Chapter Thirteen

The Arguments

Lucas walked through the cafeteria doors and found Peyton right where Haley said he would. She was talking to a few girls he recognized from the squad. He quickly walked up to her and saw her face light up."Peyton we need to talk."he said coldly.

Peyton continued to smile at him, not seeing the seriousness on his face."Sure thing Luke, lets go somewhere."he turned and walked away. She turned to the group of girls and smiled."Wish me luck."she walked off to catch up with Lucas.

The girls were left confused. They all could see that Lucas didn't look happy to see her and didn't know how Peyton couldn't see it.

Lucas stopped a few feet away from the open gym door. He turned to face Peyton.

Peyton stopped a few inches away from him and looked into his eyes."So what was so important that you needed to talk to me about it in private?"she asked cocking up one eyebrow.

Lucas looked at her confused."Your the one who wanted to talk somewhere else. I would have done it over there."

"I know."she placed her hand on his upper arm and gently stroked it.

Nathan was about to leave the gym when he heard voiced coming from the hallway. He walked closer and saw that the voices were coming from Lucas and Peyton. To him this looked like they were trying to meet in private. His jaw clenched when he saw Peyton start to touch him. He couldn't believe that after all the times Lucas swore that he loved Brooke, he was now here with Peyton. He continued to watch not caring if they saw him. He was surprised when he saw Lucas push Peyton away from him.
Lucas placed his hand on hers and pulled her hand from his arm."Peyton you have to stop this. Stop touching me like this. I didn't ask you to and I don't want it either. I don't know how many times I have to tell you, but I want to be with Brooke. I don't want to be harsh, but I don't think your getting it."

What he said hurt, but she quickly recovered."I get it Lucas, but I see how much your hurting and alone right now because of her and I just wanted to let you know that I'm here for you. I can be very good at making people feel less lonely."she looked up at him with what she thought was a sexy grin, but he only saw as her looking ridiculous.

"Do you hear yourself Peyton? Your practically throwing yourself at me, even after I just told you to stop."

Peyton laughed."I find it funny that you keep saying how much you want someone who can't stand you right now. She's never gonna forgive you Lucas, no matter what you say or do."

"Your probably right, but she's also never going to forgive me if you keep telling her lies about me. Did you think that I wouldn't find out what you said to her?"

"I knew you would Lucas. I was planning on telling you myself. I did it for you. I figured that if she thought you were moving on with me, she would want you back. I still think that it can work."

"Peyton your delusional. There's no way that would work or that I'd even try it. Look I don't want to talk about this anymore. I just want you to stay away from Brooke. Stop telling her all these lies about me. We are never going to be together. Everything we did was a mistake that I wish to god I could take back everyday. I wish you understood that."

"I do understand that. You keep saying how I was a mistake and you wish you could take it back, but I don't. I love you Lucas. I always have. Do you know how hard it is to be kissing you one day and planning to be with you then have to listen to your best friend gush about how much you love her the next? I don't think you do. It hurts. It's a pain you can never get rid of."

Lucas' face softened slightly."I'm sorry for what I did to you Peyton. I guess I never really saw this from your point of view. I wish I could change things, but I can't. Everything you just said doesn't make it alright to lie about me to Brooke though. We've done enough of that to her don't you think? We should be trying to make it up to her, but instead you trying to hurt her. It's like you want her to hate you."

"I just hate that she always gets what she wants and I never do. Every guy that I've liked always wants her. Nathan was in love with her and because she turned him down, he had to settle for me. I could always tell that he really wanted her when he was with me and then there was you. I thought we had this deep connection, but then when it was up to you to make a choice you chose her. Later you led me to believe you wanted me only to go and tell her how much you love her. So please excuse me if I'm a little bitter about this."

"Look I don't want to sound like an insensitive jerk or anything, but just because you have those feelings doesn't give you the right to try and ruin everything Brooke has."

"Brooke this, Brooke that. I am sick and tired of hearing about Brooke."she shouted. "Can't you get her out of your head for five minutes? She's not worth it Lucas. I wish you could see that. Brooke doesn't do relationships. She's the type of girl that lets guys fuck her for the fun of it. That's all she's good for, that's all she'll ever be good for. She's an easy lay Lucas, but I guess you already know that."

Nathan couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stand there and let Peyton talk about Brooke like that. He started to walk forward, but stopped when he heard Lucas speak. He wanted to know what he would say to this.

"Peyton shut the hell up. She's supposed to be your best friend, but here you are talking about her like this. Obviously you don't know her like we all thought you did."

"And you do?"

