Chapter Seventeen: Introduced

Summer slid into the backseat of Anna's car, and before she could open her mouth to ask whom Mr. Hottstuff in the front was, Anna explained.

"This is my friend Scott," she began lamely. "He's visiting from Pennsylvania for a week. I told him the situation, and..."

"...any friend of Anna's is a friend of mine," the boy finished, reaching his hand out. "And it kinda sounded like fun. And I've been told that I'm good at making guys jealous." Somehow his eyebrows moved in an unconscious motion, and although it should have looked corny... it was somewhat charming.

Summer shook his hand. She almost didn't want to let go, but she reminded herself that she was doing this for Seth, not for Scott.

As Anna and Scott chatted with Summer on the drive, the latter girl added a few yeses every so often, but her mind was truly somewhere else. She couldn't stop thinking about Seth. Scott was so similar to him. The eyebrows, his fairly offbeat good looks. Even their names were similar. Come to think of it, Summer may have even accidentally called Seth Scott a few times.

"Summer?" Anna was asking, and Summer emerged from her daze.

"Huh?" she asked blankly, seeing Anna and Scott both giving her concerned looks.

"You okay?" Scott asked in a way that was more frighteningly like Luke than Seth.

"Yeah, yeah. Fine. I'm fine," she promised, shooting them one of her famous fake smiles, which she had mastered so well that it looked more real than many genuine smiles from other people.

"Are you sure?" Anna inquired softly, not wanting to send Summer on one of her so-called "famous" rage blackouts.

Summer nodded. "Oh, we're here." She checked her wrist, inspecting a nonexistent watch. "Where are they? They're late. I think I'll go get- " She stopped short, realizing that her rambling was not unlike Seth's.

Just then, before the two in the front seats could question anything, Seth was unhappily following Ryanmarissa. Not Ryan and Marissa, but Ryanmarissa, considering the fact that the pair was so close together that they appeared to be but one.

When he saw Summer, however, his face lit up a split second before his frown materialized again. He had forgotten about what was going on - or not going on - between them.

As they reached Anna's car, Ryanmarissa broke up into Ryan and Marissa once again. Anna rolled down her window as Marissa leaned towards it. "Is it okay if Seth rides with you guys? We're taking my car and we've got the backseat full - the cooler and stuff."

"Not a problem," Anna grinned.

"Great," Marissa smiled back, clasping Ryan's hand in her own once again. "Oh," she said, by some means the first to notice Scott in the passenger seat. "Hello. I'm Marissa."

"Scott," he greeted with a cheery smile. Marissa introduced him to Ryan and Seth, and he nodded to them.

Before long, Ryan and Marissa were getting into Marissa's car, and Seth was opening one of the back doors to Anna's car. "Oh, hold up," Scott mumbled, again sounding terrifyingly like Luke. He jumped out of his seat and stood up next to Seth. "Why don't you take shotgun? If that's not a problem, I mean. I was looking forward to getting to know Summer."

Seth shot glances between Scott and Summer. "Sure," he muttered, sliding into Scott's previous seat. This was going to be a long day. In reality, the day was half over, but to Seth, it had just begun.

* * *

Before long, the sixsome were sprawled out on a few spread-out beach towels. "So, Scott, how long have you and Anna known each other?" Marissa questioned, cuddling up to Ryan.

Great, Seth thought, rolling his eyes. They're all falling for his act. Anna, Summer, Marissa. Even Ryan, Seth noticed, didn't doubt how Scott was acting. And that was a hard goal to achieve.

He let out an exasperated sigh, which no one seemed to notice, and fell back on his blanket. He couldn't stand to look at Ryan and Marissa squeeze together as to fit on their small towel together a minute longer. He couldn't stand to look at the expression on Anna's face, that one that told him she was happy with what was going on between Scott and Summer, or that she was up to something - or both - for much longer, either. But the clincher was how Summer had her hand oh-so-innocently draped across Scott's perfectly tanned legs.

The clincher was how every laugh she laughed was bogus and Seth knew that she wasn't laughing at Scott's humor but at Seth, cackling about how he had screwed himself over. The clincher was how Scott's arm looked like it could drape itself around Summer's shoulder at any second.

Basically, the clincher was Scott and Summer.

Grumbling, Seth unfolded his sunglasses and nearly jabbed his eyes out while putting them on. Nobody seemed to notice that, either, or that he had even left the conversation - if you could even call it that. It was completely one-sided in a group of six, the only break when Marissa, Ryan, or Summer would ask a question or when Anna would toss in a tidbit from her and Scott's past.

Scott was too fake. Even for Newport standards. Something was up. Something was definitely up. And Seth was bound and determined to find out what that was.

* * *

Somehow, Seth had managed to fall asleep and awoke roughly a half hour later, his skin just barely tinged with red. Everyone was gone but him... and Summer. He was one hundred percent sure that Ryan and Marissa were off gallivanting in the water somewhere, doing who-knows-what, and Anna had more than likely gone to use the restroom to check her makeup. That didn't explain anything about Scott, but Seth was sure that whatever Anna, Summer, and Scott were cooking up didn't call for Seth and Summer to be alone.

"Where's everyone else?" Seth threw out bluntly.

"God, Cohen," Summer said, dramatically throwing her hand to her chest. "Warn me before you plan on scaring the daylights out of me." She tossed down the magazine she had been flipping through.

"I'll try to remember that," he cracked, pushing himself up onto his elbows, propping his upper body up to see her.

She looked at him, frowning when she saw his pinking chest. "Ew, Cohen. Talk about a death wish. Do you want skin cancer or what?" She fished a bottle of something - suntan lotion or sunblock or whatever the stuff was called, Seth wasn't sure - out of her bag. "Come here before you fry yourself."

Seth gladly did so, hoping that she was going to do what he expected her to do. Instead, she threw him the bottle and smacked his arm. "Don't be expecting me to put it on you."

Her soft whack had stung the tenderness of his sunburn, and he winced. Her eyes widened, and she gasped, "Did that really hurt? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for-"

"Shh," Seth whispered, placing an index finger on her lips. He waited a moment before softly pulling it away. "It's okay."

* * *

Anna picked up her pace. She didn't want Scott or Summer to do anything to ruin the plan while she was gone. But as she neared their place on the beach, she didn't see Scott's silhouette against the descending orange sun. Instead, she saw Summer and Seth's, and her jaw dropped.

"Summer, no!" she felt herself saying before she could stop herself.