A/N: So, here's another update with the longest chapter in the story so far, with a lot lot lot of stuff happening! I won't be able to update for a week since I'm leaving for a vacation so I thought I'd give you a long chapter to read ;)
A/N: Please review when you read, even if it's just a single sentence. I was kind of disappointed that I only got five reviews on the last chapter (but a huuuuge thanks to those who reviewed!), since this story is a lot of work, and I'd really like to know what you guys think of it.
But now on with the chapter!
Truth Hurts
A few days later, Seth still hadn't talked to his parents, a fact that made especially Summer creep out more and more. Everyday they saw each other in class she would go and ask him, and if Seth said he hadn't called them yet she would slap him and pretend to be mad at him. But these weren't new things to Seth, Summer was always keen on slapping and hitting people if they didn't do what she wanted, so Seth was kind of used to it.
One day, after having done some research on their report, Seth and Summer met with Chris in his diner for lunch to celebrate that Seth's cast had officially been moved off and replaced by a splint. The three friends were sitting around one of the round tables, having some chili fries and milkshakes, just like during their "old" days back in Newport, and Chris was constantly rambling about a new guy he had seen somewhere in a grocery store.
Summer was giggling after every of Chris' sentences, a thing that made Seth more and more nervous. Chris was funny, but Summer slightly exaggerated with her constant laughing and giggling, and it started to drive Seth crazy.
"I swear he has the bluest eyes you've EVER seen! The Hawaiian sea is ugly in comparison to the blue of this guy's eyes!" Chris sung, and as a response, Summer giggled. "You're so cute when you're all excited." She said and smiled.
Seth raised an eyebrow and shook his head, catching a slap from Summer on his shoulder when she saw his reaction.
"Cohen! What's your problem? You've been grumpy all day!" she exclaimed and crossed her arms in front of her chest, giving him an expecting look.
Seth shrugged. "Nothing, just… do you have to giggle at EVERYTHING Chris tells you?"
Summer looked confused but shrugged. "He's funny. Why shouldn't I? Jealous, Cohen?"
Seth closed his eyes and sighed. He nervously glanced at his watch and shook his head. "No, not jealous, just pissed."
Summer and Chris looked at each other and Summer tilted her head and looked at Seth. "Why? What's wrong?"
Seth looked first at Summer, then at Chris and sighed again. "My mom said she's gonna call me today, to tell me what was wrong." He explained and stared down on his plate that was still half full with fries.
"I'm sure it's nothing bad." Chris said in an attempt to cheer Seth up a little, and Seth gave him a weak smile.
"Yeah, but I don't know… all the time my mom told me that nothing was wrong, and then I get this text message from her that she wants to tell me why she's been in such a strange mood all weekend."
"So what? That's good, right? I mean at least she wants to tell you." Summer said and placed a hand on Seth's arm. Seth felt himself relaxing a bit and nodded. "I guess. I'm sorry if I ruin the mood or something."
Chris shook his head. "You're not ruining the mood! We're your friends, we listen to you and help you… because we care about you." He said and Seth made a face. "Why does everything you say sound like it's been taken out of a poetry book?"
Chris shrugged and blushed. "I'm hopelessly romantic." He said and grinned.
Just when Seth's bad mood was about to disappear completely, the cell phone in his jeans pocket started to ring and he jumped a little. He pulled it out and saw that it was his mother who was calling. "It's time." He said and stood up, heading for the door to take the call outside.
Summer bit her lip as she watched Seth walking away and she sighed. She could still see him through the glass windows and she was desperately trying to read his face or to interpret his reactions to find out what was wrong with the Cohen family.
Suddenly, Chris' voice made her focus her attention back to her food. "He's gonna be fine." He said and smiled, and Summer sighed, looking back over her shoulder to check on Seth who now had turned his back to her.
"I know." She replied and pouted. "It's just… he's never been good at dealing with things all by himself."
Chris smiled. "He doesn't have to deal with things all by himself. He has us. We can help him. So… stop worrying about him, he'll be back in a few minutes and he'll tell us what happened." He reached over the table to take one of Summer's hands. "Let's talk about you, honey."
Summer raised her eyebrows. "Me?"
"You." Chris nodded. "When's Craig gonna be home again?"
Summer shrugged and took a sip from her milkshake. "Don't know. You never know with him, actually. Last time I checked it was in three weeks."
Chris hesitated and took his hand back, kneading them in his lap. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure what's up?"
