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Thanks to everyone who reviewed, today a new chapter's up! I hope you like it and if you read it please leave a comment, it really means a lot! Don't be shy on telling me your opinion ;)

Steffi

Real Life

A few weeks later, life in New York City had turned into everyday routine for Seth and Summer. Seth had started to go to college and what quite happy with what he was doing. People didn't bully him like they used to in Newport before Ryan came, but he didn't have any friends either. But he didn't feel the need for friends, especially when he knew that he could return home to Summer in the evenings. One true friend was better than a hundred pseudo-friends. And Summer was better than a friends, she was his girlfriend.

Unlike Annie had predicted, things for Summer went great in the first few weeks. People at the agency liked her almost without exception, and those who didn't like her didn't try to make her life hell. It was just some normal bitching around that Summer could compete with easily.

The very first model pictures of Summer were framed by Seth, and he had hung them in the living room above the desk, so that everyone could see them. Not that they didn't get much visits, to be presice, they didn't get any visits, but both of them were happy with life as it was.

And neither Seth nor Summer had been more proud of what they had made out of their lives. Even if life in NYC was stress, they enjoyed every second of it.

Four months passed, and it was in the middle of January when Seth and Summer first got the feeling that adulthood didn't seem so exciting and good anymore. Everyday life took the magic of living, working and studying in New York City away, causing Summer and Seth more and more to go their separate ways. They barely saw each other, because during the week, Seth was at college, most of the time studying in the library until late in the evening, and Summer spending the days at home, barely working, and if she worked, then mostly in the evenings.

During the weekends, Summer was at work, doing photoshoots and presenting clothes and dresses in shopping centers or on local television, and Seth spent his free time alone. At least Summer had gotten accepted from all the girls at the agency, and in this short time, she had become everybody's darling.

But Seth and Summer knew that they needed to worship the bare time they had with each other, and their love had never seemed so strong and good before.

The evenings, shortly before going to sleep, were the best times they had during that time. The couple used to spend some time in front of the tv, or just cuddling in the bed.

One of those evenings, Seth was typing some report on his laptop, when a very weary and exhausted looking Summer entered the apartment and slumped down on the couch, sighing dramatically. "Myyyy feeeeet are kiiiiling meee." She moaned, stressing the words dramatically long.

Seth smiled and looked up from his report, focusing his attention on Summer. It was interesting how weird she looked sometimes when she came back from work. She always wore make up Seth had never seen before, and in colors he knew you only used for painting garages, and her hair was more a form of art than normal hair.

Today, what was upon Summer's head looked like a bird's nest, and her eyes were surrounded by dark blue kajal. Seth didn't want to admit it, but sometimes it seemed like those stylists at the agency didn't have any sense for fashion or a girl's beauty.

"Youuuuuu waaaaant a massaaaaaaaaage?" Seth asked and walked over to Summer, smiling lovingly at her.

"That would be great." Summer grinned, her tired eyes sparkling in Seth's direction.

Seth sat down next to her. "Undress." He said and pointed to Summer's jeans and top.

Summer raised an eyebrow. "My feet are killing me, Cohen. Not the rest of my body."

"Yeah, but you know, I can only massage your feet if you are completely relaxed. And that contains getting rid of all those redundant stuff civilization brought us."

Summer laughed. "Did you have history again today?" she asked.

Seth shook his head and grinned, taking Summer's left foot in his hands. He gently massaged it with his thumbs and Summer moaned from satisfaction, just like a cat, which made Seth's grin become even broader.

"I have bad news, Cohen." Summer suddenly said, her eyes closed.

Seth's hands stopped as he heard what Summer had just said, and he looked at her, seeming confused.

Summer's eyes popped open and she shot him an angry look that caused him to start massaging her again.

"What bad news?" Seth asked.

"The agency has a big job… photo shoot thing… nationwide…" Summer mumbled as she started to drift off.

Seth put Summer's foot down and went over to where her head was. Kissing her on the cheek, he whispered, "Summer, don't sleep."

Summer opened one eye and looked at Seth, again angry. "Why is your head up here and not down there with my feet?" she asked.

"You were almost asleep." Seth said in self-defence.

"No way, I wasn't." Summer replied. "Anyways, the agency has a pretty big job for the next few weeks… photo shoots, tv walks and all that stuff for a new clothing company. And it's nationwide!"

"Which means?"

Summer rolled her eyes. "Which means that I have to work more. Every day of the week, like from Sunday to Sunday, from early in the morning to late in the evening."

