Once again thanks for the reviews.
Disclaimer: still not mine
"Hey Ry who was that?" Marissa asked as she walked out of the kitchen, watching Ryan put down the phone.
"It was Seth, he's coming to the premiere tomorrow." Ryan turned around and gave Marissa his signature half smile.
"Oh." Marissa's face fell.
"Yeah I know. Are you sure your parents can't watch Jesse?"
Marissa shook her head. "Sorry, they're going to Cabo this weekend."
Ryan sat down in the nearest chair and put his head in his hands.
"Ry, it'll be ok, Seth won't recognize him, he's never even met him!" Marissa walked over and hugged Ryan.
"Aunt Marissa?" a little voice called from the kitchen.
Marissa sighed and released her hug from Ryan. "I better get Jesse ready. Don't worry Ry, it'll be fine, Summer even said it was ok, we'll just get him a hat or something."
Ryan let out a deep breath of air. Seth had better not find the truth out about Jesse. He would be heartbroken that Ryan had kept a secret from him for so long. Ryan placed his hands on his thighs and pulled himself up from the chair. This was going to be quite an eventful evening.
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"Oh my God, Summer you look gorgeous!" Marlee squealed with excitement.
The girls had just finished getting their hair and makeup done and had proceeded back to Summer's to choose what to wear. Marlee was clad in a violet dress which draped in an angled way from her upper thigh to the bottom of her knee. The violet brought out the sparkle in her always twinkling blue eyes, and her hair was a fresh shade of blonde.
Summer, on the other hand, had a very difficult time choosing her outfit. She wanted something that was both classy and sexy. While she made it seem like she wanted it to be perfect for the premier, she really only wanted to be perfect for Seth. She had finally decided on a vintage style Valentino strapless dress. It was brilliant shades of gold, red, blue, green, and pink. The dress stopped just beneath her knees and gave enough room to show her freshly waxed and tanned legs, as well as her purple Jimmy Choo sandals. She looked- just as Marlee had put it- gorgeous.
Summer spun around, examining herself in the mirror at every angle. "Are you sure that I don't look fat in this?"
Marlee rolled her eyes. "Shut-up bitch. If you're fat then I'm a balloon."
Neither of the girls were fat. Summer was short and petit, very slim, yet curvy. She had the body that every girl wanted to have and that every guy wanted to get with. Marlee, however, was built more like Marissa. She was tall and very slim (not as slim as Marissa of course, but then again, who is?) with the legs of a model. She was the "classic" Hollywood icon.
"Oh my God, you are so not fatter than me Mar! You are like a stick." Summer argued, positioning herself at a side angle while sucking in her stomach.
"Ok, this conversation is about to get stupid. We are both thin, we both look hot, and you are going to talk to that Seth Cohen, makeup, and start fresh. Get it? Got it? Good." Marlee wasted no time in answering her own question.
Summer smiled in agreement. Deciding that she looked decent, she grabbed her purse from the counter and she and Marlee walked out the door.
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For the whole car ride, which consisted of 45 minutes of driving, as well as 15 minutes of waiting in the drive-through line up at McDonalds, Seth fidgeted. He checked his watch constantly, looked at his hair in the rearview mirror at least 25 times, and drummed his hand against the steering wheel as he drove.
Matt, who had agreed to join Seth, decided to give his friend some 'words of wisdom.' "Buddy, you ok?"
Seth jerked his head to face Matt. "Yeah, fine, yeah I'm good. How bout you? You good?"
"Umm, yeah, right, ok, so you're not nervous?"
"Nervous? What reason would I have to be nervous? Oh! Maybe it is the fact that my ex-fiancé is going to be at this premiere tonight and that I will have to talk to her, and have her scream in my face about how I'm an asshole, and how I'll have to explain what her precious, beloved daddy did to me. Yeah. I feel great, don't worry about me." Seth rambled in a 'not-so-cute' way.
"Listen Seth; I know that this is probably the hardest thing that you will ever have to do, but think of how much better you'll feel after you do it. You could spend your whole life wondering what would have happened if you never told Summer what happened, it could haunt you forever man! I know that you've been in agony for the past 4 years, but do you really want to be like that for the rest of your life? I mean at least give it a shot. Maybe she'll accept what happened man. You really never know until you try."
Seth's mouth hung slightly open. Matt had never so much once uttered any wise advice to Seth that didn't involve 'scoring' with some hot random chick. Not really knowing how to respond to Matt's sudden wisdom, he just nodded.
They arrived at the premiere at 6:30, time to let the press have a few pictures before they entered the actual premiere. Seth didn't see Summer anywhere, he assumed that she had already gone in; the main actors of the movie usually were the first to pass through. Seth rolled his eyes as they neared the paparazzi. Matt grinned, "After you!"
"Seth Cohen, over here!"
"Seth, smile!"
"Seth, look at the camera!"
What seemed like 100 different voices came shooting at Seth from all directions. He let them snap a few pictures of him before he put his hands up. "Enough please."
As he walked into the premiere he quickly spotted Ryan and Marissa and a little boy, holding hands with Summer. Hmm, why was Summer holding his hand?
Seth walked over to them and flashed his Hollywood grin. "Hey guys how's it going?"
The three turned around. Ryan grinned and pulled Seth into a 'manly' embrace. "Good to see you man."
Marissa squealed with excitement of seeing Seth. They had surprisingly become good friends in college. "Hey Seth! We missed you so much!" At this point Marissa grabbed the little boy from Summer, as if to show them he was her son.
"Aww, I missed you too!"
Summer stood stiffly and extended her hand. "Cohen," she said properly
Summer grinned at her stiffness. "Summer," he nodded, saying it in an equally proper way.
