Chapter 6
"Cohen?" Summer mumbled into Seth's chest.
"Hmm..?"
"What time is it?"
Seth craned his neck to look at his bedside clock. "5:30. We still have an hour and a half 'til my parents get home."
Kirsten and Sandy had informed the boys this morning that they both wouldn't be home until dinner. Seth took Summer home with him after school to take full advantage of the empty house while Ryan wisely made himself scarce. Now the two of them were lying spent and sated on Seth's bed.
Summer sat up. "I have to go."
"Why?"
"I have to go home and pack some stuff. I'm staying over with Coop and Alex tonight."
Seth raised his eyebrows. "Really, you are?"
"Yeah, and don't even think about making any lewd jokes about threesomes," she warned.
He grinned. "Oh, now you've put a nice little mental image in my head."
Summer smacked him on the chest.
"Ow!"
She got up and began getting dressed.
Seth lay there and admired the view of her naked body before it began disappearing beneath her clothes.
"Summer…" he whined as she zipped up her jeans and began looking for something. "Do you have to go?"
"I promised Coop," she turned to face him, still naked from the waist up. "Where's my bra, Cohen?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
"You took it off!"
Seth just lay there, grinning stupidly as Summer towered over him with her hands on her hips. The truth is, he was just stalling so he could enjoy his view a little longer.
"Cohen! Stop gawking at me and help me find it!"
Summer got on her hands and knees to search underneath the bed, while Seth felt around on top of the bed. He found it scrunched up between the sheets.
"Summer, I found it."
"Great. Give it to me so I can go," Summer moved to grab it from him but Seth dangled the strap on his fingers and held it out of reach. "Cohen, give it to me!"
"Nuh-uh."
Summer was now on her knees on the bed trying to grab her bra. But even sitting down, Seth was much taller than her so she wasn't having much success. Summer groaned in frustration and tackled him.
She kissed him, long and hard, stretching out her body on top of his. Seth's body relaxed underneath her as he deepened the kiss and Summer slyly took her bra from his hand. She abruptly got up and began putting her bra and shirt on.
"Summer…" Seth moaned. The sheet covering him was doing very little to conceal his desire for her and he put a pillow on his lap as he sat up.
Summer couldn't help but smile as she looked at him. He just looked so cute and pathetic sitting there naked with his hair a complete mess and a sad puppy dog look on his face. She resisted the very strong urge to climb back into bed with him.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"You and lefty can spend some quality time with each other," Summer teased.
Seth's cheeks reddened and she laughed. He was sooo cute.
"Do what you usually do on a Friday night. Go downstairs and play the ninja game on the Play Station with Ryan."
"Summer…" he tried again.
Summer rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a baby, Cohen."
He pouted and gave her the puppy dog eyes again.
She melted. "Okay, fine. Daddy's not home this weekend, as usual, and Megan is in LA doing God knows what. So tomorrow night we have the house all to ourselves. I'll do whatever you want."
Seth perked up. "Whatever I want? Really?"
She leaned to kiss him. "Really. But right now I have to go."
Seth grabbed her hand before she could get off the bed. "Wait, I know what I want."
"Really?" Summer smirked. "You don't want to think about it first?"
"I've been thinking about it for too long already," he took a deep breath. "I want you to wear the Wonder Woman costume again."
She laughed. "Cohen…"
"Please?"
Summer sighed. "You're lucky that costume wasn't a rental."
Seth raised his fists in the air in victory and lay down with a look of contentment on his face. "I'm going to have good dreams tonight."
"Uh-huh," she picked up her purse. "I really have to go."
"Bring a video camera, will you? Even if you don't feel like joining in, you could still…film stuff."
Summer hit him with a pillow. "God, Cohen, you are such a pervert!"
Summer arrived at Marissa and Alex's place thirty minutes late thanks to Cohen.
Alex answers the door for her. "Hey Summer, come on in."
"Sorry, I'm late," she said.
Alex waved her off. "It's fine. Marissa just went to the store to buy some ice cream. You can just put your stuff anywhere."
"Uh, thanks for inviting me."
Alex smiled awkwardly. "This is weird, huh?"
"Yeah, kinda."
She gestured to the couch. "Why don't we sit?"
Summer and Alex sat side by side on the couch in an awkward silence. Usually Summer was good at making small talk and people either felt comfortable or intimidated in her presence. But she really had no idea what to say to her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend and best friend's current girlfriend.
"So, um-" Summer started.
"Look, I-" Alex said at the same time.
They laughed and Alex gestured for her to go ahead.
"I was really surprised when Coop said you wanted me over for this slumber party thing," Summer admitted.
"The slumber party was Marissa's idea," Alex said. "She came up with it when I mentioned I wanted to spend time with you."
"You did? Why?"
Alex shrugged. "I guess I thought getting to know you would make me feel a little more involved in Marissa's life. Her other life."
Summer nodded, understanding what she felt exactly. "It does feel like Marissa has two different lives now, huh?"
"And we're on different sides of it."
