Josh Schwartz is the man! But I'm almost the woman! Look how quick! Score! I know y'all love me! Enough with the exclamation points. This story was totally inspired by a Jimmy Eat World that was so awesome that I put it in here, and a song by Damian Rice called "The Blower's Daughter." Download, download, download.

Lying in bed, before everyone else had woken up, was Seth's favorite time. Those nights when people didn't notice that he hadn't actually gone to his apartment were what he lived for. Chris was already asleep, so as long as he and Summer were quiet, they could do whatever they wanted. And he fell asleep with her lying against his arm, her hair spilling over his shoulder and tickling his lips as he dreamt of her. And as long as he got up before everyone else did, he could slip out without any questions. And Summer would get up with him and watch him scramble around the room for his shoes, a smile tickling her face and her teeth sinking into her bottom lip. And she'd giggle when he fell down, trying to put his sock on while he was standing up. And that was when she had to be the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire life. Without brushing her hair, with mascara streaking her eyelids, leaning up on an elbow, watching him. It was how she was supposed to be.

And he was happy.

It hadn't taken a lot, and suddenly all that doubt he had had about coming back seemed so foolish. He had been afraid that everyone wouldn't be the same, and he would be an outsider who wasn't even allowed to look in. But he had his family back. And everything was the way it should be. And it made him smile. He was smiling most of the time now. Whenever he wasn't at his apartment, or at the docks, teaching someone to sail, or at the high school, he was at home. He didn't think of his apartment as his home; it was just where he slept. He didn't even sleep there so much. It was more of a technicality. It didn't have Summer, so he wasn't obviously all that attracted to it.

So, slumped on the couch, resting his chin on the top of Summer's head, watching some pathetic excuse for a teenybopper movie (and that's saying something) was perfectly fine with him. The fact that Summer, Kirsten, Jenn, Chris, and Ryan were basically bawling made the experience a lot more entertaining.

"Ryan, dude, are you crying?"

"No, man, what's wrong with you?" Seth felt a blow to his knee and laughed.

"You're crying, because Britney Spears and..." Seth squinted. "James Lafferty can't work it out. Dude, that's a little sad."

"Shut up, Seth. I'm not even crying." Ryan sniffed and wiped the back of his hand across his face.

"Yeah, Seth. And it wouldn't be his fault if he was. Because it's sad!" Kirsten whimpered from the side of the room as Britney grabbed James's face and he pushed her away. Seth rolled his eyes and slipped into a position so he could stare at the ceiling.

He whispered, "You want to leave?"

Summer shook her head. "It's getting good."

Seth rolled his eyes again, but stayed where he was. The doorbell rang. He looked around the room and noticed the lack of any movement whatsoever.

"I guess I'll get it." He pulled his arm out from underneath Summer and jumped over the back of the couch so he wouldn't step on any of the people on the floor in front of them.

He jogged to the door and opened it, his breath falling out of his chest.

"Hey, Seth."

"Seth, sweetie, who is it?" Kirsten's voice came from the living room. Seth blinked.

"What are you-what are you doing here?"

"I told you I was..."

"But you're actually here. How'd you get my...address?"

"I asked around." She flipped a curtain of too blonde hair over her right shoulder and shrugged. "It wasn't that hard. People know you here."

"But wh...how...why? ...are you here?"

"I wanted to see you."

Seth blinked, the tears he had been lacking before starting to collect along his bottom eyelashes. "Well, here I am. You found me. Good...good job. Now what..."

"Seth?" Kirsten wiped her eyelid and strolled into the front hall behind him. Seth turned around and looked at his mother over his shoulder. "Who's your friend?"

Her green eyes seemed to sparkle, glancing at Seth for a second, and inviting herself in. "You must be Mrs. Cohen. I'm Brittany, Seth's...friend."

Brittany shook his mother's hand, and Seth flinched ever so slightly. Kirsten was smiling.

"Well, it's nice to meet you. How do you know my son?"

"Oh. Well, I don't know if Seth's mentioned, but we kind of..."

"Mom, could you please excuse us for a second? This is sort of important."

"Oh." Kirsten was smiling her realtor smile. "Well, of course. I'll be in the living room. You seem to have this covered."

If Kirsten went into the living room, she would tell Summer that there was a blonde at the door. If Summer heard there was a blonde at the door, she could probably guess who it was. But there wasn't really anything Seth could do about it. So he just nodded.

"Yes, thank you, Mom." He tried to tell her to keep her mouth shut, but he was almost positive she didn't get it, or she didn't care.

Kirsten left, to tell Summer or to not, and Seth turned back to Brittany.

"Why?"

She snapped her head up and tilted it to the side. "Why what?"

"Why do this? I don't want to talk to you; I don't want to talk about you. Why-why?"

