Chapter 5: Unexpected
The pier hadn't changed that much since high school, Seth thought, as he sat down on a bench. The boardwalk was still covered with beach blond, bikini-ridden babes and over muscular jocks. It made him laugh and want to throw punches all at the same time.
He had barely spent ten minutes on the bench when he saw a familiar face in the crowd. He jerked up straight, staring at the young, beautiful girl who was buying an ice cream cone at the stand to the side of him.
"Nicole?" Seth asked himself, unsurely. He stood up, walking over to the girl, quietly, hoping she would recognize him first.
"Seth!" Nicole screamed, grabbing his arm as he passed by her smoothly.
"Nicole!" Seth exclaimed as she engulfed him in a hug. For a step mom, Nicole was pretty damn hot, which wasn't much a surprise, considering she was in her mid-twenties. Seeing her was almost painful, because all it did was stir up memories of her stepdaughter, Summer. Yes, THAT Summer.
"How are you? Still at UCLA?" Nicole asked, walking them over to Seth's bench, where they both sat down as Nicole, scantily clad as Seth noticed, licked an ice cream cone.
Seth gulped, ignoring the fact that she was sort of touching his knee and smiled. "Yeah. This is my last year."
"That's awesome!" She exclaimed, taking another long, slow lick from her cone.
"Yeah." He paused, trying to decide what to do next. "I," He began, stammering around with the words.
Nicole nodded, "You want to know about Summer."
"Is it that obvious?" Seth shrugged it off, blushing.
Nicole nodded once more. She had seemed to grow a lot since the night he first met her. He could remember that night well. It was prom night, senior year. He had gone to pick up Summer, she looked amazing. Nicole had taken a sudden liking to Seth as he opened the door, something he wasn't expecting from his girlfriend's stepmother. That had seemed so long ago to Seth and he looked back at Nicole, still licking her ice cream cone, staring at him with happiness and contempt displayed all over her face.
"Well," Nicole stood up slowly. "To tell you the truth, Seth, I don't know where Summer is exactly. I haven't seen her since," She paused, throwing away the remnants of her cone into a nearby trash can, "Since she dropped out."
"Same here." Seth stood up, stuffing his hands into his pockets to prevent from pulling out all his hair. Why did he have to sulk about Summer Roberts all day and night? It only drove him insane. She was gone, he had to face that.
"I do know," She whispered. "That she works at the Crab Shack."
"Summer works?" Seth laughed, but quickly ceased when he saw the serious expression on Nicole's face.
"I saw her there, one night, but she didn't see me. I'm not sure when she works, but," Nicole smiled, shutting herself up. "If anything, you could always ask Kirsten where Summer is." Nicole smiled once again, before quickly exiting.
Seth stood there, practically numb. He couldn't get past the fact that Summer was working, and out of all places, the Crab Shack. But secondly, his mother was definitely up to something. Seth, without a second thought, started to walk to the Crab Shack, hopefully to land upon some answers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------
"Did Ryan leave already, sweetie?" Julie Cooper purred as she walked past Marissa's room.
"He's in the bathroom." Marissa smiled, continuing to unpack her belongings.
Julie smiled at her daughter and started making her way to the bathroom, where she heard the sink running and the door opening.
"Ryan," Julie cooed. "You're big and strong." She said, tracing her fingertips on his biceps as he came out of the bathroom. He eyed her, suspiciously as she took her hands off. "Will you help me replace a light bulb?" She asked, flirting shamelessly like a teenager.
"Um," Ryan glance down the hall towards Marissa's room. "Sure."
"It's this way." Julie said, looping her arm in his. "You wouldn't believe who I ran into today!"
"Summer?" Ryan asked, knowingly and Julie nodded.
"She looked just dreadful. I mean, I know the pregnancy was rough, but that was nearly two years ago!" Julie laughed fearlessly as she saw the grimace and confusion on Ryan's face.
They had reached the end of the corridor and Julie grabbed a box of light bulbs she had purposely left on the chair she had purposely propped up. Ryan saw everything and got to work, screwing in the light bulb as Julie babbled on.
