Lucas Scott knew an ending when he saw one. He'd always had a soft spot for literature, so he knew that even the greatest works of fiction came to halt at some point. When you're young you are taught that every story has a beginning, middle and an end. Every chapter has to stop so the next one can begin. Every sentence has to be completed so that the journey can be explored beyond the bounds of one line. The exposition and the complications all lead up to one thing; a resolution.

And then it all ends.

Peyton Sawyer wanted an ending for them and, try as he might, she was stubborn enough to get one.

He had tried to catch her throughout the day to talk but she had always managed to duck away or to hide. As the bell rang, signalling both the end of English and the end of the school day he knew that it might be the last chance he ever got to have a conversation with her, then they'd go back to the way their relationship had been all that time ago. The loner and the popular kid moving in two totally separate circles.

Except now the roles were reversed, and Peyton didn't have her version of a "Haley" anymore, and that was sort of his fault too.

He wanted to confront her away from the crowds and the stares. Gossip spread like wildfire in this town and that was the last thing either of them needed.

She felt his presence behind her as she walked out to the parking lot. She was at least glad that he didn't want to cause a scene, but she had hoped he would have gotten the hint.

She didn't want to talk things out. She just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

When they were by her Comet she turned around and looked at him. It took all of her strength to hold his gaze as he scoured her soul for some form of emotion or explanation, but she wouldn't give him anything, not if she could help it.

He marvelled at her all over again. After all the pain and suffering and loneliness she was able to put on this brave, if stoic, face, because that was what Peyton Sawyer did when she was faced with adversity in her darkest hours. She reached inside herself and found a little bit more strength, took a deep breath, and soldiered on.

"Peyt-"

"Lucas. Don't." Peyton warned. "Please, just don't."

He was shocked by the brief display of emotion. It wasn't a weakness, but her voice gave away what was otherwise a very convincing detached front. The sound that escaped her lips was hoarse and a little deeper than usual. It wasn't purely sad though, but instead held a certain amount of disappointment and tiredness. The innocence and naivety which she had possessed at the game had been overcome by her weary realism and cynicism.

She was done with the charade. She wanted to have her voice back.

But he wasn't quite ready to give up.

"Peyt, I just wanted to ask if…"

"No Lucas!" She exclaimed loudly. A sarcastic laugh followed.

"I'm done."

Lucas didn't think the two syllables would affect him so much but he was almost paralysed. This was it, he realised. His lifelong fantasy was ending. Once upon a time it had been his dream to talk to the girl standing in front of him and there she was telling him that she couldn't do any of it anymore. He would never in a million years have seen himself as the boy who could affect Peyton Sawyer like he did, but that's the way it is with dreams; they never go the way you expect them to and they end before you have a chance to reach the destination.

"I'm sorry but I'm busy right now, and I'm busy for the foreseeable future. I think its best we just leave it there."

"Peyton, I just want to talk. I want to help, so just tell me what you need." Lucas tried to plead with her in some way.

She just shook her head in reply, he hadn't expected anything else.

"I need…" she took a sharp inhalation of breath, "I need to stop doing this, to stop falling back into you. I can't be this person anymore Luke. I'm sorry but I'm out."

She tore her eyes away from his. Those blue orbs were so full of pain and hurt because of what she was doing. She was taking away his role in her life, making her "hero" redundant. It broke her heart a little bit more to think of him being in even the slightest discomfort because of her actions but she couldn't just pretend that her confession had never happened. She'd tried to ignore it all before, the stolen glances, the lingering touches and butterflies, the hairs that stood on end when she heard his name, the soft glint in his eye that she wished was reserved for her, the innuendos that were shrugged off as friendly banter. She had felt all of it acutely, and all of it had been swiftly pushed under the rug.

But hiding the giant elephant in the room under a rug was not a feat she was willing to even try to accomplish. She'd buried too much crap for anything that huge to fit anymore. There was no blaming it on circumstance like she could in the library. There was no rationalization, only the truth.

Peyton Sawyer was in love with Lucas Scott.

She had to find a way to let that go.

