Seth stepped over towards the ladies bathroom and knocked on the door.
"Summer? I'm going to be right outside. You come out when you are ready, ok?" He called inside, his arm holding the door slightly ajar.
"Summer?" He repeated after he didn't hear her respond. "Are you ok?" He frowned when he didn't hear anything and he walked into the bathroom.
Seth was quite surprise there wasn't a throng a woman in there putting on make-up or gossiping about something. There was only Summer sitting in the chair that sat in the corner. He could see little tears flow down her pale cheeks and he smiled softly.
"Summer? Are you all right?" He knelt down by her feet and he used his thumb to wipe away her tears.
"Hi Cohen." She sniffled. "I'm fine. Did you talk to your mom?"
"Yes. She's going to take care of it right now. All you have to do now is enjoy your party. Ok?"
Summer chuckled softly, embarrassed. "I can't believe I'm crying. I'm like that song. God, I hate that song."
"What song?" Seth asked rubbing her arm.
Summer started humming the tune softly and then sang the words. "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to. It's my party and I'll…" Summer stopped as she heard Seth begin the laugh.
"What?"
"I love that song."
"You do not. It's so awful. When I was little I would always wonder why someone would want to cry at his or her own party. Now I get the feeling."
"I bet it wasn't under our circumstances Summer." He joked, his hands massaging her hair
"Whatever. Now I'm going to get up off of this god awful chair, fix my hair, and go have a blast. I'm not going to be that girl who sings the song." She announced triumphantly.
"Good for you Summer."
"Yes." She replied happily still in the chair. "But first you have to help me up."
"It would be my pleasure."
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Kirsten walked up to Diane and smiled softly. She nicely excused herself from talking to this other lady and returned Kirsten's smile.
"Hi Kirsten, such a lovely party. I still haven't seen Summer yet. I saw Seth but I missed the whole surprise thing since I was talking to Julie about her honeymoon. Is Summer around? I have to congratulate her." Diane smiled happily. Kirsten wondered why Summer disliked her step-mom so much; she seemed like a perfectly nice women to her and she didn't seem like she'd abandoned Summer nevertheless call her not part of the family.
"I think they went somewhere together. They are practically glued to the hip. But the thing is Diane is that Summer doesn't feel very comfortable with you here." Kirsten told her nicely. " I'm really sorry but all the things with her dad and the baby she feels like you've taken his side. Summer wants you to leave." Kirsten said calmly. Diane's expression turned to a frown and she handed over the glass of wine she had to Kirsten.
"If that's what she wants." She grabbed her large purse and headed towards the exit.
Her eye caught two figures walking out of the restroom area and she made a detour.
"Summer. Can I talk to you for a moment?" Summer eyes grew large and she looked up at Seth. He looked puzzled.
"What is it?"
"I just wanted to talk. Don't worry. Kirsten already talked with me. I'm not upset."
"Then what is it?" Summer waddled over there and Diane smiled.
"I have a present for you. A couple years ago when I was cleaning through the house, I stumbled upon this old beat up box in the attic. I asked your father what it was and he explained to me that when your mother was still there she collected all these little things for you when you were a baby. Just little things that she loved and she was going to set it aside for you when you had kids. Even though I didn't know your mother, I know she had a huge heart and when I looked through all these things I came upon so many precious things. So about a week after you had the fight with your dad, he decided to clear with all your stuff. He tore down your bed and threw out all your stuff and your room is now painted white and is a guest room but I went out to throw out the garbage this old box fell out. I knew I couldn't just let this be thrown away and I hid it back in the attic. Your father thinks he threw it away and I bet he's quite happy that he did but I had to give it to you. So here is your present for the baby. Congratulations." She grabbed the box from her oversized purse and handed it to Summer. Diane and Summer both looked closed to crying and Sum was touched by her story.
Diane began to walk out the door when Summer realized what she was doing.
"Wait!" Her stepmother looked back. "I thought you were on my dad's side. I thought you wanted me to get rid of my baby."
"Summer. Do you think me as a mother would want to kill such an innocent thing? Men don't get it. The bond of a baby, I mean. They don't care if a tiny thing that hasn't become a baby yet dies. We do. We are already connected to it. We are the mother of it already even through it's not even the size of our finger. Your father was wrong. I never was behind him. I was so proud when you said you weren't going to have an abortion. Remember I was the one who let you into the house to get your stuff. I was always on your side. " Diane paused and cleared her throat, " I never really was ever close to you. You never wanted to be by me and you were always off with friends. I think you always thought I was on painkillers or something. I always used to joke with that." She laughed softly.
"I'm sorry." Summer began. She moved over and hugged her. "I hated you because I thought you were on my dad's side. I thought you didn't want me as family anymore and I thought you hated me too. I'm sorry I made Kirsten tell you to leave. Stay." Summer said softly, almost inaudible.
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The party now was in full swing and Seth and Summer were enjoying themselves. Seth had received a feather boa that matched Summer's and the guests were playing a baby game.
"I think 26 lengths of toilet paper to go around her stomach." One lady announced. The game was simple. Guess how many toilet paper lengths it takes to perfectly go around Summer's pregnant stomach.
"I'm not that big!" Summer pouted and all the ladies laughed.
"I think 38!" Seth blurted and Summer hit him in the ribs. "Hey!"
"That's not nice."
"7!" Caitlin's high pitched voice announced, holding up the amount of tissue.