"I'm sorry, dear. You looked a little confused. I assumed Marissa told you about Summer's pregnancy."
Ryan shook his head, a feeling of frustration and anger rising up in him. Marissa and Ryan had this 'no secrets' policy, but it wasn't like he ever demanded to know what happened to Summer. Not until today, he thought.
"Oh, well. I feel just awful now!" Julie purred, placing her hands on her hips.
"It's ok. I kind of figured it out." Ryan said, as he climbed down from the chair and flipped the switch to make sure the light work.
"Thanks so much, Ryan." Julie smiled, patting him on the back, lightly. "By the way," Julie said, before turning around to unfold her plan to Caleb, "Marissa really SHOULD have told you. Honesty is the key to a good relationship. I'm sure you are always honest with Marissa." Julie smiled, politely, and went about her way, leaving Ryan bewildered and angry, just as she had planned.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------
Summer never felt happier then when Charlotte was around, she thought, as she wiped down a counter at the Crab Shack. It was a weekday, and pretty early, so the crowd wasn't too bad yet. She had set up Charlotte on one of the stools of the countertop with some crayons and paper, and the girl had been amusing herself for the past hour. Meanwhile, Summer was bored out of her mind. She sighed, resting on a chair next to Charlotte for a few minutes. She saw a speck of dirt on one of the tables by the window and trudged over to it, to wipe it off accordingly. Charlotte hummed a song as Summer cleaned. Summer looked up slowly, out the window, gazing at all the worry free beachgoers and her eyes squinted a little, at someone who looked familiar. She looked harder, trying to make out who it was, and upon realization she panicked, running behind the counter quickly.
"Summer, what's wrong?" Mindy, the waitress asked.
"Mindy! Do me a favor! If someone asks for me, just say that you've never heard of me, ok?" She threw her apron off and ran to the kitchen.
"What about Charlotte?" Mindy asked, folding Summer's apron.
"She's yours." Summer dashed into the kitchen, watching through the windows of the swinging doors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------
"Hey. What took so long?" Marissa ran up to kiss him. "I missed you."
"Your mom needed me to fix a light." Ryan said, almost bitterly, and sat down on an empty chair in Marissa' bedroom. She looked at him, inquisitively, and shrugged. He knew that he shouldn't let Julie Cooper get to him, but the truth was, he didn't want to be lied to.
"Do you want to hang out in the pool house tonight?" Marissa asked, as she shoved her duffel bag away.
"Did Summer have a baby?" He asked, straightforwardly, causing Marissa to wince in surprise.
"What?" Marissa asked innocently.
"Did Summer have a baby?"
"Ryan, I'm not supposed to say anything."
"I'm your boyfriend!"
"And Summer is my best friend." Marissa pointed out, angrily.
"Whatever." Ryan kicked at the chair, standing up.
"Ryan, what's gotten into you?" Marissa asked gently, stepping closer to him.
Ryan put on a smile, and shrugged, "Forget it."
"Ok. So pool house?" Marissa asked and Ryan confirmed with a nod. Ryan shoved Julie's words to the back of his brain, for now, but he wasn't done yet with the whole honesty issue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------
"Charlotte?" Seth asked himself, as he walked into the déjà vu filled Crab Shack.
"Cohen!" The little girl screamed, jumping off the stool and waddling over to him, hugging his leg. Summer slapped herself silently, as she watched from the kitchen window. Charlotte had recognized Seth from the pictures Summer had showed Charlotte of high school and of course 'Seth' was too hard to say for Charlotte, but 'Cohen', as Summer always referred to him, was perfect for her to remember, especially in situations like these. But how did he know her name?
Seth, without a word, picked up Charlotte, who giggled. He ran his hands through her dark hair and placed her back on the countertop, where Mindy was awkwardly wiping tables.
"Where's your mommy?" Seth asked.
"Mommy ran away from Cohen." Charlotte squealed, sliding into one of the chairs.
