Summer had picked nearly all of the grass within her arms' reach by the time Seth finally decided to return to the car, hands in his pockets, and an indeterminable look on his face. It didn't surprise her, though she wasn't sure what she was expecting him to say. There was a good chance that he would be pretty pissed, and she wasn't convinced she could blame him. If he had laid out one of her oldest friends, she would probably have a hard time seeing it as "noble," too.

"Hey," she smiled shyly.

He gave her a little wave and lowered himself to the lawn beside her, leaning against the car for support. "So, Sara's gonna be okay. Nothing was broken. The nurse says that she'll have a pretty nasty bruise, but nothin' permanent." His voice was flat, emotionless.

"Oh," was all she said.

After an awkward pause, Seth threw his arms up. "What the hell, Summer?"

"She pissed me off," she shrugged. He raised an eyebrow and continued to stare, expecting more of an explanation. "What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry? I'm not. Did you hear what she said to me?"

Seth looked back at the grass. "She wouldn't be the first person to ever call you "shallow," Summer," he said, his voice barely audible.

He was pissed. Only a pissed-off Cohen would avoid eye contact with her. "Not what she was saying about me," Summer insisted. "What she was saying about you. About us. She kept harping on how mismatched we are, how I'm not good enough for you, how you're so much stronger than I think you are."

There was hurt in his eyes when he looked glanced up. "So you punched my friend because she thinks I'm an emotionally strong person? Well, that's, um, that's quite the vote of confidence, Summer, thank you."

With a sigh, she turned her body and put a hand on his thigh. "Seth, she spent the whole day telling me how well she knows you, but she doesn't. She makes you out to be this thick-skinned, Teflon kinda guy, who just rolls with the punches and is never affected by what people think of you," she tightened her grip when he started to move away. "I'm the one who sees you shrink about three inches ever time someone calls you a dork or a loser. And I'm the one who sees you blush and cringe when some water polo jack ass start to flirt with me. I'm the one who knows you're using Atomic County as a way to cope with that hurt.

"And that guy, the one Sara doesn't see, or want to see, or whatever, is the one that I love. You're the guy that I am so obsessed with that I would skip the Festival of Fashion and punch some chick in the jaw to hold on to." She leaned her forehead against the side of his cheek. "You're the guy I love more than anything, Cohen."

He nodded and turned, giving himself some space. "And those are all very convincing arguments, and believe me, I will thank you properly when we get home. But I still don't get why you went all possessive back there. I mean, I know you guys don't exactly have a lot in common, but why would you knock her out?"

Summer rolled her eyes. She could explain women to Seth until the snow fell over Orange Country, but she doubted he would ever really grasp the basic truths. "I don't know. I mean, she just kept pushing my buttons. And there was all this stuff that she does know about you, about the stuff you like. It's like you guys have all these common interests – Bright Eyes and Batman and Resevoire Dogs and Camp Tacaho."

He nodded, his eyes waide. "Yeah, and girls," he said.

Summer's heart stopped in her chest. "What?"

Seth smirked and took his girlfriend's hand in his own, resting it against his thigh. "Summer, Sara is gay. She's a lesbian. She is not into me, at all. I mean, we're friends, but nothing else. Ever."

"Then why was she so rude to me all day?" Her brain couldn't process this new information, wouldn't accept that she hadn't know the chick she'd spent all day with was more likely to be into her than her boyfriend.

"Because she thinks your shallow? Because she doesn't like spoiled rich girls? Because you listen to Jennifer Lopez and you loved The Notebook? There are a plethora of reasons, Summer, but none of them have anything to do with being in love with me," he chuckled.

Suddenly, she freed her hand from his grip and smacked him in the stomach. "Why didn't you tell me that before we got here, Ass?"

"Ouch," Seth protested, standing and helping her to her feet as he unlocked the SUV. "Because I'm always the jealous, paranoid, self-doubting one? It was kind of fun to watch you struggle for awhile," he laughed, moving to the passenger's side to open her door.

Summer sank to the front seat and crossed her arms, shooting him a sideways glance. "You're not getting sex for, like, a month. You know that, right?"

He nodded and slammed the door, jogging around to the driver's side. Putting the car in gear, he tapped the beat of The Shins song that filled the car. "It means a lot to me that you did it, Summer," he said sincerely.

Rolling her eyes again, she put a hand on his leg and looked out the window as they left the campgrounds behind. "Sometimes I hate being in love with such a jack ass," she smiled.

Seth reached for the stereo and flipped the dial until some generic pop beat filled the air. He would hate it, but Summer would know all the words, and that was good enough. "Yeah, well, I kinda like bein' in love with my million dollar baby," he winked.

She scooted closer to him, but kept her gaze fixed outside. So she had been jealous. Sometimes it was okay to fight, right? As they eased onto the highway for home, she giggled. For the first time in her life, Summer realized that she had something truly worth fighting for.

