A long time coming -- Summer

by Elgatoneun (elgatoneun@yahoo.com)

Title: A Long Time Coming - Summer
Author: elgatoneun
Rating: PG-13 for slash and language
Pairing: Implied Seth/Ryan, Seth/Summer, Ryan/Marissa
Summary: Ryan and Seth up for sale … another themed charity auction.
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me.
Spoilers: Everything up to and including The Escape.
Feedback: Would be appreciated
Notes: This is a future fic, AU. It takes place in their senior year of high school which means Ryan has been with the Cohens for about a year and a half. Thanks to my lovely beta Z for all her insights and encouragement. Any mistakes still evident can be rightfully blamed on the author.

"Cohen, get your ass out here. You should be ready by now." There was absolute silence.

Summer Roberts didn’t deal with this shit from anybody. Well, anybody else.

"No, I’m not coming out of this closet. I’m staying in the closet. Um, I mean I am not coming out – ever. I mean, I’m not … I’m staying in here. You should bring me some food and other essentials. So I won’t starve and die and you won’t get sent to prison for being responsible for my horrible drawn out death."

She tapped her foot impatiently, counting to ten internally. He was such a drama queen. Oh, forget this, she pulled open the door. She slapped a hand on his chest and dragged him out by the strings on his corset/bustier thing. Seth stumbled a bit.

She pushed him up to the mirror and eyed him over critically.

The black stiletto heels added three inches to his height and made his legs look longer. Which was dead sexy. He had great legs. They were toned from all his skateboarding and currently encased in black fishnet stockings.

He also wore black leather underwear, the top of which didn’t quite meet the bottom of his corresponding half halter, half corset top. It left a nice expanse of tanned waist bare.

A dry cough caught her attention.

"Are you finished inspecting the merchandise now?" Seth asked her bitingly.

"No, turn around." Seth gave her a mutinous look.

Okay. Summer knew when not to push it. She took stock of his face. He had smudged his lipstick a little. Thank God his eyes were still okay. He had whined so much when she was putting on his eyeliner, she’d almost been tempted to poke him in the eye. Guys were such babies. She’d never heard so much complaining in her life. Girls went through this everyday. Did guys think glossy lips and perfect hair just happened naturally?

"I’m not doing this and you can’t make me." Seth crossed his arms over his chest.

She fixed him with a steely gaze.

"Don’t make me make you, Cohen. It won’t be pretty," she threatened. Seth looked a little intimidated but stubbornly held his ground.

Summer narrowed her eyes. Cohen was always a tough nut to crack.

She smiled beguilingly and trailed a French manicured nail slowly down his chest. It was one of her more effective techniques.

"Think of all the cute little kittens and puppies we’ll be saving from a horrible life on the streets. You don’t want to be responsible for letting them down, do you?" She pushed her lower lip out into a pout and looked up at him from beneath her lashes.

Seth smiled down at her and placed his hand over the one that was still resting on his chest. Then he took her hand and dropped it off his person. He tilted his head and continued smiling down at her in that smug self-satisfied way that always made her want to smack him sideways from Sunday.

"It’s called survival of the fittest; who am I to go around messing with nature’s plan?"

"You’ll need to concentrate on your slim-to-none chances for survival if you flake out on me now. You promised me, Cohen." She was ready to commit serious bodily injury. Seth threw his hands up in surrender. It was nice to know that she could always use his inherent sense of integrity to bully him into doing what was right, or maybe it was his fear of her, whatever worked.

"But this? Come on, Summer. You’ve got to let me be somebody else. Anybody else. Preferably someone who isn’t a crossing dressing freak." Seth’s begging sounded a lot like his whining. This corset is too tight, I can’t breathe, I’ll break a leg in these heels, blah, blah, blah.

"There’s nobody else to do this guy. You have to represent The Rocky Whore Show."

"That’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show. How important can it be if you can’t even get the name right? I can be Wolverine or Neo." Summer looked at him disparagingly.

"No offense, but … no way." Seth looked desperate. His face suddenly lit up.

"Tom Hanks. I could be Tom Hanks, in any movie. I could be the castaway, all you have to do is rip up some clothes." Summer mulled it over for a bit, well actually she pretended to mull it over for a bit.

"No," she said flatly. She was through with this nonsense.