"We had something. We obviously had something. You know there was something. You can't just expect that I wouldn't want to know how your life is."

"You called me. You could've asked me how my life was then. You didn't. You said you wanted me to..."

"Well, yes, that would be nice. But I want to catch up, Seth. I think I have the right to know your family. Your family that almost became my family."

"But they didn't. B, this is..."

"And you still call me B. Because you still think about me. And you still..."

"My girlfriend's in that room." Seth pointed behind him. "She's in that room. And I love her."

"You loved me."

"That's what you want to tell yourself, fine. I love her. That's what I'm telling you."

"Well, she's your high school sweetheart, right? A little more than five foot, brown hair, brown eyes, tendency to dress in Wonder Woman costumes?"

"What?"

"I found that thing you used to carry around all the time. The sketchpad you would never let me see. I found it. She seems very pretty; I'd love to see her in person."

"She wouldn't want to see you."

"Well, that would be rude, wouldn't it? I just want to meet this girl that's better than me. This girl that could make you walk out on your fiancée in front of everyone who means anything to her. I have that right, don't I?"

"Britt..."

But she was walking past him into the living room. Seth couldn't breathe, but he tried his best to run after her.

Everyone looked up when Brittany stepped into the room. They all had furrowed eyebrows, but Brittany was staring straight at the girl lying on the couch with her feet on the boy with blonde hair. She was nodding.

Seth bit his tongue. Brittany spun around and shrugged. "She's cute."

Seth stared at the ground, unwilling to believe this was actually happening. Brittany flounced over to Summer, offering her hand.

"Brittany. The old girlfriend."

Seth shook his head; almost sure he should be saying something. Summer looked at him, and he wanted to look back at her, but he couldn't. Summer's jaw dropped, but she pulled it back up and even found a smile.

"Summer. It's...nice to meet you."

"Wish I could say the same, honey. Because I'm sure if I met you on different circumstances, we could be best friends. But as it is, kind of hard. You see, Seth and I were really serious. Like as serious as you can imagine. Then, well, to make a long, detailed, passionate story short, he left me at the altar. I just thought that, being him, he probably never told you that he was engaged for a few months. And I didn't think that was fair. So, now that we're on the same page, you know what I meant when I said there was no chance for us being best friends, but it was really...informative meeting you. I do have to be going." Brittany winked. "Ciao, bella."

She spun on her heel from Sears and winked at Seth too. She started to make her way back out of the house, stopping briefly to kiss Seth on the lips. It wasn't anything, so he didn't have the chance to stop her, just a touch from her lips to his.

"Call me. I'll be around."

She touched his lips with her finger and walked past him to the door.

Seth stared at the same spot he had been since Brittany had entered the room. His hand came up to his face, running through his hair, and settling in front of his mouth, when he finally looked up. Summer was staring back at him, Britney and James suddenly forgotten.

"You were engaged? Were you...ever going to tell me?"

"Summer..."

"Engaged? I mean, isn't that a little...much? I assumed you'd had girlfriends, but you got engaged?"

"I didn't want to. It just seemed like she was expecting it, and..."

"You were engaged? Seth, that's something you'd tell the person you were dating, don't you think? That you almost got married to someone else?"

"Summer, I don't..."

"But you did. You loved her, and you slept with her, and you gave her a ring, and you saw her in a white dress, and you said you loved me. And you didn't even think I deserved to know."

"I tried to tell you. I..."

"You said there was a girl. You didn't say she was your fiancée."

"She isn't. I mean, I broke it off. She doesn't mean anything to me."

"But you still took her to the altar. She's pretty. I bet she was a beautiful bride. And you guys must've looked really good together. Wonder why I didn't get an invitation. I mean, I'd like to see you get married someday. Please, Cohen, next blonde that comes around with fake boobs? Let me know. I'd love to see you two kids get together."

Summer jumped off the couch and ran out of the room. Seth yelled her name and ran after her. The living room went silent except for the love ballad Britney sang with Justin Timberlake during the credits.

"Summer."

She turned around as she got to the edge of the pool. "What do you want me to say, Cohen?"

"I want you to listen to me."

"I'm listening."

He was breathing deeply, nearly as deeply as she was as she brushed the tears that were smearing her make up off of her face. He looked at the pool, to the main house, and back at her. And he kissed her. He ran to her, put his hand on the bottom of her cheek and the beginning of her neck, and kissed her. And she didn't push him away like she was telling herself to. Begging herself to.

He tugged on her lips as he gently pulled away.

"What do you want, Cohen?"

"I want you."

"Did you use the same line on 'Brittany?' And, I don't know, I never thought you were into that kind of...girl. Blonde, fake bitch."

"She's not a bitch."