"Do you love Craig? Or are you just with him because you're afraid to change your life as it is right now?"
Summer almost suffocated from her milkshake when Chris had finished his question, and she stared at him with her eyes wide open.
"Of course I love him." She answered as if it was the most normal thing in the world, and Chris shrugged.
"Just wanted to ask."
Summer continued staring at Chris as if he was insane and she shook her head to try to process what this question that had come all out of the blue meant. She didn't really have the chance to come to a conclusion since a very devastated looking Seth came back into the diner and grabbed his coat that was laying next to her.
He shot a quick glance at Summer and shrugged. "I'm going home." He announced and started to walk away without looking back. Summer threw a quick glance at Chris and shrugged apologetically, grabbing her purse and sweater vest and hurrying after Seth.
"Seth wait!" she yelled and Seth stopped in the middle of the street, sighing.
"Summer, I wanna be-"
"Alone, yeah yeah, you always wanna be." She linked her arm through his and gave him an encouraging smile. "But honestly, I don't care."
Seth sighed and started to walk again, slower this time so Summer could keep up with him.
Summer looked up into Seth's face and tried to read something out of it, but when Seth didn't want anybody to know what was going on with him, nobody would find out, and so she decided to come straight to the point.
"So what's wrong? Your granddad going to jail? The Newport Group going bankrupt? Julie Cooper marrying your dad?" she asked and smiled.
Seth's face didn't change and Summer forced him to stop. "Seth." She said and looked at him worriedly. "What's wrong?"
Seth unlinked his and Summer's arms and shook his head. He took a few steps back and sighed. "My grandpa… has cancer. Less than two months to live." He said and sighed again. "And my mother chose to not tell me because she thought I couldn't take it."
Summer looked down on the floor and immediately felt bad for Seth. "I'm sorry." She said sincerely and looked up again. "They should've told you earlier."
Seth nodded and pressed his lips together. "Yes, they should. And they should stop treating me like a child." He replied and broke off into a walk again. Summer started to run after him and tried desperately to stop him. It was incredible how fast this guy was even with a splint on his leg that should have kept him from walking too fast. "Seth, come on! Let's talk about it! I'm gonna listen to you!"
Seth turned around and shook his head. "Summer, you know me." He said, and Summer nodded, smiling a little. "Good. Then you should know that I really need to be alone right now."
Ouch. That hurt. He didn't want to talk to her, and Summer didn't know why, but that had hurt her. But despite that strange feeling in her stomach she plastered a smile on her lips and nodded. "Okay." She said and sighed. "But you know that I'll always be there when you wanna talk."
Seth nodded and stared at the floor. "I know." He said and turned around, heading to god knew where.
All that Summer could do right now was to watch him leaving, her heart torn to pieces because she had to watch him suffer like that.
Half an hour later, when Summer unlocked the door to hers and Craig's apartment she almost suffered from a heart attack when Craig jumped in front of her, wearing a stupid grin. He held out a box with a big silver bow on it and winked.
"Hey baby, I'm home!" he chimed and Summer raised an eyebrow.
"I can see that, I'm not blind." She replied and took off her coat, hanging it on the garderobe that was right next to the door. "What are you doing here anyways? Just a few days ago you said you needed to stay for three weeks."
Craig's smile fell a little and he tilted his head as if he wanted to figure out what was wrong with his girlfriend. "The meeting was cancelled, and I go to get home sooner. I thought you would be a little happier about that." He said, and Summer lowered her gaze, hugging him. "I'm sorry baby." She whispered and clung as tightly to Craig as she could, just as if she wanted to burden someone else with the heavy information Seth had just received. After a while, Summer broke loose from the hug and forced a tiny smile. "I... Seth, actually, just got some really bad news."
Craig smiled sympathetically and led Summer over to the dark red living room couch, placing her present next to him on a pillow. Summer curled up on the couch and crawled into Craig's arms, sighing.
"What happened?" he asked.
"His parents... kinda didn't tell him until today that his grandfather's gonna die soon. He has cancer."
"Oh." Craig pulled Summer closer and kissed the top of her head. "That is some bad news."
"Yeah." Summer pouted a little and caught herself as her thoughts wandered off to Seth again, wondering what he was doing at the moment. Being alone usually contained sitting in front of his playstation, cursing to the monsters or whatever those were on the screen to calm down. The other Seth Cohen way of being alone meant crawling under his bed covers and listening to sad music. Summer wondered which of those things he was doing at the moment.
