A/N: Again thank you for the reviews. They keep me going.

It wasn't until Friday that week that Julia and Seth officially met. And it was through no introduction from Summer.

Seth was in the process of opening his locker when someone leaned on a locker beside him. He looked up and a pair of blue eyes stared across at him. "Julia Heatherton," she said, sticking her hand out before he could say anything.

He blinked at her."Uh, yeah, I know. We have, umm, class together." He grasped her hand in his and shook it. "Seth."

"Yeah, I know." She grinned at him.

Seth wasn't sure what to do now. Beautiful girls just didn't go out of their way to introduce themselves to him and the fact that she was Summer's cousin made this fact even stranger. Shouldn't she be trying to avoid him at all costs?

"So…" he said waiting for her to explain why she was there talking to him. She didn't. In fact, she continued to stand there watching him with a smile on her face.

"Uh, can I help you with something or uh…" Seth swung his gaze away from her face and back to the contents of his locker. Looking at her was getting him nowhere but more nervous.

"Actually, you can," she finally said, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. "I'm having a party tonight at my place. I'd love it if you could come."

Seth looked at her suspiciously wondering if this was a practical joke. He quickly searched the hallway and didn't see a group of people snickering behind their hands. Maybe this was real.

"You want me to come to your house? For a party?"

Julia grinned, her pearly white teeth gleaming. "Yeah, I do. Give me your hand." She rummaged in her purse until she found a pen.

Still eyeing her skeptically, he put his hand out. She took it and scribbled something down on it. "That's my address and this…" she took his other hand and wrote down something else, "is my number. See you tonight," she said easily before walking away.

Seth looked at his hands after she left, a confused expression on his face. He wasn't quite sure what had just happened but he wasn't going to argue with it.

…

"And then she just, wrote her phone number and address on your hands?" Ryan asked mystified.

Seth raised his hands to show Ryan the proof.

"That's cool, man. What are you going to do about it?"

Seth flopped on his back and stared up at the pool house ceiling. "I don't know. The thing is, I don't—there's still Summer."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Summer, the girl who's ignored you ever since we started school. Man, you need to see what this girl's about and see what happens."

"Well, I don't want to like, assume anything. She might be messing with me, but yeah, I guess we should go to this party."

Ryan narrowed his eyes. "That we better not include me, man."

Seth raised himself up on his upper arms. "Dude, you have to come with me."

Ryan shook his head. "I don't know. Marissa will probably be there with Luke."

"So, maybe you should take your own advice and meet a new girl. What do you say? Come on. Please man, I'll owe you."

Ryan was susceptible to Seth's pleading and finally gave in. "Fine, we'll go. But I'm only staying an hour. If you want to hang out longer you'll have to do it on your own."

Seth grinned. "It'll be fun, I promise."

…

"This is fun?" Ryan asked as he and Seth watched two guys stumble out of the house and throwup on the lawn outside.

They'd been at the party for a half an hour and no one had deigned to talk to them.

"This, to put it mildy, sucks," Ryan groaned.

Seth couldn't do anything but agree but he didn't want to leave yet. Summer had yet to show up to the party and Julia was so busy circulating she hadn't seen him yet.

"Let's just give it a little more time."

"I won't bail until eleven, like I promised." Ryan laid his head back on the sofa they were sitting on.

"Seth!" Seth looked up and saw Julia bearing down on them. "When did you get here?" she asked, stepping up to him.

He got up from his perch on the seat quickly and smiled. "Just got here."

"Good. Walk with me." She took his hand in hers to lead him outside.

Seth looked back and saw Ryan watching them quizzically. He lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug and followed Julia outside.

"Can I ask you something?" Julia asked as they walked down the stairs and into the direction of the pool.

"Umm, yeah." Seth looked at her warily, still unsure on how to deal with her and still confused as to why she was talking to him.

"Are you seeing anyone?" She looked up at him between her lashes.

Seth raised both brows in surprise. "Well, I uh…yeah, no."

