Chapter Six

"Summer can you put that damn thing away?" Ryan questions harshly as he grasps on to the wall to keep himself steady.

Summer laughs from behind the video camera, "no way. Mr. Brown caught all of our adventures in camping on his video camera, so you have proof that Summer Roberts was camping. I want proof that Ryan Atwood went ice skating. And sucked at it majorly I might add."

"Well I haven't seen you do much skating," Ryan retorts.

Summer rolls her eyes at Ryan and then sets the video camera down on the ledge that Ryan is holding on to. Skating out into the middle of the ice skating rinkSummer does five graceful moves that Ryan is sure have some special name for them, her final move leaves her with one leg pulled into the air and spinning and Ryan can't help but stare.

"That was amazing," Ryan breathes once Summer skates back to him.

"I didn't think I could do that anymore," Summer is laughing when she comes back.

"You're amazing. Where'd you learn all that stuff."

"My mom had Paige and I in ice skating from the time we could walk and I took lessons four times a week, Paige dropped out as soon as she picked up piano. But skating was totally mine and my mom's thing I practiced almost every day and then when Paige died we stuck with it, it's like my skating consumed my life and my mom's. But then when things got harder at home she picked up and left and I gave up ice skating...I'd lost my sister and mom in less than two years and I decided I wasn't going to let anything or anyone leave me, so I completely cut myself off from everyone so they couldn't walk out on me." Summer rolls her shimmering eyes, "I put my trust in Cohen not to leave...you can see how well that worked out."

"I'm s..."

"Stop," Summer shakes her head. "I'm not Marissa, I don't need you to take care of me or pick up my messes. But I refuse to let anyone get close enough to walk out of my life again, what we are doing Ryan is having a cool summer. But when it ends you'll go back to hanging out with your best friend and I'll go back to hanging out with mine. But things aren't going to go back to the way they were, even if Cohen and I get back together it's not going to be the same."

"Summer, Seth leaving was my..." Ryan doesn't get any further in his statement before his feet give out under him and he hits the ice with a cold thump.

This action cause Summer to double over in laughter, "oh my God you should see your face." She only laughs harder as she watches Ryan struggle to stand up on the ice and fails, finally with a few final gasps of laughter she holds out her hand to Ryan. But instead of using it to get up Ryan jerks quickly on Summer's arm, throwing her off balance so that she lands next to him on the ice.

"I can't believe you did that," Summer glares at Ryan.

"You pulled me into an ice cold river," Ryan responds. "Using the line, what was it again? Oh yeah, payback's a bitch."

"Shut up, and help me up," Summer says through her laughter.

"I'm sorry, you must have missed the show of me trying to get up on my own," Ryan states.

The sad tears that had been in Summer's eyes earlier are replaced with ones from laughing so hard, "nope, didn't miss that show and I hope neither did the camera." Without much of a problem Summer gets herself up and cautiously she offers Ryan her hand again to help him to her feet.

"Okay," Summer half-sighs and half-laughs an hour later in her attempt to teach Ryan to ice skate. "We're going to try this, take my hands and I'll skate backwards and you can skate forward and hopefully it will help you." Once they have gone a couple feet Summer smiles, "good, you're doing it."

But almost as soon as the words are out of Summer's mouth Ryan loses his balance for what must have been the tenth time and falls backwards, just avoiding cracking his head on the ice, but managing to pull Summer on top of him. They stare at each other for several moments, neither moving and both unsure as to what to do, but that lasts for no more than a minute before their lips connect. Their kiss lasts for several minutes, in which neither allows themself to think about Seth or Marissa or Summer's professions that she was never going to get close to anyone again. But when they both pull quickly away from each other all these thoughts hit them at the same time, "oh God," Summer moves quickly to a standing position and hurries off the ice, leaving Ryan to struggle to get up.

By the time Ryan does get up her realizes that he's stranded in the middle of the ice skating rink with no ability to get across the other side and Summer is no where in sight. By the time he reaches the other side he's wet, freezing and his knees are sore from around.

"Your friend," a man is standing at the wall when Ryan gets there, "went outside. She forgot her camera too."

Ryan nods and accepting the camera he gratefully pulls off his skates and returns them and walking into the sunlight Ryan scans the parking lot to find Summer driving toward him. The ride back to the Cohen's house is awkward and silent, neither of them actually know how to address what had happened at the skating rink.

"I'll see you in class Monday," Ryan mumbles as he gets out of the car ten minutes later.

"Yeah," Summer nods, avoiding any eye contact with Ryan.

"How was ice skating?" Kirsten asks when she finds Ryan in the kitchen several hours later.

"You knew?" Ryan asked.

"Of course we knew," Sandy joins them in the kitchen. "Summer promised video, much like you promised of her camping experience."

"It sucked," Ryan mumbles attempting to make his way out of the kitchen before they started prying.

"That bad huh?" Sandy asks, "well you can't be good at anything, but I have to admit I am pretty good on a pair of ice skates....Kirsten on the other hand..."

