It's Always Been You

By: Celiza

Rating: PG-13, just in case ;-)

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not OWN Fox's The O.C. All characters were created by Josh Schwartz

Author's Note: First chapter! Hope you like it. Please R/R Next chapter will most likely focus on Seth.


Chapter One - Poolside Girl Talks and Cohen's crap

After having a fight with Cohen a couple of weeks ago, Summer began to hang out with Zach. He was a water polo player and hot. He was no Seth Cohen. She refused to get close to him however, but they began dating anyway. It was time to move on.

Summer awoke one morning to her phone ringing. She picked up sleepily, "Hello?"

"Oh hey Sum, it's Coop. Wanna hang out today?"

Summer agreed, she missed hanging out with Coop. Although they would probably end up talking about Ryan and what's his face Cohen, she wanted to spend some time with her friend and maybe get a tan at the same time.

Summer pulled herself out of bed and into the bathroom down the hall. After she showered, she went back to her bedroom and got changed into her bathing suit and threw some clothes on over. She looked at her floor, her Cohen box still spread out across the floor from that one night she stayed up crying and reading over his letter. She bent down and picked up everything. His CDs, his comic books, everything that he had left at her house along with a few pictures of the two of them.

She threw everything into the pink box, except the letter. She picked up the letter and put it in one of her drawers underneath a whole bunch of clothes. She picked up the box with everything inside and put it on her bed. She would deal with that later. She grabbed her purse and keys and headed over to Coop's.

The girls had been laying out at the Cooper-Nichol's poolside for a few hours. Breaking the silence with little conversations here and there.

"Ugh this bikini is so uncomfortable. I need a new one, you wanna go to South Coast?" Summer asked, fixing her bathing suit.

"Totally. There's a Paul Frank sale on Wednesday."

Wednesday? Wednesday was the day Summer had made plans with Zach, well in advance. When she was with Cohen, they never made plans before hand. Summer sighed for even thinking of Cohen, "Wednesday? I can't. I have plans with Zach."

"Ou, more plans with Zach, huh?"

Summer nodded, "Yes. The more time I spend with Zach, the less time I have to think about, God, what's his face? Built like a beanpole, curly hair, runs away like a little bitch on a sail boat leaving nothing but a note for his girlfriend who cried and cried over him until the 4th of July when she decided she doesn't cry over bitches on boats."

"Seth. His name is Seth." Marissa mentioned.

"I know, I'm just doing that thing where I pretend I don't and I have to use a lot of descriptive insults to give voice to my inner pain," Summer said with a sigh and added, "So yeah, I can't do it Wednesday."

Summer went home a little while later to find the box of Coheny things still on her bed. She knew it would still be there, obviously, but something made her wish that it wasn't. That it just got rid of itself, or if nothing would have come between them. After changing out of her bathing suit, she picked up the box and drove over to the Cohen's.

It took her a few minutes to get out of the car. She sat there with the car turned off and the box in her arms. She looked at it quickly and then stopped herself and looked the other way. She took one hand off of the grasp and began to open the door. She sighed and then stepped out of the car. She headed up towards the Cohen's front door, where she has been many times before, but somehow it was just ... different. She walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. Kirsten Cohen answered with a sad look on her face. She suddenly brightened up when she saw Summer because they had both been dealing with the same thing this summer.

"Summer, hello." Kirsten said, cracking a smile.

Summer looked down at the box, "Hey Mrs. Cohen, can I come in?"

"Sure, is everything okay?" Kirsten asked, confused.

Summer walked in, set the crate on the stairs and said, "I'm here to get over Seth."

"Excuse me?" asked Kirsten.

"Well, my therapist said the best thing I can do to move on in my life is to divest myself of all of Seth's possessions," she paused as she noticed the confused look on Kirsten's face, "I gotta dump off a bunch of his crap."

After a minute of talking, Kirsten let Summer go upstairs. As she walked up the stairs, she looked at all the pictures on the wall. One of Seth when he was a little baby. One of him at kindergarten. And every school picture up until sophmore year. Then she came to a picture taken right before Ryan left. One of the Cohen family: Kirsten, Sandy, Seth and Ryan. Summer made her way to Seth's room. The room she had been in so many times before, now empty although filled with everything Seth left behind. She thought of the time on Valentine's Day when they had danced to Ryan Adam's Wonderwall and Cohen 'sweeped her off her feet'.

>>>

Summer appeared in Seth's room as they discussed how things should have gone slower between them.

"..Well, what if we were to slow it down a little bit, maybe start from the beginning?" Seth said.

"What do you mean?" Summer asked.

Seth puts his finger up to show 'one second' as he gets up and walks over to his record player. 'Wonderwall' starts to play as he motions for Summer to dance with him.

Summer laughed and said, "You are SO cheesy Cohen."

Seth smiles at her as he takes her hand, "C'mon, I'm sweeping you off your feet".

They begin to dance as Summer says, "Well the sad part is, you kind of are."

>>>

The memory begins to fade in Summer's mind as she notices the plastic horse on Seth's nightstand. "Captain Oats.." she said quietly.

She walked over to him slowly and whispered, "I hope we can still be friends."

She went over to his bed and dumped the box. She looked at it one more time before she turned around and walked out the door. Closing the door, and leaving all of her Seth filled thoughts behind.