It had been almost a year since her mother's funeral and Summer found herself back in Newport Beach, home from college for the holiday weekend. As she looked out over the sand and sea her hands wrapped firmly around the strong, steel railing, she wasn't sad per se – just nostalgic.

For once she saw Seth before she heard him, silently coming to stand beside her, facing out towards the sea. Over time things had come up and they had broken up, but he had never left here. He was still there and she took the hand he offered lacing her fingers up with his, trying to draw strength from him as she had the railing.

"Hey."

"Hey back. What you doing here?"

"Visiting one of my favourite people," he answered, "how about you?"

"Just thinking," she replied quietly.

"Summer Roberts, thinking!" he asked incredulously as she turned towards him glaring.

"Yes, jerk!" she squeezed his hand until she heard his knuckles crack.

"Ow! You're a hazard! No wonder we broke up, even my manly physique couldn't stand up to all the abuse!"

"Manly?" she sniggered.

"Hey, I'm manly! I'm just delicate. I'm a fragile man but a man all the same," he defended.

She grabbed his other hand, commencing a mini wrestling match. Seth used all his strength to tangle up their arms trapping a squirming Summer against him. She took a moment, looking up at him, studying his face.

"Thank you," she whispered after a pause.

"For what?"

"For not disappearing," she answered in a small voice.

"You know you could never get rid of me, Sum," he assured.

"Not even when I tried," she sighed, "I was such a bitch."

"Was Summer, past tense. Anyhow I'm used to it – we just had a lapse back to pre-10th Grade Summer."

She almost had tears in her eyes when he let her go, both taking a slight step back towards the railing as she blinked repeatedly trying in vain to rid herself of the glaze forming over her eyes.

"You've been going through stuff, Mom-stuff, but Sum, you should know by now that I'm not gonna leave. I love you."

She smiled back tightly, the smallest pulse in her jaw threatening to make her cry as her arms wrapped closely around herself. As she turned back towards the sea he slung his arm around her shoulders, giving a gentle squeeze.

He did love her, it was true and sometimes she wondered why he still bothered. But you can't just turn off your heart, he had been adamant, even though he wasn't her boyfriend. And sure sometimes he would kiss her and sometimes she would let him, but he was just… Cohen. Boyfriends would come and go but she believed him when he said that he never would.

It was a lesson that she had learned over the past year, one she was just starting to understand. All those months ago when she had told Marissa she was okay, Summer hadn't really realised the fallout of emotions that her little adventure would cause, but now. Now she was beginning to realise that it didn't matter, as long as you had people who cared about you, you would be okay in the end – and most importantly it didn't matter what you called them, whether that was Mom… or Cohen.