Lucas

Lucas Scott sat at the bar in San Francisco, California, looking at the brown liquor in his glass. He couldn't remember how many glasses he'd had, but he knew it'd still take a few more before he would at least feel some sort of numbness from this. He couldn't believe how fucked up he had made his life. Not only had he broken up with Peyton for the hundredth time, he had lost Haley as well. That was what hurt him he most. Peyton was right, he did love Haley. Endlessly, hopelessly in love with Haley. She had been his best friend for years, but something he didn't realize until Peyton so painstakingly pointed out, he'd been in love with her that whole time.

Lucas knocked on the front door of Haley and Nathan's house. Lucas knew Nathan wasn't home. That's how he needed it to be, and Jamie was at school. He and Haley would be all alone. It wasn't as though he expected her to jump straight into bed with him, but he didn't need his nephew around when he was trying to tell his momma he was in love with her. Jamie wouldn't be able to understand that.

Haley opened the door, not expecting to see the man on the other side. "Lucas! What are you doing?" She stepped back. "Since when have you ever knocked." He was family. He didn't have to knock before coming into their house.

Lucas walked in, rubbing the back of his neck. "We need to talk, Hay."

Haley winced, shutting the door. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"I don't know." Lucas returned the pained look. "Maybe?"

"Nope." Haley shook her head, crossing her arms over her breasts. "I can tell by your face. Spill."

"Can we at least go sit down."

"Yeah." She sighed, doing as he suggested. "This is not going to be good."

Lucas followed her into the living room and the two of them sat on the couch. He did his best to keep his distance. Somehow, sitting next to her like this, he suddenly realized how much he wanted to press his lips to her pouting ones. She was beautiful. Of course, he always thought that, but he didn't realize until just this moment how beautiful she really was. He was looking at her through the eyes of man in love.

"We've been through a lot together, right?"

Haley shook her head, leaning closer to him. "Lucas...?"

Taking a deep breath, he nodded. "This isn't easy, Haley. This is probably the hardest thing I've ever done. And it really should be the easiest."

"Do you need something, Luke? Something I can do for you?" She reached forward taking his hands in hers and he nearly flinched. "Lucas?"

Lucas slowly turned his hands, wrapping them around hers and softly letting his thumbs caress her soft skin there. "I'm taking a leap here, Haley." His eyes slowly looked up int hers. "I hope you will too."

Haley still didn't understand. "Just tell me what it is!"

"I love you."

Haley blinked. She never, in a million years, ever thought Lucas, her best friend, would say those words to her like that. The horrible thing was, she believed him... but she didn't feel the same in return.

"Lucas, I..."

He knew this was a bad idea. Why he came over here in the first place, he would never know. But he'd ruined everything. He knew he had. He could see it in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." He stood, heading toward the door. "I'm sorry, Haley."

She quickly followed him, running up in front of him. "Lucas, you can't just drop a bomb like that and then walk away."

"I shouldn't have come over anyway, Haley. I've got to go."

"No! You are not leaving until we talk about this!"

"Talk about this? I said I love you and I should have known you couldn't say the same in return."

"I'm a married woman, Lucas! You're Nathan's brother!"

He didn't want to do this. He couldn't do this. She wasn't in love with him and he had to get out of there.

"Good bye, Haley."

Walking around her, he left the house, heading straight for his car. He had to get out of there. He had to get out of Tree Hill. He started driving and didn't stop until he needed gas. Even then, he filled up the tank and continued driving, heading toward the sunset. He drove well into the night and didn't even stop when the sun came up the next morning. He didn't know when he actually pulled over to sleep, but he knew he had to be several hundred miles away from Tree Hill and Haley James Scott.

He didn't know how he had gotten all the way to San Francisco. Had he not about passed out from exhaustion, he would have made it here in less than two days. As it was, he arrived in about two and a half. He had slept in a little motel somewhere in Oklahoma or New Mexico, or somewhere around there. He hadn't really been paying attention. But as it was, here he sat in some corner bar downing his countless glass of whiskey.

Someone sat down on the bar stool next to him heavily and he turned his attention toward the younger man. His hair came down over his eyes and he looked about how Lucas felt. Knowing the way the world turned, Lucas would bet he had just been fucked over by a woman as well. The younger man ordered a shot and turned his head toward him.

"Hi."

Now Lucas was even more sure. Nodding his head, he brought the tumbler up to his mouth again. "Hi."

