A/N: This chapter took forever to write which is why it took a little longer to update. Sorry! Thanks to Petra whose reviews keep me going. Just a little heads up, the title of this chapter says it all. We're skipping some time for this one. Hope you all like it. :)
Chapter Seven
Summer is Over…
Savannah POV
I never liked the feeling of waking up suddenly. You know that feeling of being surprised and groggy all at the same time? I've always hated that. Which was why being woken up very slowly by kisses was so much more my style. Lucas knew that. Lucas knew exactly how to wake me up.
"You're slobbering on my face." I mumbled jokingly against Lucas's lips as he kissed me in the morning light. It couldn't be later than nine o'clock and on normal days, waking me up this early would not be acceptable. Today however, he knew it would be.
"It's 8:45. Are you going to the airport with me or are we meeting up later?"
"We're gonna have to meet up later. I promised Peyton I'd go school clothes shopping with her."
Lucas sat back and I had to squint to focus my sleepy eyes. He was frowning.
"You promised Peyton or Peyton promised you? Last I checked you were more of a shopper than she was."
He knew me too well. Three months of dating and he knew me way too well.
"Ok, ok. Peyton promised me that we could go school clothes shopping and I had to make it today because my family will be here starting tomorrow. I thought that maybe we could meet up for dinner tonight. I'll cook and you can bring your mom here."
I knew I was going to have to meet Karen eventually. She was only going to stay in New Zealand for so long and even though we had planned on visiting her there, it had never happened because the summer had been so busy. Today she came home and I was finally going to meet my new boyfriend's mother.
"I will bring my mother over for dinner." Lucas easily agreed, "But please don't cook. I've tasted your food and well…"
I kicked at him through the covers and he jumped off the bed laughing.
"Whatever, I'll see you at 8."
I was pouting and I knew that he couldn't resist my pout. It had worked every time I wanted to get my way since we had started dating.
"See you at 8." He leaned over and kissed me one more time, slowly and sensually, making me want to pull him into the bed instead of let him go to the airport. Unfortunately, he was probably already late and I knew he had to go.
"Call me later." I called out to him as he headed out of the room.
He waved and then was gone, leaving me to my thoughts.
The day was going to be long. That was the one thing I knew for sure. Not only was dinner imminent but I had a lot of shopping to do before tomorrow, when my parents and all seven of my siblings would be arriving.
"Peyton!" I yelled as I slammed her front door only an hour later. At 9:45 am, I would have killed me, but Peyton padded out of the kitchen and waved lazily, "Wow, you're up."
"I knew you'd be here at the crack of dawn. Thought I'd get a early start before I had to deal with you."
"Hey, that is not nice." I insisted following her to her room where she fell onto her bed face first, "First Lucas tells me I can't cook and now you have to 'deal' with me?"
Peyton began to laugh, turning over to lay on her back so that she could see me.
"Did he go to the airport to pick up his mom already?" She asked.
"Yeah. Woke me up an hour ago." I fell onto the bed next to her and we stared at the ceiling together, "Is she nice?"
"Karen?" Peyton was grinning, "Yes. Karen is like the nicest person in the world. You'll love her."
"I have no doubt I'll love her. The question is, will she love me? And how am I going to keep her away from my family." I covered my face and groaned, "Both parents and all seven siblings. Why me?"
"I thought you said that you would never consider your mother's other kids as siblings?"
"Well what else am I supposed to call them? The whore's kids? Technically, they are my siblings and besides, Lucas told me that I wasn't allowed to hate them until I had at least met them."
"Leave it to Lucas." Peyton just laughed again and then stood up, "So, Xander's coming too then?"
I rolled my eyes and forced myself to sit up.
"Yes. Xander's coming too. All I've heard every single time I've talked to him since the last time he was here is 'How's your friend Peyton?' and 'So… how is Peyton doing?'. Frankly, I'm glad he'll finally be able to ask you how you're doing instead of asking me."
She was grinning from ear to ear, something I was pretty sure I had never seen her do. I was just going to have to deal with the fact that Peyton may be dating my brother soon because it seemed that in the three months since the first time they'd met, the attraction was not fading.
"So what kind of shopping are we doing today? Clothing? Accessories? Groceries?"
"Probably a bit of all." I hear myself sigh while Peyton dug through her drawers to find something to wear, "I need clothing for sure. Accessories go with clothing and there's definitely no food in the house. So yeah…"
"Ok. We can handle that. Nothing can ruin my mood. Not even shopping with you."
