Marissa wrapped the wet towel tighter around her chest, smiling at Ryan one more time before she walked into her own room. Summer and Janie were standing on opposite sides of the room, shooting each other death rays through their eyes.

"You guys, just give it a rest and go to bed. There's always tomorrow to hate each other."

"Seems to me like that little ho knows a thing or too about going to bed," Jane stated, triumphantly crossing her arms.

Summer just shook her head and, taking Marissa's advice, kicked off her shoes to lie down. "Janie, you have no idea what you're talking about."

"But I do have an idea what I was seeing. You. Cohen. What's going on?"

"You didn't see anything either. I was walking through a door. God forbid."

"Why else would you be over there at, like, eleven? Why would you be over there in the first place, you little ho."

"Just shut up for once in your life, you little bitch," Summer muttered, rolling over to her side.

"Holly's my best friend, whore. And I think she should know what trash her boyfriend is picking up."

"You don't know anything, Jane."

"You know what, bitch? You think you're so much better than all of us, but then you go all Newport and make a sad attempt at trying to steal someone's boyfriend. You just picked the wrong one to mess around with."

"Janie..." Marissa started across the room.

"Save it, Marissa. You can try to defend your sad little excuse for a friend, but the rest of us see her for what it is. Desperate, pathetic..."

"You better shut your mouth, bitch, or I'm going to have to shut it for you." Summer stood up, Marissa putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Jesus, you guys. Who are we, boys? Just calm the hell down and go to bed. Then after this trip, you're never going to have to see each other again."

"That a promise?" mumbled Summer.

"Well, we live in the same town, but you don't have to talk to each other."

"But someone has to do something about her whoring around our boys," Jane grumbled, mimicking Summer, and falling down onto her bed.

"Jane, isn't there a possibility you overreacted? You don't know the entire story."

"I should tell Holly."

"What is this, Fight Club? Can't we just live in peace until we get home? This is supposed to be a vacation." Marissa's voice strained, but both girls stayed quiet. "Okay?" She looked from girl to girl and when no answer came, she smiled. "Good. Now, good night." Marissa grabbed the pillow beside Jane and closed her eyes into it.

Soon enough, Jane's occasionally gentle, occasionally less than gentle, snoring came in, and Marissa looked for Summer's open eyes.

"Hey. Sum."

"Yeah?"

"Did you do it? Did you guys..."

"No. I'm not as much a whore as Jane likes to believe," Summer whispered.

"But he kissed you."

Summer shrugged, returning the smile that came to Marissa's face.

"God, you're lucky I really don't like Holly that much."

"I could take her."

Marissa laughed, pulling up her covers. "Not that I don't believe you, but I bet Holly would hire a firing squad."

Summer smiled to humor Marissa. "Good night, Marissa."

"Night, Sum."

"Ryan. Ryan, are you asleep?" Seth tapped Ryan's shoulder, pushing himself up on his elbows.

"Yes."

"Oh. Sorry, then."

Ryan groaned and pulled the blankets over his head.

"Were you with Marissa Cooper?"

Seth saw the blankets shift and Ryan give him a glare. "So yeah? You don't like her, right? Because, I mean, Luke's cool. But I'd have to be on your side of some fight, because, you know, the brothers thing. But he could definitely kick my ass. So it would be better if you didn't, but if you did, I understand, dude, because Marissa's really..."

"Seth. I don't like her. Don't worry."

"Oh. Okay. Good. You were with her all night, though, right? I mean, not with her, but around her."

"Not all night."

"So where did you go?"

"I just got something to eat."

"Alone?"

"No. Well, I mean, there was this girl..."

"Who is the reason why you don't like Marissa Cooper. So? A name?"

"Seth...she doesn't like me. Like that. I mean, I know she doesn't. So, would you mind if I didn't..."

"Because then you'll be embarrassed whenever you see her. Yeah, sure, man. However, if I can just say this...don't give up. I mean, you're a catch. She'd be lucky to have you. And she'll realize that sometime."

