Another You

Summer woke up to bright sunlight streaming through places where the curtain didn't cover the window and looked around to remember where she was. It was then she realized she was sleeping on Seth's chest, his head resting on top of hers. She quickly pulled away and sat up as it dawned on her what had happened only a few short hours ago. She looked down at Seth who was still in a deep sleep, and threw the covers off of herself and went over to her pink duffle bag that was on the table next to Seth's black one. She unzipped it and pulled out some clothes, clothes which she had thrown in the bag in a hurry. All she had brought were two pairs of jeans, a few t-shirts and tank tops, some underwear and bras, and a dark blue sweater. She had been in such a rush that she didn't even think to bring a few lacey and silky tops, but decided no one would really care what she was wearing.

So she grabbed some clean clothes and makeup and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. She set her things down on the closed lid of the toilet and stepped into the shower, shutting the glass door behind her. She let the scorching hot water hit her skin, turning the shade into a light red.

Summer didn't regret what happened with her and Seth, but she knew it would make things so much harder for the two of them. They both knew they weren't getting back together, what they did was out of a sudden burst of passion and lust for one another.

Summer sort of felt bad for Arielle, even though she severely disliked her. She felt bad for her because she had Seth, who was amazing and really sweet, whom she probably loved, and Seth cheated on her. And Arielle would of course be devastated if she found out; Summer knew that she would be if he did it to her. But, Seth and Arielle's relationship was no where near where Seth and Summer's was.

Seth woke up to the sound of running water and took a second to remember he was, and who he was with. Him and Summer. Even though Seth knew what he did was wrong and a terrible thing for him to do, he couldn't help but feel a little happy. After two years of wishing for this and regretting ever breaking up with her, Summer was with him once again.

Okay, so she wasn't really with him, after all, he still had a girlfriend. But who he didn't love. And he loved Summer; he had never stopped loving her. Now Seth was really confused. To everyone else in the world it was simple who he should be with, but Seth couldn't just break up with Arielle. She was really sweet, smart, and into comics and anime, and those were things he'd never find in another girl. Sure he loved Summer, but was that really enough in a relationship? Of course you needed love, or at least some kind of affection, but you also needed to have things in common or else you just drift apart from each other, or change each other. That's what happened to Summer and him; their love had changed the both of them, and unfortunately, that's what caused that fall out of their relationship.

Seth was pulled out of his thoughts by the ringing of his cell phone, and he looked for his phone, finally finding it underneath Summer's hoodie. He reached over and picked it up, flipping it open and holding it up to his ear.

"Hello."

"Hey man, where are you?" Ryan's voice asked.

"Hey Ryan," Seth said brightly. He hadn't talked to Ryan since a week ago, and he was anxious to tell Ryan about him and Summer. "I'm at the hotel."

"You're at the hotel? Why didn't you call?"

"Sorry, I was a little," Seth paused, "Distracted."

"Distracted?" Ryan asked, confused at what his brother was telling him.

"Yeah, by Summer."

"Summer's with you?" Ryan asked, shocked at what he had just heard. "Are you guys back together?"

"No, but something happened." Seth confessed. He tried to speak quietly so that if Summer turned of the water she wouldn't hear his conversation with Ryan.

"You guys kissed?" Ryan guessed.

"No, we uh, we had sex."

"You what?" Ryan asked loudly, completely stunned at what Seth told him.

"Shhh," Seth hissed quietly, "Don't tell anyone."

"I won't, but Seth, what are you going to do? I mean you have a girlfriend and if you tell Summer that it was just sex she'll probably take it pretty hard."

"I don't think Summer thought we were getting back together Ryan." Seth told him, "She still hasn't forgiven me for breaking up with her."

"Do you still love her?" Ryan asked.

Seth hesitated to answer. He really didn't know how to answer this question; while it was obvious that he loved her, he didn't know how to be with the new Summer.

"Yeah."

Both of them were silent while they both pondered the situation, and it was Ryan who spoke first.

"Can I ask you a question then?" He asked, his voice now lower than before.

"Sure."

"Why are you with Arielle when you're still in love with Summer?" Ryan asked, finally asking Seth the question he had in his mind since Seth started dating Arielle.