XXXXX

As the sun began to set over Cassie's back yard, and the guests started to trickle out of the party, Ryan's eyes scanned the setting for his girlfriend. Marissa Cooper was not the kind of girl who just blended into this crowd. She should have been standing out like an awkward, sore thumb. But she was nowhere to be seen.

"She's inside," Cassie whispered as she moved behind him with a bowl of potato chips, headed for the kitchen. "She had a headache, so she's layin' in my bed."

Ryan nodded and made his way for the house. He had spent an entire day avoiding her, trying to segregate his life into two very separate parts. Blending the two blurred lines that he wasn't ready to decipher just yet. Making his way to the bedroom, he knocked on the door and then peeked in to find Marissa rocking back and forth, her knees hugged to her chest as she stared at some nondescript point on the comforter. "Hey," he greeted.

Her eyes darted to him and then back to the bed. "Hey."

Dropping to the bed, he reached for her knee. He was in no mood to console her, but since they would be stuck in a car together for the next hour, he would make the effort to smooth things over. "You pissed?" He asked when she drew away.

She shrugged. "Confused," she said. "You lied to me. You said that you spent all last summer working and helping Theresa get ready for the baby. You said that you didn't even see any of your old friends that much. And you said that you hadn't seen TJ since he was two. But Cassie says that you lived here, with her, until, like, August," she accused, turning her eyes to him. "Why the hell would you lie to me?"

Ryan leaned back against the headboard and wished for a cigarette. "Because it was easier than telling you the truth," he admitted easily. No point in lying more, he guessed. "Look, this place takes me back to the days when people were on a "need to know" basis, and sometimes I think it's just better that way."

"So you didn't think I needed to know?" she asked, tears building, threatening, as she fought to push them down.

"No," he shrugged. "It didn't matter. I mean, what I did here didn't have anything to do with us."

"How can you say that?" Marissa asked, turning her body toward him. She had thought that it would be harder to pick a fight with him, but the less he told her, the easier it was to raise her voice, to speak her mind. "Everything that happens here has something to do with us. Our relationship is just the sum total of our individual experiences, Ryan."

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. "What? Who talks like that?"

But Marissa wasn't joking and the smile only fueled her rising anger. "Look, you got pissed at me when you got back and I didn't tell you about DJ. And now you're gonna sit there, knowing that you lied to me, and pretend like it was no big deal?"

"It's not a big deal. You don't get it, Marissa. You've spent a total of two days in Chino your entire life. It's not what you think it is. Or what you don't think it is. You don't know. You don't even know me," he shot back, his own anger starting to bubble.

"Because you won't tell me the truth. You never talk about it. It's like you wanna shut me out of this part of your life. And I don't even know why you don't trust me enough to tell me the fucking truth!" She rolled off the bed and stood, hands on her hips.

He jumped to the other side of the bed, his face reddening. "You don't want to know the truth, Marissa. You don't wanna know what I was like here because I'm not the hero that you need me to be," he accused.

"All I need, Ryan, is for you to treat me like an intelligent human being. Dammit! Everyone thinks they know what's best for me. They put on the kid gloves and they treat me like I'm made of fuckin' glass, like I can't figure anything out for myself. What I need is for you to not be another one of those people in my life. Give the truth, dammit, even if it breaks me," she pleaded.

Anyone passing through the house could hear them, Ryan knew, but he didn't care anymore. "Fine! The truth is that I did a shitload of stuff last summer that I am not proud of, okay? I did shit that I thought I would never do. You want the list?" She nodded and crossed her arms over her chest, as if steeling herself for the response. "I drank more than you could dream of consuming in a ten lifetimes, and I did enough cocaine to kill a damn horse." His voice was shaking, but his eyes said that he didn't appreciate being pushed to this place, especially by her. "I beat the shit outta some asshole at a party just because it felt good to hit someone until they stopped fighting back."

"So?" Marissa shrugged. "You lied to me because you drank and did some drugs? Have you met me?" she asked. There was more – she could see it just under the surface. But she couldn't get to it, couldn't reach him there. And it only made her that much more determined.

"I did it because of you, Marissa. Dammit!" He deflated and sank to the bed. The confusion and anger in her eyes melted into hurt and he couldn't take it. This is exactly why he hadn't wanted to tell her anything about the past summer in the first place. "Because I wanted you here with me. Because I was too fuckin' weak to handle all the pressure of being a dad at seventeen. But I didn't have the balls to pick up the fuckin' phone and tell you that. So I tried to replace you, forget you."

Cassie had been right. This is not fun, Marissa thought as she sat back down. "What about Cassie?"

He just nodded and looked at his shoes, his back to her. "Yeah," he confirmed her suspicions. "Look, all I wanted was something to take away the numb feeling I had with Theresa. I wanted it to be like it used to be, when I could just fuck someone to feel and not worry about regrets or emotions. I wanted to be Trey, to do what I wanted for me and not give another fuckin' thought to anyone or anything else."

