Author's Notes: Okay, so I know I should update You Picked Me and What Can I say but, I just got this idea because I've been obsessed with this song and I don't know why since I've known the song for a while. I was listening to it yesterday and it made me remember how much I love it. Then I thought, well maybe I could turn this into a Brucas story, but Brooke isn't that cruel to do what the girl did in this song, so I thought, Peyton? Definitely. I don't know I'm kinda depressed right now and in the mood for some Peyton hate. And the end of the song fits Brucas, kinda…just listen to the song, it's awesome.
Last to Know by Three Days Grace.
I'm not so sure about this oneshot, it's not really my best and I'm kinda iffy about it but I decided to just upload it…see what you guys think.
Summary: He stares at the red door, and imagines the girl behind it. Suddenly, he knows where to go tonight and he wonders why he never caught on sooner.
Disclaimer: I don't own OTH, I'm just borrowing the characters to take them to an alternate universe and do them the justice Mark didn't.
Where to go Tonight
She just walked away
Lucas Scott walks down the long, deserted road in Tree Hill and thinks about his fucked up life. No way in hell did he ever see this coming. He never thought Peyton, Peyton of all people would leave him. She loves him. She's safe. She promised she'd never give up on him. Their love was easy because she admired him, believed everything he'd tell her. So why the fuck did this happen to him? Is the universe out of order, or something?
The girl of his dreams walked away… left him with no one and nothing. He wonders why she didn't let that piece of information slip during their relationship, or senior year for that matter. Why didn't Brooke?
He shakes these thoughts from his head. Peyton's not to blame, he is. He walks aimlessly down the street, beer in hand that has yet to be opened.
Why didn't she tell me?
And where do I go tonight?
This isn't happening to me
This can't be happening to me.
He thinks about the blonde that still holds his broken heart, then thinks back to the fights they had that probably led up to her departure.
"How could you do that?" he screams at the blonde.
"Lucas…" she sighs tiredly. "I did this for us, we're meant to be together remember? True Love Always…" She cups his face in her hands and looks into his eyes. She goes in to kiss him and is met with his chin. She pulls back so fast, he wonders if she even attempted the move.
"U-Unless you still have feeling for her?" she questioned cautiously.
He sighs loudly. "You know what Peyton, I did! In high school! All this time, I thought Brooke simply stopped loving me. Come to find out, you're the one who actually ruined us with your own selfish desires."
She sits on the bed, tears streaming down her face, and they stay silent for a few minutes. "I believed I was doing the right thing," she whispers.
"And I believed I was doing the right thing when I got with you." he states before grabbing his jacket and walking out the house.
A week later, they were fine. A month passes and their second fight commences.
"Lucas?"
He walks into their bedroom to find Peyton holding the one thing that has the power to calm him down. Her box of letters.
She stares at him, watching him watch the box, waiting for him to say something.
"Why do you still have them?" she storms into the living room, the box of letters lying forgotten on the floor.
"Peyton, I didn't even know I still had them…" he lies, and she can tell. He looks at those letters at least once a week. She doesn't know this, but she knows he's lying.
"That's bull and you know it!" she yells. His eyes widen at her tone but she continues. "I found those letters in your private "writing room". You spend all your time in there, so don't tell me you forgot about those letters!"
It's his turn to get angry and he squints his eyes at her rather accusingly. "What were you doing in that room?"
"That's what you're worried about?" she retorts and turns towards him in disbelief. "Wow…" she mutters before turning away from him, grabbing her jacket and keys at the same time.
"Where are you going?" he demands but she's already out the door by the time he gets the last word out.
Two days later, he tells her he threw the box out. He lies, she knows this. But neither comment on the subject anymore, although Peyton finds the box again, in a bigger box, locked away in the attic. Two weeks. Two weeks is how long it took before they got into their third fight.
"I just don't understand, Lucas. Why would you keep those pictures?"
