A/N: I know after the last chapter, a lot of you probably have some questions about what really happened in the past, and stuff like that. All I can tell you at this point is: Don't worry. I am a HUGE RM fan, so keep that in mind. Trust me, I know what I'm doing with this. Eventually all your questions will be answered, and you will know all the background info you need to know. Until then, bear with me as I gradually and strategically release the details to you, and sit back, relax, and enjoy Chapter 5. Oh, and please R&R.

Disclaimer: I now own something in this story: Astrid! Woo-hoo! But I don't own anything else. Still, though, blatant copying of my general storyline is not appreciated.

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Chapter 5

Mmmmmm.

Seth was lying on his bed in his dorm room with a very hungry Summer on top of him. And not hungry in the food sense, but –

Ohhhhhhh.

Summer was giving new meaning to the phrase "attacking with her lips."She had burst into Seth's dorm room about five minutes ago, and upon seeing that he was alone, she'd jumped on him with the ferocity of a tiger attacking its prey. Of course, given the state of the wound on his head, he'd made the obligatory protest that he wasn't feeling all that well. She'd shoved her tongue down his throat in response, and that was all he'd needed for any thoughts of resistance to instantly evaporate.

There was nothing sexier than a woman who wanted to devour him whole.

Currently, she was sucking on his face with the force of a vacuum cleaner, moving from his lips to his cheeks to his chin to his neck, all the while fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. He didn't bother trying to do much on his own, besides, you know, digging his hands into the skin of her back. There were times when Summer Roberts liked nothing better than to take total control, and when that happened, he was more than happy to let her. He had a suspicion this was one of those times.

"Cohen?" She pulled her mouth off him for the first time that day. "Is Ryan around anywhere?"

Seth shook his head and managed a "No…well, not that I know of, he's sup–"

"Good." She kissed him again, and he forgot about doing anything but trying to pull her shirt up over her head.

Summer was down to her bra and her shorts, and Seth was shirtless, when Ryan flung the door opened and stomped into the room, ready for some ass-kicking. Or at least some serious verbal confrontation.

"Omigod!" Summer squealed, rolling off Seth and onto the floor with a thump.

Seth gave Ryan his best "What the hell, man?" face, and Ryan, looking appropriately embarrassed, retreated to the hallway and closed the door behind him.

"You guys better get your clothes on soon, because I'm coming back into my room in two minutes, whether or not you guys are dressed," Ryan notified them from the other side of the door.

Seth snickered at Ryan's attempt at asserting himself. Yeah, right. Like Ryan would really want to see that.

Summer, on the other hand, was wearing an expression of extreme exasperation. She groaned as she crawled to her top, which had somehow landed across the room on Ryan's shelf.

"Co-hen!" she whined, giving him a look that stated very clearly, We were supposed to have sex NOW!

"What? You think I purposefully planned for Ryan to walk in on us when we were about to have sex for the first time in ten days?"

"Eleven," she corrected.

"Whatever. Too long."

Summer narrowed her eyes at him. "Tonight. My apartment. No excuses."

Seth held up his hands in resignation. "No arguing here. But what about Marissa? Are you planning on telling her to just sleep facing the other way and turn her headphones up really loud?"

"No, you dumbass. We have an apartment this year. With two rooms. Marissa can crash on the couch. But -" she gasped, then groaned again. "Oh my God! Marissa! I told her I'd meet her for lunch, like, half an hour ago! It's her first day here, and I left her alone! I'm such a bad friend!" She looked as Seth, as if she were waiting for him to reassure her that, Of course she wasn't a bad friend. Instead, he shifted the focus back to himself.

"Well, you are still an excellent girlfriend."

She smiled through her pout, and rewarded his adorable compliment with a kiss. Right at that moment, Ryan decided that their two-minute deadline had expired, and re-entered the room. Summer quickly pulled back and yanked her shirt down over her stomach.

"Okay, well, I've gotta get going, so bye guys!" Summer grabbed her purse and hurried out the door, leaving Seth with a less-than-amused Ryan.

"Where'd she have to go?" Ryan's question was casual, but something in his expression was freaking Seth out a little. Seth decided that Ryan was probably just a little pissed off that he, Seth, was Getting Some on a regular basis, while he, Ryan, was not.

"She's meeting a friend for lunch."

"What's her friend's name?"

Seth did not like the direction of this conversation at all. "Um…I don't know, I don't think she really said…"

"It wouldn't happen to be Marissa, would it?" Ryan's eyes were flashing dangerously and his voice had an unusual edge to it. Seth was so busted. But, on the off chance that Ryan was still in the dark about the whole 'Marissa' thing, Seth decided to play the fool.

"I wouldn't know. She just told me she was having lunch with one of her friends."

