Disclaimer: Yeah, owning The OC is still a negative on my part.
A/N: I wasn't going to put this up tonight but you're in luck. I had an extra hour & here you have it.
Alright, so, I'm back at school full-time now so updates won't be as frequent as they have been. I apologize sincerely ahead of time but I also want you to know I promise I will not abandon this fic. I'm way too into this to ever do that. ;)
Also, some things in here are the tiniest bit graphic. If you can't handle it, I suggest not reading it. Or at least not the end bit.
And, some people may not agree with my ending. Saying it's out of character or something that would never happen or whatever. But before you bombard me with hate reviews, let me just say this: Suspension of Disbelief. Don't know it? Look it up. Learn it. Use it.
Thanks & have fun reading and as always, review.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summer strolled into Caballero's at 6:52pm. Turns out traffic in LA on a Friday night is a mess. Maybe she should have considered taking the subway instead. 'And ruin my perfect outfit?' Summer thought, 'Yeah, right.'
"Atwood. Party of four," Summer told the host as he eyed her up and down. Summer couldn't help the blush that rose to her cheeks; she knew she looked sexy and fabulous. She was glad other people were noticing it too.
"Right this way, miss."
Summer arrived at the table to two stunning looks coming from Ryan and Lana.
And no Seth in sight.
"Summer, you look gorgeous!" Lana stood up, throwing her arms around Summer in a hug and then standing back at arm's length to admire her again. "How do you do it?"
Summer smiled innocently, only shrugging her shoulders in reply, and then switched her gaze towards Ryan, "Hey, Ryan."
"Hey Summer. You really do look beautiful."
"Thanks," Summer blushed and then looked around the table, acting like she hadn't noticed her boyfriend's missing appearance from the second she arrived. "Where's Cohen?"
"Umm," Ryan stuttered looking over at his girlfriend for help, "Ahh, well…"
Lana spoke up, "Seth needed a little relaxer."
"Relaxer?" Summer asked as she sat down at the table. "What exactly does that mean?"
"Well, do you remember that ID he bought back in Rhode Island that was so exciting to talk about but decided never to use it?"
Summer nodded in response to Ryan's question, "Yeah, what about it?"
"Turns out he carries it around waiting to use it at the most inopportune time," Ryan finished as he pointed towards the bar where Seth was sitting, holding a glass of whiskey in one hand and used the other to talk animatedly to the blonde he was striking conversation with. All while the blonde smiled and laughed, occasionally putting a flirtatious hand on Seth's thigh, and Seth not reacting to her hand's movement upward ever so slightly.
"You know how it goes straight to his head," Ryan laughed nervously, anticipating a rage blackout from Summer at any time now.
Summer's head turned back to Ryan and Lana, who both wore guilty faces, and Summer had to do a double take in Seth's direction to make sure this was actually happening. Summer was slowly realizing she had gotten this dressed up and spent a few hundred dollars on a night when Seth would flirt with other girls and then not even remember Summer's appearance at dinner the morning after due his alcohol consumption.
"You've got to be kidding me," Summer mumbled to herself, still staring at Seth. She swung her head back around to Ryan and Lana. "You let him do this!"
"We didn't think one drink would hurt him," Ryan replied.
"And then one drink turned into four and that's the result," Lana nodded her head towards Seth.
Summer rested her elbows on the table and used her hands to cradle her forehead and cover her eyes, "I can't believe this. I get all dressed up for that fucking ass and he's over there getting Goddamn drunk and flirting with any skank he can get."
Ryan decidedly intervened in Summer's mumblings, "You know, he did this because of you."
"Oh, well, that's comforting, Ryan. Thank you," Summer looked up at Ryan replying bitterly.
Lana tried to speak for her boyfriend instead – she had gotten to know Summer enough to know that her rage blackouts were definitely not something that should be showcased in a fancy restaurant -, "No, what he means is Seth's worried about your relationship. He's drinking right now because he thinks you want to break up with him."
"He doesn't know what he wants," Summer sighed.
"What?"
"He's the one who wants to break up with me."
"Are you crazy? Summer, he's been in love with you for how long again?" Ryan asked rhetorically.
"Things like that don't always last! And look at him! He's clearly perfectly fine flirting with hundreds of other girls and can't even tell me he loves me!"
Ryan's voice softened as he sighed, "He loves you, Summer."
Summer inhaled deeply. "Whatever. I'm leaving. I'm not really hungry, anyway." Summer turned around, and despite the protests coming from Lana, she continued her respectable strut out of the restaurant.