"I don't understand why you won't get it through your head to stop snooping through my stuff!" he shouts, slightly scaring her.
"Our stuff Lucas! We are a couple living in the same house! Our. Stuff."
"You don't see me snooping through your things." he shoots back at her.
She stands up quickly in her seat. "That's because you know you won't find anything, I have nothing to hide!"
He knows she still has it. Storming past her, he goes into their room and goes straight for her drawings. After turning the room upside down, he finds what he was looking for. He walks back into their living room and throws the drawing at her so it lands on her lap.
She stares at the picture with wide eyes. At the man who once held her heart, and the little girl she once believed would call her mom one day.
"This is different…" she chokes out.
"Oh yeah? How?"
"This was before anything happened between us. Your pictures are of you two, while you were still dating!" she exclaims. The pictures of him and her lovely brunette friend kissing she found on his computer nearly shattered her heart. She can't believe he would even have the audacity to compare that to her and Jake. His silence is all the proof she needs.
"I'm not getting rid of this picture." she states.
He walks to the kitchen to grab a beer. "I won't be getting rid of mine either." he grumbles before downing its whole contents and tossing the bottle carelessly in the sink.
She closes her eyes and shakes her head sadly. "Why are we even together anymore…" she whispers. Even with his distance and her low, barely there tone, he still heard her loud and clear.
His head snaps up at her question. "What?" She turns around to face him.
"This isn't working, right? You feel that too?"
He runs over to her as fast as he can. "No no no no no no no, we're fine…okay?" He brings her body against his and rests her head on his chest. "We're gonna make it…"
He feels he tears on his shirt and mentally kicks his own ass for making her question their relationship. He didn't know who he was without Peyton. All their friends, even the feisty brunette, convinced them they belonged together. After a while, he stopped listening to his heart and started listening to his mind. His mind screaming at him to believe them. That this was what he wanted. He told it to himself so many times that he refused to believe anything else. He was with her for so long, that without her he'd just be…lost.
You were the first to say
that we were not okay
The next day, he tells her he deleted the pictures. In reality, he saved them to a very private, exclusive file on his computer. No one could get to it without going on a scavenger hunt. If they did finally find it, they needed a password.
She knew what it was. He thought he was clever but she knew it. Senior year.
She was, at first, confused. After all, she spent the second half of senior year with him. Then she remembers who he spent the first half of it with. And she remembers where most of the pictures were taken. She could tell most of them were from the second time they dated because they both looked a little older, and more in love than they did in junior year.
This time, it's one week. One week until their next fight. It's about marriage. She wants to now, he doesn't. And the next fight happens in two days. Little did he know it'd be their last. It was right after they had sex. He forgot to slip on a condom, but he assumed she was taking other precautions.
"You're still on the pill, right?" he questions, still trying to catch his breath.
"No." she looks over at his shocked face. "Is that bad?"
"Is it bad?" he returns. "Peyton why the hell did you get off the pill?"
"I figured since we're adults now, we'd be ready to start a family." she puts her arms around his neck, only to have him pull away.
"Don't you think that's a decision we should've made together?" he takes note of her confused face and sighs before continuing. "Peyton, I'm not ready to start a family, just like I told you I wasn't ready to get married."
In the back of his mind, he knew he shouldn't have opened his mouth, because it was all hell from there. The fight ended with her storming out. When she returned three hours later, he decided to make it up to her.
She took the flowers he gave her and threw them on the coffee table lightly. He notices her careless throw, but decides to brush it off.
"We're good, right?"
With a clear fake smile on her face, she answers. "Of course." and lets him bring her into him. He goes to work the next day and when he returns, all her stuff is gone.
You were the first to lie
when we were not alright
She leaves him a note.
Luke,
I'm giving up now, before we turn into some old, bitter married couple. Oh wait! You don't want to get married…
-Peyton
She didn't say a word
just walked away
He crumples the paper in his pocket.
