Lindsey was paralyzed. Brooke was in shock. And Peyton, she had a smile planted on her face. Their phones had all rang; deep inside they all wanted to hear his calming, poetic words. Hear him tell them that everything was going to be all right. Tell them that all he wanted was to wake up next to her.
The lucky girl was no other than Haley. Her phone rang; she picked it up and heard her best friend ask her if she wanted to get married in Las Vegas. Instantly she knew he was joking, she knew everything about him and she could almost always read him. "Of course I'll marry you! It's not like I have anything better to do. She laughed. "So this is what you came up with when I told you to search your heart." She shook her head. "Luke, I was serious, you need to follow your heart and face the answer it gives you. You don't solve anything by running away." He looked down, knew that she was right. The answers had been there all along and they scared the crap out of him.
The cab driver asked her if everything was okay. Nothing was okay. The phone call she just had received was a life changing one. Lindsey Strauss drove away and she would never return.
Brooke Davis sat down in her coach and took a deep breath. She had lost her company. It was real. Now she had nothing. No job, no child, no mother and no man. She felt like a failure.
Peyton couldn't stop smiling. She hadn't heard from her father in ages. It was nice to finally hear his voice.
Neither one of them knew that Lucas Scott was sitting at the airport planning to change their lives.
Lucas Scott arrived back in Tree hill after 4 days in Las Vegas. His mind and body had enjoyed some days away, but his heart never left Tree hill. He had used his time away preparing the three conversations he now had to have. There were three women who all in different ways did have an impact on his life. He had loved them all and didn't want to hurt either of them, but he had ended up hurting all three. Hurt them in ways he didn't even realize himself. In the process Lucas Scott had also been hurting himself. By denying who his heart truly belonged to, he had missed out on many years with the girl of his dreams. Too many. Now he was ready to make the waiting stop. Brooke Davis was up for a surprise.
There was no Brooke Davis behind the door he knocked on. He was face to face with Peyton Sawyer. "Hey." He saw the excitement and hopefulness in her eyes. He knew that within few minutes he would crush it. "Is Brooke home?" He looked down at his feet, knew that these words wasn't the ones she wanted to hear. "No. She's at the store. She lost the company." She saw that this was the first he had heard about the matter. "It's a long story" She didn't want to explain him everything now; she wanted to focus on something else. Like the two of them. "So, Haley told me that you took a trip to Vegas…" She didn't finish her sentence. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the reason for his 4 days disappearance. Right before he went away, Peyton Sawyer opened her heart wide open by writing down that she would always love him on his favourite place in the world, the River court. "I've missed you." Her insecurity shone through. "Peyton…" He paused. "I love you" She whispered before he had time to think. "There is something I have to tell you." Peyton didn't think she wanted to hear the rest. "I love you Peyton, but I think I never was in love with you. I think I got confused by everyone around us telling me that you and I were meant to be, that there were no other possibilities. I tricked myself into believing that you were my destiny, but I didn't fully ask myself what I really wanted. Or more importantly who I wanted." He took a breath. Peyton didn't say anything, there were only tears streaming down her cheeks. She could barely breathe and was certainly not able to speak. The silence was painful. "Who you want?" She looked up at his familiar face. "Are you and Lindsey back together?" She was under the impression that him and Lindsey were over for good, she was clearly wrong. "No. Lindsey was never right for me." He hesitated. Didn't exactly know where to go from here, he knew that the next thing leaving his mouth would leave her in shock. "I need to see Brooke." He said quickly, apologized and walked out the door. Peyton Sawyer fell to the ground and thought her life was over the minute he closed the door.
He saw her across the street. She went around in circles; there were no one and nothing else in the store. She wore an amazing blue dress. As always she was beautiful. She was his pretty girl. The conversation with Peyton was difficult, but this would be even worse for Lucas. How was he supposed to tell Brooke that he was still in love with her? After all this years he couldn't just march in and declare his love for her. He didn't want to scare her away or hurt her in any way. He crossed the street, took a deep breath and opened the door to what had been his mother's café.
