Josh Schwartz is my man. Peace and love...

Summer released her breath slowly and carefully. She still felt the slight indentation in her back from Seth's hand being too lazy to move. His lips were on her shoulder, slowing down and becoming lazy as well. She sighed gently and pulled his face up towards hers. She kissed him lightly and let his head rest down in the creases of her neck.

"Hmm..." Summer felt his chest fall, the breath he had been holding finally out.

She pulled his wrist up to her face and tapped his head. "I have to go. Ryan asked me to pick up Jenn from ballet."

"Okay." Seth pushed up off of the bed with his hands and tugged on his tee shirt lying on the floor. Summer pulled her jeans on and smiled before walking out in her camisole.

"Hey." Marissa smiled with her eyebrows silently mouthing her question.

Summer glanced behind her at Seth's bedroom door and grinned as her hands started flying. "I, uh, had to, um, you know, get a...sweatshirt."

"Okay? Where's the sweatshirt?"

Summer's mouth dropped in thought and she shook her head. "I don't need it. It's hot outside. I thought I did, but I didn't. Yes. That's true. It's hot. Have to go. Ballet. Jenn. Bye."

Summer grinned again and waved as she walked past Marissa.

Seth lay flat on the floor. This wasn't good. He shouldn't be doing this. It wasn't helping Summer any to still show he loved her when she was supposed to be moving on. He wasn't supposed to still have any love to show her. He was supposed to be the strong one. He was supposed to help her see that she was better off without him. He wanted to help her. He didn't want to shiver when she closed her eyes and bit her lip underneath him. But it was Summer. So he had an excuse.

Marissa knocked on the door, Seth yelling "come in." She paused before opening the door. After thinking for just a second, she opened the door and raised her eyebrows at Seth lying on the floor. He shrugged.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah...not really."

"Okay? So you...came to visit?"

"Right. Um, I have to...go."

Marissa went back out the door. Seth stared at the door another minute, but rolled back over to stare once again at the ceiling.

Summer opened the door to her car, a hand pausing on her shoulder. She spun around.

"Need some company?" Kirsten raised an eyebrow.

"Oh. Um, yeah, okay."

Summer looked straight ahead at the road going by; Kirsten keeping quiet. For the most part.

"So, Ryan caved on the ballet."

"Yeah. She's got him wrapped around her finger. And she knows it. I think he does too."

"It's sweet."

"Mm-hmm."

"Yeah."

Summer stopped in the parking lot; Kirsten finally turned to her and opened her mouth.

"Are you and Seth together?"

"What?"

"Are you together? Dating. Relationship. Boyfriend, girlfriend."

"I...no."

"No?"

"No dating, relationship, boyfriend. I don't think."

"Oh. Okay."

Summer's arm reached the door, and she looked back over her shoulder. "Is that it?"

"Are you having sex?"

Her hand slipped off the knob. "I..."

"Okay. Let's go." Kirsten opened her own door and walked into the building. Summer gripped the door tighter and followed Kirsten inside. Jenn smiled broadly at the both of them, grabbed her bag, and led them back out to the car.

"And so Scott said he could get Johnny a date with Stephanie. But I mean, come on. He so couldn't. But that's a good thing because Johnny is nice and Stephanie isn't. She's so stupid. She only believes what other people tell her and she thinks she's so smart."

Kirsten nodded blankly, her head resting down on her elbow. Summer smiled quickly at Jenn, but turned back to stare at the road. Kirsten followed her head, watching Summer pretend not to notice that Kirsten was watching her. Jenn was still talking.

"But sometimes, Steph's really nice, you know? It's, like, then you feel really bad because you thought all that mean stuff about her before. Btu then she gets all mean again and you realize that you meant all of it. And she's such a little crap."

"Jenn." Summer turned her head slightly

"What? She is."

"But it's not nice to say about anyone."

"You say it. And so does my dad. And Uncle Seth. And Grandpa. And Aunt Marissa. And Uncle Brendan. And Uncle Luke. He says even worse. So why can't I?"

"Because. We're old."

Jenn rolled her eyes. "You're not that old. You and my dad are, like, what? Twenty-four?"

"Not the point. We're older than nine."

"Wait. If my dad's twenty-four, then he must've had me when he was only seventeen. That's really young."

