AN: Hi! First off, I'm so sorry it took me almost two months to finish this chapter. Life's been rather crazy and I'm really sorry. I'll try to get the next one's up sooner, but I really can't promise anything. I really hope you guys are not mad at me and still interested in the story (: There's not a lot of action in this one, but it does contain some necessary information :P I hope you all like it!

Of course, lots and lots of thanks to those of you who reviewed! You have no idea how much that means to me. Thank you so much! And I hate to whine and complain, but I would really appreciate it so much if you would let me know what you think of this one as well. Reviews kinda dropped and it's just so much harder to write when I just don't know whether you guys still like it or not. I know there are 'silent readers', I've been one :P, but please, if you have the time, a review would be appreciated so much! Thank you!

Thank you all for reading as well, and enjoy!

Chapter 11. Dreaming Out Loud

No one goes through life alone, or at least no one should.

There are always some people you simply need. A best friend is one of those. Someone you can trust with everything you have, someone you know will always, no matter what, be there for you. Those people who laugh with you when you need to laugh, cry when you need to cry, tell you what an idiot you are when you need to hear that as well. Those people that you can always count on, without even having to ask them to be there.

Both Lucas and Peyton knew their life would be a whole lot harder if they wouldn't have their best friend by their sides.

"So..." Haley drawled out, a silly smile around her lips. "I've heard you're writing again." She said and nudged Lucas' side lightly with her elbow.

"Really? Who told you that?" He laughed at her excitement.

Shaking her head a few times, Haley flipped her hair over her shoulders. "I have my sources. And I don't tattle on them."

"Right." Lucas nodded. "Just tell Peyton that she shouldn't tattle on me, okay?" He said and couldn't help but chuckle lightly as he saw Haley searching for her words, opening and closing her mouth a few times, much like a fish.

"Why would you think Peyton is one of my sources?" She finally said and even raised her eyebrow, only making him laugh more.

"Really, Hales?"

"Fine." She grumbled playfully. "She told me that after you went to the park last week with Jamie and Lily you went home to write a bit. I thought you would tell me yourself about it, but no, suddenly you don't tell your best friend these kind of things anymore."

Even though the tone of her voice indicated that she was being playful, there was still a part of her talking truth. She knew she was overreacting though, but it somehow felt as if it had been ages since she and Lucas had just sat down and talked. She was happy he was moving on with his life; getting a new place to live, getting a new job, rekindling lost friendships, and all, but she had also thought that maybe now that he was back in town they would spend a lot more time together.

"Aw, Hales, are you feeling left out?" He said teasingly, nudging her side.

"Don't laugh with me, Luke! It's just that... You know, how long has it been since you and I just talked? Just the two of us." She asked, raising an eyebrow again, knowing she had a point. "It just seems as if I saw more of you alone when you still lived in New York than now, when you are actually living in the same town as me."

Pulling her into a side hug, he smiled down at her even though she couldn't actually see him. "I know, I'm sorry. Things have just been rather crazy, you know? But I guess we should make more time for this, right?"

"We should." She agreed. "So, tell me, how's the writing going?" She asked then, changing the subject and her earlier excitement clear in her voice again.

"Good, I guess. I haven't written anything in a long time, it feels rather weird to be working on it again. But good too, definitely good too."

"Good, I'm happy. When can I read?" Haley demanded with a smile and sat up a bit straighter on her spot in Lucas' couch.

"Not yet." He simply answered, resulting in a pout from Haley.

She tilted her head a little and smiled sweetly. "Can you at least tell me what it is about?"

"Not yet." Lucas repeated, because in all honesty, for some weird reason, he didn't really know either what it was about.

"Hi, B. Davis." Peyton smiled as she walked into Brooke and Julian's living room. Brooke was sitting, lying actually, in the couch, reading what seemed to be her own magazine.

Sitting up a little straighter, she smiled as well. "P. Sawyer, hey. Finally someone that comes visiting me." She said then with a sigh. "I hate Julian for forcing me to lie here all day long."

"You love him for it. Besides, you're more than eight months pregnant, you need to rest." Peyton said laughingly, but kinda serious as well and sat down next to Brooke who had made room for her.

Brooke flipped her hair over her shoulder and let her hand rest upon her stomach. "Yeah, yeah. I know." She smiled. "What about you? What brings you here?"

"Nothing much. I just needed to get away from the gallery for a while and thought I'd pay you a visit."

"Why'd you need to get away?" Brooke asked and couldn't help a slightly concerned look. Everything was going pretty well for Peyton lately, she didn't want any troubles for her now.

Peyton shrugged her shoulders a bit, "I don't know. I just couldn't concentrate on my art, you know. Just needed a little break, I think."

"But you're okay, right?"

"Of course I'm okay." She said with a smile. "Just some things on my mind."

"Lucas?"

Letting out a short laugh, she shook her head a few times. "Not everything involves Lucas, you know."

