Cleaning Out the Past

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters, the places, or anything to do with the O.C. or anything in California. Just my ideas.

Chapter 3

The next morning when Summer woke up sprawled at the end of the bed she remembered why she didn't drink like she had the previous night. Her splitting headache was that reason.

Summer stumbled into the bathroom where she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, seeing what a mess she was.

Her hair was in a messy ponytail, her makeup forming dark circles under her eyes, and her hoodie and sweats were rumpled from sleep.

"God, I am so beautiful" she muttered grabbing a glass from the stack on the counter. She turned on the tap and began to fill the glass. She fiddled in her make-up bag for a container of Advil.

She quickly downed two, before getting ready for a long shower to wake her up.

Once out of the shower, Summer dried off and got dressed and ready to get on with her day. She chose a pink tank top and a pair of jeans. She slipped on her flip-flops and exited her room.

In the hall she waited for the elevator to mount to her floor, tapping her foot impatiently. At last the doors slid open, and Seth stepped out.

"Hey Summer…" He greeted.

"'Morning" Summer replied with a yawn.

"Where are you off to?" Seth questioned as the doors closed and started descending to the main floor.

Summer ran her foot over the carpeted hall and looked up. "Well I thought I'd better start cleaning my mom's apartment."

Seth nodded. "Do you want a ride, 'cause I can help you clean if you want…" Seth offered.

Summer smiled. "Sure."

"Great, lets go then." Seth said pressing the down button again. The door next to them glided open and the pair stepped in with a couple of people heading downstairs to the pool.

In the lobby they got off and walked through the revolving doors at the front and headed down to the second level of parking where the Range Rover was parked.

Seth pressed the unlock button from a couple feet away and they both climbed in and put on their seat belts.

"Okay, where do we have to go?" Seth asked as they pulled up to the first set of stoplights they hit.

"Umm, well the she lived in Parkview apartments downtown." Summer replied chewing her lip.

Seth nodded and took an exit heading for the area they were in last night for dinner.

After several minutes of awkward silence Seth spoke up. "I think this is it."

Summer looked out the car window at the white building with a small garden and fountain in the front. Seth parked in the visitors parking and they both walked into the building.

Summer slipped into the small office off to the right and Seth stayed in the foyer looking around at the rooms leading off to the side.

Summer returned a little while later with a key to number 472. They headed up the elevator to the fourth floor and walked down the long hall to the room they held the key for.

At the door Summer took a deep breath before putting a shaking hand up to the door to unlock it.

She pushed open the door and Seth followed her in. The apartment was spotless; her mother must have had a cleaning lady, because from what Summer could remember, her mother wasn't exactly Martha Stewart.

They wondered around seeing all the rooms. They entered a small bedroom that was occupied by a single bed, and a dresser. Unicorn wallpaper danced across the walls, and the pale purple bedspread was folded down as if someone was getting ready for bed.

"This is weird." Summer whispered in a voice she barely recognized. Seth opened the drawers to see little pink dresses and corduroy overalls filling the dresser. Summer just stayed in the middle of the white carpet, taking in what lay before her.

"Well I should get started then." She began by crossing over to the closet, hoping to find a few suitcases of boxes.

Inside were white legal boxes, and a shelf filled with storybooks and stuffed animals. Summer grabbed three of the filled boxes and set them down on the floor. She sat down cross-legged and Seth followed suit and plopped down next to her.

Carefully she lifted the lid off the box to see drawings and clay figures obviously done by a small child.

"Your mom sure wasn't talented, look at her stick people." Seth laughed nervously. Summer couldn't help but smile, the paintings were mostly of two taller people and a smaller one, with a brown dog next to them.

"What should we do with this stuff?" Summer mumbled still going through the pictures.

Seth shrugged. "Maybe we can putt all the stuff in these boxes into one, so we have more boxes." He suggested. Summer nodded in agreement as she took off the lid to the second box.

Inside were some blankets that had been sewn together with different patches. Seth picked them all out and placed them on the bed behind him. "We can put all the blankets together." He stated to nothing in particular.

In the third box Summer found letter after letter addressed to her, with a return to sender sticker on every envelope.

"Oh god" Summer whimpered, placing a delicately manicured hand over her mouth. Seth couldn't think of what else to do so he took her hand, and ran small circles around the center. But Summer pulled back and stood up heading out to the kitchen.

Followed close behind Seth was. They both sat down at the kitchen table and didn't speak. Finally Summer stood up and headed down the hall again.

"I can't cry over someone I don't know unless it's Ashton Kutcher in the Butterfly Affect." Summer mumbled to herself as she headed into the room again. She grabbed the empty box and headed to the bathroom she had just passed.

Seth joined her and sat down on the bathtub edge. Summer was on her knees at the cupboard beneath the sink. She dumped unopened tubes of toothpaste, and rolls of toilet paper and shampoo bottles into the box. When it was almost full she pushed it out into the hall.

"We can take that stuff to a shelter or something" she mumbled going back to the bedroom. Inside she dumped all the sealed envelopes into the first box and carried it to the kitchen.

She began rummaging through cupboards taking all the non-perishable food items and throwing them into the box. This time Seth helped by finding some garbage bags to empty the fridge.

In the next two hours they had taken care of all the food in the house, unless there was a stash of chocolate under the bed.

They sat down on the leather couch to take a break. Summer's head still pounding. In their silence the ringing of a cell phone coming from Seth's back pocket interrupted them.

Seth stood up and fished out the noisemaker. "Hello?" he answered flipping the top.

"Hey dad…" Seth said after hearing what the other person had to say.

"Nope, actually I'm at Summer's mom's house, helping her clean." Seth responded to the voice on the other end.

"Yeah, okay, will do, see ya" he clicked the end button and put the phone back in his pocket. "My dad just wanted to check up on us." Seth explained plopping down on the sofa again. Summer nodded and stretched out, resting her feet on Seth's lap.

"Ugh! I fell like shit!" Summer wined, rubbing her temples. Seth smiled and leaned back on the wall.

"Well we should probably get started on the master bedroom then." Seth said with a yawn. Pushing Summer's feet off. Summer nodded and stood up stretching.

They both entered the dark bedroom. Summer turned on the light and Seth went to the window to open the curtains.

In the middle of the room was a queen-sized bed that was covered in matching pillows. Seth reached under the bed and found some suitcases.

"We should fill up these with clothes" he suggested. Summer nodded and went over to the dresser. She slid open the top middle drawer and began taking the shirts out to put in the suitcase. Seth did the same and soon the top drawers were all empty and the clothes were zipped up into the first bag. They moved onto the second row of drawers and took out the shorts, and skirts that were inside.

Slowly the four suitcases that sat on the tidy bed were filled with the clothes of the deceased woman who had lived there.

"It's late, we should probably get back to the hotel." Summer yawned and stood up from the bed. Seth nodded and they took the garbage bags downstairs to the garbage room and headed out to the truck.

Summer hopped into the front seat and leaned back into the comfy seats. Seth crawled in on the other side and started up the engine.

"Thanks for coming with me today." Summer said as they rounded the corner.

"No problem, cleaning houses has always been my favorite weekend activity." Seth grinned.

They pulled back up to the hotel and said goodbye to each other outside Summer's room.

She slid ion and lay back on the bed, only to jump up when she heard the phone ringing.

"Hello?" she answered into the hotel phone.

"Hey Summer, its Seth, I forgot my wallet at your mom's place, can we go get it?"

***

A/N- I looooooove reviews, so you know what to do!