So sorry for the long wait. Please help me get some more inspiration by leaving a review.
I'm so bad in updating nowadays...
A big thank you to Mrs. Cohen who has been reminding me about this story lots of times. Thanks to you I was able to have it up today, on Christmas Day. Merry Christmas everybody and enjoy reading!
"Please talk to me"
"You should stay away from me," Summer, almost impossible to hear as she had her head pressed into the pillow, said. She lay huddled and a sniffle could be heard every other second.
Carefully reaching his hand - slightly afraid that she'd have the same reaction as before - up to her temple Seth gently moved his fingers up and down in a smooth motion. He wasn't sure of what to do, or if he should say anything. He wasn't good at giving comfort and he certainly had a gene or something that always made him say or do the wrong things.
He kept caressing her temple though, seeing that she did allow him to touch her. Some of her hair had fallen down into her face so he replaced it behind her ear. Finally, after a moment of silence, he said, "I don't want to stay away from you."
Summer slowly sat up, wiping a few tears from her face. She didn't look like she'd been crying; at least not like Seth had seen her before. Maybe that was because of the lack of make-up or the fact that she just had taken a shower. "You should though," she quietly told him.
He shook his head and took her hand in his. "Why?"
"Because," she said, her voice cracking. "I only hurt you." A tear fell from her eye, a big tear that quickly rolled down her face to her chin. In a whisper she added, "And I don't want to do that."
His grip on her hand tightened and he looked straight into her eyes. "Summer, you don't hurt me."
"I am right now!" Summer stubbornly exclaimed with tears now streaming down her face. "I'm not letting you into this mess," she sighed and Seth could see how the frustration grew. "Can't you see that I'm a mess here, Seth!?"
"Sum," he started kind of unsurely. She was a mess; he had to agree with that. But, not a mess he didn't want to fix. "I want to be with you, I want to be here for you."
She smiled through her tears, sobbing and smiling at the same time and creating a weird facial expression Seth couldn't read. He couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying. She was probably crying though. "I know you do. But…you shouldn't need to take care of me as if I was a child. Okay?"
"Can't you tell me what happened?" Seth carefully asked. "We were fine yesterday morning. Did I do something?"
"No! No, Seth, you didn't," she said as fast as she could, very determined in letting him know that he wasn't the problem. "It's not you, at all. You're perfect."
"Then what is it?"
"Cohen,"
"If you're gonna break up with me, don't I deserve a reason?"
A hiccup escaped her dry throat; she knew that he had to know. He deserved to know. If there was anything she could do for him, she would. And he couldn't believe that he was the problem. "I saw my dad, right after we'd bought the cake."
"Oh," Seth said and understood that this was difficult for her. He knew that her father had left her.
"Yeah,"
"Did he see you?" Seth carefully asked.
"No, and I don't think he'd recognised me."
A silence fallowed. Summer stared down in her lap while Seth cautiously reached for her hand. "If you don't want to be a couple can't you at least stay here? As friends? You shouldn't go back there."
She looked up, surprised by his sadness in his voice. "Cohen, I really don't want you to-"
He kissed her hand and looked pleadingly into her eyes. "Summer. I want you to stay."
"Alright, I'll stay." She sighed and felt terrible for letting him do this. But she didn't have heart enough to say no.
"Good."
"At least for tonight," she quickly added and he smiled.
vvvvvvvvv
The next day Summer walked into the living room, fully dressed in some clothes she'd left at Seth's place a while ago. She felt a little better and as she saw Seth she was surprised that she didn't turn and head for the door.
He smiled as she appeared, holding up a bagel. "You hungry?"
"Yeah," she said with a small smile. Pouring herself some coffee she sat down with Seth and accepted the bagel. Neither of them said a word, just shot quick glances at each other.
"Sum?"
She hesitantly looked up, fearing that he would ask her more about what had happened. "You know about my dad's birthday?" She nodded and saw that he, too, looked scared. "You still want to come to the party?"