I glared at her while she smiled at me goofily.
"Cheer up. Just because you have to spend one week with your parents and siblings doesn't mean that everything will not be ok. You have me, and you have Lucas, and all your friends here. If it gets really bad you can always come stay here, but only if you bring Xander with you, and we'll just party every night until school starts. We can handle it." Peyton sat next to me and hugged me tightly, "Let's shop."
Retail therapy was my therapy of choice so maybe I would cheer up during the shopping trip. It was all I could hope for as we set out towards the mall grabbing breakfast from Deb at the café on the way. It wasn't until I actually saw her that I remembered Nate should be coming home soon. That brightened my day a little. I missed him, even though I barely knew him. I felt like we had connected during the day that we did know each other. Boy was he in for a surprise when he got home. So much had changed over the summer. Even Haley, who finally seemed to be warming up to me.
"So what exactly is Xander's job in Spain?" Peyton asked me after we had been shopping for awhile, "He never told me. He just said he was taking over the family business."
Oh boy, this could be a problem.
"It's complicated." I couldn't bullshit the answer much more than that, "My Abuelo died and he took his place. It's just… stuff. Really, he could probably explain it better than I can."
Luckily for me, Peyton accepted that answer leaving me to think about how Xander would explain it all to her if he really wanted to be with her. I was pretty sure she wasn't going to accept it quite as easily as she had accepted my answer which was the only thing I could think of that would keep them apart. From the way Xander talked to me about her, I was pretty sure he was already in love with her. I knew more about her from him then I did from her own mouth which was weird considering they had only spent one short dinner together. He talked about her constantly and was always interested in what she'd been doing lately. I had never seen him act this way before.
"Oh my God, Brooke's back."
The words Peyton said didn't register in my head until she was enveloped in a hurricane of brunette limbs being thrown at her seconds later. Then I realized what she had said and my heart dropped. This was the girl that Lucas had been in love with before I moved here.
"P. Sawyer you are looking absolutely gorgeous. Look at you all tan and skinny. I am so jealous." Brooke made Peyton twirl in front of her to get a good look and then squealed, "I'm so happy to be home. I saw Lucas at the airport and oh my god, he's hotter than ever. Who are you?"
She turned to me just as quickly as she had shown up and waited for me to answer her quick question. It took me a second to realize she was talking to me as I was still hearing her comments about Lucas in my head.
"Um… Savannah Carter. I moved here at the beginning of the summer."
"Yeah? From where?"
"Los Angeles."
"Hey, I just moved back from California. We have something in common. I'm Brooke." She held out her hand for me to shake and I did, "So do you like it here? You've obviously made friends. Isn't Peyton the best? Just be careful letting her around your boyfriend. Speaking of Lucas, Peyton, did he tell you what he said to me before I left?"
With every word this girl spoke, I wanted to crawl deeper and deeper into a whole. She was clearly in love with Lucas and I knew he had been in love with her at the beginning of the summer. We had talked about it before we decided that being together could work anyway. But now that Brooke had returned, could I hold a candle to her?
"So I told him when I saw him at the airport that he couldn't just ambush me looking as good as he did with pretty flowers considering how we left things three months ago and then of course, he wasn't there to see me, he was picking up Karen, but Peyt, I think this could work. He looked amazing and sure, there are still some trust issues but… I couldn't stop thinking about him all summer. All I wanted to do was get back home and tell him that I loved him too."
"So why didn't you call Brooke?" Peyton glanced at me with an uncomfortable grimace, "We haven't heard from you all summer except for you to call me yesterday and tell me you were going to be here tomorrow and now here you are today."
"I've been really busy. I did miss you though which is why I got my parents to get me an earlier flight so I got in today instead. I dropped my stuff off at your house by the way. Is it cool if I crash there until I find a place of my own? I figured since we're best friends…"
"It's fine." Peyton replied hastily, "Wow… I can't believe you're home."
Brooke squealed happily throwing one arm around Peyton and then hugging me to her other side.
"You, best friend, have so much to tell me. How was your summer? And Savannah, I think we're gonna be really good friends. Have you met Lucas? He's gorgeous right?"
I didn't even have time to reply before my phone started ringing. Without even taking it out of my purse I knew it was Lucas.
"Speak of the devil." I forced myself to laugh but even I could hear the nervousness in my voice as I pulled the phone out and up to my ear, "Hey Luke."