"Thanks, man, but she says there's someone else."

"Competition? For the rough, bad, handsome, young James Dean? Poor guy. Never knew what was coming."

Ryan smiled and rolled back to his side.

"See, you smile, because you know it's true. That's my boy." Seth clapped him on the shoulder and entertained the idea of sleeping.

Summer rolled to her other side, her face silently facing the door. She wanted to sleep so badly so that tomorrow would be today. It wasn't working though. She fluttered her eyes open and gasped.

Seth clasped a hand to her mouth, eyeing the two girls across the room. He extended a finger, gesturing for her to leave the room with him. Summer looked to Marissa and Jane too, then back to Seth and his humongous nearly brown eyes. She took his offered hand and let him lead her out of the room.

As soon as the door was shut, Seth spun her around and up against the door, burying his face in her neck. In the middle of the hallway on their school trip. His lips were carefully moving across her skin, very lightly, though, so it could've all been in her head that he was moving at all.

"Seth." She whispered, waiting for those eyes to look back at her. They were slow, but they came anyway. And he understood her unasked question.

"I can't sleep," he murmured, a grin brushing across his lips.

Summer nodded, and Seth felt her chest shake in silent laughter. "Okay."

And he kissed her. Again. Third time in one day. And it was heaven.

Seth threaded his fingers through the collar of her tee shirt, coaxing her lips more and more open. He felt Summer slip down against the door, but she was holding onto his neck, and he wasn't about to let her go. She was timid and tentative, but it made Seth feel like he had something to teach her. Something about desire and urgency and intensity. Something that he knew she had somewhere inside. Something that she had so much of that she should be teaching him.

Her hands brushed the skin on his lower back, confirming his suspicions that Summer was a natural. He shivered, finally feeling the effects of being surrounded by snow in Colorado, no matter how well heated the hotel was. Summer rubbed her hand along his arm, smoothing over the goosebumps prickling his bicep. His leg pushed against hers, pressing her harder up against the wall, as his hands slipped down to her hips. And she could forget that she was wearing cotton pajama pants, because she was with him. And that was really all that mattered.

"Seth." Summer moved her hand to the fold in his neck, holding him off of her.

He stared down at her, his lips pulled inside his mouth, his hand rubbing her hip.

"Could you...you know what, never mind." Summer smiled, her cheeks rising in temperature.

"No, what is it? Anything."

"It's just really stupid."

"Summer." He kissed her forehead, finally bringing up his hands to cup her cheeks.

"Could you just...tell me I'm beautiful?" Her eyes dropped from his face her hands slipping down his arms to cross underneath her breasts.

Slowly, she felt the pressure of his body against her arms, proving he was moving in closer. "Hey."

She glanced up at the sound of his voice, and he kissed her so softly. Whenever his lips were free, he murmured to her, "You're breathtaking. You're breathtaking."

He trailed his lips toward her ear, whispering, "And nothing about you is stupid." She shivered at his breath, so he pulled her away from the wall and wrapped his arms around her.

Summer buried her face into his neck as Seth ran his hand down her hair and underneath it to barely graze her neck. She closed her eyes and waited for his finger which came to push her face up to his, kissing her again, this time even harder. His lips pressed against her mouth, cheeks, neck, his hands nearly lost in her hair.

"You taste good," Summer whispered into his mouth when it met hers again.

"Well, I did brush for more than two minutes."

Summer giggled, pressing her leg to him, but as soon as she was finally comfortable, Seth spun around and pulled his hands back to himself.

"I thought it was you."

Summer arched her neck to look over Seth's back, but his tone confirmed the sweet, girly voice.

"Holl..."

"I actually knew. I've known for a while. I lied to myself, though, because I really wanted to believe you were that perfect. Stupid, huh?"

Seth's head tilted and his hand came out, but Holly shoved it away.

"Don't. I mean, I should've just gave you my blessing weeks ago. I know you've hated me for more than a month."

"I never..."

"I knew you hated me, and I knew you wanted her, but I didn't do anything to fix it." Holly's voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm sorry."

