I am the worst person ever, I know. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but school sucks. It gets in the way of everything and I am so busy right now looking at colleges, lacrosse, coaching volleyball, school paper, friends, and Big Sisters, and of course finding time to update. Everything is just so crazy right now and I am sure that some of you can relate! So, I wrote this chapter as soon as I had some time. So, as always, please read and review.
Oh, one more thing, I also didn't get as many reviews as usual, so if you could just leave like one word to let me know if you liked it, it would be greatly appreciated. Okay, and on with the chapter.
Disclaimer: Oh how I wished I owned The O.C. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Although, I do own Jenny, Cameron, Kelan, and anyone else unfamiliar.
Chapter 10
Seth had spent the rest of the day after Summer had visited him, trying to figure out what to take for a picnic dinner on the dock.
He searched the yellow pages until he came across the name of a restaurant that caught his eye, Bar Masa. He knew that Summer liked sushi, so he decided that this was a smart restaurant to choose. He called them up, placed the order, and they told him that it would be ready in about 40 minutes.
He stepped into the old-school claw-foot shower and as the water poured down over his scalp, thinking about how this night was going to go.
Seth got out and towel dried his hair before applying the gel. He took a second glance in the bathroom mirror and stepped out of the bathroom, walking over to where his suitcase lay. He reached in and took out his favorite pair of distressed looking jeans and a button down shirt, rolling the sleeves up halfway up his forearm.
The clock read 6:43. He grabbed his wallet and cell phone and walked to the elevator to go to Bar Masa.
He arrived there in five minutes and walked in.
"Hi, carry out for Seth Cohen?"
"Hi, yes. One order of the Kumamoto Oysters and another order of the Striped Sea Bass?"
"Yeah."
He rang up the bill and told him that his grand total was, "$60.38."
He took the bag and was about to walk out when he ran into someone very unexpected. Jenny.
'Oh fuck.' he thought.
"Uh, hi."
"Seth! Hi!" She tried to go in a place a kiss on his mouth but was rerouted and ended up hugging
him instead.
'Great, wasted.' he thought to himself again.
"So, how are you?"
"I am miserable, Seth. I need you. You complete me."
As she was saying the word complete, she took her two index fingers and made a heart.
"Yes, well, find someone else to complete you, Jenny."
"But there is no one else! We were supposed to get married!" Jenny pouted.
"Again, I'm not ready to get married."
"You are- you just don't know it yet."
"Okay. Well, I really should be going. I have places to be."
"Where? With that little skank?"
"Who?"
"Oh don't act like you don't know, Seth," she spat. He found it funny how quickly her
personalities changed when she had a little alcohol in her. "Summer."
"Oh yes, actually that's exactly where im headed."
"You know, she's only after you for your money!"
It was the first thing that had come to her mind when she was trying to get Seth back.
"You don't know that!"
"Oh Seth, I do. I do," she paused. "Where are you going with her?"
"Battery Park. Why?"
"Just wondering, God, you don't have to be so mean. And remember, Seth, this is not over until I say it is!"
"Okay, right. Well, it was good to see you again, and after I go back home I'll call you and you
can come get the stuff from my house that you left there and I can get my stuff from you house.
Bye, Jenny."
And he walked away, not waiting for her to say anything back.
---
He walked out onto the sidewalk carrying the food and a small blanket that he had brought and got into a cab that was sitting on the corner near the restaurant.
"Hi, Battery Park, please."
"Sure thing."
Seth looked around and noticed the cab drivers picture on the visor. 'No way,' he thought to himself.
And sure enough, it was Fonzie, the cab driver from the other night.
"Hi." Seth said.
"Hey, kid. How are you this evening?"
"Good, good."
Fonzie looked back in the rearview mirror at Seth.
"Oh! Hey! It's you that young man from the other night!"
"Yeah, how's it going?"
"Good. I'm good. And how are things with that lady friend of yours?"
Seth smiled and laughed a little.
"I'm actually on my way to meet her now."
"That's my man."
Seth smiled again and laughed at him.
"So what do you have planned for tonight with her?"
"Well, I just picked up some food and brought a blanket and well, I'm not really sure to be honest with you. Hopefully the night will just fall into place."
Seth thought about what Fonzie had just asked him and wondered if it was bad that he didn't have anything planned. Would this look bad for him? He wondered what she would want to do if he would have planned something.
"That sounds good."
"Yeah," he said, distant. "Should I have planned something?"
"Well, does she like to be spontaneous? Or does she like things that are planned?"
"She can go either way, really."
"Then I think your fine. Dinner on the river would be good enough for me!"
"Well alright."
"So, what has been going on with that one woman, Jenny, was it?"