So she broke the gaze she didn't have the strength to hold and felt more than a little bit ashamed of herself. She wondered if he heard her incoherent apology as she hurried into her car and drove off without mustering the courage to give him one parting glance.

He just stood in that same spot. Still paralysed and searching for the right words but coming up short.

Lucas Scott knew an ending when he saw one.

He just hoped it was the chapter that was finished and not the novel.

He'd taken to watching her again. He had watched as she had wandered around alone for a week or so, and then vultures had descended to pick at her carcass. He watched as she found a new support system, one she didn't care about so passionately and therefore a system of friends that couldn't hurt her like he had, like they all had by their resigned abandonment.

He watched as one of these acquaintances turned into something more. All he could do but hope it was some form of friends with benefits but he knew her better than that. She'd returned to the shallow type of relationship that she used to share with Nathan. She'd found a warm body to hold onto because sometimes it was good and now there really was nobody else.

He knew the guy by name only. Briton Landers was a kid who had fallen through the cracks a little bit. Nobody expected much from him and in return not much was offered. He wasn't a stoner but he certainly wasn't a stranger to getting high, he wasn't an idiot either, he just was too apathetic to care about anybody but himself. He was Nathan before Haley but without all the basketball, so there was no passion or driving force that was going to lead him anywhere. He stuck a finger up at the world purely because he could. He put himself first because he'd never met anybody that mattered to him more. He certainly wasn't the guy that somebody who was destined for greatness should be with, but there they were.

Lucas hadn't known his heart had been breaking until he saw the two of them flirting and kissing, but that image had broken it clean in two.

Peyton wasn't in the business of changing people. She wasn't like Haley in that respect. When she was with somebody who was imperfect she struggled to find it in herself to care. If they wanted to be selfish and treat her badly then that was on them, not on her. She hadn't stopped Nathan and now she wouldn't stop Briton.

She wasn't really sure how she had fallen into that relationship, but there they were. He filled an empty void that needed to be filled and he didn't ask questions. He didn't care about the gunshot and the stalker and the two dead moms. He saw the absence of her father as an opportunity, not a hindrance. She was never going to fall in love with him, she was sure of that much. He had brown eyes, not blue, and dark brown hair. He didn't know the difference between Tolstoy and Chekhov and he didn't care. He wasn't going to save her, but instead just keep her from falling that much further. That was all she needed to know.

She felt him watching her sometimes. It certainly didn't make life easier or more bearable, but there was a certain part of her that was calmed by the fact that he was still present. She had tried to break of any and all communication with the other blonde but the unspoken bond that they held was proving difficult to cut. She knew that he was probably disappointed in her for falling back into old habits but it was all she knew. Truth be told she was disappointed with herself, but that self deprecation had been her companion for a long time.

She was starting afresh to the best of her capacity. She had lost her life and so had to build up a new one. Her old friends only smiled and made pointless small talk with her when they were alone or when Lucas was absent. They no longer made the effort to meet up with each other out of school because talk was eventually bound to swerve on to blonde and something hilarious he had said the other day. She couldn't handle that. As the days wore on the small talk was traded in for brief hellos, and soon Peyton only gave and received nods and quick smiles from those who supposedly knew her better and cared for her more fiercely than anyone else.

But what could they do? They hadn't had the opportunity to be concerned about her.

Brooke shared a worried look with Haley as they both noticed Lucas' eyes wander with a look in them that was reserved for Peyton. They followed his gaze and saw her having a heated discussion with Briton about something…or nothing, the two seemed interchangeable.

Lucas' fist curled slightly under the table but Haley grabbed his balled hand in an attempt to relax him. His eyes diverted away from the scene which he no longer had the right to care about and caught Haley's stare. Slowly he unravelled his fingers in an attempt to placate the concern that flooded her eyes but it was to no avail and he knew that. They'd all seen through him a long time ago.