"Yeah, I do. She is so much more than that. I have never met anyone more caring than her. She always puts others first and herself last. She loves with her whole heart and because of that she is loved back. You call her a slut, but your the one who keeps throwing yourself at me even though I repeatedly tell you I'm not interested. Now I have been nice to you and because of the fact that I hurt you and felt guilty about it I wasn't able to see what you were doing, but not anymore. I am not going to give you any more ammunition to lie to Brooke with. You need to stay the hell away from her and me from now on."he didn't know if he was too harsh, but he didn't care. It felt good to tell Peyton off after everything she said about Brooke. There was no way he was going to let anyone talk about her like that.

Peyton opened her mouth to say something, but shut it when she heard Nathan.

"I'd save it if I were you. I don't think he wants to hear anything more you have to say. I think it would be best for you if you left. We don't want to see what Lucas does when he's really angry."said Nathan with a laugh.

Peyton looked at Lucas one last time. He stared back at her with a cold expression on his face. She turned and walked away.

Nathan turned to look at Lucas once she was out of sight, Lucas in return looked toward him too.

"I'm surprised, you handled that pretty well. I assume this was because of what she told Brooke earlier."

"Yeah, Haley told me all about it and I had to put a stop to it."

"You know as much as I hate you and believe me I do, I never thought you'd call Brooke a bitch, so I knew it wasn't true."

"It wasn't. I wouldn't even think that about her."

"That's good because if you did, I'd have to kick your ass."

"And you'd enjoy doing it right?"Lucas finished for him.

"That's right. Brooke's been hurt enough by the two of you and I'm not going to let that continue to happen."

"I don't expect you to believe me, but I would never hurt her like that again. I love her too much."

We'll see. Look I really appreciate what you said about Brooke and how you shut Peyton up. She went too far with everything she said. I kinda wish Brooke would have heard everything though. She would have shut her up in a completely different way. It definitely would have been entertaining."laughed Nathan.

"Yeah, I bet she would have. Brooke is pretty feisty, but she really didn't need to hear all of that."

"That's true, but I have to tell her though. She has the right to know what someone is saying about her and right now keeping things from her is not a smart thing to do."

"Your right. So what were you doing here besides eavesdropping?"

"I wasn't eavesdropping at first. Whitey made me come down here. He said he knows we hate each other, but we still need to work together. I didn't want to agree, but he made me. He said he'd bench both of us if we didn't agree to it."

"What the hell are we supposed to work on together?"asked Lucas a little frustrated at the idea of doing anything with Nathan.

"Coach says I need to work with you on how to drive the ball to the net and you need to work with me on how to create open space to shoot when I'm being double and triple teamed."

"Well you do suck at that."

"Well you suck at driving the ball to the net."

"Then I guess we could both use a little help."

"That's what Whitey said."

Lucas grabbed the ball from Nathan's hands and drove the ball to the net."Looks like I don't need help after all, but you still do."

Nathan ran over to him."Oh yeah? Try that now."

Lucas tried to get the the net, but Nathan blocked him every time. Lucas took a few steps back and shot the ball. It went in.

"We already know you can do that. So it looks like your going to need my help after all."

"Whatever."he rolled his eyes. Nathan was right and he hated it.

They played for a while and showed each other what the other one needed to know.

"Well, well, well, now how is it that I knew exactly where to find you Natey Boy?"asked Brooke before she realized Lucas was also there."What is he doing here and why are you hanging out with him Nathan?"Brooke was now confused. This was the last thing she ever thought she'd see.

Nathan dropped the ball and ran over to her."Look I'm not hanging out with him."

"Really because it looks like that to me."

"This is all Whitey's idea. He thinks I need help on creating space to take open shots and Lucas needs help driving the ball to the rack."

Brooke just stared at him."Okay, I'm not even going to pretend I know what you just said."Nathan and Lucas both laughed causing Brooke to turn in Lucas' direction. She smiled at him."So did you ever find your girlfriend?"

Lucas shook his head. There was nothing he could say to make her believe him anyways.

"Brooke, come on stop."

She turned back to Nathan."I can't believe this. You spend ten minutes with him and now your defending him like he's your new best friend. What's going on Nate?"

"Look, I should go. We'll work some more tomorrow Nathan."

"Yeah, whatever. See ya."

Lucas grabbed his stuff and left the gym.

"Okay, now are you going to tell me what alternate universe we're in right now?"

"Brooke your acting like I committed a crime or something."

"I just find it funny that not too long ago you practically forbid me to talk to him and now I see you being all buddy, buddy, with him. You wouldn't even let me say anything to him."

"I'm just doing what Whitey told me to. Nothing more. He said if I didn't work with Lucas to improve my game he'd bench me and I'm not going to let that happen. So if spending some time with Lucas is going to keep me in the game, then that's what I'm going to do. This in no way means we're friends. I still hate him and want you to stay away from him."

