Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own it.
A/N: I know you guys don't like me. I don't like myself either. It's just… this 'art imitates life' thing…? It's got me hooked.
He's another chapter. Love Seth/Ryan times and def. saw a need for one so, yeah. It should be fun.
Let me know what you think. Read. Enjoy. And as always – review please.
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"So, listen," Seth spoke into his phone, "I really need you to meet me at the restaurant – or somewhere, I don't really care where – beforehand."
"Why?" Ryan questioned, balancing his own phone between his ear and his shoulder while he stifled through papers on his desk.
"Because I'm having major personal problems and I have no one else to go to about them. Well, I mean, I talked to some girl here at work about them but she doesn't really know me or know Summer -"
Ryan interrupted Seth, stopping his desk search, "Ah! I knew it was about Summer!"
"I never said it wasn't."
"I know. I'm just waiting for the time when you'll call about a problem that isn't Summer-related."
Seth sighed, "First off, as funny as you think you are, you're not. And secondly, all that waiting might pay off if you don't help me with my problem."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means Summer might not be around anymore for me to have problems to come to you about." Seth leaned back in his chair, covering his arm over his forehead.
"Summer won't be around? Seth, Summer's always around when it comes to you. Even if she's not really, physically, around."
"You know what I mean!" Seth paused and sighed again into the phone. "I think Summer wants out."
"What do you mean? She wants to break up? Hold it," Ryan muffled his last statement to someone around his office and then returned the conversation back to Seth, "Hold on a second. I'm going into the bathroom so we can talk."
"No, I have to get work done. I really can't talk right now."
"Seth, when have you ever turned down the chance to talk about yourself?"
Seth hesitated for a moment before replying. "You're right. I'm going into the bathroom too. Hold on."
A few moments of silence passed and Ryan waited impatiently. "You in the bathroom?"
"Jeez, man, give me a sec," Seth muttered as he quickened his pace to the bathroom, "Shit, someone's in there already. Hold on, I gotta find somewhere else."
"I can't believe Summer wants to break up with you," Ryan said, realization of Seth's problem sinking in. "What's all that noise?"
"I had to go outside so it's the wonderful sounds of downtown LA in the mid-afternoon."
Ryan smiled to himself. "Ahh, those sounds."
"Right. Anyway. Back to me."
"Well, of course," Ryan joked. "Can't waste any time complimenting the city we live in."
Seth ignored his comment. "So Summer has gone into freak mode on me the past few weeks. And I thought I had her in a nice little place yesterday -"
Ryan interrupted, "What do you mean freak mode?"
"She was freaking out about all these girls coming on to me. Like we were at a bar, maybe two weeks ago, and three girls came up to me, trying to get my number, all in front of Summer. Oh, and there was a gay guy too but I don't think that Summer minded that cause she knows I would never take that route. Not that there's anything wrong with that at all it's just that we all know I'm a ladies kind of guy and that -"
"Seth."
"Right. Sorry. Anyway, there are all these girls -"
Ryan snorted.
"I'm not kidding!" Seth yelled into the phone. "I know you don't believe me but I'm being completely serious. It's crazy, man. And it's just not when Summer's around. It's everywhere. I don't even know what happened. I mean, dude, I'm definitely not trying to do it. They just come out of the woodwork like ants or something. And the girl who lives in the apartment next door to us? Remember her?"
"Yeah," Ryan replied. "That stick-figure blonde?"
"Yeah. Wednesday night, well, she kissed me. One minute she was touching my hand and the next she was kissing me!"
"Does Summer know?"
"Yeah, I told her. It was part of the game."
"What game?"
"The game I was telling you about! Ryan, buddy, stay with me here!"
Ryan rolled his eyes, "Sure. Game. Continue."
"See Summer was trying to make me jealous with this gay friend of hers – only I didn't know he was gay at the time -, saying she was going out for drinks with him, so I decided to tell her flat out about Bethany kissing me -"
"Who's Bethany?"
"Our next door neighbor! Ryan, if you're gonna help me out you need to keep up."
Ryan rolled his eyes again. "I know. Okay, sorry. So how did Summer take it?"
"She was shocked and she asked a few questions about it but she seemed fine when she came home later. And then, all of a sudden, when I was telling her about my new job assignment – which, by the way, is awesome. I get to go all out and research this company and try and put together an actual case! Okay, so it's not a case per say, but it's close!"
"To the point, Seth," Ryan groaned.
"Yeah, so as I'm telling Summer all this work I have to be doing she decides she wants to have sex or something so she starts kissing me -"
"Yeah, Seth," Ryan scrunched up his face in disgust, "I don't need details."
Seth ignored him, "But I stopped her because I'm getting really aggravated about how she can get all pissed at me, lie to me about gay friends, and then suddenly decide when she wants to have sex with me and I just have to ready and willing."
"Doesn't sound to me like Summer wants to break up with you if she wanted to have sex with you."
"I'm not done."
"Oh."
