally."

"Well why don't you go and find out." Ryan laughed and ushered him out the door. Seth was laughing too as he was being forced out the door. Suddenly Ryan's face drowned of all color, and his eyes looked like they were bulging out of his skull. He quickly gave one last wave before speeding out of the parking lot and back home.

"Was that Ryan?" Seth slightly jumped on the spot and whipped his head around to find Marissa staring at him, with her books held tight to her chest.

"Jesus you scared me…Uhh did y-y-you think that was Ryan? I don't know I didn't quite get a good look at him…I d-d-don't think t-t-that was Ryan"

"Seth, don't play dumb with me. I know it was."

"Than why did you ask in the first place?" Marissa stuck her tongue out at him, in which Seth returned back to her.

"So uhhh….How are you doing?" Seth didn't quite know where he and Marissa stood in their relationship. The only real connection they shared was through Ryan and the fact that they'd been neighbors practically their entire life. Also they both shared bits and pieces of hobbies or interests that they liked. But other than that, on paper they looked like complete strangers.

"Good…." Seth frantically nodded in understanding as Marissa licked her lips and stared off behind Seth. They never had been very good at having an actual conversation without either Ryan or Summer. "So is he…-"

"-Mad? I don't know. He never really talked to me about it…" Marissa slouched down a bit, and frowned. "So where's…-"

"-Summer? I don't know. I went to pick her up this morning and she was gone."

"Probably at Zach's." Seth scoffed. Marissa saw how drained and upset Seth looked just at the prospect of hearing Zach's name together with Summer. She smiled sympathetically at Seth, and it was at that moment she decided to try and cheer him up.

"Hey Seth." She called and he turned on his heel to face her. He was just beginning to make his way toward the school, but turned back to see her. "Wanna blow school off and go get some breakfast…or brunch?"

"Sure. I'm starved" Seth breathed a sigh of relief and rejoined Marissa as the two made their way silent towards her car. Seth was relieved that he didn't have to face Summer, though he wasn't entire sure she was even there, seeing as Marissa had no clue where she was. He was no where near ready with seeing her again.

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"Summer?" Ryan answered the door bewildered at the fact Summer Roberts was at the door, not in school attire at all. In fact she looked like she hadn't slept at all and her hair was all scrunched up.

"Is Seth here?"

"Uhh..no he's at school. Which is where you should be."

"Thank god." Summer brushed past Ryan and into the foyer.

"Come on in Summer…" Ryan mumbled as he shut the door and turned to face Summer.

"Can we talk?" Summer seemed disturbed and antsy, two traits that even Seth had probably never seen. Realizing Summer's state, he nodded and led her into the living room.

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"Is he mad at me?" Marissa winced her eyes shut and hoped for a positive answer. Her and Seth were seated in the gang's favorite booth at the diner and they were both well into their meals.

"Well I don't know Marissa. The man comes back from a forced relationship, only to find the one girl he thought endlessly about all summer, in a hot make out session with some guy he's never seen." Okay so Seth lied. Ryan did fill him in a bit on what happened with him and Marissa, and Seth returned the favor to Ryan. It seemed Ryan and Seth's roles had changed significantly. Ryan was the more open on his relationship, while Seth was more silent and brooding.

Marissa lowered her head and began twirling around her food with her fork. Seth was unintentionally glaring at her, only because it was a heat of the moment type of deal. That whole outburst sort of made him realize just how much he should actually be pissed at her. He felt like he was betraying Ryan by talking to her, god knows Ryan would never talk to Summer after she hurt Seth so badly.

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"Summer?" Ryan gulped and watched as Summer stifled back tears and buried her head in her hands.

"I messed up Ryan." His eyes lit up with sheer shock and pity. Never before had he heard Summer openly admit she was wrong. She was always the strong type, and would argue about anything.

"I know you did. Seth filled me in on all of it." Ryan crossed his arms but kept a stern look on his face. He really didn't see much reason for him to console her, not after hearing what happened to Seth.

"Gee, can you be at least a bit sympathetic for me." Summer snarled and rubbed a hand over her face, wiping off any threatening tears and more importantly, frustration off her face.