Seth looked at the tiny girl, so full of life, strangely. The way he called her Cohen was slightly familiar, in fact, the girl herself was familiar. He looked up at Mindy.
"I'm her mother," Mindy laughed, although the blonde looked nothing like Charlotte. Seth nodded skeptically. "Can I help you?"
"Maybe. Is Summer Roberts working here?"
"Summer . . ." Mindy's gaze fell upon the kitchen doors and Seth looked that way, only to see nothing, as Summer had quickly ducked down. "Never heard of her."
"You sure?" Seth asked, annoyed that Nicole had been wrong.
"Positive." Mindy gulped.
"Thanks anyway." Next, he was on to interrogate his mother. Before leaving, he pet Charlotte's head. As he started walking towards the door, Charlotte screamed an all so familiar phrase to Seth Cohen, that caused him to jerk forward and then turn around to a nervous Mindy and a smiling Charlotte.
"What did you say, Charlotte?" Seth gulped.
"Ewwwwwwwwww!" Charlotte said again, mimicking her mother's exact tone. Summer frowned to herself from the kitchen. Charlotte mimicked people, that's how she learned. But this was too much.
Seth stared at Charlotte wide-eyed, and then focused his attention on Mindy. "Are you sure Summer Roberts doesn't work here?"
Mindy nodded and Seth just shoved his hands back into his pockets, smiling at Charlotte, and walked out of the Crab Shack.
"Is he gone?" Summer called from the kitchen.
"Yeah." Mindy said, checking the windows to the boardwalk.
"Cohen was here, Mommy!" Charlotte laughed and clapped.
Summer smiled at her daughter, scooping her up. "Yup."
"Mommy not happy?" Charlotte asked, playing with her mother's hair.
"Mommy's confused, that's all Charlie." She said, using her favorite nickname for Charlotte.
"Don't be conf-oo-sed." Charlotte beamed up at her. "I like Cohen, Mommy."
"I like him too, Charlie." Summer sighed, placing Charlotte back down on the countertop.
The pier hadn't changed that much since high school, Seth thought, as he sat down on a bench. The boardwalk was still covered with beach blond, bikini-ridden babes and over muscular jocks. It made him laugh and want to throw punches all at the same time.
He had barely spent ten minutes on the bench when he saw a familiar face in the crowd. He jerked up straight, staring at the young, beautiful girl who was buying an ice cream cone at the stand to the side of him.
"Nicole?" Seth asked himself, unsurely. He stood up, walking over to the girl, quietly, hoping she would recognize him first.
"Seth!" Nicole screamed, grabbing his arm as he passed by her smoothly.
"Nicole!" Seth exclaimed as she engulfed him in a hug. For a step mom, Nicole was pretty damn hot, which wasn't much a surprise, considering she was in her mid-twenties. Seeing her was almost painful, because all it did was stir up memories of her stepdaughter, Summer. Yes, THAT Summer.
"How are you? Still at UCLA?" Nicole asked, walking them over to Seth's bench, where they both sat down as Nicole, scantily clad as Seth noticed, licked an ice cream cone.
Seth gulped, ignoring the fact that she was sort of touching his knee and smiled. "Yeah. This is my last year."
"That's awesome!" She exclaimed, taking another long, slow lick from her cone.
"Yeah." He paused, trying to decide what to do next. "I," He began, stammering around with the words.
Nicole nodded, "You want to know about Summer."
"Is it that obvious?" Seth shrugged it off, blushing.
Nicole nodded once more. She had seemed to grow a lot since the night he first met her. He could remember that night well. It was prom night, senior year. He had gone to pick up Summer, she looked amazing. Nicole had taken a sudden liking to Seth as he opened the door, something he wasn't expecting from his girlfriend's stepmother. That had seemed so long ago to Seth and he looked back at Nicole, still licking her ice cream cone, staring at him with happiness and contempt displayed all over her face.
