Chapter 6

Recap: "Do you know my dad?" Jesse asked looking at Karen.

She stood there trying to gather the right words to say. "Your mom dated a lot of guys, and most of them broke her heart, but, yes, I do know your father." Karen said.

"In fact, everyone in here knows your father." Karen said. "Except me." Jesse helped finish. Everyone looked at Karen so confused.

"Please don't tell me it's Dan!" Lucas said. Everyone was thinking it.

"No." Everyone sighed.

"But you're close." Karen said.

Everyone stood there thinking of all the people and the saying 'but you're close.' Then it popped into their head.

"Keith?" Lucas asked. Everyone stopped to hear what Karen would say next. The interest grew with every second that went by, and then finally she spoke up.

"Yes." She said quietly and everyone was silent.

There was a song going through Jesse's mind a Randy Travis song. One of the verses went.

If you never knew daddy, like I never knew mine, it seems like everybody knows your father best…

Over and over that part just kept going through his head. Then he finally said, "Who's Keith?"

"Dan's brother. The nice one." Haley said. Everyone laughed.

"Um, I, uh, I…got to go." Jesse said as he started to walk towards the door. "It was nice to meet you."

"You too." Karen replied back.

"It probably feels weird, that everyone one of us knows Keith really well and he doesn't." Haley said.

"Probably." Peyton replied.

Later on at Jesse's house:

"What's wrong, Jesse?" Jeff started. "You've hardly touched your food." He finished.

Jesse put down his fork and looked up at him. "Why, out of all the places in the U.S, would you pick this state and town to move to?" He asked irritably.

He shrugged, "They have good jobs here."

"You knew that my real dad was here." Jesse said.

It was silent he just kept eating his food, without looking at him. Jesse got madder the more he didn't talk.

"Didn't you!" Jesse yelled at his father.

"Jesse," His step-mom started when Jesse cut her off. "You stay out of this! You never even wanted anything to do with me!" Jesse was almost to his feet now.

"Hey! You don't talk to her like that! Ok? Yes, I did know that your real father was here." Jeff finally stood up and said.

"How lon…" Jesse started to say when he finally calmed down he said, "How long have you known, that he's been here?" he tried to say as calmly as possible.

His step-dad was silent. Jesse kept a mad stare on him; he knew that he had known for a long time. Jeff couldn't look at Jesse.

Jesse finally got tired of just standing there. He pushed in his chair intensely; his step-dad finally looked up. Jesse shook his head and walked out of the room and down stairs to his room, slamming the door behind him.

The next day Jesse walked into Karen's café and sat down in a booth. He put his elbows on the cold table and as his head went down he ran his fingers through his hair. He was still sitting like when Peyton came and sat on the other side in the booth.

"How you doing?" She asked looking him sympathetically.

He shook his head, and then looked up. "I used to ask him everyday who my real dad was and where he was." He started calmly. "And he lied to me!" he said now his voice raising.

"I know it's not the first thing he's lied to me about, but, I mean, this is a big deal!" he rubbed his forehead. Peyton sat there quiet; she could see the pain he was going through.

"I never got to know either of them," Jesse started, talking to himself, "it never felt like he really wanted me anyway, and losing on parent was bad enough, why would he keep me away from my only real family left?"

Peyton could tell he had thought about this already. She felt really bad for him, but she didn't know what to say.

"Come with me." Peyton said sliding out of the booth. "What?" Jesse asked looking up at her. "Come on." This time she grabbed his wrist and helped him out of the booth and they got in the car and drove off.

"Where are we going?" Jesse asked. "You'll see.' Peyton replied.

They pulled into a neighborhood and into a driveway. "Where are we at?" Jesse asked.

"My place." Peyton replied. "What are we doing here?" Jesse asked.

"I'm going to show you around town. But we're starting with my house." She said getting out of the car.

Jesse unbuckled and got out. He looked at her confused.

"Why are we starting at your house?" He asked. "Well, I need to change, actually. That's why." Peyton replied.

She unlocked the door and they walked in. "Feel free to look around. I'll be right back." Peyton said. Jesse nodded. Then she turned around and ran up the stairs.

He walked into the kitchen and looked around it was really nice in there. He found his way to the living room and went towards the fire place. There were a lot of pictures up there.

The first one he looked at was one of when Peyton was younger. There was snow on the ground and she was getting ready to go down a hill on a bobsled. She was wearing a lot of clothes and they were all different colors. Jesse smiled and went on.

The next one was a school picture, he wasn't sure what year but his guess was about 3rd grade. She had a lot of curls like the ones she has now, and there was a big smile on her face. Jesse laughed a little.

He kept going and the pictures of her and other people got older and older. One thing he did notice is most of them were her and her dad. Not a lot of her mom, and the ones that had her mom didn't have her in it. Then the last picture he came to was her and Jake and Jenny. He picked this one up and took a closer look.

Peyton came down the steps and saw him looking at it.

"That's Jake and Jenny." She said putting in her last earring. Jesse turned around fast, not expecting her to be there. "Sorry." She said laughing a little. Jesse kept staring at the picture.

"What?" Peyton asked worried. "Nothing." Jesse said looking at it still while he put it back. He turned around and looked Peyton up and down to see what she had changed. He stared and snapped out of it when Peyton said,

"What?"

Jesse shook his head. "No tell me. What?" Peyton asked again.

Jesse shrugged, "You look good. That's all."

"Thanks." Peyton said back trying not to flirt too much. There was an awkward silence.

"So…" Jesse started. "Do I get a tour of the rest of the house?" He asked, just trying to break the silence.

"Actually, we'll have to do it later. Um, see I kinda have this club called, Tric, and don't have anyone to perform tonight." Peyton said looking at Jesse. Jesse smiled.

That's it for chapter 6. hope you enjoyed it!