"It is Marissa."

Seth stared at Ryan. Either Ryan had acquired some serious telepathic powers on the East Coast, or…

"I ran into Marissa today," Ryan confirmed, shooting Seth an accusatory look.

Seth, as he often did under pressure, responded by sputtering. "You – you did?"

"And when I say 'ran into her,' I really mean 'ran into her.' I knocked her over on my way to class."

Seth remained silent. He didn't have a lawyer father for nothing. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

Ryan shook his head. "When were you going to tell me, man?"

"Soon." Okay, so remaining silent wasn't really Seth's thing. "Summer and I just thought it would be better for you and Marissa to settle in a little bit before we told you. I mean, let's face it: if I'd told you before you registered and everything, you probably wouldn't have come in the first place."

"I am not afraid of being around Marissa," Ryan said defensively.

"Yeah?" Seth shot back. "Then why didn't you come home this summer?"

"Because I wanted to take some extra classes to finish up my major sooner."

"But you hated it there."

"Yeah, so I transferred here."

"And I'm glad that you did. And I didn't want you to reverse that decision just because of your ex-girlfriend. I've kind of missed seeing my brother more than twice a year. There was a reason that Newport became a lot more tolerable after you got there."

Ryan sighed. Playing the "brothers" card always softened him up a bit. "You still waited too long to tell me, Seth."

"Well, I wouldn't have waited past Friday night."

Seth took note of Ryan's puzzled expression, and he whipped the tickets out of his pocket for Ryan to see. "Four tickets to see Death Cab at Troubadour. Summer plans on inviting her best friend, and I planned on inviting my brother."

"I don't know, Seth. I'm not really into live music so much."

"No. Dude, you're coming. Summer and I are not spending the entire year picking either you or Marissa to stay home while the rest of us go out and have fun. You two are gonna have to be around each other some of the time. Might as well start on Friday."

Ryan sighed again and plopped down onto his bed. "Fine. But if it sucks, I am never coming to another concert with you."

"Yes you are."

They both spent about a minute staring off into space. Well, Seth was daydreaming of Summer and her plans for him that night; he could take a pretty good guess as to what, or who, Ryan was thinking about.

"Hey, Ryan?"

Ryan snapped out of his trance and focused on Seth.

"How'd she look?"

Ryan gave a half-shrug before slightly nodding. "She looked good."

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Marissa twirled her spoon around in her ice cream sundae. The longer she took to finish her dessert, the better chance she had of Summer actually showing up to eat with her.

She hated the feeling of sitting by herself in a crowded cafeteria, surrounded by other students joking and conversing happily with their big groups of friends. She could see herself in their eyes: a pathetic, friendless, lonely girl eating all by herself. Marissa had never particularly enjoyed being in public by herself; as far back as she could remember, she'd had someone to accompany her practically everywhere.

First, there had been Summer. In grade school, they swapped sandwiches from their matching Barbie lunch boxes and met each other in the bathroom at designated times throughout the day. Classes were sorted alphabetically, so Cooper and Roberts were never in the same room, but they both knew to ask for permission to use the lavatory at 9:15 on a Monday morning.

As they got a little older, Marissa's boyfriends entered the picture, so Marissa was guaranteed that in the rare event Summer couldn't be somewhere with her, her boyfriend would be. Luke was her arm candy for five years as she discovered the Newport Beach social scene. Then, the summer she turned sixteen, she met Ryan, and her world was turned upside down.

Even at UNC, she'd bonded immediately with her roommate, Astrid, and so had had someone to walk around with, to hang out with, to be seen with. Not that Summer was going to abandon her, or anything. At least, she didn't think so. It was just that…for the first time in Marissa's life, Summer was the one who had the boyfriend, and she was the single friend. Summer had had plenty of boyfriends, but she'd always had one when Marissa had one, too. With the possible exceptions of a few month-long stretches in their sophomore and junior years of high school when Summer had been dating Seth, but Marissa hadn't yet gotten back together with Ryan. But still. Even when those months were happening, she'd sort of known that eventually, she and Ryan would be a couple again. She was anticipating no such reunion this time around.

Marissa was slightly relieved when a petite brunette appeared in the entrance to the cafeteria. Summer spotted her and rushed over to grab a seat across from her.

"Oh my god! Coop! I am so sorry, I don't know why, I just completely forgot…"

"It's okay," Marissa assured her. The fact that Summer was apparently filled with remorse for something as trivial as forgetting a lunch meeting convinced Marissa that her earlier worrying had been for nothing. As her best friend, Summer wasn't going anywhere. "I'm not even finished my dessert yet," she said, pointing to her half-eaten bowl of ice cream. "We've still got some time."

