Disclaimer: If you really want to read my disclaimer, go to chapter 1. Otherwise, on with the story!

Author's note: Hey, there all you OC people! Thanks for all the amazing reviews! There were definitely beneficial to my writing. I am sorry that I am posting this chapter so late, but packing up and coming home from your freshman year of college is no easy task: ) Well, with nothing else to add, on with the story!

Also, the only characters I own are the ones of my own creation. At this point in time, no new characters have been made, but when they do, you guys are the first ones to know.

Author's note #2: Please review! It's the stuff that I live off of! Or email me Also, if anyone is interested in being a beta reader for me for this story, I would love the extra input! If you're interested, just email me at the address above.

Author's note #3: Just a little FYI for the story, words in this ' ' indicate thoughts. Hope that helps!

Summary: Ryan returned to Chino to Theresa and his new responsibilities, Seth ran away to the open seas, leaving Summer and Marissa back in Newport for the summer. But what happened to the ones they left behind?

Spoilers: set after The Ties that Bind

Rating: PG-13/R, for language and sensual descriptions, depending on the chapter.

Summer Days

Chapter 3

It seems like hours before Marissa slowly stopped crying, now occasionally hiccupping. Both of them were just sitting on the floor, Summer stroking Marissa's hair as Marissa stared off into space, not saying a word. Summer was beginning to get worried, when she heard Marissa finally speak up.

"Summer?"

"Yeah Coop?"

"Did I drive Ryan away?"

And there came the big question. She knew that the real question Coop was asking was 'Is Seth right about me?'

"Coop, listen to me. I know you're emotionally screwed up right now. Anyone would be. But you shouldn't be doing this to yourself. Yes, he screwed up. You did, Seth did, and even I screwed up. We all do. But this is nobody's fault, not yours, not Seth's, no one's. Well, maybe Ryan's...,"

One look from Marissa made her move on to her point.

"But anyways, Ryan loves YOU" Summer emphasized, "not Teresa. But he also has to deal with some new responsibilities now. You told me he said he was going to make this work and I'm sure he's going to make sure that he doesn't lose the greatest thing in his life. All I know is, if you love him so much, why are you pulling all the same shit that he hated watching you do?"

Marissa slowly nodded her head, understanding and knowing that Summer was right. She loved Ryan; that was no argument. She would do anything for him. And she knew that even though he rarely said it, he loved her too. He was always there, regardless of where they stood with each other, he was always there for her.

But Ryan hated seeing her like this, whether they had been together or not. She had to keep herself together, be a better person for Ryan. Not even for Ryan, for herself.

She had to be someone worth coming back to.

She wiped her last tears off her cheeks. She looked over at her best friend, who was waiting for a response. Marissa gave her a quick hug, "Thank you." She whispered.

Summer leaned back and looked Marissa in the eye. "You sure you're ok?" Marissa nodded. "Yeah, I'm ok right now."

"Ok, well, let's get out of this house. Its too big and depressing be in right now." Summer suggested as she subtly shooed Marissa out of the room and down the stairs.

"Where are we going to go?" Marissa asked as she got into Summer's car.

"Well, I figured we could go over to Cohen's house and get-"

"What!" Marissa screamed. "We can't go over there! In case you didn't see this morning, Seth-"

"Yeah, well in case you didn't notice," Summer rebutted, "you're my best friend and Cohen is my boyfriend. I am not going to spend all summer having to run from one side to the other. You guys aren't going to make me choose."

"So I've decided that you two are going to sit down and work out any issues you two have or if not, I'll kill you both. So unless you plan on jumping out of the car," Summer glanced over quickly, "and don't even think about it, you and Cohen are going to figure this out."

For as little time Summer had spent with Ryan personally, it was amazing how one person was unraveling her world so easily. This was supposed to be the summer of their lives. Their last summer before they entered their last year of high school. It was supposed to be fun in the sun, and enjoying life.

Not Summer having to worry about the mental state of two of the biggest people in her life or referee fights between her best friend and her boyfriend, as they blamed each other as to why their Ryan left to help a girl he may or may not have knocked up.

'If Ryan ever does come back, remind me to kick his ass really hard.'

Within a few minutes, Summer pulled up to the Cohen residence. Not saying another word, Summer got out and began walking up to the house. Marissa sat in the car for about 2 seconds before reluctantly getting out of the car herself.