"Holly, did you find...oh. No."

Summer recognized the girl but upon searching her memory, only had her named as Holly's lone redheaded friend.

"What the hell were you doing Cohen?" She asked, eyeing his position between Summer and Holly. Holly shook her head, taking a step forward.

"Mel, leave it be."

"Cohen, you did not. God, you were lucky to even get to go out with her to begin with."

"Melinda, you don't..." Seth rolled his head in disbelief.

"No, Cohen, you don't know what the hell you got yourself into. You think you're so much better than everyone, but you're not. You don't even know what you have when you have it. And you, Sa...what's her name?"

"Summer," Holly muttered. "But Mel, maybe you should just go back to bed and let me handle..."

"Don't worry, Holly, you don't have to handle anything alone. Summer, you think you're so cool and above all the people that live here just because you wear dirty clothes that you bought that way. But here you are, making a sad attempt at stealing someone's boyfriend. That's about as Newport as it gets. You just picked the wrong someone." Melinda's voice was rising louder and louder as the doors down the hall opened and heads popped out.

"Mel, can't you just shut up? Please?" Holly sighed, putting a hand on her hip and glancing around her.

"Cohen, how do you get off? This is Holly. Holly. You can't do any better than that. And when you get over this little...bitch, you're going to come crawling..."

"Who are you calling a bitch?" Summer asked, pushing out from behind Seth who automatically stepped in front of Summer when Melinda learned her name. "This isn't even your business. Why don't you go?"

Melinda took a step forward as the door to their right opened and Ryan came out. He instinctively stood in between the two girls, only looking at Seth and Summer for a second. Summer started to feel her eyes sting.

"Melinda, just calm..."

"She doesn't know what she's talking about. Stupid bitch." Melinda's voice grew more and more confident as a group of girls started to cluster around her.

Holly actually was crying by now and threw up her hands. "Mel, don't do anything you'd regret. I have to...get out of here." She shot looks at the hall of open doors and started to push her way through the people waiting to see if anyone was going to get slapped.

"Look what you did, Summer," Melinda said angrily as Marissa and Jane appeared in their doorway.

"Oh shit," Marissa muttered as her hand covered her face.

"What did you two do?" Jane's voice was skipping multiple octaves, shrugging off Marissa's hand on her arm.

"Jane, why don't we go back..."

"You," Jane pointed at Summer, "are a stupid, stupid, ugly..."

"Shut up, Jane," Marissa said.

"And you, Cooper, need to learn where your loyalties lie," Jane shot.

"I just thing everyone here should let these things be handled by the people they involve."

Melinda crossed her arms, shooting daggers at Summer.

"Hey, Mel?" Jane said. "Would it be cool with you if I stayed the night in your room? I don't think I could sleep without clobbering some girls." She glanced from Marissa to Summer.

"Sure, Janie. See, some girls know how to take care of each other." She pranced off with Jane and her posse in tow.

"It's over, you guys. Why don't we all just go to bed?" Ryan waved his arms and stole another look at Summer before leaving himself.

The hall emptied slowly with people grumbling until it was just Marissa, Summer, and Ryan.

"Come on, Sum." Marissa took Summer's hand to lead her back into their room.

"Just a second, Mariss." Summer absently held up her other hand towards Marissa, her eyes locked on Seth's tee shirt. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "Don't worry about. It was going to happen anyway, so I guess now's as good a time as any."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"No. She might be eventually, but I doubt she's going to be very friendly to anyone for a while."

Summer looked sympathetically at his shy smile. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow?"

He nodded and stepped forward to wrap his arms around her. "Good night."

"Good night." Summer smiled and walked into her room with Marissa. Seth hesitated and checked the hall one last time before closing his own door.

As soon as the door was shut, his cell phone went off. Seth picked it up and walked into the bathroom before answering it.

"Hello?"

"Dude, Cohen."

"Hey, Brad."

"That was your project?"

Seth laughed, sitting on the counter. "It worked, didn't it?"

"I guess you could say that. In some way."

