Seth bounded down the stairs, feeling refreshed and worry-less after his shower. He could deal with going to this hockey game, he really could. It would be fun. Right?

He nearly collided with Summer as he leapt off the last stair.

"Cohen!"

"Summer! What.. what are you doing in my house?" Seth asked, balancing himself by grabbing hold of the wall.

Summer roller her eyes. How dare he forget. "Um, remember, we were going to spend the whole day together?" she said, placing her hand on her hip. Seeing that Seth made no immediate connection, she reached for his 'love handles'. "And all night..." she added suggestively.

Seth giggled. Summer pulled her hands back.

"Did you just giggle?"

"No."

An akward scilence ensued.

"Whatever. Are we like, going shopping or something?" The conversation returned to Summer's interests.

"Yes... as much as I would love to shop with you Summer, it's Ryan's birthday. I forgot."

"You forgot?"

Seth waited for Summer to attack. Have a rage black-out. Whatever.

Nothing.

Summer pursed her lips, planning her course of action. "So what are we doing?" she asked finally, sounding genuinely cheerful. Thanks to Daddy for all those drama classes.

"What? We?" Seth almost took a step backwards.

"Yeah. I mean, we're all friends, right? I want to help Ryan celebrate his birthday, or whatever."

"You sound so enthused."

"Cohen! I want to spend time with you. And Ryan... can Marissa come?"

Seth rolled his eyes. How was he supposed to explain to Ryan that he was bringing his ex-girlfriend to his birthday?

Summer sauntered towards Seth, looking up at him from under heavily mascaraed eyelashes. She would get her way no matter what.

Seth couldn't take it. Must... resist... use... the force!

He caved.

"Yay! We're going to have fun!"

Seth sighed quietly.

"So... where are we going again?"

------------------------------------------------

"You did what?"

Seth was sitting on the couch, legs tucked up under him, shoulder hunched as if he were expecting a blow. Did Ryan have rage-blackouts?

"Invited Summer and Marissa to Ryan's 18th birthday bash?"

Ryan was pacing. Never a good sign. Seth knew that Ryan and Marissa were a little (okay a lot) weird lately. But you had to get over it some time, right? Seth was just forcing them to spend time together, and in doing that, they would realize that the could be just friends.

"Look, Ryan. If you really don't want them to come, we just tell them we don't have tickets." Seth had earlier informed Ryan that Sandy had bought tickets, however, he'd said nothing about there being four of them. "Which we don't."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Seth was lying through his teeth. He knew very well that Summer would castrate him if he bailed on her. Ryan had to cave.

Sandy chose this in-opportune moment to walk into the room, waving a little white envelope around.

"Happy Birthday!"

Seth glanced nervously at his father, knowing there were more than two tickets in that envelope.

Sandy handed the packet to Ryan, beaming as Ryan took them, shooting a dark look at Seth. "Kirsten and I wanted you to enjoy yourself on your birthday, so here you go. Open them!" Sandy was grinning like a kid on a sugar high.

Ryan slowly slid the remnants of a chewed off fingernail under the envelope flap, taking as long as humanly possible to separate the gluey pieces. This birthday was turning into a nightmare.

Seth was cringing. Nearly.

Sandy was growing impatient. "Come on, open it!"

Ryan grinned half-heartedly, and tore open the rest of the envelope. Tickets fluttered into his lap, bearing the crest of the L.A. Kings and the Vancouver Canucks. And there were four of them. Ryan shot a deadly glance at Seth.

Seth looked across the living room weakly at him.

"Surprise?"