Troy

Troy couldn't believe how horribly his life had spiraled in the last hour - or maybe it had been longer than that. All he knew was it was over and nothing else mattered right now. Chad was all the way down in New Mexico, so he couldn't meet up with him too easily, and he didn't even answer when Troy had called him. He wasn't about to call his parents. Not yet. He'd wait and tell them on their weekly phone call. Since he couldn't vent with Chad, Troy hit the nearest bar.

The only reason Troy had moved out here to California almost five years ago was to be closer to Gabriella, his high school sweetheart. He had attended Berkeley to be closer to her attending in Stanford, but after he graduated last year and had moved into an apartment here in San Francisco. Now he had no home and no girlfriend. It had been him who had left. He couldn't stay there knowing that she didn't want to marry him.

He had it all planned out. He had hired a violinist, had their meal catered, and had spent all day decorating the roof of their building with flowers, Chinese lanterns and a tiny table and two chairs set up with a white table cloth and one single candle in the middle of the table. It had been perfect.

Gabriella had been exhausted when she got home from her classes. He told her to take a bath and when she got out to change into the white dress he had bought her that was laying on the bed, telling her to meet him on the roof when she was ready. The roof was their place. It wasn't like the roof at East High in Albuquerque, but it reminded them of it. One of the residents had planted a garden up there for everyone to enjoy, and Troy and Gabriella would spend a lot of their time up there - when they had free time together.

But things hadn't gone as he had planned. Gabriella had bathed and changed into the dress Troy had bought. She had come upstairs and loved everything he had done with the place, even the meal he had ready for them. Things were perfect until he had her in his arms dancing the the violinist's melodic tune.

Gabriella had her head rested on Troy's shoulder. He could tell she was tired. She seemed happy, loving the evening he planned for the two of them, but she was falling asleep there in his arms. Troy knew if he let her fall asleep, everything he had set up for tonight would have been for nothing more than a nice, quiet evening.

"Bri?"

Gabriella softly yawned on his chest, her mouth curling into a soft smile at his nickname for her. "Mmmm?"

"I love you," he whispered into her hair, kissing the top of her head.

Smiling more, she pulled him tighter into her arms. "I love you, Troy."

Troy smiled, rubbing her back gently before reaching in his pocket and pulling out the ring he had waiting to slide on her finger. "Gabriella, I..."

She pulled back to look up at him. He could see the tired look in her eyes masked by her beautiful smile sparkling over it. It was now or never and now it was going to be. Bending down on one knee in front of her, he held the ring out to her.

"Gabriella Montez, will you make me happier than I already am? Will you marry me? Grow old with me? WIll you have my children? WIll you be my wife?"

Gabriella's smile was instantly replaced with a look of shock, of horror. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Did Troy really just ask her to marry him? Were things not good as they were? Why did they have to get married now? Couldn't he wait until she graduated? Couldn't he wait until they could afford a wedding and not have to rely on their parents to pay for it? Why did he have to ask her now?

"Troy..."

This wasn't exactly how he had pictured this moment. He thought the tears he was seeing form in her eyes would be tears of joy, not ... not this. He immediately wished he hadn't asked her. He wanted her to be his wife, but this panic in his eyes scared him.

"Forget it."

Gabriella shook her head, grabbing at his hand as he slid the ring back in his pocket. He stared her down, tears stinging his eyes now.

"Troy, don't!"

Shaking his head, he pulled his hand from hers. "No. I was an idiot. I should have known you don't want to marry me."

"Troy, you know that's not true! We've discussed this! We're not ready!"

"I am!" he spat back at her, having never ever raised his voice to her.

The violinist had stopped playing and was gathering up his stuff, wanting to get out of there before things got really bad. Gabriella quickly wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling extremely cold.

"Troy..."

"Is that all you can say, 'Troy...'?" He shook his head. "Forget this shit! I've changed my entire life for you, and you! You can't even say yes to a simple offer of marriage!"

Gabriella's eyes and mouth dropped open. "Simple? Simple! Getting married is a big deal, Troy! Nothing is simple about it!"

"Forget it!" Troy chucked the ring into the flower garden as he walked past her. "Just forget everything."

He didn't know how he'd ended up here, but as he sat down on the stool, all that mattered was forgetting Gabriella and their last seven years together. He ordered his drink and turned to look at the guy sitting next to him. He looked like he'd seen better days as well, but he wasn't about to open up about his own shit until he'd had a few drinks in him.

"Hi."

The other man nodded his greeting in return. "Hi."

Troy picked up the tumbler sat down in front of him and toasted the guy. "Bottoms up."

Troy downed the liquid and slammed the glass down, asking for another. Turning to the other man, he offered his hand. "Troy. Troy Bolton."

Lucas took Troy's hand. "Lucas Scott."