I saw confusion spread across Brooke's face and I took that moment to walk away from her and Peyton, hoping that Peyton could maybe break the news to Brooke that the guy she loved and thought loved her had moved on. I hoped he had moved on anyway.
"Hey gorgeous, where are you?"
"I am at the mall with Peyton and Brooke."
The other end of the line got quiet.
"I think we have a lot to talk about Luke. Brooke is… there just aren't words right now. She ambushed us at the mall and started going on and on about how she saw you at the airport and how hot you looked and… needless to say, I think Peyton is telling her right now that I'm your new girlfriend and I might not make it out of this mall alive judging from the glares I'm getting. Why didn't you tell me you told her you loved her before she left?"
I heard Lucas groan but he didn't respond with any sort of answer. If I could have strangled him I would have, but the more current threat was to my life as Brooke and Peyton, only 50 feet away, began a visually heated discussion.
"I can't really talk about this right now Savannah." Lucas finally spoke, "Can we talk tonight?"
"When? At dinner with your mother? That's a good idea Luke. We'll just talk about this over dinner with your mom the very first time she meets me." Sarcasm was dripping from every word. I knew it and so did he.
"Come meet me now then. My mom's gonna go to the café and check up on everything there. We'll have about an hour and then…"
Before he could finish his sentence my call waiting interrupted him and I sighed, looking at the caller ID and seeing that it was Xander.
"Hold that thought. Xander's calling on the other line."
Fifty feet away Brooke and Peyton were still talking with great hand gestures and movement. I could feel the drama surrounding me already.
"Hey Xander." I answered the other line as cheerfully as I could.
"Hi little sister. How are you?"
"I've been better." I said honestly, "How are you?"
"Doing good. Um… you've been better? Maybe I'm calling at a bad time." In the background I could hear young children screaming and mentally I cringed.
"No, it's fine. What's up?"
"We're in town."
I wasn't expecting that.
"You're what? What do you mean in town? I thought you weren't coming in until tomorrow."
"We weren't but dad hates Spain, you know that. Mariah was getting restless too and since we were flying the jet and not on a commercial airliner, well, we just figured that we could get here a day early and give them something new to do instead of just lounging in the compound in Spain for another day." I could hear the tension in Xander's voice. He was waiting for me to explode.
"Well, perfect timing. You showed up on the same day that my boyfriend's mother and ex-girlfriend who he told he loved before she left for the summer came back." I replied with a sigh, "Let's add my psycho family to the mix. Are you at the house?"
"Yeah."
Taking a little bit of time to digest it all, I nodded and relaxed a little when Peyton and Brooke finally stopped discussing whatever they had been discussing. They were now approaching me.
"Ok Xander, here's the thing. Lucas was supposed to bring his mom over for dinner. He's still on the other line. I'm gonna switch over and tell him that we aren't gonna be able to do dinner. You're gonna tell me that everything's gonna be ok and I'll believe you. Then Peyton and I, maybe Brooke, will be over in a little bit and hopefully I'll still have my sanity at the end of the day."
"How about this? You tell Lucas that dinner is still on and he can meet your parents too. Everything is going to be ok and you do believe me on that one. You bring Peyton and whoever this Brooke chick is over soon. Mariah will start cooking dinner and we can all relax and keep our sanity."
"Only because I love you and know that you wouldn't lie to me, I'll go with your plan and trust that it will all be ok. If those kids that I hear in the background break anything in my house I'll kill them when I get there. We'll be home soon."
"Love you."
I growled a response and then hung up on him, switching back over to Lucas.
"Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"There's been a slight change of plans. My family came into town today." As I explained the situation to him I saw Peyton's eyes light up and a smile take over her features, "My sister can cook. We'll still have dinner at the house. You can meet my parents. I'll meet your mom. Things will be fine."
He was hesitating in responding which gave me time to mouth a question to Brooke and Peyton. 'Is everything ok?' Brooke shrugged which gave me no clue as to how she was feeling or what she was thinking. I didn't want her to hate me just because I had started dating Lucas over the summer. She seemed really nice.
"Ok, I need to run everything by my mom but she shouldn't have a problem with it." Lucas finally replied, "We'll see you for dinner at 8?"
"I'll be there."
We said our good-byes and then I hung up the phone, sighing loudly.
"I am so sorry about all that." I began apologizing immediately.
"It's ok. I…" Brooke looked unsure of what to say to me, "I shouldn't have just gone on and on about Lucas like that. I had no clue that you're his girlfriend and… I mean you have every right to date him and he had every right to move on during the summer. I didn't call so… How was he supposed to know right?"