"Look, this is the last event before the Homecoming dance. Holly’s stupid adopt-a-bear grams brought in $900. I’m going to annihilate her. You’re fourth in the line-up; you’re going to have to bring the bidding up after Kevin Hamm. There’s no way that guy is going to top $50. So you’ve got to show some skin, get the money flowing."

"Holly sold $900 worth of those Indonesian child labor made, carnival-reject teddy bears? The lumpy ones? They were going for $10. Who would even buy those? I think there were nails in there or something. I mean …" Seth was abruptly cut off when Summer forcefully grabbed his jaw, chin in the cradle of her palm, thumb and forefinger on each cheek. She squeezed hard until his lips involuntarily puckered.

"Focus. Now listen to me. You are going to go out, no, you’re going to strut and shake and turn. Okay? Then you’re going to smile and use whatever god-given talents you have to get as much money as you possibly can from anyone you possibly can. I don’t care if you have to do unspeakable things or get bought by some freaky losers. I don’t care if Mia Tasser wins, even if she did sleep with Sean last year, or if Keely wins when she can’t even spell her last name. But there is no way in hell, I’m going to let that bitch, Holly, win this. Got that?"

Seth nodded his head up and down slowly. It was hard since Summer still held on to his face. She grabbed the MAC lipstick in her purse and held it out to Seth. He took the tube of Harlot from her. She smiled and patted him on the cheek.

"Now go and fix your lips, remember to blot."

She walked back to check-in desk. Summer looked back and watched as Seth wobbled and grabbed the edge of the mirror to keep from falling. Hm, she should have had him practice walking in the heels a little more.

She nervously checked her clipboard. Summer wasn’t really a planning sort of girl; she was more of a plan to be there sort of girl. But getting nominated (along with Marissa) as a candidate for Homecoming Queen could make anybody do things they normally didn’t. She didn’t kid herself that she might win, stupid as it sounded, she really was glad just to be nominated.

But if she couldn’t win, she at least wanted her best friend to win. Even if Marissa’s stock had taken a nosedive after her dad, the incident in TJ and hooking up with the poster boy for Trailer Life. Even now, when her friend stuck her with most of the work for their event. Since each of the Homecoming Court needed to host a fundraiser, she had begged the Mr. Trask to let her and Marissa hold a joint event, with points to be split in half between the two of them. Despite the time and the therapy, Marissa had never fully recovered. She’s still broken. Sometimes, she wished she could do something about it, like take Marissa back to the store and get a new model, an upgrade, one that worked. At times, it made Summer so angry, that she’d want to shake her, until Marissa woke up from whatever dreamland she was in.

But she can’t do that. It was no use. It’s better to try and make everything normal, back to the way it was, when she and Marissa were the top of the food chain and Holly knew her place. Luckily, Holly wasn’t that smart and smelled a little too desperate. Parties every week can only get you so far. And after all the fakeness, she really wasn’t very nice. Surprisingly, that mattered to people. Well, not to her. Summer has never been nice. It wasn’t her thing and people didn’t expect that of her.

In all the stupid little teen movies, the most popular girl is always a bona fide bitch. But that wasn’t realistic. Very often the popular girls were made up of grade A Prime bitch material, but the most popular girl, the lead one, she’s actually really nice, sweet even. Why she surrounds herself with bitches is a mystery. But that’s how it really was.

Although, if this event blows up in her face, she really will kick Marissa’s ass for dumping all the work on her. She hates it when people are late. Well, when other people are late.

Finally. She spotted Ryan and Marissa at the door; she waved them over. Ryan looked hot. The only thing he was missing was the bullwhip.

"Okay, Indiana Jones, check. Now I just have to check up on Hannibal Lector and the Gladiator."

"Someone’s dressing up as Hannibal Lector?"

"Yeah, they’re going to wheel him out and he’s going to be all strapped and everything. It’s Kevin, thank god his face is covered." Marissa gave a shocked little laugh.

"Summer, he’s not that bad. Be nice."

"Coop, what planet are you from? That kid is going to ruin …" Summer let the rest of what she was going to say drift off. The expressions on Marissa and Ryan’s faces were absolutely priceless. She smiled. They must have spotted Seth.

The price of a two-piece black leather S&M fantasy outfit: $249.00. One tube of MAC lipstick: $22.00. Having your best friend and her boyfriend seeing your date looking completely fuckable in said outfit: priceless.

"Hey, guys." Seth gave a little wave. He was obviously uncomfortable by the scrutiny.

