Life is never simple or easy for that matter. Lucas Scott had found that at an early age: abandoned by his father, raised by his single working class mother, ignored by his step-brother – he had always been on the outside looking in at what could have been. During his junior year he was introduced to that world and as he was accepted into the fold of the populars, his life only got more complicated. Over his last two years of high school, he had dated and come between two best friends, suffered the death of his uncle whom he always considered more of a father than an anything else and had witnessed his own so called father's imprisonment for shooting his uncle. Complicated? That was only the beginning…Lucas frowned at his computer screen, over the past week he had once again experienced the anguish of writers block. "Damn it…" He slammed his laptop screen down out of frustration and let out a deep sigh.
"Knock, knock." Karen tapped gently at her son's bedroom door and peered in. "Hope I'm not interrupting." She said as Lucas turned to look at her.
Lucas shook his head, "I actually welcome the interruption." Lifting up his laptop from his lap, he placed it on the bed next to his body. "I haven't been able to write anything this week, I start to and then nothing –I can't find any inspiration..." Leaning back against his head board he let out a long sigh and stared up at the ceiling in despair.
Karen walked over to Lucas's bed and sat down in front of him, tilting her head slightly "Didn't you say you managed to write something last week?" Karen watched Lucas whose attention was still fixated on the ceiling nod his head. "Well has anything happened since then?" Karen smiled.
"No…not that I can think of." He had spent this past week doing everyday things; picking Lily up from school, having dinner with Haley, Nathan and James. His week had been very much uneventful compared to the previous week.
Karen nodded, "Well you managed to write something last week during all of the excitement and drama." She said referring to Brooke's engagement party, almost wedding and Peyton's coming back to town. "Possibly what's encouraging you to write is being back here in familiar surroundings or maybe and I'm thinking more than likely that it's being back within the presence of a certain someone that inspired you."
Lucas raised his brow at his mom and shook his head, "I don't know what you're talking about." Lucas spoke in denial, though he knew it was more than likely. Back when he had written his first novel, he had just experienced Keith's death and had broken up with Brooke – which is when Peyton came into the scene. She was always there for him, she had been a friend he could count on.
"Mm hmm" Karen murmured knowing full well that Lucas was playing dumb. "So you got any plans for the rest of the day?" She asked curiously, "'Cause you know the carnival is in town tonight – Ferris wheel, waltzers…could be fun."
Lucas shook his head, "I don't know…maybe." Lucas climbed off his bed and stood up, stretching his body. "You want me to pick Lily up from school?" He had dropped Lily off at the high school earlier in the morning for the basketball day camp Nathan was running throughout the summer.
"If you're offering!" Karen grinned and turned around, with Lucas's washing basket in her hands. "Maybe you could see if Peyton wants to go to the carnival." She said as she walked out of his bedroom, sticking her nose in and giving some advice which was a mother's right.
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Brooke walked out of Karen's café, following Peyton. Holding her take away vanilla latte in her hand she frowned as she looked down at her Abercrombie and Fitch pink flats, "I think I should have bought the blue." She looked up at Peyton and grinned, "Pink make my feet look fat!"
Peyton laughed, "You're feet aren't fat. And they don't look fat." Peyton rolled her eyes, why was it a girl's need to always comment and criticize her own appearance. Peyton had never really been like that – she had always been skinny and never thought of herself as fat or overweight. "Stop changing the subject," Peyton paused and took a sip of her coffee. "I thought you couldn't make it back to Tree Hill for another week, what happened?" Peyton had been spending the last week at Brooke's manor on the edge of Tree Hill. Though she was supposed to be on sabbatical from work, she had found herself travelling up and down the east coast this past week checking out various bands.
"The reason I couldn't hall ass back to Tree Hill sooner was because I had a bunch of meetings with retailers and other designers….not to mention I was trying to convince Mark to come back to Tree Hill to marry me." Brooke let out a deep sigh, allowing the words just to roll out of her mouth without even thinking about it. Peyton was her best friend and it wasn't like she wasn't used to opening up to people. "And you know what he said after a four days of making me wait, he said he sure because mommy dearest still wasn't well and that he was having second doubts about getting married at such a young age." Brooke shrugged it off as though it didn't matter to her.
"Then what?" Peyton asked, intrigued by Brooke's story. Brooke had been planning her wedding for the past six months; she had put so much thought and effort into the wedding that she felt so completely devastated for her best friend when the wedding didn't happen as planned.
