Thank you for your comments last time - it's nice to hear that people are enjoying reading as much as i am enjoying writing :)


Not even an hour later, Seth was on his fourth shot of something Summer guessed was one fancy name away from being lighter fluid and Krista wasn't too far behind him. She seemed, to Summer at least, to become more stupid with each passing sip.

Eventually, slurring something about the bathroom, she toddled off and, as is customary, everyone waited until she was a safe distance away before they started talking about her.

'Seth. Really,' Marissa reasoned. 'Why?'

'Why what?' he asked, leaning in towards the table, struggling to hear her above the noise of the bar.

'Why does she look like a tangerine?' Summer supplemented. She really was helpful that way, and she was on a roll. 'And, why is her skirt halfway up her ass? And why does it take her, like, an eternity to speak one syllable? And –'

'Yeah, I was actually just gonna go for 'why are you dating her?'' Marissa interrupted, before things got too heated.

Seth, at a loss for words, looked to Ryan, in a plea for support.

'Hey, I'm with 'Riss,' Ryan admitted, holding up his palms in defence. 'You actually could do so much better, man.'

Seth shrugged weakly, having been cruelly deserted by his last ally. 'I think she's … nice.' He concluded lamely.

Ryan and Marissa looked to each other in a sort of 'what planet is this guy on?' way, and Summer just snorted in disbelief. 'Please. She's from Ohio. And she came all the way to California for college – I mean, who does that when New York is, like, right there! And to do fashion. For a degree …' Summer trailed off with a disappointed sigh, as though she felt Krista to be a pretty poor reflection on the entire female race.

'Maybe she likes the warmer climate,' Seth suggested, but was only met by blank faces. He sighed. 'I don't know, she probably saw 90210 like the rest of us and thought it looked like fun.'

Marissa giggled – she was getting a little tipsy herself at this point. 'Maybe I'll ask her when she gets back.'

'Uh-uh,' Summer warned comically, taking a modest sip from her glass. 'I tried that already, remember? And she wasn't exactly verbose.'

'Hey!' Seth spoke up. 'Krista's actually … she's … she's really smart,' he finished, with pathetic lack of conviction.

But Summer wasn't buying it and her expression said so. 'Really?' she raised her eyebrows. 'Then why does she look like a game-show hostess?' she asked pointedly.

Now, Seth, who had a feeling her question was rhetorical, but, due to his current alcohol-induced state, was all for answering anyway, was saved the trouble of doing so when a small group of people weaved their way through the crowds towards the table. At the forefront was a bubbly redheaded girl whom Seth recognised vaguely from some one of his classes. The guy with his arm wrapped around her, presumably her boyfriend, looked a bit familiar too.

'Liza!' Marissa exclaimed, as she and Summer rose to greet her with hugs. 'I didn't know you were coming tonight!'

'Well, I wasn't. I was supposed to be doing my lit paper …' She smiled ruefully. 'But then, whoever said college was about learning stuff, huh!'

'I actually just arrived,' she continued. 'But it seems like Jason here has been having fun enough for the both of us.' Liza gestured to her boyfriend, who was now practically falling asleep on her shoulder.

'What!' Summer laughed. 'It's only, like, 9.45, he must have started at like noon!'

'Yeah,' Marissa agreed, 'he's so gonna be feeling that tomorrow. Oh, hey,' she turned back towards the table. 'You guys know Ryan and Seth, right?'

'Ah, the famous Cohen brothers,' Liza joked. 'Ryan, I like to think I have my finger on the pulse, and you're one half of UCLA's hottest new couple, right?' she joked, eliciting a blush from Marissa. 'And Seth, I think we have American History together.'

'Right!' It was all coming back to Seth now. 'Third row, centre.'

'Wow, you do pay attention!'

'When he actually shows up,' Summer tossed in, while waving to some of the other girls in the group, all in various stages of dancing, drinking, chatting or making out.

'Hey!' Seth protested, with as much vigour as he could muster. 'I go to class!'

'Sure you do,' she replied loftily. 'When you're not following me around, that is.'

'Summer Roberts!' he exclaimed, with equal casual disdain. 'You cannot possibly-'

'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,' Liza held up her hand. 'Ok, now this is gonna end one of two ways - in a massive PDA fest, or a pretty hideous bitch fight, and I don't know whether I want to be a witness to either.'

She looked curiously between Seth and Summer, with a laugh. 'Are you two dating, or something?' she asked, ignoring the sweeping 'don't go there' signals Ryan was making with his arms.

Seth nearly choked on his own words, so hurried was his response. 'Dating? You mean like is she my gir … no, no, no. No.'

'There can never be enough 'no's',' Summer murmured in sardonic agreement.

Liza looked somewhat confused, but elected to let that one go and get the scoop from Marissa later. 'Ok.' She nodded. 'So, anyways … there's this thing on next month in Mandela Gardens …'

'Right!' Marissa said, re-entering the conversation. 'The music festival?'

'Yeah, and it looks awesome!' she replied emphatically. 'I don't know if you guys have seen the line-up …'

Seth had, actually. And it was, as she'd put it, in a word, awesome. Tickets were like gold dust though, he was pretty sure they'd sold out in about twenty minutes. When he told her this, her smile became even wider.

'And that's where I come in!' she said happily. 'My dad's a promoter for the event, and so I got like 10 free tickets. A group of us are going if you're interested.'

'Um, yeah! This is so cool!' Summer said, giving the girl a quick hug.

'Yeah, definitely, count us in too,' Ryan said, speaking for himself and Marissa.

'Sure. And how 'bout you, Seth? Think you and Summer can play nice for a day?'

Seth smiled. 'To the sweet sounds of Death Cab? I think I can manage it,' he laughed, ignoring Summer's glare.

'Ok! Cool! Well, you know what?' Liza glanced towards her boyfriend. 'I think it's only a matter of time before he starts slobbering on me and this is a nice top.'

'Yeah, seems like it's bedtime for Jason,' Marissa laughed. 'Me and Summer and you and Ruthie should get together in the week – have lunch or something.'

'Totally. I can give you the dates and stuff for the festival then, k?

'Sure, thank you!' the girls called, as Liza disappeared into the sea of people, her posse behind her.

Ryan smiled. 'She's certainly a whirlwind!'

'She is,' Marissa agreed. 'But she's sweet. And friendly – she's actually one of the first people Summer and I met at college. She literally just came up and sat down with us for lunch one day because she just had to find out where Summer got her skirt.'

Ryan chuckled. 'I can believe that, actually. Hey, Seth, where the hell is Krista?'

Seth paused. 'Bathroom?' he suggested.

'All this time? What would she be doin' in there?'

'I dunno, man, but I'm not up for going to find out.'

'She's probably re-applying her eye-liner. I swear to god, that make-up was applied with a trowel,' Summer mumbled.

'Oooh Summer,' Seth smiled flirtatiously. 'That was low,' he said mockingly.

'Well, that's me,' she replied brightly, 'harsh but fair.'


Obviously, this is not finished! I will have more of the action at the Ice Wharf hopefully at the weekend, but that was over 1000 words, so i figured i may as well post it now - please leave a comment if you get time!