A/N: I'm really, really, REALLY sorry it took this long to get this Chapter up. I've been pretty busy this weekend, and I apologize greatly to all of my faithful reviewers. :D

Reviews:

xocourtneyxo: Aw, thanks! I love Seth too.

DeuCe628: Thank you, AGAIN! It's really great hearing from you after every chapter. It really encourages me to continue. :)

SparkiMonkey: Yeah, now, reading over my last chapter, Summer should've been more Summer-like. I might fix it later. But anyways, it's pretty much the middle of summer at this point in the story, so somewhere down the line they might go back to school, if I skip like a month. And there DEFINITELY will be some sort of a Ryan/Rachel friendship sometime soon. I'm not positive about Marissa yet, but just wait and see.

Chapter Five

Rain.

Well, thunder, lighting and rain. It wasn't the nicest scene when you looked out the window; dark, dull clouds hanging threateningly in the sky, heavy rain streaking violently from underneath. The roar of thunder, followed by a flash of lightning that lit up the sky. I winced, grimacing as I looked miserably out the window, before flopping gloomily down onto my bed. I stared up at the plain, white ceiling, listening to the harsh sound of rain bouncing off the roof. I was bored out of my mind, and you could easily tell. I had plans to go to the beach and get a nice, golden tan, but then it started raining.

Damn it.

I sighed, closing my eyes for a second. I needed to think of something to do – it was already close to 5:30 PM, and I'd basically been moping around the house the entire day, eating popsicles and drinking Grape Kool-Aid. Not exactly nutritious, but I was too lazy to make myself a proper lunch.

I stood up, walking downstairs and into the living room, picking up the cordless phone. I dialed Seth's home phone number, letting it ring about four times before finally hanging up. I turned to look out the window, staring up at the grey sky. I looked across the street, over towards the Cohen residence. I blinked a few times, my eyebrows raised. Their lights were on, so why weren't they answering the phone? I mean, if it were a nice, hot sunny day, I could understand that they'd be outside or something, but would they really be out on a day like today? Well, being Miss Rachelle Jade Summerfield, I was determined to find out. I grabbed my shoes, pulled on my black sweater-coat, before grasping my pink umbrella, and heading out the door.

I crossed the street, walking nonchalantly up to the Cohen's house. I was almost halfway to the door, before I stopped. Seth was sitting outside, on his front steps, soaking wet, staring at his shoes, his head in his hands. I blinked about seven times, quietly walking up to him. "Cohen?"

"Hey Princess." He looked up, smiling weakly.

"Did you lock yourself out?" I asked, watching him carefully.

He shook his head. "No…just sitting."

"In the rain? You must be freezing!" I sat down on the step next to him, holding the umbrella over his head too.

He shrugged. "Not really." He was suspiciously quiet and depressed – completely un-Cohen like.

"So like, who died?" I asked, glancing at him cautiously, studying the miserable look in his normally bright hazel eyes.

He smirked. "No one, Princess."

"Call me that again, and I'll seriously kick your ass."

"Sorry," He winced apologetically, biting his bottom lip. "But you still think I'm special, right?"

I stared at him for a second. "Yeah…" I trailed off, both eyebrows raised in slight confusion.

He smiled slightly, but didn't say anything in reply.

"So seriously, what happened?" I asked, my eyes lighting up with curiosity.

"Nothing really." He responded, clearly not telling the truth.

"Tellll meeee!" I whined pleadingly, wanting to know, but not trying to be too inquisitive.

"You'll think I'm a complete loser if I tell you." He answered stubbornly, looking back down at the ground for a moment, before glancing up at me.

"Honestly, Cohen, if I thought you were a complete loser, I wouldn't even bother coming over here." I replied, with an almost sarcastic-sounding, matter-of-fact tone.

"Summer broke up with me." He gushed, rather suddenly, frowning faintly.

