Chapter Nineteen

"Seeing as Whitey's a teacher and Karen and Keith are going to be chaperones what do you think we should do with Jenny tonight?" I asked Jake as the morning of the prom arrived.

"My parents I guess. Oh, and speaking of which-your dad hasn't come home in a while. You heard from him?" asked Jake.

"Yeah. I wrote him an email about us and he responded and then wrote again a few days ago. But I guess he's really busy or something," I said. Secretly I was still annoyed at him for missing my wedding.

"You know he had no idea we were getting married immediately," reminded Jake. I smiled at him lightly as Jenny began to make her presence known and I walked over to her crib to lift her out.

"Oof. She's getting so big," I said, recalling the baby that had lain in my arms perfectly still so many months ago.

"Yeah. I miss that," he said. Was he hinting what I thought he was hinting?

"She's so much fun now though," I said.

"So are you going to Brooke or Haley and Nathan's today to get ready?" he asked, lifting her onto her changing table.

"Brooke offered-I might just get ready, go over there and let her touch everything up. Maybe," I said. I nervously twirled my wedding ring around my ring finger.

"Okay. Just call me from wherever you are and I'll come and pick you up. For eight, okay?" he said.

"Yeah. Just no limo?" I requested.

"Tacky?"

"A little. And way overplayed this year," I said.

"Okay, I'll come in one of the cars. What should I be wearing?" he asked. I laughed.

"Do you own a tux?" I asked.

"No-I borrowed the one I wore at the wedding," he supplied.

"Okay. Wear a suit. Dressy shoes and a tie. What colour's your suit?" I asked.

"Black," he answered. "And your dress?"

"White," I said. That worked.

"Are you and Brooke anxious?" he asked.

"Why?"

"Oh, the prom Queen thing. Neither of you has actually campaigned, but it couldn't be anyone else," he said sweetly.

"I don't think it matters to her as much as it used to. I mean she's driving to her prom in her own car with her date, an AV geek. But her dress is gorgeous," I confessed.

"Speak of the devil…" said Jake. I turned to him, my back to the door as I heard an excited shriek.

"He's coming to Vassar with me! All the way to Vassar!" she said excitedly.

"Mouth?" I asked in interest.

"Yes, Mouth! He's coming, P. Sa… Jagielski, he's coming with me!" she said excitedly, hopping out almost as soon as she'd come.

"I guess I should get used to people never knocking?" he asked.

"Yeah. I used to listen to music really loud before you guys came along and I'd never really hear the doorbell. Not such a safe thing, for a woman living alone," I said reflectively.

"Yeah. I guess you were just lucky?" he commented.

"Yeah. And the first time he ever saw my dad Luke came in with a rake and tried to attack him. I had people to take care of me," I said. My mind immediately flashed to the kiss in my underwear.

"I'm glad," he said, laughing.

"Yeah. Um I might be in the bathroom all day-lots of work to do," I said.

"You look perfect already," he commented. I blushed. "And even nicer when you blush."

"Thanks, but I'm going for a manicure. I'll see you around," I said.

I spent the rest of the day doing treatments in my bathroom. After a while Haley joined me and informed me that Nathan knew of Chris and had taken it well.

We started off with giving each other pedicures and manicures in a bright red. She convinced me to was my eyebrows, which was painful but very neat. We did at home facials.

"So where's Brooke?" she called from inside the shower.

"She was very pleased with Mouth when she was here this morning," I said suggestively.

"Very Brooke of her. I love Mouth and I love the two of them together but part of me would have trouble dating a guy with a nickname like Mouth," she said.

"She calls him Lips sometimes," I said helpfully.

"Yeah, and that's a lot better. I have this scary feeling that I missed something yesterday," she said. I sensed tension behind her carefree words.

"Like an appointment?" I asked, leaning forward to examine the brown roots of my blond hair.

"Or something," she said.

"And you were… otherwise occupied?" I asked.

"Speaking of which, Brooke says if you aren't otherwise occupied by tonight she's going to start spreading it around town that you're pregnant," said Haley cheerily.

"Brooke's all talk," I defended. She walked out, dressed only in her lingerie. I looked away as she wrapped a towel around herself and came over to me with her curling iron and a brush. I carefully curled the tips of her hair and tucked it into itself in a style vaguely resembling a French twist, carefully added in some faked diamond ended hairpins to make it look festive and pulled the curls out of the top of the twist. As she admired her reflection, I was almost as surprised as she was at how good it looked.

My hair took about half as long. I suggested straightening it, to go for a different look, but she wouldn't here of it. Almost as we had at my wedding she pulled it into a bun near the top of my head and skillfully pulled down a few curls.

