Chapter 7
Seriously this girl should learn how to lock her door. I mean what if an axe murderer came into her house, or worse, Dan. Wow, that would be scary. Anyways, I'm heading over to Peyton's this morning to make sure she looks good. Today is the day I come out, well technically it's the day we come out. But what ever. I walk up the stairs and I'm kind of curious as to why I don't hear music. I always hear her music. I love her music, because it's the exact same kind of music I listen to.
I peep inside of her room and it's as quiet as a grave yard, creepy. It's right about now I realize Peyton is still sleeping. Aw look at her all bundled up underneath the covers. Everything's covered, everything from the neck down that is. She looks like she's in a cocoon. I slide into the bed next to her just watching her, I wonder how long it's going to take her to wake up. Seconds later I see her eyes start to flutter open. Her eyes are barely open when I open my mouth to say something but I'm cut off by a loud shrill scream.
Peyton's screamed at the shock of someone else in her bed and seemingly rolled right off the edge. I watch in pure enjoyment as I see her body fall to the floor. I prop my self up on one elbow and look at her body tangled in the sheets, on the floor.
"good morning" I say cheerfully.
"I hate you" is all she can say. I get up off the bed and walk around to where she still lies. "really, I'm fine, don't bother to ask or anything"
"come on" I say ignoring her comment and offering her my hand to grab. She gets a hold of it and I pull her up.
"what are you doing in my bed at 6:59am?" she asks glancing at her alarm clock.
"waiting for you to wake up" Just then her alarm clock strikes 7:00am and starts ringing. Without even looking at the clock she stares at me and slams her fist down to turn it off, and then falls back onto her bed.
"oh no, no no. You're not going back to sleep now, we have to get you ready"
"me?" she complains. "Haley said that you have to look hot, not me"
"yes, but you and me, we're a couple, we have to look hot together." I say trying to pull her back up.
"If I break up with you can I go back to sleep?" She asks as I finally get her to stand.
"nope. Shower. Now" I say stripping her of her blankets and sending her into her bathroom.
20 minutes later she steps back out with wet hair and in small towel. I do a little cat-whistle and she rolls her eyes.
"now that you're finally done I was thinking this shirt, and these jeans oh and these shoes-"
"-I am not wearing heels to school" she objects.
"oh come on, everyone's doing it!"
"what are you? The typical teenager from a smoking commercial. I'm not wearing heels, they kill my feet!"
"fine wear your old, ugly sneakers" I say tossing them on the floor. "anyways, about accessories-"
"-I don't do accessories" she plainly says. I drop the necklaces I had in my hand back into her dresser.
"fine" I give in. "now about your hair…"
"what's wrong with my hair?"
"well I was thinking we could straighten it a little…" I say as I reach my hand out to touch her hair, but she grabs me by the wrist and stops any motion.
"the hair, does not change" This girl is picky.
"fine!" I throw my hands up in defeat. "wear your band T, and your tight jeans and your smelly converse and your hot leather jacket! I don't care!"
"great! That was the outfit I was going to wear today anyways" damn her and her jedi mind tricks.
"I hate you"
"ah, no you don't" she says back with a smirk. "you can't, I'm your girlfriend, the only one you got" Now I really hate her, I just can't say it out loud. "plus, you called my leather jacket hot" she says with a smirk. Did I say that? What ever. It's leather, leather is hot.
"can you just get dressed" I say looking at her as I take a seat on her bed.
"well… are you going to get out?" she asks hesitantly and I smirk.
"why, do you have body issues?"
"no, I love my body, thank you"
"great, than love your body all the way into those clothes because we're running out of time" I say. She sticks her tongue out at me and I stick mine back out at her.
"fine, just try not to get turned on and all…" she says jokingly.
"don't flatter yourself"
I see her walk over to her dresser and pull out some of her unmentionables. Which I never really understood the word, but now's not the time. Hot naked girl, 12 o'clock. She puts on her underwear underneath the towel and turns around so her back is facing me. She drops the towel and oh my god, she is a lot hotter than I thought. Where has she been hiding this body?
With her bare back and almost completely revealing ass, I am getting turned on. She puts on her bra and turns to me. I think she just said something.
"what?" maybe it'll actually go through my head the second time.
