Chapter Two
"Seth, you realize you have your own apartment and it's only next door, right?" Marissa asks when she and Ryan walk into the New York apartment they had moved into a week before.
"Yeah," Seth nods from the couch, "and?"
"That when we're not here you could hang out there." Marissa adds.
"I could," Seth nods, "but I was waiting for you to get back from taking Timothy to the Nanna's so we can go out."
"Where did you have in mind?" Marissa questions, she had been unpacking for the last week and she was very near stir crazy.
"There's a bar close to her I thought we could check out," Seth suggests.
Marissa looks to Ryan, "what do you think?"
Ryan shrugs, "sounds cool. We're in New York City and it's the first time we're childless so, why not?"
"Alright, let's go." Seth jumps up, in five years he had lost none of his enthusiasm.
"Seth, some of us need showers." Ryan responds.
Seth sighs and rolls his eyes, "fine. I'll be in my apartment waiting for you."
"Summer," Joseph leans against the bar facing Summer. "It's great that you're a good mother Summer, but sometimes you just have to lighten up. Have fun and let go. I'm going to find us both gorgeous guys for a fab summer fling."
"I don't need a gorgeous guy," Summer responds. "I'm perfectly fine without any guy, I've got Brynn, she's enough for me."
Joseph nudges Summer, "oh come on. Oh hey, check him out, gorgeous blonde at the other end of the bar."
At the mention of this Summer can't help but lean over the bar and look down it and at the sight of the blonde standing by himself Summer jumps back quickly taking a deep breath, "oh my God," she whispers.
"Are you okay Summer?" Joseph questions, "do you know him or something?"
"Um yeah," Summer takes a deep breath, seeing Ryan was the last thing she had expected to ever do in New York, and unless everything had changed where Ryan was Seth was bound to be nearby.
"So, please tell me he's gay," Joseph nearly begs.
Summer shakes her head, "I haven't seen him in five years but last I checked he was very straight, and knocking girls up."
"Damn," Joseph sighs.
"Yeah," Summer responds, barely paying attention as she takes long deep breaths to stop her shaking hands and try to figure out an excuse to leave the club before Ryan spotted her.
"Oh, there's other people with them now, a guy and a girl, maybe you know them too." Joseph comments.
Once again Summer quickly spins around, but this time her nerves have taken over and her elbow knocks the beer belonging to the person next to her all over the counter. "Hey, watch it!" It's a large man and his voice carries, drawing plenty of attention.
"Here, I'll buy you another beer," Summer speaks quickly hoping that the commotion hasn't drawn the attention of the Californian's a couple feet away.
Once Summer has taken care of buying the angry man another beer she can feel their eyes on her and glancing over she can tell that they've all recognized her and are shocked. They seem stuck in a stalemate to see who's going to be the first to move, and Summer makes the first move. She grabs her purse, quickly turns on her heal and walks out of the bar, informing Joseph, "I've got to get home."
"Um...okay..." Joseph trails.
"I'll call you," Summer calls as she quickly exits the bar.
"Summer!" Ryan's voice is the one that stops Summer, and when she turns around she's not surprised that he's the only one who came out of their shock enough to follow her.
"Ryan I have to go," Summer turns around quickly, but this time Ryan grabs her arm. Brushing him off she turns to face him, "Ryan, please, just let me go."
"This is where you've been," Marissa has suddenly appeared, "I tried to find you but your dad wouldn't say how to reach you."
As the words come out of her mouth Summer can't help but remind herself of her daughter and her daughter's father, "I was in Pennsylvania living with my mom. I uh went to Penn State and then my mom got me a job here so I moved here."
"You disappeared and you just left a letter," Seth states slowly.
"Well I guess there's something we had in common." Summer snaps, then taking a deep breath she attempts her exit, "I've got to go." With her words she walks toward the street.
"Summer, we haven't seen you in five years, you can't just say hi and then walk away." Marissa calls after her.
"Oh, right," Summer spins around. "It's great to see you all." Quickly before they can react she hails a taxi and slides into the seat before they can follow.
The phone ringing breaks Summer out of a deep sleep, and when she moves she realizes that she'd fallen asleep in her clothes from the night before. Rolling over on her bed she fumbles for the phone on her bedside table, "hello?"
"Mommy?" Brynn's voice is chipper.
Summer yawns, she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, but then she smiles at the sound of her daughter's voice, "hi baby. How are you?"
"Good," Brynn states, "O.J. and I are having fun at Grandma's."
"Good, what are you doing today?" Summer questions.
"Grandpa Devin has to go to Spain for work today, but it's okay cause he'll be back before I leave. And today Grandma's taking me, and Uncle Bryant and Aunt Kyla and Aunt Deena to the water park for the whole day, so that's why I called you so early cause I wanted to talk to you before we went."
"Good, sounds like you're going to have fun."
"Uh-huh, and we even made a bed for O.J. so he can sleep while we are out having fun, cause Grandma says he's just like a baby and babies needs lots and lots of sleep."
"That's right," Summer nods just as the call waiting beeps in. "Sweetie, I've got someone on the other line and I don't want you to keep everyone waiting."
"Okay, I'll talk to you tonight, okay Mommy?" Brynn questions.
"Of course, before bedtime." Summer assures. "Hello?"
"I'm sorry to call so early Miss Roberts, but there's someone here asking about you." George, the doorman, is on the other line.
"Did they say who they were?" Summer asks quickly.
"No, they live in the building, he says he's an old friend."
Summer sighs, "I'm going to change and then I'll be down, alright?"
"Sure thing Miss Roberts."
Slowly Summer walks over to her dresser, wrenching open the drawer and muttering to herself, "they live in the building. Perfect, just perfect." Pulling out a pair of jeans and a tank top Summer quickly changes, before she leaves she pulls her back into a ponytail, not bothering with make-up. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, a pair of flip flops completes her outfit and she leaves the apartment, not bothering to lock the door. She lived in the pent house of an apartment building with extremely tight security, no one could get to the apartment with out her approval and what she once thought as a quasi-bother she was now glad she had. It would have been worse for Seth to show up at her door then to have him call her downstairs.
"Ryan," Summer stops dead in her tracks, she'd expected Seth, not Ryan. "What are you doing here?"
"The voted me to come down and talk to you," Ryan responds.
"Figures," Summer mutters. "What do they want with me Ryan?"
"Want with you? " Ryan echoes the words back, puzzled by their meaning. "They're not out to kill you or something Summer, they just want to see you, talk to you. No one's heard from you since you left Newport."
"That was on purpose Chino," the nickname just seems to slip out.
"Can we talk? I'll buy you a cup of coffee," Ryan offers.
"What's there to talk about? I left everything in Newport behind for a reason and a little piece of my past just moved into my building. I get it, you guys live here," Summer snaps, "is there something else you need to talk about?"
"Then want to have lunch with you, tonight, think you can manage that?" Ryan seems slightly annoyed at Summer.
"I..." Summer's tough exterior falters.
"They've missed you Summer, Marissa's been your best friend your entire life, don't you kind of owe it to her to have dinner with her?"
"Ryan...did it ever occur to you that I left Newport for a reason?" Summer asks before thinking.
"Well, then what is the reason?"
Summer shakes her head immediately regretting her words and to take the focus off of them she states, "fine I'll have lunch with you guys. There's a diner just around the corner from here I'll meet you guys there at noon. I, have to go. I'll see you then."
"Couldn't we just meet here?"
Summer nods, "right. I'll meet you here at noon."