Chapter One

March 4th 8:10 A.M. PST

"Wakey, wakey." The sing-song voice poured through her ears, invading her last desperate clinging of sleep.

"Go away." Peyton muttered, rolling her body away from his. Facing the dark stained cushions of the couch, she had crashed on, as she clutched at a blanket, chills wracking her body.

"No can do." He perched on the edge of the molted brown sofa, wrinkling his nose at the piss and beer stench that seemed to linger in the apartment before stealing her comforter and tossing it aside. "You have a flight in two hours and I think now-a-days you are supposed to be there an hour early, and since it take over an hour with traffic that means…" He paused, waiting until she glared up at him. "You are already late."

Peyton rolled once again, facing him, her eyes squinting at the light streaming into the room. This was not her home, not that she had one, she had left it all behind so long ago that she could no longer remember that sense of belonging. For a moment she was lost as she rubbed her eye with her open palm, her head throbbing in her skull before she remember she was at Damien's place, the drummer for the new band she was playing music rep for. "Tired." She whined.

"And looking like shit."

Peyton glared, feebly, her eyes struggling to focus in the harsh morning light; so much of her life was spent in darkness. "However much he is paying you, I will double it, if you just go away."

"No can do." He held out a hot cup of coffee for her trembling hand to take. "The reward is not in the money."

"Yeah." Peyton rolled her eyes, sipping her scalding beverage, the bitterness coating her tongue. He had forgotten the two sugars. "Like you are annoying me, just out of the kindness of your heart?"

"I have a heart!" He protested, while Peyton shot him a disbelieving look. They had spent too much time together in the past year for either one of them to be able to hide much. They weren't exactly friends, but they were something undefined, a mutual appreciation of music and things lost in that small town on the coast. "Okay, so he promised me a role in his next movie if I helped out. That would make me a triple threat."

"How would that make you a triple threat?" Peyton asked. "Music and movie, I am counting only two threats, and before I helped you rework that last record you weren't even that much of a music threat."

"Well, first off, nice to see you able to string actually coherent sentences together for once. And secondly, I am a triple threat. Chris Keller- rock god, movie god, sex god." Chris opened the lid of Peyton's coffee and pulled two packets of sugar from his pocket, dumping them in. "So be a good girl and get on the plane, like your boyfriend wants, and let me have my movie."

Peyton pushed the coffee towards Chris, feeling suddenly ill. He had remembered. She stood on legs that ached, needing space. "He is not my boyfriend."

"See, this is a totally a 'not my kid' moment."

"What?" Peyton asked, genuinely confused.

"Okay." Chris jumped over the sofa toward her. "So some girl comes up to me and is totally saying I am her 'baby daddy' but I know that kid is too ugly to be mine. So end it is all about perception. I say I am no one's dad and she says I am. Julian thinks you two are still together, you think not. It's all in the perception."

Peyton stood silent, her fuzzy brain trying to work around Keller's messed up logic. For a second she thought about mentioning DNA tests but decided against it, who knew where that would lead. "Look," Chris spoke. "For what it's worth I think Julian's heart is in the right place. He wants you to go and celebrate her birthday, to have some fun and just… be Peyton. He is worried about you."

Being Peyton was the problem. She didn't even know that girl anymore. "Why is he even worried about me?"

Chris sent her a sharp look, Peyton had forgotten how clearly he sometimes saw. "You know why." And she did. It was easier to pretend with others, to tell them the answers they wanted to hear, but with Chris, well he didn't really care about the answers, he wasn't expecting anything of her.

"I don't have enough time. I would still have to go home and pack." Feebly excuse poured from her lips, the reality so much harder to speak.

Keller produced a brown duffel bag. "Done. And I made sure to pick out something to show a little skin." He sighed at her angry expression, rolling his eyes he continued on. "And I also packed one or two of your million jackets. You do know that you live in southern California, right? It happens to be warm here. No one needs thirty jackets."

Peyton wasn't really listening; she was digging through the bag and pulling out a familiar denim jacket that she pulled on. "Where is my purse?" She began to search the dingy apartment. "Someone stole my purse!"