"I said, can you hand me my jeans?"
"oh" I say all flustered, I toss her the jeans and she puts them on, she grabs her shirt and pulls it over her head. She picks up her bag and throws her leather jacket around one shoulder.
"ready to go hot stuff?" she says putting one arm around my waist.
"you know it, sexy" I say back as we head out her bedroom door.
"oh my god Peyton, I can't do this" I say as we watch the student body enter through the front doors.
"what?! 10 minutes ago you were all for this."
"yeah, that was 10 minutes ago! A lot can change in 10 minutes!"
"apparently"
"okay, look how about we come out tomorrow?!" yeah that sounds like a better idea.
"no"
"what? Why not? I get to decide"
"Rachel, you know if you push it back a day, you're just going to keep pushing it further and further back, and eventually you're not going to get anywhere."
"how do you know that?"
"look, that's not important. What is important is that you do this for yourself" I let out a groan as I watch more and more students enter the building. It's just more and more people who will know my secret. "hey, hey hey" she coaxes me. "what happened to the confident girl who ruled the school?"
"ruled? I still do rule this school!"
"exactly! Where's that girl? Because right about now all I'm seeing is some scared little lesbian too afraid to tell her friends who she really is. I remember a time when you could walk up to the head cheerleaders and perform your little lap dance routine-"
"-that was not a lap dance routine!" I cut her off.
"what ever, but that girl… that girl wasn't afraid of anything. Where'd she go?"
Damn her and her jedi mind tricks.
"alright, let's get this over with" I say grabbing my bag and opening my door.
"aw, that's my girl" she says throwing one arm around me. "and don't worry, I'm sure with what we've got planned half the school is going to love us"
"oh, and why is that?"
"because half the school are guys" never really thought of it that way. We walk up to the doors and she grabs my hand. I take a deep breath and Peyton looks over at me.
"I'm here for you" she promises me and give my hand a small squeeze. And it's weird, because in that small squeeze I fell slightly better.
We open the doors and walk through the halls, hand in hand, conquering all, just like she said. We walk down the all and into the busiest area, still holding hands. People moving out of the way just so the both of us could walk side by side. We're getting the looks from everyone, the type of look that says 'what the hell are they doing?' and it's killing me. But not once does Peyton lessen her grip on my hand. I look over at her, and it's like nothing's bothering her. People think I'm confident and strong, but in reality, I'm nothing compared to this girl beside me.
We walk to the middle of the hall and we can see Nathan, Haley, Mouth and Lucas all smiling at us. They're actually pretty great people. All of our friends are supporting us, all of them but Brooke. She's beside Lucas, probably doubting that we're actually going to do this.
Peyton and I stop in the middle of everything and she turns and faces me. People in the hall actually stop to see what we're going to do. It's something about this moment that has an odd effect on me. All of a sudden I feel like a jolt of confidence is surging through my body. I look up into Peyton's green eyes and close mine. This is it.
Without another movement I feel Peyton's lips down on mine and with my eyes clothes it's like we're not in school. It's like we're just in front of Brooke, making her jealous.
I bring my hands to Peyton's head to hold her closer as she puts her hands on my waist. From around us all I hear are the cat calls and the gasps, and the whispering behind our backs. But it doesn't matter because this is who I am and I'm not changing for anyone.
I feel Peyton pull back and a little too soon for my liking, but I open my eyes anyways. We see our friends have spread themselves out amongst the hall way just as planned.
And just like we asked, Nathan starts the slow clap from behind someone's back, so no one knows who it is. Soon Lucas, Haley and Mouth all slowly join in. Within seconds more people are joining and then it seems everyone is clapping all around us. I thank god that I have such a smart pretend girlfriend.
I glance over at Brooke who is barely clapping, but still looking at us. I glance over at Lucas who sees Brooke and immediately has a frown on his face. Before anything else could happen the bell rings and students start to disappear into their classrooms. We give our friends a quick hug and we all head to our period 1 class. Peyton, Brooke, Mouth and I all have the same class so I thought we would walk together.
"you guys coming?" Mouth asks. I look back and see Lucas talking to Brooke around the corner.
