Part 2, thanks so much again for the reviews, they're always awesome. Enjoy!

And Pause the Tragic Ending for just a Moment More

PART 2

The doorbell rang again.

She sighed and took one last look at her glimmering star. She looked into the mirror hung on the wall, trying to do something about her bleary eyes Hastily, she wiped them with her sleeve and blinked, hard.

The doorbell rang again. This time is was more prolonged and followed with a harsh knock on the wooden door.

She scowled at this person's clear impatience, despite the fact that they couldn't see her. She finally reached the door and with a casual twist of the brass knob, her visitor was revealed.

"Summer," he said, bluntly. She froze, all the air inside her lungs gushing out into the atmosphere which had just gotten more intense.

There he stood. The ghost from her not so distant past. Seth Cohen.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered. He looked at the ground, his hands shoved into his pockets. He searched for an answer to her question but couldn't find one.

"I don't know…I just…" he struggled to find the words to sum up the complex array of emotions thrashing around in his mind.

"Do, do you want to come in?" Summer asked, feeling the cold chill from the biting wind outside. Seth said nothing, merely nodding, a small smile appearing on his face. She stood back, letting him pass her and breathed in the musky scent of his cologne that she remembered so vividly. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to gather her thoughts, which were all over the place right now.

"Summer?" Her eye's flicked back open as she heard him calling her name.

"Sorry," she said, blushing slightly. She gestured for him to follow her through to the living room. He walked behind her, his heart was telling him to just grab her and hold her in his arms again, but his brain was telling him to take it slowly. He couldn't mess this up. But the feeling in his heart, once again, took over his body and left him powerless.

They entered the living room and Seth lunged forward, taking her by the waist and spinning her around gently. Then he lowered his lips onto hers and they shared a kiss like no other. The longing that both had felt growing over these past four months was put into this one kiss. Summer felt her heart pounding so hard as she felt his hands resting on her back and she pulled him closer. Seth couldn't believe what was happening, so overcome he was with the feeling of euphoria. They eventually broke apart, gasping for the air they needed so much. Their eyes locked, and they couldn't break their attraction.

"So? Can you answer me now? Why are you here?" Summer breathed. Their faces were less than an inch away. Seth could see every freckle on her nose.

"I couldn't live my life without you," he answered truthfully.

"And you couldn't say that before?"

"I knew it, I just needed to tell you in a different way first…" he replied. Summer smiled and looked at the ground, still in a state of disbelief, that he was here, in her apartment, in New York, on New Years Eve. It was like a story. She discreetly pinched her arm. It hurt. Thank god this wasn't a dream. And yet it still seemed to good to be true.

"Look Summer, I was stupid to let you go, and believe me, I've felt that for the past four months…"

"I was stupid to go.."

"And I felt like I've barely lived since you left, you gave my life meaning and without you, the world's just black and white. I can't go on without you," Seth finished, his eyes penetrating seep into Summer's own gaze.

"I know, I know, I feel the same way. I sit inside this apartment every day and just wish I could still be with you, and now you're here, its just too good to be true…" she smiled.

Seth grinned back, his dimples appearing on his cheeks and Summer couldn't hold back any longer. She jumped forward into his arms and kissed him with all the longing and lust she could extract from her body. They fell back onto the couch and held their passionate and loving embrace. It felt like their hearts were beating in sync as their kisses got even more passionate and Summer broke away, getting off the couch, Seth's hand in hers, and she led him to the bedroom…

Summer and Seth laid on Summer's king size bed, two hours later. Seth looked over at her, she always looked so beautiful when she slept, so natural. He pushed a strand of her dark hair off of her face and sighed. She was perfect in so many ways, this just felt so unbelievably right. Seth couldn't imagine having this kind of connection with any other person. It was undeniable. So why couldn't he sleep? He sighed heavily and kissed Summer's forehead, being careful not to wake her, and got out of bed, heading for the bathroom. He emerged in his boxers and his T-Shirt, and walked over to the window. He looked out onto the dark New York street and felt a shiver crawl up his spine. What was wrong with him? Something about this place, this apartment, just felt so… off. He heard a siren blaring in the distance and looked up at the sky, the bright silver moon surrounded by the array of sparkling stars.