"Maybe I have something that'll cheer you up a bit." Craig said and smiled a little, reaching out for the present that was still sitting next to him on the couch. Summer looked up a bit and smiled as well. From the way the present was looking – better said, how terribly it was wrapped – she could tell that Craig had wrapped it himself, and she found it incredibly cute.
"Any present for me cheers me up." She said and sat up a bit and took the present on her lap. "You wrapped that really... nice."
Craig raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think I wrapped it?" he asked and grinned.
Summer shook her head and looked at the present, giggling. "Because..." she pointed to one side of the box, "it looks... well... just look at it!"
Craig pretended to be offended and tickled her in her sides for revenge, and Summer started to scream. She hated it to be tickled.
"Craig nooooo!" Unfortunately, Craig was a lot stronger than Summer, and so he didn't stop just because she told him to. As Summer tried to fight Craig off, she squirmed in his lap, still giggling and screaming. Suddenly, in the middle of the tickling attack, they heard a loud rattle, and Craig stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that the present had fallen to the floor, and he jumped down from the couch to grab it and shake it to check if it was broken or not.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, baby." Summer said and bit her lip when she saw the disappointed look on Craig's face as he shook the box and handed it to her.
"This doesn't sound good." He said and sighed. "Open it."
Summer pouted a little as she opened the box, still hoping that she hadn't broken whatever was inside of it.
She slowly lifted the top of the box and winced a little when she saw the millions of sherds in it, and she gave Craig one of her puppy dog looks she had learned from Seth.
Craig sat on his knees and peeked into the box, sighing. "This... isn't supposed to look like that." He said and Summer couldn't help but giggle. She covered Craig's face in her hands and kissed him tenderly.
"You think this is funny?" Craig asked and tried to put on an extra-hurt look which made Summer giggle even more.
"No, I think you're cute." She said. "With your 'this isn't supposed to look like that' stuff. I mean it's obviously broken – whatever it was – I pretty much guessed it wasn't supposed to look like that."
Craig made a face towards Summer and started to laugh as well. He carefully took one of the sherds out of the box and held it in front of her face. "This, my darling, was supposed to be a really beautiful vase from a very famous glassblowing factory in Seattle. And it would have looked so much better..." he stood up and disappeared into the kitchen for a few seconds, leaving Summer smiling sweetly on the couch.
"... with this." When Craig returned, he held a huge bouquet of red roses in his hands, grinning broadly.
Summer's heart filled with warmth and she stood up to take the flowers. She smelled them and smiled even broader, kissing Craig again.
"I love them, baby, thanks so much." She said and looked over to the box that was still standing in front of the couch. "And I love the vase... or... what's left of it."
Craig grinned and stroked a strand of Summer's hair behind her ear. "I told you it would make you happy. Although I think you would have been a little happier if the vase wasn't broken."
"Hey, it's your fault, you tickled me, and I told you to stop!" Summer defended herself and smelled the roses once again.
Craig pretended to be shocked and shook his head. "Noooo way, honey. If you hadn't resisted my tickle-attack, the vase would still be alive."
Narrowing her eyes, Summer took a step towards Craig. "You are mean."
Craig lifted his hands again, preparing himself for another round of tickling Summer. "You love it."
And before Summer could react, Craig's hands were all over her.
Almost two days had passed by, and Summer and Seth hadn't spoken to each other since he had run away at the diner and had requested his special alone-time. Summer had written him six or seven emails in the past few days, and nearly three times as many text messages on his cell phone, but he returned neither of them, and Summer really started to worry a little. It was just so unusual of Seth Cohen to not want to talk about one of his problems.
When Summer woke up on Friday morning, she decided to give Seth a call if he hadn't emailed or text messaged her until then. She stretched and yawned, doing her best to push the thoughts of Seth and if he might be okay aside. She smiled when she heard Craig turning the shower on, and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her gaze locked with a picture that was on Craig's nightstand, a photo of Craig and her that had been taken at her birthday party, when she had turned 21. She wore a very silly looking party hat Craig had bought for all the party guests and Craig had an arm around her waist, smiling happily.
Shaking her head, Summer yawned and opened a drawer of her nightstand, smiling contently when she saw that the present she had gotten for Craig for their anniversary was still there. It was a not very cheap pen set – Craig used pens all the time to scribble down appointments or things like that, and Summer knew that with a pen set as a present for Craig you were never wrong.
