Disclaimer: I do not owe any of the characters, nor do I claim that the story line is true
Peyton flicked her hair behind her as she walked out if school. The wind blew fiercely behind her, causing her to flick her hair behind her head once more. She wore a short skirt and a long sleeved band shirt. She felt the wind in her hair again and sighed as she pulled a hair tie from her shoulder bag and tied her curls back into a scruffy ponytail. She continued walking down the pathway that lead to the car park where her comet was parked, despite her best friend calling after her.
She didn't care much for apologies anymore, especially as it seemed that it was all some people said to her. 'Sorry miss, your mother didn't make it.' 'Oh, Peyton, I'm so sorry you had to find out this way.' Sorry was her least favourite word at the moment. As she felt the anger build inside her she realised that if she turned to talk to her best friend, then she would take it all out on her, and that wasn't fair.
Peyton unlocked her car and slid inside. As she turned the key in the ignition her friend had somehow managed to catch up with her, and was knocking on the window. Peyton contemplated letting her in, it was about to rain after all, and she did have a long way to walk home. Although if she did let her in then she knew that they would end up arguing due to the mood she was in, although if she didn't, she knew that would cause them to argue still. She then had to decide which argument would be fixed easiest. She decided that letting her in would be easier, and if Peyton ignored her then she would know to avoid talking to her. Peyton leant across the passenger's seat and pulled the lock up from the door. Her best friend slid in.
"Hey Peyton, I didn't think you were going to let me in." She smiled awkwardly at her.
"I wasn't." Peyton said matter-of-factly. The next to her shrugged and pulled a book from her shoulder bag. She started reading it and then gasped. "Oh Peyt, can you drop me off at Lucas'?"
Peyton glanced over at her friend next to her with raised eyebrows. She pretended like every time she heard his name, that it didn't hurt her deep inside.
"As in Lucas Scott?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." There was that word again, sorry. It's almost as if that word mocked her. When she was at her lowest, or in pain, that word always popped up. It would help if it actually meant something when it did, but every time that word sounded, it was only to make the person saying it feel better. "He asked me over to help him with his English."
"Hayley I don't think Lucas is a good guy, I think that you should stay away from him." Hayley sighed, she shot Peyton a look which screamed mind your own business, but at the same time was understanding of Peyton's pain.
"What happened between you and Lucas was a mistake Peyton; you can't blame yourself, or him." Peyton felt all the pent up rage fill her chest. She looked at Hayley in a way that made Hayley mutter Peyton's most hated word, sorry.
"Look Hayley, just because you're my best friend do not think for one minute that I won't stop talking to you over a boy, because I will. You know how much Lucas hurt me when he walked away, when I needed him the most I might add. You sat with me through those nights when I couldn't stop crying, you know how much that jerk hurt me Hayley and now you're defending him? What kind of person does that!?!" she flicked the over flowing tears from her eyes as she pulled up on the side of the road, outside of his house. "Hayley James, I swear to god, if you get out of that car, I will not talk to you tomorrow, or the next day in fact." Hayley rolled her eyes.
"Peyton, you are my best friend, but it's been eighteen months since all of that happened, you have a gift out of it. If it hadn't of happened then you wouldn't have that gift. I know Lucas has taken away your childhood, and I know he's a jerk, but I am only helping him with his English work. I guess you could call it tutoring. Yeah, I am tutoring him." Hayley looked over at Peyton and could see the anger and hurt in her eyes, and she knew how hard this must have been for her. "Look, I am not going to let his words affect me Peyton, he's probably only asking me over to piss you off. Why don't you call Jake over and he can keep you company?" Hayley opened the passenger door and shot one last look at her best friend before stepping onto, as Peyton had referred to it, enemy grounds.
As Peyton drove home she couldn't stop thinking about Lucas. She had tried so hard to push all the memories of him to the back of her mind, but when they were brought to the front she had only one thing that could restrain them again. Well two, one was drinking herself stupid, and the other, more used ritual, was looking through her box of good memories. One's of her daughter.
She pulled up outside her apartment, which she shared with the new girl, Brooke Davis, and slammed shut the door of her comet. Luckily for her Brooke had a study day, so Peyton could go to school and have someone look after her baby. As she pushed their apartment door open she was greeted with a smell of freshly baked cookies. This immediately took her mind off any Lucas drama that was slowly beginning to surface.
"Brooke, are you home?" she rolled her eyes as the stupid question left her lips, it was hardly going to be her eight month old daughter that had baked cookies.
