Chapter Two

Walking into the club she smiled, the place was really coming together and it was going to be awesome tonight. She saw the empty stage and closed her eyes, imagining herself up there rocking out like Michelle Branch or Modest Mouse and some other kick ass musicians, but she quickly erased those images from her mind. No one knew she could sing or play and she liked it that way. It was something private, something that was only hers; the way something cathartic should be. Peyton then noticed the keyboard on the stage and decided to mess around on it before Karen got there. The teenage girl with curly blonde hair sat behind the shiny black keyboard and stretched out her fingers before beginning to play random notes to a song, that actually turned out to be a Jeff Buckley song. Groaning, at the memory she played on anyway hoping to forget about the cocky musician/record store owner Chris Keller.

Chris walked around Tree Hill for awhile until he finally found TRIC and walked inside, the club was pretty spacious for a 16 and above crowd it also had a nice stage, big and roomy. That's when he noticed the girl from the record store was on the stage playing the notes on the keyboard to the Lee Ann Womack song, 'I May Hate Myself In The Morning'. Seeing how focused she was, Chris decided to stick around to see if she could play any other instruments or sing. His questions would soon be answered, as Peyton looked around the club making sure it was empty because she wanted to sing. It was weird because she hardly ever wanted to sing anywhere else but her room, but for some reason she felt the strange need to sing at that point in time. Not noticing that Chris was standing by the bar, she ran her long fingers over the ivory keys of the keyboard and decided to sing a song she wrote about her break up with Lucas. Finding an acoustic guitar on the stage, she tuned it and strummed the strings, gaining a feel for the obviously foreign instrument since it wasn't hers. What she didn't know was that someone was in the club and she was playing his acoustic Gibson guitar.

Chris listened intently as he watched Peyton strum the guitar and he found that she had amazing skills, she could really play. As a friend of his said about Michelle Branch she played the guitar like a man. She was in total control of that instrument and the beautiful sounds that came from it; it was amazing. Then he found out that like him she was a triple threat: she could play, sing, and write. Peyton took a deep breath and began to strum the familiar chords to the song she had written last night and sang as if she were in her own room and not a seemingly empty club.

Seems like just yesterday

You were a part of me

I used to stand so tall

I used to be so strong

Your arms around me tight

Everything, it felt so right

Unbreakable, like nothing could go wrong

Now I can't breath

No, I can't sleep

I'm barely hangin on

Here I am, once again

I'm torn into pieces

Can't deny it, can't pretend

Just thought you were the one

Broken up, deep inside

But you won't get to see these tears I cry

Behind these hazel eyes

I told you everything

I opened up and let you in You made me feel all right

For once in my life

Now all that's left of me

Is what I pretend to be

So together, but so broken up inside

Cause I can't breath

No, I can't sleep

I'm barely hangin on

Here I am, once again

Torn into pieces

Can't deny it, can't pretend

Just thought you were the one

But you won't get to see these tears I cry

Behind these hazel eyes

Swallow me then spit me out

For hating you I blame myself

Seeing you it kills me now

No, I don't cry on the outside

Anymore

Here, I am once again

Torn into pieces

Can't deny it, can't pretend

Just thought you were the one

But you won't get to see these tears I cry

Behind these hazel eyes

Here, I am once again

Torn into pieces

Can't deny it, can't pretend

Just thought you were the one

But you won't get to see these tears I cry

Behind these hazel eyes

Chris stood up from his spot behind the bar and clapped loudly, making Peyton quickly open her eyes after she had closed them and judging from the shocked expression on her face she had no idea he had been in the room. Putting the guitar down, Peyton quickly ran off the stage and over to him, saying softly, "You weren't supposed to hear that." With that comment, the curly haired blonde ran out of the club trying to stop the tears in her eyes from falling, since she was an expert at it she thought she could make these stop falling but this time was an exception to the rule; she couldn't stop them from falling. What happened next only made her cry harder, Lucas and Brooke were outside the club running around laughing and smiling as they made their way over to a bench, kissing softly. Peyton, not wanting to see anymore ran as far away from the lovebirds as she could ending up at the Rivercourt, where all the memories she made with Lucas kept replaying in her head opening the flood gates that were her eyes, sobbing and mumbling as she remembered all they shared during their short and not productive relationship. Lucas really did belong with Brooke, she just didn't think it would hurt her this much that they were together now.