She still couldn't believe that Craig and her had been together for almost three years now. It felt like yesterday that Craig had walked into her life – and into her heart. When she heard Craig humming to himself under the shower Summer giggled and went over to the bathroom door, slightly opening and peeking into it. Steam came flying into her direction and she closed the door again, shaking her head. Craig had always been the warm-shower-type of guy but the amount of steam the shower produced when he was under it was ridiculous.
Summer stifled another yawn and went back to her bed, crawling under the covers. She took a glance at her nightstand clock and saw that it was only seven thirty, which meant that she had another two hours until she needed to go to class today. In her mind, Summer pictured what Craig and her could do in that time to celebrate their anniversary, wondering at the same time what present Craig could possibly have gotten her.
All of a sudden and out of nowhere, Seth popped back into Summer's mind and she wondered how he was doing right now, if he was asleep, if he was eating, if he was getting ready for the day... Summer shot a quick glance to the bathroom door and as she heard that the water in the shower was still running, she hopped out from under the covers again and tapped into the living room, her arms tightly wrapped around her body.
The apartment was always cold in the mornings, and cold was something Summer hated. Well, she was a child of Southern California, so she wasn't really made for temperatures that dropped below the DEGREES level. Switching her laptop on, Summer went over to the couch to grab her favorite flanel blanket and settled down in front of the computer, waiting until the system had started completely.
She logged into her email program and smiled brightly when she saw that she had received an email from Seth with the subject "I'm Still Alive". At least the little fun in the title meant that he was okay... or that he had dealt with his situation somehow.
Summer opened the email and started to read.
Hey you over there,
I'm really sorry that I didn't call you or returned your emails and messages earlier, but... I'm actually searching for an excuse, but I really can't find one. There are no apologies, I should've at least let you know how I am/was. You're my best friend and you deserve to know.
Well, anyways, my mom and I had some reeaaally long and exhausting discussions on the phone the past few days, and we pretty much summarized why she didn't tell me and why I thought it was wrong and all that crappy shit. You know how it goes, I guess. Typical parent-child thing.
I met Jenny the other day in the grocery store and she told me Craig's back. Happy for you, Roberts. But despite all the sex you're going to have please don't forget about the report we have to do. Serious and important stuff, you know. Don't wanna ruin my grade any further. Don't roll your eyes now. I know my English grade can't get any lower, but hell, I don't care.
So I don't really know why I write all that shit, but I guess I just wanted you to know that I'm fine. Well, not fine, but fine. My mom said that my gramps said he didn't want me to fly back home to visit him or something. He plans on still being there when I visit next time. Dude, how that sounds. "He plans on still being there"... if I think about it, maybe I'm not really okay, but yeah... I'll try to freaking live with it, as Amy would say.
Thanks for caring so much for me. I'll try and do some report stuff now. My brain needs something to do (yes, Roberts, even my brain works at times!).
See you soon, Roberts.
Love, Cohen.
After she had read the email, Summer smiled and sighed happily, leaning back in her chair and staring at the words Seth had sent her. As much as she hated it that Seth had invented "Roberts" as her new nickname just because she called him "Cohen" all the time, as much she loved it that he appreciated her friendship. And that he called her his best friend. And that he had sent her his love.
Just then the bathroom door was banged and Summer jumped a little in her seat and stood up, walking towards the bedroom again, still the happy smile on her face. When she spotted Craig putting on his socks while he was sitting on her bedside she giggled. He always looked like a little boy when he put his socks on, with his head bowed deep and his blonde hair falling in front of his face, framing the handsome facial features.
As if he sensed her presence, Craig looked up and smiled. "Good morning my darling." He sung and went over to her to place a gentle kiss on her cheek,
"Good morning." Summer replied and returnedthe kiss. "You're in a good mood."
Craig nodded and cupped Summer's face in his hands. "Yap, that I am." He said and pointed to an open suitcase that was laying on the floor in front of the wardrobe, already half-packed. "You know what?"
Summer smiled and sighed. Craig was so cute. He had really gotten them a romantic weekend for two for their anniversary. "What?" she said and moved closer to Craig, smiling at him seductively.
"I might have been sent home from Seattle, but today. I. Get. To. Go. To. Tallahassee for a conference!" Craig exclaimed and Summer felt how all the color drained from her face. "Excuse me?" she yelled and took a step back, putting her hands on her hips.
