I wasn't sure how to write this chapter so I hope you aren't disappointed when you read it. It's a nice long one though so I hope it does not suck lol.

She banged her fist against the door as hard as she could, determined to see her former best friend, if she had to camp out on the front lawn then that's what she would do

"I'm coming I'm coming" she heard her best-friend yell as the door swung open

"Brooke" Peyton said coldly as she looked her up and down

"Hi" she smiled sweetly refusing to let the cold welcome she had received from her former best-friend get to her. Her taste in fashion had certainly not changed but for some reason the blonde seemed darker somehow, she was wearing her trademark leather jacket with a black top and black skirt, but the clothes weren't the only thing that were black, even her make up was black, usually she wouldn't have thought much of it, but the vibe she was getting from her was definitely not a good one to say the least.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was bitter, and she couldn't help but find herself flinching at her friend's tone. There used to be a time when she could come round and she didn't even have to knock and she knew she would always be welcomed. But the way Peyton was looking at her made her heart break, this was what their friendship had been reduced to, evil glares and bitterness, she never thought it would be like this, not after all they had been through together, but she was clearly wrong!

"Well I know you said you would call me and everything at the airport but I figured that if I waited for you to call me then I might be waiting forever so here I am" Brooke smirked, right now appearances were everything, even though she was breaking on the inside about what their friendship had become, she wouldn't let Peyton win, she wasn't going to let her see that her cold and bitterness was affecting her in anyway. If there was one thing she was the master of it was putting on a brave face.

"I was going to call" Peyton said coldly, she tried to make eye contact with her but Peyton simply looked away in the opposite direction

"You always were a terrible liar" she smiled weakly at her own comment

"So do you want to come in?" Peyton asked awkwardly as she stood blocking the doorway

"Sure" she pushed her way past Peyton's arm and marched into the main room leaving Peyton standing rooted to the spot in the doorway in shock. She was not going to be intimidated but Peyton, not now not ever, she knew Peyton was expecting her to decline her invitation to come in, but on the other hand if Peyton really knew her at all she should have known that Brooke Davis did not back down from anyone or anything, so she really shouldn't have been so shocked.

"So what do you want?" Peyton asked as she made her way to the couch clearly still rather shocked at the way she had barged in.

"I want to talk"

"I'm listening" she replied but instead of looking at her as she spoke Brooke noticed that she was in fact looking once more in the opposite direction

"Why are you being like this?"

"Like what?" Peyton replied innocently but she could see a slight smirk emerging on her face telling her that her so called friend knew exactly what she was doing, which only fired her up even more.

"Like a bitch, and don't even try to deny it cos we both know it's true. Look I know we haven't talked in a long time but does it have to be like this?" She wasn't going to sugar-coat it for Peyton, if Peyton expected pity and grovelling then she was wildly mistaken. She had had plenty of experience when it came to dealing with Peyton and she was pretty sure she knew her moods down to a tee, having said that though, that was four years ago, maybe she had changed more than she thought.

"Like what?" Peyton asked in disbelief, "Like we are strangers, because that's what we are Brooke, you're not my friend, I don't know you anymore" Peyton said slowly raising her voice, and getting more worked up by the second

"Please don't say that Peyton, we have been through so much, don't turn your back on our friendship, not now" She didn't want to be seen as desperate but she couldn't help but plead to her former friend, even though it had been a long time, she needed her more than ever.

"Oh you mean like you did, when you left after the summer and we said goodbye…… I had no idea I was actually saying goodbye to our friendship" Peyton chuckled to herself

"You didn't" Brooke said flatly

"Yes I did, you didn't call, you didn't come and visit, you didn't write, it was like you totally erased me from your life. I've lost enough people in my life as it is, I didn't realise I would lose you too" She looked at the fragile girl closely and could see her eyes were watering and the tears were about to fall, she hated seeing her like this but what could she do? It wasn't like she could take back the past 4 years!

"You haven't lost me and I know I should have called and visited, I'm sorry ok" she stepped towards her, she just wanted to pull her into a hug and tell her that everything was going to be ok but as soon as she reached out to her Peyton quickly jerked herself away.