"Got rid of Holly."

"Yeah...about that. I think you should go find her."

"Why?"

"I didn't stick around through your little soap opera in the hall, but I did see Holly run into the dining room, and...well, me and a few buddies saw her down shot after shot or something that looked a lot like hard whiskey."

"Are you serious?" Seth's smile disappeared.

"Yeah. I just think you should make sure she's okay."

"Yeah, all right. Where are you?"

"My room."

"Meet me in the dining room in like two minutes."

"All right, man."

Seth hung up the phone and dashed to the door.

"Where are you going?" Ryan called from Tim's bed.

"I think something's wrong with Holly. Brad saw her drinking really bad."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know. You want to come with me?"

Ryan sighed, looking around the room/ "Fine. Whatever."

The boys left the room, meeting up with Brad and walking to the dining room. There was no sign of Holly being there besides the line of ten shot glasses. Seth ran up to the bartender.

"Hi, did you see a blonde girl here a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah, she just left."

"Thanks."

"Look out for her. She didn't look in great shape."

Seth nodded, clapping a hand down on the bar before running out the door to the street. He looked side to side, and called, "Holly!"

Suddenly, to their right, they heard a deep coughing. Lying facedown in the hotel pool was a mess of blonde hair. Seth jetted over, not hesitating before he dived into the water and dragging her to the side. Ryan and Brad grabbed her two arms and pulled her out onto her back.

"Goddammit." Seth pushed himself up and sat down next to her. "Holly. Holly." He shook her shoulders, wiping at her mascara streaked cheeks.

"Seth, check for a pulse," Ryan said, his forehead creased with worry.

Seth lay two fingers against her neck, shaking his head. He pushed hard against her stomach, and water dribbled out of her mouth. Seth leaned down with one hand on either cheek and pressed his mouth against hers, pushing air into her body. He pumped her stomach again, trying desperately to remember the class he had slept through the year before.

"Holl, babe, come on," Seth muttered, pushing harder at her stomach. Holly's lips parted and more water came out, enough so they could hear another cough from inside her throat. Immediately, Seth picked her smoothly up, her back against his chest, and wrapped his arms around her chest, pushing one last time. This time she sputtered, and when she sat back up her eyes looked into his.

"Seth, I can't..."

"Shh." He put a finger to her lips, and pulled her legs, draping them over his other arm. Slowly, he stood up, Holly's arms coming around his neck. "You're gonna be fine." He carried her back into the hotel, Ryan and Brad trailing him.

He broke into a jog until he got to Holly's room, knocking on the door with his foot. Melinda and Jane opened the door, their eyes dilating when they saw Holly shivering in his arms.

"Holly! Oh my god, honey, are you okay?"

She nodded, clinging closer to Seth's neck. He walked her over to an empty bed and lay her gently down. He pulled at the comforter and draped it over her shaking legs.

"You guys should call the nurse, but she's going to be okay/."

"What the hell happened?" Melinda's voice was insistent, but not nearly as angry as it was half an hour ago.

Seth looked at Holly who shook her head on the bed. "She just had an accident. It's slippery around the pool."

"How'd you know she was there?"

Seth shrugged. "I knew. Good night, ladies. Good night, Holly." He leaned down and kissed her forehead before leading Ryan and Brad out of the room. As soon as the door closed, the three girls in the room ran over to Holly.

"Are you okay, sweetie?"

"He loves me."

"What?"

"Cohen. He still loves me. I knew he loved me. He's always going to love me. He's just in some weird sort of denial. But he still came. Running."

Okay, so just to confirm. I know a lot of people got mad, because they thought Seth was laughing at Summer in chapter 5, but he wasn't. It was supposed to show how quickly he changed personalities to keep up with his popular friends and then Summer. And in the beginning I kept close to the episodes of season 1, but then I strayed, so this was supposed to be a throwback as well. Thanks for reviewing, and please continue. I'm glad the past three have come out so easily. Dreaming Ever the Wild is taking a bit longer. Thanks for reading.