Alrighty then...finally finished the next chapter.
Firstly, Im kind of disappointed in the length and content of this chapter. I didnt get everything I wanted to put in it but I had to put something out before I left.
School is starting again and it seems the work is being piled on so it doesnt seem like I'll have much time for writing..damn college...that does NOT mean this story is on hiatus nor does it mean its cancelled. Since ive started I went from day to day, to every other day, to every week postings...ill try to keep it to every week but it might be every other...anyways...
Reviews: Firstly, THANK YOU kalex for finally saying it, I knew as much but I just needed someone to tell me it was moving too slowly to get my ass in gear. Im glad you understand all the character's povs cause I think that means Im doing something right...as for Seth's freak out...I dont think hes much of an exploder which is kinda what happened in this chp BUT have faith...he was yet(again) to express his feelings on all matters and such bottling up can lead to grave explosions...you never know, so dont worry spiffykay... I would say within the next two chapters Seth should get all his feelings out...possibly even more than that... June.Louise...good to see your review and ive been preoccupied with your oh-so-well written fic..good job du
Anyways, enough blabbering...heres chp13, enjoy and review...dont worry next chapter should move everything along...i know its been progressing VERY slowly.
I'll post an AUTHORS NOTE of how the next chapter's moving along when later on...

One last word, thanks to Danni for all the help thus far...and to all reviewers: If you want to blame some one for all the delayed postings, blame her.

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Poor Me

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The clouds from the rain storm had engulfed the city in a dark shade of grey.

Since there was no point in leaving their hotel room, Seth and Summer had once again curled up to a movie.

Of course it had taken them over ten minutes to mutually decide on one, each pleading their case for their respective genres. Eventually they decided on the movie "Seven", a particularly dark movie for a dark day.

They lay on the bed with Summer curled up closely to Seth and her head resting on his chest. Seth had his arm around her to keep her close.

When the movie had finished they remained motionless on the bed. Seth closed his eyes and lightly leant his head on hers. He closed his eyes, enjoying the moment, totally oblivious to everything else around them.

Seth was awoken from his semi-conscious state when her felt Summer twitch and shudder against him. In no way could she be cold, the warmth of both their bodies together was more than adequate. He opened one eye to see what the disruption was about. He saw her shoulders spasm back and forth and then the quiet little sob that escaped from her mouth, Seth's suspicion was confirmed.

"The ending wasn't that sad" he whispered as he moved his arms to readjust his grasp on Summer. The ending was kind of sad but more of a 'aw' sad not a 'I think I'm going to cry' sad…even for Summer or any girl for that matter.

Summer sniffed and tried to wipe the runaway tears from her face.

"I know…" was all she said.

Seth knew there was clearly more to it and decided to wait for her to continue. Unfortunately nothing preceded her first words and the two just lay in silence.

"Summer" Seth nudged her signalling that he was waiting for her to keep going.

"It's just a sad movie okay?" She sniffled through her words and started to get up.

"Whoa, whoa, wait." Seth quickly tightened his grip and held her back down against him. He wasn't a forceful person, everyone knew that. He, among the rest of the Cohen's, are actually notorious for conflict evasion. This however was an exception.

"Cohen…" she groaned trying to fight his grip, which was surprisingly strong.

"No. Hey! Come on…" Seth tried to calm her down while he struggled to keep her clenched fists away from any and every extremity of his body.

"Seth!" she screamed, her voice was shaky and mixed with rage and distress. Her tears continued to fall down her face.

Any other time Seth would have let her go and given up but this time was completely different. She would either have to knock him down on the floor just as Ryan had or she would have to submit and allow him to comfort her.

Summer was always as strong emotionally as she was physically but again, that strength had dwindled some since Marissa's death and Seth knew she needed him more than ever. The problem was, Summer didn't realize this. Whether it was pride or just blindness, she was trying to deal with this herself.

Although both his friends would confide in him about Marissa and all things related, it never seemed to get overly deep. He and Ryan would usually sit in silence for long periods of time or he would sit and hold Summer against him. Even when words were exchanged, they would be very vague and repetitive. Now, they had stopped disclosing to him altogether. Ryan had begun to drink and Summer seemed to grow more distant emotionally with him.