"I don't know," Summer unsurely said, lowering her head, her eyes focusing on the cup of coffee.
"I know my mom wants to see you again. And Marissa will be there." Seth spoke in an attempt to convince her.
In a low voice she asked, "Do you want me to come?"
Seth knew that he wanted her to come; he really wanted her to come. "Yeah, but you don't have to just because-"
"Then I'll go. It's not like I have anything else to do." She owed him so much so coming to a party was the least she could do. And besides, a part of her wanted to meet his family again. And Marissa. Causing that smile he had on his face was reason enough as well.
"Okay. Great!"
"Great!" Summer grinned.
Another silence fallowed and again Seth was the one to break it. "Sum, could you promise me something?"
"What?"
"Promise me to never disappear from my life." Summer frowned and looked at him questioningly. "Even if you feel like you want to, don't. At least without having a very good reason to."
"Cohen-"
He interrupted her, "Could you promise that?"
Nodding she answered him. "Okay, I promise."
vvvvvvvvv
Summer and Seth stood outside of the Cohen's house, Seth dressed in a suit and looking really handsome while Summer wore a white halter dress. She had her hair in a low, elegant ponytail and was holding Seth's arm.
"My mom's gonna be thrilled that you came."
Summer grinned and began to walk to the door, not giving Seth a reply to that. She had been kind of happy to be back here, where she felt like she actually had a life. Even though she so many times just wanted to stay in and hide, not talk to anyone, she secretly enjoyed this; dressing up and going to a fancy party.
Seth shrugged, slightly confused by her happy appearance, but since she was smiling and looking happy there was no way he could deny her to enjoy this party.
"Seth! Summer!" Sandy had opened the door and immediately brightened up as he saw his son with girlfriend, or whatever she was these days. He wasn't sure if they were a couple, Seth had never confirmed anything. But it sure looked like it. Either way, Sandy was happy that Seth finally had found himself someone as great as Summer.
"I'm glad you could make it," he said and received a hug from them both. "Come on in." Summer watched how Seth and his father hugged and smiled. Seth was lucky.
As Sandy left them to great some new guests Seth took Summer's hand and led her over to the bar where they got some drinks.
Sipping some of the liquid Summer couldn't help but glance up at Seth. He was wearing a black suit which made him look really hot, his hair was perfectly messy and the whole time he had this serious mixed with bored look on his face. How could a guy be this perfect? He was good-looking, cute, smart, kind, funny; the list could go on forever.
Then why are you pushing him away? A voice in her head asked, causing Summer to frown. He's the best thing that has ever happened to you.
"Sum?" Seth said and forced her back to reality. She quickly placed a smile on her face, trying to push all the hard thoughts away. "You okay?"
"Uh-huh."
"Kay. Good. Take a look over there and you'll see something funny." He pointed in direction to the kitchen and as Summer fallowed his eyes she spotted Kirsten and Marissa standing by the counter. They were preparing some kind of food though it didn't look very good. "Maybe you should go help them,"
"Maybe," Summer smiled. She had missed having girls around and she was really glad that Seth had told her to go talk to them. That way she didn't have to make an excuse. "You'll be okay?"
"Yeah. I'll find Ryan or something. You go."
Touching his arm slightly, just in a quick brush, Summer gave him another smile and then hurried to the kitchen.
"Hey, man." Ryan appeared where Summer just had been standing, hands in his pockets. "Been abandoned by your lady, too?"
"Yeah. Except she's not my lady." Seth looked over to where the three women stood, now laughing. Marissa had her hand on Summer's arm and they were laughing hysterically.
"She's not?"
Seth sighed. "We're back to being friends."
"Her idea?" Ryan asked as he noticed Seth's happy facial expression as he was watching the brunette laugh.
"Yeah."
vvvvvvvvv
Marissa dragged Summer upstairs, a place where Summer never had been before. They couldn't hear much from the party; here it was quiet and still. In the hallway a few lamps were lit but otherwise it was empty and dark. All the doors were shut but Marissa didn't seem to care about that. She opened a door without hesitation and pushed Summer with her inside.
