I'm back from vacation! The response on the last double post was amazing! I'm sorry to leave you hanging for so long so here's the next chapter. Keep those reviews coming and I may be persuaded to update even faster! (I'm on my summer vacation from school right now so I have like 5 weeks off so I can get much more written) Thanks again! Chloe x

I'm on the Other Side, of Where our Lives Used to be

A somewhat subdued mood had been cast over the engagement party Spencer had thrown for his bride to be. Well around half the people there didn't know what had happened and were casually laughing and having a good time with their friends. But a small group of native Californians, one curly headed Jew in particular, were stunned. Kirsten Cohen, being the perfect hostess she'd learned to be, ushered the party guests to the outer terraced area and closed the glass partitioning door leaving a group of people inside. Seth Cohen, Shelley Young, Marissa Cooper, Ryan Atwood, Julie Cooper, Sandy Cohen, Taylor Townsend and Grace Miller stood in a small circle of uncomfortable silence. Spencer was outside the ladies bathroom, trying to coax out Summer who had holed herself up next to a sink.

Kirsten rejoined the group and cleared her throat.

"Seth honey, I wanted to tell you," Kirsten said quietly, looking at the floor.

"Yeah, but you didn't did you…" Seth mumbled, taking a huge gulp of his martini.

"I can't believe Summer's back…" Marissa said, Ryan squeezing her hand.

"Yeah, and Spencer was with her the whole time, right under our noses, and we didn't even notice," Taylor said.

"Okay, well thanks for this highly motivational little conversation we got going here but right now I'm so not in the mood. Now just for my benefit, could I know how many of you knew about this?" Seth stood expectantly looking at the arrangement of his friends and family.

"W…well Julie and I knew first when we met him for, for lunch," Kirsten began, "then I told your father…"

"And, um, I ran into my Mom and saw the place card in her purse, and I told Ryan," Marissa mumbled.

"Okay, so let me get this straight, five of you knew, my parents and my best friend? And you, oh I don't know, never thought to tell me so I could've not been humiliated publicly!"

Over in the bathrooms, Summer was sat in one of the posh stalls which had a toilet, sink and a little vanity mirror with a pink stool. She sat, curled up on the stool with her head in her hands, listening as Spencer pounded on the door.

"Honey, please come out!" he cried. Summer sniffed and ignored him.

"Look, I don't know what is going on here, but if you'd just come out Sum… we can forget about the party and sneak out. We can go home and talk. Please Sum." Summer raised her head and looked in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot and her makeup was a mess. The only thing she wanted to do was go home. So she got up, tottered over to the door and opened it.

"I just wanna go home…" she sighed, falling into Spencer's arms.

"Sure thing sweetie, whatever you want to do," he replied, stroking her hair.

"Thanks Spencer." He took her hand and led her out of the bathrooms, not knowing the group argument which was taking place in the bar.

"Seth, I tried to find you to tell you but after an hour passed I didn't think you were coming!"

"It wasn't my fault, Shelley was stalling me!"

"Oh, so this is my fault?" Shelley shouted.

"No, this is not your fault, this has nothing to do with you," Seth replied.

"Well excuse me Seth! I don't even know who this girl is! And who the hell is she?" Shelley pointed over to Grace who glanced up and turned deep crimson.

"You know what, I'm done with this. My night has been ruined, not only with seeing a girl who I was in love with just spring back up in front of my eyes, but the people I trust most not having the guts to come and tell me. Just leave me alone." Seth gave one last bitter glance at the people in front of him, but saw none were looking at him, they were looking over his shoulder at the small brunette who was watching everything. Seth turned around and gave her a bitter smile.

"Thanks for a wonderful party," he said sarcastically and headed over to the elevator.

Seth sat on the soft, cold sand as the cool wind swept through his deep brown curls. The wind made his eyes hurt as he stared at the ocean, but he didn't close them, each time he did, he saw Summer, staring back at him. He couldn't believe what had happened. Summer Roberts. Summer. After 5 long years, she was back in his life. And how it happened hadn't quite been desirable. In actual fact, he'd been thinking that one day in the future, this scenario would happen, this was just beyond how he'd ever imagined it. He hated his life, how he always got into such messed up and twisted situations. You couldn't make up some of this stuff. This was the reason he'd always dreamed of running away. It always seemed like it'd solve all his problems. But after doing it once, he knew that it made things worse. Right now, he wanted to just escape. Away from his parents, Shelley and most importantly, Summer.

