A/N: Thank you for your reviews on my last story, Cross Coastal. Even though the last chapter hasn't reached 10 yet, I'm giving you my first installment of my new story, Missed Opportunity. Special shouts out to Mrs. Cohen, tines5, ramsychick, taseynell, nefftys, martina, psparkle7189, fastforwardd, tines, and everyone else who reviewed Cross Coastal. And if you haven't read it yet – please do & let me know what you think.
This fic is probably going to be a little fluffier than the last one, but still plenty of angst, drama & romance. So… enjoy!
Here is the basis for this one: Seth & Anna never broke up in Episode 118. Now, Seth & Summer are in college. What will happen? (SS pairing… eventually)
Read & Review so that I can post the next chapter of this one!!
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summer sat on her bed and wrapped the blanket around her. She peered out the window, taking in the East River. She listened to the noise from the streets, the lights shining from the other apartment buildings, the Williamsburg Bridge to the south. Summer sighed, she never found comfort in these moments when she was able to sit serenely while observing the hustle and bustle of New York. Times like these were when her mind would wander, which was never a good thing.
On some days, Summer would just sit and daydream about what would have happened had she grabbed the opportunity. If she had not gone back to the investment bankers after Seth recited her mermaid poem, if she had not left on Thanksgiving after finding out that he had been playing both her and Anna. Mostly, she regretted taking Anna up on her offer to go to that boy on New Years Eve. Once she found out that Anna and Seth were an item, she did everything to try and break them up. Eventually, however, she realized that Seth was a loyal man who would never leave one girl for another. So Summer tagged along as the fifth wheel and would just wait around while Seth and Anna, and Ryan and Marissa coupled off. It sucked, but Summer had no other option.
In June, right after their sophomore year, Ryan left Newport to take care of Theresa and her unborn child. With Ryan out of the picture, and Seth so madly in love with Anna, Marissa and Summer no longer hung out with Seth. They returned to the popular clique, attending Harbor ragers on weekends, chairing charity events for the Newpsies-in-Training, going on shopping sprees in the Southcoast Plaza. Summer would run into Seth from time to time on the pier, or at school, and if she was alone might have said a quick hello, but oftentimes ignored him. She didn't want him to realize that she was still into him, that she – Miss Popular – was heartbroken by the school geek.
Then there were the boys. Summer had several boyfriends in high school. Most were from the water polo team, and few lasted longer than a month. She would make out with them in the hallways of Harbor school, making sure that if Cohen passed that he would know that she was taken. Her behavior made all of the guys think that she would go all the way if they were lucky enough to get with her in the first place, which made the teammates all go nuts for her. Nonetheless, all of her relationships fell through when the boy du jour found out that she wasn't going to have sex with him. None of them would disclose this information to their buddies, afraid that she had merely rejected them and would be deemed a loser for not getting her to say yes.
The summer after senior year was especially tough for Summer. Marissa had left her side, opting to work as a crew hand on board one of Jimmy Cooper's yachts that was sailing along the Greek Islands. Holly went off and got married to some royalty abroad. All that Summer was left with were postcards from faraway places with messages that said "I wish you were here." She suffered through that summer, with the only light at the end of the tunnel being that she would be leaving in August to attend NYU. She had managed to do extremely well on the SATs and pulled up her grades enough to have her pick among some of the country's best schools. She didn't know if she would survive the cold Eastern climate or lack of beaches to tan, but it was her escape from Newport, or more importantly, Seth Cohen.
And now she was here. It was the spring semester of her sophomore year of college. After a year of living in a cramped triple, she moved in with her friend, Jed, to an apartment in Stuyvesant Town, to the east of the campus, or lack thereof. She was studying journalism, interning at AOL, and living the fast-paced life of a New Yorker. Everything was falling into place for her, except the guy scene. Although there weren't too many guys to pick from at her school – girls outnumbered boys at NYU, and many of the males in her classes were gay – the city was swimming with co-eds. Fordham, Columbia, Hunter, City College, Pace… not to mention all of the twenty-somethings working for high-paying consulting firms and investment banks in lower Manhattan as well as Rockefeller Center, where she worked. Summer just couldn't find a guy like Seth. And she would torment herself for it, reminding herself that the two never dated, that he was off in a happy relationship and she had missed many chances at being with him and should just get over it. But with every date at Carmine's, or Blue Fin, or Angelica's Kitchen came Summer's constant comparison of the guy's mannerisms towards Cohen, their interest in her, their ability to acknowledge everything she said and actually remember it.
Summer was lifted from her daydream when she heard noise coming from the living room. Jed had decided to throw a small soiree to celebrate the end of midterms. Summer left her room, noticing a crowd of about ten or fifteen friends drinking cheap liquor.
"Summer, join us," Jed yelled from across the room. Jed was great. He was, in Summer's eyes, a gay version of Cohen. Kind, sensitive, absolutely hilarious – oftentimes in a sarcastic way, and smart. On nights when she was extremely lonely or upset she would crawl into bed with Jed, and he would hold her tight, the two cuddling before falling into a slumber. He was the only one that she talked about Seth to, and he would tell her that everything would be okay and kiss the top of her head. Summer joined Jed, who poured her a shot of tequila.
"Sweetie, we have got to get you caught up to us," he said, handing her the shot. She downed it and he refilled her shot glass. She needed some way to forget about Cohen, if only for the night.
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So, what do you think of it? Let me know – please review! I'll post a new chapter after getting 5+ reviews!