AN: Two words: They Meet !

Chapter 6

The Prelude to a Confortation

Seth woke up when his alarm started playing Rooney's 'that girl has love'. He had bought it from e-bay when he was seventeen because it had reminded him of Summer. He hadn't realised his Mom would be stupid enough to keep it.

His first thought was that there was too much light. His second thought was that his bedclothes were too heavy and his third though was that he was amidst one hell of a hangover. He closed his eyes tight and groaned.

Suddenly an image assaulted his mind. He opened his eyes and sprang up quickly, unaware of the pain in his head.

A blonde guy was knelt in front of Summer. A ring. A proposal…

Seth groaned again and covered his face with his hands. He knew he had no right to get upset over this but he was. He couldn't help it. He flung his quilt off him and inhaled deeply. Slipping his feet into a pair of slippers which he vaguely remembered having last time he came here – three years ago, Seth threw on a dressing gown and headed downstairs.

"Hey son," his dad greeted. His eyes were filled with pity and Seth couldn't stand it. He shook his head and headed for the cupboard, pulling out a box of cap'n crunch.

"Wow, you guys still get this?" he asked, tipping the contents of the box into a bowl and grabbing a spoon from the drawer.

"Your Mom refused to let me stop buying it," Sandy replied, turning the page in whichever paper he was reading.

Seth nodded. His dads comment had stung a little. It showed that he didn't have as much faith in his returning as his Mom. Maybe he didn't even want him to return.

"Where is she?" Seth asked suddenly, spooning cereal into his mouth.

"Who?" Sandy asked with somewhat wild eyes.

"Mom, who do you think?" Seth replied. Sandy ducked his head quickly and Seth knew immediately. Summer.

"Um, she's at Marissa's. Seeing the grandkids."

"Wow yeah. It must be pretty weird having these little brats calling you grandpa or whatever"

Sandy blew air out of his mouth and shrugged. "It beats Pops, like my cousin called our granddad. I used to hate that. Besides, they're great kids"

"Hmm. Why didn't you go too then?"

"Figured you'd need someone to stay here when you woke up. You nursed quite a few beers last night."

"Yeah," Seth replied, waiting for his dad to bring up what he knew was on his mind.

A silence hung over the kitchen. The doorbell rang. "I'll get that," Seth said quickly wanting to escape from the atmosphere.

Sandy took a swig of coffee, wondering if his relationship with his son would ever be fixed.


Summer stood on the other side of the Cohen's front door. She didn't know why she was here. But she needed to move on and to do that, she needed answers, and to do that she needed an extremely unpleasant exchange with Co… Seth.

She looked down at her outfit and bit her lip nervously. She had had a dilemma this morning, unable to decide what to wear to meet the guy that had broken her heart two years ago. A suit looked too conservative, a dress too slutty and a shirt and skirt combo like she'd thought too hard. In the end she decided on a plain orange tee and a pair of cargo cropped trousers. On her feet were a pair of flip-flops the same colour as her shirt.

She was hoping that the door would take forever to be answered so she could get her thoughts in order, but God obviously wasn't on her side today – in fact, all of this week as Seth opened the door almost immediately in his pyjama's and bed hair.

The sight of him momentarily stunned Summer. He looked exactly the same as he had yet different. God, she wasn't making sense.

"S-Summer?" he asked, gobsmacked. Summer liked that she had caused him this much discomfort. She was not about to show him that she felt the same way.

"Hey," she said, happy that she was wearing sunglasses. He could always read her eyes, and she refused to give him that. Instead she arranged her features to say, 'You left me but I don't care because I got over you and now I have a fantastic life that is better than anything you could ever hope to offer me'. Or something to that effect anyway. "We need to talk."

Seth nodded slowly. "Yeah. Um, can I get dressed first?"

Summer shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatev."

She could see Seth desperately trying to hold back on the 'er' that had always followed her little phrase, but instead he turned and headed for the stairs.

"I'll let myself in then," she muttered. She headed into the kitchen and saw Sandy reading a morning paper. She swallowed deeply as she remembered her and Seth's morning ritual of reading the paper out to each other over breakfast. Stop it, she scolded herself. That was the past. We are the past.

"Hey Sandy," she greeted. They had been on first name terms for a long while now. After all, parents-in-law and daughter-in-law generally got along, especially when they were as great as the Cohen's.