Ryan's eyes moved from Seth to Summer. "Right!" he said, breaking the once-again awkwardness, "let's get some seats shall we?"
Seth and Summer agreed and followed Ryan, Marissa and Jesse down to the theater.
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"Wow. Summer that was really good!" Seth was in awe as they exited the movie. "I mean, I wish I had thought of that story line before Nick Soverngy."
"Yeah, you wish." Summer replied.
"I know, I just said that."
Summer hid her grin as she pretended to push a strand of hair behind her ear. "Whatev Cohen."
"Oh. My. God. You are still saying whatev? How many times do I have to tell you that there is an "er" at the end of whatev. Making it, whatever."
"Shove it Cohen."
"There, you like that better?"
Marissa groaned. "Summer and Seth bickering again, this is a surprise."
Summer blushed and Seth scratched his head as he looked down, suddenly embarrassed and very focused on the sidewalk in front of him.
Marissa realized that she had caused some obvious tension between the two and decided to leave. "Um, yeah, right. So Summer, you said that you'd watch Jess for us while we go out of town this weekend right?"
"Yeah it's no problem."
"Ok great. Thanks sweety, we have to go now. Love you." Marissa smiled, pecking Summer on the cheek. She moved over to Jesse and pinched his cheeks. "By Jess, love you!"
"We'll see you soon right man?" Ryan asked Seth.
"I'll try to get some visiting hours in." Seth grinned.
"Alright, awesome. Bye guys, see you Jesse!"
"It was fun seeing you tonight." Seth said, smiling at Summer.
"Yeah, I guess it was." Summer answered softly.
"So what's new with you? Anything special?"
"No, not really. I've got a few movie offers, one sitcom, no idea what it is, I just know it is popular, my agent mentioned it yesterday, so I mat go for that. Yeah, that's pretty much it. How 'bout you? Anything fantastic in the Cohen life?"
"Ha!" Seth laughed, "The Cohen life? Summer, when had my life ever been interesting?"
"True. You were kind of dull."
"Thank you for your honesty."
"No problem, glad to help you out."
"Still listening to Emo Cohen?"
"Yeah, I've got a bit of Emo on my ipod, still a lot of Death Cab, they are like the Greenday of 2016, they never end!"
Summer laughed. "Greenday was around forever wasn't it?"
"Summer are you kidding? They lasted for like 20 years! Unfortunately in 2010 Billie-Joe got lung cancer from smoking so he couldn't sing anymore. Without Billie there ain't no Greenday."
"Wow, sorry Cohen, I don't know every detail about every band in North America."
"One band Summer, Greenday. How did we even get on this topic anyways? It is so retarded."
"I don't know, it probably came out somewhere in your constant rambling."
"Oh haha Summer, you're just too funny for words." Seth mocked with his always-present sarcasm.
Summer just grinned.
Seth turned more serious and stopped to face Summer. "I missed this," he whispered.
"What?"
"This. Me and you, fighting, teasing each other, you know, the way it used to be."
"Cohen-"
"Please Summer-"
"Cohen no, I don't want to talk about this." And she left it at that.
For quite a while the two walked in silence. Jesse had been asleep ever since they had said goodbye to Ryan and Marissa, and obviously he must have been a deep sleeper.
"Summer?" Seth asked, breaking the weird silence between them.
"Mhm?" she answered, not looking up at Seth.
"Did you ever wonder why I left?"
Summer was shocked at Seth's stupidity. "Of course I wondered Cohen. You left me, out of no where one night and never came back. What do you think I have spent my last 4 years questioning Cohen? It's been you! I've always wondered!" Summer half whispered, half yelled, not wanting to wake Jesse.
"Summer, I wanted to tell you…"
"Then why didn't you? Were you a coward or something? You don't even know how much I loved you Cohen. You meant everything to me, and one day you just left! Just like that. Out of fucking nowhere."
"Summer, you gotta let me explain-"
"You know what Cohen? For four years I wanted to hear why you left. I wanted to understand, to know for what stupid reason you just abandoned me. I thought you loved me, and I still did, up until today. I don't care about what you have to say anymore Cohen. You are just a selfish little bitch. You can't use me like this, I'm not some hore that you can toy around with. I loved you, and you, and you…" Summer broke out into huge sobs. It was the second time in one week that he had let herself cry in public, and even worse in front of Seth Cohen.
Seth shh'd her and took her in his arms, rocking her slowly. "I'm sorry Summer, I'm so sorry."
They stood like that for a long time before Seth broke the silence. "Jesse's awake, do you want me to get him?"
Not thinking clearly, Summer nodded quietly and Seth walked over and picked up the little boy.
"Hey Jesse." Seth smiled at him, taking in his appearance for the first time.
Jesse had a round face with huge brown eyes. His cheeks were soft and delicate and dimples shone through his cheeks when he smiled. His head was covered in a mop of curly brown hair, and he had the sweetest look to him.
"Summer…" Seth began slowly, "Why doesn't Jesse look anything like Marissa or Ryan? No, I'm sorry, why does he look like me?"
Summer covered her mouth and realized what she had done. "Shit! Oops, sorry Jess. Um, Cohen, sorry, um, I don't know why he looks like you, family genetics?" Summer suggested, taking Jesse from Seth and holding him tightly.
Seth still looked unsure. "Ryan and I aren't related by blood."
Jesse looked up at his mother with tired eyes. "Mommy, I'm tired, can we go home now?"
Seth's mouth dropped open. "Mommy?" he whispered.
Alright, I really am not at all pleased with the turnout of that chapter, but its long and a snow day today. 20cm… lots of snow! Maybe I'll post another later because today is quite boring… stuck inside the house.
- Rachel