When he'd seen her, it was like he was caught in a time-warp. His heart did somersaults and his brain focused on nothing but her, just like it used to. But he didn't tell anyone. These thoughts were solely for his mind. She looked exactly the same, her eyes just carried a little more wisdom than before. Her skin was still dewy and clear with a few cute freckles on her nose. Her hair was still the same shade of deep cocoa that he remembered and her laugh still lit up the room. Seth let out a loud cry of frustration and stood up. But, there was one thing he knew. Even though she was still the same person she was all those years ago, he knew he didn't feel anything more for her. And she clearly didn't judging by the size of the rock on her left hand. But Seth knew things would be better if they'd never have come into contact. The only word bouncing around in his head right now was why?

"WHY?" he yelled at the darkened sky.

His head flopped back down and he turned around to see her standing before him.

"Hi," she said quietly.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, his voice barely audible.

"Not long…" Seth nodded and turned away, sitting back down on the sand. Summer walked over and sat beside him, not close enough that they were touching though.

"I'm sorry," she said, staring at the ocean. Seth looked at her, his eyes full of wonder.

"Why are you sorry?"

"I caused you to be mad at your family and friends," Summer replied. Seth gazed over at this girl. She was once so familiar to him, he knew everything about her, but now, she felt like a stranger.

"I know you probably don't want to talk right now…I get that. But clearly, we're going to be seeing each other more so I think we need to talk. Here's my number, call me when you're ready." Summer extracted a torn piece of a napkin out of her purse and placed it gently in Seth's palm. Seth watched her hand for the split second that it brushed his palm, gazing at the huge diamond ring on her finger.

"Night." Summer got up and brushed down her dress before walking away from him and off into the darkness. Seth stared down at the piece of napkin and was about to screw it up when he saw something written on the back. 'Sorry x.' His eyes watered and he hastily brushed at them before standing up and shoving the napkin into his pants pocket.

When Summer and Seth returned home that night, both went straight to bed, leaving their partners to wonder for longer what the connection between the two was. A very hurt Shelley watched Seth silently retire to the bedroom and picked up her cell phone. This was it. She dialled Marissa's number and waited for her to pick up. She'd already tried to get the truth from her best friend but Marissa refused, saying that Seth needed to tell her himself. But Shelley needed to know the truth.

"Hello?" Marissa picked up the phone.

"Marissa, I need to know what the hell is going on. Seth came in and went straight to bed. Please tell me…" Shelley's eyes watered and her voice cracked.

"Okay…listen." Marissa began telling Shelley the whole Seth and Summer story, from their meeting in junior year to her departure at the end of senior year. 15 minutes later, Marissa fell silent, finishing her story and Shelley swallowed hard.

"Thanks Marissa, I, I need to go now. Bye." Shelley hung up the phone and buried her head in her hands.

The next morning Seth emerged from his bedroom, his hair dishevelled and just wearing his boxers and a T-Shirt which read 'Blame My Parents'. He scratched his head, yawning and picked up the phone. He glanced back down at the napkin in his hand and dialled the number written on it. He listened as the dialling tone sounded and waited. After no-one picked up, the machine sounded and Seth decided to leave a message.

"Hi, Summer, its Seth. Um, I'm free today around 11, we can go for a coffee and lunch if you like. Well, I'll be at Ed's coffee shop on North Robertson Boulevard around 11, hope I can see you there. Bye." Seth hung up the phone and stood in silent thought for a second, before he was interrupted by Shelley clearing her throat behind him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I was calling Summer, we're going to meet and talk today."

"Summer? Your ex girlfriend Summer? Summer who you freaked out about yesterday and practically ruined her engagement party?" Shelley sniffed.

"Yes." Seth walked past her and into the kitchen.

"We need to talk about her Seth, Marissa filled me in on the past, something you forgot to do."

"Look," Seth turned to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them up and down comfortingly, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about us, I never thought I'd have to. Summer is engaged to the leading actor on my movie, nothing will happen between us ever again. I love you and if you love me too, you'll let me go and work this out between us. I have to do this so we can all move on and get along. Yes she may be my ex but maybe we should try to be friends. I don't know, I'm just going to go today and talk to her. Okay?" Shelley blinked and stared up at Seth, pouting.