"um, I'll catch up with you guys in a minute" I say and Peyton and Mouth head on into the class room. I walk to the corner, but stay behind it so that Lucas and Brooke don't see me. Everyone else has gone to their class and the halls are empty. I stop moving so I can hear what they're saying.
"Brooke, are you okay?"
"fine" she replies in a not-so-fine tone.
"then what's going on with you? It's like you don't even care about Rachel and Peyton."
"I do…"
"really cause you could have fooled me" he says as he starts to get angry. "look, Brooke I don't know what problem you have with them, but you better get over it. They are your friends and they need as much support as they can get!"
"well what if I don't want to support them?" she snaps back.
"are you serious? You don't support them?!"
"I don't know" she says through gritted teeth.
"Brooke, I grew up without a complete family. So I relied on my friends a lot. My friends are one of the most important things to me and I will not turn my back on them. But if you can't support them for who they are, I don't think I can be with you…" oh my freakin' god! Is he breaking up with her?!
"what?" she whispers.
"either learn to accept our friends for who they are, or learn to accept being single" he says and walks off. I feel kind of bad for Lucas, because it's obvious he really does love Brooke, but he has priorities. The worst thing about this is that he doesn't even know the real reason why Brooke isn't happy. It's not that she's homophobic or something it's just it's her best friend and me who are getting together. I quickly run towards my class, knowing Brooke was coming too. I enter the class room and walk to my seat, I know I'm late.
"Ms. Gattina, you're late"
"I know, sorry!" I say taking my seat beside Peyton. Aw look, Mouth and Peyton switched seats for me.
"don't let it happen again" just then Brooke walks in. "Ms. Davis" he says less than enthralled.
"I know, I'm late, I'm sorry, it won't happen again" she says in a not so happy mood. But then again, she's on the brink of losing her boyfriend so I wouldn't be too happy if I were her either. She sits down next to Mouth, barely noticing it's him and not Peyton.
I stare at Brooke intently and Peyton must have noticed because she just nudged me.
"are you okay?"
"yeah. Actually I'm better than okay" I whisper. "Brooke and Lucas almost broke up in the hall way."
"what?"
"yeah, Lucas said, if Brooke couldn't support his friends he couldn't be with her"
"whoa"
"yeah" I nod.
"so what did Brooke say?"
"nothing, he just kind of left after that. So what do we do now? Because I think now is probably our best time to strike"
"uh, yeah… right. We'll ask Haley at lunch" I couldn't help but notice the hint of sadness in her voice. I don't even know why she's sad. I mean if Brooke and Lucas are about to break up, it's good for her. I mean once Brooke's free, he is too. It's a win-win situation.
"okay"
It's lunch time and Peyton and I are sitting at a lunch table outside, waiting for Nathan and Haley to show up. I'm sitting with my back to her side as she has one arm wrapped around me, the other arm feeding me a French fry every so often.
"you know, I could get use to this whole pretend girlfriend thing" I say as I eat another French fry from her hands.
"I bet you could"
"oh, here comes Nathan and Haley" they take a seat in front of us, of course smiling.
"look at you two go" Nathan comments. We just smile and Peyton feeds me again.
"so listen, we have a situation on our hands" I say sitting up properly.
"uh oh" Haley says jokingly.
"ha ha" I reply. "okay, so earlier I over heard-"
"-eavesdropped" Peyton coughed out.
"shut up, emo barbie" I say making Nathan and Haley laugh. "as I was saying, I over heard Lucas and Brooke talking in the hallway after our little pubic display of affection, and Lucas was getting all mad at Brooke because she wasn't happy with us, and he threatened to break up with her if she doesn't support us more"
"really?" Haley asks, glancing towards Peyton, who seems to be more interested in fries than the conversation.
"yeah, totally…" I say trying to peel my eyes off of Peyton. "so what should I do?"
"um…uh…" Haley seems to be at a loss for words. But she's staring at Peyton.
"am I missing something?" I ask out loud.
"no!" Haley and Peyton reply at the same time. I look at Nathan to see if he knows anything but he just shrugs his shoulders at me.
"so then what should I do?"
"um… I don't know" Haley replies.
"what do you mean, you don't know? You're full of these brilliant ideas and now you just conveniently run out? What's going on?"
