Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I do not own the O.C., nor will I ever.

Life, Love, and Coming Home

Chapter Six

Summer rummaged through her bag looking for the keys to the apartment while Matt stood impatiently aside. He wouldn't be surprised if she had forgotten the keys, it was in Summer's nature. But he kept quiet, he had aggravated Summer enough this weekend. She dug the keys from the bottom of the bag and jiggled it in the keyhole. She pushed the door opened, while Matt grabbed their bags. Home sweet home. Matt threw their bags on the grounds and made his way straight to the couch. If there was anything in the apartment that they had spent too much money on, it was the couch. He flopped down on the couch and let out and exhausted heave. Summer followed and both sat there in serene silence. She closed her eyes and laid perfectly still on the couch. She wasn't able to get much sleep on the flight, on account of Matt snoring in her ear throughout the entire flight, like he was doing right now. She let out a sigh as she got up and head for her room. Her room was a mess. Clothes were thrown in almost every spot of the room. She never bothered to pick them up when she was packing, and now they sat in a wrinkled and unsightly mess. She plopped down on the bed and drifted slightly off into sleep until she heard the phone ring.

"Ughhh....," she groaned as reached for the phone near her bed. "Hello..." she spoke in her crankiest tone.

"Hey, you're back," said a cheery voice on the other line.

"Hey, Sara." Sara was Matt's on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were currently on their "off" period, which was something to be happy and relieved about. It made Summer blatantly sick to see to see them together, especially when they're all over each other when she's trying to eat her food. Summer didn't have anything against Sara, although her perkiness does drive Summer crazy at times, especially when she's in a bitter mood. Summer wonders why they even bother breaking up when they're gonna get back in a month or two.

"Is Matt there?"

"He just passed out on the couch, I can wake him up if you want," which was something Summer took pleasure in doing. She have applied several different techniques when waking him up including kicking him, dragging him, dripping water slowly on his head, or simply splashing cold water in his face.

"No, that's okay, just tell him I called."

"Yeah, sure." And with that, she hung up and drifted quickly back to sleep.

The next morning, Summer woke up with a throbbing pain in her left arm. She carefully lifted her body up and slowly moved her arm from under her body. Numb. Not just her in arm but all over her body. She turned herself over and laid soundly on her back. She turned her head and looked at the picture frames next to her bed. There was one with her and Matt at party in the Hamptons for some rich socialite. And another frame held a picture of her, Marissa, Ryan, and Seth, back in their high school days. Summer never knew why she kept that picture there. All of the pictures of the four of them were kept in a shoebox under her bed, except that one, the only picture worthy enough for a frame. It was nice picture taken at the beach, just before sunset. Everyone was smiling, even Ryan, not fake smiles, but real and sincere smiles. And everything looked picture-perfect. She quickly reached over to the frame and turned it faced down in an effort to keep her from thinking about Seth....again. She made her way her of the room and into the living room/kitchen area. Matt was gone from the couch. Summer could hear the shower running from the bathroom. She opened the refrigerator searching for anything edible to eat. Their fridge was empty as usual, with a couple bottle of beers, some Red Bulls, a box of pizza from a couple of days ago, and a bag of bagels. She reached for the bag and stuck one of the bagels into her mouth. She tug on the stale bagel and began chewing. Matt emerged from the bathroom with the towel rigorously working his wet hair.

"Hey."

"Hey. So I guess you're not mad at me anymore," he said.

"No. But don't expect me to forgive and forget so easily," she replied with a glare.

"I guess I'll accept that as an apology then."

"Sara called last night. Let me guess, you two are getting back together. Lucky guess?" she looked at him intently.

"No, I think we have reached our end. It's time to end things officially."

"Serious."

"Yeah."

Summer let out a laugh as she continues eating her bagel.

"What?"

"You said that last time."

"Well, I mean it this time," he said a little irritably.

"Sure. Whatever you say," she said, trying hard not to laugh. She finally burst into laughter, not able to contain it anymore. Matt threw his towel at her, which she gracefully ducked from.

Ding dong. The bell to the apartment rang.

"Seth. Hey." Marissa greeted him. "Ryan's not home right now. He's at the office."

"Um...I actually came to see you," he responded a little nervously. He couldn't believe that he was actually coming to Marissa Cooper for advice. Marissa Cooper, the girl, whose life, is more mess up than some of the characters on The Valley. Well, at least she's more stable now, hopefully.

"Really," she said a little surprise. "Come in," she said, leading him towards the kitchen area. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"I'm fine, thanks," he said as he took a seat on one of the barstool.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Seth opened his mouth to respond but Marissa cut him off, "Wait. Let me guess. It's about Summer," she smiled widely.

Seth nodded meekly, not sure of how to start the conversation. "I kissed her," he blurted out quickly. Well...that was one way.

"Oh my God! What did she do? What did she say?" Marissa asked excitedly.

"Everything just happened really quickly," he replied. There was a moment of silence between them as Marissa waited for him to continue.

"I also told her I loved her," he said quickly.

"Now we're getting to the good stuff. Well...what did she say? What about Matt?" Marissa bombarded him with more questions.

"She kinda took off. So I didn't really get a chance to see how she felt about the whole thing," he said a little annoyingly. He was beginning to regret coming to talk to Marissa.

"Oh...I'm sorry Seth," she said a little apologetically. "She'll come around. It's Summer, she runs away from things she can't handle or deal with," she said sympathetically. "And plus, she is engaged," she added.

"Thanks, I didn't know that" he muttered sarcastically as he laid his head on the kitchen counter.

"You should go see her."

"See who?" he muffled.

"Summer. In New York. Talk to her. Sort things out with her."

He forced out a laugh, "I'm not gonna travel all the way to New York to talk to her." Maybe it was a bad idea to come and seek some worldly advice and wisdom from Marissa.

"I'm serious. Go see her," she urged incessantly at him.

"Marissa.....no," he said again.

"I'll even buy you your plane ticket. Just go see her. I have her address too."

"I'll talk to her the next time she comes," he said as he stood up, ready to leave the apartment, quickly.

"Seth," she said insistently as she blocked his way.

"Marissa, I can't. I don't think she wants to see me very much, let alone, talk to me," he sighed.

"You'll never know," she said as she taps her foot impatiently on the floor.

He let out a sigh seeing that he wouldn't be able to leave without agreeing. "Fine," he said as he rolled his eyes.

She smiled happily as she escorted him out the door. "I'll call you when I get the plane tickets," she said still smiling even more. "And I'll even take you to the airport too," she said exuberantly.

"Great," he replied exhaustedly, but still retaining his sarcasm, which he hoped Marissa picked up on because he really didn't want go see Summer. He just couldn't settle for some broody man on man talk with Ryan. It was a stupid mistake coming to Marissa, a mistake that Seth would never make again.

to be continued

Again, thanks for all the wonderful reviews. Please keep them coming! Finals are coming up....so it may take a while before a new chapter is up, but hopefully not a long while. Thanks again for reading. :)