CHAPTER 2

Peyton cursed as she ran into her studio. Thirty minutes ago she'd woken up with one hell of a sore head and realised she had ten minutes to get to work. She'd pulled on the first items she found in her wardrobe which happened to be a pencil skirt a shirt and heels applied little make up and ran outside and into her car. She actually wondered how she didn't get into a car crash on the way here, she'd broken about five national speed limits and her road rage made people in other cars look at her as if she needed to go into a mental home.

When she arrived at work thirty minutes late she was in one hell of a bad mood and stressed out of her head. She barged through the doors to find the band sitting waiting for her and twiddling their thumbs.

'Hi! I'm so sorry, so sorry… I've been…' Peyton said in a rush stumbling over her words. 'Just…get in there.'

The four members seemed to smirk at her flustered state as they ambled into the recording booth and she pushed open the door settling her bag on the chair and putting on her earphones while looking expectantly at her band from behind the glass. They stared back at her and she let out an annoyed puff of air before pressing the button that would project her voice through to the recording booth.

'What're you doing?! Get playing!'

'Er, we recorded this yesterday, you said you were going to play us the CD today…' The front man called.

'Right.' Peyton said removing her earphones. 'Right. Sorry, just…bear with me…'

The desk before her was a mess, cluttered with electronic controls, complex recording equipment and paper. Somewhere beneath it all she knew the CD would lie. She pushed papers aside haphazardly and after five minutes still couldn't find it, running a hand through her hair frustrated she pressed the button again,

'Sorry guys. I must have left it…at home. I'll… could we do this tomorrow. I've got to sound proof it anyway.'

'Sure.' They shrugged and five minutes later she said her goodbyes and ushered them out the door. What the hell had she done with that CD; it was the only hardcopy of their album she had! It was royalty, and she was dead if she'd lost it.

Beneath her state of panic she heard her phone ring in the studio and practically ran to it giving an out of breath with clenched teeth and all answer of, 'Hello.'

', why, aren't you chirpy this morning!' Brooke Davis' sarcastic voice filtered through her phone and she closed her eyes.

'Brooke… I am never agreeing to go out with you ever again.' She muttered and hearing Brooke laugh she held the phone away from her ear wincing as her head pounded slightly.

'Honey, I asked you to come out… I didn't pour the alcohol down your throat. Don't blame me.'

'You know I don't react well to copious amounts of alcohol…' Peyton accused, closing her eyes.

'Oh I know. Don't worry. I'm pretty sure the guys didn't mind.' Brooke said absently.

Peyton's eyes snapped open, 'What? What guys?!'

'The three guys you insisted on dancing with, not one by one but all at the same time.'

'Shit.'

'Don't worry, they thought it was pretty hilarious.' Brooke smirked.

'Brooke!' Peyton hissed, 'I can't believe you let me do that.'

'Hey! I can't control you when you're in that sort of mood and anyway I wasn't the soberest I've ever been…although it looks like I can actually remember my night.'

'That's cuz you're permanently intoxicated, so you've gotten used to it…' Peyton grumbled.

'I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that P, anyway how's your day so far?'

'Awful, and its getting a lot worse…' Peyton replied pushing more papers around trying to find the CD until luke-warm liquid spread over her hand soaking the papers brown…

'Shit.' Peyton exclaimed. Picking up the coffee cup and throwing it in the bin.

'What's wrong?' Brooke asked.

The coffee spread and seeped onto a machine that let out a hiss and an electrical charge before dying straight away. The lights on it went off, 'Oh fuck.'

'Your choice of vocabulary is so sweet today by the way…Wait did I mention that you danced…on a table.' Brooke chuckled and Peyton gritted her teeth before saying,

'Brooke Davis, I'm seriously going to kill you.' Before snapping her phone shut and throwing it down on the counter.

'Should I be worried?' A voice said from the general direction of the door. Peyton jumped and looked over to it to see a man with blonde hair standing there, in those two seconds that they held eye contact she felt a little different suddenly. Putting it down to having a fragile head and stomach she glared at him.