Seth stumbled back to the table almost immediately after Summer walked out. "Look at this, Ryan! Another number! Three in one night! Bet you never did that, buddy!"
Ryan groaned, "Nope. Nope, I didn't, Seth."
Seth beamed to himself and fell into his chair, "Summer isn't here yet?"
"She was here," Lana began, "But she just left. Like a minute ago."
Seth's eyes budged out of his head, "Why'd she leave? I didn't even get to see her."
"She saw you over there getting numbers. God, Seth, and you're wondering why your relationship is going down the tubes," Ryan raised his voice. "You need to try and pay more attention to your girlfriend than all the other millions of girls in the world!"
"I do! I am!" Seth tried to argue back but his approaching drunken state of mind held him back.
"She doesn't think you love her anymore, Seth!" Ryan yelled, causing people throughout the restaurant to turn their heads in their direction to see what the commotion was.
"I do! I do! Jesus," Seth yelled back, oblivious to the growing crowd listening in on their table's conversation, "I need to stop her!" Seth ran out of the restaurant, almost tumbling over three tables, searching for Summer.
"You think we should follow him?" Lana asked Ryan.
Ryan shook his head, breathing deeply to calm himself again. "Nah, it's a Friday night. I'm almost positive Summer hasn't gotten a cab yet. We'll just try and have a decent meal while they fight it out outside. Seth needs to explain himself and Summer needs to listen. It's what's best for them."
Lana smiled and kissed Ryan's cheek, "You're such a good friend."
"Yeah? What about boyfriend?"
"Oh, you've had that one down for awhile now," Lana smiled as she leaned in to kiss Ryan's lips.
----------------------------------------------
"Summer!" Seth shouted as soon as he got out of the restaurant. "Summer!"
"What are you doing?" Summer shouted back at Seth as he wailed back and forth on the curb searching for her.
"Summer!" Seth ran over to her, where she was sitting on a bench next to the restaurant. "Summer, I thought you left."
"I was going to but it's impossible to get cabs in this Goddamn city."
Summer sat there with her legs crossed and her arms folded across her chest and Seth stood still, admiring her. "You look fucking beautiful."
Summer looked up at him, noticing the glazed look in his eyes that she suddenly realized wasn't as a result of him staring at her, but rather of the amount of alcohol he had consumed in that one short hour. "Seth," Summer looked away, down at the ground, "I don't want to do this out here."
"No!" Seth exclaimed as he dropped down to his knees, taking his hands to force Summer to look at him. "You said after dinner. It's after dinner. Or actually we didn't have dinner but I think we're skipping it so that counts as after dinner. Anyway, Summer, I want to talk about us."
Summer shook her head in his hands, closing her eyes, wishing that she was anywhere than downtown LA, breaking down in front of Seth.
"Summer, I know I'm not completely coherent right now but everything I'm about to say is the God's honest truth."
Summer still refused to open her eyes but stopped shaking her head.
"I love you. So much. And I don't know where the hell you got the idea from that I didn't but I do. I always have. I thought you knew that."
Summer opened her eyes and saw Seth's eyes were glassy – this time not as a result of the alcohol but rather of the tears that were building up in his lids.
"I just want you to be happy," Summer managed to mumble out of her mouth.
"I am happy. Summer, you make me all these different fucking emotions but happy is by far the one you make me most. Even when we're fighting. Just knowing we'll figure it out makes me happy."
Summer took Seth's hands off of her face and put them in her lap, "I'm not who you want anymore."
Seth ripped his hands out of her lap and stood up, "Are you crazy? Where the hell do you get these ridiculous ideas?"
Summer stood up and walked towards the curb without answering Seth.
"Don't leave me," Seth pleaded with her. "I need you."
Much more quickly than her first attempt, a free cab came up to the restaurant and Summer got in, trying to wipe away her tears. Seth jumped into the cab next to Summer, just as she was telling the cab driver where to go. "Seth, no."
"Where are you going to, sir?" the cab driver asked.
"Same place. I live with her." Seth turned to look at Summer's bewildered face. "I love her."
------------------------------------------------------
Thankfully the ride back wasn't as long – only fifteen minutes at maximum – and the entire ride was spent with Seth repeating the same sentiments over and over continuously. Summer couldn't handle Seth drunk and with her hormones being over-emotional lately, all she wanted to do was crawl into bed, forget everything that was happening, and sleep forever.
Unfortunately, as soon as they both entered their apartment, Seth showed that he had other plans.