We both applied lipstick (of varying degrees of red) and traces of eyeliner and mascara before she left and I changed into my dress and shoes.

Breathlessly I slid my mother's diamonds into my ears and stepped back to admire the effect. My eyebrows were symmetrical, my makeup worked perfectly with the theme of the dress. It floated up as I twirled around.

I started as I heard Jake curse under his breath in the next room and suddenly recalled that a world existed out of me and Haley primping in the bathroom. It was odd, how long I'd expected spending this day, our last, with Brooke. But she'd been with her boyfriend-at least he was a good guy.

I ran out of the room, concerned. He didn't notice what I was wearing-he was messing with a blue and gray tie, attempting to tie it properly and failing miserably.

"Jake," I said, taking it from him and undoing his efforts. He noticed my makeup but I was too close to him for him to notice my dress.

"Wait a sec," he said, taking my hand and taking a step back. His eyes traveled from my head to my toes, lingering in my eyes.

The dress was slightly out of the ordinary-a Marilyn Munroe dress, for lack of a better term. The light fabric fell only to my knees. The bodice was on my shoulders and went down in a v to show. I twirled around for him and the skirt flared up, almost but not quite revealing my underwear.

"You look beautiful," he said sincerely. I blushed and closed the distance between us to work with his tie.

As my fingers picked up their knack and I stopped concentrating I looked up at him-he was already staring at me, so close to him for once. I pulled the thinner part through and messed with a knot for a moment. There. Done. I looked up again and smiled. I couldn't get myself to tear away from his eyes. He knew better than to try and kiss me by now.

Before I could think about it I reached up and quickly kissed his mouth. Glancing into his eyes, I silently dared him. He took it in a spectacular fashion-cradling my head on his arms, he kissed me deeply and longingly. I pressed up against him and set to work unbuttoning the buttons on his shirt as he tried unzipped my dress. Quickly I slid the knot along the tie, loosening it and tossing it into a corner as he shrugged of his jacket and kissed me again.

"God Peyton," he said, looking at me again. I was down to the corset tied bustier (lacy white and embroidered red rosebuds) and a matching pair of underwear. We fell backwards onto the bed and quickly found our way in each other's bodies after such a long time apart.

Half an hour later we were still in bed, blissfully content. I glanced at the clock-it was almost seven thirty. The prom, which I had been looking forward to, was now here and all I wanted to do was stay in bed with him.

"Haley's going to kill me," I said, sitting up and attempting to repair my hair. He took my hand and I tumbled back down onto the bed, laughing.

"No. I need to pretend this is our wedding night for a second," he said. I closed my eyes and imagined it too.

Another twenty minutes later I was once again ready to go, all evidence of our activity gone from me. Brooke would be the only person there that would be able to tell, which was alright with me.

He offered me his arm and I took it as we walked to the car. When we arrived he came around to my side to open my door before getting in himself.

Our prom wasn't held at THH, but at a place downtown. When we arrived inside it was surprising how nice it was-many little tables, hanging lights decorating a dance floor with a stage for a band. Over in one corner were two ballot boxes. We stopped there first as I voted for Brooke and for Jake.

We quickly joined Brooke and Mouth and Haley and Nathan. Brooke's hair was loose and curled. Her eyes widened as she looked from Jake to me-I had been right about her. In reference to a joke between us I fluttered my eyelids open and closed again.

Brooke and Mouth went up to dance as soon as they began to play-Mouth was a great dancer but Jake wasn't and I wasn't big on the faster songs. We stayed behind with Nathan and Haley, almost as close to each other as they were for once.

"You look great," I told Haley. She looked almost as she had when she'd left-but her hair, as well, showed slight signs of a last minute fix.

"You too. You should have one of those beauty mark things," she said jokingly.

"I can't believe you got out of wearing a tux," said Nathan to Jake over my head.

"I can't believe you own a tux," he retorted.

The argument was avoided as a slow song came on and the four of us went to the dance floor. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mouth and Brooke go together like magnets.

I wrapped my arms around Jake's neck. He draped his loosely around my waist and pulled me close and we swayed, almost as a single being, in time to the music. To my right I could see Nathan and Haley pressed up together, swaying. Slow dancing isn't really dancing in some ways, but in other ways the most intimate thing one can do. Jake pressed his lips to the nape of my neck and I stifled a giggle.

I was tempted to stay with him as the song ended but regretfully pulled away. Our intimacy had made my feelings for him blossom, my heart and mind in agreement for once. I didn't even think of Luke until he arrived later (stag), a traitor to my happiness.

