Chapter Sixteen
I wanted to kiss Jake-badly-especially that night in the kitchen just after Luke had kissed me so perfectly. To figure out if my heart was lying to me or not. But I couldn't-although he wouldn't know, I'd regret kissing him, feeling as though it was just making amends. Right now Luke was kissing me and not Jake-so I couldn't give the argument that yeah, I'd let like kiss me twice but hadn't Jake kissed me so much more often? It would be a weak argument, an untrue one.
Jake had to go in to school the next day to do his last final but I stayed home with Jenny. Jenny who was beginning to get into the terrible twos and be quite a handful.
"Can I come in?" asked a cautious voice near the door.
"I don't know, planning on being an asshole?" I asked bitterly, raising my eyebrows and taking on a look of fake questioning.
"I wanted to apologize to you-I haven't been respecting you or Jake since the whole thing with me and you and Nikki and seeing as the two of you are two of my best friends, you deserve that. I promise it won't happen again," he said.
"Of course it won't. But you know why? Not because you're on another one of your 'be a better person' campaigns but because I'm not going to let you seeing as I'm married. You know how little I respected Haley when she did the same thing to Nathan? And you're one of Jake's best friends!" I said.
"I know. But if it stops now it won't matter at all," he said. He was wrong-it would matter. But it would be nothing in a few years when we looked back at it.
"Whatever. Uh come in," I said. He stopped hovering by the door and looked at the sketch I was drawing-a beautiful Brooke with a skinny guy she was staring at.
"That Mouth?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said. I adding some shading to her face.
"That's great. How unbelievable is it that they're together?" he asked. I laughed in spite of myself.
"I know. It's great though-she needs a guy like him. She's dated lots of jerks," you know?"
"I guess I deserve to be counted in that list," he said, laughing grimly.
"I belong on a list as much as you do," I said.
"So are you still planning on going away to school?" he asked.
"I don't know. I mean Jake isn't and Jenny's practically my daughter and I don't know how I can stand to leave her alone all the time," I admitted.
"Jenny has Jake as well. And Mom and Whitey," reminded Luke.
"Jake needs me as well," I said.
"He does," said Luke.
"I went prom dress shopping with Haley and Brooke," I said, again steering the conversation away from dangerous territory.
"Oh yeah? Get something nice?" he asked.
"Yeah, we all did. It was a successful outing. But guess who we saw while we were there?"
"Who?" he responded warily.
"Chris. Being oddly territorial," I said.
"She won't go away again Peyton," he said.
"He likes her," I said sadly.
"No, he wants her, which is a completely different thing. However, she is completely in love with Nathan," he said.
"She was last time, too. It didn't stop her from leaving," I said.
"She'd never have left if Nathan hadn't said the things he said to her," he said. I looked away-Haley had never repeated his words, but I understood the gist of them.
"And he won't be crazy enough to say a think like that again, right?" I asked.
"Right. Besides, have you ever seen him this happy?" he asked.
"Yeah, before Chris showed up," I said.
"No, I think he's happier now. Now he knows that whatever comes there way, he and Haley can stand strong together. He didn't know that before," said Luke.
"I wish I knew that," I said, voicing my fears.
"I think that the fact that you care enough to fear that it won't work is a sign that you're strong enough to make it work," he said.
"Who are you taking to the prom?" I asked him.
"I have no idea. I could have asked you or Brooke as a friend, but now you're both taken. Know of anyone free?" he asked.
"No-I'm not abreast with gossip as I used to be," I admitted.
"Yeah. Maybe we could ask Brooke? About gossip," he clarified.
