Nathan stood in the parking lot, watching Peyton drive off. After a moment, he realized he should probably go somewhere, but he didn't know where. Then he realized he didn't care. Embracing the emptiness that he felt, he let his feet make the decisions. Right, left, right, left. Eventually, he ended up at Karen's Café. As he reached the door, he realized that he had never been there without his dad or brother. When this realization hit him, he decided to turn away. That is when Karen noticed him.

Catching his eye, Karen walked to the main entrance and opened the door. Now he was trapped. Failing to think of an excuse, he smiled sheepishly as she looked at him.

-"You going to stay out here all day? Come on in."

Nathan walked in slowly. The café was mostly empty. Haley was working, preparing for the evening rush. As the feeling of awkwardness increased, he turned to Karen, making an excuse for being there.

-"Is Luke around? I just wanted to stop and say hey."

Karen smiled. She glanced at Haley with a knowing look before answering his question.

-"No. He's at Keith's working. Like every Monday. I'll tell you what. How about I get you a soda on the house and you can work on homework, or relax for a while? Keith said it was a slow day, so Lucas shouldn't be too long."

Nathan agreed, mostly because he didn't know what else to do. His relationship with Karen was complex. Because she was Luke's mother, she had been at most of the important moments in his life. Heck, they had "family dinner" together most days of the week. However, there was no binding relationship between the two of them despite his suspicions that his dad consulted her on his parenting style.

After a moment, he realized that Karen was watching him. She had the look. The look of a concerned parent, trying to decide if she should pry. For a second, he wanted to ask, "You know I'm not Lucas, right?" but the thought of his dad's face when he heard that comment stopped him.

Karen brought over a glass of Sunkist Orange, Nathan's favorite, before beginning a conversation.

-"So, how was school today?"

Looking up, Nathan gave his standard answer, "Same old, same old. Nothing to report."

Karen glanced around the café, displaying that the café was empty, besides them and Haley.

-"You sure? Because, there aren't any customers and I could use some exciting high school gossip to break up my day." She smiled when she said this.

Even years later, Nathan couldn't have said what caused him to open up. But he did.

-"Well, Peyton and I broke up. It was mostly mutual"

Karen tried to mask her surprise, and sat down next to him. She wanted to ask what happened, but her gut told her that he would open up as much as he needed to. She nodded to show she was listening, and put her hand on his knee, to show her support. Nathan continued.

-"I started the breakup, but she finished it. I didn't think she would end it, but in the end, she didn't think we had any chance for the future….I guess she feels more comfortable talking to other guys."

Once Nathan started, it felt good to get this off his chest. However, he didn't mention Luke, not to Karen. And that was the hardest part for him to deal with. As Nathan trailed off, lost in thought, Karen surprised him.

-"Well, it's about time. I always thought you were too good for her. Let's celebrate the start of something new! How about a round of orange soda ice cream floats for the house?"

Before Nathan could object, Karen invited Haley over. The three of them drank their floats, talking about everything besides Peyton, until customers started trickling in. Karen and Haley had to work twice as hard, to make up for slacking off during the down time, but Nathan didn't know when he had felt better.

OTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTH

After Haley and Karen went back to work, Nathan contemplated going home. However, the thought was so unappealing that he texted his dad, stating he was at Karen's and asked if they were having dinner there. His dad responded, "Of course."

While customers whirled around him, Nathan decided to start his homework. As he grabbed his math book, the math test he got back fell out. The red F, seemed to scream, "Idiot" at him. He couldn't figure out what he did wrong. Seeing no solution, he just stared the test. In fact, he was staring so intently, that he didn't realize when Haley took her break, sitting directly across from him. He finally looked up when he heard, "I could tutor you if you want."

-"What?"

-"I'm a tutor, at the high school we both go to. I already took Algebra 2, and I can help you. Mr. Zimmerman doesn't always make things clear, but I do." She spoke slowly. It was as if she wanted him to realize his question was ridiculous.

However, Nathan thought she was kidding, so he went along with it.

-"Can you do History, English, and Chemistry too? 'Cause, I suck at all of them."

-"Sure, but we would probably need to meet daily. Can you meet before school?"

That's when Nathan realized Haley was serious.

-"Haley, you can't tutor me. Your Luke's best friend."