"Is that all you've got to say, no lame excuses why you didn't call, you know I thought you would put up a bit more fight than this, clearly I was wrong about you"

"What do you want me to say Peyton? We both know that whatever I say you are just gonna shoot down, nothing I say will be good enough for you and FYI you didn't call me either so what does that say about you" Peyton was making out that she was the bad one in their friendship when really Peyton had been no better over the last four years and through the years if anyone had let their friendship down it was Peyton, but the blonde would probably have an alternative answer

"You shouldn't have come" Peyton said shaking her head

"You may be ready to turn your back on me but I'm not ready to turn my back on you, so get used to it because I'm not going anywhere" Brooke said defiantly

"Did you seriously expect everything to just be like it was Brooke, you can't just go away and come back and expect everything to be like it was, people change" she gulped, "……… I've changed"

"Yeah and not for the better" she muttered but she knew Peyton had heard her from the glare she was now receiving

"And it's your fault" Peyton bit back as she wiped the few tears which had fallen away with her bare hand

"I get that your angry and I'm sorry, I don't know how many times I have to say it but I really am, but you can't blame me for you being a major bitch Peyton" She knew she was being harsh but sometimes people needed to hear a few home truths and Peyton was definitely one of those people

"Look at the pot calling the kettle black" She laughed dryly

"Seriously Peyton what happened? What made you like this?" She looked at her closely, this was not the girl she once knew, this wasn't the girl that would let her stay over whenever she didn't want to go home because her parents were arguing, this wasn't the girl who helped her come up with countless cheer routines, this was someone else, this wasn't her former best friend, it couldn't be!

"You can't just come in here and ask that ok, we" as she gestured pointed at herself and then Brooke, "are not friends anymore and the sooner you realise that the better"

"Peyton please just let me in, tell me what's going on"

"You wanna know what's going Brooke, I mean what's really going on?" Peyton yelled

"Yeah I do" she yelled back at her

"Well my best-friend disappears and doesn't call for 4 years, my boyfriend dumps me, and then when I finally come back who do I see at the airport, but my former best friend and my ex boyfriend together and that's just the tip of it"

"I had no idea he was going to be there, you have to believe me" She really hadn't known at all and if she had had any idea that he was going to be there then she might not have even come back, especially if she had known what an impact it would have had on her friendship with Peyton, but it was all too late for that now.

"I know Lucas already said" Peyton replied coolly

"Yeah he said he saw you"

"I bet you had such a nice cosy chat about me as well didn't you" Peyton said as she sarcastically clapped her hands together

"Please stop being like this Peyton, and just so you know he didn't tell me what went on between you two ok, all I know is that you didn't break-up well, that's it" She didn't know why it hurt her so much to say that but it did, she understood that it was private but if they were over for good and he trusted her then why couldn't he talk to her about it, what was holding him back?

"Ha" she laughed dryly "That has to be the biggest understatement of the century" she said as she lent against the couch and looked at the brunette

She took a deep breath and shut her eyes briefly before speaking, "Look if you still love him then you should go for it, I know you don't think he does but I'm sure he still loves you too" She couldn't believe the words were leaving her mouth, what the hell was she doing, why was she pushing them back together all over again, it hurt so much seeing them together before, why did she keep setting herself up like this. And now it was too late to take the words back, why couldn't she have just kept her mouth shut for once!

"No I don't think that's going to happen" Brooke looked over at her puzzled, how could she be so sure, she said she was over him in the past and look how that one ended

"Me and Lucas just don't work ok, we never will" Peyton added noting the look on Brooke's face

"But you love him don't you?" She asked the tall blonde, she had to know, if there was still a chance of them getting back together then she needed to know, she couldn't go through the whole dreaded love triangle again, she just couldn't.

"Yeah I do but not in the way I thought I did."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know why I am even telling you this but I guess I got swept away with it all you know. I was lonely, I had lost Jake and Ellie and he was always there, he was always-

"saving you" Brooke finished for her, the problem was she remembered it all too well, and even to the day she didn't understand, he was meant to be with her, so why was he always saving Peyton and coming to her rescue?