Seth made a pout. "That means we're not gonna see each other like, at all?"

Summer knew that this was a rhethorical question, and therefore she just sighed. "The good thing is, when the campaign is over, I'm allowed to take some vacation."

"Yeah great, and when's the campaign gonna be over?" Seth asked, getting more and more unnerved every second.

Summer just shrugged and stared out of the window into the light jungle of New York City. "I don't know."

After a while, Summer sat up and took Seth's hands in hers. "I'm sorry." She half-asked and half-said, giving him a sweet glare out of her big brown eyes.

Seth lowered his gaze and started to play with Summer's fingers. "It's just… we have so less time together now and I already miss you." He said and pressed his lips together.

Summer knew that Seth was alone most of the time, and she didn't like it either, but she couldn't tell Fran that she just wasn't going to do the next job. That would mean "bye bye Summer".

She cupped Seth's chin in her hand and lifted his head. "We're gonna get through it. I promise."

Seth just nodded in response and didn't say a word. Summer started to kiss him all over his face and smiled. "I think I wanna undress now." She said seductively.

At this comment Seth had to smile again. He kissed her back and grinned. "I think I can help you with that." He said and started to open the belt of Summer's jeans.

The next day at the agency, there was more hectic than usual. The girls sped around, trying to find their dresses and getting their make up done in a much faster pace than usual, Fran controlling everything and shouting orders at everybody.

Just a few minutes from now, a MTV-team would be coming over to document a day at a "normal" model agency, and the girls had to look perfect for that job.

"Annie, put the black top on, not the red one. The red one's Summer's."

Summer frowned as she held up a blue top she was just about to put on.

"And who's is this?"

Fran rubbed her eyes and tried to concentrate. "Keira's." she replied. "Oh, Summer, sweetie, can we have a talk?" she added and pullled Summer away from the others.

In the last minute, Summer threw the blue top she was holding over to Keira, a cute blonde who winked at her as she caught it.

"But Fran, can't I first put my top on?" Summer asked, wrapping her arms around her body. She was just wearing a bra and she didn't feel really comfortable talking to Fran like that.

Fran waved and looked up and down on Summer. "That can wait. Listen, honey…" she paused and gave Summer a huge smile. "You know, you see the bodies of the other girls, do you?"

Summer frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Um… yeah?"

Fran folded her hands in front of her chest. "Okay… you need to lose some weight."

At that comment, Summer raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?" she asked with disbelievement.

Fran nodded and put on a sympathetic look. "I know this sounds stupid, given the fact that any 'normal' girl would want to have your figure, but still… I think you have a little too much around your hips here." She said and squeezed some skin in the area of Summer's hips.

Summer couldn't reply, she was just fascinated by the ridiculousness of Fran's comment.

Fran interpreted Summer's silence as a "yes Fran of course I'm gonna lose some weight if you say so", smiled and walked away, shouting more orders at the rest of the girls.

The only thing Summer could do for minutes was to stare at Fran with an open mouth, and thinking about what she had just told her.

"Lose some weight." She mumbled and shook her head. "If I were you darlin', I'd be checking my image in a mirror first before talking so much bullshit."

No one would ever tell Summer Roberts to change because he or she thought she wasn't right the way she was.

Because Summer knew that she was special. Giving her figure a quick check in the mirror, she nodded, seeming content.

Fran could lose some weight if she wanted to, but not her.

One week later, on Sunday evening, Seth and Summer saw each other for more than five minutes for the first time since the new job had started.

They sat at the kitchen table, Summer picking in her food, and Seth higly concentrated on one of his college books.

Although her day hadn't been too long, Summer had never felt so exhausted in her whole life. Every part of her body was aching, and her eyelids had never been so heavy before. Slowly drifting off, Summer dropped her fork, causing it to make a loud noise that shocked both her and Seth, and brought them into reality again.

Seth jumped in his seat and looked at Summer, his gaze shocked. "What was that?" he asked.

"Nothing." Summer replied and rubbed her eyes. "I dropped my fork."

Frowning, Seth laid the book down and took Summer's hand. The huge dark circles around her eyes worried him. "You look tired." He stated.

Summer shot Seth a "duh"-like look. "That's because I am, Cohen." She replied. "I haven't been sleeping for more than four hours for the last seven days, and I'm just exhausted."

"Can't you girls just get a day off or something?" Seth asked. "I mean, this is ridiculous. You look like a walking cadaver. And I can't accept that."

Sighing, Summer shook her head. "We'll get our days off when the campaign is over." Putting down her fork, she stood up. "Will you excuse me, I feel sick."