"Well," Nicole stood up slowly. "To tell you the truth, Seth, I don't know where Summer is exactly. I haven't seen her since," She paused, throwing away the remnants of her cone into a nearby trash can, "Since she dropped out."
"Same here." Seth stood up, stuffing his hands into his pockets to prevent from pulling out all his hair. Why did he have to sulk about Summer Roberts all day and night? It only drove him insane. She was gone, he had to face that.
"I do know," She whispered. "That she works at the Crab Shack."
"Summer works?" Seth laughed, but quickly ceased when he saw the serious expression on Nicole's face.
"I saw her there, one night, but she didn't see me. I'm not sure when she works, but," Nicole smiled, shutting herself up. "If anything, you could always ask Kirsten where Summer is." Nicole smiled once again, before quickly exiting.
Seth stood there, practically numb. He couldn't get past the fact that Summer was working, and out of all places, the Crab Shack. But secondly, his mother was definitely up to something. Seth, without a second thought, started to walk to the Crab Shack, hopefully to land upon some answers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------
"Did Ryan leave already, sweetie?" Julie Cooper purred as she walked past Marissa's room.
"He's in the bathroom." Marissa smiled, continuing to unpack her belongings.
Julie smiled at her daughter and started making her way to the bathroom, where she heard the sink running and the door opening.
"Ryan," Julie cooed. "You're big and strong." She said, tracing her fingertips on his biceps as he came out of the bathroom. He eyed her, suspiciously as she took her hands off. "Will you help me replace a light bulb?" She asked, flirting shamelessly like a teenager.
"Um," Ryan glance down the hall towards Marissa's room. "Sure."
"It's this way." Julie said, looping her arm in his. "You wouldn't believe who I ran into today!"
"Summer?" Ryan asked, knowingly and Julie nodded.
"She looked just dreadful. I mean, I know the pregnancy was rough, but that was nearly two years ago!" Julie laughed fearlessly as she saw the grimace and confusion on Ryan's face.
They had reached the end of the corridor and Julie grabbed a box of light bulbs she had purposely left on the chair she had purposely propped up. Ryan saw everything and got to work, screwing in the light bulb as Julie babbled on.
"I'm sorry, dear. You looked a little confused. I assumed Marissa told you about Summer's pregnancy."
Ryan shook his head, a feeling of frustration and anger rising up in him. Marissa and Ryan had this 'no secrets' policy, but it wasn't like he ever demanded to know what happened to Summer. Not until today, he thought.
"Oh, well. I feel just awful now!" Julie purred, placing her hands on her hips.
"It's ok. I kind of figured it out." Ryan said, as he climbed down from the chair and flipped the switch to make sure the light work.
"Thanks so much, Ryan." Julie smiled, patting him on the back, lightly. "By the way," Julie said, before turning around to unfold her plan to Caleb, "Marissa really SHOULD have told you. Honesty is the key to a good relationship. I'm sure you are always honest with Marissa." Julie smiled, politely, and went about her way, leaving Ryan bewildered and angry, just as she had planned.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------
Summer never felt happier then when Charlotte was around, she thought, as she wiped down a counter at the Crab Shack. It was a weekday, and pretty early, so the crowd wasn't too bad yet. She had set up Charlotte on one of the stools of the countertop with some crayons and paper, and the girl had been amusing herself for the past hour. Meanwhile, Summer was bored out of her mind. She sighed, resting on a chair next to Charlotte for a few minutes. She saw a speck of dirt on one of the tables by the window and trudged over to it, to wipe it off accordingly. Charlotte hummed a song as Summer cleaned. Summer looked up slowly, out the window, gazing at all the worry free beachgoers and her eyes squinted a little, at someone who looked familiar. She looked harder, trying to make out who it was, and upon realization she panicked, running behind the counter quickly.
"Summer, what's wrong?" Mindy, the waitress asked.
"Mindy! Do me a favor! If someone asks for me, just say that you've never heard of me, ok?" She threw her apron off and ran to the kitchen.
"What about Charlotte?" Mindy asked, folding Summer's apron.
