A/N: Hey guys, sorry for no updates. I hope you like the chapter. The lyrics in the beginning are not mine. The song is "To be Free" By Emiliana Torrini.
"Shouldn't hurt me to be free
It's what I really need,
To pull myself together.
But if it's so good being free,
Would you mind telling me,
Why I don't know what to do with myself."
Sitting in her room, Summer listened to the song, thinking to herself that maybe, just maybe she got some things wrong. She was free, she was single, she loved it that way. So what was it that made her think? Her mind automatically went to Seth Cohen.
"This is ridiculous" she thought "Yea we had a good time and he was being nice and I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard, but.." Summer sighed. She's so much better off by herself, no relationships, no problems. No man, no cry. But just last night she walked along the beach with Seth Cohen, the last thing she thought she'd ever do in her life. And it scared her that it was good.
"So who knew that underneath that layer of sarcasm and hate towards me, is a person who actually laughs pretty hard at my jokes?" smiled Seth.
Summer gave him a half smile.
"Easy Cohen, who knew that underneath that popular, player, self absorbed, jock, is somebody who can actually have a good time not talking about himself?"
Seth laughed.
"You cannot possibly be THAT stereotypical."
"Well Im just saying it how it looks."
Seth Cohen was standing by his locker talking to his friends. A group of girls came by to interrupt. A good deal of flirting after it was decided there was going to be the biggest party of the year that night. Ryan came up to Seth.
" Hey what are you doing tonight?"
" PARTY man, Party!" laughed Seth, " You coming?"
" I got practice, but I'll stop by later on with Marissa."
"Okay cool man, see you there."
Summer sat down at her table. Socials class could be so boring sometimes. Especially if you're scheduled to do a huge project with the biggest bimbo.
It didn't help that it was Anna Stern's best friend. Vanessa Collins sat next her.
"Ugh I hate socials. It's like the most annoying subject. Who cares where Africa is? Like Id ever go there."
Summer leaned her head on her hands and closed her eyes. "I'm going to die" was her exact thought.
Vanessa Collins was in a much better mood.
"I don't feel like doing this. What's the matter Roberts? Guy problem?
When summer didn't answer, she kept talking."
"Okay I heard you were putting moves on Seth Cohen, Please. Don't even try."
Summer sank in her seat. She was tired. A night of rethinking her ideas about relationships, listening to the lyrics of "Ms Independent" was enough.
Vanessa kept talking.
"You know my friend Alex is like in love with him. They dated for a little bit, but he always goes back to Anna. They have like a true love. No matter what you may think he has for you, its Anna he loves. They'll end up together, trust me."
Summer shifted her focus on her. What was she saying? How would this girl even know what Summer thought, who knew what Seth had for her? Why did she care?
"I'm not interested in Cohen, so you can save your opinion."
"It's not an opinion, its a fact. They were talking about you the other day. I think you're like number 26." Vanessa laughed and turned away.
Summer stayed quiet. Inside she was furious. They were talking about her? She refused to be upset. She told herself she didn't care about Cohen, didn't care who he liked, didn't care if he liked her. But she kept thinking about Anna. He was the type of guy to play around, but he always came back to her. At least that's what Vanessa was saying. There was a 90 chance she was lying, but Summer believed her, and it was bothering her.
Seth was going through the pile of books shoved in his locker, looking for his cell phone when Anna walked up. She didn't look very happy and Seth had an idea why.
-" So, uh, you never called me last night. We were supposed to do something." She said very casually.
Seth winced. Uh Oh.
" Yea, I, uh. I was busy." He gave her a quick smile and turned back to the mess in his locker.
But Anna didn't give up so fast.
"Busy? Really? That's interesting." She paused. "Doing what exactly?"
Seth turned around to face her again.
"Well its kind of private." He changed the topic. "You coming to the party?"
" Not until you tell me what the hell you were doing with Summer Roberts last night."
Seth felt anger rising.
" Why? Are you spying on me?"
" No its just going around the school. See with me you wouldn't have to worry about any rumours." Anna came very close to Seth and was now looking at him with a smirk. " But you know Summer, she's just not the girl for you."
Seth knew how ugly this thing could get.
- " What are you saying?"
- " I'm saying what the hell is wrong with you? When did you suddenly become Romeo, walking around with a girl on the beach? What is this the new Geek Seth? I thought me and you were.. you know." Anna gazed up at him.
Seth started defending himself.