Truth be told, he felt a change for the worse in all of friends' demeanours since Peyton's departure, especially towards him. They had tried to not blame him for the situation that Peyton had prompted and then tried to rectify, but it was hard to point the finger at anybody else. Had her love been one sided then the worried looks from Brooke and Haley and resentful glares from the likes of Skills and Nathan couldn't fairly have been directed at him, but her love was reciprocated and they all knew that. Even Lucas on some level had resigned himself to the fact that Peyton Sawyer would forever hold a piece of his heart, even if he clouded and buried that knowledge with denial and avoidance.

There was no starting afresh for Lucas Scott. He was stuck with judgement from the people who had every right to judge him. Sometimes he envied the freedom Peyton had given herself by cutting ties.

Maybe that had been her plan all along.

But one look at her and those thoughts would be washed away. One look at the rough and lustful look in Briton's eyes when he stared at her made his heart ache for her.

Peyton deserved to be loved and cherished and adored, not drooled over like she was purely a piece of meat.

Peyton needed to be held and comforted and supported, not become another interchangeable face in a fickle crowd.

Peyton should have kept the friends and the lifestyle, but she wouldn't so that he could.

Her final act of sacrifice for him was giving him the dirty slate and claiming the clean one for herself.

But in finding a new circle of acquaintances Peyton had also taken away his greatest necessity.

She took away his right to care.

Peyton had avoided the party scene for a while now, but she would be lying if she said that the invitation to use up all the booze at Nathan's that night didn't sound enticing.

Pretty much everyone who would usually frequent parties in their senior class was going to be there. Her anonymity would remain intact and she could get wasted and forget her façade, if only for a little bit.

Her eyes had caught with Haley's across the living room and she smiled at her. In return she received a remorseful smile. It was the sort that she'd been getting for months from the group that she allowed to abandon her. They all felt guilty for letting her slip through the cracks, just not guilty enough to try and do anything about it. They all knew Peyton could out-stubborn every one them.

Peyton was welcome in their home, she knew that, but she couldn't help but feel out of place. Memories of the hours she spent here with Nathan came flooding back in, and the person she was then suddenly felt so familiar.

She felt her boyfriend's arms around her waist and an odd sense of déjà vu overcame her as he whispered something inappropriate and vulgar in her ear and she found herself laughing slightly in an attempt to stop the urge to slap him for his crudeness. She was back to the Peyton who couldn't care about herself or put herself first. She was stuck between being a hypocrite for being a part of something she otherwise would have looked down on and being just another high school girl.

And so when she was told there was an empty bedroom and felt herself being led there by her "warm body" she couldn't resist. What harm was it going to do anyway? What was one more night of meaningless sex with somebody who was undoubtedly going to peak in high school?

It was only when she heard the shouts of "Its Peyton having sex with Nathan!" that her head snapped around and she fought her way out of the cage that Briton's arms had formed. Her eyes spoke of horror and shame as she grabbed her top and rushed out the room, leaving Briton in there alone, although probably not for long.

"Turn it off!" She screamed as she pushed through the crowded living room furiously to get to the television. It was only when she'd managed to clamber to the front of the crowd that she raised her head to be greeted by two brunettes staring back from the screen as opposed to Nathan and herself.

Peyton hadn't known that a worse situation could arise than a tape showing her and Nathan being played at a party in front of all of her peers. Apparently God or fate or whoever the hell was up there had it in for her.

Brooke and Nathan together was certainly worse. The shame she could get over, but betrayal was a slightly more complicated emotion.

"Nobody will know." Nathan's voice flooded through the surround sound. This certainly wasn't the cinematic experience anybody involved had bargained on or wanted however.

Peyton's eyes searched around the room until they landed on the shameful pair that belonged to her. The bubbly brunette who couldn't keep off of the men that Peyton saw first. All of the resentment and jealousy that the blonde had ever had for her ex-best friend bubbled to the surface. She been cut out of Brooke's life because she kissed Lucas, but Brooke had slept with Nathan. The hypocrisy was almost laughable had it not been so fresh. Peyton could still sometimes feel the stinging of her cheek from when she had been honest with Brooke about her feelings for Lucas.

Well, if she could slap Peyton for her honesty then surely a little retribution deserved to be served.

