This is Seth's point of view and it sort of takes place before the previous chapter. But it's still the end of this part of the story. It's short, but whatever. Keep a look out for some more from me!
Forget to Forget
When Seth wraps his arm around Summer's shoulder as they walk down the halls, he isn't thinking about the smoothness of Marissa Cooper's sun kissed skin, or the shimmer of the ocean's reflection in her eye. He is thinking about the pale, pale porcelain his hand is gently rubbing, and the dark tumble of waves flowing down Summer's back, because Summer is his girlfriend, and he isn't supposed to be thinking of other girls.
He doesn't want Marissa Cooper. He wants Summer. He has Summer. Well, he also had Marissa at one point, but then he made a stupid mistake and decided that staying with Summer would be best - he'd already dated her before, after all, so it made the most sense.
But it wasn't best.
Summer thought it was, though. To be honest, their relationship was going nowhere. It seemed frozen in place. Every day it was just endless tickle fights by her locker and kisses and matching outfits. The same thing. Every single day. It had become a routine.
Out of the corner of his eye he can see Marissa applying lip gloss or checking her reflection in her locker mirror, and sometimes he sees her coming out of class. Or standing in the lunch line or sipping coffee on the sofa in the student lounge. Sometimes he thinks she'll walk up and ask him why he's stopped calling her. Or how he and Summer are doing (hopefully with a hint of jealousy in her voice). Sometimes he wishes for those things to happen. And then he reminds himself to think of Summer. Think of Summer and her smile and her laugh and if those don't work, her chest. But not even that last resort will help. He just cannot drain the thought of Marissa out of his mind.
So when Seth is telling Summer that things aren't working out, he is telling Marissa Cooper that she has won this invisible race that she and Summer have been running against each other. But Summer does not and cannot know about this race, so Marissa Cooper cannot claim her prize yet. Seth waits for the day when he can give it to her, and until then, he thinks of Marissa, with her Popsicle-stained lips, and doesn't think of Summer.