He thought they would work it out. He truly did. He loved Peyton, he did. He remembers everyone in high school rooting for them. Thinking they were both where they belonged, finally.
It's been a month since she left. He heard she met some movie producer, courtesy of Haley. From the time frame Haley gives him, it was when they were still together. It had to be. Where else would she go in L.A.? Everyone lives in Tree Hill and Haley told him Peyton hadn't been back yet. So who else would she be staying with in L.A.?
This was my first love
She was the first to go
and when she left me for you
I was the last to know
He's still walking nonchalantly. He doesn't know where to go. He doesn't want Haley seeing him like this, or Nathan. They've got enough to deal with. His mom is somewhere in the world. Brooke is…
Well he never really thought about Brooke since the fight about the pictures. He remembers how Brooke is always there for him. She always knows what to say at the right time. She's always there for him…
He thinks back to the first fight, where he found out the truth. He remembers how mad he was at Peyton, Brooke; maybe even himself for not figuring it out sooner. Brooke's excuse, the night she broke up with him, was stupid and he hadn't believed it for a second. He realizes now he gave up on Brooke for nothing. His relationship with Peyton is over, she's moved on. Yet here he is, wallowing in self-pity and for what? He doesn't need to be.
Peyton and him were built on a lie, a lie that no one ever thought to tell him.
"I love you Lucas, and I probably always will…but we go days without having a meaningful conversation, and I used to miss you so much when that happened…but it never seemed like you missed me. And I guess because of it I stopped missing you…"
He remembers that day clearly, particularly that moment. He remembers her face, her clothes, her hair. He wondered why she had broken up with him. He even asked Peyton if she knew anything…and she lied to his face. Told him she didn't know. Maybe she tried to ease her guilt by helping him get Brooke back but now he thinks maybe it was just to spend more time with him.
"I'm not doing this for Brooke, I'm doing it for you."
Starting to get mad, he squashes the little bit of hope he had swirling around in his mind about him and Peyton and focuses on trying to figure out what the hell happened in senior year.
I'll be the first to say
that now I'm ok
Peyton lied to him.
Brooke lied to him.
They both felt as if they could decide his future for him…as if he had no say. Like a fucking child. That's what ticked him off. Brooke was supposed to believe in the love he had for her and feelings between him and Peyton were supposed to be suppressed. They weren't supposed to want each other anymore, yet somehow they found their way at the championship game. How shitty is that? he wonders. You tell one girl you love her and convince her you don't love her best friend, then, less than a month after breaking, you go straight to said best friend. What a slap in the face.
He accepted the fact that Brooke didn't love him anymore, and he went to Peyton because…she did. And he had to admit, he was slightly curious. He had watched her for so long and crushed on her, but when he got to finally be with her, she blew him off. The second shot, was in secret and lasted for about a week. The third time though, he was still in love with Brooke. But, Brooke had him convinced she didn't love him anymore, so he accepted it, and went to Peyton because she was just…there, and willing.
and for the first time
I've opened up my eyes
He needs to know why Brooke lied to him, and why she kept it from him all these years. Why she thought he didn't love her enough. In his head, he goes through all their recent arguments, specifically the ones about Brooke.
"Unless you still have feelings for her?"
"Why do you still have them?"
"I just don't understand, Lucas. Why would you keep those pictures?"
Now he knows, he's always known. He knows why he kept the letters, the pictures and why he got so mad at Peyton when she told him the truth. His feelings for Brooke never really went away. He tried to bury them with the thought of him and Peyton being perfect for each other and meant to be together and crap.
He somehow ended up on Brooke's street and he's suddenly in front of her house. He stares at the red door and imagines the girl behind it. Suddenly, he knows where to go tonight and he wonders why he never caught on sooner.
He finds himself slowly walking down the path of her house, the beer bottle rolling around on her lawn lazily.
As he brings his hand up to knock, he can't help but think he's about to be met with his future.