"Marissa, what are you doing?"
She laughed. "I'm showing you Seth's room."
Summer looked around. It did look like it could have been his room. Blue and the walls covered with posters. "It's a cool room."
"Yeah. He had a lot of stuff," Marissa said and flicked through some old comic books. "Comics,"
"He read comics?"
The blonde nodded. "He did. A lot, I think. But I didn't really know him back then." Marissa hesitated, not sure what to say.
"I know," Summer said and ignored Marissa's guilty look.
Suddenly the door closed with a slam, causing both girls to jump, and a person walked inside the room. Seth. "Hey, guys. I see you've found it,"
"Found it?" Marissa asked with a grin.
"Yeah, the place where it all happened," Seth smirked and sat down on the bed.
Summer made a face. "Ew! Cohen!"
"What?! It's true." Marissa shot him a warning glance. "Okay, so it's not. But it could have been."
"Could have? That doesn't count, Seth." Summer said and was about to ask Marissa when she noticed that her friend wasn't there. "Hey, where did-"
"Marissa go? Probably got tired of us." Seth explained with a shrug. "I'm used to it."
"Yeah, me too I guess." Summer softly said and sat down next to Seth, her hands in her lap.
Seth sighed and looked around the room. "I used to live here," he stated.
Summer giggled. "I know." She smiled and her eyes fell on a plastic horse that stood on the desk. "You had a plastic horse?"
"Yeah. Captain Oats. My best friends. I can't believe I actually left him here."
"I had one, too. Princess Sparkle." Summer smiled and went to grab Captain Oats where he stood on a scrap book. A few pens lied next to it and one paper seemed to have fallen out from the book. "Can I look?" Summer nervously asked, biting her lip.
Seth shrugged and smiled at her cuteness. "Go ahead."
Opening the scrap book and taking a seat in the chair standing by the desk Summer gasped. Inside were several drawings, really good drawings. "God, Cohen. Did you make these?"
vvvvvvvvv
Seth threw the leaves from the flower into his empty glass, watching how they stuck to the sides where it was wet from the liquor.
How could she one minute be totally fine, laughing and smiling, and the next so drastically change into someone else. Tonight it had been as if she'd never seen her father, never shut him out or spend several days crying or staring out the window. He needed to get her back to her therapist. Or something. Because seeing her in pain was breaking his heart every time.
"Hey," Summer softly said as she walked up to him where he stood on the driveway. "Watcha doing?"
"Nothing." He emptied his glass and began to walk up to the house.
Summer grabbed his arm though. "Please, wait!"
Taken by surprise Seth stopped and turned back around only to see how her eyes were glistening with tears. She desperately held his gaze though and drew him closer with her hand. "Can you forgive me?" she asked, her voice unsteady.
"Forgive you for what?" Seth questioned, taking her hand that had been on his arm, intertwining their fingers.
"Everything."
Her word was only in a whisper and Seth could see how she fought to keep the tears inside. "I have nothing to forgive you for. You've done no wrong."
"I've been playing with your feelings, Seth. I've sent you mixed signals. I've hurt you. I've-" Seth placed a finger on her pink lips to silence her.
"You're the best thing that's happened to me."
Summer froze, the sad look on her face turned blank and her eyes grew double its size. And as Seth came closer to her she didn't even dare to breath, or blink. His hand went up to her face, caressing her cheek so lightly that her whole body slightly began to shake. His touch made her legs feel like they would fail her and as he slowly kissed her chin her whole body relaxed, welcoming his touch.
His lips moved from her chin and up to the side of her mouth, finally capturing hers in the most light and careful kiss both of them had ever experienced. As Seth felt how she responded, and allowed him to touch her, he brought his arms around her petite body. Still very careful he opened his mouth and touched her soft lips with his tongue, and as she just as slow and careful parted her lips and invited his tongue into her warm mouth Summer brought her arms up around his neck, pushing herself closer against him.
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