"I told him that he had two choices; to marry me or not to. At the end of the day, I love him but if he's having second thoughts about being with me, it makes me have second thought about being with him. I want somebody to love me and want me for who I am, and have the guts to stand up to his mother, which apparently Mark can't or wait." Brooke lifted the cardboard cup to her mouth and took a sip of her latte. "So then I told Kacee, my business adviser that I was doing a P.Sawyer and taking a sabbatical from work and to only contact me in an emergency."
"You're taking a sabbatical from the company you own?" Peyton repeated, disbelievingly. It must be an easy life for Brooke – minus the guy drama, though Peyton has had her own fair share of that "…and what about Mark?"
"P.Sawyer, I may own the business but it doesn't mean I run it! Kacee runs the business from day to day – I just design and organise Clothes over Bros fashion week …" Brooke paused and continued "and as far I'm concerned, Mark will simply have to pull his finger out of his butt and come and find me." Brooke grinned looking across the street, seeing the blonde haired boy she had once called a boyfriend. "So…uh, how's Lucas these days? You still pretending you don't love each other?"
Peyton rolled her eyes, "We're friends Brooke okay, just friends!"
"Yeah, I'm sure!" Brooke spoke sarcastically with a grin planted on her face as she watched Lucas cross the street and walk towards them. Brooke turned and looked at her best friend, to watch her reaction; there had to be something there. As Peyton turned to look at Lucas, Brooke saw Peyton smile – not the usual, I'm okay Peyton Sawyer smile but a real smile which completely lit up her face. "Thought so…Hey broody" Brooke turned back and looked at Lucas.
"Hey Brooke…Peyton." Lucas nodded to both of the girls. "Haven't seen you around this week," He spoke to Peyton, his focus completely on her emerald coloured eyes.
"Yeah, I've been going up and down the coast doing some scouting." She said referring to her band scouting. She had been talked into doing a little bit of work during her so called time off. "My boss just can't take no for an answer." She said trying to stop an awkward pause from occurring. "So are you heading to the carnival tonight?" She asked keeping the conversation going,
"You should…we should all go together." Brooke interrupted before Lucas had a chance to answer. "You, Peyton, Me, Haley, Nathan, James, Skills, Mouth…we should make a night of it." If only to try to get you and Peyton to confess that you're both still madly in love with one another, she thought to herself.
"Yeah that would be-"
"Lucas!"
Lucas recognised that voice. He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, this wasn't going to be pretty. Turning around he watched as the tall blonde woman dressed in a pair of knee high black boots, a black skirt pin striped skirt and a white shirt approached the three of them. "Holly…what are you doing here?"
Holly grinned, "I fly over a thousand miles to see you and the first thing you ask me is what are you doing here?" She rolled her eyes, it was just like Lucas to be so well, unthoughtful. Taking a step closer to him, she planted a kiss on his lips which he pulled back from after a second – to make it more of an hello kiss rather than a girlfriend greeting her boyfriend. She turned and looked at the two girls, both of whom she recognised but she wasn't sure from where. "Hi I'm Holly…Lucas's editor and girlfriend."
Brooke's mouth dropped open out of surprise, "Oh…" Brooke turned and looked at Peyton and then back to Lucas. "Hi." Brooke closed her mouth and forced a smile on her face, Lucas had a girlfriend and here he was making I want you eyes at Peyton? Jerk. "I'm Brooke Davis." His girlfriend was pretty –obviously a Peyton knock off with the blonde hair and skinny legs. If Lucas was looking for a good replacement, then he had certainly found one. Brooke gathered by her lined-free face that she was probably twenty five, which made her a little impressed that she was already an editor.
"Oh my god – no way," Holly squealed, "I'm such a huge fan! I so loved your fall campaign, it rocked." Holly sounded like a teenager gushing over a movie star. She turned and looked at Peyton, tilting her head slightly. She recognised her too, "I recognise you – are you one of the models from the campaign?"
Peyton kept her attention on the new girl standing in front of her, trying her best not to look at Lucas – she knew that if she looked at him, her fake smile would fade and she wouldn't be able to hide her disappointment. Peyton laughed at Holly's comment "A model, uh noooo!" She extended the no to emphasise her answer, "I'm Peyton…" Peyton reached out her hand to greet the girlfriend
"Peyton." Holly repeated her name with a slight loathing in her voice, "Peyton?" Holly shook her head and turned to look at Lucas who was just watching the commotion take place. Holly crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Lucas, "Seriously, Lucas?" Holly shook her head, now she knew why Lucas left her in New York with barely a goodbye. The girl who had been holding a shadow over their year relationship was standing in front of her "What the hell is going on?"