Summer looked at Alex, really looked at her. For the first time in months she could see Alex as a real, actual person and not as a rival for Seth's feelings or Marissa's friendship. Summer found that she actually liked the Alex she was seeing now and really wanted to know more about her. "Maybe tonight we can change that," she said.
Alex smiled. "We're not going to paint each other's nails and give each other facials, are we?"
"I don't know, I think pink nail polish would be really nice for your complexion."
Alex gave her a look.
"Or maybe purple," Summer smiled.
They both laughed, all traces of awkwardness gone.
The front door opened and Marissa walked in, her arms loaded with bags. "Hey guys, sorry I took so long but I thought we could make margaritas so I bought some stuff for that too."
Summer and Alex followed Marissa into the kitchen.
"Geez, Coop, did you buy enough stuff?" Summer eyed the three cartons of Ben & Jerry's, can of whipped cream, chocolate sauce, an assortment of colorful sprinkles, and a huge bag of M&M's.
"We can make sundaes!" Marissa said excitedly. "And Alex, you're going to hate me forever but I passed by the video store and I just had to rent a couple of movies."
"I don't think I want to know," Alex shook her head.
"The Notebook!" Summer squealed as she took the videos out of the bag. "Ooh…Sleepless in Seattle."
"Alex doesn't like chick flicks," Marissa told Summer. "They make her cry."
"I do not cry!"
"Uh-huh," Marissa said disbelievingly.
"I'm going to make the margs," Alex said. "I think I'll need a lot of them tonight."
Two movies, a big bowl of popcorn, 5 glasses of margaritas, and a humongous ice cream sundae later, Marissa was passed out amongst the pillows and blankets they had laid out in the living room. Alex and Summer were watching season 1 of the Valley on DVD while finishing the gigantic bowl of ice cream that was Alex's brainchild.
"So has Marissa always been a party pooper?" Alex asked.
"An overload of alcohol and sugar makes her sleepy," Summer explained. "Separately, she can handle them okay."
"I've noticed that she can pack away the alcohol pretty well, usually," Alex said hesitantly.
"I've been worried about that for awhile now," she admitted. "But she's been better since….you came along."
Alex ducked her head, both embarrassed and flattered.
"She's different now, you know?" Summer continued. "I never in a million years thought Coop would be switching teams. But it's been good for her. You've been good for her."
"Thanks," Alex smiled. "That-that means a lot. And thank you for being so supportive and understanding. It means the world to Marissa."
Summer shrugged. "I just figure that so much has changed in the last two years, nothing can really faze me at this point."
Alex studied her carefully. "I can see why Seth loves you so much."
"You and Cohen talk about me?" Summer asked in what she hoped was a casual voice.
"When does Seth not talk about you?" Alex laughed.
This time it was Summer's turn to be a little embarrassed.
"You guys are going sailing for the summer?"
She nodded. "To Catalina and Santa Barbara."
"Sounds fun," Alex said. "Seth's been working his ass off to pay me back the money he borrowed for the boat. He's pretty much done but he says he wants to keep working for extra cash."
"He's kinda sweet that way, dragging his lazy ass off the couch to work everyday so that we could go on this trip."
Alex laughed. "I recall that the first time he came to work at the Bait Shop it was also for you."
"Yeah…" Summer smiled.
"He'd do anything for you, y'know?" You've got a good thing."
Summer fiddled with her spoon, swirling it around the ice cream, wondering if she should ask the question that had been nagging at her for months now. Finally she decided to just go ahead and bite the bullet.
"Alex?"
"Yeah?"
"When you and Cohen were…together…How was it?" She asked tentatively.
"I'm not sure I get what you mean."
"The sex I mean," Summer mumbled, carefully averting her eyes.
Alex stared at her in shock. And then she started laughing, really hard. "Sex?" She choked out. "We never had sex."
"You didn't?" Summer asked in shock.
"No…" Alex said, still laughing. "Did he tell you we did?"
"Well, I guess he never actually said it. But he came to school one morning wearing the same clothes as the day before and he told me he spent the night here…with you. I just assumed…" she trailed off.
"We never got that far. We made out a little…a lot actually-"
Summer cringed. "Don't need details."
"Right. Anyways, nothing happened," Alex reassured her.
"Oh."
"I'm not stupid enough to jump into bed with a guy who's probably going to spend the entire night pretending I'm somebody else," she said pointedly, and Summer looked away. "And I could tell he didn't really want to. To tell you the truth, I didn't really either."
Summer let the relief wash over her. She didn't realize how much the thought of Seth having sex with Alex had still been bugging her and weighing down on her heart. She thought she had managed to move past it and let go months ago, but hearing Alex say that they didn't have sex somehow gave her an overwhelming sense of happiness. She was still the only person Seth had been with.
"I'm just, uh, gonna go to the bathroom for a sec," Summer said, getting up.
"I'll clean this up," Alex gestured to the bags of junk food and empty glasses around them.
Summer walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her and took her cell phone out of her pocket. Seth's phone kept ringing until it reached his voicemail and she figured he was playing video games with Ryan and left his phone in his room, so she just decided to leave a message.
"Hey Cohen. Just calling to say I'm having a great time and…I love you. I'll see you tomorrow, don't be late. Good night."