"Because it was the old Summer who wanted to be with me. And maybe she thinks she has to stay with me, but if that's true, then I'm holding her back." Seth said. This was the fear that he hadn't told anyone except Captain Oats.

"But don't you think that what you two did was proof that your theory isn't true?" Ryan asked.

"Never once did she say she loved me."

"Did you?"

"Well, no."

"I think you just need to tell her how you feel." Ryan suggested. He thought Seth was being a complete idiot. It was so obvious that he was still madly in love with Summer, but he was with another girl. Why did his best friend have to be so self-sacrificing? For once, why couldn't he just tell Summer how he really felt? Because now both of them were miserable.

"Ryan, you there?" Seth asked after hearing silence.

"Sorry, I'm here. Look Seth I have to go, but you need to tell Summer how you feel." Ryan said, "Oh and by the way, I'm in room 101 and your parents are in room 103." He added before hanging up.

Seth put his cell phone on the table in between the two beds and then found the boxers that he had worn earlier and put them back on, then sat down on the bed with his head in his hands.

God he was in such a disaster now. What was he going to tell his girlfriend? What was he going to tell Summer? He really loved her, and he would rather die than hurt her, but they couldn't go down this road again. It always ended in heartbreak and hurt. And Seth didn't want to hurt Summer anymore than she already had been. She needed a new life; and he had to tell her that. He had to tell her that they could never be together again.

Summer turned of the water of the shower and opened the glass door. She saw some fluffy white towels on a shelf above the toilet and took one to dry herself off with. She pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a green "Save the Earth" long-sleeved shirt and went over to the sink to blow dry her hair with the blow dryer on the wall. She applied a little makeup; she didn't wear as much as she used to, and exited the bathroom into the main room, where she found Seth sitting on the bed.

Oh no, he looks like there's something wrong. Summer thought to herself, I hope he doesn't regret what we did.

"Cohen," Summer said, causing Seth to turn his head to look at her. "Is something wrong?"

"No."

Summer bit her lower lip and focused her eyes on the carpet.

"So you don't regret what happened?" She asked, avoiding his eyes.

Seth noticed Summer bite her lip, which he knew she did when nervous or embarrassed, and walked over to her, putting both his hands gently on her shoulders.

"I don't regret a single second of it." Seth told her honestly.

This caused Summer to look up at him and smile slightly. She was relieved to hear that he didn't regret it, and that he had wanted her as much as she wanted him, but she knew that with something good always came something bad and waited to hear what he was going to say next.

"But it can't happen again." Seth said softly, "I have a girlfriend, and we just can't go down that road again."

"I know." Summer said.

"You should go home." Seth told her.

"But what about your parents? I should go and see them before I leave." Summer said. She didn't want to leave without telling Sandy and Kirsten how she was sorry about the Nana.

"Summer," Seth's voice sounded almost desperate as he said her name, "I need you to go. Please."

"Fine." Summer said shortly. She grabbed her clothes from off the floor and put them in her bag, zipped it up, threw it over her shoulder and walked briskly over to the door. Without even a momentary look at Seth, she opened the door and shut it, running over to the elevator.

Now that she was out of Seth's sight she let her tears fall down onto her face. Summer knew that this was it for her and Seth. And it was time she started to get over him, because he was obviously over her; he had basically told her to go home and leave him alone.

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It was about 3 hours after Summer had left, and Seth had finally decided to go see his parents and Ryan. He searched the doors for room 103 and when he finally found it he knocked and the door immediately opened and he came face to face with his father.

"Seth," Sandy Cohen said, his voice sounding only a little sad. "You made it."

Sandy pulled his son into a hug and Seth asked, "How are you doing Dad?"

"Oh, I'm doing alright." Sandy answered as he pulled away from Seth.

"I'm sorry about the Nana." Seth said genuinely, and Sandy nodded, understanding what his son meant.

Kirsten quickly went over to Seth and embraced him as well.

"I'm glad you're here." She whispered to him.

"Where's Ryan?" Seth asked, after noticing Ryan wasn't in the room with them.

"He's getting some take-out." Sandy answered, "Have you eaten?"