'I mean, I come in here and…you're making death threats…' He trailed off with a slight smirk and he could have sworn she smirked back.

'Well is your name Brooke Davis?' Peyton asked.

'No.' The man said letting out a laugh.

'Then we have no problem.' Peyton said sarcastically throwing him a glare. Lucas Scott smiled at her, making a mental note… Peyton Sawyer was certainly all curly hair and venom.

'You know standing in a doorway is kinda creepy.' She spat pulling power towels off a roll and trying to dab up as much of the coffee as she could. 'Wait, are you an electrician?'

'No.' Lucas said again with another small smirk propping himself against the door frame.

'Then who the hell are you and what are you doing in my studio?' Peyton asked her tone biting.

Feisty Lucas thought with a smile. He gazed at her for a few seconds trying to make a first impression of which he could build on for this article he had to write about. She was tall, but that might have been the heels, she wore a tight grey pencil skirt that accentuated her figure and a light green shirt which made her hair seem blonder. As she looked at him with a furious expression he saw that her eyes were green, matching her top and that they were mysterious. He couldn't deny that she was beautiful but the fiery edge she was displaying now would work wonders in his article.

He pushed himself off the frame and walked closer, 'I'm Lucas Scott.'

Peyton frowned at him, 'And…'

He smiled, 'I work for the New York times.'

'Right.' Peyton said closing her eyes before muttering. 'Great! Just what I freaking need…'

'Bad day?' Lucas prompted with a sympathetic smile.

'No it's been great, can't you tell?' She asked sarcastically and Lucas's smirk came back again before he watched her get back to work seemingly mopping up coffee. He frowned,

'Need any help?'

'I thought you were never going to ask…' Peyton said rolling her eyes.

'A simple 'yes thank you' would have been good.' Lucas smiled before he caught the roll of paper towels that came flying in his direction.

'Egotistical jerk…' He heard her mutter minutes later, just loud enough for him to hear.

'I can see you're the friendly type.' Lucas smirked, throwing some soaked towels into her bin and looking at her. She was bending down, her back to him and he had to avert his eyes not to look at her. However much she spat fire she was beautiful and he was a guy.

'I can see you're the annoying, prying reporter type.' She fired back turning to look at him with a sarcastic smile and a pile of sodden paper towels.

'Do you ever not find a comeback?'

'Do you ever stop talking?' She fired back at him and he raised his hands in defence, sentences of his article coming together nicely in his head.

They didn't talk for a while until he muttered, 'Note to self don't mess with Miss Sawyer.'

He had his back to her but he heard her quiet chuckle and turned around with a smile.

'Oh so you can do such a cheerful thing as laugh?' He asked but his tone was teasing and she caught onto it saying,

'Watch it.' Her tone was definitely less sarcastic and fiery, it was more exhausted and Lucas took the opportunity to study her a little more. She looked tired and her studio looked like a mess. Typical artists he thought.

'I could- have a look at this if you like.' Lucas said pointing to the broken machinery.

Peyton turned around with one of her sarcastic smirks, 'I thought you were a reporter.'

'I thought you were a typical hard assed music producer.' Lucas shrugged.

'I am all of those things.' Peyton said indignantly but Lucas shook his head with a smile before she gestured towards the machinery saying curtly, 'Just get on with it.' He smiled back and bent down to have a look.

'What is it anyway?' Lucas asked minutes later.

'It's the amplifier.' Peyton said with a sigh.

Lucas nodded and continued prodding and poking, Peyton walked closer to him to inspect his handiwork.

'Do you actually know what you're doing?' Peyton asked with a smile, bending down next to him so that they were level.

She turned to look at him and saw the indignant look on his face before it smoothed out into a grin, 'No, not a clue.'