Haley's eyes scrunched up, and she tilted her head the right, showing she was confused. Nathan took the hint, and went on to explain,

-"Luke's in too much of my business. He doesn't need to know any more about me."

Haley thought this was stupid. Growing up in a big family, you get used to everyone knowing everything about you. It wasn't a big deal. Part of her wanted to tell him he was stupid, that he was welcome to find another tutor. But she felt a strange desire to help him. Her instincts screamed that if anyone needed her, it was him. So she decided to placate him.

-"Ok. We'll keep it a secret. In fact, let's meet at the dock. 7 am. You and I both know, he won't be out of the house that early."

After glancing at the F on his math test on final time, Nathan agreed.

OTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT HOTHOTHOTHOTH

It had been a slow day at Keith's shop. Lucas almost wished that they hadn't finished Peyton's car on Saturday, to give him something else to do. Since they were almost caught up on cars, Keith had his nephew doing a fall/spring cleaning. All the jobs that had been put off, because nobody wanted to do them. Luckily, Keith felt sorry for his Lucas and let him out of work an hour earlier than normal.

Lucas decided to head to the River Court and see if his boys were up for a game. On the way to the park, he stopped at the music store first. This may have been influenced by the Comet parked outside.

When he walked in, he saw Peyton with some brown haired girl. He was pretty sure that she was a cheerleader, but for the life of him, he couldn't think of her name. Both girls looked up, as he headed towards them. Smiling, he looked at Peyton.

-"I liked the Fallout Boy's album so much I came to pick it up. What are you looking for?"

As he glanced at Peyton, waiting for her to respond, he noticed that her eyes were read.

-"It's a good one. I'm just pursuing." Peyton couldn't quite meet his eyes.

-"Hey, what's wrong?"

The brown haired girl spoke up, before Peyton could answer. "We're just here for therapy. You know looking for a soundtrack after a breakup. Nathan's your brother, right? Didn't he tell you?"

Lucas didn't know that brown haired girl was fishing for information. She wanted to know what had happened between the brothers, since Lucas was somehow involved in this. However, in a moment it was obvious that Lucas was in the dark by stating:

-"Wait. Peyton, you and Nathan broke up? When? Why?"

The look in Peyton's eyes made it clear she didn't want to get into it. She kept her answer short.

-"We both realized that we want different things so we broke up after school."

Luke didn't know what to say. Obviously, Peyton was upset by this. A part of him, wanted to go and punch Nate, because he had hurt her. However, another part of him felt that she deserved better…well at least different. She didn't seem to fit with the dumb jock persona. Deciding to go with his first reaction, he asked, "Do you need me to go beat up my little brother for being stupid?"

Peyton smiled before stating, "No. It might have even been me that broke up with him."

The brown haired girl looked at Peyton confused, and opened her mouth to ask a question. Then she shut it, obviously realizing this wasn't the time or place. Lucas looked confused, not sure if he should pry into his brother's relationship. After a moment of silence, Peyton opened her mouth to talk.

-"Well…It was real great to see you, but Brooke and I need to…do something."

The comment that she hoped would get her out of the awkward situation, seemed to make it worse. However, Lucas saw this as his chance to fix whatever damage was done, probably by his brother.

-"Well, if you don't have plans, why don't you two come to my mom's diner? Tonight's special is lasagna, and she has the best in town."

Peyton, and the brown haired girl Broke looked at each other hesitantly. Finally, Brooke spoke up.

-"I don't think that going to your mom's café is going to help. I mean, isn't there a good chance Nathan would want to eat his mom's famous lasagna?"

Lucas looked at her confused, before realizing that she thought that he and Nate shared both parents. So, he clarified the situation.

-"No. Nathan's my half-brother. I'm with my mom this week. Nathan is actually grounded so I am positive that he won't make an appearance. Besides, you really don't want to do that moppy girl thing do you? Wouldn't it be more fun to go and eat a dinner on me? Or, if you want to vent, nobody if better equipped to understand stupid Nate moments."

Lucas felt a little like he was selling out his brother. Turning off the voice, he told himself that he was just treating Peyton like he would treat Haley, given the same situation. On that thought, he felt at peace when Peyton, after looking at Brooke, agreed.