Brooke's eyes tried to plead with Peyton's unforgiving ones as the blonde closed in on her. She opened and closed her mouth to try to provide some reasoning, but no sound came out. It seemed fitting enough. Brooke had no excuse and she deserved what was coming to her, she knew that much.

Peyton raised her hand to hit Brooke.

But then, out of the corner of her eye she saw him. Suddenly she didn't want retribution, she just wanted to be held in his arms and comforted about everything.

And that thought was a lot scarier for her.

So she lowered her hand as Brooke flinched. She shook her head and looked disgusted with the brunette.

There was a bitch mumbled as Peyton walked away from the scene that was in process. The crowd in the sitting room parted for her as she made her way out of the house.

And the whispers began.

She didn't really expect to be followed out, but she thought maybe Brooke would try to apologize, or maybe Nathan. Maybe Haley would come out to commiserate on their poor choice of romantic partners. Maybe Briton would care enough to comfort her and offer her a ride home. Maybe not though.

When his gruff voice whispered her name she really hadn't expected it.

She stood in the middle of Nathan's drive as he stood at the door and for the first time since their last conversation she really looked at him.

His blue eyes were duller than she remembered them and his face a little more hollow. Even still he was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. His stance held a true sense of remorse for actions that weren't even his own. She thought that maybe he felt some remorse for any pain she felt, or maybe for the person he had helped her become. She knew that there was only a small rational part of him that was fighting to keep some distance between them. The muscles in his neck twitched as he tried to stay in place.

This was torture for Lucas. He couldn't quite handle not being able to try to console her without fear. He was reduced to the nervous boy he was when he was first plunged into this world. He didn't know the social etiquette of this situation and he knew it wouldn't be intelligent for him to incur Peyton's wrath.

By just being there they had a conversation. He was asking her if she was going to be ok and telling her that this was never what he wanted for them and certainly not what he planned.

"I know." The words escaped her rose lips sadly. "I know."

Lucas nodded, an understanding having been reached between the two of them. She laid no blame and she didn't want him to either.

They were victims of circumstance and bad timing.

They always had been.

"I'm sorry."

Her head whipped around and she saw him standing with his hands in his pockets at the threshold of her room. She just rolled her eyes and looked back at the wall that had previously held her gaze.

"Look I know it doesn't mean much but I really am."

"Did you really hate me that much?" Peyton asked quietly. She didn't think she had the strength to fight.

"No! I didn't hate you, I just….I didn't care about anybody but myself." Nathan tried to explain as he walked around her bed and sat next to her.

"Well, it's a little late Nate. Two years in fact."

"Look I know! I was a jackass and this apology has been a long time coming. You deserved better than I could have given you back then. You still deserve better than that Peyton."

Her head snapped up at that last comment and the not-so-subtle allusion to her current relationship.

"You know what Nate? You are really not in a position to judge me right now." Peyton spat as she pushed off of the bed and walked to the wall before whipping around and facing her ex-boyfriend.

"I…I know…sorry."

"That's pretty redundant at the moment." Peyton informed him. Nathan looked at her trying to plead for some sort of understanding, but Peyton wasn't going to give that to him. "Nathan you haven't been that guy in so long now. You haven't been an ass since Haley, but despite that at no point in the past two years did you think it appropriate to apologise. That sort of leads me to believe that you aren't all that sorry for being a crappy cheating ex-boyfriend, you're just sorry you got caught. Both of you are."

"You're right, I should have apologised a long time ago, I just thought that it was in the past and was forgotten about. I didn't want to open up old wounds and cause you anymore pain than I already had. Look I was a bastard and Brooke was drunk and it was a stupid mistake that meant nothing. I really am sorry." There was such sincerity in his voice that Peyton was forced to believe him.

"And if you don't think you can be friends anymore then I totally get that. I just thought you deserved that apology."

Peyton scoffed a little bit and Nathan eyed her curiously.

"Nate, we haven't really been friends for a while now. I mean, when was the last time we even had a proper conversation about anything?"