"How do you remember this stuff?"
"I like ya, kid. I remember the important things too."
"Oh. And yeah, it was Jenny. Funny you should bring her up actually."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I just ran into her at Bar Masa. She was a little bit passed her alcohol intake level."
Fonzie laughed and Seth smiled at him.
"So, tell me about your life."
"Well, what do you want to know?"
"Married? Kids? Girlfriend?"
"One for three. I thought you'd do better than that."
"Usually I am better at the whole reading people thing, but I guess your just hard to read." Seth
explained.
"Well, married, no. Girlfriend, no. Kids, yes. Three actually. Two girls and a boy. My wife passed away around seven years ago. She had a severe case of cancer and we found it too late to do anything about it. But, with about the eight months that she had left, we did everything together. I even quit my job to be able to spend every waking minute with each other. And you want to know the best thing?"
"Sure. But wait, I thought that you had left your girlfriend alone when you left for the war and then never contacted her?"
"I did, but, what I left out in my last story was that I did call her one summer day about a year after I had gotten back. The reason that I left that part out was because I didn't want you to think that every situation has a happy ending, cause it doesn't. I knew that if I had told you that I never got her back, that that might persuade you to fight for her harder. Clearly I was right. Anyways, we fought like we never had before."
"That was good?"
"Oh, man, that was just what we did. We fought all the time. Of course it wasn't like serious fighting, but it was just one of those things that we did that no one understood..." he trailed off, finally realizing that he had just let all of that out.
"I understand, actually," Seth smiled, wierded out by the fact that him and Summer were just like these two people. "I understand exactly."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just tell you all of that."
"No, no, it's fine. I'm glad you did actually. So, how old are your kids?"
"Well, my oldest, Kara, she is just about to be thirty-three, and my second, Peyton, she is twenty-nine, and then, Jack, my son, he is twenty-four, almost out of college. He was in school to become a doctor. He graduates in like three weeks."
Seth studied him as he told of his kids. Here he was, listen to a man who lost his wife seven years earlier and is still carrying on- putting his three kids through college and having who knows how many jobs to be able to do that. He hoped that if anything like that ever happened to him that he would be able to be like him.
"Wow. That's great."
"Yeah, yeah it is."
They sat in comfortable silence for about five minutes while the sound of The Romantics filled the car. Seth couldn't remember what the name of the song was, but he was sure that him and Summer had listened to it together.
Fonzie eased to a stop infront of the pier and turned around to face Seth.
"Well, Seth, it has been a pleasure."
"It really has."
"Good luck with everything and take care of Summer. From the way you talk about her, she
deserves someone like you."
"Thanks, man. Not just for what you said, but for everything. You know, your stories really did help me to see some things that I may have missed."
"I am glad that they could help."
"It's not definate or anything that I won't see you again, but if I don't, the next time I am in New York I will call your cab company and ask directly for you."
Fonzie laughed. "Thanks kid."
"Bye."
Fonzie didn't say goodbye, only a simple nod and a smile.
---
"Cam! What do I wear!"
Summer was freaking out. Did she want to wear something that would look to dressy for what they were doing? Should she just wear jeans? Well, she had to wear something red. She promised Seth that she would. 'Do I even own anything red?' she asked herself out loud and she threw different things in and out of her suitcase at the hotel.
Cameron walked in the room with a glass of wine in her hand.
"Give me a drink of that," said Summer as she held out her hand in anticipation of the glass.
She handed it over and Summer took a drink saying a quick "thanks" and bolting down once again to look for something to wear.
"Help." Summer wined just as Cameron was about to walk out the door.
"With what?"
"What do you usually wear when you go out with Kelan?"
"Well, usually we are going to a restaurant, which in that case I would wear a dress or skirt. But,
since you two have this whole park thing, I am not really sure."
Summer glared at her.
"This park thing is important. I want something to happen tonight. Not just like more of those
small kisses and touched. I want commitment. I want him to know that I want more, which means that what I wear can't come off as too pushy or like anything like that. Damn it, can clothes even come off as pushy? And I also told him that I would be wearing red. I mean, why in the hell did I say that? I'll be wearing red? I don't even have anything red here with me let alone actually own anything that is red!" Summer took a deep breath.
"Well, skip the red then."
"But I told him I would wear it!"
"Summer, God, control. You didn't even bring anything red, so unless you want to run down the
street and search for something red, your out of luck."
"So...?"
"Fine, hold on," Cameron bent over her suitcase and nudged her a little for her to move.
She pulled out a pair of dark, almost black, washed skinny jeans, a mint green vintage looking shirt, and a cream sweater. She went into her closet and pulled out a pair of black high heels and instructed her to put the outfit on.