"Oh, I'm so, so sorry." Summer crossed her arms and her eyes grew.

"Summer, stop. And I'm sorry I made a mistake. I didn't know if I was ever coming back, and she was...there. And I'm sorry you had to...go through that. And I'm sorry that she was like that. She was angry, and I didn't want to talk to her, so she just...blew. I'm sorry."

Summer's eyes had graduated to the lawn chair behind Seth. She let out a sigh and looked at him.

"You know what's funny, Cohen? When I yelled at you, I was yelling at you for not telling me. And that's the one thing you didn't apologize for. Maybe you should go home."

She walked away. She walked away from him, when ten minutes ago, she was crying into his shirt because of some movie. Seth didn't really want to go back to a room of people who were probably just as angry at him as Summer was, so he just left too. As Seth got into his car, his dad pulled up, a grin on his face, dark red roses in his hand.

"Hey, Seth, I...leaving so early? What's wrong?"

"Ask Mom. Or Ryan. Or Jenn. Or Chris. Don't ask Summer. I gotta go."

Seth backed out of the driveway, stealing a lingering glance at the pool house. Sandy glanced around too, deciding to go into the living room.

Everyone was still in the same spots they had been before. Sandy furrowed his eyebrows.

"Kirsten? Ryan? Is something wrong?"

Ryan shook his head. "She came."

"Who?"

"Brittany."

"Who's Brittany?"

"She's this girl Seth met in Samoa."

"And she came here?"

"Yeah."

"This wasn't a good thing?"

"No. Brittany's...a blunt girl."

"What'd she say?"

"Enough to make Summer cry, and Seth want to."

"Uh-oh."

Ryan nodded. Kirsten turned around to look at him.

"Did you know about a Brittany?" She asked.

Ryan let his mouth fall open a little bit. "I might've had an idea."

"In other words, yes."

"Maybe."

Kirsten nodded and looked to Sandy. "Did you know that your first born son was almost married without even a phone call?"

Ryan muttered, "He didn't call me either."

"I'm his mother."

"Seth was going to get married?" Sandy looked from Ryan to Kirsten.

Kirsten and Ryan nodded together. Sandy looked down to the ground.

"And he couldn't have told me. I didn't think it was anything like this. I thought he was just fighting with Summer again."

Ryan shrugged. "He's doing that too. She didn't take well to not being told."

"I'm not taking well to it, either." Kirsten crossed her arms and leaned back. She turned to Sandy. "When would he have told you?"

"He was leaving when I pulled in. He said I should ask you guys."

"He left?" Kirsten started to get up.

"He's gone."

"I should talk to Summer." Kirsten stood up.

"No, I will." Ryan stood up.

"Neither of you will. I'll do it." Sandy walked out without a chance for protest and knocked on the door to the pool house.

"Get the fuck away. I do not want to talk to you." Summer's voice broke.

"Summer?" Sandy opened the door a crack, and looked in to the girl sitting by the bathroom door. She looked up and wiped her cheeks.

"Sandy. I'm-I'm sorry. I thought you were..."

"Seth? What's wrong, honey?" Sandy walked over and sat down on the floor next to her.

"He's...stupid. I don't know who he is anymore. And it's just...too bad."

"What did you say to him?"

Summer just shrugged, running a finger up her cheek.

"Did you break up with him?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know."

"Do you want to?"

"I don't know. I could."

"Do you?"

"It would make sense."

Sandy nodded. "It would."

"But I don't know. Maybe I'll get Chris to do it for me."

Sandy smiled and stretched an arm around her shaking shoulders. "He does have a way with words."

"Words, screaming his head off."

"Do you really want to, though?"

"I don't know. I can't just forgive him again. You know we never actually broke up that summer? I didn't say anything on Valentine's Day, and then he decided he wasn't good enough. I ran away from him, and then he kissed some girl in Vegas. I sat beside him until he told me to leave, and then he left the continent. And then he gets back and breaks up with me as easily as he wants. It's like he's always running off and making his own decisions."

"Well, you can't make them for him."

"I don't want to! I just...want him to...talk to me about it first."

"Seth hasn't known what he's doing most of his life. You can't really blame him for it."

"Yes, I can. Because it always ends up hurting me."

"Not always."

"You know, when he left, I promised myself I wouldn't wait for him forever? I said no matter what I wouldn't let myself get that attached to anyone. And then he comes back and I break all my promises to myself and I don't even know if he deserves any of that."

"You changed."

"What?"

"Since he left, you've changed. There was Luke...and then there was Chris. And both of them changed you. It wasn't your fault."

"Well, I don't know if Luke and Chris exactly made me take Seth back."

"Luke and Chris made you change your outlook on things. Luke made you believe there was some good in everyone, and Chris made you realize you always have to find that good."