"She's yours." Summer dashed into the kitchen, watching through the windows of the swinging doors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------
"Hey. What took so long?" Marissa ran up to kiss him. "I missed you."
"Your mom needed me to fix a light." Ryan said, almost bitterly, and sat down on an empty chair in Marissa' bedroom. She looked at him, inquisitively, and shrugged. He knew that he shouldn't let Julie Cooper get to him, but the truth was, he didn't want to be lied to.
"Do you want to hang out in the pool house tonight?" Marissa asked, as she shoved her duffel bag away.
"Did Summer have a baby?" He asked, straightforwardly, causing Marissa to wince in surprise.
"What?" Marissa asked innocently.
"Did Summer have a baby?"
"Ryan, I'm not supposed to say anything."
"I'm your boyfriend!"
"And Summer is my best friend." Marissa pointed out, angrily.
"Whatever." Ryan kicked at the chair, standing up.
"Ryan, what's gotten into you?" Marissa asked gently, stepping closer to him.
Ryan put on a smile, and shrugged, "Forget it."
"Ok. So pool house?" Marissa asked and Ryan confirmed with a nod. Ryan shoved Julie's words to the back of his brain, for now, but he wasn't done yet with the whole honesty issue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------
"Charlotte?" Seth asked himself, as he walked into the déjà vu filled Crab Shack.
"Cohen!" The little girl screamed, jumping off the stool and waddling over to him, hugging his leg. Summer slapped herself silently, as she watched from the kitchen window. Charlotte had recognized Seth from the pictures Summer had showed Charlotte of high school and of course 'Seth' was too hard to say for Charlotte, but 'Cohen', as Summer always referred to him, was perfect for her to remember, especially in situations like these. But how did he know her name?
Seth, without a word, picked up Charlotte, who giggled. He ran his hands through her dark hair and placed her back on the countertop, where Mindy was awkwardly wiping tables.
"Where's your mommy?" Seth asked.
"Mommy ran away from Cohen." Charlotte squealed, sliding into one of the chairs.
Seth looked at the tiny girl, so full of life, strangely. The way he called her Cohen was slightly familiar, in fact, the girl herself was familiar. He looked up at Mindy.
"I'm her mother," Mindy laughed, although the blonde looked nothing like Charlotte. Seth nodded skeptically. "Can I help you?"
"Maybe. Is Summer Roberts working here?"
"Summer . . ." Mindy's gaze fell upon the kitchen doors and Seth looked that way, only to see nothing, as Summer had quickly ducked down. "Never heard of her."
"You sure?" Seth asked, annoyed that Nicole had been wrong.
"Positive." Mindy gulped.
"Thanks anyway." Next, he was on to interrogate his mother. Before leaving, he pet Charlotte's head. As he started walking towards the door, Charlotte screamed an all so familiar phrase to Seth Cohen, that caused him to jerk forward and then turn around to a nervous Mindy and a smiling Charlotte.
"What did you say, Charlotte?" Seth gulped.
"Ewwwwwwwwww!" Charlotte said again, mimicking her mother's exact tone. Summer frowned to herself from the kitchen. Charlotte mimicked people, that's how she learned. But this was too much.
Seth stared at Charlotte wide-eyed, and then focused his attention on Mindy. "Are you sure Summer Roberts doesn't work here?"
Mindy nodded and Seth just shoved his hands back into his pockets, smiling at Charlotte, and walked out of the Crab Shack.
"Is he gone?" Summer called from the kitchen.
"Yeah." Mindy said, checking the windows to the boardwalk.
"Cohen was here, Mommy!" Charlotte laughed and clapped.
Summer smiled at her daughter, scooping her up. "Yup."
"Mommy not happy?" Charlotte asked, playing with her mother's hair.
"Mommy's confused, that's all Charlie." She said, using her favorite nickname for Charlotte.
"Don't be conf-oo-sed." Charlotte beamed up at her. "I like Cohen, Mommy."
"I like him too, Charlie." Summer sighed, placing Charlotte back down on the countertop.