"How'd it happen?" asked Brooke excitedly as soon as she, Haley and I had a moment to ourselves.

"What? It happened?" demanded Haley.

"You're hair's in disarray too," I shot back. She blushed and didn't deny it.

"Peyton!"

"Well he was struggling with his tie and I went out of the bathroom to help him and he was all absorbed in the tie but once I started to help him he noticed what I was wearing and admired him and then I got back to the tie we started staring at each other and he didn't lean down to kiss me like I thought he might but I guess he learned his lesson so I kissed him and then he kissed me and then we started taking out clothes off," I said.

"It was so the bustier," said Brooke in satisfaction.

A half hour later the principal took the stage.

"Gag me. This is tacky. Congratulations in advance," I said to Brooke, leaning back into my chair and crossing my arms.

"To our class of 2006-you guys have been a special class. We'll miss you and we're proud of each and every one of you. Now, the nominations for Prom King-Lucas Scott, Nathan Scott, Jake Jagielski, Ruben Gutierrez and Adam Narod. And you guys have voted for… Lucas Scott!" he said as the room erupted in cheers. The three of us exchanged slightly surprised looks-we'd expected Nathan to win, hands down. He awkwardly made his way to the stage and accepted a plastic crown. I giggled in spite of myself-this was the kind of thing I'd hate. When the room had calmed down, he spoke again.

"And, for the moment many of you have been waiting for four years-the nominees for prom queen: Bevin Greenwin, Brooke Davis, Peyton Sawyer and Nadia O'Connor. And in one of the tightest races in Tree Hill High history, our Queen is… Peyton Sawyer!" he boomed. I glanced sideways at Brooke, who looked like she cared surprisingly little. Jake, who's lap I was on, helped me up as I walked unsteadily to the front of the room and accepted an equally junky crown, feeling Luke's stare as I did do. How could Brooke not have won? She was student body president and cheerleader captain-unheard of until her time. Didn't Prom Queen belong in her list?

Haley's voice come out of the speaker with the same song she'd sung at our wedding. I walked off the stage.

"Peyton?" said Lucas. I turned halfway around-he was offering me hid hand. Oh, right. I took it and loosely placed my arms on his shoulders as his went to my hips.

Dancing with him was one of the most awkward moments in our history. He stared into my eyes as I looked past him, to Jake. He noticed my staring, I quickly realized.

Which was probably why, halfway through the song, he leaned down to claim my lips with his.

Almost instantly I pulled away and backed away from him. My eyes immediately swiveled to our table as my feet took me there. I heard running footsteps and Luke took my hand-I shook him off and kept walking.

Jake's expression was between hurt and anger. Haley and Brooke were both very worried looking, knowing more about the situation than anyone. Nathan looked between Jake and me, his brow furrowed.

I slipped into the chair beside Jake and tried to ignore the crowds of students who thought I was a whore. I placed my hand on his arm-he shook me off. Tears filled my eyes. He didn't even notice.

"Jake," I said pleadingly. He didn't even glance.

"Awfully nice parting gesture," he said.

"It's not like that. He just kissed me," I said.

"You're always talking about him. I didn't even question it until today. He's supposed to be one of your best friends, right? So I guess tonight was the first time you've kissed him since you broke it off?" he asked. Sometimes I underestimated how well he knew me.

"Jake," I said again.

"Yes or no, Peyton," he said. a tear slipped down my cheek.

"Please just listen," I begged.

"Yes or no!" he repeated. He jumped up from his chair. For the first time he looked at me-tears were in his eyes as well. With his gaze upon me, I couldn't lie-

"No."

I fled before he did. He dropped the keys in front of me and collapsed back into his chair as I ran, praying that even Brooke wouldn't follow me.

I blasted a song from my car stereo as I used to do before it had acquired a baby seat. Instinctively I turned my car back towards residential Tree Hill and found myself outside of Jake's old house. I ran up and rang the doorbell, hoping my eyes weren't suspiciously puffy.

"Peyton!" said Jake's mother, Lisa, answering the door and hugging me. "Come in!" I nodded and followed her to a crib where Jenny was sleeping. Carefully I eased her into my arms.

"Going so soon? How was the prom?" she asked. Her gaze flicked to the crown that was still on my head.

"It was fun. I got crowned Queen," I said. I smiled tightly to her before leaving again.

I left Jenny sleeping in her car seat before getting out a second time. I crept up the walk to the door to Luke's bedroom and placed the plastic crown on his stoop. Would he understand what I meant? Did it matter anymore?

Fearing I wouldn't be able to sleep I changed quickly into pajamas and went into the bed with Jenny beside me, suspecting that Jake wouldn't be home that night.