Craig laughed a little and stroked Summer's hair. "Aww, honey, it's only gonna be for five days. I'll be back sooner than you can say Tallahassee." He said.
Summer slapped Craig's hand away and blinked, not really sure what to do about the constantly raising anger inside of her. "And you need to leave today." She stated, and Craig nodded.
"I know it's over the weekend and stuff... but we had a few really great days since I got back from Seattle... they might help us to bridge the days we can't be together."
Summer shook her head angrily and stepped further away from Craig. "This might better be a joke." She mumbled, raising her eyebrows questioningly towards him. But from the bewildered look on Craig's face Summer could tell that this wasn't a joke – even better... Craig didn't even remember that today was their anniversary! She let out a bitter laugh and went over to her drawer, tossing the present box over to him.
Just before the box hit the floor, Craig grabbed it and it was only then he started to realize what Summer's bitchiness was all about. He lowered his head and shook it, closing his eyes. "I'm. An idiot." He said and sighed, looking up to Summer who sat with her arms crossed in front of her chest on the edge of the bed, trying to ignore him as best as she could.
Slowly, Craig walked over to her and sunk onto his knees, placing his hands on her knees. "Today's our anniversary."
"Nice of you to remember." Summer spat and stared into the distance instead of looking into Craig's eyes.
"Summer, I-I really don't know how to make this up to you. I'm just such a stupid fucking idiot."
Summer just shrugged. "Then don't go. Would be a start."
Craig started to massage Summer's knees and shook his head, trying desperately to somehow reach his girlfriend and take her out of her state of anger and fury over him. "Baby, I can't. I have to go. They're offering me to lead the conference."
Summer rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. "Unbelievable." She mumbled and Craig moved closer to her.
"Summer, look. I've been working so hard to get to some point in that company where they would entrust me with higher and better duties. And now I have the chance to prove them that I can be responsible and everything... I can't tell them I can't go because it's our anniversary today."
Shoving herself out of Craig's grip, Summer stood up and headed for the door. "Well, you wouldn't need to cuz you didn't remember." She snapped.
Craig stood up and went over to her, and Summer looked away. "Darling, I'm so major sorry... I need to take that possibility-"
"You know it's great to see that your priorities are in order! But isn't it always like that? Job comes first, then my girlfriend? No wait..." Summer now yelled, gesturing around wildly with her arms. "It's job first, including fucking business meetings, then colleagues, then car and any other kinds of status symbols... and then, at the bottom end of the list, it's me – the girlfriend that's waiting three quarters of the year for you to come home. And when you come home, you fuck her a few times before leaving again. You know what? I'm sick of it."
And with that, Summer turned around and left the bedroom.
Craig shook his head, his own anger rising now, and followed his girlfriend out of the room. "You're unbelievable! I'm having this fucking job just that you can have the life you deserve! Or the life you think you deserve! Cuz now that you're an adult you can't rely on Daddy buying you everything you want anymore, so you chose the next best party that could give you the amount of money you need to afford your clearly exaggerated lifestyle!"
Before Craig could realize it, a hard slap landed across his face. Holding his cheek, he stared at Summer wide eyed and shook his head. Summer pointed to the door, her gaze as cold as ice. "Out. Now." She just said and went over to the front door to open it.
"Summer, baby, you can't throw me out of my apartment."
"Don't "baby" me you asshole! You think with your stupid nicknames everything's gonna be fine again? You know I have a real name... oh wait, you don't need to know it as long as I'm there to sleep with you whenever you choose to come home!"
Craig shook his head. "You know what? Tell your bitch-stories to the wall. I'm leaving voluntarily." He announced and went into the sleeping room, shutting his suitcase without checking if he had everything and headed for the front door without looking back.
Running after him, Summer shouted, "You know and all of this isn't as bad as I just said. The only thing that's really bad about all that shit is that you forgot our anniversary." She said and slammed the door shut in front of Craig's face, kicking her foot against the now closed door.
"Ouch! Fuck it." She cursed and headed for the bathroom as fast as she could. The fury inside of her was almost unbearable, and she was afraid that she might destroy half of the apartment interior if she didn't force herself to calm down now. She really hoped that a long soaking bath would help.
The decision had been made. No more mourning around over his family issues for today. He deserved to be in a good mood at least once a week, and Seth had decided that today was the day to forget about all the troubles and focus on the things that were important in life – reports about the use of stylistic devices in Shakespeare's dramas.