"Your dad's twenty-five."

"Whatevs. He was still young. And my birth mommy was probably younger than him."

"Not that much younger. And since when do you say 'whatevs.'"

"Since, like, always."

"Well excuse me."

"You're excused. But that means my dad had sex when he was, like, only sixteen. Because it takes an average of nine months to have a baby." Kirsten and Summer both looked back at her. "What? I learned it in health class. But did my daddy really have sex? That thing's disgusting."

Summer looked at Kirsten with big eyes and turned back to look forward. Kirsten fumbled with her words, but managed to get out a coherent thought.

"Well, honey, um, your dad loved your mother. He did. And...he thought it was the right thing to do at the time."

"Did he want to have a baby?"

"Well, I'm sure he wanted to have a baby, probably just a little later on in his life than he did. But he's very happy to have you."

"So why did he do it?"

"I..."

"Ask your dad, Jenn." Summer offered, grinning at Kirsten. Kirsten smiled back and nodded.

Jenn looked out the window, nodding to herself. When they finally got home, Ryan was just getting out of his car. He smiled when he saw Jenn.

"Hey, kid." He kissed her on the lips and picked her up to rest on his hip.

"Hey, man." She rolled her eyes and slid out of his arms, before running into the house calling Seth's name.

Ryan raised his eyebrows and Summer shook her head. Kirsten laughed.

"She has been talking for ten minutes without break."

Ryan laughed too. "That's Jenn."

Summer nodded and hung back a little longer as Kirsten followed Jenn's descent into the house.

"So what's up with you?" She tapped his bicep and spun around.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the doctor was a long time ago. Who's the new one?"

"Well, her name's Stephanie and apparently Scott is totally in love with her, so I think I might have a little competition."

"I'm serious. You need a girl. Like, above the age of eighteen, or it'll just get messy. Because you, my darling, need to get some."

"What about you? It's been a while since Seth, so don't you need to get some too?"

"I'm working on it."

"Well, maybe I am too."

Summer raised an eyebrow and Ryan shrugged.

"I said maybe."

Ryan walked into the house, Summer trailing slowly behind. Just before she walked through the door, an arm leaned out and grabbed her around to the side of the porch. Lips touched hers; hands slipped down her waist.

"Hey." He murmured against her mouth, trailing his kisses down to her shoulder.

"Hi." She finally closed her eyes, never planning on growing tired of seeing him.

He kissed her for another few minutes, seeming to let his hands linger on her waist a little longer than he sometimes did. "I have to go."

"Where?"

"High school."

"Okay."

He kissed her cheek one more time, and said, "Tell people I said bye." Seth ran down to the street, the keys still left on the hood of the Range Rover. Summer watched him skid on the pavement, sliding on his Converse. She laughed and he grinned back up at her. This was somehow easier than that whole 'being together' thing. Go figure.

Seth sat in a classroom. He sat in the back like he always would, and he was listening to his iPod before the teacher walked in like he supposed he always would. The thirty and forty year olds around him and stopped looking at him strangely, and now even offered a few smiles. He smiled back, drumming a light beat on the edge of the desk he had already gotten sick of. The teacher walked in, younger than most of the students and with red hair. Redheads were always interesting. Especially when their gray eyes followed you around the room no matter where you were sitting, like Ms. McCann's. A thirty eight year old woman, mother of three, paused Seth's iPod for him. He pulled off his earphones and rolled his eyes toward the mother. She giggled back and they all turned to hear the Ms. McCann tell them about appositive phrases and their importance.

Ryan fell into the chair next to Chris and leaned his head down on the seven year old's shoulder. Chris looked at him with his eyes confused.

"Hi?"

"Hello."

"Bored?"

"Yes."

"Want to do my homework?"

"Not particularly."

"Then don't complain."

Chris crashed his pencil back to the paper, rubbing lead markings against it. Ryan rolled his head down onto the table next to Chris's homework, watching Chris's tongue peek through his lips. He got a glass of milk, placed it next to Chris, and went on looking at Chris try to figure out why he was doing this when he could be watching t.v.

Summer walked into the kitchen and sat on the other side of Chris, leaning her head against his other shoulder. Chris groaned and flicked at Summer's head until it leaned back up.