"If he had Brooke, I'm sure he wouldn't have…" I considered what I was saying very carefully before I spoke. If he had known then he wouldn't have fallen for me? Perfect. Makes our relationship sound really great. I cursed myself for even thinking it. I couldn't finish the sentence.
After a few seconds of silence, Peyton finally said something to break the weird tension hanging over the three of us.
"So Xander's here?"
I began to laugh while I nodded.
"Xander brought the clan in early. They're all at the house and I just agreed to bringing you two over with me. He claims we can relax and stay sane but… well, you haven't met my family so that's probably not going to happen. Feel free to back out if you don't want to deal with them."
I knew before Peyton said a word that she wouldn't back out. The plan included her seeing Xander. She was going to take part. Brooke was still a grey area for me though. I wasn't sure how she was feeling about all she had learned in this short period of time or how she would react to it all.
"I'm in." Peyton said simply.
Brooke looked back and forth between Peyton and I and then nodded.
"Yeah. Might as well. I have nothing better to do."
I grinned at both of them and turned around, linking my arms through theirs, one for each girl.
"This is all going to be ok. Xander said so and I believe him."
When I opened the front door of my house, nearly colliding with two screaming children who ran by at the exact same moment, I began to doubt Xander and his logic. What was I thinking bringing my boyfriend and his mother into this insanity? I didn't even want to be here, why would they?
"I think I'm gonna just call Luke and cancel. This isn't gonna work." I said immediately, not even ten feet inside the door.
"Yes it is." Peyton assured me, taking my hand and dragging me further into the house, "Let's find Xander."
We took a few cautious steps into the house, Brooke closing the door behind us.
"Nice house." She commented, looking around.
"Mamá!" One of the little brats running by screamed. I had the urge to reach out and grab him by his ear before he could go any farther but I resisted, just barely.
My mother's voice screeched through the house only moments later and I cringed. God forbid she actually get up off her ass to check on why the brat was screaming.
"Ruben, viene aquí si usted necesita hablar conmigo!"
"I feel like I just stepped into a foreign language film. Where are the subtitles?" Brooke mumbled.
I had to laugh. The girl had a funny outlook on it but it did occur to me that neither Brooke or Peyton were going to understand what was being said. For that matter, neither were Lucas and Karen.
"She told Ruben to go to wherever the hell she is if he wanted to speak with her." I translated for Brooke, "Quick, let's find Xander before the brat tells my mother we're here."
"There's my gorgeous daughter." My father was to our left before we could head in any other direction, his arms outstretched to me, "You look great baby. I knew you'd like it here."
"Yeah daddy." I hugged him and mentally groaned, "Um, these are my friends Peyton and Brooke. Actually, Brooke and I just met about an hour ago, but she's cool. Peyton, Brooke… this is my dad Deacon."
"Nice to meet you." Peyton shook his hand and smiled graciously.
Brooke did the same.
"Where's Xander?" I asked my dad before he could go any further into a conversation I didn't want to have.
"I think he went upstairs to hang art. He said he had presents for you."
That made my day all better.
"EEK!" I squealed and headed for the stairs, "New paintings!"
I made it to my room in record time, narrowly avoiding running into a teenage girl standing in the hallway. I dodged her and continued on my way.
"Tell me that you have new paintings for me."
Xander turned around from where he was admiring his handiwork on the wall and grinned, opening his arms for me as I jumped into them.
"I do. What do you think?"
He set me back down and I turned to see the two new paintings.
"Wow. Tell me that you didn't try that before you painted it. I think that requires some sort of dislocation…" I had to cock my head to the side to try and figure out exactly whose body parts were whose in the painting, "Ouch."
Xander just laughed.
"That is hot." Brooke commented as she and Peyton entered the room moments later, "Oh my god, these are all hot. You are one sick bitch. Hanging paintings of sexual positions on your wall? I wish I had thought of it first. Goodness…"
She admired each painting individually but the artist, my brother who was standing beside me, didn't notice a word she said. His eyes were locked with Peyton's and he was smiling from ear to ear. I could feel the sexual tension building already and this was only the second time they'd met. I had a feeling this was going to be dangerous to their health.
"Ok…" I moved over to where Brooke was standing so as not to get in the way when Xander and Peyton finally reached each other and hugged, "I think my brother and your best friend just made records in how fast two people can hook up."
Brooke looked over her shoulder and saw the two of them whispering to each other. She smiled.