"Okay… but later, you need to apologise to Spencer."

"Fine, I need to go get a shower." He kissed Shelley's forehead and strode over int the bathroom. Shelley pulled her robe closer and sat alone in the empty kitchen.

Summer peered into the window of the coffee shop she'd been invited to by Seth. She saw the back of his curly head sat at a table on the far side of the shop and walked over to the door. She walked over to the table, her heart pounding hard against her chest and sat opposite him.

"You couldn't choose a better place?" she smiled, sitting down. Seth glanced up from his magazine and smiled at Summer.

"Thanks for coming."

"Thanks for inviting me, I thought you'd just throw the number into the ocean or something."

"The thought did cross my mind…" Summer picked up a menu and began browsing. A waitress floated over and Seth glanced up.

"Hi, I'll have the feta, bacon and tomato omelette and a glass of mineral water," Seth told her. She wrote it down and then turned to Summer.

"Yeah, I'll have the Special Salad and an orange juice please." The waitress nodded and took their menus before heading towards the kitchen. The two sat in silence, occasionally catching each other looking in their direction. Seth decided to break the ice.

"Look Summer, I'm sorry for how I acted last night, it was really out of order, I guess I just freaked out…"

"No, its totally okay Cohen, I mean I locked myself in the bathroom for God's sake!"

"Tell Spencer I'm sorry too, that party meant a lot to him, he's been going on about it for weeks."

"Cohen, its fine. If he's mad at anyone, it'd be me. Anyway, the party carried on after we'd left and I didn't know half the people there so…" Summer shrugged.

"So…how long have you, um, been together?" Seth asked, staring at the table.

"Almost 4 years I think,"

"Oh… that's great." Seth forced himself to smile.

"What about you? You're with Sheila, Shelby…?" Summer frowned.

"Shelley," Seth corrected, with a small smile. Summer blushed and looked out of the window.

"Its okay, we, uh, we met at Berkeley, we've been dating for around 3 years now."

"Great…" Summer forced herself to say. An uncomfortable silence followed and the two shuffled in their seats.

"Cohen, we don't have to talk about Spencer and Shelley you know…" Summer said softly. Seth glanced up and stared at her.

"Yeah, it is kinda weird." The two couldn't stop themselves from continuing to stare into each other's eyes, just like they did all those years ago. Their eyes were like magnets, attracted together and Summer tried to blink but couldn't. They didn't notice the waitress who was stood over them the whole time, carrying their drinks on a tray. She cleared her throat and they snapped out of their trance. She smiled sarcastically and placed their drinks on the table as the uncomfortable awkwardness only increased.

"So you have your own company?" Seth asked in a kind of bemused way. Summer frowned and nodded in a 'duh!' way.

"Yeah, its doing really well, I love it…" Summer smiled.

"I'd never have thought you'd set up your own company," Seth replied.

"Why?" Summer asked in a slightly offended manner.

"I don't know, you just never struck me as an entrepreneur sort of person I guess…"

"Well I guess you don't know me then," Summer stated. She stabbed a tomato and placed it into her mouth carefully.

"So, who was that girl you were with last night? You know with the blue eyes and brown hair?"

"Oh, that's Grace," Summer nodded, taking a sip of water, "She's like my best friend. I met her in college, when I went, and she was so nice. I kept in touch with Marissa but we just drifted… I guess it was the distance, also leaving hit her pretty hard…" Seth raised his eyebrows and stared out of the window distantly. Summer blushed and cursed herself for being so stupid.

"I'm sorry Seth, I didn't mean…I…" Summer stammered.

"Its okay, listen I think the one thing we need to get straight here is that I don't hold anything against you for leaving, I got over that a long time ago," he began. Summer stared at him, looking slightly hurt by his bluntness.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I mean, we both got over it, we have new partners and in order for us to get along, I think we need to put it behind us," Seth said, looking at Summer for a reply.

"Yeah, I'd like us to be able to be friends…" she said quietly.

"Id like to be friends too…"

"But we need to take baby steps…"

"Definitely."

"Okay."

"Great!"

"Fine!"

Both burst out laughing and stopped at the same time, staring at each other. Their equally deep brown eyes sparkled and they knew what they had to do.

"To putting the past behind us, and looking forward to the future," Summer raised her glass. Seth did the same and they clinked them together softly and both truly believing that this was the beginning of a new era.