Lucas turned and looked at Peyton apologetically and then back to Holly, "Can we not get into this here?" He asked quietly, getting more embarrassed by the second.
"Um, we should uh…" Awkward much! Peyton turned and looked at Brooke, grabbing a hold of her arm. "We're gonna go"
"What, why?" Brooke asked looking at her best friend, she wanted to watch the scene which was about to take place. The leggy blonde girl from New York giving Lucas a smack down was definitely going to be worth watching.
Peyton tugged at Brooke's arm and smiled at Holly, trying her best not to look as though she were enjoying the moment because she wasn't, far from it. "It was nice to meet you Holly." She lied as she pulled an unwillingly Brooke away from the scene.
Lucas watched as Peyton and Brooke walked away from them down the street, he turned and looked at Holly. He had been putting off this conversation for some time – well since the morning after they first met. "What are you doing here, Holls?" He thought it was a fair enough question, he had told her that he was going home to find his motivation to write, which he had kind of done and lost again.
"What are you doing, Luke?" Holly frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "You told me that you were going back to Tree Hill to get over your writers block, not to get back together with your ex girlfriend."
Lucas sighed, "It's not like that" Lucas paused, "I didn't know she would be here and we're just friends." He spoke trying to defend himself and not doing a very good or convincing job. "Besides, we agreed that we would take some time apart." After which he had hoped they would have both moved on and be in a peaceful place so that they could end things – mutually.
"Time yeah, not distance." Holly let out a deep sigh, "Just be straight with me Lucas, are we over?"
Holly had always been straight forward with him, no matter what the topic. If he hadn't been so hung up on the past and on Peyton, he probably could have loved her but it just wasn't the case. "Yeah…" He said dejectedly, he didn't like hurting people especially people who he generally cared about. "I'm sorry."
Holly nodded, "Okay." She said simply, it wasn't like she hadn't been expecting it. For the past few months Lucas had been completely missing in action from their relationship – when they went out to dinner, he was always staring into space thinking about who knows what.
"Are we okay?" Lucas asked hopeful.
"Well…" Holly clenched her fist and thrusted at his arm, not to make it hurt but just to make a point. "That's for being an ass…" Holly rolled her eyes, "You are so lucky that you're a good writer otherwise this break up would have been a whole lot worse!" She turned and linked arms with him, starting to walk down the street. "So here's the deal, get your writers block butt in gear and start writing and we'll be okay."
Lucas nodded and smiled, "I'll try to." So it wasn't exactly how he thought their break up was going to go, he had played it out so many times in his head and at each of his scenarios he had been smacked across the face several times and had in even one scenario had a glass thrown at his head. "I don't suppose you wanna come to a carnival tonight, do you?"
"You broke up with me two seconds ago and now you're asking me out on a date? Luke, you really are clueless." Holly joked and continued to walk, "I would love to come and watch you squirm…" which was definitely probable if she and Peyton were to meet again, the two exes, not exactly a guy's fantasy. "But I'm catching the red eye back home tonight, I just wanted to come and sort this out…us and I guess now that I have, I can go home and flirt with all the guys I want and not feel guilty about doing it"
Lucas laughed, "Did you feel guilty before?" He asked, she was a notorious flirt in New York, not that it really ever bothered him.
Holly laughed and clutched onto his arm, "No!"
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Brooke looked up to the ferris wheel and waved to her godson, James who was in one of the carriages with his father. "So Lucas didn't tell you he had a girlfriend?" Brooke asked turning to look at Haley who simply shook her head.
"No, I knew that he was casually seeing some girl but he never called her his girlfriend." Haley sighed, all of this drama reminded her of high school but unlike then – it seemed as though she and Nathan had gotten off easily. They hadn't had any real big issues for a couple of years, which also made her worry and think that perhaps they were due for something to happen. "So this girl, Holly…she just showed up out of the blue?"
Brooke nodded, "Yeah and let's just say she didn't look to happy to see Lucas pining away after Peyton." She grinned knowing it was wrong to be happy that the blonde guy she had once called her boyfriend, was still in love with her best friend. They were completely suited to one another, she didn't understand why the two of them just didn't get together. Okay, so there was history, big deal. It's history, in the past meaning that it shouldn't ruin your future. "Though she acted like my biggest fan which made me instantly like her." Anyone who worshipped her, was welcome to. "You'll probably get to meet her – she'll almost certainly be attached to Lucas's hip tonight."
