Part 2

Summer walked into school the next morning, a fake smile on her face. She just had to get through this. She couldn't let her life be ruined by him. She paled when she saw him standing at the end of the hall. She had to get out of here. She did not want to walk by him. She ducked behind some lockers and waited for him to walk past her. As soon as she felt it had been long enough, she walked out and felt a hand grab her arm. "Let me go," she said, jerking her arm back. "Tanner."

"Glad you remember, Summer. It hurt my feelings when you didn't return my calls this summer. However, I'm willing to forgive you and give you another chance."

"N-no. I want you to leave me alone."

"That's not nice. Didn't you have fun?"

"No, I didn't. You know I didn't."

"Yeah, well, you would have if you hadn't put up such a fight. But hey, we can try again."

"Get away from me. I want you to leave me alone."

"Fine, I don't need this. But remember to keep you mouth shut. I don't need the trouble and you know as well as I do that no one would be leave you anyway." He sauntered away and Summer walked the opposite way, wanting to put as much distance between the two of them as possible. She turned a corner, noticing the person coming in the other direction. The two of them crashed into each other.

"Whoa, sorry," she said, trying to leave quickly.

"Oh, it's okay. Summer?"

"Ryan, hi."

"Uh, hey. It's been awhile since we've seen each other. How are you doing?"

"All right, I guess."

"So, uh listen. I feel weird talking to you about this, but Seth really misses you. He's miserable."

"Well, good. After what he did to me-"

"Which was a jerk move, but he's sorry. Can you at least talk to him?"

"No, I can't."

"Summer, please. He needs-"

"He needs? What I about me? What about what I need?"

"Aren't you being a little selfish?"

"Yeah, well, that's me. Summer Roberts: selfish, spoiled and snobby."

"You sound proud of that."

"I am. I'm too good for Seth Cohen."

"I guess that's it then."

"I guess it is." The two stalk away from each other.

Ryan sat down next to Seth in the lunch room. He was dreading talking to him, but he knew that he had to. Summer was being a complete bitch about the whole situation and Seth need to know that he should just forget about it. "Hey, man."

"Hey. So, listen. I've got a plan to get Summer back. It's a little bit wacky, but I think it'll work."

"Look, you've gotta forget about her."

"What? Why?"

"I talked to her this morning. She's really mad and I don't think she's going to give in."

"I don't care. I want her and I'm not going to give up. We belong together." Ryan sighed deeply.

"Fine," he said, knowing that when Seth got like this, there was no hope for him to act sensibly.

"Summer?" Marissa stood behind her friend in the lunch line.

"Oh, hi."

"So, uh, listen. I just wanted to apologize for yesterday."

"No, it was my fault. I don't know what I was thinking."

"Hey, it's okay. We both messed up, we're both sorry."

"Right."

"You want to eat lunch with me?"

"Well, is Seth-"

"Come on, please. I'm friends with both you and Ryan. And Ryan comes with Seth. Don't make me choose."

"Oh, fine. But if he tries to talk me into-"

"I'll stop him, I promise. It'll be fine."

"Fine." Summer followed Marissa and sat down across from Seth. "Ryan, Cohen."

"Hi, Summer." Seth grinned at her, but she looked away.

"So, how's the first day of school going for everyone?" Marissa asked.

"It's school." Ryan declared.

Summer giggled and added her own statement. "Yeah, it's school. Not exactly the most fun in the universe." She glanced up and saw Tanner walking towards the table. She looked down and prayed he would just walk by. However, he stopped at the table.

"Hello, everyone."

"Hi, Tanner." Ryan, Seth, and Marissa looked at each other in confusion. Tanner Harrington didn't usually lower himself to talk to them.

"So, I heard you sailed to Tahiti this summer," Tanner said to Seth.

"Yeah, I did."

"Well, I hope you had fun. Your girlfriend and I certainly did." He grinned at Summer and walked away. The three of them looked at her.

"Summer?" Marissa asked, confused.

"You slept with him, Summer?" Seth looked heartbroken.

"I-I gotta go." She ran away from the table, out of the lunch room, and into the bathroom where she let the tears fall. The way Seth had looked at her, that's what she wanted to avoid. He looked at her like she was trash. "I hate this."

After school, Summer heard the doorbell ring and went to answer the door. She was surprised to see Seth standing in front of her.

"Hi, can we talk?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure. Come in." Seth started pacing around the room.

"So, I thought you were mad at me and I could make it up to you, but that's not it, is it? You- You don't want to be with me anymore. You couldn't wait to tell me before you were with someone else. Hell, you couldn't even wait for me during the summer."

"I was supposed to wait for you?" She sat down on the couch.

"I- I- I don't know. But you could have told me about Tanner. Tanner? I can't believe it. I thought that you had better taste than that." Summer shook her head.

"You don't know anything, Seth. You weren't here."

"Yeah, I wasn't here so I don't know what happened. So tell me. Did you sleep with him?"

"No, I didn't."

"You didn't?" Seth asked, perplexed. "But why did you run away at lunch? And what was he talking about? What did he mean?" Summer started to cry.

"I- I didn't. I swear I didn't."

"Summer, what's wrong? Tell me." He went to hug her, but she shrank away from him.

"No, don't touch me. I don't want anyone to touch me."

"Summer?"

"I didn't want to. I said no." Seth started to look horrified.

"What? What happened?" Summer continued to cry.

"I said no, but he wouldn't stop. He just kept- I couldn't stop him. But I tried. I tried and tried." She cried harder as Seth watched her helplessly, knowing that a lot more had changed during his trip away than he had thought. And there was nothing he could do to help her.