And Amy would be in class all day, so the time was perfect to do something for his grades – or at least to do something that Summer would like.
Sitting down in front of his computer, Seth scanned his working environment. The desk looked like a complete mess, and when Seth thought about it objectively, he sometimes really wondered how he managed to study for good grades in this messy surroundings.
He looked down on the notepad that was laying in front of him, unfortunately finding out that it was still almost empty. Seth sighed and wondered how far Summer had already prepared her part of the report, and he smiled a little when he realized that she had it probably already finished.
That was one of the things that had changed since they had started college – Summer was now the diligent one, and Seth didn't care as much about his grades as he should – but they were still acceptable to his parents, and even good to him.
A quick glance at the computer clock told Seth that he had been browsing the internet to find something about the topic of their report for almost one and a half hours, and he decided to take a break. Studying couldn't be rushed – otherwise your brain might have been overtaxed from it.
So Seth spun around in his desk chair and jumped up, heading for the kitchen to brew himself some coffee. A few minutes later he returned with a cup and a box of Oreo's, ready to start another round of internet studying. When he sat down he stuffed two Oreo's at once in his mouth and took a sip from his coffee for better chewing.
He hit the space key to stop the "Superman and other comic heroes" screensaver and smiled when he saw that during his absence, he had received a telegram from Summer.
Princess Sparkle: I'm so pissed.
Seth smiled, his cheeks still full with cookies and coffee, and pulled his keyboard closer to him.
Cpt. Oats: Hello to you too, Summer. What a wonderful day, huh?
Princess Sparkle: Shut up, Cohen. I said I'm so pissed. Now aren't you gonna ask me why?
Seth smiled some more and swallowed the last bits of Oreo's while typing his reply.
Cpt. Oats: And here I thought I was the self-centered one.
He leant back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head, obviously very proud of teasing her, as usual. But instead of a bitchy reply, he got no answer at all. So he took that as a sign that whatever it was that had made her pissed must have been huge, and he decided to give in and ask her what bothered her.
Cpt. Oats: Okay Summer. What's wrong?
Princess Sparkle: Well, first of all things, you're making fun of me. And second of all, it's Craig, my so-called boyfriend.
Seth raised his eyebrows. Her so-called boyfriend?
Cpt. Oats: Do I sense trouble in paradise?
Princess Sparkle: Okay, that's it. Just forget about it. I'm off.
Seth rolled his eyes and decided to give Summer a call later that day. If she wanted to log off he wouldn't stop her, that would at least give him some more time to do some research for their English report. Today was his sorrow free day. No problems allowed.
Grabbing another cookie, Seth stared at his buddy list and waited for Summer to go offline, just as she had announced. After exactly three minutes and four more Oreo's later Summer still hadn't logged off, and Seth decided to start their conversation again.
Cpt. Oats: I thought you wanted to go offline?
Princess Sparkle: What for? There's not much a girl can do when she's all alone.
Seth raised a finger to himself. Aaah, they were nearing the topic of the discussion again. But since he had noticed that Summer wasn't really in a good mood, he decided to get straight to the point this time.
Cpt. Oats: What happened with Craig?
Princess Sparkle: He's not here.
Seth shook his head. That was really very helpful.
Cpt. Oats: Summer, you kinda need to give me some more information. I mean I can't sense what happened.
Princess Sparkle: There's this stupid conference in Tallahassee he needs to attend (for five days!) and he ditched me – on our anniversary. Well, he was so fucking excited about this conference that he even forgot that today's our anniversary. So we got in this huge fight about me being jealous of his job and him always abandoning me and he just left... and since that, I'm waiting for him to call and apologize.
Seth rolled his lips inward and immediately felt sorry for Summer. Even he remembered Summer's and Craig's anniversary, and he really wondered how Craig could have forgotten about it.
Cpt. Oats: Summer, I'm really sorry about that.
Princess Sparkle: Thanks. It's not your fault of course but still... I figured you were the only one who understands me…
Seth smiled at that sweet comment and nodded to himself.
Cpt. Oats: I understand you. Boy, I would be so pissed if Amy forgot our anniversary... and he even ditched you for his job, I can't believe it. You know...
Seth paused and tried to find the right words for what he was about to say. Obviously his thinking took too long for Summer.
Princess Sparkle: What?
Cpt. Oats: If he doesn't realize how lucky he is to be with you, he doesn't deserve you.
