Tree Hill was a small town and yet it was not lacking big time drama. The problem with Tree Hill was that the teenagers had too much. Too much time, too much freedom, and too many hormones. Peyton Sawyer and Nathan Scott were the sophomore class couple. They fought like cats and dogs, but no one could deny that they just looked great together. That's why their relationship was not based on talking with one another, it was purely physical. That's how they ended up in their situation, before either of them were even upperclassmen they became parents to a beautiful girl named Danielle.
Fast forward a year. Peyton and Nathan, despite their daughter, are over. And this time the spotlight is on Peyton's best friend Brooke Davis. A gorgeous girl who could have any boy that she wanted, but she chose the one boy that Peyton liked, Lucas Scott. The two of them didn't have much in common. He liked to be alone and read or write, she craved to be around people and be noticed. And by the end of her junior year she was noticed, but not for the reasons she wanted to be. Brooke Davis had learned nothing from Peyton and by the beginning of senior year; she too had a daughter, Destiny.
Senior year, another situation where a girl learns nothing from her best friend's mistake. Nathan had settled down since the break up with Peyton, even getting married to pure little Haley James. Haley swore she wouldn't have sex until she was married and she had kept that promise to herself. But by the time college rolled around, she like so many other girls of Tree Hill, was pregnant. And before freshman year of college was over, Haley had on her hands a son, James, and a divorce from her husband of less than two years.
Now the five were in their late twenties, all had graduated college and all had stayed connected in some way, mostly because half of them had children between them. But a new romance had blossomed. Brooke and Nathan got married after graduating from college and less than a year later they were blessed with a son, Sean. Haley had finally followed her dreams of becoming a musician and had become quite famous through it. On the other hand, Brooke had given up her dreams of a fashion line, instead choosing to stay at home and raise her children and James. She occasionally designed clothes for Haley. Nathan was a basketball scout, Lucas a writer, and Peyton was a music manager. But through all the adversity and drama, the five remained close.
Haley had returned home from her tour to an empty house. Her son was with Brooke, he didn't need her anymore. Haley looked around her house. So large but not filled with people. Instead it was filled with pictures. Her and Lucas in middle school. Her and Nathan from their very short marriage. Nathan, Haley and their son. Haley, Brooke, and Peyton in their cheer uniforms. In fact every picture depicted Haley and one of the gang. But they had all moved on with their lives. Haley sighed and moved to her favorite part of her huge house, the bar. She pulled out a bottle of tequila and a glass, prepared to pour. But on second thought, she put away the glass and drank straight from the bottle. She picked up the phone.
"Hey Luke, it's me. I'm back. Do you want to do something? Ok see you soon." Haley smiled; her best friend always came through for her. She put the phone down and took another swig from the bottle.
"So I told Peyton I loved her and I was going to kiss her, but then I remembered what I saw," Lucas slurred.
"Her and another guy together."
"Exactly." Lucas took another drank. "Empty," he noted. Haley gladly refilled his glass.
"Relationships suck."
"I'll drink to that." At this point though, Lucas would have drunk to anything. He had come over to find his friend in a pretty bad state and in solidarity he had agreed to drink with her. (Not to mention he was trying to forget things as well.) So now the two of them were sufficiently drunk enough to be saying anything and everything.
"When did everything get so complicated?"
"Maybe we should have never gotten involved in the 'popular' world. Our lives would be so much better if we had just stayed the two loners." Haley nodded in agreement.
"Us against the world." She leaned towards him, he could smell the alcohol.
"Together forever." He closed the gap between them, their lips made contact. And before they knew it they were getting carried away.
It was destiny, Peyton was convinced, that she happened to walk in the book store where Lucas happened to be signing his latest release. Casually, she cut to the front of the line and threw the book down on the table in front of him. "It's a great book, but I hear the author is kind of a jerk. He tells girls he loves them and then walks out." Lucas looked up.
"Peyton." She nodded. "I meant to call you, but…can we talk about this later?"
"What time does this shindig end?"
"Five." Peyton looked at her watch.
"It's four forty now, so I'll just wait." Peyton plopped herself down into a nearby chair and smiled at Lucas. He shook his head and went back to signing books.
