Chapter 9
"Come on we need to hit the road soon," Peyton yelled up the stairs after looking at the time. They were running behind schedule thanks to Haley's anxiety over seeing Adam again. The thing that had gotten to Peyton was her sister's need to impress him. It wasn't like she was meeting him for the first time. She had only dated him for four years, and that was a lot considering how old they were.
"I'll be down soon, I promise."
"You better or else…"
"Am I in the right house?" Lucas looks at Peyton with a dead serious look on his face as he comes into the house. Looking over at him and seeing the face, she's starts to laugh. Starting to laugh himself he walks over closer to her. "This is so typical."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about this. I really should of planned for it."
"It's alright."
"Hurry it up," Peyton yells up the stairs. "He's here!"
"Now girls fight nice."
"Oh you shut it."
"Alright already! I'm ready to go now," Haley says appearing at the top of the stairs as Peyton playfully hits Lucas. Grabbing his arm and holding it he acts as if Peyton had hurt him.
"Ouch, you sure hit hard for a girl."
"Now that's just ridiculous. There's no way I could of hurt you."
"You're right," he says tickling her. "You hit like a girl."
"Well I am one you know?"
"Yeah I know."
Tickling her again he causes her to back away from him. Going in for another tickle attack she starts to run away from him. Chasing after her, he chases her out to the car. Trying to fend him off she slaps at his arms. "Stop it right now," she half yells at him.
Driving into town with her hair freely blowing in the wind and the music blasting Peyton looks over at Lucas sitting shot gun in the passenger's seat. "So this is our other home," she said smiling at him. "There's Joe's general store." Gesturing to their right as she takes her right hand off of the steering wheel a mischievous smirk crosses her face. "My friend Jen helped me half torment a couple of the guys that are regulars there not long before we left town. I wonder if they remember me?"
"I'm sure they do."
"Yeah, I was leaning towards that possibility."
Pulling over to the side of the road a little further down the street Peyton parks the car. "This isn't what we planned," Haley said giving Peyton a look. Pointing towards one of the trees in the park nearby, Peyton gives Haley a look back in return. "Oh… that looks like Adam and the guys."
"It sure does."
"Is that a girl going to kiss that one guy?"
"Umm… ," Peyton says glancing back at Haley as she realizes what Lucas is bringing to her attention. Seeing that her sister was clearly upset by the whole situation she wonders what she should do. Before she can make a decision Haley starts balling her eyes out.
"That's the ex then I'm taking it."
Looking at Lucas through the rearview mirror Haley nods her head as streams of tears run down her cheeks.
"How is she handling it now?"
"Not really all that much different than she was earlier," Peyton said sitting down on the bed in the hotel room. "I think we'll have to buy more tissues for her in the morning."
"I guess that's one thing we didn't plan on really needing."
"Yeah well I guess it didn't nearly take him half the time that I thought it would to get over her."
"What are we going to do about the sleeping situation anyway?" Lucas knew that they both needed a change of topic, and it was something that he was wondering about. They had gotten down sized to a room with only one bed and he wanted to know if he was going to be sleeping on the floor.
"As long as you don't try to get lucky tonight you could probably sleep on the bed with us."
"Uh huh… I wasn't thinking about doing that, but apparently you were."
Feeling someone leaning over him Lucas wakes up. Looking to see who it is he finds Haley staring at him with sleepy tear filled eyes. Glancing over towards the nightstand on the other side of the bed he realizes that she ran out of tissues once again.
"I'll go get some more," he says reaching for his wallet.
Mouthing 'thanks' to him as he goes to get out of bed she feels really bad about having had woken him up for it. Watching as he heads towards the door she rests her head down on the pillow.
Looking up as Lucas comes back a little while later, she's relieved when she sees the box of tissues he's carrying. Sitting down on the bed, he hands the box to her and gives her a hug.
