Seth was ready to let the entire Ryan/Marissa situation go, just as his friend had asked, by the time he got to the Student Union after lunch to meet up with Summer.

His girlfriend, however, was not. "So?" She waited until he sat and greeted Marissa before pouncing. "Is it true?"

"What?" Seth asked blankly.

Summer gave him her patented "don't fuck with me, Cohen" look. "Do the words "rage blackout" mean anything to you?"

He cleared his throat and shot an apologetic look at Marissa. "Yeah, it's true. Ryan is definitely taking Macy Campbell to the library charity."

Summer huffed and crossed her arms. "That is so bogus. Did you talk to him? Tell him the master plan?"

Seth threw his hands up in defeat. "I tried, Summer. But he seems to think being dumped several times by the same girl is grounds for not asking that girl out again. I don't know what else you want me to do."

She wanted to stomp her feet, but since they didn't reach the floor from the couch they were sitting on, she settled for a loud sigh and a pout. "But they are Ryan and Marissa."

Marissa just tucked her hair behind her ear. "Sum, it's okay," she assured, focusing on the text book in front of her. Or pretending to focus, at least.

"No, Coop, it's not," Summer insisted. And the crossed arms started flailing at her sides once again. "Every time you get into another dead end relationship, you know you're trying to make it like it was. And you know it's never like it was because its not Ryan. You're never going to love anyone like that again."

Seth nearly laughed and wrapped an arm around Summer's thin shoulders in hopes of calming her down a little bit. "Um, Summer? She's only eighteen. It's not like her life is over right now, okay? Calm down."

But being spoken to as a child never made Summer Roberts happy. She turned on her boyfriend. "I can't calm down. If there is no Ryan/Marissa thing, it's like the entire balance of my universe is out of whack. It can't be that way," she squealed.

"Aren't you the one that begged me to stay out of the whole Ryan/Marissa thing a year ago?" he fought back, rolling his eyes for good measure.

Finally, Marissa jumped in. "Can we stop referring to it as "the Ryan/Marissa thing"? Please?"

Seth stood and gathered his messenger back. "Sure," he nodded. "We can stop referring to it at all because it's not happening again." He bent and dropped a kiss on Summer's head. "I have to get to class. I will talk to you later?"

She waved him off with a muttered "whatever" and then turned back to Marissa. "Coop, I'm really sorry."

Marissa laughed. "Whatever, Summer. It's totally okay."

Summer jumped up from the couch and then flopped onto the one beside her friend. "It is not okay. You broke up with Connor for that ass and now he's dating someone else."

Marissa's eyes grew wide and she pushed her hair behind her ears again. "I said things were working out with Connor. I didn't say that I broke up with him," she reminded. "And I gotta be honest, Sum, I don't even know if I want to get back together with Ryan. Especially if he doesn't want it," she tried to break the news gently. Summer didn't take what she didn't want to hear so well.

Or at all. Most of the time, like this, she just ignored the news she didn't like. "It is the natural order of the world, Coop. And I'm not resting until that order has been restored." She crossed her arms again in defiant determination.

But this time it was Marissa who stood, hitching her shoulder back up. "I have to get to class, too. But promise me, Sum, as my best friend? You'll let this one go?"

"Fine," she pouted. Once Marissa was gone, she withdrew her cell phone. She would let it go when Ryan and Marissa were back together again. That was the only time she had been truly happy - when it was her, Seth, Marissa, and Ryan. She wasn't going to let that go.