A/N; Thanks again for reviewing, I really appreciate it! And don't worry, Zach is on his way out!

Please Read and Review-Thanks

"Seth, What the hell are you doing?"

Ryan was staring at his brother as he hid behind a bank of lockers and peered gingerly around the corner scanning the corridor beyond. School was packed, as was the norm for the first day back, and Seth's behaviour was already starting to attract some odd looks from passing students.

"Shhh…" Seth whispered "Have I taught you nothing? I'm being stealth!"

"Yes I guessed that…the black turtle neck tipped me off" Ryan snapped back. "I just want to know why?"

"Because, Forewarned is forearmed" Seth glanced at Ryan who was by now looking both irritated and totally confused. " I need to see Summer before she sees me so I can prepare myself and give a good first post-break up impression" Explained Seth "Then maybe she'll take me back" Seth crouched on to the floor settling himself on all fours as he said this.

Ryan just shook his head and began to open his locker.

"Hi Guys!" said a voice from behind them.

Ryan and Seth both span hurriedly around to where the voice was coming from and came face to face with Summer and Marissa, both looking impossibly beautiful as usual.

"Damnit" Seth murmured from the floor "The subtle rear approach strategy, it's text book. I can't believe I didn't think of it"

Ryan laughed as he heard this but gave Seth a quick kick with his foot to silence him, he didn't think it would help matters for Summer to realise why he was sat in that position. It seemed to be a little late however as Summer had already noticed.

She looked down at Seth who was still crouched on the floor huddled close to the locker, but was now also massaging his thigh where Ryan's shoe had hit him. "Cohen what in the hell are you doing?"

Seth jumped guilty to his feet and brushed some dirt off his trousers as he faced Summer. His mouth went slightly dry as he tried to speak; a measure of both the awkwardness of the situation and the effect that her beauty still had on him even after all this time.

"I…er…I was…er…just looking for…gum" He invented quickly then regretted it.

"Ok…Ewww" Summer shook her head in disbelief

Seth broke into a relieved grin. It was odd how much pleasure it gave him just hearing her say that. He had been so busy missing all the big things about her; her smile, her laugh and the way it felt holding her in his arms, that he'd forgotten how much his missed all the little things. It actually felt good just to be able to near her again.

"What are you smiling about Cohen?" Summer had been eying him suspiciously for several moments as he just stood and grinned inexplicably to himself.

"Nothing, just glad to be back at school" He muttered looking sheepishly at his Converse.

"Urm ok" Summer rolled her eyes at his odd behaviour, but inside she was just cursing herself. Even though she was still angry with him for leaving, his goofy grin still had the sort of effect on her heart that nobody else ever had before…or was ever likely to in the future. Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft laugh coming from behind her. Turning, she saw that Ryan had sidled up to Marissa and was now gently kissing her up against the locker and whispering occasionally in her ear.

"Ewww Coop, get a room!"

"Aww leave it Sum" Marissa said, breaking momentarily from her lip-lock but still not taking her eyes off Ryan "It's not like we're as bad as you and Seth were wh…"

Marissa shut up as soon as she realised what she'd said. Clearly the emotions were still too raw to joke about. Silence and an awkward tension descended on her group of friends.

Ryan rested his head on Marissa's shoulder to avoid having to look at the mortified face of his girlfriend. Seth meanwhile was now staring fixedly at his Converse. "Holy awkward" he murmured. Even with the Cohen family trait of making comments at inappropriate times, he really could not think of anything else to add.

"I'm sorry Sum, I…" Marissa began but was cut off by Summer

"I'm just gonna go to class. I'll see you later" She turned and hurried off down the corridor without so much as a backward glance.

"Well that went well" Seth commented sarcastically.

"Seth I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to…well you know"

"Seriously don't worry about it Marissa. It's just nice that it's somebody else putting their foot in it for a change." Seth was still smiling as he turned to his locker and got his books out but as he looked back at Ryan and Marissa he looked unusually serious. "I just wish we hadn't left it like that. I mean if we can't start having actual conversations soon…well it's only going to get harder for us to get back to being anything approaching friends…let alone anything else."

Ryan hated seeing Seth like this, it just didn't seem right for Seth to be depressed…that's just not how it worked. Ryan was the broody one and he was pretty sure Kirsten couldn't cope with two of them. "Go after her Seth. Just go and talk to her, don't leave it like that. You're right it'll just make things harder for you both"

"Really? You think I should go and talk to her? But what if she doesn't want to talk? What if she hates me? What if my Jew-fro takes a turn for the worse on the way and she just gets scared of it and runs away? What if…"

"Seth! Just shut up and go!" Ryan snapped, finally halting his brother's manic ramblings.

"Ok. But seriously dude, what should we talk about?" Seth looked genuinely nervous at the point.

"I don't know do I" Ryan looked pleadingly at Marissa for help. Desperate to make amends for the trouble she'd caused, Marissa quickly gave Seth all the advice she could think of.

"Just talk about something neutral, nothing too emotional or meaningful for the two of you. Just pick something you both have in common and make it seem like a totally natural conversation. What do you have in common by the way?"

"Urm…I don't know…Plastic Horses?" Seth was starting to sound distressed. He couldn't believe that a simple conversation could cause him this much anguish.

"Ok…well maybe don't start off with the Horses! You'd better go else you won't catch her. Think of something on the way!" Marissa hurried him off down the corridor. "Good Luck" She called after him.

Seth turned to smile quickly at them and in doing so nearly fell over his own feet. He hastily regained his balance and gave them a quick thumbs up sign before bounding away again.

Ryan and Marissa laughed as they watched him disappear around the corner. "I'm so glad our relationship isn't that complicated" Marissa said turning to Ryan and slipping her arms around his waist.

"Oh yeah" He replied, eyeing her mock- seriously "Simple…that's really how I would describe us"

Marissa laughed and shut him up with a kiss.