Peyton couldn't help but laugh as he turned his face to hers. 'I used to work in a garage, I thought that I might know something-'

'You're comparing cars to an amplifier?' Peyton asked with a raised eyebrow, he rolled his eyes and opened his mouth with a retort before a loud voice cut him off,

'! I've bought you something to cure the hangover-' Brooke's voice rang through her studio before she opened the door to the recording booth and saw Lucas and Peyton. She looked down at them with a frown,

'Oh.' She said with the typical Brooke Davis tone and smirk to match, 'I see you've got company I'll come back later.' She winked and walked out, Peyton rolled her eyes at Lucas who looked slightly perplexed and then she followed Brooke out of the door. Brooke seemed to have been waiting for her to do just that, as she was waiting exitedly right outside the door,

'Who is that?' She asked with a sly smile.

'Lucas Scott.' Peyton said absentmindedly.

'Ok where did you get him so I can go and get my very own?'

Peyton snorted, 'He came into my office just as I told you I wanted to kill you.'

'Well he's still there meaning that you didn't scare him off, that's a good thing… oh and by the way we are so talking about that little death threat later. But I bet he brightened your day up a little?'

'No, he's a reporter…and an ass.' Peyton said, although she wasn't quite sure why she added the 'ass' part.

'Oh reporters.' Brooke grimaced. 'That sucks. I hate them. I could just make an exception for him though.' As she said it she looked over Peyton's shoulder and openly checked him out. 'Nice ass.' She commented and it made Peyton scoff.

'What?' Brooke asked.

'You have a boyfriend, of a year!' Peyton exclaimed.

'So… I can look but I can't touch.' Brooke winked.

'You're impossible… what I was trying to say is thank you for mouthing off about a hangover in front of the reporter guy! I can already see it in the article he's writing.'

'You're being sarcastic aren't you?' Brooke asked.

'Oh how can you tell?'

Brooke sighed, 'Look P, I think you might just need to let loose a little…'

'I did that last night and now I have a sore head, a broken amplifier and some guy who's turned up at exactly the wrong time!' Peyton rambled and Brooke put a hand on her arm affectionately.

'No I was talking about really letting loose…getting laid.' She added and Peyton couldn't help but burst into laughter that Brooke was quick to latch onto.

'Knew I'd cheer you up.' She chirped. 'But seriously, I'm beginning to think you need some time off, you're stress levels must be through the ceiling.'

Peyton let out a puff of air and looked at Brooke, when she saw genuine concern on her face she let out a small smile, 'Brooke I'm fine, but I love you for caring.'

'First a death threat then a love declaration, is this what Peyton Sawyer's like everyday?'

The voice behind them made Peyton clench her teeth before turning around.

'Okay reporter what are you doing here apart from annoying me?' She asked and Brooke looked at Lucas for his reaction. Any other person would probably be completely put off but he was smiling slightly and it actually surprised her.

'I just came to check out what my article is going to be based on. I think I got the bare bones…' He said and before the girls could say anything he'd worked purposefully towards the door, 'Energy drinks and caffeine help with a hangover by the way… I'll be seeing you soon, I guess.'

Peyton was left dumbstruck and she looked at Brooke with wide eyes, 'Peyton Sawyer speechless, I never thought I'd see the day.'

'Shut up.' Peyton laughed pushing her friend.

'Come on, let's go get coffee.' Brooke said and Peyton let out a sigh, today had gone worse than she'd ever imagined and she knew that any 'bare bones' that Lucas had picked up about her today weren't going to be good ones. She was going to come across in a very bad light in this article, she knew that.

'All right let's go . We can talk about how I can foil that ass's report before it gets published.' Peyton said darkly and Brooke laughed throwing an arm around her before saying,

'Sure Bonnie.'


Thank you to people who reviewed and favourited last chapter! I'm glad you want me to continue :) Hope you liked this, it's only the tip of the iceberg for these two! And Peyton won't be so mean next chapter haha. It was just necessary and reminded me of season 1 and the good old times... :|

Anyways please don't hesitate to make any comments and ask any questions... Hope you liked the chapter, let me know what you think!