"So then we start yelling at each other – probably the worst fight we've had in years, Ryan. And then she starts crying and I've calmed down cause I hate seeing her cry and I'm trying to comfort her and she pushes me away. Then she finally just gave me this icy stare and told me not to touch her."
"Ouch."
"Yeah, so I figured I'd stay on the couch and just let her stay in our bedroom – which – we've haven't done in, like, forever," Seth exaggerated. "And then in the morning she refused to talk about our relationship and when I called her this afternoon she got all pissed and told me to give it up and she hung up. Now she's not answering any of my calls. I think we're over."
"Okay."
"Okay?" Seth asked shocked. "That's it?"
"I don't think she wants to break up with you. She's just mad."
"Yeah, I think I've figured out that much. Thanks for that though," Seth answered sarcastically.
"I mean, you should probably just talk to her. Before dinner clear it up."
"She said she's not coming home before dinner. She told me she's gonna meet us there."
"Well, go pick her up from work," Ryan suggested.
"She's already out of work. It's," Seth checked his watch, "4:15."
"Alright, well, I still have 45 minutes and lots to do so I have to go. Just talk to her, man. I bet everything can be sorted out if you just sit your asses down and explain yourselves."
"You're not really good at giving advice, are you?"
"What?"
"I know I need to talk to her. I wanted you to tell me what to say to make her not want to break up with me."
Ryan sighed again. "You'll work it out. I'll see you tonight, Seth."
"Yeah, if I'm not completely suicidal over my break up with Summer, I'll be there," Seth tried to guilt him.
"Bye, Seth." Ryan groaned and hung up the phone.
Ryan looked up to the mirror and ran his hand through his hair.
Talking to Seth was exhausting.
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"Summy, you look great. Doesn't she look great, Stephen?"
Stephen nodded his head enthusiastically, standing next to his boyfriend, Chad. "You sure do! You look very yummy. If I weren't already madly in love, I'd do you."
"You guys!" Summer squealed. "You know, I really shouldn't have gone out to buy another dress. Seth'll kill me."
"I wouldn't worry about that. Seth will be too busy trying to figure out which way is the quickest to get you out of the dress so he can ravish you," Chad clapped his hands together.
Summer blushed, "Well, I guess I like that plan too." Summer stood and admired herself in front of Chad's full-length mirror. The dress was rather simple with golden tints throughout the full red color. It was strapless and spread out near at the bottom, which ended just below her knees. Her hair, Summer had decided, was important enough to the ensemble to go to the hairdressers for and along with that, they were able to retouch her make up as well. Her hair was slightly curled, with bit of it held up on top of her head by bobby pins. Summer swirled around on her four-inch black open-toed heels and admired herself.
She sure did clean up very nicely. Especially when she had her emergency only credit card on her.
So what if other people didn't claim this was an emergency. She did. She needed to find out in some way if Seth still loved her – if he was still happy with her.
And if she had to use her sex appeal to do it – so be it. Because she needed to know. And what Summer needed, Summer always got.
"What time do you have to be there?" Stephen asked snapping Summer out of her thoughts.
"Six. What time is it?"
"5:59."
"Shit!" Summer swore as she gathered her purse and grabbed her cell phone. Summer flipped it open and pressed Ryan's number, running as fast as the heels would allow her, outside to wave down a taxi cab. "Thanks guys!" She waved with the hand holding her purse as the other held the phone to her ear, "I owe you guys big!" Both Chad and Stephen waved back.
"Hello?" Ryan voice answered the phone.
"Ryan! Hi! It's Summer. I'm going to be a bit late. I'm trying to get a cab right now."
"Umm," Ryan stuttered looking back and forth between his girlfriend and his brother, "Alright. How long?"
"Like, fifteen minutes. See you soon! Love you!" Summer snapped her phone shut and Ryan did the same.
"Summer called you?" Seth asked incredulously, hearing Summer's voice perfectly clear through Ryan's phone and then checking his phone for any missed calls. "Why the hell didn't she call me?"
"Seth, it's no big deal. It was probably the first number that came up," Ryan tried to reassure him.
Seth replied sharply, "Yes, because somehow speed dial number five comes up before speed dial number one."
Ryan face lit up. "I'm speed dial number five? Wow, that a pretty big compliment coming from Summer." Seth glared at him. "You know, man, the glare doesn't work as well for you as it does for me."
Seth shrugged as Lana threw an arm over Seth's shoulders, comforting him, "I'm really sure it didn't mean anything."
Seth grunted, adding sadly, "I'm really sure it did." Ryan opened his mouth and was about to say something again when Seth continued, "How about we just go inside. Summer can find us in there. I need a drink."
"Seth, you're not legal."
"Well, I've got a fake ID that proves otherwise and a heart that's breaking so I don't really care."
"Way to be a drama queen," Ryan snorted and patted Seth on the back, "Come on buddy, let's go get you one whiskey." Lana grabbed Ryan's hand as all three of them made their way into the restaurant.