Family
Author's note: This is my very first fic, so please go gentle on me. I came up with this idea last night when I couldn't fall asleep, I just started thinking about Summer, and well this is what I came up with. I think this is going to be a one-shot, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyways, hope you like it and please review!
Summer Roberts had always wanted a family to call her own.
Even when her parents were still together she knew it wasn't right. Somehow they were different than the Cooper's and the Fisher's. Years later Summer would realize that the difference was that her parents didn't love each other, and sometimes she had to wonder if they even loved her. She promised herself that when she got married and had kids she'd never be like them.
Her mom was more interested in herself than her family, and her father was too busy working all the time, though Summer suspected from an early age that there was a little more to the story, that he had more than just a working relationship with his constant string of female assistants.
As she got older Summer gradually became closer with Marissa Cooper. Marissa had always been the most popular girl in the class, something about her was just special. So when Marissa invited Summer over for a sleepover one afternoon in second grade, she was happy to oblige. She fell in love with Marissa's family, they gradually became sort of a surrogate family for her. Julie Cooper would always have a soft spot in her heart for the little girl who's mother just packed up and abandoned her daughter and husband, she didn't see how anyone could ever do such a thing. Marissa's dad would call her "kiddo" and tuck both girls in at night, kissing them each on the forehead. Marissa's little sister, Kaitlin, would always interrupt them and want to play. Even though Summer pretended to be annoyed as Marissa was, she sort of liked Kaitlin's company and wondered what it'd be like to have a sister of her own. She decided that she wanted a huge family with lots of kids when she got older. Summer felt as if she belonged, it felt right at the Cooper's. But the weekend would always end and Summer would have to go back to her father and stepmother.
Summer's dad really did love her. He just... didn't know what to do with her. He wasn't much of a hands-on dad and found it much easier to just give Summer his credit card and have her buy herself something nice than actually interacting with her. In return Summer would pretend it didn't bother her, claiming she and her dad were really close and faking a relationship with him. It wasn't that bad, it just wasn't like Jimmy and Marissa.
As she grew up she became even more skilled at faking relationships. Sometimes she wondered if that's all her life was--fake. She climbed the social ladder to join Marissa at the top, and whoever said it was lonely up there was right. Marissa started dating Luke Ward, the most popular boy in the fifth grade, and once again Summer was alone. She started hanging out with Marissa's friend, Holly Fisher and the two soon became "friends" in the fakest sense of the word. Holly would set Summer up with random guys and get her and Marissa drunk for the first time. She'd teach the two how to smoke and always score the best weed. Marissa seemed to adjust to the whole partying scene smoothly, fitting right in. Summer however never really felt comfortable, personally she hated the taste of beer and had to train herself how to drink it. She'd rather it just be her and Marissa sitting around watching movies like they used to.
As the girls entered high school the parties doubled along with Marissa's problems. Summer wasn't sure how someone like Marissa could have all of these "issues" as Julie would call them, her life was a fairytale compared to her best friend's. Marissa began eating less and less and drinking more and more much to the delight of Holly and Luke, but Summer was worried about her. That would all start to change though when Marissa got a new next door neighbor.
Marissa and Summer had never paid much attention to Marissa's neighbors, the Cohen's, except to the fact that Seth Cohen was a freak. Summer didn't really see what was wrong with him, he was sort of cute and seemed nice, but it'd be too embarrassing to ask so she decided to go along with everyone else and hate him. It seemed to be working pretty well until Sandy Cohen brought home a boy from Chino, Summer wasn't sure of all the details but he and Marissa quickly became friends or whatever you could call it. As they became closer Summer found herself around Seth Cohen more and more. He was sort of awkward and liked to ramble a lot but she still didn't' see what was so bad about him, but it wasn't like she was going to admit that anytime soon.