Seth sighed as he watched Summer walking out of the room. Glancing at her food, he saw that she hadn't been eating at all. Everything was on her plate the way he had put it there some time ago. Shaking his head, he stood up, following his girlfriend in the bathroom.

When Seth entered the bedroom to which the bathroom was adjoined, he heard the faint sound of throwing up coming through the closed door. He frowned, knocked twice and walked in to see his girlfriend sitting in front of the toilet.

Without any questions, he sat down behind her and started to rub her back comfortingly.

After a while, Summer rested her head against the wall, breathing heavily. As she looked into Seth's face, she saw the worried look in his eyes.

"You haven't been eating." Seth said and stroked Summer's thigh with his hand.

Summer nodded, looking embarrassed. "I wasn't hungry." She said.

"Summer, I know you, and I know that you are always hungry." Seth said. "So why don't you tell me what's up?"

Summer closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "That's not true, Cohen. I'm not always hungry."

"Yeah, not anymore." Seth said and sat down next to Summer, mimicking the way she leant her head against the wall. "Ever since that new campaign thing started, you seem to have stopped eating."

Summer rolled her eyes. "Cohen, stop it. I know what this conversation is leading to, and I don't wanna talk about stuff like that right now."

She gazed at Seth who raised an eyebrow.

"I don't have an eating disorder." Summer replied at her boyfriend's gesture. "It's just... it seems like I've become too tired to eat lately. Or too busy. Call it how you want."

Seth nodded slightly and sighed. "This has to stop, Summer. I'm not gonna allow this job to hurt you like that."

Summer let out a laugh of disbelievement and stood up. "Yeah, right. Cuz I'm gonna throw my job away just because there's some rough times coming up. Forget it, ass."

Seth watched Summer taking her clothes off and her pajamas on, walking into the bedroom. She really didn't have too many fat reserves on her body, a thing that many girls were jealous of. Seth recognized how meager Summer looked all of a sudden. Every ounce a slim girl like Summer lost caught the eye, and the way Summer looked now worried Seth.

He sighed and decided to go after Summer to explain his feelings, but as he entered the sleeping room, Summer was already in the bed, the covers pulled up to her nosetip, curled into a ball, and sleeping soundly. A loving smile crossed Seth's lips and he stroked Summer's dark hair with his hand. Hoping with all his might that the campaign would stop soon, he joined his girlfriend in the bed and before his head touched the pillow, he was already asleep.

It didn't take too long for Seth to wake up again, from a whimpering sound that was produced by Summer during her sleep.

Groggily, Seth turned over to see what was wrong, and he found Summer balling her hands into tight fists, sweat running over her face, her breathing heavy and a stressed look on her face. While her head slumped from right to left and vice versa, she mumbled things Seth didn't understand.

Seth sat up and turned his nightstand light on, dimmed very low, and reached out to wake Summer up from her nightmare. Leaning over, he carefully shook her.

"Summer, wake up." He whispered and stroked her head. "Summer. Wake. Up."

With a scream, Summer opened her eyes, looking straight into Seth's. The same was shocked at the scared expression in Summer's eyes and took her hand to comfort her.

"It was only a nightmare." He said comfortingly and stroked Summer's hand with his thumb. "You've been dreaming."

Summer ran a hand through her sweaty hair, still breathing heavily, and sat up as well.

"I had the worst nightmare." She said and leant her head against the back of the bed, closing her eyes. "Someone wanted to kill me."

Seth reached over to kiss his girlfriend, and at the touch of his lips on her cheek, Summer smiled sadly. "And the worst thing was, the person had already killed you." She added and opened her eyes again.

Smiling at his girlfriend, Seth shook his head. "I'm still here. And you are too. And it was just a nightmare. Nothing else." He answered.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Summer leant her head from the back of the bed onto Seth's shoulder. "I know." She said. "Thank God."

Summer was just about to slip down and cover herself under the blanket again when she felt the sickening feeling from the evening before coming up in her stomach.

Quickly, she jumped out of the bed and ran into the bathroom, hovering over the toilet to let it all come out. The problem was, she hadn't been eating at all the day before, and so it was even harder to throw up something.

Unlike the evening before, Seth didn't follow his girlfriend into the bathroom this time. He just listened to the sounds she made as his mind went crazy on how he could save Summer from getting herself into serious problems... or how he could get her out of the problem circles she was already in.

No matter what happened, the last thing he would do was to watch Summer hurting herself.

Next chapter: Me And My Girls