"So, P. Sawyer, how's the beach house?" Brooke said, sitting on the edge of the blonde's bed. "Where's Evan?"
Peyton's back was to her friend, and when she rolled over to face her, she saw the look on Brooke's face change.
"OK, puffy eyes, no man in the bed," she said, then picked up Peyton's left hand. "No ring. What happened?" she asked, her voice laced with concern. She was pretty sure she knew what, or rather who, had happened.
"Evan left, Brooke. He's in L.A. But thanks for reminding me that I now own a house I don't want," she said, raising her hands to her face.
"What happened?" Brooke repeated as Peyton sat up in her bed.
"He said I still love Lucas," she said, her eyes meeting Brooke's, expecting to see shock or...something.
"OK," the brunette said.
"OK?" Peyton asked. "That's all you have to say?"
"Peyton, we've all been waiting for you to figure it out. No one more than Lucas. I kind of knew the other day that you had finally come to your senses."
Peyton groaned and leaned back on her pillow again. "You're going to think I'm crazy," she said.
"What? Why?" Brooke asked with a laugh.
"I kind of went to see Lucas and blamed it all on him and maybe said I love him," she rambled. "Then we went to his house and..."
"Peyton! Tell me he didn't sleep with you!" Brooke shouted, standing from the bed. Brooke had always thought Lucas would know better than to take advantage of a woman's fragile emotional state. She also knew that when it came to Peyton, all the 'rules' went out the window.
"No! No. We just talked and stuff," she said reassuringly. "I decided to stay in Tree Hill."
"What!?" Brooke asked excitedly, reaching for Peyton's hands.
"I'm staying."
"OK, I'm trying really hard not to freak out right now and it's your life and you're the one just...calm," Brooke said. "I need all the details. Are you and Lucas together now? How are you going to get your stuff here? What about work? What about the beach house?"
"Brooke, slow down. I have time to figure it all out. Lucas and I are...I don't really know what we are. But we're something. I don't know how to get my stuff here. I'm going to quit my job and find something here. And I don't know about the beach house. It's in my name, but there's no way I'm keeping it."
"So, sell the house!" Brooke exclaimed.
"Brooke!" Peyton said with a smile.
"What? Then at least you wouldn't have to worry about a job for a while!" Brooke shrugged her shoulders innocently.
"I guess I'll have to talk to Evan," Peyton admitted. "I'm sure he doesn't want to talk to me ever again. He was pretty heartbroken."
"Can you blame him?" Brooke asked. "He's losing you!"
"Stop it," Peyton said self-deprecatingly. "He said that I'm his Lucas."
"Oh, Lord help him if that's true," Brooke said, rolling her eyes.
"I don't think I can talk to him. Ever." Peyton was fidgeting with the bottom of her tank top.
"I'll take care of it then," Brooke offered, grabbing her friend's hands.
"What?" Peyton asked. "Why would you do that?"
"Because you're my best friend," she grinned.
Peyton grabbed Brooke into a hug and the two chatted some more about everything that had happened and everything that still needed to be taken care of.
"You want to know the craziest thing?" Peyton asked.
"What?" Brooke said, with a perplexed look. Was any of this not crazy?
"I finally feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be. Like I left and tried other things and realized that this is my place. Almost like I had to make a bunch of wrong decisions before making the right one," Peyton explained. "That probably sounds stupid."
"No, Peyton, it doesn't," Brooke insisted. "I did the same thing."
They sat for a few minutes like they used to - the two of them in Peyton's bedroom sitting on her bed and filling each other in on the drama.
"You want to see Lucas right now, don't you?" Brooke asked with a grin.
"Is that stupid? I can't stop thinking about him," Peyton said, looking at her friend with her brow furrowed, trying to quell the smile that she knew was going to spread anyway.
"It's not stupid. You want to make up for lost time," Brooke said, relieved to see her friend happy again and not just pretending. "Get dressed and go talk to him."
Peyton smiled and finally threw back the covers and made her way to the bathroom.
"I'll call Evan and get everything sorted out. Talk to you later!" Brooke shouted over the running water before leaving the room. As she was walking down the stairs, she couldn't help but think she had her friend back. Her real friend, not the zombie who'd been posing as Peyton.
--
She walked up the steps to his house and gently tapped on the glass of his door. There was no answer, but something - probably her desire to see him - told her to turn the knob anyway. The door was unlocked and she peered inside the room to see him sleeping on his bed with his copy of To Kill a Mockingbird resting on his stomach. She smiled at the sight of him laying there in his jeans and button down, reading her favourite book.