"No one stole your purse. I chucked it." Peyton's eyes bulged in her head. "Don't worry." He explained. "I made sure to get the good stuff out of it, wallet, keys, lipstick. I put them in one of those bags that Brooke is always sending you."

"I need my purse." Peyton ground out, feeling physically ill the thought of embarking anywhere near Tree Hill without its precious contents.

"No. You don't." Chris' stance was firm. Peyton had helped saved his career; he owed her this, even if she couldn't see it yet. Seeing tears form in her green eyes, he pulled her close, his body crushing hers in a hug. "You don't need it."

"I can't go back." She whispered, that was the point, wasn't it? No matter what she did she couldn't be that girl again, too much had happened, she was too far gone.

"Yes, yes you can."

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March 4th 11:10 am EST

"So everything is all set for tonight at Tric." Millicent calmly reported to her boss. "Bar is stocked, favors and flowers have arrived, both of your new dresses are steamed and waiting to be worn." She gestured to the two gorgeous Clothes over Bros gowns hanging in the back of Brooke's new shop, where mannequins and racks laid helter-skelter.

"Good." Brooke appraised the gowns. She wanted something that stood out. Her new story would open in less than a month and she needed to be seen and talked about in Tree Hill- nothing sold a dress like a bit of press. "I have to say I am impressed at how fast you pulled this together. You had what? Ten days?"

"Almost two weeks." Millie smiled. Brooke's moved back to her first home had come about in a rush. There were harsh words spoken between Victoria and her daughter, and suddenly NY was no longer Brooke's home. Millie had followed to help out with the new shop and some of the relocation, as to what she would do once things were settled had yet to de discussed.

"So how is the guest list coming?"

Millie cringed slightly. "Not many of the usuals RSVP." She admitted.

Brooke just shook her head, she hadn't expected them to, those people she hung with in Manhattan were not her friends, not really. "It's fine. Did Rachel call?"

"She is stuck in Milan doing a shoot but promised to swing by on her way to LA."

"Oh." Brooke's face fell slightly. "Well this will certainly be a lot more intimate than my 21st birthday, huh?"

"Well Haley will be there, Marvin, Antwon, Bevin, Tim, Ferguson, Nathan, Lucas and Lindsey." The assistant read off the top of her guest list, trying to interject some happiness into Brooke's day. She knew how hard things had been on her boss lately. "Oh and someone named Julian Baker called."

Brooke shook her head. "I don't know anyone named Julian Baker."

Millie flipped through her Iphone. "He said he was calling on behalf of Peyton. Said to expect her."

"Peyton?" Brooke rasped out.

"That's what he said."

Brooke felt as though someone had doused her in ice water. No one even spoke about her anymore. It was as if she simply just faded away in the year's after Lucas' disastrous proposal. First the calls came weekly, and then biweekly, the emails came monthly, and then not at all. Brooke used to take hours every week, selecting designs to send to Peyton to wear, taking time to remember the shape of her face and the exact shade of green of her eyes, and Peyton used to send her demos of bands that Brooke would never listen to on her own. Brooke still sent the outfits, but they were sent at Christmas and picked out randomly by whatever clerk was working in the store.

She had expected Peyton to at least show last year at her 21st birthday, she had sent her a first class ticket. It was a rather glamorous affair, if she thought so herself. In the end, Brooke went back to her place with Rachel and a bottle of wine and tried to forget that the blonde didn't even bother to call. Brooke didn't even realize that Millie had bothered to invite her, why would Peyton show to a simple 22nd birthday party thrown at Tric?

"Is something wrong?"

"No." Brooke shook her head. "Just- Peyton won't be there." She shrugged, trying not to show how deep that cut. Seeing Millicent worried expression Brooke smiled at her. "It's a good thing. Trust me, wherever Peyton went- drama followed."

TBC

A/N: First I am so sorry this took so long. I lost my hard drive and had to rewrite and just lost my muse for a bit. Luckily it is back and swinging. This is a Peyton centric chapter leading into where the prologue started. Peyton is very different from when she left Tree Hill and I wanted that crystal clear before having her go back home. Also I love me some Chris Keller. Next Chapter: Peyton Comes Home. Like it? Review please! –Becca-