"Summer, I don't want you go to sleep right now. I want to talk to you. I don't want you to hate me."
"Cohen," Summer sighed, "I don't hate you."
"You called me Cohen," Seth beamed.
Summer nodded her head confused. "Yeah, what else would I call you?"
At this, Seth couldn't resist his racing thoughts any longer. He threw his arms around Summer's waist, pulling her into him, crashing his lips upon hers. It only took a moment before Summer reacted, kissing him back, throwing her own arms around his neck and threading her fingers through his curly brown hair. Seth picked her up in his arms, and without breaking their heated and lustful kiss, began carrying her into the bedroom, ridding his jacket in the process. Summer, suddenly realizing what was happening, pulled her lips away from Seth's.
"Cohen, we can't."
Seth tripped ungracefully onto the bed on top of Summer, leaving a trail of kisses on her neck instead, "We have countless times before."
Summer pushed him off of her and rolled onto the other side of the bed, sitting up. "No, Seth, I mean it."
Seth groaned and threw his arm over his forehead. "Stop calling me Seth."
"That's your name," Summer replied pointedly.
Seth sat up abruptly, making direct eye contact with Summer, "Listen to me. I hate when you call me Seth. Yeah, it's my name but it has no meaning when you say it. It's like I'm just any other guy. And I'm not. I'm Cohen. Your Cohen. Your Cohen who wants to marry you. See, I think you should know that. I want to marry you. I want to see you walk down the aisle smiling at me, not noticing the hundreds of other people you will inevitably invite to our wedding because deep down, and no matter how much you deny it, you're a Newpsie at heart. I want to see you pregnant and glowing, beaming that grin you only save for the rarest occasions when you're so ridiculously happy when we go in for our first ultrasound and hear the baby's heartbeat – the baby we created. And I want to have little Jewish fro and rage black-out prone babies running all over our future white-picket fenced backyard with puppies and kittens chasing each other in the grass. I want to see you grow old but still not show any signs of aging because no matter how old you'll ever get, every time I look at you I fall more in love with you and realize you're the most beautiful being on the planet and that I'm the luckiest guy to have ever been able to love you. And most of all," Seth paused to take a breath as he saw Summer's eyes and cheeks glistening in the moonlight due to her tears, "I just really want to take that overly expensive dress off of you so I can touch and kiss every part of your skin to show you that I mean everything I just said. So please Summer, let me kiss you."
Seth pushed Summer gently back down on the bed and he captured her lips as Summer felt her heart melting. Everything Seth had just said was everything she had been wishing was true.
As Seth and Summer's kiss heated into a full-on make-out session, clothes were soon being discarded and Seth's breath was hot on her ear.
"Let me make love to you."
At this, Summer spilled over the edge as she reached for Seth's face and joined her lips with his once again.
Even if Summer still wasn't sure that the alcohol was doing all of Seth's talking or if he was just proclaiming words of love because his hormones were already in full swing, Summer didn't care. Because she wanted to be with him.
Sure, Seth had said all those impossibly cheesy declarations of love to her, but did he really mean them? All the girls constantly around, Seth letting them kiss him and touch him – Summer couldn't get them, or their words, out of her head.
Even if Seth wanted out of the relationship that he felt so convenienced into, Summer wanted him to make love to her one last time before she let him have everything he had just said with someone else that wasn't her.
"Maybe it's about time to realize you've taken it as far as you two can go and that you both should just move on with the rest of your lives. Separately."
She knew Bethany's words were right. She knew deep down that's what he wanted. Whether it be with Bethany or that girl that she saw him going to lunch with or the girl he met at the bar tonight.
He wanted something else. Someone else.
And even if he didn't know it yet, she knew she had to let him go before they both hurt each other.
"I didn't mean to hurt you, Summer."
Summer ignored the voices in her head as Seth thrust into her. Because she wanted this – one last time.
Seth was sitting, holding a glass of whiskey in one hand and used the other to talk animatedly to the blonde he was striking conversation with. All while the blonde smiled and laughed, occasionally putting a flirtatious hand on Seth's thigh, and Seth not reacting to her hand's movement upward ever so slightly.
Summer shooed away her thoughts and visions of Seth and the girl at the bar earlier that night and brought her arms to wrap around his neck, bringing him impossibly closer, trying to memorize every contour of his body as he continued thrusting into her, bringing each of them closer to their climax.
"I love you, Sum."
"I love you too."
It was in that instant she decided she would leave him in the morning.