This chapter begins Madison's Point of View again. Hope everyone enjoys and thank you all so much for the reviews. I was starting to think that my first story was a complete and totally failure. You all have reassured me that One Thing I Know is not a totally waste of time!

Chapter 14...

"Take A Look"

Liz Phair

I'm some kind of freak now and

You'll never see me the same

What's all the fuss about?

Are you sure you wanna find out?

Cause once you know the truth

You might wish you'd walked away

What if I'm not able,

To put my cards on the table?

And would it liberate you,

If you knew what I knew?

Part of me knew I should tell Lucas the truth, I mean he did deserve to know. The other part of me was saying, "Why would you tell him? It could ruin everything. He would get scared and leave, just like everyone else. For now, I would keep my secrets to myself.

I felt a single tear drip down my face. I quickly turned away from Lucas and walked out of the kitchen and back outside. Knowing that he truly cared about me and really wanted and needed to know the truth was what killed me. That letter was killing me, literally and figuratively.

No one in the world understood me like Lucas and when I came to the realization that he didn't even really know the real me... I hated myself for that. I really hated myself for what I was doing to him. Even though my parents were never home, they knew about Lucas. They had checked their voicemails enough time to have heard about him. My mother told me that I was just leading him on. On the other hand, my father, who I was more like than I had ever realized, was happy that I had found someone to share life with. He said that it was good for me to be getting out and have a healthy relationship with someone.

The warm sun on my wet body felt like perfection. Lucas stood over me. "You're in my sun I hope you know." I said to him, jokingly, as I waved him out of the way. My sunglasses covered my eyes from the sun from which I was hiding. It was also hiding me from something else, Lucas.

He picked up a lawn chair and moved it over next to me. "I know you don't want me bugging you about this," He began saying. I knew what was coming next. Lucas Scott was not the type of guy to let important things go. "But, is that letter something important?"

I turned to him, placed my sunglasses atop my head, and said, "Lucas, don't worry about me." I rolled my head back over and put my sunglasses on. "Really, don't."

From where I was laying I watched Nathan and Hailey in the pool. They had found the water guns left over from the last Poolapalooza, (which included pool, drinking, and loads of people,) and battled it out in the pool. The smile on Hailey's face could have lit up a whole room. I caught myself smiling at them, wishing that I could be like that with Lucas without being torn up inside. I sat up in my lounge chair. Lucas came over and sat behind me. I sat in-between his legs and laid back. He whispered into my ear, "I'm sorry."

My whole body turned to look at him, "For what?" I asked knowing that I was the one who should be apoligizing.

He wrapped his long, tan, muscular arms around my toned waist. The touch of his hands on my bare skin sent chills throughout my body. I knew that had to mean something. Normal people who had purely platonic feelings for someone didn't get the feelings I got. This was different, he was different.

"For bothering you about the whole letter thing." He paused and took a long drink from his glass of Coke. He licked the fizz off of his top lip and spoke again, "If it was important, I know you would tell me."

My body tensed up and he could tell. He slowly ran his hands down my arms and finally reached my hands. Our fingers intertwined and he brought our left hands to his face. He kissed the back of my hand and I turned around. "I am so crazy about you." I said, crawling off of the lounge chair. I stood in front of the chair, waiting for Lucas to get up.

He got off of the chair and walked toward me. We sat on the edge of the pool, out legs dangling in. He pointed to my leg, "What is that?" He asked, referring to the bruise on my leg.

I quickly moved my leg away and replied, nervously, "Oh, nothing. You know me." I laughed. "I just ran into my nightstand last night."

"And that one?" He questioned me, pointing to my left arm.

Running out of excuses, "Lucas... I am just a klutz and a night owl. I can't see at night, that's all." I stood up, "I need to go to the bathroom." I called out. "Anyone need anything?"

"A beer." Nathan replied, again.

Hailey hit him as she did the last time Nathan asked for a beer, "He is fine."

I laughed, "Nate if you want a beer, go in and get it yourself. I won't tell." I said winking at him. He smiled and got out of the pool, following me into the house. I went into the bathroom near the kitchen.

"Maddie, I am gonna used your bathroom, okay?" Nathan called out to me as he walked up the stairs to my room.

"Okay, just don't touch anything!" I yelled back.

I walked back into the kitchen and moved the infamous envelope from the kitchen table to the drawer filled with utensils. No one ever uses these, I thought to myself as I closed the drawer.

Nathan came down the stairs and said, "Hey Madison." I turned around. "Come up here."

I went up the stairs and saw Nathan standing in my bathroom. The doors under my sink were opened. That's where I hit them. No one ever was supposed to look in there. He pulled out two handfuls of pills, "What the hell are these?"

Running over to him, I grabbed the pills out of his hands and threw them into the sink. "Nothing." I turned on the water to send the pills down the drain. "What were you doing looking in there anyways?"

"I was looking for a towel." He looked around the bathroom and saw three towels on the back of my door. "Oh." Walking over to them he said, "Here they are."

Nathan didn't say anything to me as we walked down the stairs. As I reached for the doorknob to go outside, he reached for my hand. "Why do you have all those pills?"

Turning to him, I said, "You damn Scott boys are so nosy." I pulled my arm away from him. "Blame it on Dan right?" He nodded and I said, "Don't say anything to Luke about those pills please." I reached for his hand.

"Okay." He said, "I won't." I watched him slowly walk outside. He walked over to Lucas and began talking. He looked back at me. I gave him a half hearted smile, knowing that eventually I would have to tell Lucas the truth. Before it was too late.