Disclaimer: Still not owned by me.

A/N: So in an effort to make this story move along a bit faster, I won't be replying to all of the reviews for a few chapters. Too much homework is preventing me from doing so. I hope you all understand and know that I am COMPLETELY thankful for your reviews! They are what motivate me to write faster – even if I do have lots of reading homework to do. Haha.

So in respect to that – read, enjoy, and review!

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By the middle of June, Summer had come to one conclusion and one conclusion only of her life in New York: Some things were meant to stay secret.

Everything started out great. Living in Manhattan was amazing. She was close enough to Central Park to walk to if she ever needed an escape from the crazy mayhem of the city and she was directly in the center of the universe – in the world's most distinguished and fascinating city – living her college-aged summer at ease.

Summer had traveled to New York in worries and fears. And now, almost a month and half later, she was filled with happiness and success – two things she was more than thrilled to be. The job was phenomenal and everything she dreamed it would be. She was never swamped with work for after-hours and she had just the right amount during the day to keep her occupied and the day moving at a constant pace. Her boss, who was also her professor, was keen on making sure she and Matt learned as much as they worked, making it impossible for either of them to do no wrong. If either of them made a mistake, Dr. Kollete chalked it up to a lesson learnt and moved on.

And the living arrangement with Matt worked out nicely as well. Matt as a roommate was great; he didn't bother her too much and he wasn't completely absent either which made the entire situation doable. Summer had also met a few of Matt's friends on one of her first weekends spent in New York – Hannah (who was Matt's on and off girlfriend from high school, with the 'on' part currently in use), Hannah's friend, Carly, Mark (both one of Matt's best friends and Carly's boyfriend), and John.

John was who Summer classified as her "secret friend." It wasn't that he was embarrassing to be around – although that happened sometimes – or that there was anything ever happening romantically between the two – because Summer was still head over heels in love with Seth – it was just… well… it was an awkward situation.

And it was awkward even in the very beginning of the "group hangouts," as Mark liked to call them, because it was basically a couples-fest. With Mark and Carly already going strong for a year, and Hannah and Matt getting together the weekend after he and Summer left Providence, it left John and Summer to be the awkward third-wheelers.

It wasn't like it was a constant PDA-fest from the others, because it never was. It was just uncomfortable sometimes when they'd be walking through the city and John and Summer were the only ones not holding hands or if they were at a restaurant and the guys would pay for their girlfriend's meals and Summer would have to pull out her own wallet. It was never anything intentional, it was just always something unavoidable.

But that wasn't even the complete reason why John was Summer's "secret friend." The underlying and imperative reasoning why Seth had to be completely hid in the dark about John was because John wasn't just a new friend coming into the picture. He wasn't just a random guy, like Mark, who Summer could just mention on a whim to Seth over their extensive phone calls, without backing herself into a corner of questions.

He was John Deven. The old boyfriend from the seventh grade that threw Seth in the sheep exhibit during Harbor Junior High's class trip to the San Diego Zoo.

Summer recalled the reunion encounter with her former make out partner a month and a half ago very vividly…

"Hey everyone, this is Summer. Summer, this is… umm… everyone." Matt laughed as he made basic introductions at the Café around the corner from their apartment that first Saturday night.

Summer smiled and waved innocently, as she stood next to Matt. "Hey."

Summer missed Seth. She had cried herself to sleep that Friday night and Matt had never hated that the walls were so thin more than he did in that moment. He hated when people cried. He hated it even more when he knew there was nothing he could do about it. So Matt had called up his friends the next morning, asking if they could call come to meet Summer and try to cheer her up, that way she might be able to adjust easier into life without Seth.

"I'm Mark," one of the guys stood out of the group and offered his hand. He stood about 5'10 and had jet black hair. "And this is my girlfriend, Carly, her best friend Hannah, and that's John – the guy that's racing towards us right now."

John jogged up to the group, bounding between crowds of people and avoiding a run-in with a trash can, as he made his way to his friends.

"Hey guys!" John greeted happily. "So where's the new one?"

Summer turned around and got out of Matt's shadow, "Hi, I'm Summer. Aka the new one," Summer laughed nervously.

John didn't react at first, he just took a few long stares at her and then at his friends as if questioning them if they had the right girl. Summer felt more than uncomfortable with John's unusual stare and Matt took notice of it.

