Chapter 10 - Some things can be fixed but others can't

He didn't get much sleep that night, considering he didn't fall asleep until 4:30 in the morning he woke up quite early. He went for his usual morning run; he always did like to keep in shape; except this time his usual relaxing run was filled with thoughts of Peyton; he just couldn't get her off his mind. It wasn't healthy and he just wanted things to go back to normal. Yes he would love to see what it would be like to be with Peyton but she pretty much despised him and his life was a whole lot simpler before this whole bet thing. He knew he could probably try harder but he wasn't sure whether his ego could take another setback. She had turned him down and insulted him so many times he had lost count. It made him think about giving up on the whole idea. He still had feelings for her; he finally admitted that to himself; he hated the fact she could make him feel so strongly but the heart can only take so much pain. He ran past her house on his way back home when he noticed her mailbox, 'Still broken' he thought to himself 'Does her Dad ever come home?' He suddenly got an idea and ran faster back to his house.

Half an hour later and he was outside her house again with his tools. He didn't bother knocking on her door he knew she would just ignore him so he got on with what he intended to do, fixing her mailbox. He knew it wasn't much but he was hoping it would make her see that he did care and that he was capable of doing things for others without wanting something in return. He had been working on the mailbox for a good fifteen minutes and was pretty pleased with his progress. He was about to carry on hammering when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see the girl he couldn't stop thinking about.

"Hey Peyton" he said with a smile on his face.

"What are you doing?" she asked looking down at his tools and her mailbox.

"I…I remember you telling me that it was broken and well you said your Dad's not around much so I just thought."

'Why is he being so sweet when I'm trying to forget about him'

"Peyton?" He said after noticing her space out.

"What? Huh sorry" she replied quickly snapping out of her thoughts.

"Are you okay?" He asked sounding genuinely concerned but she couldn't tell anymore whether or not he was actually being sincere.

"Yeah I'm fine. Look you don't have to do that" She said pointing back at her broken mail box.

"Its no problem really"

She smiled "Okay well I gotta go I'm meeting Haley" She started to walk off but he grabbed her arm in an attempt to make her stop. She turned around and looked down at his hand on her wrist. He did the same and they could both feel the rising sexual tension. She looked up and met his gaze their eyes locking. After a few moments he leaned closer, she closed her eyes and before she knew it his lips were on hers and she was kissing him back. He cupped her face with his hand while she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer. She was getting lost in his kiss, she could feel it and she knew she had to stop it. He felt her pull away and looked at her confused.

"I'm sorry I…I can't do this" she replied and before he could respond she had ran off.

"Peyton" he shouted but it was no use she was long gone. He kicked the mailbox he had been trying to fix out of frustration. 'Why does she have such a strong effect on me? God she's a good kisser' He kept thinking about her before continuing fixing the mail box which was going to take him a lot longer after kicking it and making it worse.

When she was a safe distance away from her house and Lucas she slowed down and leaned against a wall. 'What's wrong with you Peyton? You shouldn't have let him kiss you; you shouldn't have kissed him back; you've probably just made things a whole lot worse than they already are' After a few more moments of thinking about Lucas and feeling sorry for her self she continued walking to Haley's house. She needed some advice and she couldn't really talk to Nathan about this one.

She knocked on Haley's door and a few moments later her cheery friend appeared.

"Hey Peyton how are you?" she greeted pulling her into an embrace and then gesturing her into her house.

"I've been better"

"Yeah I heard about last night"

"You did?"

"Yeah Nathan came by told me what happened. Don't worry I gave him a piece of my mind; I mean if you want to date Lucas its none of his business right"

"Yeah except I'm not sure what I want anymore"

"Something tells me this calls for ice-cream" Haley said heading towards the kitchen grabbing two spoons and a tub of cookie dough from the freezer. They both headed up to Haley's bedroom where they lay on her bed pigging out. They had managed to talk about everything from their favourite TV shows to music and even fashion; yet Peyton kept avoiding what was really playing on her mind.