She walked lightly into the room, not wanting to wake him. She lifted the book off his stomach and placed it on the table next to his bed, and noticed a photo of her, Haley, Nathan and himself from their senior year sitting next to his lamp. She looked down at his sleeping face. He had a days' growth of stubble and his hair was matted from the pillow. The hand resting on his chest was strong and calloused and manly. Some time in the three years since she'd seen him, he'd grown into a man. His body was more defined and his features more hardened. He'd never looked sexier than he did right now. So she leaned down and kissed the side of his mouth and ran her hand down his chest so it rested on his stomach.
He stirred from his sleep and seemed a little shocked that she was sitting next to him. He smiled and stretched and wiped his eyes with his hands.
"Hi," she said quietly.
"Hey," he said through his grin. "It's not so bad to wake up to that."
"Sorry, I should have let you sleep," she said. "I just had to see you."
"OK, I'm am more and more happy that you came over," he said, resting a hand on her thigh as he lay on his back. "You feeling better?"
"I feel...amazing," she said with a smile.
"Yeah?" he asked, sitting up in his bed and resting his back against the headboard.
"Yeah. Brooke's going to take care of getting my stuff here and she's going to talk to Evan about the beach house and everything," Peyton explained. "I can just focus on finding a job and...well...on you," she finished with a smile.
"Remind me to thank her for that later," he said, pulling her arm so she was closer to him.
"I know it's been three years, Lucas, and I really hope you don't hate me for this," she started, looking down at her hand as it played with one of the buttons on his shirt. "But I really think we should take things kind of slow."
"I don't hate you," he said with a chuckle. "And we have the rest of our lives, right?"
"If you'll have me," she said timidly.
"Careful what you wish for, Peyton," he joked with his eyebrow raised suggestively. He slowly ran his thumb over her knuckles as he held her now bare left hand in his. "So does slow mean I can't kiss you?"
"Well, if you don't kiss me I have no use for you at all," she teased. "Get over here."
He placed his hand on the side of her face and kissed her gently. Before the could get too caught up in each other, Peyton's phone rang.
"Sorry," she said, looking into his eyes as she pulled away. "Hello?" she spoke into the phone.
"Peyton, I talked to Evan and he said he wants you to have the house," Brooke said.
"What?" she shouted, making Lucas shoot her a worried look.
"He said that he bought it for you and he wants you to have it," Brooke explained.
"That's ridiculous! Did you tell him that is insane?" Peyton asked.
"I told him you wouldn't accept it and he said that it's in your name and he wants you to have it. I told him you wouldn't go for it and he said that you could sell it if you wanted to," Brooke said.
"Um, OK. Well, can you meet me there? We should talk about this. I want you to see it," she said, resolved to the fact that she now owned property that she didn't know what to do with.
"OK. I'll see you in a bit," Brooke said and they hung up.
"New development," Peyton said, turning back to Lucas. "You want to see my new house?"
"What? How is that possible?" he asked.
"Evan said he bought it for me and he wants me to have it," she explained shaking her head. "This is so freaking like him. Have you ever met someone so stubborn?" she asked, looking at him.
"Um...you?" he joked, and she playfully hit him on the arm. "So let's go see this place."
He grabbed his keys from his dresser and opened the door to exit his room. He opened the passenger side door of his car for her then walked around to the driver's side. They drove with the windows down listening to music and talking.
"This feels like a deja vu," she said, making him smile.
"Feels good," he said, raising her hand to his lips.
She gave him the directions to the house, and he pulled the car into the driveway
"This place is..." he started as they stood in front of the house. "Well, it's not small."
"It's crazy, right?" she said, watching as his eyes took in the sight in front of them as Brooke drove up and parked behind them. She grinned at the couple standing in front of her. She couldn't explain it, but with the two of them back together, everything felt a little more balanced. It was as though Peyton and Lucas being together made everything stable within their circle of friends. There was no tension, no hushed conversations regarding either of their love lives, no plotting to get them back together. There was just peace.
"Well, Mr. Scott, you aren't wasting any time moving in on the newly single Peyton," the brunette joked, playfully bumping his shoulder with hers.
"Hi Brooke," he said with a grin.
"So are you going to show us the inside?" Brooke asked.
"Let's go," Peyton sighed, holding up the key and walking towards the front door.
The three of them walked through the house with sunlight pouring through the windows. Brooke commented on the tasteful wall colours and gorgeous kitchen cabinets and counters. Lucas noted the high ceilings and hardwood floors. They both agreed that the house was flawless.
"I would feel terrible selling it," Peyton explained as they stood in the empty living room, her voice echoing. "It feels like I'd be taking his money or something."
"So keep it," Lucas said, making both women snapped their heads and stared at him blankly. "Come on, you can't live at your dad's place forever. This house is amazing, and not to mention free," he added with a laugh. "You should live here."