Just a short while, he had told Summer all about how he couldn't live without her, and it was completely true. But he thought back to what Summer had said all those months ago when he floated the concept of coming with her.

"Let me come with you, to New York," he said softly. Summer's eyes widened and she sighed heavily.

"I can't Seth. I can't ask you to do that," she said quietly, "You don't want this. You know you don't."

"That's not the point," he began

"Yes it is. You can't move hundreds of miles away from home to somewhere you have never been before and you don't want to be. Its crazy Seth."

'It's crazy.' Those words rang in his head as he looked back at the New York skyline. The truth was, when he had floated that particular concept before, it had been one of the hardest things he'd ever had to say. Leaving Newport had always been a dream of his, but when it had come to actually putting that into practise it had failed horribly, hence his two week drug phase. On the plane ride here, his hands shook and he felt constantly nauseous. What it came down to was one thing. Would Summer be prepared to give up her life here to move back with him? He turned back to look at her, sleeping peacefully and unaware of the worry going on inside Seth's head.

He walked back over to the bed, and sat alongside Summer. Her eye's slowly flickered open and she gazed up at him lovingly.

"Hey, go back to sleep," he said softly.

"I'm so glad you came Seth," she whispered.

"Me too."

"Its just what I wanted, and my wish came true," she breathed. Seth grinned back at her, stroking her hair.

"Now you're here with me in New York, this place is going to be so much fun. I'm glad you decided to come and stay here with me," she said, yawning. Seth felt a huge clang inside his chest as his heart dropped to his stomach.

He turned back to look at her but she had fallen back to sleep and was breathing softly, her head resting on the soft pillow. He smiled and got back up off the bed, angry butterflies raging around in his stomach. She wanted him to stay with her, here. Live in New York, 2000 miles away from Newport, from his parents, from Ryan, from his home. He pulled on his jeans and socks and headed into the kitchen where he saw a pad and paper resting on the counter. He took the pen in his shaking hands and began, 'Dear Summer…'

The next morning, Summer was awoken by the bright winter sunlight streaming through the window in her room. She sat up in bed and saw that the side next to her was empty. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, sitting back on her pillows. She knew Seth would probably be making her breakfast, just like he always used to when they spent the night together. She couldn't believe what had happened last night. She had picked out the brightest star and, on a whim, wished for her true love to come back into her life. Two seconds later, BAM! Here he was, on her doorstep having flown 2000 miles, for her. And she knew how scared Seth was about leaving Newport for the East Coast. And he'd done it, all for her. She couldn't help but smile. There was no better feeling than being in love. She yawned and stretched her arms. She remembered what she'd said to Marissa all those years ago. 'How you spend your New Years is how you'll spend the rest of the year.' And she'd spent it with Seth. Her heart did a little flutter and she placed her hand on her chest. After taking a deep breath, she put on her robe and walked through to the kitchen, wanting to see the sight of Seth in his boxers and T-shirt, making her chocolate chip pancakes. She walked through towards the kitchen and entered it. She froze in the doorway. The kitchen was empty.

"Seth?" she called, "Seth, where are you?" Her heart began to beat and her nerves began to rise. She was afraid once again. The she spotted a piece of pink notepaper from her pad folded on the counter. She sighed in relief, he'd probably gone to the store. She walked over and picked it up, expecting the usual, 'Gone to store. Be back in a few, get ready for pancakes! Love Seth x' She opened the folded note and scanned the writing. Only from reading the first two words, she knew Seth hadn't gone to the store.

Seth wiped his eyes. Ever since leaving Summer's apartment this morning, his eye's hadn't stopped watering. He tried to blame it on the wind, but he knew it was because he'd probably made one of the most stupid decisions in his life. Still unable to make up his mind at 3am this morning, he'd written two notes, both addressed to Summer. After writing them, he'd sat in silence for three hours, until 6am, going over in his head, what he was going to do. Where did her go from here? After what Summer had said last night, he had endlessly tried to imagine himself living with her in new York. He had put all his feelings into writing and, at 6am this morning, as daylight came, he made the impossibly difficult decision determining what would happen next. He couldn't have predicted it. He picked up his travel bag as the queue at check-in moved forward. He couldn't deny how awful he felt after doing what he did, but he'd done it and right now, he couldn't take it back. He bowed his head, closing his eyes and trying to get rid of the memories of last night and how heartbroken Summer would be.