"Hey," Marissa fixedly kept her eyes on Seth’s face. Ryan wasn’t as disciplined. Summer noted his eyes taking everything in greedily. God, he was so freaking obvious.

Summer hooked an arm around Seth; let her hand rest on his thigh. Ryan’s eyes narrowed and his whole body tensed. She loved it.

"So how do you like my creation?" Summer fingered the little garter strap on Seth’s leg. She pulled at it and let it snap back on his skin. Seth gave a little yelp. He looked at her accusingly and rubbed the abused spot. Ryan’s eyes were glued to the motion.

"Wow, it’s pretty extreme." Marissa was a master of saying something that meant nothing.

"Well, you know, anything for charity." Seth said, somewhat embarrassed. He didn’t ever quite meet Ryan’s gaze.

Summer saw Kevin being wheeled toward the stage. Shit, he was going up already. Seth had to be ready.

"Oh my God, you’re almost up. Hurry up. Get up there." She pushed Seth towards the runway.

At the mouth of the stage she did a last minute check on him. She looked at his face, bit her lip at the uncertainty in his eyes. He looked miserable. It made her want to jump him. So she did the next best thing and licked his collarbone. He swallowed audibly.

Then she whispered in his ear.

"You look so hot. Go out there and make them beg." She gave him a little bite on his earlobe. Now he looked suitably sexed up and ready. Mission accomplished.

Kevin surprised her by actually bringing in $80. But Seth was going to bring down the house. She watched him walk down the runway, totally confident. Sex on a stick.

She felt eyes prickling at the back of her neck. She turned around to find Ryan. Alone. Marissa must have gone off somewhere. Those two were usually glued together like Siamese twins.

She knew he didn’t really like her. He just tolerated her because of Seth and Marissa.

"What?" she asked, annoyed. What was his problem?

"It took Seth a long time to get over you last time. Don’t play with him again." Ryan warned quietly.

"Are you, like, threatening me?"

He didn’t answer, which basically answered her question.

"Look, Chino, what I do or don’t do with Seth, is none of your business. He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself." Summer smiled evilly. "That’s something I know personally … do you?"

Ryan’s jaw clenched unpleasantly. He slouched a little, crookedly, one shoulder higher than the other. It was one of his patented poses and vaguely threatening.

People don’t usually credit Summer with being observant. And truthfully, she’s not. Except with people that matter to her. Marissa and Seth being two of them. Since Ryan matters to them, Ryan matters to her too. She’s picked up the thing between Seth and Ryan, or what would be the thing if either of them would acknowledge it.

She didn’t like provoking these actions, well, okay, that was a total lie. She did like it, a lot when she did it to Ryan. He was all tough silent seething or suffering; she didn’t really get him.

"Seth just got over Anna. I don’t want him to get hurt." Summer was annoyed. She didn’t like feeling guilty. It was true that her initial interest in Seth had been not quite sincere, but she was tired of hanging out with a bunch of fake kiss-ups. She missed her best friend and if that meant she had to team up with the head of the dork brigade, then she’d do it. But Seth was actually pretty appealing. Downright yummy sometimes. And he made her laugh and he argued with her. And, okay, she liked him. She liked him and she liked liked him. So the best thing was to get this whole stupid Ryan thing out in the open so they could deal with it.

"I don’t want him to get hurt either," she said seriously.

Ryan scoffed at that. She didn’t know he could scoff. That kind of pissed her off.

"I don’t. Besides, I’m not the one hurting him right now."

Ryan unclenched his fists and took a step toward her. Summer raised an eyebrow at that.

"You and your friends treated him like dirt. You never took the time to get to know him. You don’t deserve him." Summer was dismayed that Ryan actually spoke the truth. It made her feel guilty.

"Well, you can thank your girlfriend for that one," she shot back. She felt a little smug at his surprise and confusion. Then she felt guilty again, damn it.

"Look, it wasn’t anything intentional. It just happened, and you know how Seth is."
"Summer, what are you talking about?" She thought Ryan was supposed to be smart. Marissa sure knew how to pick them. Luke had been as bright as a box of rocks. Right now, Ryan didn’t seem much different.

"You know Marissa and I have been friends, like, forever, right? And she’s lived next door to Seth for like most of her life. Didn’t it seem a little weird that they barely even spoke to each other, especially since their parents are so chummy?"

