"Reminded" is a song by Drowning Pool.
As Luke silently drove off, his jumbled mind filled with distress and worry. Is she all right? he thought, even though he knew what the answer was. He remembered the first time he saw her when he was nearly killed. How could I forget? he laughingly thought. But this laughter soon turned to hidden tears as the blonde's memories flashed back like a river, glancing at everything that had happened since that first moment — finding out Peyton's mom had died, her father's line of work, that sort of thing always gave Luke a chill down his spine. He didn't want to think of Peyton in pain, at least not anymore. At least not after last night. His thoughts were broken as he pulled into his mother's driveway behind her car. Karen was just standing in the front yard, waiting for a response
"Luke..." she slowly said as he slammed the car door and glanced at his worried mother. "I know you left with Peyton." She looked nervously at her son. "Now Luke, I really wish you could have called me. You WERE NOT IN THE LAND OF NO PHONES!'
"Mom…" Luke started to explain, but was too overcome with emotions from leaving Peyton to explain.
"Lucas, go to your room before I can think of a better punishment!"
"But Mom, I—"
"Luke…Don't start with me…!"
Luke nodded quickly. "Okay, mom," he quietly said as he brushed past her on the way up to his room. He could feel her eyes following him as he trudged up what seemed like mountainous stairs and into his hallway. He plopped on his bed as soon as he got into his room and landed on what looked like a piece of paper. When he turned over to see what it was, he found that it was a note to him signed by Haley.
Later, Peyton sipped her coffee. She was reflecting on the other night, on Lucas. She could never figure him out––one moment, he's completely in love with her; the next, he's too caught up in his own damn life to care about her. Men are just too complicated, she thought, ironically. Moments last for only moments, she thought, but once the moment is gone, what happens? Do they last, or are they just simply moments that are meant to be lived, like the saying: carpe diem? She couldn't stop thinking in such depth since the last night. She couldn't stop wondering whom Lucas Scott really was underneath that façade of one who never cares.
"Lucas Scott," she said to the mirror in front of her, thinking of the guy she had once hated. She attempted with such difficulty to place herself in his shoes, herself in face of the guy who had left her just when they had reached a level of significance between each other, a level of depth. Deepness is the core of one's being––the art of being. Being thought of as strong; as a warrior; as a warrior of love. Peyton then noticed she had begun to draw the complexity on the sketchpad on her nightstand, a teenage boy's face turned into a man on the next side. The first half of the paper was enclosed by golden rays of sunlight, while the second half was veiled by a sea of darkness.
In the first half, Peyton had drawn what seemed to be a younger version of the Lucas she knew, playfully making the winning basket to a game against Brooke's sixteen-year-old self. Peyton couldn't bear to imagine them going out when she was with Nathan; the thought frightened her to no end.
The other side of the picture was of Lucas, only this time, he was somewhat older, although Peyton had no idea of how she had drawn this with such accuracy, yet with such similarity as well. He seemed to be a bit wiser in this picture, a shadow of darkness falling obsolete upon his face, masking the boy who once played the basketball game with Brooke and Peyton, the guy who once betrayed and left pain in his tracks.
Peyton went through the motions with these two drawings, taking in each and every last one, flowing through the river of her relationship to him, and the prison of guilt she had fallen into after the tangled web of lies was cut free.
Lucas…she simply thought, letting all the emotions rise up and down again inside of her. Luke, I couldn't have thought of a reason for your actions if my life depended on it. The instant she turned to rage, she expelled all the emotions that had been building up inside her. Now I'll never be alone. I'll be free from you for the rest of my life.
With this, Peyton stormed out the door, only to be in interrupted by an auburn-haired girl with almond eyes.
"Haley!"