He looked ashamed, and he was. He could blame the tape on him being an ass, but he prided himself on not being that person anymore and still he abandoned a friend. There were no excuses that were good enough for that. He could hear in Peyton's voice that she didn't blame him for the split, but a sea of guilt overcame him. She had been hurt and he had let her. When his heart had been broken by Haley it had been her shoulder he leaned on. She would bitch about Chris Keller and his wife with him when he needed that, and she would rub his back when he needed soothing. She would sit with him and talk about nothing of any consequence or she would listen as he rattled on about his issues. She never judged and she was always present when he needed her.

Nathan Scott resolved to change his ways for a woman once again.

This time though, he would become an unfailing friend to Peyton Sawyer.

She saw something shift in his eyes as she asked the question.

Suddenly she didn't feel so alone anymore.

"That's all going to change Sawyer."

She didn't realise how much she needed the other Scott brother to say those words, but as she melted into his arms she allowed herself to be vulnerable, because Nathan was different and she knew it. She wouldn't fall in love with him but she loved him all the same, and she let him love her.

It wouldn't ever heal her completely, but it was a start.

For the first time since her proclamation Peyton let herself cry and be consoled.

She knew that once more that she was supported and she realised that she had never needed something so much.

Well, she had never needed something other that Lucas so much.

An unfamiliar sound came from Peyton's window.

She knew the sounds of small rocks being thrown at the glass to gain her attention.

She knew what noise was made when a man fell through said window and shattered the glass.

She had heard impatient fingertips tap on it, or the near-silent hum that the curtain made as it flirted with the glass if there was a draught.

She wasn't so well acquainted with the sounds of eggs being thrown at it.

"Seriously?!" Peyton screamed as she ran out of her house and confronted the yin to her yang. "You are egging my house?"

"Well are you going to give me my dress back? The man at the store said you had it! Described you down to your bony ass!" was the rasped reply.

Peyton and Brooke had always had a brutally honest and thoroughly tempestuous relationship. It seemed the only secrets that were kept between them always involved the Scott boys. When one came out it was bound to explode in their faces, and this was no exception.

"So go naked! Think of all the time you're going to save hooking up with someone else's boyfriend!" Peyton spat back, her wild her flying angrily, framing her betrayed face.

"Oh you are one to talk…you're one to talk!" Brooke mumbled poisonously back at the girl who she had once shared everything with. It seemed that sharing was the death of their relationship.

"Ok, so you said we were never friends? It never meant anything to you?" She threw her Posh mug at Peyton's feet and it shattered on the brick pavement. Inwardly Peyton cringed. That mug that she had slaved over was now resigned to the same fate as her friendship with Brooke. It was both irreplaceable and broken beyond repair.

"And you wanna know something else? Here's a picture of you and Lucas on my birthday!" Peyton's eyes snapped to the picture of Peyton handing Lucas a bottle of cologne, the one he now wore, or at least used to wear as far as Peyton knew. "So who's the whore now?" Brooke accused.

Something inside the blonde snapped.

She had paid her penance for her indiscretions with Lucas, and it wasn't like she was betraying Brooke by being with him now. They had drifted so far apart they were on separate poles, and Brooke still had the audacity to call her a whore when she was the one whose sex tape with Nathan had just been discovered?

Brooke found herself on the ground in seconds, scratching and wrestling with Peyton on the grass. The slap that Brooke had narrowly missed out on the night before was now delivered as she struggled to push off Peyton. Brooke managed to roll on top of the fiery blonde, but only maintained her leverage for a second. She was thrown off only to find herself being pinned down once again.

Peyton was unrelenting as she let one single tear roll down her cheek as she fought to stay on top of Brooke. Her claws were out in more ways than one.

"God! Stop it!" Brooke screamed, tired and exasperated, using her forearms to push Peyton off of her and to attempt to try to scramble out from underneath her.

"Just let go!"

Oh, if only I could that I would

"You win Peyton! OK? You win!" Brooke cried.

Peyton finally pushed off of her ex-best friend and stood up, wiping the grass from her jeans and running her fingers through her tangled mess of hair. She scoffed a little at Brooke's concession. It isn't as though she had "won" very much as Brooke had so aptly stated.

"I'm the one with no prom dress, no boyfriend and a black eye on prom night. At least you have Briton!" Brooke reasoned.