"nothing…" Haley says quietly, not looking up at any of us. "look, I have one last thing, but after that I'm done"
"alright, tell me…" I guess I could understand why Haley doesn't want to help anymore, I mean Lucas is her best friend and all.
"okay, so here's the plan… you get Brooke alone some time before school ends like in the bathroom or something…"
"uh huh…"
"talk to her a bit, maybe do a little flirting and if she tries to kiss you…"
"yeah…?"
"um, let her kiss you, but tell her you want to be in a relationship with her."
"and what if she doesn't want to be in a relationship with me?"
"then I give up. If she doesn't want to be in a relationship, that's it. I don't know what else you could do" Haley says slightly aggravated.
"okay well then I better make it a damn good conversation." I say jokingly. I look over to Peyton, and she still has her head down.
"hey, are you okay?" I ask nudging her a little. She comes up with a small smile.
"yeah, I'm fine. But uh, I think you better get going. Brooke's heading off to the bathroom" she says nodding her head in the direction of the brunette entering the school.
"ooh, wish me luck!" I say getting off of the table and jogging to the doors.
I hear a faint "good luck" from Peyton, but I don't bother to turn around. I run into the school and see Brooke just enter the girls bathroom. I walk in right after her and see her fixing her make up in the mirror. She sees me in the mirror and stops.
"hi" I say quietly.
"hey" she says unemotionally. "so you and Peyton are really going pretty far with this thing, huh?"
"yeah, she's a great girlfriend" I say, but I hear Brooke scoff.
"oh please, I know about you two" oh shit. Shit, shit, shit.
"what?" that's right, play dumb, Rachel.
"you and Peyton - trying to make me jealous. It's kind of obvious"
"who told you? Was it Nathan? Because if it was I'm going to-"
"-it wasn't Nathan. I kind of figured it out on my own. I mean its not that hard to see. You confess your love for me, then later that night you have a new girlfriend. Let alone Peyton"
"that obvious huh?" I say leaning against the wall.
"oh yeah."
"so what does that mean?"
"what does what mean?"
"well I've spent the passed 4 days trying to win you back, has it worked?"
"what about Peyton?"
"what about her? I mean she's been a great pretend girlfriend, and a great friend to me, but you're still the one I want."
"oh wow" what? What now? "you don't see it do you?"
"see what?" I see Brooke let out a little laugh.
"the looks, the small glances, the delicate touching? You don't see it?"
"what are you talking about Brooke?"
"I'm talking about Peyton"
"what about her?"
"Are you really that dense?! Peyton is in love with you!"
"what? That's crazy" she couldn't be… could she?
"is it really? Why would she agree to be your girlfriend then?"
"because if I was with you, she could be with Lucas" I say. This time Brooke let's out a louder laugh.
"yeah, that's why she admitted to the whole school that she was gay"
"she was just trying to help me" I try to rationalize.
"Rachel, if Peyton wanted to be with Lucas she wouldn't have said she was gay…"
I take a second to step back and realize what just happened. Does Peyton really like me? I mean I thought it was all for show, I didn't think she would actually fall for me.
"but then why would she help me be with you?"
"because it meant that she got to play your girlfriend for a little while. Probably hoping it would turn into more."
"… b-but what about you?"
"what about me?"
"after all this time do you still love Lucas?"
"Rachel, look you have to understand Lucas and I will always be Lucas and I. Rachel, I could have loved you, but what we were doing wasn't serious, it was just playing around and it was great, it was, but it's nothing like what Lucas and I have, and it's nothing like what you and Peyton have."
"but, I don't-"
"I know. So now you see what it's like to be on the other side"
"the other side of what?" I ask.
"someone loves you, but you don't love them back" she's right. I'm just like her. "but Rachel, don't screw it up. I've seen you and Peyton together. You two work. You both have terrible taste in music, you are so much alike, and she's one of the few people who hate you"
"oh, thanks" I say sarcastically.
"look, Rachel, don't let me hold you back. What we had was nice, but what you two have is real" Brooke says heading towards the door.
"so we never had a chance?" I ask, right before she leaves.
"not even a little bit" she says with a smirk and exits the bathroom. So then, what do I do now?
Alright, guys I hope you're liking the story so far. But only one chapter left.