Sandy's head shot up in surprise and he looked like he was struggling to keep his jaw up. "Summer. What are you…? Um, you do know Seth's here right?" Summer was touched at Sandy's apparent need to protect her.

"Yeah, don't worry about it Sandy. I came here to talk to him actually."

"Oh," Sandy nodded, obviously considering Summers sanity. "Like laying all the cards out on the table?"

"Um, if that means finding out why the hell he was such a jackass then, yeah. That's what I'm doing."

Sandy smiled. "You hate him?"

The question was so out of the blue that Summer wasn't sure she'd heard him right. "Do you?" was all she could think of to say.

"He's my son Summer, I can't hate him," Sandy replied sadly. Summer nodded. Did that mean he would if he could, or that he agreed with what Seth had done anyway. No, no-one could agree with what Seth had done, it was just wrong.

"I…" Summer started, but she didn't know how to finish. She had never actually asked herself that question. She didn't know the answer. Was it possible to hate someone who she had been so in love with? But he did leave her. Did that mean she hated him? "I resent him," she finished.

"Okay, I'm ready," Seth's voice said from the doorway behind Summer. Summer turned and saw that his hair was only mildly better and he obviously hadn't spent as long deciding on an outfit as she had. He was wearing jeans and a logo tee. She tried to ignore the stabs of pain that were shooting through her heart. She couldn't figure out what they were. Probably just my mental urge to kill the SOB, she thought sadistically.

"Are you sure?" Summer asked, her sunglass-covered eyes seeming to see and disapprove. Seth's mouth twisted into a crooked smile. Summer clenched her eyes shut quickly.

"Look, where do you want to do this?" Seth asked, looking over Summer's shoulder at his dad.

"Oh, I'll make myself scarce," Sandy said with raised eyebrows. Summer shook her head.

"No, its fine Sandy. I've reserved a table at this cute little street café by the beach."

Seth and Sandy looked at her with disbelieving expressions. She rolled her eyes and said, "That way there will be witnesses." It wasn't the truth of course. She had chosen the café because it was somewhere she didn't frequent often, it was impersonal and it was new – no painful memories to rehash.

"Right," Seth said quietly. "Um, shall we go then?" Summer nodded and headed for the door.


Ten minutes later Summer took a seat on one of the café's many suede-covered chairs and waited patiently for Seth to take his own. Their table was situated right next to the sidewalk and Summer, when she did occasionally come here, often found immense pleasure in watching people go by. Today however, she just felt that she would rather be them, with their screaming kids or ending lunch breaks, than be in the situation she was in now. It was depressing her.

Seth exhaled deeply and stared at his hands. Summer stared at them too. Seth looked up at her and she turned away. They both looked at the floor. A waiter arrived with a menu and Summer smiled up at him.

"Thanks, but can we just have the drinks menu please?" she asked. The waiter nodded and said that he would. He left, leaving Seth and Summer alone once more. Summer couldn't stand the tension. She opened her mouth to speak…

"I… need to go to the toilet," she found herself saying. Seth nodded at her as she internally yelled at herself for being such a coward. She got up and headed into the interior of the café. Once she reached the toilet she leaned over the sink and stared at herself long and hard. Her hair was loose, but she wished she had worn it up. Her lipstick was too dark and she wasn't wearing enough mascara, even though she knew she needed none – her lashes were long and black anyway.

"Okay Summer," she told herself sternly, after checking there was no-one else in the restroom. "Here's what you're going to do, you're going to go out there, order a coffee – no alcohol, and show that bastard that you are in charge here. You are holding all the cards and the only reason you are even talking to him is because you are totally, 100 percent over him."

Summer nodded at herself with satisfaction and reapplied her lipstick. "But first," she said dramatically, "You have got to stop talking to yourself."


AN: Yay! The confrontation will be next and I'm going to start writing it now because I'm ever so slightly psyched! Woo Hoo! I was gunna have the confrontation in here but it ran over because I was going with the fil-loooow (flow) Yay me, I've gone past the 50 mark for reviews – thankyou all soooooo much! You are amazing, you are my muses you atre my inspiratyion! And that was just my hig talking lol. No but really, thanks a lot. Keep reviewing and I'll keep posting (even though I'm loving this story so much at the mo' I'd probs post anyway:)) Enough rambling (honestly, I'm like Seth and Summer's secret love child – Oooh, theres an idea)

Leanna xx