"Well, with you it mostly does." Brooke answered, but only received a look from her best friend. "You know it's true, P." She added playfully and Peyton could only roll her eyes.

"It isn't." She defended herself. "Enough about me though, how was your latest ultrasound?"

Brooke started talking excitedly about the baby, but in the back of her mind she knew there was more to it than what Peyton told her. She had that look on her face that Brooke knew all too well, and she knew that Peyton wasn't going to let it out just like that. She knew she'd have to talk and talk to her before the blonde would tell her what was going on.

"You need to stop brooding, you know?" Haley smiled, bumping his shoulder lightly with hers. She had been at his place for a while now and they had talked, a lot. About the silliest of things, but also about his new coaching job, about Nathan's basketball, about her music. But through all of it, she had noticed that even though Lucas seemed to be glad to be talking to her, he also seemed kind of lost in thought sometimes, that broody look firmly in its place.

"What?" He smiled back, but his smile seemed just the tiniest of bits weary.

"I know you, Luke. What's going on?"

He shook his head a few times, though he was still smiling as well. He had thought he had done a pretty good job in disguising his worries and thoughts, but Haley had practically seen through all of it. "Nothing." He answered anyways, though he knew she would not approve of his answer.

Haley shook indeed her head, giving him a bit of a pointed look. "Okay, what about I ask you that question again and you answer without lying to me?" She said. "What's going on?"

"It's Peyton."

"What about Peyton?"

Lucas let out something between a scoff and a laugh. If only he knew what about her. "Where do I start?"

"At the beginning." Haley offered, that comforting smile that was so typically her on her face.

"That means we have to go back to Junior year, Hales." He replied, scratching the back of his neck. Eight years. Eight years since he had gotten to know the curly blonde and things had never seemed more complicated than right now. He didn't know where to start, nor did he know what to actually say. He only knew that there was something about her, something about them, and that he probably wouldn't be able to act much longer like there wasn't.

"Well, then do. Or maybe skip the parts I already know." She said, letting out a light chuckle. "You fell in love with her in Junior year, I know that. I also know that you've probably never fallen out of love with her."

He shook his head, "Haley –"

"Tell me I'm wrong, Luke." She answered before he could say more. She turned her body a bit more towards him and locked eyes with him. "If I am, just say so and then explain to me what's going on now. Am I wrong?"

"I don't know." He said honestly. "I just don't. Maybe you're right, maybe it's been there all along."

"Are you in love with her now?"

Lucas sighed rather deeply, looking at Haley as if he had no clue in the world. "I, yeah, there are feelings. But it just seems too late, or too early. I don't know. Maybe it's all just lost already."

"Lucas, are you even listening to yourself? Why would things be lost? Because some things happened? You really shouldn't let the past affect your present, or future." Haley answered, a hint of a smile around her lips.

She knew it wasn't easy, nothing had ever been easy between those two, but he didn't have to make it any harder than necessary either. She wanted her best friend to be happy, to lead a full live with love and laughter. To find the kind of love she had already found. When he had met Lindsey and they had started dating, Haley had thought, had hoped, that they'd be happy together forever. It had hurt her to see him living in an unhappy marriage and when he had moved back to Tree Hill, she had hoped with all of her heart for him to find happiness again.

And he had, she was sure he had, or at least he would. He just needed to see it for himself. He needed to realize that a future with Peyton wasn't some unreachable notion, because she was quite sure of that as well.

"Hales, we're friends now. Good friends, great friends even. I don't want to mess that up."

Shaking her head softly and placing a comforting hand on his arm, she smiled yet again. "Who says you will? She might just feel the same way."

"You seem quite sure about that." He said, trying to match her smile.

"Well, I guess it's because I know how you and Peyton will never be just friends. I realized that quite some time ago, maybe you should try and do the same."

Pulling Haley into a side hug with one arm, Lucas nodded. "I'll try."

"Okay." Brooke sighed a little, getting just a tiny tad frustrated by the brooding look on her best friend's face. It had turned out she was right. Even though Peyton was talking and smiling and seemingly happy she also seemed a little distant maybe. A bit lost in thought, making Brooke wonder all the more what was going. She had a fairly good idea though. "You know why Lucas and I broke up?" She asked then, surprising Peyton.

"What?"

"Me and Lucas. Break-up. Senior year." Brooke explained.

When she and Lucas had broken up, she'd had to tell Peyton of course. She had given a simple explanation, not wanting to get into it too much and somewhat just wanting to leave it all behind her. However, over the years she had always contemplated telling Peyton more about it. But it was a sore subject, the Lucas one, she knew that, and so she had never brought it up again. Now though, she somehow felt like she had to. As if, for some reason, it would be the only way to make Peyton see some things more clearly.

Giving her best friend a fairly confused look, Peyton shrugged her shoulder just a tiny bit. "It didn't work anymore, that's what you've always told me. You guys grew apart."

"We did." She nodded. "It just, it didn't happen just like that, you know? It had a lot to do with you, in some sort of way."