I simply sat there, letting each word sink in. "Summer…broke up with you?" I repeated out loud, still trying to grasp the meaning. "OH MY GOD, COHEN!" I exclaimed, finally getting it.

He nodded slowly, sighing gloomily.

"But…you guys are Seth and Summer! You're like, cookies and milk! You go together so well!" I said, my jaw dropping slightly. It was still pretty hard to believe, but it did explain Seth's unusual behavior.

"Now it's Zach and Summer…again."

I gasped, but then realized I had no idea who the hell Zach was. "Who's Zach?"

"Summer's ex-boyfriend." Seth answered dejectedly, glaring down at the concrete ground yet again.

"Aww." I mused sympathetically, my head tilted to the side slightly.

He didn't say anything, and kept his eyes locked on the pavement, watching as the rain fell more aggressively every minute. He shivered, the cold finally getting to him.

"Cohen, you're going to like, catch a cold or something if you stay out here any longer."

He shrugged limply, looking up at me for a minute, before gazing down at his shoes, with an almost self-conscious impression. "I'm all right."

"No, you aren't." I replied firmly. I couldn't just let him sit out here, and I wouldn't. "Seth, come on."

He sighed, and stood up, holding out a hand to help me up too. I kind of took his gesture by surprise, but I grasped his hand and stood up as well. I closed my umbrella, and left it outside, next to the front door, while Seth opened the door, escorting me inside the amazingly quiet house. He closed the door, and stood there for a minute, his hands now shoved neatly in his pocket, before kicking off his shoes. "Come, Rach. I'll show you the Death Cab poster I was talking about yesterday."

I nodded, following him to where ever he was headed. "Didn't you mention that last week, when we went to the mall? You know, when we walked past the music store?"

Seth shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. I must've told you twice…?" He opened the door to what I came to realize was his bedroom, and walked towards one side of the room. "Here's the poster." He pointed to a large, glossy poster mounted on his wall, smiling with the slightest bit of pride. It was pretty impressive; probably one of those limited edition ones.

"Wow. That's probably just as awesome as the Orlando Bloom poster I have in my room."

Seth gasped humorously. "Orlando Bloom? How could you?"

"Face it, he's hot." I admitted, laughing at the falsely shocked expression on Seth's face.

Seth shook his head, chuckling to himself, while walking over to his dresser. "You're crazy."

I gazed up at the poster, running a hand through my hair. Death Cab for Cutie probably wasn't one of my favorite bands, but they weren't bad, either. I smiled inwardly, turning back around to face Seth. My jaw dropped; I couldn't help it. Seth was standing by his dresser, shirtless (still wearing his jeans however), absently going through one of his drawers, looking for a fresh, dry t-shirt. He obviously hadn't noticed me looking at him, and if he did, he really didn't care much. "Seth Cohen has a body!" I exclaimed teasingly, grinning in an amused fashion.

He looked at me, slightly surprised, and stopped searching through his drawers. His cheeks flushed the lightest of a pink shade, and he tried desperately to hide the huge, possibly embarrassed smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Well, at least he was smiling. He touched the back of his neck, looking down at the floor for a second. He glanced back up, pulling out an olive green, fake-vintage t-shirt, with some sort of a car logo on the front, and some sort of a silly saying I couldn't quite make out from where I was standing. He threw the t-shirt down on his bed, biting his bottom lip.

I walked towards him, a playful smile gracing my lips, looking up at him intently. He stared back at me, his eyes locked on mine. I gently pressed my hands against his toned stomach, before wrapping my arms around his neck. He leaned forward slightly, his nose touching mine. Being the dork I was, however, I started laughing, and backed away, flopping down onto his bed. "You so want me." I mused aloud, still laughing softly.

He began laughing too, ignoring what I'd said it seemed, before grabbing his t-shirt, and pulling it on over his head. He fell back onto the bed next to me, staring up at the ceiling. I turned, rolling over to my side, looking at him. He turned his head, looking back at me curiously. "I still can't get over the fact that you've got abs, Cohen." I said, smiling in a teasing manner.

He blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I shook my head, still smiling. "Nothing." I answered, watching as he rolled his eyes. He sat up, yawning tiredly.

"Do you wanna stay for dinner?" He asked, glancing back at me.

I sat up, flicking my hair out of my eyes. "My aunt and uncle are probably expecting me…" I responded, trailing off.

The brief sparkle in Seth's eyes seemed to have faded, but maybe it was just the lighting. "Oh. Well, that's all right."

"Why, are you home alone or something?"

"Yeah, sort of. Ryan's out with Marissa, and my parents – both of my parents – are working late tonight." He replied, blinking calmly.

I sighed, sitting up as well. "I guess I could stay, but probably not long after."

"Yay!" Seth grinned triumphantly, and jumped off the bed. "C'mon, you can help me pick dinner – you don't necessarily want cold Thai food, do you?"

It turned out that most of the Cohen's fridge ended up being the remainders of a Thai feeding frenzy, and that the rest of it's contents were simply an array of vegetables, bottled water and 2 milk. I turned to him, after taking a brief, 5-second glance at the fridge. "Gosh, Cohen, you seriously need to go grocery shopping."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know. So, what do you want for dinner? Salad and…" He trailed off, searching through the refrigerator. "Bottled water?"

I laughed, nodding. "Sounds…wonderful."

"Garden or Caesar salad – you pick."

I loved them both, so it took me a second to figure out which one would be best. "Garden? It's classy and refreshing."

Seth blinked, and then shook his head. "You're describing a type of salad? And you think I'm the crazy one…" He dug into the fridge, retrieving the ingredients to make a perfect salad; lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, and a few more random vegetables.

"Do you need help?" I asked, arching an eyebrow in a questionable manner.

"Washing and chopping up vegetables? Thanks Rach, but no thanks. I may not know how to make a five-star, gourmet Italian meal, but I'm pretty good with salad." Seth answered, winking childishly. "Here, go watch some TV, it'll take me a minute." He handed me a remote for the television in the living room, smiling softly.

I gently took the controller, and nodded. "Why do you have the remote in your kitchen, Cohen?"

He shrugged in response, and I headed nonchalantly out of the kitchen, instantly stepping into the living room. His TV was fairly similar to the one my aunt and uncle had, so it was pretty easy to figure out how to turn it on, and how to change the channel. I sat down on the comfortable, soft couch, flicking on an interesting episode of That '70s Show. Along with Friends, it was one of my favorite sitcoms.

"RAAAAAAAACHEL!"

I practically jumped once hearing my name being called, and turned off the TV promptly. I stood up, placing the controller on the coffee table in front of the sofa, heading back into the kitchen.

"Dinner. Is. Served." He suavely pronounced each word like it was it's own sentence, and gestured to the dining table. Just like he had promised, a delicious-looking garden salad was set up neatly in the middle of the table, accompanied by some low fat Zesty Italian salad dressing, and two salt and pepper shakers. The silverware was sparkling delicately from the soft lighting overhead, and water was poured into two floral-imprinted glasses.

"Aww, Cohen, it's so pretty!" I cooed, sitting down on one of the six chairs that surrounded the long table.

He smiled, piling some salad onto his plate, adding a quick dash of both salt and pepper, and then finally garnishing the healthy meal with a fair amount of salad dressing.

I followed his gesture, but left out the pepper part. I had always adored salt, but I'd never really been a "pepper person". I poked at the food for a second, before finally tasting it. I blinked. It was really good. The lettuce was fresh and crisp; the grape tomatoes exploded with flavor in your mouth, and the cucumber was just…perfect. I finished chewing my first forkful of the salad, before swallowing. "WOW, this is really good. Like, since when are you such a good chef?"