"John," Matt smacked his arm, "What the hell is your problem, man?"

"Dude," John leaned over to whisper to Matt, still keeping his eyes focused on Summer, "I didn't know Summer was Summer."

Summer laughed apprehensively at John's quiet comment. "Umm… well… yeah, I'm Summer."

John seemed to snap out of his intense gaze and his smile widen, showing off his two rows of perfectly white and straight teeth. "Summer Roberts, right?"

Summer nodded awkwardly, wondering how in the world this guy knew her last name.

"Summer Roberts from Newport Beach's Harbor Junior High!" John shouted and then engulfed Summer in a bear hug. "Well, Jesus Christ! How the fuck are you?!"

Summer stood back stunned. Was she supposed to know this guy?

"Umm… good… ah… do I know you?"

"Know me?" John laughed. "Of course you do! We made out quite a few times if my memory serves me correctly! And my memory is never one to let me down!"

"John!" Both girls shouted at him, causing Summer to look away from John and over at the girls' strict glares.

"What? We did!" John held his arms up in response and then turned back towards Summer. "You remember, Summer?"

Just then, as if everything had suddenly dawned on her, she realized exactly who John was. "John Deven?" John nodded enthusiastically as Summer stood back, stunned that she had managed to run into the only person that Seth would not – even slightly – feel comfortable with her running into.

After the awkwardness had subsided from that reunion encounter, Summer and John had gotten reacquainted – this time as friends only. Summer noticed that John was an all-around American jokester type who did anything for a laugh. He always seemed to be enjoying himself and finding other people who loved to live life on the spontaneous end of everything. John was late to everything, dressed always to impress, and wore a smile wherever he went.

It didn't take long for John to decide to hit on Summer though, and although she didn't want to sound stuck up by it, she kind of expected it. John was one of those people who were never without a girl, and it only made sense that the girl who his best friends hung out with would be the next girl he'd make sure was on his dating list.

"Hey, Sum?" John had held Summer's arm tight, but not forcefully, stopping her from following the others out of the movie theater.

Summer turned her head in response, looking a little surprised. "Yeah?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something," John started and then pointed to a bench inside the theater's lobby, "Think we can sit over there for a minute?"

Summer knew what was coming. She had seen it coming. And now she didn't know how to react. "Ah…," Summer squirmed, "We really should catch up to the others. Maybe another time." Summer tried to walk away from John, but John pulled her arm back, freezing Summer in her spot.

"I really think we should talk now."

Summer didn't want to come off rude – since she was still making friends, after all, she'd only been in New York two weeks – and nodded her head, walking towards the bench with John following her behind, giddily.

"So…" Summer began as she took a seat, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Okay," John tried to wipe the confident grin off his face, "I was just thinking about some things earlier. Like, how awesome you are. And how funny you are. And then I started seeing, like, these images of you. Like you laughing, or smiling, or getting really angry."

"Angry?" Summer cut in.

"Yeah, like that face you made when you found out Matt did your laundry and accidentally ruined your white pants by mixing them in with the jeans."

"Oh," Summer smiled sheepishly, "I didn't know you were there."

"I had just gotten there. I hid behind the door until you went into your bedroom," John explained. "Anyway, the thing is, you're hott, Summer. And I know you know it. And, well, we're hanging out, like, all the time and it would just be really awesome if we could all be actual couples… you know?"

"John…" Summer shook her head.

John shook his head more fiercely, taking his hands and replacing them from his lap to cup Summer's face. "We'd make a great couple, Summer. We already have before and the past is always doomed to repeat itself..."

John began moving in towards Summer's lips and closing his eyes when Summer jumped up from the bench, putting a hand over her heart to feel how fast her heartbeat was.

"John, I have a boyfriend," Summer told him as he stared up at her bewildered. It was clear to see that this type of thing didn't happen too often with him.

"A boyfriend? How do you have a boyfriend already? You've only been in this city two weeks."

"No, I had a boyfriend before I came here. Six years before I came here, actually." Summer felt her face forming into a smile. Even the thought of Seth made her heart start beating a little faster and her face feel warmer than normal temperature.

"Six years? You've been dating the same guy for six years?" John asked incredulously, finally standing up. Summer only nodded her head in response. "So I guess it's serious, huh?"

"Yeah, it is," Summer grinned. "I really love him."

