I really liked this story, and I'm so sorry it took forever for this last chapter to come out. Originally, this chapter was going to be the longest of them all, because I really am fascinated by the Seth/Marissa relationship, not necessarily in a romantic way. It turned out okay, but I cut a lot of it, because it kind of rambled aimlessly for a while. The Sex Pistols in all their greatness own 'Pretty Vacant,' and I had a small shoutout to American Beauty with the 'ten thousand of your babies' comment. And then there's The O.C. So yeah. Thanks for reading.

It was actually pretty ironic that the dumb, smartass, sarcastic, skinny, queer, girly, loser of a kid was the one who actually knew the beautiful, graceful, sweet, articulate, pop-you-lore, impossible to really dislike, delicate girl better than most people. Better than the people that thought they knew, anyways.

Maybe it was the whole 'misunderstood' bullshit. Maybe it was the fact that he had had her next door for years and had countless dinners and board game plays with her family. But maybe it was knowing that she had been completely disappointed that he was her neighbor and had the nerve to not be blonde and named Dawson Leery.

But it was true. He knew her. Marissa Cooper knew it. Summer had met her only in the third grade, and Ryan didn't even know the outer shell. Seth Cohen had been there through everything, no matter how much he regretted it. He even remembered the first day he had seen her. Spring. 1994. Kurt Cobain had actually just died six days ago, but Seth only knew one Nirvana song, so he didn't really care. His mom had this really weird smile on his face and her hand on his neck. It was really hot, and he really didn't want her hand on his skin, but she was his mom. And Marissa had been in a white sundress with a yellow hat, and she hadn't even broken a sweat with her hand wrapped around her father's.

And then they were friends. For, like, a week. Then, Marissa started swimming lessons, and she didn't like playing tag anymore. Seth never got that. How someone could just stop liking something. Especially something as cool as tag.

But they still had to be around each other. There had been that small incident in seventh grade where he had liked Marissa a little for a very short period of time. The next week he realized the error in his ways and went back to idolizing Summer. But Marissa had been around, always around, so...well...he blamed his mother for that shameful period.

But it still surprised him when Ryan flounces into town and in five seconds throws the girl Seth had known forever into a total googly-eyed, I-want-to-have-like-ten-thousand-of-your-babies infatuation.

But it wasn't like he was jealous. Because...Marissa? Yeah, no. Never was his type. Too needy, too whiny, too into herself, too...chatty. And not matter how much Ryan liked her; he just didn't see how he could deal with someone like that all day long.

Summer told him to get over it. She said Marissa's been through a lot, and he knows that, and so he should have some sort of compassion for her. Summer was getting awful repetitive.

Not that he could ever say that to her face. He was terrified every second that he contested what she said that she was going to burst into tears and finally leave him. Marissa would be to blame. She was all they fought about. More than Zach, more than those blondes he always seemed to look at somehow. Marissa made him want to talk and scream and yell and curse and fall against the wall when Summer said he was being unreasonable. He hated fighting with her. She always looked like she was about to slap him. He wished he didn't have to do it. But Summer loved Marissa with all that she was. So, technically, a bit of Summer was because of Marissa. Probably the part that got mad at him when he wore shorts. So he tried to avoid the topic of Marissa and how much she really didn't understand when Summer was listening. Somehow, though, she always ended up on their lips.

And so he resented her. Marissa. He just wanted them to be happy again. All of them. Seth wanted it to be possible for them to watch French films, Marissa's choice, and cry and laugh and cuddle. Well, he and Summer could cuddle; Marissa and Ryan could just slip hands over each other's. It wasn't happening, though, and it wasn't easy, and it was frigging frustrating. Ryan was upset; that was obvious. He just sat around doing nothing basically all day after Lindsay left. Even while Lindsay was in Newport...just whenever she wasn't around. He needed to get a backbone. Not that Seth knew much about those.

But he was willing to ignore his screaming with Summer for Ryan to be happy. Ryan needed to be happy. If he wasn't...either things would happen, or nothing would happen. But Ryan wouldn't get any better, and it wouldn't be healthy for him. So something definitely had to be done and quick. Seth couldn't depend on Marissa to do that, though. He couldn't trust anyone whose favorite song was by ACDC.

Seth just hated people comparing him to Marissa. They were nothing alike. No matter how much they both whined or listened to music that whined, they were complete opposite people, and no one was willing to recognize that. Except maybe his dad. Seth never thought Sandy liked Marissa that much either. He knew he liked Summer, but he was always seeming like he was just dealing with Marissa because he knew so much about her family situation. And that definitely sucked, so if Seth had sympathy for anyone, it would have to be Marissa.

They had always been nice to him, though. Mr. Cooper knew he would have to majorly suck up to Seth if he wanted Seth to not spit on his shoes, considering how close Seth was to his dad, and how close Mr. Cooper had come to marrying Mrs. Cohen. Mrs. Cooper was just hot. Kaitlyn had used to really like him, but she got older, and henceforth, too cool for him.

But no matter how much Seth wasn't happy with the Coopers and their pride and joy, he knew Marissa wasn't happy with herself. She wasn't ever really happy with everyone else, either, but Seth knew she didn't think she was as cool as other people thought she thought she was. Her entire life was like an excerpt from a self help book. Popular girls, non popular girls, freaks, geeks, people that didn't deserve to be in her realm. But the secret was, Marissa didn't even think she belonged in any sort of realm.

Sometimes he felt sorry for her because it was so hard not to. Sometimes he just wanted her to get over herself. Sometimes he just wanted her to like him.

Because she was still beautiful. And popular. And sweet. And she wasn't completely dumb. And she seemed to be able to get anyone to do anything for her. And while Seth made fun of her and bitched about her, he knew he still wanted to be accepted, and Marissa was sort of a representative of the people he'd never be. Maybe he was jealous of her.

But maybe she really was just pretty vacant of any sort of emotion.