" I don't know what you're talking about. I was just playing her. Shes nothing special to me. It was just a freakin walk." He was praying to find his cell phone and get out as fast as he could.
Satisfied, Anna gave him a smile.
" Good, pick me up at 9. Were gona party." She winked at him and walked away.
Seth felt his cell phone under the notebook. He grabbed it and flipped it open.
The display was a picture of Summer, trying to hide from the camera. She didn't believe him, that he'd actually keep it and laughing he promised that she's wrong.
Well she was right, thought Seth deleting the picture. He told himself he didn't care. He was going to have a good time tonight. He was the player after all. But after a while he realized deleting her picture from his phone, didn't delete her from his brain. Number 26 or not Summer go to him. He just refused to believe it.
Lunch time started and the students poured out of the classrooms.
Marissa walked up to Summers locker with a huge smile on her face.
" Hey Sum, guess what?? There's a Huge party tonight. I know you hate em, but you have to come. Just this once."
Summer cut her off.
- " I hate this school. I have a headache. Wanna skip?"
Marissa gave her a look.
- " What's wrong?"
- "Nothing, I just want to go home."
- "Sum, that's so not like you. Skip to go home?"
- "Well whatever, yesterday I skipped to go get ice cream and that didn't turn out very well."
- "What happened? You never called me last night"
- "Nothing, I ran into Cohen and we hung out a bit, whatever."
- "Wow. Back track. You and Cohen? Hung out?
Summer rolled her eyes.
- "Yea, its not a big deal."
Marissa looked at her with utter disbelief.
- "Not a big deal?? You HATE Cohen! He's a player, and you know it. He's the last person I'd expect you to hang out with. You actually let him have a conversation with you?"
Summer understood Marissa's surprise, she was surprised too.
They sat down at a bench outside of the school. Summer closed her eyes to the warm sun. Marissa was just thinking about Ryan.
" You know, she said, Seth and Ryan are so different. Sometimes I wonder how they're related."
Summer opened her eyes.
- "They're not remember? He just came to live with them when he was young."
- "I know. I just meant, they're so close. Like real brothers. But so completely different."
Summer closed her eyes again. When did she ever think about Cohen so much?
Marissa suddenly nudged her.
Summer turned to her.
"What?" she looked where Marissa was pointing.
There he was.
Chris Logan was standing near by talking to an old friend. Summer couldn't believe her eyes. Back when she was popular, they all hung out in a big group. But there was a little rivalry. Chris Logan and Seth Cohen didn't very much get along. They shared girls a little too often and neither liked to share their conquests.
Then Summer and Chris started having a thing. They were voted cutest couple and Summer started warming up to the idea that this might be her pretty chance at happiness. Chris however, had plans to leave town to live with his father in another state. He promised he'd visit here and there. Summer knew he wouldn't. She pretended not to care, and it hurt her more than she would show.
Now he was back, in flesh standing 10 feet away and she didn't know what to feel. He now noticed her and smiled, and it was easy to remember why him and Seth hated each other. Chris had just as much charm and even now, after being gone for so long he had enough girls on his sleeve. Caught off guard, she smiled back and had to admit, she missed him.
He came up and grabbed her into a hug.
-" I missed you babe. How you been?"
Summer guessed he didn't know she wasn't in the "in crowd" anymore.
- " Doing pretty good. You know, trying to survive high school".
Chris smiled at her again.
-"That's my girl"
-" So what are you doing back here anyway?"
Chris was now looking around trying to spot some old friends.
-" Visiting my mom. I'm in town for a month at the least. So, uh, we should get together and catch up."
Marissa chipped in.
- " You know there's a huge party tonight, you and Sum should go together."
Summer looked at Marissa, mentally wondering if she had a death wish.
But Chris was excited.
- " Yea right? I didn't hear anything about that yet. But cool. Ill pick you up around 9. Still live at the same house?"
Summer slowly nodded and forced a smile.
"9 it is."
Chris walked off, and Marissa started slowly backing away.
-" You know I gotta go" , she said quickly. " But youre gona have a greaaaat time. See you at the party."
Summer just stared at her. The bell went. There was still two more classes to go. Oh and it was her favourite English class next. Thank god the semester was almost over, Summer thought. She hated Cohen. Just as she thought that, she saw him walk by. Summer pretended she didn't notice him, but she didn't have to. He didn't notice her.
A/N: Review and tell me what you think. Thanks you guys are awesome.)
