Chapter 1: "Please don't use those same excuses you've used before"
Summer woke up the next morning being able to feel her pulse in her head. She felt Todds arm carelessly laid across her. She hadn't remembered much after being hit. She looked down to see Little Seth sitting in the middle of the floor playing with a toy truck in silence. He knew not to make any noise when he woke up… it irritated Todd, …and when he was angry… well things weren't pretty…
She carefully slipped out from under his arm and crawled over to her son who just watched her as she approached.
"Hey honey." She said reaching out to pick him up.
Little Seth stared at her and said nothing. He didn't speak much. You could see everything that he felt in his dark brown eyes… He reached out and touched her face lightly… Summer winced.
"I'll be right back baby." Summer said sitting Little Seth back on the floor and heading to the bathroom.
She saw herself in the mirror for the first time since the night before… how was she supposed to react? It was her fault that this happened. It was all her fault. Summer quickly changed into a red tank-top and an old pair of jeans, put her hair down to cover the marks on her neck, and found her trade mark dark sun glasses…
"Do you want to head to the park?" Summer whispered to Little Seth as she re-entered the room.
His face lit up. Little Seth had a round face and light brown curly hair. The young boy had only two facial expressions. Sad or mischievous…
Summer slipped Little Seth into his overalls and a dinosaur shirt under it, and then they headed out to the park.
Summer watched Seth carefully as he played. He didn't go near the other children. He sat in the sand box and played alone. The same thing all the time. Summer could trust that he would stay there for awhile… that was until a squirrel came along.
Summer loved squirrels herself, but she would never admit it to anyone other than Cohen. They could get away from harm faster than you could imagine their little bodies could take them… that was until a car came and knocked them out and left them lying bloody in the street to be scraped off of the road by animal control.
"Mommy!" Five year old Summer banged on the bathroom door. "Mommy!" She called again.
She stood way up on her tip-toes to reach the door knob… The door slowly crept open…
"Mommy?" Summer called again, but this time in a lower voice…
She looked at her bathtub… Why was the water red? Why was her mommy not moving? Maybe she was just taking a nap under water… right?
Hours later Summers father found his little girl standing over her bathtub with her dead mother inside. Soon Summer was watching through the bars of the balcony as her mommy was being taken out in a black bag.
"Daddy?" Summer asked pulling on his dress pants.
"Don't touch my good pants. You have water and god knows what else on your hands." He said not looking down at his small child
Summer backed up from her father
"Better, now what were you asking?" He asked as the bag was now out of the door…
"How can mommy breathe in there?" Summer asked naively
"She's not."
Summer pulled her jacket more tightly around herself. Anyone who was wearing a jacket in this weather was out of their mind… or getting beaten up by their boyfriend. Summer was broken out of her thoughts when she felt a pair of eyes on her… A woman had sat next to her on the bench.
"Hello." The woman said
"Hey." Summer said. Her mouth hurt from the cut in her lip when she spoke. Her voice came out like a little girls…
"I am Julie Turner."
Summer didn't respond.
"I work at a clinic for women here in the city." Julie said
"That's nice." Summer said grabbing her back and going to retrieve her son. She could tell this woman... this "Julie", was watching her leave the park…
Summer had trouble balancing Little Seth on her bruised hip. She had to repeatedly shift him.
"Where the hell were you!" Todd yelled as she entered her apartment.
Summer panicked, she knew what was coming…
Summer lay on the floor, she felt purple and bruised from head to toe… Why had he done this to her. As she drifted in and out of consciousness she thought back to her Newport days… her pre-Todd days.
"Hey beautiful." Seth said coming up to her kissing her on the cheek.
"Ew Cohen. With the PDA's!" Summer said in her usual tone even though she was enjoying his attention.
"So I was thinking that we take the boat out this weekend." Seth said
"Just the two of us?" Summer asked
"Well unless Marissa and Ryan happen to pull themselves out of the sack for a couple of hours…"
Summer turned to see her best friend making out with Ryan against the wall.
Marissa… Summer remembered the first day she met her…
Summers mom's funeral had come and gone. Her father went on more business trips than usual now, which left Summer alone with Janice, the nanny. If anyone asked Summer she rather would have a mother over a nanny, … but nobody had.
Summer sat on the swings alone watching the squirrels run around like they had no care in the world. Nobody approached Summer. She liked being all on her lonesome, much like Little Seth did. Then she noticed a girl, tall and skinny, with big green eyes standing across the playground staring at her. There was something about that girl, Summer thought.
The next thing that she knew the little girl was being yanked by some woman who was fixing the bow ties in her hair and adjusting her dress. And then the woman set her free. The girl seeming to want to get away from the woman walked across the playground which happened to be where Summer sat.
The little girl sat on the swing next to her. She swung back and forth slowly. All of the other girls were being chased around by the boys, or playing with barbies, but not these two, they were angst and drama since the womb. Figure they would fine each other that first day on kindergarten.
The girl looked overwhelmed. Summer felt a little sorry for her. Summer herself didn't care about too much… except for her mommy. But daddy told her that her mommy was gone and wasn't coming back so stop crying.
The little girl kicked off her jelly sandals and let her little feet drag in the mulch under her feet.
Summer felt like she should say something.
"Hi." Summer said to the timid young girl.
"Hey." The little girl responded.
"My name is Summer."
"I'm Marissa." She said still looking down at the ground. Summer wondered why she was, maybe there was something interesting down there, so she did the same, which now caused this Marissa girl to look up, which caused Summer to look up.
Summer had a hard look to her. This little girl was invincible, but always had a worried look on her face. Her brow was always furrowed like there was always danger lurking. Marissa on the other hand had a sadness clouding her. Marissas hardships had made her sad and vulnerable, and Summers hard and cynical … They balanced each other out well, although they were both emotional train wrecks from the beginning.
A little boy ran over to them with a curly brow "Jew fro".
"Marissa check out this slug!" He said shoving it in the girls face excitedly.
Marissa said nothing as she looked at the slug in disgust.
"Ew." Young Summer said slapping the slimy creature out of the boys hand.
The boy retreated to under a tree where he proceeded to dig with sticks as he watched Summer.
"That kid is weird." Summer commented.
"Seth." Marissa said.
"Huh?" Five year old Summer asked
"His name is Seth Cohen. He lives next to me." Marissa said. They both stared over at the boy who was staring right back at them… "My dad an' his mom are good friends." Marissa informed her new friend.
Summer watched this "Cohen", kid from across the playground. Some was different about him. Luckily Marissa didn't see her smile … but he saw it… and he was never going to forget it…
R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!