Seth was completely frustrated and was more than sick of being brushed away. Seth had to control himself and not burst out at Summer for that would only push her further away and deepen her sadness. Instead, Seth started the only way he knew how to handle a serious issue…

"Come on, comforting is always best when it's forced." He pulled her back and slowly stroked the top of her head.

Summer spat out at the inappropriateness of the 'joke', but couldn't help but chuckle through her tears for a split second.

Finally, Summer stopped fighting and sat still, signalling to Seth that she had given up.

Seth sighed in relief. Summer was quite the fiery girl and very strong for her size…or maybe he was just very weak for his…

As soon as Seth loosened his grip Summer covered her face with her hands and cried. She leant back into him and Seth rearranged his arms around her to be more comforting. He kissed the hair on top of her head and rested his head against hers. He rubbed her back gently as she let all the tears; everything she had been bottling up was let out.

"I miss her so much" she sobbed softly after a solid minute of deep crying.

She took her hands away from her face and gripped him tightly around the waist.

"I know." Seth could only whisper back into her hair and kissed it again while slowly rubbing her back.

Summer buried her face deeper into Seth chest, his shirt starting to become wet and stained from her tears and makeup.

Seth tilted his upper body back a little trying to get Summer's attention. He snaked his head around trying to catch eyes with her.

Summer finally, slowly lifted her face to look straight at him.

She was the saddest girl in the world.

She looked at him with eyes that were ridden with grief and sorrow. Her frown could melt even the iciest of hearts. Her entire face was red and the stained lines from her tears shone when the light hit them. Her lips trembled as she tried to compose herself in front of Seth.

Seth's eyes wandered around her face, taking in every detail until he finally settled back on her eyes.

His look almost completely mimicked hers. It was not because of the loss of a loved one but because how deeply she was effected by it. It pained him to see her in such a state and even more so because there was nothing he could do to help her.

Seth slowly lifted both hands and wiped the tears away. He then leant his forehead against hers and smiled faintly.

Summer forced a half smile and kissed him lightly on the lips.

They both broke away for a moment and Seth lied down completely on the bed. Summer immediately lied half on top of him, the other half beside him and rested her head on chest.

The two lied there on the bed for a long time in silence, just loving the closeness and comfort each other had to offer. Even though each only spoke once, Summer was starting to feel better.

Finally Seth spoke.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Summer shook her head even though it was still glued to Seth's chest.

"It might help"

Summer just shook her head again.

"Why don't you want to talk about it?" Seth urged on.

"Why do you want to talk about it?" Summer snapped at him as she pushed herself off of him to sit up.

Seth was taken back by the sudden mood shift and the elevation in her voice.

"Why don't you?" Seth said matching her tone.

"Because I don't!" she yelled louder.

"Why not?"

They were both at a volume where an older man who just happened to be walking past their room paused and looked at the door with a confused and puzzled look on his face. When the shouting resumed he quickly broke into a speed walk down the hall.

"Just leave me alone" Almost immediately Summer's attitude changed and she was no longer sad and was becoming more and more infuriated by Seth's constant prying. She just wanted to be alone and he wasn't letting her.

Summer rose to walk away but Seth caught her arm.

"Seth, I'm warning you!" she yelled the rage was skyrocketing in her.

Seth again, was taken back by her mood swing. Although he was accustomed to her mood swings due to more… genetic reasons, this however, was not one of those cases.

Seth even flinched a little and curled his shoulder inward to help block some vacant attack.

"What are you gonna do, hit me too?" Seth yelled at her.

He immediately froze and let go of her arm upon realizing what he had just said. The anger that was flooding through Summer's body quickly drained after hearing Seth's words.

"What?" Her face quickly turned serious, her eyebrows furrowed.

Seth quickly looked away from her.

"I….uh…I didn't…uh…w-" He stuttered trying to come up with a cover up but it was too late. Summer had caught him and he knew there was no way in keeping it from her.

Seth bit his bottom lip and shook his head at his foolishness. This was something he knew he had to keep from Summer because he didn't want it to seem like Seth was having problems of his own; she was having too many already.

Summer sat back down on the bed and warily looked at Seth.