"No. I just got in a little while ago." Seth lied. He didn't want to tell his parents that he had been in Miami for almost the whole day because then they would be suspicious of why he hadn't at least called them.

"And Summer wants me to tell you guys how sorry she is."

"Summer?" Both Sandy and Kirsten both said in shocked unison.

"Are you guys back together?" Sandy asked.

"No!" Seth immediately said, "I called her to tell her what happened."

Kirsten nodded, not really believing what her son was telling her. She knew that Seth and Summer had a very complicated relationship, and by the way her son was being so defensive when they mentioned the two of them she knew that something was going on.

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Two days had passed since Seth had flown down from Miami and all of his time was spent visiting his family and getting the Nana's affairs in order.

Now he was on the airplane as it flew him back to Providence, holding in his hands what the Nana had left for him in her will; her old engagement ring. It was a yellow gold band with three medium-sized diamonds set on it.

Deep down Seth felt like he wasn't going to get to give it to anyone. He didn't really want to give it to anyone. He only wanted to marry one woman, and he knew that it wasn't going to happen. They had tried to be together, but it always ended up in tears and heartbreak.

He stared at the ring for a little while longer then put it back into the blue velvet box and back into his inside jacket pocket.

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Summer finally made it back into her dorm and she slammed the door behind her. The sadness and tears had disappeared while she was on the airplane, and now she was furious.

Seth couldn't keep playing these games with her; one minute acting like they meant nothing to each other then telling her how he was so lucky to have her then telling her to go back to Rhode Island.

Summer wasn't going to give into him. She wasn't going to show him how her life had completely derailed since they broke up. She was going to do everything in her power to make him jealous and regret breaking up with her.

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Seth opened the door of his apartment and switched on the light to find Arielle sitting on the couch.

"Arielle," He said loudly, "How'd you get in here?"

"You gave me a spare key remember?" Arielle asked Seth. She stood up from the couch and went over to him.

"Oh, right." Seth said.

Arielle tried to put her arms around Seth but he carefully avoided her attempt.

"I'm really sorry about your grandmother."

"Thanks." Seth said, taking off his jacket and hanging on the arm of the couch.

He went into his bedroom and sat down on the bed and began to untie his Converses. He pulled them off and he went over to his closet, stripped off his shirt, and put on a clean novelty t-shirt. He heard Arielle telling him not to just leave his jacket lying around and he rolled his eyes at her.

Seth came out of the bedroom and saw Arielle sitting on the armrest of the couch with her mouth slightly open and holding something in her hands.

"What's wrong?" Seth asked.

Arielle quickly turned her head towards Seth and showed him what she was holding.

It was the ring.

"Oh my god." Seth whispered to himself.

Arielle smiled widely and brightly and launched herself into Seth's arms, kissing him hard on the lips.

"Yes." Arielle said happily.

Seth's eyes widened as he figured out what was going on. Arielle found the ring, assumed Seth was going to propose, and said yes.

Oh god she had said yes. He looked at Arielle who was looking down at her hand and Seth's eyes looked down as well. She was wearing the ring on her finger. Seth knew what that meant.

He was engaged. And it wasn't to Summer, like he had imagined since he was 16.

Yesterday morning, just before noon
I passed a girl wearing your old perfume
And I stopped and stared
I could almost see you standing there
Don't get me wrong - I'm almost over you
But now and then I like to go walking through
Some of our old times
Even though I realize

I'll have another chance
I'll find another girl
I'll see another day
And I'll build another world
I'll start another life just like you told me to
And I'll find another love
But there will never be another you

Night after night I go back through the years
I sit on this porch as the sun disappears
Like we did back then
I remind myself once again

That I'll have another chance
I'll find another girl
I'll see another day
I'll build another world
I'll start another life
Just like you told me to
And I'll find another love
But there'll never be another you

Well I guess I should thank you for showing me how love should feel
I know what I'm gonna look for cuz I felt it when you held me

And I'll have another chance
I'll find another girl
I'll see another day
And I'll build another world
I'll start another life just like you told me to
I'll find another love
But there'll never be another you
Another you

Please R&R as always, and thanks so much for all your great reveiws!

Song: Another You by David Kersh

jjluvxoxo