"Peyton deserves to be happy and if she can find that with your brother, then I'm all for it. Especially when the boy does work like this." She was still admiring the paintings, "You think he actually knows how to do all this?"
"I'd rather not think about it."
She laughed and then we both turned to watch Peyton and Xander who seemed to forget that either one of us were in the room.
"Is it weird to you though? I mean, this is the second time they've ever met. They didn't talk on the phone during the summer as far as I know so this is basically only the second time they've ever had contact and they've forgotten we exist." I watched in amazement.
"Peyton's a very passionate person." Brooke said simply.
"So is Xander."
She shrugged.
"Or maybe they're just horny."
At that comment the two began to laugh, turning and looking at Brooke and I who were very amused.
"How about you go meet your new siblings and leave us alone huh?" Xander suggested to me.
"Eww, no. I am not leaving you two horny ass people in my room to have sex on my bed. No way. If I leave this room, you do too."
"We're not gonna have sex." Peyton assured me, "We're just talking."
"Then go 'just talk' in his room."
"Yeah, about the rooms…" Xander sighed, "We don't have enough room for everyone and we weren't sure what you would want the sleeping arrangements to be. So… what do you want us to do?"
"Send mom and her brats to sleep outside." I mumbled. Brooke giggled beside me.
"Savannah…" Xander warned.
"Yeah, yeah. Ok, um… I don't know. I guess I get my room, you get yours. Mariah can have the third room. Mom and Dad can share the fourth and the brats get the fifth. That's the best I can do."
"Well, actually…" Peyton looked directly into Xander's eyes and spoke, "There's extra room at my house. If someone needs to stay there…"
"As in you can bring your fine ass over there and stay in her bed." Brooke finished Peyton's sentence for her with a laugh, "I'll be there too but Peyton and I have a strict no sharing boyfriends policy now. Right Peyt?"
Peyton was in hysterics, laughing so hard that she had fallen from the bed to the floor.
"That's so dirty." I laughed too, "That would work though Xan. Then we can put the brat girls in one room and the brat boys in your room."
Xander was just shaking his head as the three of us made him laugh.
"Alright, we can do that." He agreed, looking down to the floor where Peyton was still laughing, "As long as you're sure."
Peyton just nodded, unable to speak.
"Then it's settled. Someone break it to mom. I'm gonna stand here and ponder my new wall art." I turned back to my painting and grinned. That one might be fun to try with Lucas as soon as my parents were out of the house.
"No, come on. I'll go with you for support but you have to come meet the kids and I promise, they're not as bad as you think they are."
Xander stood grabbing my arm and pulling me from the room while I objected loudly.
"They're running around my house and screaming at the top of their lungs and I really really…" We reached the bottom of the stairs where one of the kids was sitting, grinning up at us. I couldn't finish my sentence. She was the cutest little thing I had ever seen in my life, "Oh my God, she is so cute."
I didn't even hesitate in picking her up and cuddling her in my arms.
"That is Isabel. She's three and yes, she is very cute." Xander was smiling at me with a grin that had I told you so written all over it.
"Isabel." The little girl just smiled up at me, still not saying a word, "¿Cuántos años tiene?"
She held up three fingers to represent how old she was.
"I wanna squeeze her. Can I keep her?" Still holding her I headed into the living room where I suspected the rest of my family was hiding, "Daddy, isn't she cute?"
My dad looked up at me and laughed.
"She does have a way of growing on you. Wait until she talks to you. She sounds even cuter than she looks."
"Yeah?" I had to try it out so I asked her to say my name, "Savannah."
"'Abannah." She couldn't pronounce the S or the Vwhich only made it that much cuter.
"Oy." I hugged her tight and turned to the kids that I now noticed were sitting on the couch with my dad, "Hola, soy Savannah. ¿Usted es?"
I heard Xander behind me translating everything that I said to Peyton and Brooke as I said it. I had just asked the kids who they were even though I knew. Really I guess I just needed to know their names.
The oldest boy stood up and held out his hand for me to shake.
"Soy Orlando." He smiled at me and I had to admit that they all seemed nice enough so I smiled back.
"Soy Savannah."
The oldest girl followed her brother's lead and shook my hand next smiling a little. She seemed shy but not unfriendly.
"Soy Bianca."
Directly behind her, ready to meet me was a rather cute little boy, one of the ones who had been very uncut a little while ago, running around the house and screaming.
