Disclaimer: Nope, not mine

Seth slid the key into the door of room 428 and twisted it, pushing the door in with all of the energy he had after ascending three flights of stairs. He walked into the room and looked around. Half of the room was completely empty – a bare hospital mattress on a wooden frame, bare desk, bare walls. On the other half, the blue colorblock sheets were half-on and half-off the bed and the walls were peppered with blueprints of buildings and renderings of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House and Le Corbusier's Unite de Habitation. He looked around his roommate's side, trying to learn as much about him as possible. There were three picture frames on his desk – one was of a girl with dark hair and a nose ring, another was of the same girl and a guy – rail thin and wearing clothing that were seemingly from the Salvation Army, and a third of the same guy with a family that looked out of a J. Crew catalogue in front of the Eiffel Tower. Seth raised his back upright only to see that same guy from the pictures staring at him.

"Can I help you?" the guy asked. He was in a towel with beads of water dripping off his shaggy blonde hair and onto shoulders. He was taller and thinner than Seth, with a few days worth of stubble along his jawline and his upper cartilage pierced.

"Yeah. Um. No." The guy looked at Seth. "I mean, hi, I'm Seth. I'm living here."

"Ah, you're the roomie. And I thought that once Andy moved out I'd get this room to myself. Go figure."

"Yeah." Seth turned on his heel and walked towards his duffel bag, starting to unpack.

His roommate kept standing in his towel. "I guess you want me to leave so you can change. That's… cool. I'll just go stop and get some food. See you." Seth put on his coat and walked out of the room.

Seth returned a half hour later to find the guy lying on the messy bed, playing with a metric scale. He was wearing a threadbare tee shirt and well-worn jeans. When Seth opened the door the guy sat up slightly, then went back to fidgeting with the scale.

"So, sorry about before," Seth said. "You'd think that they would send us each other's contact info or something. What's your name, by the way?"

"Max."

"Okay, Max. What are you studying?"

"Architecture."

"That explains your decorations. I'm in Illustration," Seth said as he took his clothing from his duffel bag and placed them into his dresser. "Where are you from?"

"New York."

"Have you been to CBGBs?"

"Nah."

"Why not? That place is a legend out where I'm from."

"Lame and closed."

"Okay. Well, you know what, I'll keep unpacking. Sorry to bother you with all of these questions." Seth continued placing his clothing into his drawer. He then took the picture frames out from his suitcase and placed them on the desk. He looked at the photos. Summer had given them to him before he left to ensure that he wouldn't forget her. There was one of the two of them from this past Chrismukkah and one of him with Summer and Anna in Palm Springs back in sophomore year. They were all wearing goofy golf clothing and it was kind of ironic that Summer kept that, since it was taken back when he had been dating Anna. He sighed. Summer Roberts was something else. Seth started hanging up his posters. One of Little Miss Vixen that he got blown up before he left. Another from Atomic County. The Shins. Deathcab. Belle & Sebastian.

"You like the Shins?" Seth heard a voice behind him asking.

"Yeah, it's one of my favorite bands. I mean, I don't think hearing New Slang will change your life…" Seth quipped, mocking Garden State.

"Heh. They played this summer over at McCarren Pool."

"What now?"

"This pool in Brooklyn. It's not used as a pool, just as a venue. Gets some sweet gigs, though."

"That's so cool."

"Yep." Silence.

"Well, I'm from Newport Beach, where everything – including people's faces – are manufactured. Have you heard of the chin implant?"

"Yep, my mom's got one of them. New York is laden with plastic surgeons."

"You learn something new every day. So, how is it here?"

"Huh?"

"Like, here. East Hall. RISD. Providence. Rhode Island."

"Fine. Fine. Don't know and don't know."

"Why's that?"

"Architecture. You spend all of your time in the studio. Though I'm sure you will too."

"Hopefully not. I'm trying to balance the whole long-distance relationship with school."

"Ah, one of those," Max said, knowingly.

"What do you mean?"

"Go to college without your high school girlfriend. They last a week. We had enough

angry phone calls and crying girls on this floor in the fall."

"No no no. We're not in a long-distance relationship, per se. Actually, well, she goes to Brown, um, went to Brown last semester, and will be back in the fall… just not right now."

"So?"

"So it's four months. Four months with monthly trips back to Newport. And she'll visit too, if that's okay with you, of course. We managed last term, I think."

"Whatever you say. Just remember the pact."

"The pact?"

"Dudes can hook up with whomever when they're doing the long-distance nonsense. Every guy knows that."

"No, I don't think you…" Seth was cut off by the door opening.

"Max, are you ready yet?" the girl from the picture entered their room. She was tall and lanky with her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail dressed in equally threadbare clothing as Max, but stylish nonetheless. She looked over at Seth, who was standing awkwardly near his bed. "Hi, I'm Isabelle, Max's girlfriend. Just call me Elle."

"Do you go here?"

"No, I'm at Brown."

"Really, I was just telling Max how my girlfriend goes there. Do you know Summer… Roberts?"

"Name doesn't ring a bell. Where does she live?"

"She's not there this semester, she was in Mead Hall."

"Sorry, I'm in Archibald."

"This is her," he grabbed the photo of the two of them off of his desk.

"Wait… that's the girl that let the bunnies go loose. Yeah, I read about that in the Herald. Crazy world, eh?"

"She didn't exactly… yeah, crazy world."

