Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Note: Here is the next chapter, hope you all enjoy even though it is still a bit of a downer. Hopefully things will get better between Seth and Summer soon, we'll see. Thanks for reviewing--I really appreciate all the comments and try to make my writing better from your comments. So thanks!

One

Chapter 13: We hurt each other then we do it again…

Summer hated airports, which tied in with the whole fear of flying thing. She hated them because they were impersonal and cold. Big empty buildings with no personality. They were all built with the same floor plan, same Starbucks, same McDonalds. They were hollow. Like her soul. She didn't enjoy the feeling she got when walked through one. Especially this one. She hated John Wayne Airport the most. As a child, she used to love going there and sitting at the base of the huge bronze statue of the Duke and waiting for her father to come home from a business trip. But as she grew older, she began to notice more and more that he hardly cared or acknowledged the fact that she had come, he was preoccupied with a new girlfriend that he had brought home with him. So she stopped coming. And the last time she was here…well, she didn't even want to think about it.

She walked the length of the terminal, looking outside. From the plane, she had seen Newport and all of Orange County in its glory. It's amazing how much time can change things. Now California was dotted with track homes everywhere. Yes, even in Chino and the rest of Riverside County. She looked around. Mid-afternoon travelers clutched their Louis Vuitton briefcases and $5 coffees. Soccer moms sat tiredly in the waiting areas while their children ran around and their husbands read about the Lakers' game in the Register. She changed her mind. Time didn't change much at all. She realized she was still one of them. She clutched a Louis Vuitton vanity case and rolling bag. She had just tossed out a Mocha Frappuccino. As much as she denied it, she was still the epitome of Orange County stereotypes. And she hated it, or so she thought. You could take the girl out of Orange County, but you could never take the Orange County out of the girl.

***

Seth drove like a madman down the 405. He was finally coming home. Over the years, his trips back to Newport had become few and far between. Every time he came back, his mother and father lectured him on his lifestyle and he continually faced comparison with their golden child, Ryan. Ryan was the one who followed in Sandy's footsteps and went to Berkeley and then Northwestern Law School. It was now Ryan who was working in the same firm as his father. Seth thought this was unbearable. Ryan was doing exactly everything he was told to do. Their roles had been reversed. Now Seth was the outcast outsider. And now Ryan was getting married. To his high school sweetheart. His longtime girlfriend of what, almost 10 years? Seth didn't know anything about long term girlfriends. He switched about every two weeks when he got bored of them and their issues. He had just broke up with one of them, a real winner. She had been petite and brunette with the best body he'd been with in a long time. She had the biggest ego this side of the 10 freeway, too. Most of his girlfriends were cast out of that same mold. By coincidence only, of course. He didn't really see himself getting tied down anytime soon. No matter now much his mother begged him for grandchildren or whatever.

His cell phone beeped. It had been doing so for the last few hours. He ignored it; it was his business partner who was asking him about upcoming storylines or something. He didn't feel like taking care of business right now. He had other things he had to take care of. Namely, one thing. He knew she was back. Ryan had told him. What did he care though, she was just another girl to him. No one that actually mattered. He turned up the radio.

Is it getting better?

Do you feel the same?

Will it make it easier on you now?

You've got someone to blame

You say, "One love, one life…

When it's one need, in the night

One love, we get to share it

It leaves you, baby, if you don't care for it…"

Did I disappoint you?

Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?

You act like you never had love

And you want me to go without

A half an hour later, Summer was on her way out of the airport. She looked like any other Orange County native did, cruising down the freeway in a rented SL 500 towards her old home. She turned up the volume on the stereo and drove, with her oversized Chanel sunglasses overwhelming her face. Already she could feel the sea breeze run across her skin. As the familiar scenes passed her, her heart began to ache. It had been too long. She had missed everything about the OC. Everything. She was back to the place she loved the most. The place that had once held so much promise for her. The place she could never let go of. Home. Summer was home. Back to where she belonged.

Well it's too late, tonight

To drag the past out into the light

We're one, but we're not the same

We've got to carry each other, carry each other

One

Have you come here for forgiveness?

Have you come to raise the dead?

Have you come here to play Jesus

To the lepers in your head?

Did I ask too much?

More than a lot

You gave me nothing, now it's all I got

Seth was nearing the exit for his home. "Welcome to Newport Beach" the sign said. Ironic. Newport Beach rarely welcomed anyone into it's cold and unforgiving arms. He had certainly never felt welcome. He looked at the beach. The blue waters that were once his haven now only seemed to hiss at him. You're not welcome here… He pulled into the gated community driveway and punched the code into the machine. The gates slowly opened and he entered the one place he could not stand. He came home.

We're one, but we're not the same

Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again

You say, love is a temple, love the higher law

Love is a temple, love the higher law

You ask me to enter, then you make me crawl

And I can't be holding on, to what you got

When all you've got is hurt

One love, one blood

One life you've got to do what you should

One life, with each other

Sisters, brothers

One life, but we're not the same

We've got to carry each other, carry each other

Summer reached her house. It looked empty. Just like her dad to not be around. And of course, she had thrown out her key a long time ago. So there she was, stuck outside, with no where to go. Well, she had Coop, but her house was right next to theirs. And that was too close for comfort. Instead of sticking around to see if anyone was there, she turned the car around and drove to the beach. Something in the air was different, it slapped her in the face as she got out of the car. This was the Newport she remembered. She walked across the sand and dipped her foot into the ocean. The cold waves bit her foot. She had forgotten how much it hurt to be here. But she would not let it hurt her this time. She would not be vulnerable to anything.

He watched her from the living room. He couldn't make out her face or any other distinguishing features, but he knew. You don't spend like nine years of your life trying to memorize every mannerism of a person and not know how they look from afar. It was semi-comforting that she still carried herself in the same way. For one second, maybe even less, the heartless, money hungry Seth Cohen of new felt something in his heart twitch. She still made him ache. Someone might have actually thought he was having an emotional feeling. Something he had not had for some time. But as soon as it had come, it had gone away, and he turned around and went back to his business.

One by U2