Set after 5.05. What if Peyton came home when Lucas was there talking to Brooke?
Author's Note: Ok, so pretty much I suck at writing anything, but I really wanted someone to do a story like this set after 5x05 and I waited so long and no one wrote one, so I figured what did I have to lose, and I wrote one myself. So there ya go!
Enjoy.
Brooke is sitting on the couch idly doodling in her sketchbook, trying to create new designs for her fashion line when there is a knock at the door. Brooke gets up to answer it and is surprised to find Lucas there. She opens the door wider, motioning for him to come in.
"Well this is a surprise. What's up?" Brooke asks him as she moves further into the house.
"Not much. Uh, is Peyton around?" Lucas answers as he follows her into the kitchen.
"No, I think she's at the studio today." she informs him as she stops behind the counter in the kitchen. "You okay?" she asks him as she looks up to find a thoughtful look on his face.
"Yeah, you remember that night in New York? The night I found out my book was published?" he asks.
"Sure, it was the same night I went into business with Victoria." she remarks with a raised eyebrow. Lucas chuckles.
"Do you ever wonder if we chose the right paths?" Lucas wonders out loud. Brooke nods with a small smile.
"Sometimes. But I have all these wonderful things in my life. Things I wouldn't have had otherwise."
Lucas nods as well.
"Well you're right. I mean, me too. I don't know…" Lucas trails off, unsure of what he was feeling. Brooke looks at him curiously.
"Do you want me to tell Peyton you came by?" she asks him.
Lucas shakes his head. "Nah that's ok." He turns to leave when he spots Peyton standing at the doorway, having just gotten back from the office. She looks confused, and just a little mad.
"So now my so called friends are stopping by but don't want me to know about it? Gee, I feel special." Peyton comments sarcastically as she walks past Lucas.
"Peyton, I didn't mean it like that. I didn't come here for anything important so I didn't think it would matter if you knew or not." Lucas tries to ease the situation.
"Oh ok, well I can just pretend I didn't see you if that makes it easier. Bye Luke." Peyton tells him, not looking up as she flips through the mail on the counter.
Brooke watches on with a grin as she watches Peyton give Lucas the cold shoulder while Lucas looks at her uncomfortably. Lucas gives Brooke a "help me" look.
"Yeah, Luke just came by to ask me a question. What was it again?" Brooke asks, pretending to have forgotten, all the while knowing it was sure to stir up some trouble. Peyton looks at Brooke confused before turning to Lucas expectantly.
"Oh, um, it was nothing really, I just asked Brooke, um, what time her store opening was next week. Yeah that's all I wanted to know." Lucas quickly came up with an excuse while glaring at Brooke. Peyton obliviously missed the interchange.
"It's 7, right Brooke?" Peyton answered.
"Right, yeah she told me that. So I've got my answer so I'm just gonna go." Lucas started walking back to the front door.
"Bye Luke." Brooke sighed, realising her plan hadn't worked. She shrugged as the front door closed and turned to Peyton, who was now looking in the fridge.
"P. Sawyer I really need to have a shower so I'm heading upstairs. Do me a favour, go talk to Lucas, he wanted to ask you something."
Peyton watched Brooke run up the stairs, confusion written on her face. Shrugging she headed to the front door in hopes of catching Lucas out the front.
As she walked out the door, she saw him sitting in his car parked on the street outside the house, he looked like he was talking to himself. Peyton opened the passenger side door and sat in the car next to him.
"Ok, what's going on?" she asked him as she turned to him, only to find him avoiding her as he stared out the window.
"What do you mean? Nothing's going on, why would anything be going on?" Lucas quickly replied, still not looking at her.
"O – K. Now say that to my face and maybe I'll believe you." She told him, gently placing her hand on his arm, silently asking him to turn to her. Lucas reluctantly turned his body to face her, but still avoided looking into her eyes.
"I was just wondering something…" Lucas started.
"I figured." Peyton replied, waiting for him to spit it out.
"Do you ever wonder if we chose the right paths?" Lucas finally questioned, as he looked up to face her. Peyton was a little shocked at the question, and knew immediately what he was really referring to. Peyton nodded.
"Sure, all the time. But what's the point? Living with regrets is no way to live life."
Lucas could only nod in response, not sure how to react to the answer. Did that mean she didn't regret saying no?
"What about you?" Peyton quietly asks him, breaking him from his thoughts. Lucas sighs, grabbing her hands she has entwined in her lap.
"If I could take back that day, I would. In a heartbeat."
Peyton looks up at him confused.
"I thought we were talking generally, not specific choices."
"Peyton, you know we were never talking generally. Don't you ever wonder what would have happened if that day three years ago had happened differently?"
Peyton pulled her hands away as she felt tears building up in her eyes, and started to wipe them away before Lucas could notice.
"Every day. But Lucas, I wasn't the one that made the life altering decision. It was you who walked out."
Lucas groans frustrated as he hits the steering wheel, causing Peyton to jump slightly.
"I may have walked out Peyton, but you said no. How was I supposed to react to that?"
"Lucas, I never said no. I said someday, why couldn't you just give me that?" Peyton questioned him, her voice starting to raise. Lucas opened his mouth as if to say something but Peyton continued. "And even if I had said no, which I am telling you right now is the furthest from what I mean, why couldn't we have just forgotten it. God Luke, we were so happy, yes we may have been on different sides of the country, and yes it was a challenge, but that's what made us who we were. Lucas and Peyton were never easy, were never meant to be easy but we still made it work, we still loved each other enough for it to work. At least that's what I thought, obviously I was wrong." Peyton could feel her cheeks dampen as the tears finally spilled over, and she suddenly wanted to be out of the car. Reaching for the door handle, she was stopped as Lucas leant over stopping her hand on the door handle.
"Peyton, please, don't ever think that I didn't love you with everything I had. That I didn't ache to be with you every second of every day, because I did. You must know that all I ever dreamt about was you and our future together, our house with the white picket fence, our 2.5 babies with their blonde curly hair and blue eyes. You must know that was what I wanted because obviously I proposed. I promised you forever and you said no." Peyton immediately started to protest, but Lucas cut her off with a finger to her lips. "Ok, you didn't say no, I get that now, but at the time, to me it felt like no. I couldn't handle it Peyton. I asked you if you ever wondered if we chose the right paths. Really, I wanted you to tell me that I didn't choose the right path. I shouldn't have walked out on you that morning, or if I had, I should have called you in the year after that, made sure you came to the book signing, or called you in the past two years." Peyton was steadily crying now as she watched Lucas look into her eyes and pour out his regrets.
"Luke, please, you can't blame yourself for everything. The phone works both ways, I knew where you were, I could have called you, I could have come to see you and I chose not to, just as much as you chose not to keep in touch with me." Peyton pushed Lucas' hand back and wiped her eyes.
"Luke, we both made mistakes, we both feel like we could have had different paths, but like I said, there's no point. There's no use in living your life with regrets. Go, be happy with Lindsay. It's the path you chose for both of us." Peyton made to move out of the car again but stopped at Lucas' voice.
"It's not the path I want anymore."
Peyton sighed before turning back to Lucas one last time.
"But it's the path you chose." Softly, Peyton kissed Lucas on the cheek before getting out of the car and all but running back to the house, leaving Lucas to watch on defeated.
Author note: Well there you go. So that was really bad, I didn't really have a plan for the story, I just knew I wanted something to happen.