"Cool, well, Max… we really gotta go if we're going to meet Skeet and Jenny." Max got on his Converse and grabbed his coat, heading to the door. "Nice meeting you…"

"Seth."

"Yes, Seth. I'm sure we'll see each other around," Elle said before closing the door behind them. Seth looked at the photo of Summer and then continued unpacking.

"Summer, I have a job for you," Carrie said, walking towards Summer's desk.

"Yes?" She had just started her job at the Coastwatchers the week before. Although most of the past week had been training, she really enjoyed meeting some down-to-earth Newpsies and feeling like she was having some impact on the community.

"We're having a benefit…"

"Benefit?"

"Yeah, us and a bunch of the other nonprofits are having a Winter Wonderland benefit next week. All of our donors wind up coming and it's a great way to network with other charitable groups in the county. Anyways, I'd like you to help out with some of the planning… do you think that you're up for it?"

Event planning and activism. A perfect match, Summer thought.

"Sure."

"Okay, so here is a list of all of our donors," Carrie gave her a stack of paper. "And here is a list of RSVPs. I need you pinpoint which donors have not yet RSVP'd and then use our database to contact them. Then, if you could go to the Club at three with me, there will be representatives from all of the groups there to talk about the details. How does that sound?"

"Great!"

"Okay, well I'll let you get to work then." Carrie walked off just as Summer's cell phone rang. She looked at the number. Seth.

"Now's not a good time," she said.

"And hello to you too," Seth responded.

"No, I'm at work… it's only three here."

"Shit. I forgot. Call me later?"

"Sure." She closed the faceplate on her phone. Although she missed Seth, the past week had been so busy that she wouldn't have gotten to see him anyways. Between learning the basics of her job, keeping Kaitlin from throwing ragers and listening to Taylor's tirades on Henri-Michel and her love for Ryan, she barely even spoke to Seth on the phone. But in a week it would all settle down. Now she had a party to plan.

"Yes, mom, I brush my teeth every night. Bye," Seth hung up the phone as he entered his room. Max looked over at him. "Yeah, my mom's kind of crazy."

"Okay."

Max spoke little more than Ryan. To Seth. He seemed to always be chatting with others, but the level of conversation between Seth and Max was minimal. Elle was much chattier, when she wasn't too busy making out with Max. In the past week Seth had learned the hard way what a sexile was, kind of awkward considering how Max had reacted when Seth saw him the first day in nothing but a towel. Still, Max was an okay guy.

"What are you up to tonight?" Seth asked.

"Elle's throwing a party. You can come."

"Eh, no, it's okay… I really have to get started on my studio project… she said I could come?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. What time?"

"Ten to pre-game."

"Great. I'll be there. Or, I'll go with you. That's fine, right, because I really don't know anyone else and well I don't even know where Archibald…"

"Seth, you're rambling. It's fine."

"Okay. Then ten it is."

………………….

So this is it, Seth thought. It looked like Summer's old place, just another building. Plenty of coeds getting drunk. Frat boys. Ex-Catholic school girls. So these were the ones who had that special hook. He followed Max into the room and they spotted Elle who ran up to Max and gave him a kiss.

"Oh, Seth, you decided to come," she said. "Go, get a drink… and you can drop your coat anywhere."

"I think it's fine on… I like the… warmth."

"Okay…" Elle and Max started making out.

"Yeah. So I'm going to go get a drink," Seth said to no one in particular. He picked up a Natty Light, shrugged, and sat on an institutional couch. He looked around again. Everyone was mingling. He wished Summer was there. Summer… who was supposed to. His phone rang.

"Summer?"

"Hey Cohen. What's all that background noise?"

"Oh, I'm at my roommate's girlfriend's dorm room party."

"So artists party."

"She's at Brown, actually. Yep, I'm on your home turf."

"Uh huh," she said, softly. Some frat boy was doing a keg stand in the lounge while his brothers loudly cheered him on. Seth left the room and went into the hallway.

"So I miss you," he said.

"You too."

"Tell me about your job. We haven't gotten to talk in…"

"You're at a party now. Enjoy it."

"It's okay, Summer. I don't know anyone, my roommate's off with his girlfriend doing god knows what and there's frat guys who got in over me getting messed up."

"Fine then. Work is… great, actually. I mean, I miss Brown a lot but I'm getting to plan a big event for the non-profit."

"So galas are good for seals."

"I guess so. It's on Saturday night. I wish you could be there. You'd like my boss a lot."

"Not that I'd be there to see her."

"Subtle, Cohen. How's class."

"Good. A lot of work, but good. I'm in a workshop on comic book storytelling…"

"They teach that?"

"Yeah. And two studios, some fundamental…"

"That's great. Really, Cohen. I wish I was there with you."

"You too, Summer. I love you," he said as he saw some campus security officers heading towards the party, "but I gotta go before the bust this. Talk to you soon?"

"Yep. 'Night."

"Goodnight Summer. Sweet dreams." Seth headed out of the quad. He hadn't eaten dinner and was pretty hungry, knowing full well that he had nothing in his room to eat. He figured that he could stop at a falafel stand on the way back. It was dark and cold, but there were still a number of college students around. Most were coupled off or in groups. He dug his hands further into his pockets and walked at a brisk pace until he reached Ali Baba's Falafel.

"One shawarma, please," he said, handing the counter guy a five.

"Cohen, is that you?" He turned around.

"Anna?"

What will happen with Seth & Anna? Just friends or more than that? Review and I'll post another chapter (really, this time).