How had they gotten here? Lucas thought to himself as he kissed Peyton again. Merely an hour ago, they had been arriving at her apartment to get coffee. Thirty minutes ago she had been apologizing for everything that had happened between the two of them. Ten minutes ago Lucas had told her that he had seen her with another guy. Eight minutes ago she had told him that that was nothing. Three minutes ago she had told him she loved him and he had said it back. And now here they were, in her bedroom kissing. "Wait," he whispered.
"I've seen it before," Peyton giggled as she pulled at his belt buckle and kissed him.
"No, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it?" Peyton didn't pull away.
"A while ago I slept with Haley." This made Peyton step back. "We were drunk and it just happened." Peyton ran her hand through her hair.
"Just once?" A nod. "And you love me right?" Another nod. "You would never hurt me." She sighed. "Clean slate Lucas. Tonight we wipe the slate clean and we start over." He stuck out his hand.
"Hi I'm Lucas."
"Not that far back," Peyton said as she stepped towards him.
"Then how far back do you want to go?"
"Not so far back that we can't still do this." Peyton pressed herself against Lucas, pushing him down on the bed.
Brooke waddled to the door. As the baby kicked, she swore to herself that this would be the last baby. She already had Destiny and Sean, and the little bugger who was going to be a great martial artist with the way he was kicking. Brooke opened the door.
"Hey Preggers!" She greeted her best friend Peyton.
"Hey equally Preggers!" Peyton took off her coat.
"So show me that rock Lucas gave you." Peyton put her hand behind her back.
"Haley pulled up behind me, I'll show you both at the same time."At that moment, the third girl walked in the front door.
"Jeez Brooke, you think it's warm enough in here?" Haley pulled off her coat to reveal a protruding stomach.
"Ok she's here, show us the diamond!" Brooke clapped her hands together. Peyton held out her hand so that Haley and Brooke could ooh and aah over it. As Haley looked closely she turned to look at Peyton.
"Hey, I'm sorry I'm having your fiancée's baby."
"We've been over this, you guys made a mistake, but that just means Lucas and I will have one more kid to look after occasionally."
"You mean you really want another one?" Brooke asked. "You've already got that little one in your uterus and sometimes you get Destiny. You really want a third?"
"You've got three," Peyton pointed out as the three women moved to the living room.
"Yeah, but two of them are at least mine." The three waddled into the living room where their children and their men were seated. As Lucas and Nathan kissed their respective significant others, Haley sighed.
"I'm going to be that crazy aunt who spoils all the children but never gets married."
"Hey two of the kids are really yours," Peyton said.
"And I'm the crazy aunt/step-mom," Brooke added.
"Wow our family is crazy," James said to Destiny. The adults laughed as the three pregnant women sat down beside one another on the couch.
"How are my sons?!" Dan called as he entered the room. He looked to the three on the couch then put one hand on Nathan's shoulder, and the other on Lucas's. "I passed on good sperm to my sons." Everyone smiled at him. Dan's smile seemed to get larger and more malicious.
Lucas sat straight up in bed, panting. "What is it?" his wife asked. He didn't look at her.
"It was nothing, just a dream about some people I used to know. Go back to sleep." His wife obliged as Lucas pulled his notebook off the side table. On a fresh page he wrote 'Pregnant? Two girls? Brother's girlfriend?' His publisher would be pleased, she'd been begging for more drama. How was Lucas to explain to her that he was only writing it as it had been? That there really was a small town where a broody boy had lived with his tough as nails brother, his quirky best friend, and the two girls he loved; a guarded blonde and an outgoing brunette. But he didn't tell his publisher that these stories had actually happened, he didn't want people to know who he was. He'd moved from his small town and now wrote under a pen name. There were very few people that knew just how true these stories were. Those people were the five whose hearts had been broken during the break-ups Lucas delicately wrote of, whose lives had been affected by the tragedies he described, and who had felt every single love that Lucas could never do justice to. As Lucas set his notebook down and turned off the light he though about the four he had left behind. Wondering, as he did so often, if they read his books. Curious what they felt about him putting their lives out there like that. Were they angry? Happy? Sad? Lucas sighed and laid his head on the pillow, realizing that no matter how hard he tried, he'd never be able to shake Tree Hill.