"I don't think so." Lucas said approaching the two girls from behind, his best friend and Brooke were talking about him – what a shock. Over the past couple of weeks he had been hot topic of conversation in their little group. "We ended things…" He looked at Brooke who just raised her brow at him, unconvinced. "It was mutual, things hadn't been working for a long time and we both knew it was coming."
"Right, so why didn't you say…hey Peyton guess what, while I'm giving you puppy-dog-I-love-you-eyes, I'm actually banging my editor." Brooke spat back at him, as though she had just caught him cheating on her. Maybe she was just being a little too protective of Peyton and a little bitter at love, since Mark hadn't called her.
"Brooke!" Haley sighed, "That was a little harsh don't ya think?"
"But completely just." Brooke responded, "You and Peyton can pretend the two of you are just friends but you're not fooling anyone and she's over there" Brooke turned and looked over to Peyton who was standing at the basketball booth, trying to throw one of those red basketball through a hoop. Brooke watched as Lucas left her and Haley's side. "Can't they see that it's just meant to be?" Brooke let out a long deep sigh of frustration, why couldn't anything be simple?
Peyton lifted her arms in the air, holding the bar. Jumping slightly she through the ball at the hoop and watched as the ball bounced against the backboard and roll back down to the booth.
"You're not following through." Lucas spoke, watching her carefully. He took a couple of steps to stand by her side and picked up the basketball in his hands. "When you shoot, you wanna aim for the black line just above the net, extend your arm…" Which he did, "And throw" He threw the ball and watched as it went straight through the hoop.
"Yeah but I wasn't co captain of the ravens for two years." Peyton joked back and picked up the ball which had just gone through the hoop. "So where's your girlfriend and should I be watching my back" Peyton asked, jumping straight into the conversation. There was no point beating around the bush, it was time to go back to the Peyton attitude she had adopted over the past couple of years. The straight forward Peyton, "You know for possible daggers." She said referring to Holly's very forward dislike of Peyton.
Lucas laughed and shook his head, "Your back is safe." He picked up the ball and stared up at the basketball net. "And she's not my girlfriend." He said clarifying the situation. "We've been dating on and off for the past year, mostly off…and she came here to get some clarification."
"Lucas you don't need to-"
"I know." Lucas said interrupting her, "But I want to." Lucas smiled down at Peyton and gave her a quick once over. She was dressed in a blue denim skirt, white flats and a white shirt which was unbuttoned about half way showing the black thin strapped top she was wearing underneath. Licking his lips, he took a step behind Peyton and raised the ball over her head. "Grab the ball."
Peyton turned and faced the basketball net, and reached up grabbing the ball from Lucas's hand. "I can do it…" She threw the ball, her right hand following through knocking the ball further watching as bounced against the strong plastic basketball rim and then circle it slightly before dropping through the net. "See…" Peyton looked over her shoulder back at Lucas and grinned, "I can do anything I put my mind to."
"I know." Lucas without thinking, rested his hands gently on her hips as he stared into her eyes. After a moment he looked down at his hands and pulled them from her hips, sucking on his bottom lip. "Sorry."
"It's okay." Peyton grinned and turned her body to face Lucas. It felt good looking into those soft baby blues, which were so inviting. Earlier she had been jealous seeing him with that girl. She had definitely felt the green eyed monster rearing its ugly head, leaning up in her white flats she moved her face closer to his and closed her eyes. As she was about to kiss him she felt her body get knocked into. Looking down, she saw James wrapped around her legs. "Hey…" Her voice was a little shaky, had she just tried to kiss Lucas. "Have fun on the ferris wheel?"
James nodded, "Yeah but dad and mom are too scared to go on the Body Slammer. Will you come on with me?" He grinned up at pretty Peyton Sawyer. "Pleasseee!" He begged.
"You want me to go on the body slammer?" She looked over to the ride, which was little cars that seated two people, they were turning and going up and side down, going really fast. "Dangerous ride.." She looked down at James and grinned, "I'm your girl."
"Yesss!" James jumped up and down and grabbed Peyton's hand.
Peyton looked at Lucas and smiled gently, "The dangerous life calls."
Lucas nodded watching as Peyton walked away, being led by his nephew. He turned and watched as Haley walked up beside him. "Peyton almost kissed me." Lucas repeated those words in his head, he hadn't imagined it. Peyton had leaned in to kiss him and he was all ready to kiss her – he had been waiting to kiss her for five years. "Peyton almost kissed me." He repeated, letting it sink in. Friends? Thought not.