He scooped some of the salad on his plate into his mouth, and shrugged limply. He chewed, swallowed, and then opened his mouth. "I'm a natural, can't you tell?" He joked, taking a quick sip of his water.

I rolled my eyes, politely eating the rest of my salad. It only took me a few minutes to completely finish off my dinner, and it was really delicious. I'd eaten in a lot of fancy restaurants while staying in New York, but this was probably top five on the salad rating. I drank some of my water, before gently setting the glass down on the table.

"So, I guess you really liked it?" He asked, standing up, and picking up my plate, placing it on top of his, considering he'd already finished.

I nodded vividly, and stood up as well, deciding I'd help him out. "It was mouth-watering."

He chuckled slightly. "Was it 10/10 good?"

"No, definitely an 11/10." I answered, picking up the salt and pepper, along with the salad dressing, carrying them into the kitchen, putting the dressing in fridge, and placing the salt and pepper shakers on the counter, where they were before dinner.

"Wow, and this is coming from a girl who's spent her entire life in heart of NYC. I feel very loved."

I smiled gladly, and headed back to the dining room, gingerly picking up the empty glasses, and placing them very gently in the dishwasher. Seth followed, putting the silverware and the two plates in the dishwasher as well, before finally sighing with an accomplished air.

I glanced down at my wrist, studying my watch for a minute. I still probably wasn't expected back for another half an hour, so I glanced back up at Seth. "So, now what?"

He shrugged. "We could play video games…" He trailed off cunningly, glancing over his shoulder, towards the entrance leading directly to the living room.

I sighed, knowing I'd regret my decision later. I groaned, looking up at the ceiling, before glancing back at Seth, who had a sweet, exceedingly hopeful look on his face. "All right…just not that dumb Auto Grand Theft thing, or something like, Star Wars." I shuddered, the sheer thought of Star Wars sending chills down my spine. I was too geeky for words.

"How does Spiderman sound?" He asked, both eyebrows raised. I couldn't really tell what he was thinking – maybe he was just over-exaggerating a simple question, but then again, he might also have been surprised that I actually agreed to play one of those stupid PS2 games. Maybe even both.

I grinned. "Spiderman? I love Spiderman!"

He blinked, staring at me in a surprised fashion. "Really?"

"Yes, really! I used to read the comics all the time when I was eleven."

He gasped. "You read comic books?"

"Well, I used to read them." I answered, shrugging lightly.

A grin broke onto his face, and he grabbed my hand, dragging me to the living room. "Come on!" He reminded me somewhat of an eight-year-old, his eyes sparkling anxiously.

It was almost impossibly hard to play that demented game. I kept hitting the wrong buttons, and I got so frustrated my cheeks would turn red. Cohen laughed at me, of course, commenting on how stylishly "cute" I looked when I was annoyed.

Finally, I gave up, and thrust the controller into his hand. "I'm never, ever, ever, ever, forever playing this game again." I winced, glaring at the TV screen. I wasn't patient enough to endure even another five seconds of playing this stupid game. They completely ruined Spiderman for me. I stood up, and yawned. "Cohen, I've gotta go." I admitted, glancing down at my watch.

He nodded solemnly, turning off the PS2, and following me to the front door. I knelt down to tie my shoes, but looked up at him a few times while doing so. "Thanks for staying with me, Rach."

I smiled inwardly, standing up after successfully making sure my shoelaces were perfectly and pristinely tied. "Thanks for dinner." I answered, flipping my thick, dark brown hair over one shoulder, seeing as how it had fallen into my face.

He nodded again, a soft smile lingering on his lips. "I'll see ya soon, Princess."

I didn't react; I simply shook my head, and turned towards the door, stepping outside with a final farewell wave. I headed down the driveway, hearing the door softly close behind me.

A/N: Did you all like it? Please let me know, and I'll probably fix this up sometime down the road. I was kind of rushing to get it to you guys, so let me know what you think. :)