Summer mumbled something incoherent and striped down to put the clothes on. She walked out to the room to find Cameron sprawled out on the couch, flipping through the channels on the T.V.
"Good?"
"Summer! You look so cute! Now, you better go before Seth thinks you decided against your
little rendevous in the park."
"Yeah. Bye. I'll call you later."
Cameron smiled as she watched Summer walk out the door.
---
Seth walked over to the dock that went out into the Hudson River. He sat down on the edge and swayed his legs back and forth. It was nearing 7:26 and Seth was getting worried. He looked down and the blanket that he had brought and began to unfold it when Summer spotted a boy with curly brown hair. He wasn't really a boy though. That was one of the things that Summer had immediately noticed once she saw him for the first time a few weeks ago.
She walked over to him sat down next to him on the blanket.
"Hey." Seth smiled happily.
"Hi."
"What's up?"
"Oh, nothing, just spent the day with Cameron after I saw you today."
"And how was that?" He asked, the smile never leaving.
"It was fine. She was very happy today though, which to be honest, gave me a small headache."
She smiled up at him and looked into his eyes for the first time that night.
"Your not wearing red."
She smiled and looked back at her hands, not understanding why she was nervous.
"Funny story actually. So, it turns out that I don't own anything red."
"Well, you can be the lady in mint, then."
"Yeah, I can. So, what are we doing tonight?"
"Lets see. I brought food from Bar Masa. I know that you love sushi, so I thought that it would be good. I brought that with me," he said, turning his body around to grab the bag that contained the food. "So, I guess we could eat that. I also hadn't had anything planned, I hope that that's okay?"
"Sounds perfect."
"Good."
"So, what'd ya get me?"
"I got you the Striped Sea Bass- in sushi form of course."
"Sounds awesome."
Several minutes had passed with some small talk here and there.
"Summer, I want to talk to you about something."
"Yeah?"
"Today, on the phone, when I said I love you, I didn't really mean to say it, it just sort of came out."
"So you don't love me?"
"No, no, I do. I just, I didn't mean for it to come out so soon. We've only been talking for like two and a half weeks. I didn't want to scare you."
"Well, I have to say that when you said that I did get a little..freaked out... but I'm not anymore."
Ever since Summer had left Seth for Texas, she had become this shy girl who was still afraid to show her emotion. She wished like she could be more like Seth in that way- telling people how you truly feel about them.
"Good. I mean, I want to take things further with you, Summer, but everything has just happened so fast in these last couple of weeks. I want to be with you, so much, and I can't believe that I am about to say this, but I think we should be taking things slow, maybe not jump into a relationship right away."
"But, I thought that this was what you wanted? I want this with you, Cohen. These last few weeks have been hell for me. First I get here and your with Jenny. Then, we have spent so much time together and you make me forget about everything that's bad, of course that's not a bad thing, but then the Nana."
"Shit, the Nana. I totally forgot. I hope she's okay."
"You forgot?"
"I didn't forget totally. Just a little," he said, trying to persuade her.
Summer just giggled and grabbed onto him arm. The night wind finally starting kick into gear.
"Cold?"
"Just a little."
"How about we get out of here. On my way over here I saw a horse and buggy. I know that it's a little old fashioned, but I thought it would be fun. I haven't been on one of those in forever."
Summer grabbed onto Seth's arm again and they began to walk towards the street in hopes of finding a horse and buggy.
Unfortunately, they did not find one, but they did find the comfort of each other. They continued to wander down the streets of New York talking about different things. They both knew that this is where they wanted to be- with each other.
They had walked for a few moments just looking at the different things passing around them before Seth spoke a whispered "Summer."
"Hum?" She asked with her head on his shoulder.
"I have been thinking and I was wondering if we could be in the stages of a pre-couple? I know that I want to be with you, but after just getting out of a relationship, I think that this is what I want."
As much as Summer was disappointed, she knew that this was best for him.
"As long as I know that we will be something soon."
"I can officially tell you that that will not be a problem."
"Then, it sounds good."
"Good," he said as a smile formed on him face.
Summer could tell that he was smiling by the way that he had said good. She smiled, just knowing that he was smiling.
They continued walking along until Seth decided to take the silence as a chance to break out in song.
"You don't love me at all, but don't think that it bothers me at all.
You're a bad-hearted boy-trap, babydoll, but you're... You're so damn hot."
"Cohen!" Seth continued to sing as Summer laughed along, secretly singing the words in her head.
Okay, so there it is. I have an idea for the next chapter, but as always, ideas are welcome! Again, sorry for the wait. I will work harder to update sooner that two weeks. I also do not own OK GO or their song You're So Damn Hot or The Romantics.
Review!