Peyton let out a laugh. It wasn't a quiet or subtle scoff, or maniacal, but a truly haunting laugh. It was the laugh of a person who was so tired of the world that all she could do was laugh at her misfortunes and the idiocy of others, for if she didn't laugh she didn't think she could survive.

Brooke nearly stopped as the sound left the artist's lips. She's never heard something so hollow and heartbreaking.

"Why do you even care anymore?"

This made Peyton stop retreating and face the brunette.

"Why do I care?" She did not attempt to hide the incredulity that laced her voice. "Brooke, this has been one of the worst years of my life…" her voice quavered with pent up emotion that she could hardly care to contain anymore "…and I needed my best friend more than ever and you cut me out because I was honest with you, and you were never, ever honest with me!"

"Peyton…" Brooke tried to reason with the insatiable guilt that flooded through her.

"You made fun of my mom's death Brooke!" Another tide of shame washed over the brunette as she tried, and failed, to shrink farther away from the repercussions of her unforgivable actions. "You knew her!" The tears that had built up in Peyton's eyes began to spring free and roll down her cheeks, leaving silver trails glimmering in the cold sunlight, "You cried with me when she died! And now you use her as a punchline in a joke meant to hurt me!"

Brooke's shoes had never looked so appealing.

"Ugh!" Peyton exclaimed as she tried to reign in her emotions. "It hurt…it did, but not anymore, because you and me, we're done. You're right, she's dead and as far as I'm concerned, so are you."

Brooke never knew how much it hurt for her counterpart to terminate their relationship. She suddenly was left wondering how Peyton had managed to get through it twice.

Brooke never quite understood how Peyton found it in herself to take the moral high ground and return her dress later that day.

Was she fooling herself to hope that she still cared?

"I'm not going." Peyton exhaled down the receiver.

"You're being a selfish bitch, you know that?" Came the reply from the phone.

"And you're being a bastard. What else is new?" Peyton bit back.

"Whatever, I'm still going to get some use of that hotel room whether you're there or not." Briton threatened and Peyton didn't doubt the truth in his words.

"Well tell you're hand I'm awfully jealous. Call me when you get your head out of your ass long enough to see that my world doesn't revolve around you. For that matter, neither does anybody else's." Peyton's retort angered Briton and she could hear him growl in his throat.

The dial tone she heard shortly afterwards confirmed her suspicions.

She couldn't help but think what Lucas would do if he were her escort and she was acting like this. He would probably coerce her into going with some charming words that instilled some form of hope and promise. She would trust that he would protect her from what the evening could be and make it what it should be. He wouldn't want her to have any regrets.

But Lucas wasn't her date and now neither was Briton.

She was pretty sure she didn't care about the Briton part.

Who the hell could that be? Everyone is at prom!

The doorbell ringing at 8:30 on a Friday evening was odd enough usually, but on prom night it was almost unheard of.

Peyton trudged down the stairs in her flannel pyjama bottoms and a black tank top with her hair down, tickling her shoulders.

She opened the front door as she stifled a yawn and saw the blond hair of a boy she knew.

Her heart leapt a little bit, although her head convinced her she was hallucinating.

"Lucas?"

She wished more than anything he hadn't turned around, that the fantasy could be true for one more moment before she was brought back down to earth.

Unfortunately life seemed to have other plans.

Plans that included a psycho dressed in a tux who was supposed to be in prison.

"Hello Peyton." A lopsided, sadistic smirk graced his lips as he cocked his fist back.

Why didn't she go to prom again?

A/N: Ok, so I know a lot of the scenes actually happened, but it made sense to put them in and alter them a little. I'm going on holiday for the next couple of weeks so won't be able to update but I'm going to try to smuggle my computer so that I can still write!

Also I want to thank everyone who reviewed! It really inspired me to write more and I appreciate it. This chapter is for you guys! I'm not totally happy with it but I rushed it through so that you'd get another installment before I jetted off.

Disclaimer- I don't own OTH or any of the characters or dialogue that I've taken!

PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!! They make me want to write more!!!!!!!!!!