"I really don't see any reason why I should be." Summer looked up with her jaw dropped, but quickly replaced it with a glare.

"Oh my god, why did I even bother coming here." Summer stood up from the couch and made her way towards the foyer.

"I don't know, you tell me." Summer halted at the living room intersection with the foyer, and gave an icy stare back at him. "How does it feel to be the one that's screwed up? Now you know how you made Seth feel all of last year."

"WHAT?" Summer yelled. Ryan sighed. Oh boy, here it comes. He just saw within seconds Summer turn from the open hearted, guilt driven girl, right back into her old former arguing and guilt denying self. "I can not believe you just said that. You only know Cohen's side of everything. Which I remind you, is all bullshit!"

"Oh really? So you ignoring him, blowing him off at cotillion, oh yeah, than denying your relationship at school is all his fault?!" Ryan rose from his chair, in a very similar situation as Seth was in at the diner. Just a heat of the moment.

"This IS his fault. If he didn't be such a geeky ass, loser of a boyfriend and sail off like a bitch on his littler boat, we'd still be together! This is all his fault!" Summer roared and a few tears trickled down her cheek. Ryan didn't let up though, not even to the sight of her crying. He didn't like taking the Cohen's for granted, and he sure wasn't going to start now. He would forever be with them, on every issue or problem. And he'd do anything to protect them.

"Do you ever wonder why the hell he left in the first place!-" Ryan shouted right back at her, with the same velocity and intensity as she did.

"He finally realized he was a loner and thought I'd leave him too, like you did." Ryan felt the sting of that comment, and took it to heart. He hated hearing about Seth leaving because of him, even though it was childish and immature of him to take off and leave just because of Ryan. It all came back to his whole theory of protecting the Cohen's, and if him leaving meant it would tear them apart? Well he just figured he'd never leave again. For the Cohen's sake. "-He thought he'd go back to the old comic book loving, shitty music listening geek that he used to be, which P.S he still is. God didn't he know that if I put up with his shit for that long already, that I'd be able to put up with more of it?"

Ryan felt his blood boiling just at the sound of the hateful words firing out of Summer, and his fists were scrunched tightly in his pockets, digging furiously deeper and deeper into them. Summer sighed triumphantly and turned to leave.

"So you really think he was insecure and selfish?" Ryan softly bellowed behind her, causing her to turn once again to face him. She was ready to snarl right back and fire away at him if he decided to go another round. " Maybe it's because of all the heartbreak and denial he's been through with you not even realizing after all the years of watching you from the shadows. Or maybe its because of your partying habits and all those random make out sessions he had to witness" Summer rolled her eyes and scoffed at him. She waved a hand dismissingly at him and turned to leave.

"Or maybe its because you dumped him over your dad….maybe that has something to do with all of those insecurities you were saying he had…Than, he comes back after only 2 MONTHS of being away to find you right back into another serious relationship, even worse making out right in front of him!" Ryan shouted at her, but this time wasn't met with a quick retaliation from Summer.

She leaned her hand against the wall for support and her other arm was covering her mouth. She was staring aimlessly at the floor and the tears were flooding out now, she made no attempt to conceal them.

"Oh god Summer.." Ryan felt a ping of guilt surge through him and he cut across the room to comfort her.

"Don't Ryan.." She softly whispered and choked back tears. "You're right…I can't believe I caused all of this…" Her mouth was wide open and her hand was covering it in sheer guilt and sadness toward her being the cause of all of this. "I-I-I've gotta go."

Summer turned on her heel and ran out of the room, with both hands spread across her tear stained face, trying to prevent the bevies of upcoming tears to fall. Ryan sat back down in his chair and closed his eyes. He felt a mixture of satisfaction and sorrow. Sorrow for hurting Summer like that, but his feelings were predominantly satisfaction. Maybe defending Seth's honor like that would help fill the black hole of regret that was continually growing from being the reason Seth left in the first place.

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"Screw you Cohen, don't act like your all innocent and perfect!" Marissa was yelling at Seth, and he was yelling right back, both completely ignoring the surrounding eyes and their food. They were in an all out shout fest.

