Heyyyy, sooo... I'm sorry it's taken so long to update this, but my brother decided to kidnap the computer and put it in his room, I only got it back cos I told him I had coursework I needed to do, due in for Monday, tehe. But anyway, I hope this will make up for the lateness. Enjoy!

Chapter 4 – Overreaction

The minutes passed tantalisingly slowly, seemingly teasing her as she sat in the dark abyss that was her room.

She knew it was stupid to be so afraid in her own home, the home that she grew up in, where she got tucked in at night by her parents, where she was safe.

Where she heard that her mom had died. Where the crazy squatters down the road kept their eyes on. Where she had a psycho stalker that tried to kill her. Twice.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't the safest place in the world. Maybe in her world it was the least safe place to be.

Taking in the dark red walls of her bedroom, she couldn't help but be afraid.

She was alone in the house, Brooke having being called away to a business meeting in L.A last night.

And she hated the colour red.

Red, the colour of blood, the colour you see when you get a concussion, the colour that she couldn't seem to escape.

And then, the black. The black bookcases, the black skirting. The colour of loss, the colour of coldness. The colour of death.

She just realised how neurotic she was being, she had been home alone before,hell she practically lived alone since she was fifteen, and she most definitely was not going to let some jackass who couldn't take no for an answer destroy her life.

She needed to take a stand for herself.

But in a minute, because at the moment, in her semi-dark room, she was scared.

And she couldn't believe what she was about to do. She was about to call Nathan, like the blubbering, scared little girl she is.

She leant over to her nightstand, and picked up the cell lying on it. Strolling through the contacts she didn't breathe until she found Nate's name and heard the familiar dialling tone. He answered on the third ring.

"Hello?" his voice sounded thick, like he'd been crying. Or he'd just woken up.

"Hey, Nate. It's Peyton. I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" she was debating whether she should just hang up now, but she knew he'd freak, so she didn't.

"No. Just watching the game, must've dozed off. Don't worry, Hales would've woken me up if you didn't. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just, I'm being stupid." She sniffled.

"Come on, Sawyer. I know you, you wouldn't call for nothing. What's wrong?"

"I'm scared." Her voice was all but a whisper, and she shook her head. She hated herself when she was like this.

"We'll be right over."

Before she could ask who the 'we' was he hung up. Five minutes later there was a flurry of knocks on the door. They were starting to get frantic. Peyton stood at the bottom of the stairs, paralyzed. She knew Nate was coming over- but he had a key, why would he knock.

"Peyt. Peyt! Are you ok? Le' me in!"

It was Nate. She opened the door.

"Hey Nate don't you have a..." her voice trailed off.

She had noticed the man standing next to him. The man she hadn't seen in well over four months. The man that left her in a hotel room, all alone. The man she loved. Hell, the man she loves. Lucas Scott.

She never thought she'd see him again. Never thought she'd see his loving face, his hair slick by the rain, or dry in the heat. The care on his face, care that was for her, or that sweater. The sweater. 'Keith's Body Shop' emblazoned on the back.

"SAWYER! Are you ok?" Nathan screamed her name, trying to get her attention back on earth.

"Yeah... I was just being... stupid." She sounded like she was in a far away world, her voice distant. Her eyes, however, were locked on Lucas.

"What are you doing here?"

Lucas flinched; her voice was steely and ice-cold. All he wanted to do was to grab her and kiss her. Then he remembered that she had rejected him. And his demeanour quickly turned equally as steel-like as hers.

"I was watching the game with Nate, then you called and he started rushing over, I didn't particularly want to walk home so he was going to give me a lift back later. If that's ok with you?" his tone was dripping with sarcasm, he was waiting. Waiting for a typical Peyton Sawyer come-back. Filled with venom, that's his Peyton- all venom and curls. He loved it.

She merely nodded though, and Lucas seemed shocked at her lack of biting remarks. She turned around and headed towards the kitchen. Nathan followed, shooting Lucas a shooting warning as he too entered the kitchen. He was alone in the hall way.

"What the hell is going on?" the silence then hovered in the air, and he went to join the other two in the kitchen

Nathan moved through the kitchen with expertise, getting everything necessary to make them all mugs of tea.

"Jesus, Sawyer. Have these cupboards even been opened since you went to L.A?"

"Sure they have. Last night."

"Ha hah" his tone was sarcastic and he rolled his eyes. But a smile started to form on his face, not a typical Scott-cocky smirk, but a genuine smile.

He sure had missed this girl; his best friend.

"So, you ok now?"

"Yeah, I am. I was just- I remembered the last time I was in this house, a psycho stalker was trying to kill me. And Brooke wasn't here and I just... oh, I don't know. I wanted to see your handsome face?" her voice lifted towards the end of her sentence, she wondered if this would be enough of an answer.

Evidentaly, it was.

"Well, my features are dazzling and all. And I'm sorry, I forgot about psycho-Derek. You should've come and stayed with me and Haley for a while- at least while Brooke was away- we wouldn't have minded you know. Do you want to?"

"Thanks for the offer, Nate. But I'll be fine. You really didn't even have to come over. I never told you too." She sighed, looking down at the table top. Drawing patterns with her finger tip across the surface.

"I know, but I wanted to." he smiled at her again, but it fell on blind eyes. Peyton was still looking at her table, and his brother- well, his brother was staring at the blonde sitting across from him, no surprise there.

Nathan brought over the drinks and they sat in comfortable silence for a bit.

Lucas was the one to break it. "there's no music."

"What?" Peyton and Nathan were almost simultaneous in their answers.

"You have no music playing. You usually have music playing." He paused. "why have you got no music playing?"

Peyton shrugged. "Didn't have any music to fit my mood."

Nathan and Lucas both looked at each other, than at her.

"What?" she sounded quite self-conscious. "What? Stop looking at me like that!"

"Like what, Peyt." Lucas was leaning across the table and he looked directly into her eyes; he inwardly flinched at his stupidity in using her nickname. He was trying not to get attached, but staring into those green eyes of hers he knew he'd have some kind of problem.

"Like, you think I've gone insane! I'm sick of people looking at me like that, everyone is doing it. Especially Brooke! Urgh, I swear to god, Brooke is going to drive me insane. She keeps going 'are you ok? Are you sure? Are you positive? Come on P, talk to me.' And it's just... ARGH!" she let out a tini scream of frustration and jumped up, throwing the chair behind her.

Lucas and Nathan stood up with her.

"Calm down Peyton." Nathan took a step forward and held on to her arms.

She flinched away from his touch. "GET OFF OF ME! DON'T TOUCH ME!" she screeched.

Nathan felt like he'd just been burnt, his best friend flinched when he touched her. But at the same time, he figured if anyone had an excuse to do that it would be her.

"Peyton, calm down."

"No! Don't fucking tell me to calm down. I'll calm down when I bloody well want to!"

She stormed out of the kitchen with the boys following close behind. Running up the stairs, she called over her shoulder. "You can both leave now!"

She ran to her bedroom and slammed the door.

"Should we?" Lucas motioned to the front room.

"Yeah, let's watch the rest of the game. She'll come down when she's ready."

They settled onto the couch and switched the telly on. This was going to be a long night.

Hey, so what do you all think. I really wasn't happy with this chapter but oh well, what can you do? Chapter title from Overreaction - Voidvod

Y'all know what to do R&R xx:)