Julia licked her lips and smiled. "Good. Then no one will mind if I do this…" She leaned over and brushed her lips against his.

Seth blinked in surprise. What the—? Julia slid closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Seth smiled against her lips and pushing away the brief image of Summer in his mind, centered his thoughts on the girl in his arms.

…

Summer walked into Julia's house resignedly. She hadn't wanted to come but she knew what was expected over her so she did anyway.

She greeted her friends and left Marissa to find Luke. She was walking around inspecting the crowd when she noticed Ryan sitting on a sofa on the other side of the room. Without thinking she looked around to see if Seth was beside him. He wasn't. Not that she cared or anything.

She headed towards his direction when she realized that she'd rather talk to him than the majority of people there. As she walked up to him, she noticed that his eyes were closed. She flopped down ungracefully beside him and his eyes flew open.

"Hey," she said.

He raised a brow. "Hey."

"So…Long time no talk."

Ryan quirked his mouth mockingly before nodding.

"Look," Summer said, already tired of the small talk. "She wants to talk to you. But she, for whatever messed up reason, thinks you'll look down on her for going back to Luke."

That got his attention and he straightened up in the seat. "She deserves better but if he's what she wants…"

Summer shook her head. "It's not that simple. Like, after the accident and stuff, her mom and parents were totally freaking. Her mom wanted to send her away and stuff but Coop begged her to let her stay. But they're sending her to a therapist and she just feels like, I don't know." She shrugged. "She's just trying to get things back to what they were. And like, being with Luke makes her feel like they are. Get it?"

Ryan tilted his head a little in acknowledgement of what Summer was saying. "Is she…?"

"Yeah, she's here. Go talk to her."

He smiled and got up. He was about to leave when Summer stopped him. He looked at her inquiringly and she shrugged. "I just wondered if you left Cohen at home?"

Ryan couldn't help but smile at her obvious attempt at sounding casual. "Yeah, he's here. Outside. You should go talk to him."

Summer glowered at him. "It's not like I care or anything. I was just…whatever. Go away!"

Ryan stopped himself from smirking at her, knowing that it wouldn't be well received and went to find Marissa.

Summer watched him walk away before she got up and found herself walking towards the backyard. It wasn't that she was looking for Cohen or anything. It was just getting really stuffy in the house. She needed air, that was all.

And even though she was only out there for air, Summer couldn't help her eyes from wandering over the crowd, looking for brown curls and matching dimples.

She was about to stop looking when her eyes paused on two figures beneath a tree. She stepped closer, as close as her legs would carry her before her mind recognized them and her body stilled in shock…and pain. Her world stattered for an instance before it became solid again.

Julia was nestled close in Seth's arms and their lips were…ew. EW! Summer wanted to scream. Wanted to drag her cousin away from him and hit out at Seth. How could he just…forget about her so easily? How fucking dare they?

She didn't know how it happened—how one second she was watching them kiss and the next Julia was spitting out water after being pushed into the pool—by her. All she knew was that suddenly she felt remarkably stupid.

Seth got on his feet, his eyes wide, truly bewildered by what had just happened. He looked over at Julia, who was swimming over to the side of the pool and Summer who's cheeks was turning a bright pink.

Suddenly realization hit him. She was jealous. Summer was jealous…over him. He stopped himself from crowing but a small smile played across his lips.

Summer saw it and glared. "This has nothing to do with you, Cohen. Nothing. She was just—just pissing me off, okay?" She looked around thankful that only a few people were outside and those few were too wasted to pretend to care about what was happening at the other end of the yard.

Seth grinned at her broadly this time and after inclining his head towards her he walked over to the pool to help Julia out.

Summer swore softly before turning her back on them and walking back inside.

*

A/N: This might be considered spoilery but it only applies to my next chapter so I believe you can read on without fear of being spoiled. After watching some of my tape of last night's show (we get it on Mondays), it seems that my storyline and the show's storyline seem to coincide with each other with no intentional fault of mine. So if you notice the parallels please note that I didn't do it on purpose at all -- it just happened that way. heh.