"It was just really weird to walk in and see you two together."

"I know and don't worry it's not going to become a habit."

Brooke laughed."It better not. I don't want Lucas to start rubbing off on you. Wow, I never thought I'd say that. Normally your the one who shouldn't be rubbing off on people."

"Thanks Brooke. At least now I know what you think of me."

"Hey, you know it's the truth. You used to be known as The Bad Boy of Tree Hill. Haley sure has changed you."

Nathan laughed.

"So when you found Lucas was he with Peyton? God I don't even know why I care."she sighed.

"Neither do I, but yes they were together."Brooke shook her head. Of course they were."As shocking as it is, it wasn't for the reasons we would have thought."

"Haley did say he wanted to yell at her or something for lying to me, but I wasn't convinced. Did he?"

"Oh, he did that and then some. I was actually surprised at him. It made me hate him a little less."

"Wow, well now I'm curious. What did he do?"

"Nothing really he just stood up to Peyton when she said some pretty bad things about you."

"What did she say?"

"You don't really need to know all of that."

"What did she say?"repeated Brooke.

"Fine, she said that your not into relationships. You like to sleep with random guys for the fun of it and your not worth all the time Lucas spends thinking about you. Just stuff like that, although her version wasn't as clean as mine."

"She is such a bitch. She is basically calling me a no good, worthless, slut."

"Yeah, well Lucas pretty much told her that she was the slut who kept throwing herself at him after he repeatedly told her he didn't want her."

"Lucas really said all that?"she asked as her face softened.

"Yes."

"What else did he say?"

"I don't think I should tell you. I don't want you thinking about forgiving him."

"Nathan don't be ridiculous. I'm not going to forgive him just because he said a few nice things about me. I just want to know what he said."

Nathan sighed. He knew he should tell her everything."He said you were the best person he knew, who had the biggest heart and always put others before yourself and he loved you for it."

"Well if I didn't hate him so much, I might just fall in love with him all over again."

"You see that's why I didn't want to tell you. You still need to stay away from him Brooke. He's still the one who cheated on you."

"I know, it's just good to know that he loves me and that there's no way he wants to go back to Peyton."

"I guess that is good news."said Nathan sarcastically.

Brooke was on her way to practice when she saw Peyton walk into the locker room. She quickly went in after her. She knew she should be the bigger person and leave it alone, but not this time. Peyton went to far."Hey, Peyton."

Peyton stopped walking when she heard Brooke call out to her."Brooke what do you want? I don't have time for this right now."

"Oh, really? You don't have time to talk to me? It's funny because earlier you had all the time in the world to come up to me and tell me all of those lies. So where are you rushing off to? Another fantasy make out session with Lucas? Or has he finally been able to convince you that even your fantasy of him is not interested in you?"she smiled at her, the same smile Peyton gave her earlier that day.

"Brooke you can believe what you want, but only Lucas and I know what really happened yesterday and if for some reason he wants you to think it was nothing, then okay, I lied. Nothing happened."

"You don't honestly think I'm going to fall for that, do you? Nathan heard the whole conversation you and Lucas had earlier. So you can keep your lies to yourself. Nobody believes a word that comes out of your mouth anymore."

"You think you are so smart, don't you? I was only doing you a favor."

Brooke laughed."Oh please, do tell me how."

"Well I know that Lucas keeps leading you on and making you think he wants you back, when in reality it's me he wants. He feels really guilty for hurting you and knows how much you love him. He thinks that if he's with you even though he doesn't want to be, it will make up for everything he did. He's willing to do anything to get rid of that guilt. I don't agree with what he's doing and you've been hurt by him already. I don't want you to take him back and then in a month or so when he can't take being with you anymore he hurts you again by being with me."

Brooke placed her hand on her heart."I'm touched Peyt. You've become a lying bitch for me. Wow. I mean a minute ago you wanted me think you and Lucas were still together yesterday, but now that you know I know it's not true, your saying you lied to help me out."

"Whatever Brooke."said Peyton as she turned to walk away.

Brooke walked up to her and grabbed her arm and forcefully turned her back to face her."I'm not done with you yet."Peyton pulled free from Brooke's grasp."If you have anything to say about me, say it to me, not to Lucas behind my back, but keep your lies to yourself."

"If by lies your referring to calling you a worthless slut then, those aren't lies at all. Come on Brooke, everybody in here knows how much of a slut you are. Hell just ask the basketball team, you've slept with more then half of them. It's no secret and Lucas deserved to know that if he hadn't of cheated on you, you would have done it to him."

Brooke couldn't take it anymore. She'd let Peyton go before, but not again. She lifted up her hand and slapped Peyton clear across the face. The sound echoed throughout the locker room.