"It's…uh…it's nothing." Seth said, his eyes not moving from the spot on the bed just in front of him.

Summer knew that was coming.

"Okay, so if it's nothing, then why don't you just tell me"

Seth just stared at the bed and continued to shake his head. He felt like an idiot.

"Cohen" Summer lowered her head to try to catch his eyes.

"Seth" She said quietly and lightly hooked her finger on the bottom of his chin and towed his head upwards at her.

"It's…" He started as he finally made eye contact with her.

"…Nothing. I know." She finished for him.

"But, how 'bout you tell me anyways?" She smiled sincerely at him.

Like a deer in headlights, Seth was caught in Summer's gaze and felt all the power to deny her dissipate.

Seth turned his head away from her.

"The other night when I couldn't sleep I uh, I went over to Ryan's room."

"Wait, what time was it?" Summer remembered that the two of them went to bed pretty late that night.

"Uh…two thirty…" Seth glanced over at Summer. Her head was tilted to one side with an expression that said 'Yeah right'.

"…or maybe four." He corrected, knowing that she wasn't believing his first time.

"Cohen!" She scolded.

"What, it's not like he was asleep. I was just walking by and I saw his light on." Seth implored, truthfully too.

"Uh huh." Summer didn't quite believe him but would let it slide.

"I did!"

"Okay, continue…" Summer definitely didn't believe him.

"So we got to talking and then he uh, didn't quite knock me across the room but he might as well have."

"He hit you?" Summer mouth dropped.

"Well…yeah, you know…" Seth's eyes darted around as he tried to shrug off the subject.

"What were you guys talking about that made him turn into the Hulk?"

Seth's eyes widened and looked at her.

"Don't get too excited" She coyly smiled.

Seth smiled quickly before he continued.

"That's just it, we weren't talking about anything"

"So, what, you were bugging him too?"

Seth shrugged and glared out the window.

"Cohen…" Summer said softly and put a hand on his lap causing him to look back over at her.

"Not everyone likes to talk."

"I know…Okay, I know that." Seth looked down at his fidgeting hands.

"I just that…I get that this was like, a huge thing for all of us but, we gotta get over it."

"Get over it?" Summer repeated his last words with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Like, move on from it" Seth tried to clarify.

"You don't get it, do you" Summer said almost at a whisper as she shook her head at him in disbelief.

Seth looked up at her a little confused.

"That's why we don't talk to you about it!" Summer was practically yelling at him, her voice straining to maintain its composure.

"You don't know what its like to lose a best friend! A sister!...You have no idea."

Seth just stared at her confused and a little shocked.

Before he could open his mouth to rebuttal Summer continued, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.

"You don't get it!" She screamed
"She was my best friend and now she's gone! She was the first real friend I had and now…" Summer's words were muffled as her hands caught her heavy head.

Seth looked at her with a heavy heart and softly placed a hand on her back.

"You have me…" He tried to comfort her, but at the moment, he was just some consolation prize.

"That's not the same thing." Summer finally managed to say between sobs.

Neither of them realized how much of this conversation was like a similar conversation they had, had in the past.

Seth had forgotten all about the argument he was about to make. The sheer sight of Summer in such a wrecked state was enough for him to forget anything and everything and just be next to her.

"I can't talk to you…to Ryan…about the same things I could with her. I can't replace her with someone else, I…I can't… Summer's tears poured out even more and her voice was cut off by gasps of air as she let everything out.

For a moment Seth's thought lingered on Ryan and his departure some two years ago.

He knew this situation wasn't all too different, but there was no possible way of telling that to Summer without getting into another heated conversation, which was the last thing she needed. What she needed was Seth and him comforting her.

Seth wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly against him.

"We'll get through it, I promise" He softly whispered into her hear. Somehow he felt compelled to say it, as if it seemed like the proper thing to say.

Seth kissed her head and gently rubbed her back while Summer's tears slowly started to subside.

He paused at a single thought and leaned back to look down at her.
"You're not gonna run away to Portland are you?" he said cynically.

Not thinking that Summer clocked his words he rested his head on hers and just sat there with her.

A few minutes later he felt a sudden jab into his ribs from Summer's fist.