"Why are you people so annoying?"

Summer and Ryan were both crunching down so Chris had to look down at them to look them in the eye. Ryan shrugged.

"I'm bored."

"I'm sorry." Chris stared back at him and around at his mom. He sighed as loudly as he possibly could and got up to leave the kitchen. Summer shrugged and lay her head down on the cloth place mat. Ryan mimicked her. He sighed nearly as loud as Chris.

"I hate my life. This is so stupid."

"What's wrong?"

"Do you get that I'm a waiter?"

"You're working your way through school."

"But I'm twenty-five. And my job is a waiter. And it's not like I have a trust fund kicking in any time soon. I'm a waiter. And that's it."

"You're going to be more. Really."

"You have a job. You have your trust fund next year. I have nothing. My daughter is going to be poor her entire life."

"Ryan. Look." Summer used her hand to pick up Ryan's chin and move it around the kitchen. "I think your daughter's pretty okay."

"Because of Sandy and Kirsten."

"Yeah. So? They love you. They're not going to abandon you or Jenn to any welfare place."

"But I shouldn't have to depend on my parents to live. It's ridiculous."

"You're going to be fine. Jenn's going to be fine. Don't worry about it."

Summer's hand trailed over to Ryan's back and started rubbing small circles. He nodded slowly.

"But what if...I don't know what I want to do. I don't know how any of these classes are going to help me."

"Ryan, you're taking architectural design and stuff. Didn't you always want to do stuff like that? House design? Because, I don't know if you've ever noticed, but Kirsten..."

"I know. But that would be so easy. And I'd be living off my family for the rest of my life. I don't know. Easy never ends up well."

"But it's what you wanted to do."

"But is it what's best for me?"

Summer cocked her head to the side and shrugged lightly before leaning over to rest her head against Ryan's shoulder. His head was leaning to the side so touched the top of her hair. Her hand kept moving.

Seth grabbed a few textbooks and notebooks and smiled at the teacher as he left the room. This was going to take too long. He only to do this for a year, but it was still one year. He hated sucking up to people. But he got to home and have sex with Summer. Made high school a lot easier than he had remembered.

Chris grabbed a bagel out of the basket and stuffed it in his mouth. He smiled at Ryan, still at the table, with his mouth full of bagel. Ryan laughed as Chris walked out of the room. He walked up to the front door and sat on the front steps. He watched all of the cars rushing by and all the men come home and kiss their wives. It always seemed like these people were putting on a show for whoever might be watching. That's why Chris didn't trust any of it. No one was really that happy. He knew from experience.

A car stopped at his driveway, and Chris craned his neck to see that it was Seth. Suddenly, from behind him, someone's leg nearly toppled him over. He spun his head around to see his mom. She crouched down to look at him.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Is something wrong?"

"What? No. Everything's fine."

"Okay."

"Okay." She looked back up at Seth walking towards them; Chris kept watching her. Seth got to the porch, looked at Chris's mom for a second, but turned his glance to Chris.

"Hey Chris."

"Hey. How was school?"

"Long."

"That wasn't long. You were only there for like two hours."

"It feels long." He picked up Chris and swung him onto his hip, looking back at Summer for a little too long, and walked Chris into the house. Kirsten walked out the door, and sat next to Summer. Summer noticed her, but slowly guided her eyes away from Kirsten.

"Do you love him?"

"Kirsten, this is..."

"Do you?"

Summer shrugged, leaning her head farther down on the railing.

"Summer, this isn't just a..."

"Yes."

Kirsten nodded and leaned her head onto Summer's other shoulder. "Baby, you shouldn't be doing this to yourself."

"Do what?"

"Honey, sex isn't just nothing. You know that."

"He doesn't love me. This is the closest I can get."

"You can't really believe he doesn't care about you."

She shrugged again, causing Kirsten's head to rise.

"Baby..."

"This is just the way it is. I don't know. There's nothing I can really do about it."

"But aren't you just setting yourself up for something that might not come as soon as you want it?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything. It's kind of up to him."

The cold railing had collected condensation, so light trails of water streaked on Summer's cheek. Some a little higher than the railing had been.

"I'm going to...go see Chris." Summer got up, leaving Kirsten on the steps.

All of her babies were growing up.