But he was interrupted by his name being called. He opened his eyes and there before him stood Summer. She looked terrible. Her cheeks were flushed and tear stained, her eyes bloodshot and her clothes mismatched. She'd just thrown on her coat over her sweat-pants and old t-shirt.

"What the HELL is this!" she cried, thrusting the letter into Seth's chest.

"I, I…"

"You told me you couldn't live without me! And now you're leaving!" she continued, tears streaming down her face.

"Summer, you have no idea how hard it was for me to come up here!" Seth protested.

"Oh spare me! You say it was hard, but you're here! Doesn't that tell you something?" Seth fell silent, she had a point. Summer watched him contemplate the words.

"Yeah, and you couldn't even tell this all to my face either…" Summer sobbed. Seth looked guilty.

"I woke up this morning feeling like the luckiest girl in the world but right now I feel like the stupidest. I can't believe I fell for you again, and just like all those other times before, you dropped me. You, Seth Cohen, are a coward." Summer pushed him in the chest hard.

"I cannot believe I'm hearing this. You left me, remember? And yes, I was stupid enough to come back. And yet again I'm left looking like the sap that I am every time we're together. I'm fed up of being hurt by this, I thought it was all worth it, but its really not," Seth scoffed.

"You could have at least said goodbye!"

"I wanted to, believe me, and you know why I didn't? Because its too damn hard Summer!"

"You know what Cohen, you're right. This really isn't worth all this drama. We get back together, we break up and both get hurt. I can't take this anymore." Seth raised his eyebrows, trying to mask the pain his heart was undergoing.

"I think this is it for us," Summer said bluntly.

"I guess it is." Summer stared at Seth, and they took one last searching gaze. Both knew what the other was thinking and there was suddenly nothing left to say.

"Goodbye Cohen." Summer turned on her heel and broke into a run out of the airport, her eye's watering and the consequent tears flowing down her face. She held her hand to her face and continued to cry as she ran away from the airport as fact as she could.

Seth remained in the check-in queue, the people around him still staring after the very public fight that had just gone on. But he didn't care about those other people. He cared about his heart, which was now lying in pieces inside his hollow chest. His mind just switched off and he stood silently in the middle of the airport, regretting the biggest mistake he had ever made.

Just as Summer had said, that was it for Seth and Summer. Summer returned home from her apartment that night and cried herself to sleep. She boxed up anything and everything that reminded her of Seth. She put the boxes at the back of her closet and began her new life, not containing Seth Cohen. The next day, she went out to the store to get groceries. On her return to her apartment block, she entered the elevator. A young man stood in the elevator with her and he smiled at her as she entered. Blocking every thought of Seth Cohen, she smiled back. The lift glided up but after a minute or so, it grounded to a halt, the lights flickering off. She was stuck in the lift which had just chosen to break down. But, it turned out for the best, the man in the lift was a young actor called Spencer Greene and the two hit it off immediately. The following week, they went out on their first date and shortly after, they fell in love. Seth Cohen no longer mattered to Summer Roberts.

Seth, on the other hand, returned to Berkeley. He was in a very depressed state for a few months until one afternoon, Ryan invited him to go out to the movies with Marissa. He was introduced to Marissa's roommate Shelley Young and the two hit it off. The following week, they went on their first official date, shortly after which, Seth fell for her. Summer Roberts no longer mattered to Seth Cohen.

Seth and Summer stood on the balcony of Seth's penthouse apartment, both recalled that fateful New Years Eve, which had inevitably put them in the positions they were today. Fate was a very powerful thing.

"I still don't know why you left," Summer breathed, as they faced each other.

"Me either," Seth replied, equally quiet. Summer looked at the ground and then leaned forward, kissing him softly on the cheek.

"Happy New Year Cohen," she smiled.