Before Note: Thank you all SO, SO, SO much for all of the great reviews, I love getting them they're so wonderful! I'm really getting into this story, and taking my time to write the chapters so that they're good, and give you something to read. Thank for the critical reviews too, although one of them got was asking me to completely alter my story, and that would be difficult, but your idea was really good. Anyway, thanks again guys! Keep it up, and thanks for reading.

Chapter 8 - The Telephone Conversation

He looked at her. "What do you mean, it didn't seem to heart-wrenching for you to tell me that you just didn't hang with people, 'like me' anymore." He said to her.

She looked at him like he had gone to far with his words again. "I am not that cold hearted... alright." She said. "I know it was mean though." She admitted.

"You could have surprised me with the cold hearted thing, Summer... honestly. I hate to be mean, but you're terribly mean, and you don't give the time of day to anyone that doesn't play water polo, or isn't rich enough to own their own town." He said.

"That's not entirely true... you're rich enough to own a town, and I don't talk to you." She said, biting her lip, knowing she shouldn't have.

He looked at her, thinking before speaking. "Right." He said, getting up. "I'm off to bed, night." He turned around, and walked out of her room.

He actually had wanted to fix things between them, because they still had more then 2 weeks left on the cruise ship, and then a week in the Bahamas, and then another week to get back to Newport. He didn't want to have these continual fights, and with a girl. It was lame for a guy and a girl to fight, especially when they weren't dating... it was kind of weird. Nevertheless, he couldn't just sit there have continual mean lines sent at him by a awesome girl gone teenage newpsie. Sometimes he wishes that he could forget that she was ever as cool as she was, just so that it didn't hurt as much that she was the way she is now. He didn't really understand how his best friend could have in 8 weeks just up and changed like that.

"Apparently anything is possible." He said quietly under his breath.

Summer sort of felt un-real, because she had never told anyone, not even her diary how she really felt. She knew that if she wrote it down anywhere, her friends would find it, then she'd be finished. She decided she'd call Marissa, because Marissa would listen to her, and understand her frustrations. Ring. Ring.

"SUMM!" Marissa yelled into the receiver.

"Hey Marissa, what's up hun?" Summer asked.

"Bored... and grounded! Totally got caught drunk, so now I'm sitting home alone reading a boo... Cosmo." She said.

"Oh. Well if you're reading a book, that's cool with me." She said, noticing the almost 'spill' Marissa made.

Marissa was utterly shocked. "It is?" She asked, surprised still.

"Definitely. I don't care if you like to read, unlike Lacy and Trishden... and I don't know if they would even care either Marissa. But there's something I kind of wanted to talk to you about, hoping maybe it could stay between us, and you would understand..." Summer said.

"Thanks Summ. And definitely. I'm a good secret keeper!" She said.

Summer sort of half-smiled. She started to think about what she was going to say. "Do you remember in the 7th grade when Seth Cohen and me were best friends, and always did everything together?" Summer asked, her voice different, and not in her usual 'I'm better then you' tone.

Marissa giggled. "Yeah... you guys were totally inseparable. It was cute."

Summer was surprised by Marissa's answer. "Really, we were?" She smiled.

"Yeah. He was tall, you were short, but you both had those big brown eyes, and that dark brown hair. It was like puzzle pieces." Marissa said, her tone different now too.

Summer remember their rides home in Kirsten's SUV, for a quick moment, and then got back to the conversation. "Yeah. I remember those days." She started. "That camp we went too, what did they do to us Marissa? Seriously. It's only now that I've been away from girl land, with only old movies, and nothing but quiet and solitude, that I've realized that I'm not who I am when I'm with you guys." She started to tear up a little. "I am a completely different person. I'm that girl who misses being best friends with Seth Cohen, and playing endless games of Sorry with him. Spending summer vacations climbing trees, and scraping knees. I'm that girl who is where she looks like she's supposed to be, but isn't where her hearts supposed to be." Summer was now crying, but softly.

Marissa took each work to heart. "Summer, you don't have to pretend. Not for me at least." She said. "I feel the same way. I was best friends with Taylor Townsend, and now look at her, she's a complete loner who has to eat lunch in the bathrooms, or else the water polo guys throw their food at her. Everyone has forgotten who we used to be friends with, because it isn't important for the now. But what is the now? Living our lies. I don't even think we know each other that well, and we've spent almost everyday together since 9th grade, and we're going to be seniors. Just look at me, I sat there and almost lied to you because I was reading a book, and not Cosmo." Marissa, now crying too.

"You want to know why I just stopped being friends with Seth?" She asked Marissa.

"Sure." Marissa answered.

"Because I was deathly scared." Summer started out. "He was my best friend of all time, and I was scared what would happen to us. I was scared that if we grew up in high school together, I would see him with other girls, and that would make me mad. I was afraid that it wouldn't always be Summer and Seth, and that he would leave the friendship before I did. I was afraid of everything that could have gone wrong, so instead of getting hurt first, I hurt him. I hurt him more then I'll probably hurt anyone in my life. I did it because I was selfish. I lied to him, and told him that I just didn't hang with people like him anymore, but that's what Trishden told me to say." Summer was crying a little. "Oh GOD. Who am I? What kind of person am I?" She said.

Marissa barely had a response, since she was crying. Marissa wasn't even sure why she was crying, but it was sad... Summer's situation.

Seth had been standing outside Summer's door the whole time. He heard why she actually stopped being friends with him all those years ago.

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Next Chapter:

What will Seth do about knowing what Summer said?
Will Seth and Summer be able to work things out?
How will Summer feel?