By the time Marissa caught up with Summer, Sandy was just opening the door. "Hi girls. How are you doing?" Sandy knew that was a stupid question, especially seeing Marissa's face, so empty and heart breaking.

"We're doing ok, Mr. Cohen. Is Seth here?" Summer answered politely. "Yeah, he's upstairs. Just go on ahead. If you guys need anything, me and Kirsten are just outside." Sandy said as he walked out back.

"C'mon Coop. It's now or never." Summer grabbed Marissa's hand and made their way upstairs to Seth's room. Not bothering to knock, Summer opened the door and let herself in. "Cohen, you better be decent!" She was a bit shocked when she walked in and found herself talking to 4 empty walls.

Marissa, for the most part, was relieved to not see him there. She didn't want a repeat performance of this morning. "Maybe he snuck out and took a walk. Oh well, we'll catch him another time, let's go." Marissa grabbed Summer's arm and tried to drag her out.

Summer grabbed Marissa and sat both of them on the bed. "Then we are going to wait for him. Besides, you have nothing big planned tonight."

Marissa rolled her eyes. "Thanks for pointing that out."

Ignoring the comment, Summer began looking around the room. It was only a few seconds before she spotted Captain Oats. As she reached over to the nightstand to grab the plastic horse, it was then that she saw the marked envelopes lying next to him.

When she saw that one of the envelopes bore her name in his familiar handwriting, something in her just simply cracked, like a crystal vase as it shattered on the cold hard marble floor of reality.

She saw this all the time in movies. She knew what that envelope contained and she just wished against the voice inside her head that it wasn't real, that she was imagining things. She even closed her eyes, pressing her eyelids shut, as though that would make them evaporate into the humid summer air.

But, she knew the truth. And by opening that envelope, someone else would tell her just how sorry they were and her life would just keep continuing to unravel some more.

Marissa looked over at Summer to ask her something, but her question never left her lips as she saw her best friend staring at two envelopes on the nightstand, one labeled "Mom and Dad", the other addressed to Summer.

Very slowly, almost in a trance, Summer picked up the envelope, brushing her manicured hand over her name. All this time, Summer stayed silent, not uttering a word. She couldn't breathe, much less speak. Her throat felt smaller and more constricting. Her breath kept getting shallower and harder to do. She forced herself to swallow some small breaths as flipped over the envelope, but stopped before opening the flap.

She just couldn't. She didn't want to be real.

Summer jumped when Marissa gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Are you going to open it?" Summer shook her head. "You want me to read it?" Wordlessly, Summer held out the envelope. Bracing herself, Marissa pulled the letter out, unfolded it and slowly began to read it.

Dear Summer,

As much as you say that you understand my life and as much as I adore you that much more for trying to empathize with me, you don't know half of what my life was like before this year, before Ryan, Marissa or you became such a big part of my life. Ryan was the first friend that I had in so long, it was still hard to believe, even now. After being the only child for 17 years and Newport's very own social pariah, I finally had a brother and a friend on my side. Forgive the cliché, but it was a dream come true. For the first time, I didn't feel alone in this world.

But then Ryan left, and I was back to being all alone. No friend, no brother, nothing. And that's when I got mad. I hate whatever god saw it fit to take Ryan away from his family and friends. It was so cruel. Life couldn't get any better, which should have been a clue that something bad was on the horizon. I just thought my luck wouldn't run out so soon.

I was so angry for all that was happening that I wanted to blame someone, anyone for this, and Marissa was the first person that I could think of. And I really regret lashing out at her like I did. I know none of us are at fault for Ryan's leaving, it just makes it that much harder to understand and that much harder for me to accept.

It was this afternoon, during the wedding, when I was sitting, looking out at the ocean, when I remembered my dream of sailing to Tahiti. And I figured, what better time than now?

There are things I still need to figure out and I can't do it here in Newport. And this is not a matter of running away. This is a matter of needing to get away to clear my head and straighten some things out. I am not running away from my life nor from you Summer. I just didn't want you to have to deal with me and all my crap this summer. You deserve better than that.

It sounds really selfish of me to ask you to wait for me. But that's what I am doing. I am hoping that in the end, when I come back, I will have things taken care of. Either way, I can only hope you will be able to forgive what I'm doing.

