He looks at her the way he once looked at you. And you want it back, but you know that it's not yours to have anymore.

You fucked up.

He fucked up.

You were dealt a perfectly good hand of cards and you played the game wrong. You stole a glance at someone else's hand, a taste at someone else's life.

Because you were tired of being Haley James, virgin extraordinaire. Haley James, tutor girl. Haley James, best friend of Lucas Scott and nothing more, never anything more. He wouldn't allow it. Lucas was scared beyond understanding of what might happen if you became something more to him. And so he never let you, though deep down you knew he thought that way about you. But you could tell-you were always good at being able to tell with him.

So you smiled the smile you're famous for and life went on, as it always does.

And then came Peyton. She never smiled at Lucas and hardly bothered with pleasantries. It wasn't her thing, and that appealed to him. Because beneath the morose expressions there was something beautiful in her, something that was worth far more than her outward appearance. He never saw her as the cheerleader or the tortured artist; he only saw her. She never saw him as the outsider or the brooding kid or Nathan Scott's bastard brother; she only saw him. They saw each other and just for that instant there was clarity, however fleeting it might have been.

And then came Nathan. You were nothing but a conquest to him in the beginning, and you knew so. You played naïve because he wanted to feel as if he had the upper hand. You played naïve because Lucas wanted to protect you, and you wanted so badly for him to feel something for you again. But then Nathan changed. Somewhere along the line he decided he loved you, and you damned him for it. You pushed him away and still damned him. You kissed him with all the breath you had and still damned him.

So there you were with Nathan. Happy. Complacent. Neither of which was new to you. And there was Lucas without Peyton. Thinking. Confused. Neither of which was new to you.

He told you it was because she didn't know what she wanted. What he didn't tell you was that he didn't know what he wanted. Only he did. And it was you. But you had Nathan now, and he wouldn't dare intrude on your happiness. That wasn't in Lucas's nature; it was in yours.

You've racked your stupid brain trying to tell him that it isn't about happiness. That it never was. It's about completion. A completion you can never get from Nathan.

But Lucas has long since stopped listening, because all he sees is your happiness. And he ignores his own.

He looks at her the way he once looked at you because he can't have you. You can't have him either. He's not yours to have anymore.

You played the game wrong.