"Is this that Seth guy you're always talking to on the phone?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Oh," John's face fell. "I thought he was, like, a brother or something."

Summer continued smiling. "Nope, he's my boyfriend."

"Okay, then." John replied, letting the smile return to his lips. "How about we go catch up to the others?"

Summer was about to follow John before she stopped, feeling her phone vibrate in her hands. She took it out and saw Seth's number on the caller-id. "Actually, I'll be right out." Summer waved her phone at him as explanation and he nodded, walking through the theater's doors out into New York's summer air.

"Hey," Summer flipped open her phone, greeting her boyfriend with a beaming smile and warm voice. "I was just thinking about you…"

Seth and Summer talked all the time. They used the phone as a replacement for the times they couldn't be there, and up until the middle of June, that was all the time. Seth had yet to plan a getaway to New York for a weekend to visit Summer and Summer hadn't managed to go back to Providence to stay with Seth. Their jobs were taking a toll on their lives seven days a week, only leaving nights and some Sundays available. With Seth working both his law job and part-time at the comic store, he really hadn't been able to arrange a surprise visit to Manhattan like he had hoped to for the past six weeks.

So instead they each spent at least an hour on the phone each day, maybe more depending on how much extra time they were allotted that day. Some people, including Seth's friend Nick, thought spending an hour on the phone each day was obsessive. In many ways it could be seen as such, but given the fact that Seth and Summer had been together day in and day out for almost the past six years and then living with each other for the past two, it wasn't difficult to see that an hour each day was actually only a small amount of time to spend talking to the single person who had always been around and now couldn't be.

Summer and Seth were doing great in their relationship, considering the circumstances. Seth wasn't freaking out and Summer wasn't feeling insecure or worried. Everything couldn't have been better and Summer didn't want to ruin it.

And that's exactly why she refused to tell Seth about John in the first place. She knew she was avoiding the inevitable – that eventually Seth would make time to come visit in New York and he'd meet all of her new friends that she talked about and that then he and John would meet, thus causing an uproar from Seth (because Seth never forgot a water polo face that wronged him in the past) – but she couldn't help it. She didn't want to fall into an unnecessary argument over something as insignificant as John was to her.

Summer was jolted from her over-analytical thoughts as her cell phone's ringtone rang out through the tiny apartment. She raced into the kitchen where she had left her phone, knowing it Seth calling for their daily chat.

"Cohen!" Summer answered without looking at the caller-id.

"Cohen?" a voice, that was clearly not Seth's, asked. "What the hell is a Cohen?"

"Nothing," Summer fussed. "What's going on?"

"Bar. Tonight. You in?"

"Who else is going?" Summer always asked this question now, mostly because she was afraid to be alone with John at a bar – cause drunk John was always a bit rowdy and slightly forceful – and because she didn't want anyone thinking anything that could be clearly interpreted as the wrong idea. Not that Summer ever thought anything in New York would get back to Seth in Providence but there was always the smallest percentage of possibility that something would backfire on her, ruining her happiness.

"Hannah said she'd go. And she's gonna bring a new girl. Hopefully new date material," John laughed.

Summer laughed as well, feeling a bit more at ease. "Of course I'll go. What time?"

"I'll swing by your apartment at nine. Ask Matt if he wants to join us, okay?"

"All right," Summer answered. "See you."

"Later. And I hope you get your call about your Cohen thing. You seemed pretty enthused and then extremely let down when you found out it was only me," John joked on the other end of the line.

"Bye, John," Summer laughed, hanging up the phone.

Just as Summer was putting down her phone, it started ringing in her hands once again, and this time she checked the caller-id and saw Seth's number flashing.

"Cohen," Summer sighed happily. "I was waiting for you to call."

"I just got out of work. I'm walking to my car as we speak," Seth paused and Summer swore she could hear him stop mid-step miles away in Providence. "I love you."

"That's quite the greeting," Summer laughed.

"Well, I figured saying it at the end of our conversation is so over-used that I might try something new. Work a new routine into our old routine."

Summer smiled into the phone, "It's not routine yet if it hasn't been used before."

"I just used it."

"Doesn't count, Cohen."

"Says who?"

"Says me."

"And somehow that makes everything right and lawful?"

"Not lawful, but definitely right."

Summer laughed as Seth joined in and they continued their usual, annoying but loving banter for the next hour and half.