"The Friend"

Note: I don't own The O.C. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME if I need to say that in every chapter - it's getting tedious, so if I don't have to I won't. Let me know.
Anna's back and Marissa finds out what's going on with Julie and Caleb.

"Anna!" Seth was shocked to see his old friend again. "Oh my God, Anna! What are you, uh, what are you doing here?!" The smile appeared to be stuck to his face.

"I..." she giggled as she tried to explain, "I'm back. I moved back to Newport Beach. We got settled last week, so…here I am," she was still surprised at their run-in. "I was looking for you yesterday, but I've been so…so busy, and I…I can't believe we ran into each other," she was still smiling, "It was like a bad sit-com or something."

"So you're back? Again, I mean," Seth had put his tray down on a table nearby and wasn't paying attention to everyone leaving the area and heading for class.

"Well, I guess it's time for class," Anna said looking around.

"Oh," Seth looked around as well, "Yeah, I guess."

"But I'll see you around," Anna said optimistically.

"Of course, I mean, you should call me."

"Yeah?" she asked with uncertainty in her voice. "Aren't you and, uh, Summer, like busy or…?"

"Uh, yeah, no, Summer, uh…It's a long story. We should hang out and catch up," Seth suggested.

Anna nodded with approval. "Okay."

"Okay," Seth said, "Call me after school."

Anna nodded and they almost ran into each other again as they maneuvered around each other and headed to class.

"Cohen residence, Seth at your service," Seth answered the phone. It was 8:00pm.

"Hey," his girlfriend's voice echoed through the phone, sounding a little glum.

"Summer," he sounded surprised as he looked up at the clock. "It's eight already? I, uh, I must have lost track... Of the time, how are you?" He stood up and walked into the kitchen to take the phone call, leaving Anna sitting on the living room couch.

Ryan and Marissa walked into Marissa's house to find Julie and Caleb yelling at each other.

"Why does any of this matter," Caleb yelled louder than either of them had ever heard him, "if you didn't marry me for my money?"

"That's not the point, Cal!" Julie screamed back, startling even Marissa, who had been hearing her mom scream for 17 years. "You lied to me, you manipulated me! This is all phony," she said much more quietly as she broke down and started crying. She fell back onto a loveseat and they both turned and noticed Ryan and Marissa standing in the doorway, shocked.

"What's going on?" Marissa asked as she walked into the living room.

"Nothing, Dear," Julie lied, wiping tears and smudged makeup from her face. "We're having a private conversation, so please..." she nodded toward the stairs as if she were asking Marissa to leave the room.

"Well," Marissa said still angry at her mother for all the events of the last year, "We'll leave, but if you keep shouting like that, your conversation will be heard around the whole neighborhood." She turned around and ran up the stairs, and Ryan followed.

Ten minutes into his conversation with Summer, Anna came into the kitchen.

"I'm gonna go," she said very quietly and pointed toward the door.

"No," Seth shook his head. "No, not you Summer, I was talking to Anna, she-"

"What?!?!" Summer's voice literally hurt Seth's ears it was so loud. "Anna's there?"

"Yeah, she-"

"Oh, oh I see, I see how it is. I'm gone less than two months and already Anna's back and in your house and God knows what else," Summer rambled irrationally.

Seth held up a finger to Anna and mouthed the words "Just a minute" as he walked onto the back patio. "What are you talking about? What, do you think I planned this? She moved back, Summer, like last week."

"Whatever," Summer was pissed off. "What's she doing there? Are you guys, like, studying?" Summer said sarcastically.

"You are getting all upset over nothing-"

"Whatever," she yelled again before she hung up the phone.

Seth stood there with his hand in the air, confused about what had just happened.

Up in Marissa's room, she and Ryan sat quietly for a few minutes before speaking. She had known something was going to go wrong with her mother's marriage, she just figured it would take a couple years to happen.

"I knew something like this was going to happen," she said looking off into space.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Ryan tried to comfort her.

She looked at him with doubt. "I have never seen my mother that upset before," she said, then thought about it. "Well, I guess I have..."

"Yeah," Ryan said nonchalantly, "It'll be okay."

She looked at him for a moment then smiled. "You're right," she said as she sat on his lap on her bed. They started to kiss when they heard the front door slam and glass shatter from somewhere. They both looked toward her bedroom door, and moments later, they heard a car screeching out of the driveway.

"I don't get it," Seth said.

"I don't either," Anna said, confused for a different reason. "She moved to Baltimore, doesn't she want you to be happy now that she's gone?" Anna walked up and stood right in front of Seth, smiling flirtatiously.

"What? No, we... no," Seth realized why Summer might be upset, then Anna realized why Seth was.

"Oh, are you guys still, you know, together?"

"I said I would wait for her," Seth said quietly, looking past Anna.

"Oh," Anna nodded.

After a brief awkward silence, Anna decided she should leave and Seth agreed. He had to call Summer back and try to straighten things out. But when he called, no one answered the phone. The second time he called, no one answered again. On his third try, a very-asleep sounding woman answered the phone in a groggy voice.

"Uh, hi. This is Seth... Calling for Summer. Is she, uh, is she there?" he figured the voice on the other end was her stepmother so he tried to be polite. But when the woman said she didn't know, Seth got impatient. "Well, this is kind of important so could you check?"

"Ugh! Fine, hold on," the woman said in a huffy manner. When she came back a few minutes later, she only had bad news. "She's not here, her car's gone," she advised him and promptly hung the phone up.