It had been a good hour since Natalie had left him and he was still sitting in the exact same spot on the beach. He’d taken his cell out of his pocket about 10 minutes ago and his finger was hovering over the ‘dial’ button with Summer’s name and number staring at him like an angry cat. He’d called home from a phone booth, hoping they wouldn’t recognise the number and not answer. It hadn’t worked. He wondered if it would have done for Summer, but unfortunately he’d run out of quarters.

How could he call her now? She wouldn’t want to talk to him, he would be a fool to believe for one second that she’d give him the time of day after the way he left things. Wouldn’t he? In a brief moment of madness Seth pressed the button and lifted it in his shaking had to his ear. It rang. Once. Twice, Three times. For a hopeful moment Seth thought she might be out and save him some embarrassment. No suck luck.

“What?”

She’d answered the call, good start. Then Seth’s mind started to panic. Crap, what did he say?

“Cohen, I know it’s you. If you have the nerve to ring me after the way you treated me the least you could do is say something. And ‘Sorry’ just won’t cut it.” She stopped for a moment to give him a chance to speak. He didn’t. What a grade A freak, a gorgeous girl which he was stupid enough to leave in the first place was giving him a sort-of second chance and he was sitting there staring at a seagull saying sod all.

“Be like that then. Goodbye ass.”

When the dialing tone rang in Seth’s ears her suddenly snapped out of his trance. God damn it!!! Why the hell did he not say anything? If he hadn’t blown it before, he sure as hell had now.

* * *

Summer was awoken from her slumber by a knock at her bedroom door. She blinked, taking a moment to realise that she’d fallen asleep. She was sprawled out on her bed surrounded by Math homework and history books. The knock came again, followed by a familiar voice.

“Summer, are you in there?”

“Come in Dad.”

He pushed the door open and greeted his daughter with a soda, a plate of cookies and a warm smile to match the weather outside.

“Sorry honey, did I wake you?”

Summer smiled back. “Yeah, you did. But I’m glad you did. I really need to get this done.”

He sat down on the bed and bit into a cookie. “How are you doing?” There was a compassion in his eyes which Summer saw that was just too serious for her to cope with at the moment. A like hearted reply was in order.

“Algebra’s giving me a headache, I’m thinking about giving up and going to watch a movie in my Pjs.”

“Sum, that’s not what I meant.”

Summer sighed and moved the plate away from her dad so he couldn’t steal any more choc chip cookies. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m totally…” not over him. NOT over him. “I’m totally over him.”

It took some serious will power to leave out the n word from that sentence. Even though she totally was over Cohen. She just had to convince her heart that.

“If you ever want to talk…”

“I know. Wanna come watch Finding Nemo?”

Mr. Roberts smirked. “Tempting, but no. I have to get back to the office. Good luck studying.” He kissed his daughter on the head and left the room.

Summer slumped back on her bed, sending paper flying everywhere and lay there staring up at the ceiling. Why would her brain not take notice of the front she was trying to put on? Seth was a jerk. He ran off, leaving a stupid plastic horse to tell her. What a pathetic reason to go anyway. Hello?! He coped 17 years without Ryan, and he cracks after a few hours? Please.

He lied. He told her he wasn’t going anywhere. Then what did he do? He left. Typical. Although Summer didn’t know why she had expected anything different, he was a man after all. And a geeky one at that.

So why was she feeling so crappy. Right, she knew why. But no, she wasn’t going to give in. The ball was in Seth’s court. If he really loved her he’d come back. She’d put it down to a moment of madness and might forgive him. Maybe. But how desperate would it look if she asked his parents where he was and went to find him. There was no way, like she would ever be that needy. She was staying right here in Newport. There was no way in hell she’d take her Dad’s car when he goes on his business trip tomorrow and go and track down her looser of an ex.

If she did that she would be the geeky one. Who drives halfway up the coast for a Cohen??

* * *

Summer’s took a deep breath and knocked on the Cohen’s front door. Kirsten opened it a moment later and looked surprised to see her standing there on the doorstep. Summer had brought a box of Seth’s stuff round. When she collected it up an few hours ago, after totally giving up on her school work and watching half of Finding Nemo, she had the intension of dumping it in the middle of his floor and forgetting all about him. But on the drive over there her intensions had changed somewhat. That was the problem with thinking things through so much. She had the habit of talking herself out of the logical and most healthy things to do way too quickly.

“Hey Summer. What can I do for you?”

I’d like to know where your idiot of a son ran off to so I can go and beat him to death before telling him that I’m madly in love with him and want him to come home. Summer thought perhaps not, she’d go for the less embarrassing option.

“I came to give Seth’s crap back.”

Kirsten seemed to be suppressing a chuckle. “Sure come in. You know where his room is.”

Summer smiled and walked up the stairs. She paused at Seth’s open doorway. She smirked despite herself. The last time she was in here was under slightly different circumstances than now…

Dammit Roberts, stop it.

She sighed and put the box down on the floor. She sat down on the bed and looked around the blue papered room with sadness. It was so weird being here again knowing things were so different. She smiled when she saw Captain Oats on the bedside cabinet.

He picked up the horse and turned it over in her hands. “Well, looks like you won’t be seeing princess Sparkles anymore. Don’t blame me, blame Seth. It’s totally his fault. He just doesn’t have any regard for his horsy friends at all does he?”

It occurred to Summer then that she could do something about it. For a split second she realised that if she wasn’t so stubbon she could get her man back and stop living in miserable denial.

“Come on then mister” she said to the horse. “You’re coming with me.” She was talking to a plastic horse, could she be any sadder? If Seth were here he’d be winding her up right now saying that his geeky ways had rubbed off on her. Taking the one thing that reminded her most of Seth totally ruined the statement of giving his stuff back, but that was just pretence anyway.

* * *

Kirsten sat in the kitchen eating a bagel, waiting with amusement for Summer to come back downstairs. How long did it take to dump a box of stuff anyway? He son was an idiot for running off. She wanted him home, Sandy wanted him home. And she was pretty sure Summer did even though she wouldn’t admit that. She caught side of a piece of paper stuck to the refrigerator. Seth had called from a phone booth and she’d tracked down the area from the number.

She heard Summer thud down the stairs and she walked into the kitchen. “Er, Mrs Cohen? Do you…. Er… do you know where Se…”

“On the fridge.” Kirsten interrupted. “I’ve tried, Sandy’s tried. Maybe you could talk some sense into my son.”