Peyton placed her hand over her cheek and held it. She never thought that Brooke would hit her. Her shock wore off and she tried to lunge at Brooke, but was held back by a couple of the girls that had been watching everything."Peyton knock it off. You know that if Brooke gets her hands on you you'll regret it."said Theresa, who was still holding her.

"I don't think so."shouted Peyton.

"Let her go."said Brooke. Theresa hesitated, but she and Kelly did as she asked."She's not worth it. You know I may have been a slut, but I was and always will be a better person than you. Just ask Lucas. Oh, that's right, you can't. He told you to stay the hell away from him and if you haven't already guessed, your off the squad. Now get out."

"You can't do that."

"I just did. You and I both know I have the authority to kick anyone I want off."

"We'll see."said Peyton as she walked away."

"Yeah, we will."Brooke went to her locker and started to change.

Theresa and Kelly ran out of the locker room and into the gym and up to Bevin."Hey you totally missed it."screeched Theresa.

"Missed what?"

"Brooke and Peyton just had it out in the locker room."said Kelly.

"Are you serious?"asked Bevin.

"Brooke slapped her hard and then kicked her off of the squad. It was pretty awesome, well not for Peyton."laughed Theresa.

"Well good for Brooke. If I was her I would have done more than just slap Peyton."all three girls walked off to tell everybody else what happened.

Lucas watched them walk off. He heard everything they said and couldn't believe it. This was the last thing he wanted. He didn't want thing to get to be physical with them, but now they had. He knew Brooke and if she slapped Peyton she had to have deserved it. She was the last one to get physical with anybody, so he knew Peyton had to have asked for it especially if she had said any of the things to Brooke she had said to him earlier. He shook his head and went to get a ball to start practice.

A/N:Thanks for all of the reviews.

KinGsFan:Thanks for the review. Your right, Brooke isn't giving him a chance, but he really screwed up. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

ZoeLuv80:Thanks for your last two reviews. They were great. I hope you do well on your finals! I'm glad to hear that my story is a stress buster for you. I feel the same way about writing it. You were right Lucas was being stupid and he did deserve what Peyton did to him, but I think he's wising up now. Your also right that Brooke doesn't really trust Lucas and she knows it. She's starting to believe he really loves her and that is a start right? Now I can't tell you when Kieth and Karen will be making an appearance yet because I'm not sure myself, but I do have something planned for them, but Karen is still out of the country. It will be coming up though. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

crazy:Thanks for the review. Yes I know, Peyton is a liar and I hate her too. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

brucasfanatic:Thanks for the review. I really loved it. It made me laugh. I hope you finally got some sleep.lol. So yep, Peyton is a bitch. Having her admitted is a great idea. I'll have to see if I can fit it into my story.lol. I really hope it was the story that gave you the goosebumps and not the open window.lol. And yes Lucas is being dense, but I think he's wising up a bit now. I really love your reviews and look forward to the next one. I hope you liked this chapter. I don't really know how I feel about it so let me know what you think. Thanks.

Mrs O-Town:Thank you very much for the review. I have to tell you that it is and honor getting a review from you and knowing that you've read my story. I am totally in love with everything you write. Thanks again for the review.

BlueSilverLining:Yes Brooke and Nathan don't really let anyone explain which causes problems. It's a good thing that he stuck around to hear every thing that happened with Lucas and Peyton. I debated having him leave when he saw Peyton touch Lucas, but in the end he saw that maybe, just maybe Lucas really does love Brooke. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

gannongrl: Thanks for the review. I don't know if you'll get this thanks, seeing how you probably stopped reading because your not a Brucas fan, but it really means a lot that you took time to let me know what you thought even though you don't like Brucas. So thanks again.

Thanks again to everybody who reviewed and even to those who just read the story without reviewing although I'm hoping you all review. This was a hard chapter for me to write. I wanted Lucas to be cruel to Peyton because she deserves it, but I didn't want to make him really out of character. So I did the best that I could. I also had a hard time with the Brooke and Peyton argument. Brooke finally slapped Peyton. I didn't know if I should have had her do that, but in the end she did. I also had the Lucas and Nathan scene in there that I wasn't sure how to write. They hate each other so it was hard for me to write them getting along. Please let me know what you all think about this chapter. I think it is my worse so far. Do you think it would be a good idea to have Lucas and Nathan kinda get along or should I keep them hating each other. Let me know what you think. Please read and review. Thanks. Oh I just wanted to say I used a couple of one liners from the show. I'm sure you know which ones. Those were all courtesy of the writers.

Coming Up:

Brucas filled chapter.

Brooke is in trouble.

Brooke gets a craving.