"But you don't hate me for leaving you all alone on your first day here?"

"Yes, Summer, I hate you," Marissa replied sarcastically. "I'm serious," she said, returning to her normal tone, "it's no big deal. So, how's your first day back going?"

"More importantly, how is your first day here going? How was your first class?"

"Um…kind of boring. But I wasn't really paying attention that much."

"Long lectures can be like that sometimes."

"Tell me about it. And oh, Ryan ran into me on my way over there."

She said it matter-of-factly on purpose, to see if Summer noticed anything. At first she didn't, but after about a second, her eyes darted up to Marissa's and she spat out the water she had been drinking.

"What? Like, Ryan Ryan?"

"I only know one Ryan. And when I say 'ran into me,' I really mean 'ran into me.' Like, he bowled me over on my way to French Lit." She eyed Summer suspiciously before continuing. "Sum…"

"Okay, I knew he was here. But – Cohen and I didn't want to freak you guys out by telling you right away. You had enough new stuff to adjust to as it was."

"Well, it would've helped knowing he was here when we collided this morning. He stared at me like I was a ghost. And I acted like a total idiot. I couldn't put two understandable sentences together."

"I'm sorry," Summer said, and Marissa could tell she meant it. "We thought that the chances of you two seeing each other without our help were pretty slim."

"Unfortunately, not slim enough. I mean, I haven't seen or spoken to Ryan in two years, and the first time that I do, we knock each other over. Literally."

"Yeah, not the ideal way to meet him again. I'm gonna go get some ice cream – will you wait here for me?"

Marissa nodded, but she wasn't really focusing on what Summer had said. She was remembering her last meeting with Ryan. Two years and ten days ago.

She didn't bother waiting for a reply after knocking on the poolhouse door. This was going to be the hardest thing she'd ever done in her entire life. She had to get it over with quickly, or her nerves would fail her and she wouldn't do it. And she had to do it.

He was on his bed when she came in, and she could tell by the way he looked at her that he knew something was wrong. Like it was hard to figure out, with her tear-stained cheeks and her wrinkled, messy clothes.

"What's wrong?" He asked the question so gently that she wanted to cry. She almost choked as she stepped back, away from his inviting, comforting embrace.. If he touched her one more time, she'd lose her resolve. And he deserved better.

"I can't do this anymore, Ryan."

Introductions were a waste of time. And the more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to rush into his arms and sob all over him and hear him tell her that everything was going to be okay. The one thing she couldn't do.

"Wh-what are you talking about? Please tell me what's wrong. We'll get through it together -"

"-No, we won't!" She cut him off. This was killing her. Why did he have to use that word? 'Together?' Images of things they'd gotten through 'together' flashed across her mind: Luke. Her drinking. Oliver. Teresa and the baby. Trey. Her depression. But this was one thing they couldn't get through together. They had to start getting through things by themselves.

"Why?"

The pain was evident in his voice. He knew. She fought against the tears that were brimming beneath her eyes. She had to say it now.

"I've been seeing someone else."

He didn't say anything; he just stared at her. She hurriedly began with her rehearsed explanation, before she had the chance to backtrack on her lie.

"He's not from Newport. He goes to a different school, so you don't know him, so don't get mad at anyone you know. No one else you know knows about it. I met him over Spring Break that one night when you went out for a guy's night with Seth, and we wound up kissing, and he asked me to see him again. I'm so sorry. Things didn't really work out and I'm not seeing him anymore, but I know I can't keep doing this to you. You deserve better. I think since we're both going away to college next week, we need to meet new people. The best thing is to start over, for both of us."

She finally looked up at him, and the betrayal that she saw in his eyes was almost too much to bear. She knew that what she was saying was completely unexpected, and why shouldn't it be? A week ago, the idea of her cheating on Ryan would have been unbelievable to her, too. It still was. But she had to put a limit on the pain she was causing him. She'd convinced herself that it was better to inflict one final heap of pain upon him than to stay with him and give him a lifetime's worth of miseries. And he had no clue that she had murdered not one, but two people he loved.

She took a deep breath before driving the nail in the coffin.

"I'm leaving for North Carolina on Saturday. Don't try to contact me."

She turned from him and stumbled from the poolhouse half-blindly, as the tears she had been resisting were now gushing out of her eyes. She ran. She ran until she got to her car, sobbing the entire way home and up her elaborate staircase. Throwing herself onto her bed, she drowned her pillow in a sea of tears and misery. Mostly, she wondered. She wondered why, if she had done it for his own good, she still felt so terrible.

"Coop?"

Summer had returned with a large bowl of chocolate ice cream, and was studying her with a slightly worried expression.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," Marissa replied, snapping back to the present. "I'm fine."