"I'm the reason you broke up? Brooke, I –"

"Hey, don't get me wrong! I don't blame you or anything, silly." The brunette smiled, taking a sip of her drink. "When you moved to Savannah, I saw something change in Lucas. He, I don't know, it was as if with you a part of him had left too. God, that sounds like such a cliché." She chuckled, but only received some more confused looks from Peyton.

It just sounded so weird to Peyton. She remembered leaving for Savannah and moving in with Jake. Nathan and Haley were happily married, Brooke and Lucas were happy together as well. There didn't seem anything wrong with them, not long before she had moved Lucas had actually assured her that he was insanely in love with her best friend. Needless to say, she was quite surprised when Brooke had told her they'd broken up. Hearing now that she was the reason, or so it seemed, was something she hadn't expected at all.

"He changed. He just wasn't the Lucas I fell in love with anymore. You left and it wasn't hard for any of us to see how that had changed him. I know he'll always claim for that not to be true, but you can ask Haley, she'll agree with me. It was as if you not being there just made him... I don't know how to say it, he just, he changed. And it made me realize that we weren't really working. He felt the same way and well, you know how it ended." Brooke smiled, but didn't get a smile back from Peyton. The blonde was just kind of sitting there, a little stunned by what Brooke had told her.

After a couple minutes of silence she looked up to meet Brooke's eyes, "Brooke, I... I don't want to be the reason you two broke up, how –, that just isn't right. You shouldn't be so okay with this, I –"

"You do realize it's been six years since then, right?" She chuckled again. "I'm over it and I don't blame you at all, never did. It stung a little in the beginning, you know. I had a hard time dealing with the fact that we weren't meant to be and that he wasn't the one and that Peyton Sawyer might just be his 'one' –"

"Don't say that." Peyton interrupted her, shaking her head.

"Fine. It was hard, but well, all break-ups are, right? And everything turned out great for me. I found my man, he's the one I'm truly supposed to be with." She smiled at the thought of Julian before silence fell for a while.

"Why are you telling me this?" Peyton asked at last, still trying to wrap her head around that whole new piece of information.

Sitting up a little straighter in her place and as she let her hand travel to her stomach, Brooke sighed lightly. "Because I want you to see how it has always been there. Ever since Junior year you have been in his head and vice versa. I don't want you to hide from it anymore, P. I want you to face it, you should face it."

"Face what, Brooke?" She said and sighed deeply as well. "Yes, we had something in Junior year. Yes, we slept together a couple of years ago. That doesn't have to mean anything right now. We have a complicated history, but hey, it's Tree Hill. Who doesn't have a complicated history here?"

"It doesn't have to mean anything, but it does. You know it does, don't you? You can't keep on hiding behind Tree Hill's craziness, you know."

Another silence fell as they both sat there, Brooke looking sympathetically at her best friend while Peyton was looking down at her hands, simply not knowing what to say next. When she finally lifted her head, she ran a hand through her hair, suddenly feeling rather tired.

"God, Brooke, who am I fooling? Of course it means something. I just, I don't know what to do. I feel something for him, more than I actually should, and I'm just sitting here, –"

"Hiding behind the past." Brooke finished Peyton's sentence, even though she was sure that wasn't what Peyton was going to say. "It's time to stop doing that, don't you think?"

"It's not that easy."

"It is." She said with a nod as if to emphasize her words. "You have feelings for him, tell him. He might just feel the same way."

Peyton knew Brooke only wanted what was best for her, but she really didn't think it was as simple as Brooke made it out to be. They were friends now, she didn't want to jeopardize that new found friendship with her stupid feelings. And whether they wanted to face it or not, there was still a lot unresolved history lingering between them. She knew Brooke liked to think that everything would just magically fall into place, but it wouldn't. Things would only get more complicated.

"Quite easy for you to say when you're already having the perfect relationship, isn't it?" Peyton said with a smile and maybe hoping just a little bit to get away from the current object.

"You talking about me and Julian?"

"Do you have any other relationships I don't know about? Of course I'm talking about you and Julian." She answered and rolled her eyes though they both had to laugh too.

Shaking her head, Brooke smiled as well. "We don't have the perfect relationship, Peyton. No one does. We're happy now, really happy, but things have been hard for us too, you know."

"You just make it all seem so effortless."

Brooke scoffed, "Effortless? You do remember the whole Alex thing and that time I drove all the way down to Savannah because I couldn't take it anymore, right? I was a complete mess. Luckily you and Jake were there for me back then. And I'm here for you now too, I don't want you to hide from your feelings or whatever other things there might be. Things with Lucas will turn out just fine." She smiled, placing a comforting hand on her best friend's arm.

Smiling back at her, Peyton slightly nodded. "Your optimism is inspiring, Brooke Davis Baker." She said playfully, though she partly meant it as well.

Maybe things would in fact turn out fine and they'd all live happily ever after.

A girl could dream, right?