"In the living room," Brooke answered, "You should have heard Hannah today she said her first word!" Brooke shouted through. Peyton could feel her heart swelling with pride that Hannah had said her first word, but disappointment that she wasn't there to hear it. She dropped her school bag and almost ran into the living room where Brooke was sat with her daughter on her lap. "How was school?" Brooke asked turning her head from the settee to look at Peyton as she walked in.
"It was alright I guess. How was your day?" she asked sitting next to Brooke and taking Hannah into her arms. She looked at her face, her eyes reminding her of Lucas, bright blue, and her face was shaped like his as well. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get him out of her life. "And how's my angel?" she asked lifting Hannah up to her face.
"Daddy," was the word that Peyton heard escaping her lips. She froze. Her first word, the most important word, was the one thing that she didn't have, daddy.
"No sweetheart, its mummy." She tried to brush it off as nothing but she knew that Brooke would know that it was hurting her more than anything.
There were only three people who knew about Hannah, her, Hayley and Brooke. She didn't want to tell Lucas. She remembered back to that night.
Flashback:
Peyton held her stomach as she coughed up more sick into the toilet. Lucas thought she had food poisoning so he had run to the store to get something to calm her stomach. Once he was gone Peyton finally had a chance to look at her pregnancy test. When she'd seen the sign that it was positive she threw up again. Peyton loved Lucas more than anything else in the world but she knew that if he found out about her being pregnant that he would end up hating her, especially if she told him of her plans to abort it.
She sat up, her stomach calming down. As she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand she heard the apartment door closing. Lucas walked into the bathroom, his face one of shock. Peyton knew in that moment that their relationship had to end. She couldn't hurt him that much, telling him that she was having his child, but not really, as she was going to abort it. No, she wouldn't do that to him. Instead, she would do what she thought was best.
Lucas dropped next to her and rubbed her back as he pulled her body close to his, he soothed her with shh and I love you. Peyton felt her stomach lurch again and bolted toward the toilet, she threw up once more. After throwing up a few more times, she turned to face the blue eyed boy sat looking intently at her. "Peyton, the store was closed. I'll go first thing in the morning." He shuffled closer to her, and she moved back. He frowned, confused by her reluctance to let him near her. "Peyton?" he questioned. Peyton stood, with difficulty and walked from the bathroom into the kitchen of her apartment. Brooke was still in bed so she knew that she had to do this quickly otherwise she wouldn't be able to make out that it was Lucas who ended their relationship. She sighed.
"Luke, I can't do this any longer. I'm sorry, but I don't see us going anywhere." She saw the worried look on his face drop, and leave, well nothing. She sighed as she walked toward him, this time it was him who back away.
"What are you saying?" he asked, almost dumbly. "That we're over, because it sounds like that's what you're saying."
"I'm sorry." She mumbled. It was in that moment that the word sorry became her least favourite word. She shoved a few loose strands of her hair behind her ear. Lucas looked down at her with nothing in his eyes to signal emotion. He nodded once and left, leaving Peyton with a horrible feeling that she had made the biggest mistake she would ever make. It was also in that moment that she realised that she couldn't tell people the truth. She couldn't let her friends believe that she was a cold hearted bitch who'd pushed away the one person that truly loved her. She sighed and fell to her knees crying. The only word that she was able to mutter was 'Lucas'. She immediately knew that she would regret this. Brooke came out of her room, hearing Peyton's sobs for her boyfriend. Brooke almost ran the short distance from her room to Peyton's curled up form in the hallway.
"Hey," she soothed as she pulled Peyton's broken form onto her lap and pushed away all the hair that was stuck to her face behind her ear. "What happened?" she continued to push loose strands of hair behind her ear as Peyton continued to cry. "Oh honey, what happened?"
"Luke...Lucas," Peyton sobbed.
"What did he do?" Brooke asked hugging Peyton closer to her.
"He left. He left me..."
"What? Why?"
"Because I'm... I'm pregnant Brooke," she looked up at the girl holding her in her arms with red eyes and forced a smile. Peyton felt so scared and she didn't know what to do. How could she have pushed Lucas away when she needed him the most? And how could he have just left?
"What? And Lucas knew? How could he have just left you?" and then Brooke came to the conclusion that Lucas had left once he'd found out Peyton was pregnant. Peyton had not yet told anyone the truth.
N/B: Please read and review for Chapter 2 xxx