Marissa felt her chest tightening and her breath growing short. He slept with Cassie. To get her out of his head, he had slept with another woman. And not just any other woman, but one who knew him better than anyone else. "Did it work? Cassie?" she asked, not sure why she needed to know.

He sighed. How did she do this to him? She could work a wordy confession out of his determined silence better than anyone. And when her shoulders sagged and her voice took on that vulnerable wobble, his heart wanted to surrender its deepest and darkest secrets. And try as he might, he couldn't hate her for it. "For awhile. When I could close my eyes and pretend it wasn't her."

Taking a deep breath, Marissa twisted her fingers and looked at him through wet eyes. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

He turned and shrugged. "I didn't think it would help anything," he admitted. "Marissa," he breathed. He moved toward her on the bed, his hand reaching for her shoulder. "As soon as Theresa told me that she lost the baby, I left this place behind. Without a second thought." He could feel her sharp intake of breath when he pulled her back to his chest and leaned over. His lips brushed her ear when he spoke. "I left it for you. For us."

She knew that was a lie, too. He left Chino because there were more opportunities for his future in Newport. But it was a lie that she could accept, mostly because she thought he might actually believe it. "Look, this place is a part of you," she turned in his arms and put a palm against his cheek. "I get that now. And if we're gonna make this work, you and me? You're gonna have to let me know this side of you, too. Because I can't love you if I only know half the story."

He nodded and rested his forehead against hers. "And if you don't like this guy? The Chino jack ass?"

She smiled, playing the hairs on the back of his neck. "You forget that this guy, the Chino jack ass? He's the one that gave me a cigarette and a cheesy pick up line at the end of the Cohens' driveway two years ago. This," she kissed his nose, "is the guy I crushed out on in the first place."

His lips found hers and he laid her back on the bed. "We're gonna hit rush hour if we don't make this quick," he warned as his hands made their way under the hem of her tee shirt.

But she smacked him away and struggled to sit up. "No, we're not. Because we are not doin' anything right now." She stood and offered him a hand. When he didn't move, she motioned to the bed. "Don't look at me like that. You fucked your nephew's mom on that bed. You don't get us both here."

He just rolled his eyes and stood, taking her hand and following her from the room. Maybe she would discover something she hated later down the road. But for now, Ryan was going to give Marissa what she wanted – the truth, or enough of it to appease her curiosity while still protecting her heart.

XXXXX

"Sum, I can't believe you actually got into a fight," Marissa gasped as the foursome sat around the pool house Sunday afternoon, sharing tales of their trips down memory lane.

"Yeah, well, someone's gotta have Cohen's back. And since Ryan was off in Chino, playing "family man" or whatever, I was the next in line," Summer beamed, smiling at Seth.

He blushed and trapped her hands in his. "Thank you. I don't know if it makes me cooler because my girlfriend loves me enough to get in fights over me. Or if I'm just a bigger loser because my girlfriend fights to defend my honor," he questioned.

"Seriously, man," Ryan leaned close to Marissa and rested his chin on her shoulder as she reclined in his arms on the bed, "Did you know she was gay before Summer hit her?" He had a feeling Seth wouldn't know gay from straight if it wasn't spelled out for him.

Seth nodded. "I swear to God. She told me when we were twelve, but she swore me to secrecy," he raised a hand and then shrugged when they all looked at him skeptically. "Fine, whatever, don't believe me. I don't care. So, Ryan, you up for a little ninja warrior action?" he asked, reaching for the Playstation controls at the foot of the bed.

As Ryan released his grip on his girlfriend, Sandy and Kirsten stood at the grill, one eye on their kids and the other on their dinner. "So Summer got into a fight with Seth's gay friend from camp and Marissa found out that Ryan slept with his brother's ex-girlfriend last summer? How do you get this information?"

Kirsten shrugged and pushed herself off the ledge beside the grill. "There are many good reasons for a mother to befriend her sons' girlfriends," she winked.

Sandy shook his head. "You are amazing," he smiled, casting a final glance at the pool house. "You think they'll ever make it through two straight days without any drama?" Sandy asked.

Kirsten wrapped her arms around her husband's shoulders and rested her head against his back. "No," she answered, dropping a kiss on his neck before she retrieved her wine glass from the nearby table. "But it wouldn't really be the OC if they did."

End.

A/N: I'm really sorry if this ending seems kind of abrupt. I was just having a really hard time with this story - it didn't seem to want to be told anymore. I hope I gave it enough closure for all of you who are so great to read and review it for me. Next up is probably the sequel to Rock Bottom, since people have been asking for that. And maybe a short Seth/Summer story, too. Thanks again for reading - you guys are the best.