"Don't call me Cohen, only Summer can call me that."

"Its your last name dumbass, and secondly Summer's not even your girlfriend anymore, so I'd be surprised if she calls you anything. It'll be just like it was before Ryan came." Marissa screamed at Seth, and this time Seth just slouched back into the booth. He really didn't feel like eating now, it was safe to say all appetite was gone.

She felt pity flow through her when she saw how hurt Seth looked at hearing her comment. But served him right, she had to keep reminding herself she was on Summer's side and always had to support her.

"Well I hope you're not expecting flowers, or fake flowers for that matter coming from Ryan anytime soon." Seth softly spoke from his slouched position, than briefly let out a smile, at the thought of what Summer's reaction could've been if she was alone that night when he went to see her.

"Shut up, you're so pathetic…" Marissa choked back tears and instead decided to go the route of anger and frustration towards Seth.

"Whatever, why don't you do everyone a favor and go find DJ." Marissa jaw dropped and her face drained of color. "Yeah that's right, I found out who he is. That's not very nice of you using him like that Riss, just because he's the gardener doesn't mean he doesn't have rights."

"Only Ryan can call me Riss. And secondly you don't know shit about DJ so shut up!" Marissa backed out of the booth but kept on glaring down at Seth.

"First of all, its your nickname…sort of…dumbass...secondly 'you and Ryan aren't together' and quite frankly I don't see that changing in the future." Seth smirked. He used Marisa's own words against her, and very nicely too.

Marissa was fuming and she stepped forward and smacked Seth across the face before storming out of the diner. For the first time Seth checked his surroundings, and the very few workers in there were all staring amusedly at him.

"Check please!"

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Seth finally arrived at the doorstep of his house, and he tiredly entered the house. He was forced to take the long walk home from the diner, since Marissa bolted and left him stranded. He really didn't feel like putting all of that effort into walking just to go to school, so he decided he'd skip school and head straight home.

"Hey…What are you doing here?" Ryan's voice alerted Seth and he cut across the foyer and into the living room. He plopped down on the exact spot Summer had been bawling her eyes out from earlier, and Ryan immediately felt uneasy.

"Loooong Story man.." Seth frowned and his raised his eyebrows as he guided his hand along the cushion of the chair. "Is it wet here or is it just me?"

"Just you.." Ryan shot out, causing Seth to look at him funny. Seth shrugged it off and stared straight ahead at the tiny plant pot situated across the room. He really didn't know how to bring up his and Marissa's talk.

Ryan felt like the worst person in the world. He knew that in reality he really didn't do anything wrong, but to Seth, he just committed the biggest type of betrayal ever. But he didn't blame him, god knew if Seth was going behind his back and consoling Marissa he'd be ticked as ever.

"So I talked to Marissa…" Seth blurted out.

"So I talked to Summer.." Ryan quickly muttered at the exact same time as Seth, in unison.

"What!?" They both repeated in unison. Seth snickered and Ryan grinned at their timing. Ryan gestured for him to go on.

"Well I had breakfast, or lunch, I mean brunch with her at the diner…and it didn't go particularly well…there were words exchanged…not nice ones."

"I had the same talk with Summer…She came in here yelling about everything being your fault…don't worry I defended your honor." Ryan smirked at Seth and he smiled.

"Thanks man, seriously. That's like the most above and beyond thing you've ever done for me."

"Same with you man. But I'm gonna have to get you to fill me in on the details later.." Seth nodded and gave a sheepish grin. He knew damn well that was going to be one hell of a conversation.

"One tiny thing though, I assure you your encounter with Summer doesn't involve a slap." Ryan's eyes bulged out and his jaw dropped, flabbergasted that Marissa would do that. Seth just smiled and continually nodded.

" I swear if it turns into a bruise, I might have to get Lil Miss Vixen to unleash her rage blackout on her. Though if your talk went as bad as you're saying, that might be a bit difficult.." Ryan smiled and nodded.

Next chapter: Marissa/Summer talk…Seth moving on? Ryan moving on?