"So are you going to tell me what happened or are we going to carry on with these pointless conversations that I know you don't give a damn about?" Haley asked bluntly, she never was one to beat around the bush.

"When did everything get so complicated?"

"I guess it's the joy of being teenagers" Haley replied.

"Yeah but my life was great a month ago and now its so messed up"

"I take it you're talking about Lucas?"

The blonde nodded taking another spoonful of the much needed ice-cream.

"Why don't you give him a chance?" Haley asked "You never know he might actually make you happy" she added.

"I'm not so sure he got into a fight with my best friend and then he woke me up in the early hours last night"

"He did what? Nathan never mentioned anything about that" Haley said extremely interested.

"That's because it was after Nathan had left."

"Well what happened?"

"Erm…I guess he decided to come round to try and get me to forgive him. I was asleep and I woke up hearing a tapping noise on my window and I open it to find him throwing stones."

"Aww that is so romantic. So what happened?"

"He said he needed to talk to me but I blew him off telling him I didn't want anything to do with him and then he said he couldn't give up on me"

"Aww he's such a sweetie what did you say?"

"Erm…I kinda told him I'd already given up on him" she mumbled looking down.

"Peyton"

"I know a little harsh"

"More than a little. So have you?"

"Have I what?" The blonde asked suddenly confused.

"Given up on him?"

"I don't know on my way over here we had another run in and we ended up kissing"

"Oh my god was it good?"

"Haley!"

"Sorry. But you've totally confused me now; first you tell me you've given up on him, then you're not sure and then you kiss him?"

"He kissed me I just didn't stop it" she defended.

"So what do you want?"

"I don't know……I think I'm just going to avoid him, he'll probably give up on me eventually"

"Do you want him to give up?"

"Haley what kind of a question is that?"

"Sorry but something tells me you're liking the attention he's giving you"

The curly blonde sunk her head in the pillow not being able to think up a response. Her life was definitely complicated and something was telling her it was only going to get worse.

A few hours later and she was approaching her house praying that Lucas had gone and to her delight she saw no one there. She made her way up the pathway stopping at her now fixed mailbox. Her eyes fixated on a piece of paper stuck to the mailbox. She took it off and unfolded it and started reading.

'I'm sorry Peyton for kissing you I didn't mean to put you in that position but you did kiss me back and I just couldn't help myself. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me I never meant to get into a fight with Nathan it just happened. I know that there is no excuse for it but I am truly sorry. Anyway I know it isn't much but I fixed your mailbox.

I really am sorry for everything.

Lucas xx'

She smiled to herself and carefully folded the piece of paper back up putting it in her bag.

"I really am sorry" a voice said startling her.

Peyton spun around completely shocked. "Its okay" she replied softly once she realised who it was.

"Does that mean I'm forgiven?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah" she said nodding her head. "Well I best be going" she said about to walk off until he interrupted her.

"Peyton" he walked closer to her caressing her cheek with his hand "I want to be with you" he whispered. She took a step back and then spoke.

"Lucas I……I think we're probably best off staying friends"

"No you kissed me Peyton I know you feel it too"

She didn't say anything she couldn't; she did feel something in the kiss but she was scared and wouldn't admit it; definitely not to him. When he realised she wasn't going to respond he shouted. "Why can't we be together?"

She thought about it and then spoke raising her voice to meet his "You want to know why? Do you?"

"Yes because right now I can't see anything stopping us from being together"

"Because I don't trust myself with you" she said in a softer tone before running into her house ignoring him as he shouted after her. She locked the door ran upstairs to her bedroom and fell on to her bed crying. She couldn't keep her tears back anymore. Something's just can't be fixed no matter how hard you may try and how much you may want them to be.

AN: Hope you liked it and yes I used a line from the movie but I thought it was appropriate and I think you'll all agree my story isn't sticking to the exact same storyline as the film. Anyway thanks for reading and as always I really appreciate everyone who reviews :)