Ryan nods, "well I should, uh, get a shower."

"Did something happen with Summer?" Kirsten, in typical Kirsten fashion had figured it out.

"Nah," Ryan shakes his head. "Everything's cool."

"You sure?" Kirsten urges.

"Yeah, I'll see you guys later."

The weekend had been long, probably the longest since Ryan had gotten back from Chino and Ryan was surprised to find both that he missed Summer and that he was wishing for any Newport function just to get his mind off of the kiss. He'd immediately disregarded it as meaning anything other than they both missed Marissa and Seth respectively but the more he thought about it the more he disregarded what he has at first immediately disregarded.

At first he told himself that he didn't have the same feelings for Summer as he had for Marissa and the more he thought about it the more he knew it was true. His relationships with both Theresa and Marissa had always been about him protecting them and helping them pick up their messes, sure in-between self-made disasters he'd always had some kind of fun with them but in the end it only ever was the calm before the storm. But with Summer it had been different there had been some drama, he wouldn't deny that, but for the most part all they did was have a good time.

But Friday had changed all of that and Ryan knew that Summer was probably more freaked out about it than he was. They hadn't seen or spoken to each other since Summer had dropped Ryan off after ice skating, and it felt weird to Ryan not to see her everyday, to go out or stay in and complain about summer television. And because of all of this Ryan had decided that he wouldn't be going to Chinese class on Monday, that is until Kirsten walked into the pool house.

"Hey, you're not dressed." Kirsten observes.

"Yeah, I'm not going to class," Ryan responds and then lies, "just kind of feeling lazy."

Kirsten frowns, "so something is going on with you and Summer."

"What?" Ryan quickly shakes his head, "no. Of course not. It's just been a long weekend, I need time to recuperate."

"Right, because it really takes a lot out of you sitting around and doing nothing. So what's going on with you guys? I think Summer's been here more this summer than she ever was with Seth."

"We're not dating if that's what you were wondering," Ryan states quickly.

Kirsten gives Ryan an odd look, "I didn't think you were, I think it's possible for two people of the opposite sex to be friends."

"Right, strictly platonic." Ryan nods.

"So then you're not going to school why?"

"I guess I don't have a good reason, and Summer'll probably kick my ass if I don't show up." While Ryan got dressed for class he couldn't help but feel guilty for lying to Kirsten, but he didn't want to put her in the position of knowing about what had happened between him and Summer. Knowing that her son's girlfriend had just kissed another guy could make things weird between Kirsten and Ryan and Ryan knew that he didn't want that so lying was the only logical option.

Walking into the classroom where the Chinese class was held during the week Summer tried her best to not appear nervous and to try to avoid Ryan at all costs. So walking into the class Summer takes the empty seat next to Lei Mei and greets her cheerfully, "good morning."

"Hey," Lei Mei glances up from the notebook Summer had discovered she kept all of her wedding plans in. "You know, Ryan's sitting over with Fai if you were looking for him." Lei Mei motions across the room where Fai and Ryan were talking.

Summer sighs, "I know."

"Did something happen?" Lei Mei asks quickly.

Summer sighs again and shrugs, "yeah I guess."

"You kissed her," Fai states before Ryan can even explain why he and Summer aren't sitting with each other like any other day.

"How the hell do you know that?" Ryan questions.

"It's totally obvious," Fai explains. "Lei Mei and I were talking about how it was bound to happen."

"Are you kidding me?" Ryan demands, "neither one of us wanted this to happen."

"So then why did you kiss her?"

"I didn't kiss her."

"She kissed you? Score, man."

"She didn't kiss me."

Fai looks confused, "then what?"

Ryan sighs, "I don't know."

"I don't even know how it happened," Summer sighs and drops her face into her hands. Taking a few more breath she glances at Lei Mei, "I mean we can't have kissed, you don't understand our group dynamic."

"You did kiss," Lei Mei points out and then suggests, "why don't you explain your group dynamic to me then?"

"You know Ryan's adopted right, we explained that whole situation to you on the camping trip."

Lei Mei nods, "sure."

"Okay, Ryan's adoptive brother has been in love with me forever..." Summer sighs, "and we were dating or we are dating, God, I don't even know anymore. He just took off, when things got to hard he took off like a bitch on a boat. And I have no idea if we are dating or not anymore because all he left me with was a stupid letter that said he was coming back for me but that I didn't have to wait...What the hell kind of a letter is that?"

"We never should have kissed," Ryan sighs, running a hand through his hair. "It was all just a huge mistake."

"Why?" Fai questions, "whenever we see you, you guys act like you're totally into each other."

Ryan shakes his head, "but we're not. I'm into her best friend...well I was..." Ryan sighs again, "when I left to move back to Chino we kind of ended things because we had too, but when she comes back I figured we'd hook back up."

"You're not into her best friend anymore, are you?" Fai questions.

Ryan sighs, "God this sucks."