Ryan didn’t answer. He nodded at her to continue.

"Okay, so like, Seth has major geek tendencies, but stuff like that isn’t important when you’re little and don’t know any better. Don’t you think they might have played together and stuff?"

Ryan shrugged, "Maybe, a little," he admitted.

Summer sighed and put her hands on her hips.

"How long were you here before you heard about Marissa’s dad and Mrs. Cohen, and how they like had this big romance thing back in the day?"

Ryan didn’t say anything, but she could see the light was starting to dawn on him.

"Coop’s mom was always kind of distant and they fought a lot. Coop used to tell me about it. Do you really think she was going to get all friendly with the kid of the woman who could blow her family apart? And the rest of us kind of followed. I mean, Coop is my best friend. We didn’t mean to make him … whatever, but then he went all nerdy and it just seemed kind of natural."

"What about now?" Ryan asked intensely. He always seemed intense to Summer.

"Hello? Her parents are already divorced?" Definitely not that bright.

Ryan relaxed a little. His gaze seemed to penetrate her. He gave her a lopsided grin, like he knew all her secrets. She didn’t like that.

She was suddenly enveloped in hug. Seth had come up from behind and was draped over her. He laughed in her ear. Damn! She missed the whole thing. She gave Ryan the evil eye.

"Can you believe it? I can’t believe it. I’m a God. People want me. I’m a wanted man. People will pay to have me."

Summer turned around, grouchy because she had missed it.

"I didn’t hear the final bid. What was it?" Seth’s mouth went into a pout.

"It was $350. Tracy and Todd bought me." Summer was delighted.

"The Granger twins? Ooh, pretty kinky." Seth had a huge grin on his face.

"That’s cool, man." Ryan was still there.

"Oh, hey, thanks. Aren’t you supposed to be up next?" Summer turned a horrified glance to Ryan.

"Get out there. God, doesn’t anybody pay attention to the program?" She fumed as Ryan slowly sauntered towards the stage. He gave them a brief enigmatic look before he went out to the catcalls of the crowd.

"Summer? What did you do? Summer …" Seth’s voice was low and a little gravelly. He said her name the way her dad used to, when she was little and used to hide his keys, making him late for work.

She used her innocent look on him.

"Nothing, we were just talking."

"Summer …" Seth wasn’t buying it.

She led him back to one of the dressing rooms. Seth didn’t protest. They found an empty one. Seth sat down on the chair. She grabbed some cotton pads and makeup remover from the counter.

She leaned over to dab at his face. His hand came up to grip her arm.

"Summer, what did you say to Ryan?"

"I told you, it was nothing." He didn’t let go of her arm.

"We just talked about you a little, okay? Close your eyes." Seth let go of her arm and she gently removed the eye makeup from his lids.

"He’s so possessive when it comes to you. Why don’t you guys just get it over with? I mean, come on, put the fire out already."

"Summer, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re just babbling." Summer snorted. Seth was accusing her of babbling?

"No way, when Ryan saw you tonight, I swear he was going to push you into the nearest closet and have his wicked way with you. Keep your eyes closed. I’m not finished."

"Summer, it’s not what you think. Ryan’s not interested in me like that. We’re just really close."

"Please. Cohen, I’m not blind. He puts out serious vibes whenever you’re around. Trust me, the boy wants you. Wants you bad."

"Look, Summer. I know he doesn’t. Trust me, I’ve tried okay? Can we just leave it at that?" Seth’s voice was tinged with misery and heartache. Summer wanted to put Ryan Atwood in a world of pain.

She cupped Seth’s face gently in her hands.

"Oh, baby. I’m sorry." She kissed him. He kissed her back.

His tongue slipped into her mouth. He’d gotten really talented. Her knees started to buckle and she fell into his lap. She swallowed the little "Oomph" from his lips on the impact.

She bit his lip a little and pulled. They both started when they heard someone clearing their throat. They looked up to see a boy and a girl with amused expressions on their faces. They were both gorgeous.

"We’ve come to pick up our purchase." Todd and his sister had slight British accents. It was unbelievably sexy.

"I’m just getting cleaned up a little," Seth was interrupted.

"No, I think we like you tarted up a bit." Tracy flashed them a cool smile. Summer felt a little growly. Grrr.

She got off Seth and let them take him out. Keeping him to herself was going to be a challenge. But she was always up for a good fight. She smiled. This was going to be a fun year.

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