Chapter 13: My Truth is in You

It only took a matter of moments for the apartment to clear of all their guest, Haley taking Jenny with her so that Jake and Lucas would be free to clear this situation up. Lucas was sitting on his bed his head submerged in his thoughts. Jake was leaning against the doorway watching the blonde who was gently running his hand around the unborn child, and he wasn't sure who Luke was trying to soothe more.

Cautiously Jake spoke up, "Where's your head at, Luke?"

Lucas' head shot suddenly remembering there was another person involved, his eyes landed on Jake for only a second before settling on the walls in front him. He didn't speak for a few seconds before he took and deep breath,

"I don't know if I can handle this, you know?" He began evenly, "I was just getting to a place where I felt alright about all of this. At first I saw this kid as the child of a man who cheated on me, and that…sucked. But then I remembered that I am Dan's kid and yet I'm nothing like him because I had Keith." A smile spread across his face, "I realized that about the same time I realized I had you. I even let myself pretend that my son was… Now, David waltzes in here and I have to remember that this is his kid, and I've never felt more alone."

"Lucas, you still have me." Jake reminded him.

"Do I, Jake?" Lucas looked directly at Jake standing in the door way, "You once told me that you have to be twice as honest, once for yourself and once for Jenny. And that's what I have to do, right now, because it's not just about me and how I feel. Right now, especially now, there are a lot of things that I need to figure out," He took a deep breath, "On my own."

Jake stood there feeling crushed at the sound of what he meant, "I…I understand, alright…um, I'm goin pack up my stuff, and Jenny's, and I'll give you the space…you want, but I'm not doing it because I want to, I'm doing it because I love you and if this is what you need, okay. I will be there waiting, for as long as you need. And if you…and…o…the baby need anything I'll just be a phone call away."

Peyton walked with her hands stuffed in her pockets, Skills knew when he needed to leave is girl to her own thoughts. Her mind was lingering why bad things happen to good people when she saw the newly familiar figure sitting on the river court bench, his eyes focused on the bottle in front of him. She approached him quickly, and when he didn't notice her, she grabbed the nearly full bottle out of his hands a slammed it against the court's concrete. He eyes blazed,

"What the hell?"

"No," She cut him off, "You don't get to 'what the hell' me. That's the question you have to answer. Let's start with why the hell would you cheat on Lucas? And just in case that wasn't enough you just had to come find him and possibly ruin the relationship he and Jake have been working extremely hard to build."

David eyed the blonde curls and spitfire stranger standing in front of him, "Come talk to me when the two guys you thought you could love end up loving each other…"

She remained there, "Welcome to the club, I'm already a member."

He looked down, "What's your story?"

"Like I would tell you," She stood up to him, getting in his face as much as her pounding heart would allow, "Allow me to fill you in on yours, when you cheated on Lucas you wrote yourself out of his story. Yes, you were the sperm donor, but that's it. So, right now you can either give a huge ass apology to Lucas and leave, or just leave and if he wants to get in touch with you, then he will, okay?"

A slow nod is her only response. And she leaves. She came, she released her wrath, and went on leaving David in her wake. He knew she was right, he knew he was stupid and that coming up here was mainly a reaction to discovering the grainy photo in his sister's new apartment and the recent breaking of his latest of a string of brief relationships. And part of he reason was coming up into Tree Hill was honest, he found out he fathered a baby. How does anyone react? To him, he thought this was his chance to save himself, believed so firmly that it was that seeing that he was too late made it worse. He didn't belong here. He dying anger tucked away, he made his way down the street on his way to disappear.

Jake kept his promise, for two weeks, he willing lived in his parent's house once more, watched Lucas from afar at school. Retrieved things from the apartment only through Nathan and Haley. Lived a doctor's appointment and learned what was new in the baby class Dr. Coffman was starting Lucas on through the girls' phone calls or brief visits. Nathan even showed sympathy to Jake by trying to talk to Lucas, but it did nothing. Jake did what he told Lucas he would do and it was breaking him.

When Lucas stopped going to school to finish the last three weeks through correspondence, it was Haley who informed Jake. Shaking his head to himself he skipped the last period of class and made his way to the apartments. Knocking on the door he waited until it was open, and stepped a foot so the door wouldn't close if Lucas decided not to see him.

The instant he saw Lucas on the other side of the door he began speaking, "Look, I just need a second. I know you want, need your space, but cutting myself out your life, cutting you out of mine…it sucks, Luke. And not having you in my life made me think a lot about how we both need to be twice as honest. So here it goes. I went to my cousins one night almost two years ago, and he got me into this club not too far from the one I took you to, and she caught me checking out this guy, who just happened to be David, and to prove her wrong I went out with her, and then slept with her. Yeah. She broke up with me right after that. And I thought that was the end of the rope, I had to face the truth and that's when her brother tried to make up for it. David slept with me when the night he knew Nikki was going to tell me she was pregnant. That was the moment I almost lost Jenny. " Jake took a deep breath, and continued.

"Maddie was a saint. She's the one who told Nikki to at least have the baby, and the one who brought me Jenny and the papers that told me Nikki wanted nothing to do with either one of us ever again. She would check in every once in a while, and so would David, I thought he wasn't as bad as he had been before, I thought he had changed by the time you met him. But I was wrong, and I'm sorry for that. And I let Maddie have a copy of the sonogram picture, and that's how David found out, she texted me the moment she saw it missing and I didn't tell you because I was trying to protect you. And I'm telling you all of this now, because I owe it you be honest to you."

"So, um…while I'm being completely honest that you should also know that I miss being with you, that I love the look on your face when your thinking, I think your music abilities suck, but I love listening to you try, I love that you would put up with me even I don't deserve it. Your eyes are my favorite color, especially after you just woke up. This is the first embarrassing speech I have ever made to anyone, but if you wanted me to make a million of them I would. I'm not perfect, but I'm being honest; I'm being honest for me, and for Jenny and I'm being honest for you and our son."

He calmly finished, took a breath and waited for the response.

Oh…I guess I've been feeling a little evil with my endings. And I realize this chapter is really dialogue heavy, like obesely dialogue heavy, but this is what felt right for the chapter and one of the chapter I put a lot of thought into what they were saying so I hope you guys appreciate that….Alright I hope you enjoyed.

Until next time, this is me…signing out.