"So?" Seth asked as they both sat with their coffee. "What do you want to tell me?"
"What do you want to know?" she asked.
"Well there's sort of this big gap of time where your life is just a mystery. I don't know anything about what happened to you in between you leaving New Port and having Madison."
"Tell me first" Summer argued.
"What?"
"Tell me first. Tell me what happened to you in between when I left New Port and when we met again last month. I mean I know a little, but nothing about girlfriends or anything. You tell me your secrets, then I'll tell you mine" Summer said with a glint in her eye as she took another sip of coffee.
"Okay" Seth responded. "Fair enough. Sophomore year of high school was kind of when my life began. Ryan, my brother, moved in with us, and I started dating Anna."
"Anna? Who's Anna?"
"She was this really sweet, blonde girl. I liked her a lot. But, she dumped me after a year. She said she didn't think I was 'the one.'"
"Ouch."
"Yeah, but we staid friends all through high school, I even brought her to prom. We still talk sometimes…"
"That's cool."
"Yeah, well that's when I started writing atomic county. It was based off of all the times I'd hang out with Ryan, Anna, and Ryan's girlfriend Taylor."
"Taylor?" Summer asked. "Do you mean Taylor Townsend?"
"Yeah, why do you know her?"
"Well, I did. We were all in the same class remember?"
"Yes, but me and Taylor weren't exactly in the 'in' crowd."
"Yeah" Summer cringed. "I guess I was sort of a jerk to both of you."
"I got into RISD in Rhode Island, which was pretty cool. I met a girl there. Her name was Julie. We dated for like six months but then I found her cheating with my roommate."
"Double ouch" Summer cringed. "It sounds like she was a jerk."
"Yeah, pretty much" Seth agreed. "I graduated last Spring, and now I'm hanging out here. It was sort of lame at first, but now I've met this pretty amazing girl so…"
Summer smiled and looked down "my story is a lot more complicated you know."
"That's okay" Seth said as he caressed her hand. "I can handle complicated."
"Well" she sighed. "I'm not really sure where to start."
"Start where I did. Sophomore year."
"Well, after my father died I moved in with my mother who had taken off when I was younger. I hardly even remembered her."
"That sucks" Seth said sympathetically.
"I sort of had this delusion that we were going to be like best friends or something. That she'd help me deal with my dad's death. That me and her could be like a family again…"
"That doesn't seem too ridiculous. She was your mother after all."
"Yeah exactly" Summer responded. "She's my mother." She looked down at the floor again and Seth thought that it seemed like she was fighting tears.
"It didn't take me too long to figure out that my mother cared about drugs a hell of a lot more than she cared about me."
"Drugs? What kind of drugs?" Seth asked softly.
"Coke mostly. But, that wasn't the worst part…"
"What was?"
"There was this guy that she was living with. His name was John. He was a total jerk. He used to…" she paused and took a deep breath. "He was abusive" she explained.
"What did he do to you?" Seth asked shocked and horrified.
"He hit me, all the time. As time went on it got worse. One night he completely lost it, he threw me down a flight of stairs. I broke my leg; I was in the hospital for like three months."
"That's why you don't like..."
"Yeah"
"God Summer, I'm so sorry."
Summer nodded appreciatively.
"After that I had enough. I emancipated myself and I moved in with this older guy I had been seeing…"
"Madison's father?"
"Yeah. Me and Chris lived together while I finished high school, then like in the middle of senior year I found out I was pregnant."
"He took off?"
"Not at first. He said he'd be there, he even proposed."
"So what happened?"
"Well things got pretty stressful. Chris was older than me, but he was still pretty young to become a father. Me and him were both working all the time, barely scraping by, and then Chris started drinking. We fought a lot, it got pretty intense. Anyway, one day he just left. At that point I really wasn't surprised, I was actually kind of relieved in a way, but I was also pretty devastated. I think I was just so desperate to feel loved, that I tried to force things with Chris. By the time he took off, it was clear that we weren't working. I really felt like a failure. I was also so scared. I had no idea how I was going to take care of a baby by myself at 18."
"That's where Stew and Lila came in?"
"Yeah" Summer responded with a smile.
"So this guy, you just haven't heard from him since you had Madison?"
"Only once. Chris knew about my trust fund. After I turned 21, he called asking for bail money once."
"So the guy leaves you with no way to pay for your baby, and then years later calls and asks you for money."
"Yep."
"What do you say?"
"I told him to go to hell."
"That's my girl" Seth said smiling picturing the interaction.
"Anyway, I guess him and Lila still talk. Apparently he's trying to get sober, so that's good I guess."
"Do you think he'll ever show up?"
"I doubt it. He hasn't so far. Madison wouldn't even recognize him."
"Well he sounds like a real idiot" Seth snapped. "He has like the best woman ever, and a beautiful daughter, and he doesn't even care. If I had that, I'd be the happiest guy in the world."
Summer smiled at Seth and sighed. "Well that's my story. What do you think, you want to make a bee-line for the door?"
"Hell no" Seth said adamantly. "Summer I like you like ten times more now!"
"Really?"
"Are you kidding me? The fact that you were able to overcome all that, and be the person you are now- so sweet and strong and responsible, such a good mother. I think you're amazing."
"I think you're pretty amazing too" Summer admitted as she leaned in and kissed Seth. It started out as sweet, and gentle as their first two kisses, but grew increasingly urgent. Seth felt like his head was spinning. He was falling for this girl, fast. And somewhere deep inside, the 16 year old boy with a crush on the popular girl couldn't believe that he was making out with The Summer Roberts.
Summer suddenly pulled back. "We should slow this down" she said as she caught her breath.
"Right" Seth said. "Right, I'm sorry…"
"Don't be sorry" Summer said as she playfully slapped his arm. "I just don't think it's a good idea for us to go too far… yet."
"Right" Seth repeated. "I would never want to make you uncomfortable."
"Well" Summer said smiling. "I had a really great time."
"Me too" Seth said as he kissed the top of her head. "See you Monday at lunch time?"
"Not if I see you first" she teased as she cleared their coffee mugs off of the table.
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