"Yeah and I think we just got caught up in it all"

"I'm sorry"

"What for?" Peyton asked rather taken off guard by Brooke's apology

"That it didn't work out, I just really thought you two would go the distance you know, if I had known then……"

"Then what? Then you would never have given him up for me"

"That's not what I was going to say" Brooke said looking down at the floor

"But it's true isn't it" She wasn't sure if Peyton was asking her a question or stating a point, either way, she knew the answer was written all over her face so there was no need to even respond to it

"You really want to know why I didn't call you the last 4 years?" Brooke said as she walked round the coffee table to get nearer to her former friend

"Sure go ahead, I mean our friendship is pretty much at rock bottom as it is so do your worst"

"I didn't call because it hurt" She paused and took a deep breath, the last thing she needed was to get all emotional but at the same time it was hard not to. Just thinking about it hurt let alone actually talking about it. "I was so happy for you really I was, you were smiling and laughing and just so happy, and you and Lucas just seemed to work you know" She couldn't help but feel sadness when thinking back to the past, they were days that she would never get back, and although there had been days when she had been so happy, and days when she had felt on top of the world, the mere thought or mention of Lucas and Peyton just seemed to conjure up so many bad memories and so much hurt that it was almost unbearable.

"I don't get what you are saying" Peyton interrupted failing to notice how close the brunette was to cracking.

"Just let me finish ok" she said as she took yet another deep breath, keeping her emotions in check was proving harder than she had thought as she could already hear the cracks in her voice begin to appear. "Look I was happy for you but at the same time I was sad, seeing you with him made me realise what I didn't have. It hurt ok, it really really hurt, and I know I said I was ok with you and him but I wasn't, I guess I never was. So I figured that it wouldn't hurt so much if I just"

Before she had a chance to finish she was interrupted by the blonde who was now standing a matter of feet in front of her "You cut me off, you didn't call because you thought I was with him, I can't believe this" She yelled, anger clearly getting the better of her

"How was I meant to know you two broke up?" She tried to reason but she knew she was now fighting a losing battle

"Well if you had called them maybe you would have known" Peyton snapped

"Please don't be angry"

"Why not? I mean I just found out that my best-friend not only lied to me when she said she was ok with my relationship but that she didn't call me for the last 4 years all because she thought I was with him. I thought our friendship meant more than that. I mean what happened to hoes over bros huh"

"Our friendship means everything to me Peyton really it does, it was just too hard thinking of you two together"

"So what are you still in love with him or something?" Peyton yelled again

"I….uh….I…?" She stuttered, Peyton had caught her totally off guard and now she was like a rabbit caught in the headlights, no where to run, no where to hide, her best friend was just staring at her, and she couldn't even manage to get her words out, she was totally stumped

"That's what I thought" Peyton said nodding her head as if it was what she had expected

"I don't know how I feel ok, all I know is that every time I saw you together I thought of how it was when I was with him and how much the two of you had hurt me and stabbed me in the back, not once but twice Peyton, do you have any idea how that feels, the first time hurt like hell but the second, you have no idea how much that hurt, but at the same time I missed you, both of you. I just had to get away from all of it" It was too late now, the tears had already begun to trickle down her cheeks

"You could have told me how you felt" Peyton said softly as she saw the broken brunette standing in front of her

"Look what happened when you told me that you had feelings for my boyfriend Peyton, I couldn't do that again, we had only just made up, I wasn't about to risk that all for a boy." She said as she wiped a few tears away but more tears were still rolling down her now rosy cheeks

"Not just any boy though was it, I mean it's Lucas" Peyton sighed "Why did you even break up with him in the first place if you still loved him? I told you I wouldn't say anything about how I felt" she asked a lot more sympathetic than before

"But I knew Peyton, and every time I would see you two together I would get insecure, I didn't want to be like that. And if you and him never tried as a couple then I would have always wondered if he would have been better of with you. I didn't want to go through life like that, wondering if someone else could make him happier, thinking that I was not enough for him. Who was I to stand in the way of love, you deserved to be happy"

"Even if it meant sacrificing your own?" Peyton asked

She slowly nodded, she hadn't wanted to admit it before but that was exactly what she had done, she had given up the love of her life just so he and her best friend could be happy and she could safely say that she was miserable as a result, she had tried to move on, that's what Chase had been about but in the end her thoughts always turned to same person and no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't shake him from her head, nothing worked, it was like he was just stuck there.

"So if it hurt so much then why come back?"