"Soy Domingo. Tengo seis años. Usted es muy bonita." He did a little bow and then went running away, jumping into Bianca's arms and burying his head, apparently embarrassed as he had just told me that I was very pretty.
"Aww, you're so cute." I had to gush over him, turning to Peyton and Brooke, "He told me he's 6 years old and that I'm very pretty."
"Aww!" They both gushed with me. Xander rolled his eyes.
"We're missing a kid though aren't we?"
Somewhere in being introduced to three of them, one had disappeared and I wasn't sure where he had gone.
"Ruben." Xander groaned, "He's… a bit of a brat. He probably went to find mom."
"Oh well, I'll just stick with this one." I squeezed Isabel who was still in my arms and she giggled loudly, "Ah, usted es tan mono."
"Yes." Xander agreed, "She is cute. Dad? We found a solution to the bedroom situation. It does require you sharing a room with our mother though. Think you can handle it?"
Our dad laughed and nodded.
"I've been able to handle it for 25 years. I think I can handle it for a few more nights."
"If she gets too crazy you can just toss her out the window." I added, further making my dad laugh but in a way where he looked like he wanted to scold me at the same time.
"I heard that." My mother joined us with her fifth and final kid, Ruben, right beside her, "I don't see where it's a laughing matter."
My dad immediately stopped laughing, clearly biting his lip so as not to continue.
"What's your so called solution?" My mom asked Xander, eyeing Peyton and Brooke who she hadn't been introduced to yet.
"I am going to go to Peyton's house and stay there. This is Peyton by the way and her friend Brooke. This is our mother, Veronica. Anyway, then there's enough rooms for everyone. You'll have to share with dad. You can put Orlando, Ruben, and Domingo in my room. Bianca and Isabel in the extra room. Mariah gets her own room. Savannah in hers."
My mother didn't look pleased with our "solution" but she didn't object.
"I heard my name. What are we talking about?" Mariah emerged from the kitchen, looking as put together as she always did, even though I knew she had just been cooking, "Hey Savannah."
"Hi Mariah."
The two of us were always pleasant with each other but it never went beyond pleasant. The fact that she was my sister barely registered.
"Sleeping arrangements." Xander said once again, rolling his eyes, "We were just explaining the sleeping arrangements to mom."
Mariah nodded but said nothing else, looking around the room at the group, taking all of us in.
"Hey Savannah, can you help me in the kitchen? There's a few things I can't find."
Even the fact that Mariah was asking me was fishy, but I was curious and so I followed her, leaving Isabel in Xander's arms.
"What do you need help finding?" I asked when we were alone in the kitchen.
"Nothing." She stopped by the stove, checking on whatever was in all the pots and stirring a couple of things, "I just thought we could talk. How do you like this little town?"
I almost considered not answering. I thought that if maybe I smacked her or pinched myself the dream would end and we would go back to what it should be. But it wasn't a dream. She really wanted to talk.
"Um.. I really like it actually. Yeah, it's small but I have a boyfriend and friends and people who care about me. It's nice."
"Who are those girls? Friends?"
She must be referring to Peyton and Brooke because she never got introduced.
"Yeah. Peyton and I have been close all summer. Brooke I actually just met today. She's been in California for the summer but she's Peyton's best friend." It was weird conversing with my sister, really weird, "Actually, she used to date my boyfriend."
Mariah grinned.
"Tell me more." She was interested in the gossip which made me weary, but maybe she was just genuinely interested in my life for once. I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt.
"Well, Lucas actually liked Peyton but Peyton was too scared to be with him and she was dating Nathan at the time so Lucas started dating Brooke but then Peyton was interested so he cheated on Brooke with Peyton and Brooke found out so they broke up but then Peyton felt bad so they didn't really get together. So then Lucas realized he was really into Brooke but Brooke didn't trust him anymore and it took a long time to earn her trust again and just before she left for California he told her that he loved her but then he met me and now here we are."
"That's some crazy shit." Mariah laughed and just stared at me, "So, he's really into you though? You're sure?"
I had kept my mind from going to that spot all day long. Since the second I met Brooke and found out that Lucas had told her he loved her, I had been trying to keep myself from thinking about the what ifs. What if he didn't like me as much as I thought? What if he still loved Brooke? What if he wanted her more than he wanted me? What if…
"I'm never sure Mariah." I said to her, "Never can be. All I can do is hope that he likes me as much as I like him and go with it. In the end, we'll just have to wait and see what happens."
She nodded her agreement and turned back to her cooking.
"I guess you're right."