She saw him standing in the door, looking at her. He caught her by surprise. "Lucas." She said and came over to give him a hug. Couldn't help but to think about the last time she had seen him. She had told him she loved him, he had responded with the same words. But she knew that she had meant it in another way than him. After all these years Lucas Scott still made her heart jump. "What are you doing here?" She said and let go of him. "Hope you're not out shopping, as you see, we are out of business."
"Yeah, Peyton told me about the company." He looked at her a bit nervous with the mention of Peyton. "You've already met Peyton. Interesting." She gave him a playfully smile. "Brooke, I told her that I never was in love with her." Brooke's mouth dropped. "Oh no. Lucas, that girl is crazy about you." "And we all know…" He stopped her before she could finish. "I'm in love with you. Pretty girl." He could instantly see that this was too much for her. "What?" She opened the door. "Sorry Lucas, but you have to go." He knew she would react like this. "Brooke…"
"Just go." As Lucas Scott left her store, Brooke Davis could feel it all changing.
She found her tugged under a blanket in the coach. Her eyes were red from all the crying. Brooke couldn't bear to see her best friend like this, so heartbroken and ruined. She didn't know if she was able to comfort her. She was hoping Lucas hadn't told her absolutely everything that he had hidden in his heart. "Peyton…" Brooke sat down next to her, took her hand and waited. She wanted Peyton to talk first. So she could make her next move, without ending up hurting Peyton even more. "He told me he never was in love with me. That all we had was a lie. He had fooled himself." Peyton didn't look at Brooke. She simply just stared into the air. "But you knew this didn't you?" Peyton's voice got cold and hard. He came to see you. He loves you. Lucas Scott never stopped loving Brooke Davis. How sweet. I bet you are happy now." She let go of Brooke's hand before Brooke could make a response, ran over the floor and slammed her bedroom door. Brooke felt numb; she didn't think Peyton would be this angry. She knew she was hurt, but to see the rage in her best friend's eyes caught her by surprise. The worst thing was that the rage was directed towards her. She felt horrible.
Three hours later Brooke decided to try to talk to Peyton, she was hoping she had used the past hours to calm down and maybe she had done some thinking. "Peyton, can you please come out, so we can sit down and really talk?" The door slowly opened.
"I'm so sorry. I'll never do anything about it; I won't betray you like that. What he feels about me changes nothing between you and me. I'll always have your back. When he told me, I told him to leave. I hope you understand that you are my priority." Brooke took a deep breath. "But everything is going to change, isn't it?" Peyton asked. "You and Lucas will build this life together and I will stand on the sideline watching you live the life I always wanted." Peyton sighed. "Didn't you hear what I was saying? I will not do anything about it. I don't have feelings for Lucas." The last thing she also said out loud to convince herself. "I hear what you're saying, but I don't believe it. And I don't think you do either. You love him Brooke, I know you do. You never stopped loving him, just like I didn't. You and I have loved Lucas Scott each second, each minute over the past years. And that's the problem, you and I have loved him, still love him. Two plus one makes three, and there's only room for two. We have done the triangle thing. We have even done a square. And we can't do this anymore. It will only end in tear and broken hearts and friendships. So I give you my blessing Brooke Davis, go be with our man, our Lucas. No scratch that, go be with your man. He's not mine anymore, actually he never was." Peyton could breathe again; she had said all she wanted to say, all she could say. Her words had left her best friend in tears, which was not her intension. "Come here" She gave Brooke a hug before she again locked the door to her room and shut the world outside.
It had gone the way he expected. He had replayed the conversation in her store in his head over and over, trying to figure out what he could have done differently. He ambushed her, he got that. She was nowhere prepared to hear him declare his love for her after all these years. He had really screwed it up for himself this time; she hadn't returned any of his calls the past days. He sat down at his desk and looked at the pictures in his drawer. The girl in the pictures made his heart jump and put a big smile on his face. There was a knock on his door. He opened it and stared right into the eyes of the girl of his dreams. "I need to talk to you." He invited Brooke Davis in for a talk.