Summer ran down the driveway, her head spinning. How far could he have gotten in two minutes? Who exactly was the one she was looking for? She ran back to the main house and ran through the rooms, yelling. She got upstairs and opened the door to Seth's bedroom. Empty. Tears were starting to fall down her face. She fell sideways onto Seth's bed and ran her fingers through her hair. Slowly, she sat up and slid down onto the dark blue carpet. The carpet she had danced on, made out on, slept on. The carpet that brought back memories. A few days before the shower for Julie and Caleb she and Seth had been at the beach when all of a sudden the sky broke and it rained. Hard. Seth had rolled over on top of her and said he was keeping her dry. She said it would make more sense to go back to the car. He said this was easier. She laughed and kissed his wet face and he had looked at her like she was perfect. Luke looked at her like he could see underneath her clothes.

She wiped her eyes and didn't notice the mascara that had streaked down her cheeks and up to her ears. She walked out of the room and went back downstairs, thinking of the places Chris could've gotten to by now.

Back in Seth's room, the closet door creaked open and Chris crawled out. He stayed sitting on the floor and squinted his eyes. He saw a picture frame lying upside down on the ground and he picked it up. It wasn't a room he had seen before, but the walls were very red and blue and pretty. Uncle Ryan, Aunt Marissa, his mom, and Seth were lying in a bed with white curling metal behind them. Seth's arm was around his mom and he was kissing the top of her head. Uncle Ryan's arm was around Aunt Marissa and her eyes were closed. They were all grinning and Aunt Marissa was hugging a purple bear. They were young. And happy. His dad wasn't in it.

The door opened again and he looked up as Summer sighed and let her head fall into her hands.

"Oh, thank god. Chris...thank god." She put her hands down and hugged his head against her waist.

"Honey, don't be mad at me. Please." She bent down so they were eyelevel and smiled as she pushed the hair out of his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mom." He looked away from her face and down at the frame in his hands. She followed his stare and smiled at the picture.

"I remember that day. We had so much fun."

"How old were you?"

"Sixteen."

"And Aunt Marissa was Uncle Ryan's girlfriend?"

"Yeah. That's right."

"And you were Seth's girlfriend."

"Mm-hmm."

"Did you love him?"

"Honey, why are you doing this?"

"Did you love him?"

Summer brought her hand up to her hair and sighed. But she nodded. "Yeah."

"And he loved you?"

She nodded again. Chris nodded and looked back at the picture. "Do you love Daddy?"

"Chris, honey, please..."

"Do you?"

"I don't know, honey."

"Do you love Seth?"

"Baby..."

"I'm not going to flip out on you. You do. I know. And he loves you too."

"How do you know that?"

"He told me."

"So now he can tell you things he can't tell me?"

"He wanted to tell you."

"Honey, this all is complicated. And I know you want to help, but maybe you should just let me and Seth take care of it."

"I don't know where he is."

"I'll find him."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"What about Dad?"

Summer stood up and shook her head. "God, um, I don't know. I told you it was complicated."

"Just tell Dad you don't love him and tell Seth that you do love him."

"Yeah, well, I don't know how easily I can do that."

"Why?"

"Because, I...I don't know."

"Okay."

He smiled and kissed her cheek before walking out of the room. Summer shook her head and walked out of the room too. She had to figure out whether to stay here and take care of Luke or go find Seth. She saw Luke walking in the glass door and decided Luke she could deal with later.

After finding keys to someone's car, she had lost track whose, she drove around the town thinking of possible places he could have gone. After ten minutes of aimless driving, she got it. She turned around the car and sped off to the endless sky. She stopped at the ocean and saw him standing in the wet sand, the waves just barely touching his ankles.

Summer glanced down at her tee shirt and jeans that were still a little disheveled and thought about her hair that couldn't be any better, but she walked to him anyway. She stood behind him, and she knew he knew she was there. Gently she leaned her head on his back.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"The whole...you know I could never really love a guy that shaved his chest for years."

He bit back a laugh, but shrugged.

"And you know that I don't exactly throw words around. And that I do care for..."

"Summer? Do you remember that day when it was raining? And we just stayed here, getting soaked?"

She nodded, but realized he couldn't see her, so murmured, "Yeah."

"Do you ever think about it?"

"Sometimes."

"I do all the time. It was the only time I really had you. And it sucks how I couldn't realize how lucky I was and just suck as much of you up as I could. Because it can never really be like that again. And it's just a memory."

"I know."

"I used to have dreams about it. The wet sand that weighed way too much staining your white shirt. And then I'd wake up in some place that was way too sunny and you weren't beneath me. And it just sucked."

"I missed you too."

"It's more than that. I missed what it felt like to know someone was there for me. Because you were here. You were always here, and I was always...somewhere."

"I used to make up stories of where you were. Usually when Chris was almost asleep but he wanted me to tell him a story. I'd tell him about the perfect guy playing on the beach and drinking drinks with umbrellas and finding the perfect girl and falling in love on the beach. It felt good to think you were happy."

"I wasn't. I was miserable."

"Me too."

"So what are we doing? Things don't have to be like this. It would've been so much easier if you were just fucking married." He kicked a pile of sand in front of him. "So much easier. I could've moved on."

"I wouldn't want you to."