If Summer had a webcam and Seth would have been able to see her face he would have been very content with himself at that moment. But since the webcam didn't exist, he unfortunately missed the broad grin that had spread over Summer's face right after she had read his last reply.
Princess Sparkle: You're so cute. kiss on the cheek
Seth wore a broad grin when he read the reply, and he could even feel his face reddening a little. His hands went up to his cheeks and he looked quite ashamed as he realized that he had been flattered so heavily by Summer's comment.
Cpt: Oats: Thank God that Amy's not around.
Princess Sparkle: Why?
Seth grinned.
Cpt. Oats: Cuz you embarrassedme.
Princess Sparkle: Cohen, that's just sad.
Cpt. Oats: What?
Princess Sparkle: You're flattered by that lame comment? I just wonder how boring your love life must be.
Seth stuck out his tongue, disappointed that she couldn't see it.
Cpt. Oats: Well, at least my girlfriend's still around.
Princess Sparkle: Shut up, jackass. Hold on, I gotta pee. Be back in a sec.
Seth laughed and shook his head, stretching in his desk chair. His gaze fell on the notepad that was laying in front of him, still not really filled with information, and he whined a little when he remembered how much work still lay ahead of him. He opened one of the homepages he had marked before chatting with Summer to go on with his research, but as soon as he read a single sentence that had to do with "Hamlet" and the stylistic devices in it his mind wandered off to... nothing special, in fact, it just wandered off. The sound of a telegram made his thoughts come back.
Princess Sparkle: Finished peeing.
Cpt. Oats: Was it nice?
Princess Sparkle: Oh yeah, it was a real blast. I wish you could have been there to witness it.
Seth laughed out loud and shook his head. She could be so funny and mean at the same time, it was amazing. That was one of those things he loved... liked so much about her – her unique sense of humor. No matter how bad his current mood was, it usually took her less than five words to cheer him up again. It had always been that way, but when they had been dating, Seth had always tried to be the funny one... and over the years Summer had taken over that part. Yeah, he had taught her well...
Princess Sparkle: Still alive?
Cpt. Oats: Yup. I've just been thinking.
Princess Sparkle: What about?
Seth shook his head and smiled. Summer wasn't only the funny one, she was also extremely curious. Even more curious than he was, and that really meant something, given the fact that his mother had always called him the "mosty nosy boy in Newport" (yeah, baby language was something really fantastic).
Cpt. Oats: About the report.
Princess Sparkle: Do you wanna tell me you haven't started doing it?
Cpt. Oats: Of course I started! I have got a whole counts thirteen lines of information.
Princess Sparkle: Geez, Cohen, I'm so proud of you.
Seth raised an eyebrow.
Cpt. Oats: I can sense sarcasm here.
Princess Sparkle: You're too smart.
Seth sighed but couldn't stop smiling. He really enjoyed this little conversation they had here, and he knew that she enjoyed it as well. Anyone had to admit that they still worked great together, and everytime people saw them together they wondered why in all world they had split. And if people asked him now, Seth couldn't give a proper answer – he didn't even have a justified reason why he wasn't with Summer – except the fact that he was with Amy.
Princess Sparkle: Cohen, those typing breaks are creeping me out.
Cpt. Oats: You're so impatient, woman! Can't a man do some thinking here?
Princess Sparkle: Cohen, you gotta admit that thinking isn't one of your powers, so please be careful, you might get hurt in the process!
Seth narrowed his eyes and made a face toward the computer screen.
Princess Sparkle: I have a plan.
Cpt. Oats: You do? What plan?
Princess Sparkle: Meet me at the library in twenty minutes.
Cpt. Oats: Oooh, sex in the library. I had no idea that you had such fantasies, Summer.
Seth couldn't help it, but he needed to make this joke.
Princess Sparkle: OMG shut the hell up. Just meet me there, I'm gonna help you with your parts of the report, since you're obviously not capable of that on your own.
Cpt. Oats: You're too kind. Really, I don't know how to thank you.
Princess Sparkle: God, I mean it, SHUT UP! And no more discussions, I'll see you there in twenty minutes.
Cpt. Oats: Twenty minutes? Summer!
Princess Sparkle has logged off.
Seth frowned and shook his head, logging out of his chatting program as well. It was amazing how Summer still bossed him around, even if they weren't a couple, and he wondered why he still did everything she wanted from him, without complaining.
Some might have called it friendship – Seth called it stupidity.
Next chapter: Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own