Author's Note: This is yet another new, underdeveloped story from a rookie. I honestly have no idea where my inspiration for this story comes from. There timeline for this episode should be an obvious one. I'll let you read through it to see. Meanwhile, be sure to enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: No, I do not own anything One Tree Hill related. If I were writing for One Tree Hill there would be a lot more male bonding... to say the least. Oh boy, don't I miss all the heavy male bonding scenes from seasons 1 & 2.

Tim Smith.

Lucas Scott.

Two teenage boys living in Tree Hill, North Carolina but they come from completely different worlds.

Tim Smith is pretty short with an average build. His brown hair and bland brown eyes are undistinguished. Yet, there's a small, remarkable quality to his features that makes him stand above your average joe.

Lucas Scott is tall, dark, and handsome. Albeit, being a bit scrawny, he's an Adonis in every sense of the word. His defined muscle tone and washboard abs compensates for his lean figure. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and amazing facial bone structure from the forehead down to his jaw line. He's damn near perfect.

And for the life of himself, Tim Smith could never figure out why Lucas Scott was never one of the "popular kids".

There was nothing he hated more than the superficial instincts that the kids in high school live by. Of course, this secret disdain for the inherent aptitude of high school made him a hypocrite. Tim Smith walked among the popular crowd and he did it just as well as his peers. He'd stomp viciously when approaching a social reject and he'd use any opportunity he can to haze an easy victim.

Lucas Scott was among one of the victims.

It was only a half-hour ago when Tim's best friend, Nathan Scott, lead the basketball team into a plague against his illegitimate half-brother, Lucas. Tim, alongside the basketball team, kidnapped Lucas with a bag over his head and a rope to restrain his hands behind his back. They threw him in a puddle of mud and laughed at his humiliation. Then, after hearing Nathan speak some incriminating words to Lucas, they hopped back into the van and left Lucas behind.

Tim watched the streetlights zoom past him and his eyes were focused on the passing road in front him. He'd driven down the path to the mud location so many times before. Usually, it was a place of initiation for a newcomer on the basketball team. They'd throw him in the mud, laugh at him, and then go out for pizza in a public diner where the muddy dupe would receive unwanted stares from other customers.

This time, it was different. There was no initiation. Instead, the blonde-haired victim got a guarantee that the hazing has only begun if he doesn't quit the basketball team.

Tim had finally made it to the location. That was the fastest he'd ever made it there. He took a gander outside the passenger window in hopes that Lucas Scott was still there. He was. He sat on the curb with his muddy hoodie still on his body.

"Get in, Scott." Tim ordered.

"Why would I do that? Just so you and the others can harass me some more?" he retorted.

Tim quickly noticed the small shutters in his voice and the visibility of his breath.

"It's just me. I'm not going to do anything to you," Lucas snorted as Tim finished the sentence. "I promise."

He clenched his jaws a bit and dropped his tensing shoulders considerably. Tim let out a breath of relief as he can see Lucas dropping his guard. But Lucas refused to move. He looked behind himself and then he looked back at Tim.

"You can either trust me or freeze your ass off, Luke. What'll it be?"

At that last statement, Lucas took a deep sigh and got inside the car. Tim didn't speak a word and Lucas was just as mute. Lucas's eyes were focused on the passing images outside the passenger's window and Tim's were focused on the road.

"Where are you taking me?" Lucas questioned without turning to face Tim.

"I'm taking you home." Lucas turned to looked at Tim quizzically. "To your home." Tim added in correction.

"Nathan didn't put you up to this?"

"Why would Nathan ask me to help you. He hates you." Tim blurted out without thinking. He glanced over at Lucas who swallowed a lump in his throat at the thought. "Look, I didn't me-"

"Third question." Lucas interrupted.

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you help me?"

Tim grew completely silent and struck at the question. His neck was stiffened on the road and he didn't dare to look towards Lucas. He could feel the patience of the blonde-haired Scott brother growing shorter by the second.

"Why?" he repeated

Tim actually did have a pretty good reason as to why he helped Lucas. But he knew that any excuse other than the truth wouldn't be convincing enough. He wasn't ready to admit to truth. Not to himself and especially not to Lucas.

"Trust me when I say that you don't want to know." he answered truthfully.

Lucas nodded and exhaled. He slouched into the leather seats of the car and closed his eyes as his head fell back against the headrest.

Tim couldn't help but continuously glance over at Lucas. His eyes were completely off focus on the road as the Scott brother sat beside him with his eyes closed. Tim swallowed the air in his mouth and tried his best to focus on the road but his eyes kept shifting back to Lucas.

The entire journey to Lucas's house was drove in silence. Tim looked out the window and Lucas's home and shifted back to the sleeping Scott brother.

"Lucas?" he called out.

Lucas didn't budge. Tim called his name one more time but there was still no reaction. Tim leaned over in his chair and gave Lucas a small nudge on his shoulder.

"Yeah?"

Lucas speaking with his closed eyes shocked Tim a little bit. "We're here." he told him.

Lucas opened his eyes and saw his house outside the car window. He shook his head lightly to wake himself up and continued to sit in the car for a short moment. Tim cleared his throat to neutralize the silence and Lucas shuffled in the leather seating.

"What does this mean?" Lucas queried out loud. "About us?"

Tim was ready to ignore the question and change the subject but he wanted the same answers that Lucas requested.

"I don't know." he answered.

"Does this change anything between us?"

"I don't know." Tim answered yet again.

"Are we ever going to talk about this?"

"I don't know."

"What do you know?" Lucas scowled at Tim with short patience.

Tim dropped his head. "I honestly don't know."

If only Lucas knew how true that sentence was. Tim, over the past few years, have been battling with himself and his desires. Just the thought of the Scott brother surfaced a part of Tim he hated about himself. Even in his dimwitted facade he had a hard time hiding that part of himself.

Tim Smith is gay. He knows it and he hates himself for it.

"Thanks." Lucas muttered after Tim's short silence of wallowing self-pity.

He opened the car door and started walking to his porch. After a short moment of getting the key into the slot and opening the door, he turned back to Tim and lifted his hand in a motionless wave. Tim returned the gesture before putting the gear into drive and heading off to his own home.

That night he laid in bed looking up at his ceiling. Back in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, he would often look up at his ceiling and think about things. The last time he did that was before he moved to Tree Hill. He was thinking about how much things were going to change and how much he was going to miss his life in Charlotte.

History repeats itself tonight. Tim Smith shuts his eyes automatically after a long, constant glare at the white ceiling above him and only one phrase continues to repeat in his head.

"Everything is going to change."

A/N: I'm still a newbie author and I'd appreciate any constructive criticism. I accept anonymous reviews and everything.