I love you Summer Roberts, rage blackouts and all, and these past few months have been the greatest of my life. After all these years of dreaming, the reality was nothing like I could have ever dreamed of. I know it's bad of me to have told you this for the first time on paper, but I thought you needed to know.

Love always, Seth

PS Tell Marissa I'm sorry.

Marissa looked up from the letter, looking over at Summer. She sat there, staring at a wall, stunned. Marissa didn't know what to do. It was now Marissa's turn to be worried for her best friend.

"Summer-" Marissa began, leaning over to embrace her. Summer threw up her arm, preventing Marissa from doing so.

Instead, she looked over at Captain Oats, who was still faithfully standing on the nightstand. Picking up the plastic horse, she lightly stroked its plastic mane. Marissa wasn't sure whether to intervene or not.

She saw her own reactions in Summer and was suddenly overcome with sadness as she now saw what Summer was trying to do less than an hour ago.

And while she had been suffering the loss of her boyfriend, she had the feeling that Seth running off was definitely hitting closer to her heart than it would have hurt Marissa. Especially with her mother's abandonment still leaving a big wound in her heart.

Summer got up from her seat on the bed and was aimlessly walking around the room Marissa could see her friend's struggle with herself not to cry. As Marissa folded up the letter and tucked it safely back in the envelope, she herself struggled to know what to do.

"Summer, c'mon-" Marissa started again, but she was cut off as Captain Oats flew through the air and smashed through the window. Marissa could do nothing but stare at her best friend as she stood still for one second before her arm swept across his desk, scattering everything on the floor.

Marissa, breaking out of her reverie, got up and grabbed Summer's wrists, restraining her to the best of her ability. Summer wrangled out of Marissa's grip, falling to the floor in the process. She made no effort to get up. Instead, she just cried. At that point, she didn't care who watched, she just wanted to cry. All she could manage to think was 'So this is what it feels like.'

Marissa sat down next to her and hugged her tight. A few seconds later, Sandy and Kirsten ran through the door.

"What's going on here? We heard -" Sandy stopped as he surveyed the mess of a room. He saw Marissa holding Summer on the floor, but it wasn't 'til a few seconds later that he realized Seth was nowhere in the room.

Marissa looked up at the couple. She saw the bloodshot eyes and the saddened expression on Kirsten's face, telltale signs of her own mourning of Ryan's leaving.

That's when it hit her. Sandy told them that Seth was upstairs in his room. Yet, he wasn't here when they got here. 'Oh God, they don't know Seth is gone. This day just keeps getting better and better.' Marissa thought.

And now, she had to be the one to tell them that another one of their sons has left them.

Slowly letting go of Summer, Marissa got up, careful not to step on anything. "I'm sorry. I'll be sure to pick it all up and as for the window- "

Sandy cut in, "That doesn't matter right now. Where's Seth? I thought he was upstairs."

Marissa tried to materialize the right words to tell them, but nothing would come out of her mouth. All she could do was reach over to the nightstand and grabbed the second envelope. She held it out to Sandy. "He left one for Summer as well."

Kirsten took one look at the outstretched envelope and Summer sitting on the ground and crumpled against Sandy, her tears overflowing all over again. Sandy took the envelope from Marissa, and began to read it as he cradled his sobbing wife.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Some say that there is a reason for everything that happens in life; that for every bad thing that happens, there's something good to come out of it. But it seems that nothing good has come out of all the bad things that have been happening lately. I lost my brother and my best friend. And I don't know how to deal with it yet.

Whether or not this was of any knowledge to you guys, Newport was never really a happy place for me until this year. And now, all reasons of staying here this summer are now gone. The friends that haven't left town, I have blamed and essentially pushed away, either by words or actions.

Last summer, I planned on sailing to Tahiti. In truth, it was a means of getting away from the taunting jocks and the one beautiful dream too far out of my reach. But after certain events falling into place last year, there was no need to go away. And now this summer, after everything that's gone down, I figure this is a better time than ever to take up my dream again.

I will be back, rest assured, just not for the next couple of months. I know that this must be extremely painful for you guys to read, but I will be all right and will be home before you know it.

I'll try and contact you when I reach the next island, if they have electricity at all. But please don't worry about me, I'll be fine.

Love always, Seth

PS Please take care of Summer and Marissa for me.

Ok, so that does it for this story! I really wanted to know how the girls would have reacted to everyone leaving. So, enjoy and review! They really do help the writing process:)