Chapter 8

Her large walk-in closet that held her prized album collection and her mp3 filled computer was the one place in her room Brooke wasn't allowed to touch. It was the one thing that remained Peyton's. It was her sanctuary. Her one place she could go to when she needed to be alone.

Peyton had burrowed herself in the tiny room all weekend long. She didn't answer her phone or even log onto her IM account. Her webcam also remained off. It was all in attempt to avoid Lucas. All weekend long she tried to understand why he would do something so naïve and for the life of her, she still couldn't understand.

When Lucas entered the room, he knocked softly on the door. Peyton didn't look up. He stepped forward and noticed that she had her earphones in. He smiled as he drew near the girl who seemed to be lost in a deep thought, staring at a blank sketchpad.

It wasn't until she felt his strong arms wrap around her body when she finally came too. She didn't flinch or move at the touch, but she did blink back to reality.

"Hey," he whispered in a soft voice.

No reply. Not even a glance back.

Lucas sighed and removed her earphones. "Hey," he said again, "Something tells me you're upset,"

Peyton put down her sketchpad and pencil on the table. He let go of her and leaned back enough to spin her around to face him. When she faced him, she saw him down on his knees. They were now at eye level.

Lucas couldn't help but smile. The last time he saw her brooding glare was last year when she was dating Nathan and Lucas was just pining for her.

"You've been avoiding me, haven't you?"

Peyton looked away to her right. All Lucas did was spin her chair a bit to the left to meet her gaze again – the perks of having a spinning chair.

"Look, I don't blame you," he confessed, "which is why I'm here. I know I've been spending a lot of time with Nathan, training and stuff…we haven't actually had time to ourselves. So…I thought we could spend the day together,"

"Lucas…" Peyton hesitated. Although she wanted to spend the day with him, she also needed to talk to him.

"Come on," he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the chair, "I've got the whole day planned already. It's going to be fun. I promise,"

Before she could protest again, Lucas was leading her out of the room. It was true, they hadn't had spent much time together in a long time or had any fun for that matter. The talk could wait, she decided and excitedly quickened her pace to keep up with her boyfriend.


Since Peyton had a strict, 'no boys, even Nathan, allowed' in her room, Brooke was spending the day with Nathan at his house. They were in the living room watching a movie on TV. Brooke was laying on the couch with her head resting on Nathan's lap, who was sitting up.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked. Brooke had been staring up at Nathan for the past minute or so. He seemed to be lost in a deep thought.

"Huh?" he said, "Oh, nothing,"

"You sure? Cause your eyebrow kinda does this thing," she imitated him, "when you're thinking,"

"Does not…"

"Does too. I should know. You do it all the time," she said quietly.

"Brooke…"

"Why don't you ever want to talk to me about it?"

"About what?"

Brooke sat up, "Look, I know you talk to Rachel…I I'm ok with it. But it hurts knowing that you can talk to her and not me. I mean I'm your girlfriend,"

"Look, I don't talk to Rachel about everything. There are just somethings that I need to figure out on my own, you know. Besides, I don't want to bring you all down with my mess either. I need something in my life that brightens my day and just being with you does just that,"

Brooke let out a small smile, but it still wasn't good enough, "But I want to do more for you, Nate. This thing…whatever is bothering you is a part of you and I want to be a part of that. I want to help you,"

One of the things he loved about Brooke was her compassion for others. "You're cute you know that," he kissed the top of her head.

Cute. Was that all she was to him? Was he only in the relationship because of physical benefits?

"I got to go," Brooke said suddenly

Before he could stop her, she was already out the door. He was confused by her reaction. Was it something he said? Nathan sat there on his bed for a few minutes trying to figure out what he had done wrong. Finally, he gave up and decided that maybe he needed a female's perspective. He reached over to his nightstand for his wallet and took out all of the papers that were stuffed inside. Nathan hadn't cleaned out his wallet in months and began sorting through the old receipts for a phone number.


"Alright, so if you take the derivative of the equation given, you'll get the equation for velocity. Then take the second derivative to find the acceleration," Haley explained.

Jake was impressed with Haley. "Wow,"

"What? Sorry, was I going to fast?"

"Umm…a little," he admitted.

"Ok, first take the derivative…" she began to explain again but stopped when she noticed that he wasn't paying attention to the books. His eyes were fixed on her.

"What?" she laughed nervously.

"Nothing…you're just amazing you know,"

"I am not," she blushed.

"Yeah, you are. You're smart…I mean you took calculus when you were a sophomore,"

"Yeah, well," she shrugged, "before becoming a rock star, I had a lot of time on my hands,"

Jake laughed, "See not only are you amazing and smart…you're a rock star…a beautiful rock star,"

"Ok, well if I'm so amazing…then you're amazing too,"

"I am, am I?"

"Well, yeah," she smirked, "by association, of course,"

"Aww…my girlfriend makes me amazing," he joked.

Haley's eyes widened in surprise. They had been dating for about month but never really discussed their 'official' status as a couple.

"What?" Jake wondered when he caught her look.

"You just called me your…girlfriend,"

"Well, um…you are," Jake quietly said, "Aren't you?"

Haley grinned happily. "Yeah…I am,"

Jake returned a smile, "Good," He leaned over and kissed her.


"Hey, hot stuff,"

Peyton looked up to see Tim Smith approaching her, "Hey, Tim," she said unenthusiastically.

"So what are you doing out her all by your lonesome?" he sat down beside her on the bench.

"I'm waiting for Brooke," Peyton slid a bit over away from Tim who sat a bit too close to her.

"So how's your main squeeze? Your man? Your…"

"Tim," she cut him off before he could annoy her any further, "Lucas is fine. He just left actually to help his mom close the café,"

"So he's feeling better…must be after getting a dose of Peyton love," he wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

Lucky for him, Peyton ignored his last comment. Her eyes narrowed with concern

"What do you mean feeling better?"

"Friday…after practice. I saw him in the locker room. He was pale and looked like he was going to kick it…you know like…"

"Yeah…um, did anyone else see?" Peyton was hoping that Nathan or even Whitey had seen him.

"Nah…just me. Told me to keep it on the down-low, you know," he whispered, "But I figured since you were his girl and all…you'd be all caught up in his business,"

"Yeah, you would think," she muttered to herself.

"Aw…don't worry, sweet thang. If anything happens to your man, the Tim-man here will save him,"

"Tim," Peyton removed his arm from around her shoulders, but she still kept her focus on the important matter, "um…can you do me a favor? Don't tell Lucas you told me all this,"

"It'll be our little secret," he winked at her.

"Thanks," Peyton stood up and started to walk away.

"Hey, what about Brooke?"

"Tell her I'll see her at home,"

Tim slowly nodded his head, "Score! Two hot cheerleaders in one night. The Tim-man is back in the game,"


A/N: I know it's been a while, but I've been busy with school...unfortunately exams are coming up which means updates will be very slow and probably non-existant for the next few weeks. But I will finish this story and the other fic I have up now. This story is far from over...It's going to follow the OTH crew all the way to grad. Anyways, I took a break from studying to write a quick update for all those wondering. I know this story it probably slow moving, but I promise things that happened in this chapter and the previous ones will all fall together shortly. Thanks for reading and leaving the reviews!