"Lucas," Peyton started, looking into his eyes, "I am not going to keep a house bought by my ex-fiancée."
"He's right," Brooke said. "You need a place to live, this place is amazing, and bonus: I live 5 minutes away!"
"I don't know," Peyton said, turning in a circle and taking in the huge open room they were standing in. She could picture art on the walls, and where she'd place a sofa, but she was still skeptical.
"Well, you're out of options. If you don't want to sell it and you don't want to live in it, what else are you going to do with it?" Brooke asked.
"She's right, Peyt." Lucas chimed in.
Peyton threw him a smile and shook her head in disbelief. She knew they were right, and resolved herself to the fact that she was now a homeowner. She and Brooke chatted about the house and wandered back into the sun-filled kitchen as Lucas checked his watch.
"Hey," he said, standing in the entranceway to the room they were laughing in. "I have to run and meet Skills."
"OK," Peyton said with a smile. "I'll get Brooke to take me home."
"Oh, you will, will you?" Brooke teased.
"I'll see you later," he said, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. He was so happy to be able to say that phrase to her again. He wanted to kiss her, but he didn't want to rush anything, and he didn't want to make Brooke uncomfortable.
Peyton offered a small wave in his direction and turned back to her friend when the door closed behind Lucas. She wished he'd kissed her.
"OK, are we all going to be subjected to the lovey-dovey Luke and Peyton from senior year from now on?" Brooke asked with a roll of her eyes.
"Brooke, I don't even know what we are," Peyton said pointedly, looking back to the ocean as it swelled just a pane of glass and a couple hundred feet away from her.
"Please," Brooke sang in one drawn out syllable. "You and Luke are never just friends. You're single. He's single. And, he's in love with you."
"Stop it," Peyton pleaded.
"What?" Brooke asked defensively. "It's true!"
"I know," the blonde admitted quietly. She knew he loved her; he'd made himself perfectly clear. "I just want to go slow."
"Right. Slow." Brooke laughed until she saw the confused and questioning look on her friend's face. "You're telling me that if he wanted to do it, you wouldn't? And trust me, he wants to."
"You're a perv, you know that?" Peyton stated. "I haven't even been single for 24 hours!"
"Right," Brooke agreed. "But your entire two year relationship, you were secretly still in love with Lucas, so it's kind of like you were just on vacation from each other. And just think of how hot the sex will be after all this time!"
"OK, this conversation is over," Peyton said with a grin on her face as she walked towards the front door of her new house.
"I see that smile, P. Sawyer! You're totally thinking about it!" Brooke called after her as her heels clicked on the hardwood.
--
Lucas pulled up to the River Court where Nathan and Skills were already playing. He was glad they were both in the same place at the same time so he could break the news only once. They greeted him as he walked on the court and the smile on his face must have been bigger than he intended, because right away Nathan asked what was up.
"What?" Lucas asked in mock innocence.
"Dude, you haven't smiled like that in...three years. What is going on!?" Nathan asked, though he was sure he already knew the answer.
"Evan is out of the picture. The engagement is off. Last night when she came here she was pissed and blaming me," Lucas started.
"Yeah, we were here for that part," Skills interrupted.
"She said she wants to take it slow, so I don't really know what's going on, but it's something," he finished. He took the ball from his brother and shot it through the chains.
"Slow? You are taking it slow with the girl you've been in love with since you were like, born?" Nathan asked, picking up the bouncing ball.
"What?" Lucas asked innocently, looking at Skills who was suppressing a laugh.
"Luke, there's no slow with you and Peyton. There's nothing, or there's full on," Skills pointed out, slapping his friend on the shoulder. "And this time it's definitely not nothing."
Lucas contemplated his friend's statement. Skills and Nathan were right. He didn't want to waste time any more. He wanted them to be together forever, and he wanted that forever to start as soon as possible. He wanted them to live together and share everything and get married. He wanted to wake up next to her every day and smile at her sleeping face. He wanted a life with her.
But of course, he couldn't tell her all this right now. She'd asked if they could take it slow, and even though he now realized that was the last thing he wanted to do, he didn't want to scare her or ruin anything, so he'd have to follow her lead.
"Luke!" Nathan shouted, pulling his brother from his train of thought, knowing full well what, or rather who, the blonde's mind was on. "Haley wants to have you over for dinner tonight."
"Yeah, sounds good," he said as they saw Fergie approaching the court. They shot for teams and played for over an hour, but his mind was on her the entire time. Luckily, no one noticed, not that he would have cared if they had. He loved her, and he finally felt like she might just love him back.