First Day of School Senior Year:
Okay. This shouldn't be to bad seeing her again, talking to her. It will be just like old times. Yea, old times between old friends, I can do this. I mean the chances of me running into her are slim. I barely saw her last year, well except in English class, and history, and lunch…what am I saying? Of course I'm going to run into her. If not in one of my classes, definitely at lunch. So, yes, the chances of me running into her are very high. I just hope this day goes by fast so I can go back to the safety of my room and not have to deal with the mess I've made of my life.
3 months earlier
Lucas' POV
"So I guess it's just you and me." I can't believe she just left. Now I know what it feels like to have your heart break into pieces. I don't know where to go from here or what I'm supposed to be feeling. Do I let her go or do I fight for her? Does she even want me to fight for her?
I look at the person to my left, the best friend of the girl I'm in love with, and it amazes me how stupid and careless we were last year. But it isn't until I look into her eyes that I remember…
"Peyton? Where's Jake?"
"Oh god, Luke…he left! Why do they always leave me? Am I such a horrible person?"
Without knowing it her arms somehow found themselves wrapped tightly around me and I knew it was wrong but it felt good. It felt good to have some kind of connection with someone even if it wasn't real. Brooke was gone, Haley was in New York, and Nathan wanted nothing to do with me…Peyton was all I had left.
"Sshh...it's okay. Tell me what happened."
Between sobs Peyton tried her best to tell Lucas the whole story behind the Nikki and Jenny situation but all she managed to get out was Nikki had Jenny and Jake was gone. Those were the only things that really mattered, for Lucas knew how much both of them had meant to her and how losing them was like losing a part of yourself. He knew exactly what she was feeling because he was too. And suddenly neither of them were as alone as they originally thought. And sadly that's where it all began…
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Shaking himself back to reality, Lucas decided it was time to face the music. As he walked though the halls of Tree Hill High trying to ignore the looks, he understood in that moment that nothing was ever going to be the same again. Not for him, not for Peyton and especially not for Brooke. He said a prayer to anyone that was listening, "Please just let me get through this day."
But if Lucas was being honest with himself, today was going to destroy him because it was going to be the first day in almost three months that he would see her. Brooke Davis, the love of his life…so far.
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Could things get any weirder? Since I've been back people have been looking at me like I've grown a third head or something. It's like they know something that I don't. And to make matters worse Peyton, my so-called best friend ditched me at the airport yesterday and hasn't returned my phone calls since. And you don't even want to get me started on the apartment my parents, as they like to call themselves, rented for me…I wasn't aware that it was legal to rent rundown, no hot water, badly in need of a decorator apartments.
I guess I should be thankful I'm even here, it took a lot of convincing on my part for my parents to have agreed to let me live here and on my own. Their first reaction was of course "no" but lots of begging and whining convinced them otherwise. They were dead set on me either living with them in California or with Karen but once I explain that there wasn't any room left at the Roe's house since Lucas moved back home they seemed to realize that they had no alternative but to let me stay in an apartment.
The truth was that I wasn't ready to see Lucas, let alone live with him. Our last goodbye wasn't exactly on good terms and I wasn't sure where I stood with him. Things were always so complicated when it came to him and me. But hopefully this time we could do things right…that is if I could ever find him.
I would tell him that I made a mistake and that I should never have left but I was scared. Everything I wanted to hear he had just said and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to stay but at the same time I needed to go, I needed to figure things out and I couldn't do that in Tree Hill. If anything the time spent apart made me realized how much I wanted to be with him, how much I needed and loved him. Fate was on our side this time around. It had to be, I wanted it to be.
Brooke was so deep in thought that she didn't notice the tall, muscular body moving towards her, or the fact that they were about to collide.