"You remember that night before we left and we said we would all come back in 4 years time?" she asked and watched as Peyton slowly nodded

"Well I was sitting in my office and I was looking through my schedule and I noticed the date and I just remembered that day and what we had all said, and I just realised it was time, time to stop running, time to come home………." She sighed, "………And I missed people"

"Lucas" the blonde's voice said abruptly

"Yeah him,………. you, Nathan, Haley, James" she replied

Brooke looked at Peyton for some kind of reaction, "I was the same" Peyton quietly said, she paused for a few seconds and then continued, "I missed home, I missed going to the music store at weekend, I missed hanging out with my friends." Brooke winced as Peyton spoke as she remember her words a matter of minutes ago as the blonde had told her she was simply a stranger to her now. " I guess wherever you go you can never replace it can you, you can run but the lights will always guide you home" Peyton concluded

"I guess not, it's weird being back though isn't it" Brooke said as she looked around the Sawyer house, it had changed so much since she had last been there, but there was one thing which had stayed the same, the pictures of them together when they were younger were still placed on the mantelpiece, there was one from cheer camp, that summer had been one of their best summers together, both sets of parents had been away and they had been able to do whatever they had wanted, some days that had stayed in bed all day and watched movies and ate tubs of ice-cream, other days she had dragged Peyton down to the mall to check out the boys and spend her allowance on more clothes which she didn't even need, they would end up spending hours there as she had been so intent on spending every last penny and get as much as she possible could. It had been such a great summer and one she would never ever forget, as she looked at the remaining pictures of them together it just made her realise how much she really had missed her, how had she even thought that she could cut her best friend out of her life like that when she had played such a major part in making her who she was today.

"You can say that again" Peyton replied as she looked in the direction of the brunette who was still staring intently at the pictures that were placed carefully on the mantelpiece

"Do you think that maybe we could try and be friends again?" Brooke asked as she turned back to face Peyton

"Maybe" Peyton said weakly, the truth was she really didn't know the answer herself

"I really did miss you Peyton and I dialled your number so many times but each time I put the phone down. I wanted to hear you voice and see how you were doing but at the same time I guess I was scared. I was scared to hear how happy you were and how great things were between you two, I was so miserable and I just thought it was easier to cut myself off, to try and escape it all. You were my best-friend Peyton and I really needed you beside me but you have to understand that I couldn't" She took a deep breath as she realised she had been so caught up in what she had been saying that she had forgot to actually breath, and by now the tears had begun to fall once more down, causing her mascara to run even more as they slowly tricked down her face

"If you still love him then why don't you tell him?" Peyton asked simply

"I told you, I don't know how I feel, I wish I did. I just feel so confused right now. When I am with him I am happy and I get those butterflies in my stomach and all nervous and I just want to be close to him you know. But then I remember how badly he hurt me and I just want to run away as far as I can" She said as she sat down next to her former best-friend

"You have to stop running Brooke" Peyton replied softly as she reassuringly placed her hand over Brooke's.

"I know but it's hard" she said as she felt a lone tear fall

"When have you even backed down from a challenge B Davis" She couldn't help but let out a small smile as she heard the blonde call her by her nickname like she used to, it was a reminder of the good old times when things were so simple and it was the two of them against the world and nothing could get in their way, boy had things changed quickly though!

"Look you have to ask yourself if there is a chance you could let me in again, if there is a chance that you still love him, and if there is then you have to fight for it, you can't give up"

"I missed you so much" Brooke said as she pulled her in for a hug, the tears were now in full flow and her eyes were red and puffy from all the tears she had shed but she didn't care, she didn't care about any of it, none of it mattered

"I missed you too" Peyton replied as she shut her eyes and let the floodgates open and the tears fall down her cheeks.

"You will always be my hoe P. Sawyer" she joked through her tear-filled eyes

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that" Peyton laughed as she looked her friends tear stained cheeks and wiped away the few remaining tears that were falling down them, "And you know you will always be mine too right"

"Of course, I mean how else could we have the Hoes over Bros Reunion Tour without the chief hoe" she smiled brightly

"Didn't we have already have that though?" Peyton asked

"Good point, we'll call it the Hoes over Bros Reunion Tour Number 2 then"

"Uh uh" Peyton said shaking her head, "guess again" Peyton laughed

"OK fine clearly my maths still sucks, so the hoes over bros reunion tour the third, how does that sound?"

"That sounds…" Peyton paused thinking of an appropriate word, "Perfect"

It was the beginning of a new era

I hope you enjoyed it, I found this chapter probably the hardest to write so far as there were just so many things that I wanted to include in this chapter and I could literally only put half of them in, otherwise it would have taken forever, and I really didn't know how to write Peyton, so I hope I didn't do such a bad job. Anyway please review and let me know what you think x x x