Title: Seeing the Light
Author: Cassie (cassie@healthyinterest.net)
Website: http://cassie.healthyinterest.net
Fandom: The O.C.
Pairing: Summer-centric, implied Summer/Seth, Seth/Ryan
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to Josh Schwartz and Co. I'm just borrowing.
Notes: Much thanks to Yanatya for her unfailing friendship and advice, and to Jennie, for looking this over.

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Summer can't believe what she's seeing. Seth, with Ryan, in the pool house. Together. She's seen lot of strange things, experienced a lot in her life, but this is the last straw.

She slams the door and starts across the backyard as quickly as possible in her four inch heels. Seth chases after, stumbling comically as he tries to run and pull his pants up at the same time.

"Summer. Wait! It's not what you think –" As she turns to glare at him, he amends, "Ok, maybe a little what you think, but it's a Cohen thing and not anything about you. It's like Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice. And then there's the Silk Spectre and…"

He babbles on and she stops her retreat to simply stare at him. There had been rumors about Cohen and Chino for years. Summer even wondered about their friendship herself, but she always convinced herself that it was just an uncanny chemistry. There wasn't really anything between them. There couldn't be. Seth was one hundred percent hetero. She knew this. He'd slept with her, hadn't he?

She knows that she and Seth were never meant to be together forever, but she never suspected that this is how it would end.

"C'mon Summer, give me a chance. It was just this one time, didn't actually mean anything…"

Behind him, Summer watches Ryan emerge from the pool house He's pulling a t-shirt over his head and looks sort of sad. In that moment, Summer realizes that this isn't the first time this has happened; it's just the first time that she's caught them.

"Forget it, Cohen. I'm done being left," she says.

-----

People leave Summer all the time.

When Summer was eight, her mother left. She didn't really mind. Her mother had always been cold and distant, preferring to leave her with hired help rather than spend time with her. Sometimes, Summer wouldn't see her for days. So when she left, it didn’t make much difference. The housekeeper still looked out for Summer after school, her dad still tucked her in at night, and her friends still taught her everything she needed to know about life.

Then the stepmonster arrived. Of course, it's not like the stepmonster is really *there.* She's usually so drugged that it's like sharing a house with a living corpse. No one pays attention to Summer's coming or going, and no one monitors what she does.

Yet again, everything and nothing in Summer's life had changed.

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When she was small, Summer had a nanny-come-housekeeper whom she adored. Anna Maria was warm and motherly and Summer loved spending time with her – watching soap operas, watching her bake, learning a few choice phrases in Spanish.

Come to think of it, Anna Maria was the one who first got her addicted to the daily serials that have defined Summer's life.

It started with the Young and the Restless. Of course, Summer was too young to appreciate all the nuances of the various storylines, but she remembers Anna Maria sobbing the day they killed one of her favorite characters and she remembers her cheering when they found the kidnapped baby. The Young and the Restless was replaced by The Valley the year Summer turned nine and a whole other set of characters became Summer's imaginary playmates.

But Anna Maria left when Summer was ten to go be with her family in Chino. She wanted to spend more time with her nieces and nephews, share her experiences with her own family rather than some rich man's daughter. And even though Summer understands why she left, she's never quite forgiven her.

Summer still remembers those afternoons after school. And she still watches The Valley religiously. It's her little connection to the past.

----

Summer's dad is still here – he would never leave his little girl – but he's not here a lot.

She adores him, spends as much time as possible with him, but he's still only a distant shadow in her life -- one who arrives for special daddy/daughter dinners, one who makes sure to attend all the really important events, one who calls her whenever he can -- but who is still mainly an absentee parent.

Summer knows, intellectually, that it's his job that takes him away and she's used to it by now. But sometimes, when she needs him most, it still feels like he's abandoned her.

-----

Marissa is still here but she has her own issues and doesn't really have time to listen to Summer's. She never really has.

Marissa is absorbed in drama of her own making, blaming everyone around her for the things that are wrong in her life. Summer recognizes this – has done it herself on several occasions – but is still hurt sometimes when Marissa won't listen to her problems.

To compensate for this lack of attention, Summer throws herself into marathon shopping sprees and lavish parties. She listens to Marissa's angst and sympathizes when she can, because that's what friends are for. Most of the time though, she just feels alone.

-----

Seth has left Summer more times than she can count.

He left her for Anna. He left her to run away to Seattle. He left to go to school in the East. He left her to travel to Tahiti during the summer between their first and second years of college.

He's left her countless times and for countless reasons and every time, she's forgiven him and taken him back, despite the fact that she knows he only wants her when he can't really have her. There's just something about him that draws her to him. Maybe it's his simple adoration. Or maybe it's because, even though he keeps leaving, Seth still keeps coming back. That's something Summer isn’t used to and she likes having that constant in her life.

But this – Seth babbling excuses and Ryan looking more somber than usual -- is more than Summer can take. So she turns and leaves, head held high, pride radiating from her entire body.

This time, she's done with being left. This time, she's the one leaving.

~End~

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