"And that's why I let Seth do whatever he wanted to me?"

"It changed who you are. And I think you still know what you're doing most of the time."

"Most of the time. Maybe I just like to get hurt."

"Oh, probably."

"I was being sarcastic."

"Me too."

Summer nodded, leaning her head gently over onto Sandy's shoulder.

"Do you think I should forgive him?"

"You know I can't answer that."

"But I'm asking you to. Do you think I should?"

"It's not something I can answer."

"I just want your opinion. If you were in my position and all that crap."

"I don't think like you."

"Think like you. Thinking like me doesn't seem to be working."

Sandy moved his head so his chin rested on Summer's head. "I wouldn't. But I think I'd like you to."

"Why?"

"Why wouldn't I forgive him? That's me. I'm bitter. Why do I want you to? Because I think you really love him."

"Yeah?"

Sandy looked back over to the door and nodded. "Yeah."

Seth lay back on the bed in the corner of his room. He hadn't been in the mood to move it into the designated bedroom, so it was in his "living room." He looked up at the ceiling as Jimmy Eat World flicked onto the computer in the other corner of the room.

"The time I would spend with pictures I would not send.

I watched you go from left to right.

I follow you all night, across my blinds.

You'll change your mind come Monday and turn your back on me.

You took your steps away with hesitance.

Take your steps away from me.

I'm making my peace; making it with distance.

Maybe that's a big mistake; you know I'm thinking of you.

I miss you."

He rolled onto his side as the phone on his floor rang. He rolled further and picked it up, not bothering to check the number.

"Hello?"

"Where are you right now?"

"Brittany?"

"That's me."

"Don't call me."

"Okay, you can say that. I was a bitch. I can't apologize?"

"No."

"That's understandable. Can I talk now? I won't invade your personal space. I'll stay here, and you'll stay there. But I'll apologize."

"Whatever."

"Okay. I'm sorry. I was pissed off, and I had your address in front of me. I didn't mean to actually come, but I kind of dared myself. I'm sorry; it was stupid. I'm sorry I talked to your girlfriend. She seemed nice. She kept her cool. I can respect that. She was very pretty. Prettier than me, so I guess I can understand why you couldn't go through with marrying me. Knowing there are girls like that out there that would look at you is a pretty good reason. I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

"Less than good."

"Why?"

"I think...she broke up with me."

"Summer?"

"Yeah."

"What'd she say?"

"She basically told me to go to hell. I knew I should've told her. I was going to tell her. But it was just...hard."

"I know. I know why you didn't."

"Then, could you please enlighten me?"

"You were scared that you'd lose the best thing in your life. I know the feeling."

"So I did something else that ended up hurting her more, giving her way more reason to leave me. That's...smart."

"No one said you were."

"Thanks. I forgot how sweet you were."

"It's not your fault. People tend to do stupid things, when they're in love."

"That's deep."

"That's Disney."

"Same thing."

"Right." She giggled ever so quietly. "So, are you going to talk to her?"

"Not now. I'm not going to do it over the phone."

"You left?"

"I wasn't going to stay and give her the opportunity to actually break up with me."

"So you walked out on her."

"Well it sounds worse if you say it like that."

"How would you say it?"

"I left before things got worse."

"How much worse could things get?"

"She could break up with me."

"And do you plan on ever seeing her again?"

"That's the plan."

"And you think that since you left now, she won't break up with you then."

"I won't let her."

"Women are stubborn. And if you were smart at all, you wouldn't be talking to me right now."

"But you wanted to apologize."

"You could've hung up after I did."

"What are you trying to prove, Brittany? Because I'm really not in the mood right now."

"I'm trying to help you."

"Why? You were the one that hurt."

"No, thinking like that is. You were the problem. If you had explained everything to your girlfriend, then she could have just flipped me off and I would've left."

"Okay. It's my fault. Everything's my fault."

"I didn't say that. I told you I was a bitch."

"Most of it's my fault."

"Yeah."

"So...bye."

"You don't want my advice?"

"Not really."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to talk to you anymore. And if I know what's good for me, I'll never talk to you again."

"That's a little severe."

"You were a bitch."

"Okay, so I walked into that. But if you wanted some help with women, I am actually one."

"Oh."

"Don't sound so surprised."

"Bye, Brittany."

"Bye. And...Seth?"

"What?"

"It's okay if you miss me sometimes."

He hung up the phone and stared at it before tossing it, sliding across the floor. How could he do things like this? How could he fuck up everyone's emotions so bad?

But really, he knew the answer.

Seth Cohen hadn't really changed that much.

Fucking things up was what he did.

Hmm...still love me?

"Cautioners" written by Jim Adkins, Zach Lind, Rom Linton, and Mitch Porter