"Sweetie that probably won't even go around your waist." Julie commented and showed her. It didn't.
"Summer what do you think?" Sandy asked chuckling.
"I think 19."
"Okay guys! Now we are all going to put down on a piece of paper which will be coming along shortly, your name and how many lengths. The winner will get a $50 gift certificate to Style!" Kirsten announced perkily.
"Hey mom! What did you guess anyway?" Seth asked sitting with Summer in the middle of all the people. The crowd was quiet so they could hear Kirsten answer. "25."
"I'm not that big!" Summer looked down at her stomach.
"Sure you aren't Summer." Seth cooed and Summer frowned and hit him again playfully. All the guests laughed at this.
"Young love." Sandy announced. "Now if everyone could be thinking of their answer for the video camera that will be going around, that would be very helpful." Ryan and Marissa had been trapped into video taping all the guests about whether they thought baby Cohen was going to be a he or a she. Marissa was going to do the first half of the people and Ryan, the second.
"OK!" Marissa announced nosily, so all the guests could hear her and quiet down. "First up is the happy couple! So Summer, do you think it's going to be a girl or a boy?"
Summer smiled happily. "Girl."
"Why is that?"
"Just a hunch. I've got a 50/50 chance."
"Good answer. Seth?" Marissa asked, holding the camera in his face.
"Boy."
"You guys have different answers which will make things interesting. What is your reason.?"
"Because the Cohen's seem only to have boys. My great-grandma had a boy and my grandma had a boy and my mom had a boy. No girls yet." Seth seemed proud of this and Sandy have him a thumbs up.
"Ok. Well, Kirsten what about you?"
"Girl."
"Ok. Sandy? Or should I even ask?" Marissa questioned knowing the entire crowd also knew.
"Boy."
"Who would have guessed?" Marissa responded.
"Ryan?"
"Girl."
Marissa's eyes lighted up. "Really?"
"No. I'm joking. Boy." Seth sighed a breath of relief. His brother couldn't go against him and he was glad he was joking. They both knew it was going to be a boy anyways.
"Ryan." Summer scolded. "Why do the boys always think it's going to be a little boy?"
"Why do girls always think it's always going to be little girls?" Seth responded sarcastically.
Again she smacked him.
Ryan grabbed the camera out of Marissa's handed and turned the camera on her.
"Okay Marissa Cooper what about you?"
"Girl." She responded sweetly. He handed back the camera with an "I tired" look on.
"Mom? What do you think? You're next Caleb."
"It's a girl. No matter what. "
"Caleb?"
He groaned. "I don't see what the point of this is. We'll find out in a couple weeks anyways."
"Come on Grandpa! Pick a boy." Seth urged.
"Fine, a boy."
"Caitlin?" The little girl looked at Summer and looked back at her big sis.
"Girl." She stated proudly, knowing if she said otherwise she would have the entire group of women on her back.
"Diane?"
"Girl. No doubt in my mind."
Marissa kept going around to one half of the crowd getting all their predictions down on tape; the girl/ guy thing still not broken. Not one person had voted the opposite and they all stood firm on what they thought. Ryan took his turn and went over the remainder of the guests. Finally after that was all down Summer and Seth got to walk over to the huge pile (mountain) of presents and gifts they were receiving for the engagement/ baby shower.
"I can't believe you guys got all this for us. I don't know where we will put all this stuff. We won't be able to walk around!" Summer laughed and sat on the chair next to the table of gifts. Seth joined her and sat down.
"Is there any order in opening all this?" Summer asked, already picking out her first (the big shiny bag).
"Well," Kirsten began. "There is one from us that is going to come first but after that there really isn't any order."
"Ok." Seth replied happily. He loved presents. This maybe even topped Christmakkah. Maybe
"Which one is it?" He sat got up and began looking at the tags.
"Here it is." Sandy handed over a white envelope with delicate handwriting that stated Summer, Seth, and baby Cohen.
Summer opened it up and read the card aloud with Seth silently reading it over her shoulder.
To Summer, Seth, and baby Cohen.
You guys have proved to all of us that under the most difficult of situations, you guys can handle everything with maturity, patience, and love. We are very proud of both of you and we love you very much. We hope you will enjoy our present to you both and your baby.
Love Kirsten Sandy and Ryan.
PS. Let us visit you in your new house once and a while.
Summer gasped and set down the card and hugged Cohen's parents and Ryan.
"Thanks you guys so much." Summer sobbed as she hugged them all.
"Well, we thought the pool house wouldn't be big enough so you know." Sandy explained happily.
"You know that land next to our house. Well, that is the future site of your new home. Congratulations." Kirsten hugged both her son and Summer. "You can design it however you want."
"Thanks Mom and Dad." Seth seemed elated and he was so happy.
They were going to have a house. Just him and Summer, Captain Oats and Princess Sparkles, and the baby. Life was good.
TBC.
I hope you liked that chapter. I'm making my author notes brief. Please review!
Not that many chapters left! I know this is stupid of me because I know I'm greedy but my goal for my story was to get 500 reviews. I guess that's not going to happen because I usually only get 10 per chapter and the first chapters I only got like 3 or 4. Some even zero but that was my goal (sniff, sniff). LOL. Don't worry about me. I've already got 3 hundred and some odd number.
THANKS!
PS. I came up with a title for my next fic (the one in New York) Summer in the City.
I also came up with one for the sequel. But I can't tell you that because it involves the baby's name with you don't know if it's a girl or boy yet.