"God, Summer, why do you have to..." He spun around and looked at her, her head falling onto his chest instead. "Why do you have to make this so hard? It's not so hard to just say get out of my life. Make me go, because I wouldn't be able to do it if I thought you wanted me here."

"But I do want you here, and I want you to want to be here."

Tears were stinging his eyes, but he shook his head. "I don't want to be like this. I don't want to feel this much for you because I'm supposed to be building my life back."

"But can't I help you with that?"

"I don't know. You're-you're the past. And I need a future."

"I can't be both? Everyone says we've changed so much so can't I have a second chance? Make you want to stick around?"

"I do. Want to stick around. But I want this to be easier than it is."

She picked her head up and looked him square in the eyes. "Do you want me?"

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

"Because I...you're just..."

"Can I help?"

She ran her hands down his neck and kissed him softly, but deepened it quickly. She felt the light pressure of his hands on her back and his eyelashes dance on her cheek. She ran her hands back around to the back of his head and pulled him closer to her. His chest was so warm through his tee shirt, and they suddenly looked like the perfect couple. Jeans and tee shirts, barf worthy of how matching they were. But they also fit together.

Summer pulled her lips down and buried her face back into his shirt. He was breathing heavily and the tears that were threatening his eyes were dampening his cheeks and he stared forward. His arms grew limp, but they still loosely held her. She had her arms wrapped tightly around his back and the wind made her hair blow in his face.

"Summer," he choked out. "I-I-I want you. I want you." He let the last sentence become a whisper and wrapped his arms tighter around her shoulders and kissed her hair. She was breathing as heavily as he was, and her makeup was nonexistent. She smelled like soap.

Slowly, she pulled out of his arms and smiled as she pushed away any hint of her own tears. "Yeah?"

Seth nodded and returned her small smile. He leaned his hand forward and held her hand up in front of him. He kissed it softly and turned it around to kiss her palm. He trailed his mouth up to her wrist and looked back up at her.

"Yeah." He smiled and smoothed the hair tucked loosely behind her ear. "But, let's just...let's take this slowly, okay? I mean, learn about each other, like, together."

She nodded and smiled back at him. She whispered softly, "Okay."

"Okay." He held her hand again and smiled out of the corner of his mouth.

"So do I get to kiss you again?"

"If you have to."

She grinned and pulled him even closer to her if that was possible. She closed the last space between them and kissed him gently at first but increasing the pressure as he moved his head. Suddenly he felt like he had known her forever. Longer than anyone else, at least. He'd been home a little less than a week, and he already forgot what it was like without her close against him. Her right leg was curling up his left and her hair was still in his face. He knew her, no matter what Ryan wanted to tell him instead. He knew what nail polish matched her eyes; he knew the small hairs on the back of her hand; he knew where her shirt wrinkled when she danced; he knew what song played when would make her cry. And really, that was all that mattered to him.

After he nearly memorized her mouth, she turned her head and leaned her head back on his chest.

"What were you and Chris talking about?"

"You."

"What did he say?"

"He was asking."

"What did you say?"

"Well, he wanted to know what you were like when I was 'in like' with you. So I told him."

"He asked you if I got into trouble a lot."

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"He asks Ryan all the time. And Ryan has no problem with telling him all these long and very detailed stories about me when I was young. And sometimes, by young, I mean twenty-four. And then when I get mad at Chris, he throws it in my face. 'Well, Uncle Ryan told me that you were bad.'"

He laughed, gently moving her head.

"You weren't that bad."

"Yeah, but it seems like more when all he did was not make his bed."

"He's a good kid."

"Yeah, I guess. He gets a whole lot of annoying. And then he goes off and plots with Ryan how to make fun of me next."

Seth laughed; it made her smile.

"So can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah."

"Wouldn't it be so much easier to just marry Luke already?"

"Easy."

"Yeah. I mean...you have Chris and I mean, Luke likes you. A lot."

"I know."

"And so..."

"Since when do I like making things easy for myself?"

"Since you made out with the father of your son on the floor."

"Which made the guy I really care about come to the beach and cry. Easy's not always all that good."

"So the whole reason you made out with your ex boyfriend on the floor is because you don't like things easy?"

Summer shook her head and looked up at him. "I was pissed. About a lot of things. And I guess, Luke was saying the right things. What I wanted to hear. From you. And maybe I was a little jealous that you could act all normal when you saw me. Because for me? You walk into a room and I forget how to talk."

He smiled and ducked his head. "Yeah, well, I start that rambling thing that I do so well. But I guess no one sees the difference."

She laughed. "You're never going to stop knowing how to exactly make me laugh."

"I sure as hell hope not."

Seth grinned and hugged her a little closer. Summer tilted her head and sighed gently.

"We have to go back home sometime, right?" She murmured into his shirt.

"So I've learned."

Aw, okay, so deep in my heart I'm a sucker for all of this romantic comedy stuff. What can I say; I'm a chick. And thanks to ocfan108 for giving me my favorite review to date. I guess in some part I should thank Ozzy Osbourne for "Mama, I'm Coming Home" because that song really kept this chapter going. (I know it has nothing to do with the whole storyline in this chapter but I get inspiration in weird places, and I'm an emo girl. Anything with any speck of any kind of emotion gets me going) Great song; honor him along with Josh Schwartz. Thanks for caring; peace and love...