"I hate you."

"I wish you had never come back. You ruined my life."

…

Lucas felt his temples pulsing when he awoke in the late morning. His vision was still blurry from the alcohol he had consumed the night before, and he could already hear Nathan and Jamie rattling off outside his door. He pulled the pillow over his head and groaned loudly before they could come inside. At this point, he was in hopes that they were just passing through, not planning for a long term visit.

"Dude, are you still asleep?" he heard Nathan say before slamming the door behind him. He just had to slam the door. He could feel the pulse in his temples move towards his neck; he hated being hung over, but being with Nathan and hung over sounded like the worst thing that could have ever happened to him.

He grumbled, burying his head further into the pillow, while he felt Jamie tugging on his arm. "Uncle Lucas, you really need to get up, it's almost lunch time." He informed him, still tugging his arm. "I want a grilled cheese."

Nathan's throaty laughter filled the room, making his head pound even harder. He muttered into the pillow before turning his back to his nephew and brother. "Hey Jamie, why don't you jump on the bed with Uncle Luke, he'll love that." Nathan taunted, still laughing.

If this wasn't hell, it was pretty fucking close, he was sure.

…

Peyton had been listening to the same track over and over for the last twenty minutes, and she still couldn't find anything that she liked about it. She pressed pause and let out a frustrated sigh before looking up at Haley. "Maybe she doesn't have it, Haley."

Haley looked up from her notebook laid across her knees and tilted her head. "Maybe you aren't paying attention." She said before tossing her pen back onto Peyton's desk. "I think it sounds fine."

Peyton ran her hands through her hair and let out yet another frustrated groan. "Fine isn't going to sell records, Haley." She stood up, crossing the room to flip through her list of demos. Frustrated, she finally threw the book in the floor, "I can't do this today."

"You know Peyton, it is okay to take a day off and relax every once in a while."

She turned her head in Haley's direction before sitting down in the window seal, letting out yet another frustrated sigh. "I'm sorry Haley I just…there's a lot going on between…well going on with me." She corrected herself before she could even say 'me and Lucas'. The fact of the matter was, there was no she and Lucas. "I'm really sorry."

It broke Haley's heart a little to see Peyton like this. Even if Lucas was her best friend it didn't mean that she wanted to see Peyton cry over him every day of her life. "You know, Peyton maybe you should…go on a date or something." She suggested, knowing that the idea would be shot down almost immediately. "I mean, I know it's not what you want to do but it could help you…move on."

The thought of going on a date with someone felt unnatural to her. In almost every relationship she had been on, she'd hardly dated. Sure, she had been out to the occasional concert or movie, and she had of course eaten with her boyfriends in public, but it wasn't something she was very good or natural at.

Something she had decided though, was to get over Lucas Scott, or at least make a good run at trying to.

…

The light was still harsh as Lucas sipped on his black coffee, an hour or so later. He had decided that it was either lay in bed and mope around all day, or get up and mope around all day. He hadn't decided for himself, really, Nathan had told him to get off of his ass and do something besides drink and cry. He hadn't been quite as amused as Jamie was. "My head." He muttered looking up at Nathan, who gave him a look before bursting into a fit of laughter. "Ugh, what? What?"

"You totally deserve it first of all." He pointed out, glancing out at the playground to make sure that Jamie was still in his vision. "You break two girls' hearts and you get to mope around all the fucking time? You're such a dick."

"First of all, no one asked Peyton to come back to town, second of all, Lindsey has had every opportunity to come back home and she hasn't."

"And yet you're still moping around like the asshole that you are. Typical. Haley would kick my ass." Nathan was right, Haley would kick his ass, but he was also right about something else: he was a dick.

Sure, he hadn't exactly been the nicest guy to Peyton lately, telling her that he hated her probably topped the list of the most assholeish things he had done in his life. It wasn't like he actually meant it, he had said it to make her feel like he did.

Nathan was definitely right. He was a dick.

…

The laughter Peyton heard when she walked through the door of her—Well, Brooke's house, made her heart break a little. The sight of what she saw inside was much worse – Brooke and Lucas sitting on the couch with a purple monkey between them playing with Angie.

Their heads both snapped towards her direction, eyeing her questionably like she didn't belong there. All she wanted to do was scream at them that she lived here, that she had just as much right to be there as he did.

"Having fun?" the words felt thick in her throat before they even left her mouth, she could hear how cold the words sounded, but she couldn't stop them. "Looks like it, at least."

Brooke looked at her like she was crazy or something. She definitely felt crazy, and she was sure as hell after the day that she had, that she looked crazy. "We were singing the ABC's to Angie and I have an awful voice." She pointed out, laughing a little as she said it. "Angie's face was priceless."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes right then. "Great."

Lucas' eyes found hers, before she could look away, she felt like he was looking straight through her. She fucking hated that. "Well you two just have fun, then." She muttered, walking past Brooke.

"Peyton, wait…"

When the door slammed loudly through the house, Lucas let out a sigh. His head hurt already, but it really didn't help that he was running around taking care of a screaming baby.

Taunting Peyton with Brooke had probably not been the best (or most intentional) idea he had ever had.

"I'm a dick." He muttered before looking up at Brooke who was starring after Peyton. "Brooke?"

She turned back to him, giving him a tight smile. "I'm sure she's fine."

He was a total dick.

AN: Well, that's chapter one. Basically my thoughts on this are basically, Peyton forgave Lucas too quickly and he deserved to suffer a bit, so here it is. Hopefully you'll enjoy it!