It wasn't until Caleb Nichol's birthday party until Summer decided to be nice to Seth. Sure, she'd asked him to be her white knight at cotillion, but it wasn't as if she'd wanted him to be, it was just that she was sort of stuck with him. Right? But then he'd turned her down for some pixie chick with a bad dye job. Whatever. Caleb Nichol basically owned Newport, and everyone who was anyone was going to be at his birthday party. She had to go. Summer had asked Seth to take her, and though her memory was a bit fuzzy at all of the exact details, there was one distinct one of her kissing him by the pool and him reciting her mermaid poem. It seemed like he really liked her. Atleast until Anna came back from wherever it was that she was sailing to and Seth had chosen her over Summer.
Over the next year so much had happened. Jimmy and Julie had divorced, Marissa and Luke split up, Marissa OD'ed in TJ, Marissa and Ryan had gotten together, the whole Oliver fiasco, Anna left Seth, Seth had come over to her house and they'd lost their virginities together the day before Valentine's, they'd started going out, Ryan got his ex-girlfriend pregnant and left, Caleb and Julie got married. And oh yeah, Seth completely abandoned her.
She'd never forget the day she went over to his house, planning on surprising him and taking him and Marissa to visit Ryan in Chino. She'd impatiently pushed the doorbell three or four times, calling out to Seth until Sandy finally opened the door. Summer thought he looked like hell, it was like he'd aged 10 years overnight. Something was wrong. She remembered Kirsten sobbing into her shoulder, being handed Seth's letter, Kirsten telling her to stop over and she was still always welcome there. And most of all she remembered heading straight over to Marissa's and getting very, very drunk.
The next year had been equally memorable. Seth and Ryan had returned after Theresa lost the baby, and as much as Summer wanted to run back to Seth, she knew she couldn't. She had to be strong. Over the summer she'd started seeing Zach. He was perfect, the son of a politician, smart, handsome, athletic. But then again Summer didn't do well with perfection. She stayed with him until February or so, her longest relationship ever. She couldn't bring herself to love him though, no matter how hard she tried. And that scared her. What if she'd never love anyone again the way she'd loved Seth?
Summer was supposed to be in Zach's sister's wedding, but left him for Seth. There weren't really hard feelings, Zach seemed to understand which made her feel like even more of a bitch. But with Seth she felt like she was finally home.
Along with being back with Seth came being accepted back into the Cohen family. Of course she had always been welcome there, Sandy loved the girls spunk and the way Seth was when she was around, and Kirsten was always happy to have another female around the house. With the Cooper family since destroyed, Summer felt like she had found a replacement. Her father had never exactly approved of her seeing Seth, he'd been happy when she was with Zach, but Summer honestly didn't care anymore. She meant a lot more to the Cohen's than she did to her own family.
Right when they'd gotten back together things had started to become a mess though, Summer wondered if she and Seth would be able to have a normal relationship and just do boring couple-y stuff. Then again Summer wasn't really into that kind of a relationship. Seth had messed up a couple times as she predicted, and she ended up making out with Zach. But they'd found their way back to each other, Seth left a meeting with George Lucas or whoever he was to come to the prom with her after all. Even though she and Zach had been announced prom king and queen, there was no one she'd rather be there with than Seth. That night Caleb had died, Summer knew Seth wasn't close to his grandfather but she still felt horrible for the whole family. She'd come over to console Seth, offering Kirsten a huge hug on her way up the stairs. It turned out to be Kirsten she should have been worried about, Kirsten who had been like another mom to her in the last year was going away to rehab for the summer, something Summer never thought possible.
The boys of course had no clue what to do without Kirsten around and Summer had basically moved in, taking charge right away. She'd learned to cook for them, or when they tired of her mac and cheese special, she'd take Kirsten's job of ordering out though everyone swore the food tasted different when Kirsten wasn't the one ordering it.
Sandy had been in a daze all summer, so it was no wonder that he didn't realize the fact that Summer had taken camp in Seth's room, or the pregnancy test shoved in Seth's bathroom garbage under a mound of tissue.
She didn't have to wait until the strip turned blue.
Summer Roberts had always wanted a family to call her own. She had finally found one.