"Peyton, do you ever look up at the sky and pick a really bright star and wish on it?" a young Brooke asked, lying at her friend's side. Peyton sighed, looking out of her window too.

"I stopped wishing on stars when I was about 6," the high school sophomore said quietly. Her eyes lowered from the window and she shifted to lay on her back.

"Why?" Brooke asked, her face perplexed. She turned her head to watch Peyton, intent on the blonde's answer clearing up this foreign paradox.

"Because I realized that none of my wishes were gonna come true, so it was kind of pointless…" Peyton trailed off, looking up at her ceiling.

"That is the most depressing thing I've ever heard," Brooke said. Peyton turned her head to look back at her, smiling gently.

"I don't know why," she said, "it's not like I've given up on living or something like that. It's just some stupid little thing-"

"Peyton Sawyer, you take that back right now!"

"Take what back?"

"It is not stupid! I do it all the time! And it works, so take it back!"

"Brooke, you're being ridiculous-"

"No I'm not," Brooke argued. "Here: Pick a star, shut up and close your eyes." Peyton, who had turned onto her side at some point, eyed Brooke with suspicion. But the brunette's gaze was unmoving, so she looked outside, found a stupid little star, closed her eyes, and relaxed onto her back. The skepticism never left her face.

"What are you doing?"

"Proving you wrong. Now make a wish."

"Seriously? Come on, now-"

"You saw a star. Now wish on it!" Brooke was being obnoxiously stubborn about something this trivial, but Peyton huffed and complied anyway, slightly irritated. She lied in the bed in silence for a while, digging into the deepest depths of her heart to find the thing she wanted above all else. It took her a minute, it being incredibly buried under everything, before Peyton could find the thing she was looking for. She concentrated, a blush rapidly and relentlessly colouring her cheeks as she imagined it and the star she had seen in the sky. This whole thing was stupid, she knew, and her little wish would never come true just like all of her other little wishes. With everything she had she knew this, and she exhaled to let the whole thing go and open her big green eyes until she felt soft breath on her cheek, followed immediately by a feather-light touch to her lips. And for the first moment she couldn't breath, air suddenly trapped in her lungs, but by the time they expanded again, the blonde's lips felt cold and naked, missing the foreign touch.

Slowly, Peyton opened her eyes, focusing on Brooke.

"…What did you just do?" she asked. Stupid question.

"I proved you wrong," Brooke said. The brunette smiled gently. "I told you I would." Peyton felt a light, dizzy sensation, and then like she was falling, or floating, and the smile that crept on her face after was completely involuntary.

"Prove me wrong again," she said, looking up at Brooke. The brunette smiled warmly at Peyton, taking in the blonde's beauty framed by her thick, unruly curls. She leaned down, capturing her lips again, a little harder this time, before pulling away,

"Do you believe in wishing stars now?" Peyton hesitated before nodding, smiling her infamous, love-stricken smile.

"Yeah," she said," I do."