Disclaimer:
To lie or not to lie, that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler to admit one possesses not OTH,
Or to perish in the prevarication of such untruth.
-Shakespeare/ Meg
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Peyton was lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling. Her eyes burned from crying and her throat ached, but neither compared to the sense of loss in her torn, broken heart. Beside her laid Jenny, the poor young girl who would never know the memories of her father. Jenny had been his world, and Jake had been Peyton's. And somehow, someway Peyton would gap that hole that Jake left and be for Jenny the mother that she entrusted not to Nicki.
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It had been five years since Jake had passed away. After high school, Peyton, Brooke, Lucas and all the rest went off their own separate ways. Peyton decided to move out to New York and see where the current pushed her.
Her and Jenny lived in a small apartment in Queens. Jenny was in her second year of school and enjoyed it very much. Peyton was managing a youth center with the help of her new friends she had made while working in an upclass restaurant.
The center was in an old abandoned train station. Peyton alongside Karrie, Abatha, Jacky, Samara and Eryk spent a couple of months fixing up the station. Inside of it, they set up a basketball court and a giant sitting area. They had desks set up with bookshelves of encyclopedias and other books that they picked up, so that the kids could do their homework there.
The center was something that Peyton and the others held close to their hearts. To keep it running, the group of six kept the odd jobs during the day and had all sorts of fundraisers to keep a moderate budget.
They held classes in the evening and on weekends. All of the activities that the teens participated in were free of charge; there were only three rules to abide by. 1- Be respectful to others, to the center and to yourself; 2- Clean up after yourself; and 3- Have fun. The purpose of the center was to keep teens off the streets and to create a safe environment where they can be themselves and enjoy it.
One night, once all the kids had left, Peyton, Samara and Eryk were cleaning up. It was 11:15 and Jenny was sleeping on the big red couch. Jenny was the star of the place; she was the beloved little angel that everyone wanted to be around.
"Mind if I put some music on?" Peyton asked Samara who was putting the books in their correct order.
"Yeah of course, go right ahead. I'm in the mood to dance." She added as she spun around.
Samara was always I the mood to dance. She was the most rhythmic person Peyton had ever met. She held various dance lessons on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and on weekends. She had grown up in Queens and had taught herself to dance. When she was 14, in high school, she took many dance classes and found herself teaching her peers who had been dancing "professionally" for years.
"Hmm…" Peyton fiddled with her bottom lip as she flipped through dozens of records. "Ah ha. Here we go." She said slipping a dance mix record that one of the girls had brought, out of its case.
After hearing a knocking on the doors, Peyton yelled, "Eryk! Go get the door!"
Eryk hurried out from the bathroom that he had been cleaning. "What is it that thou asketh of me my fair lady?" Eryk joked.
Eryk had always had a passion for acting, especially Shakespeare. He had read every play, sonnet and every other Shakespearean composition. He had memorized many of the famous verses from the plays and several dozen sonnets. Although, he had trouble with just about everything else, Shakespeare and roller skates were Eryk's two major passions and excellence.
"I asked you to answer the door." Peyton said with a laugh. "The door is over there." Peyton said nodding toward the door as Eryk got down on his hands and feet and walked awkwardly to Peyton and Jenny.
"Oh you're so annoying sometimes." Peyton said putting her arms in the air. "I'll just do it myself." She said trying to hold back a smile. When she was about half way there, the knocker opened the door and stepped in.
Peyton jumped back at first. "Who the hell are you?" she asked putting her hands out in front of her. She searched his face for something to remember him by. "Who are you?" she asked again backing away.
It's times like this when you wish you had a gun. Peyton thought to herself. When the guy slipped the hood of his sweater off, something was triggered in her mind. The guy had longish dirty blonde hair and a short scruffy beard. He looked like he had been roaming the streets for days.
Suddenly, his face began to take on traits of his younger years. "Oh my God." She said in a whisper. As a smile leapt to her face, she set off in a bolt towards him. "Lucas!" she yelled and leaped into him, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoving her head in his shoulder.
"Oh my God! I can't believe you're here!" She stepped back and looked over him as he stripped off his dark sweater. "You look so… grown up. I can't believe it's you." She exclaimed jumping into his arms. "I'm so glad you're here! Come on." She added grabbing his wrist and trailing him toward Eryk whom was now playing with the very much awake Jenny.
"Jenny, say hello to Lucas. He's an old friend of mommy's."
Jenny slipped off the couch and came over to Lucas and Peyton. She looked up at him skeptically. She took his hand and looked at the back of it. She traced lines over each of his fingers then flipped it over to place her little hand against his.
"Hello." She said then smiled. "He's pretty." She said turning to Peyton, who just laughed.
"Yeah he is." She agreed with a giggle, picking up Jenny and setting her on her hip.
Peyton sat down with Lucas on a couch to talk for a bit. When Eryk went to jump in, Samara stopped him. "Just leave 'em. They haven't seen each other since high school." Eryk sighed as he watched Peyton play around with Lucas.
"They were… together in high school, weren't they?" He asked with a drop of disappointment in him. Samara nodded her head.
"May I have this dance?" she asked as she switched the record from the dance mix to a swing dance one. Eryk laughed. He loved it when Samara would try to cheer him up. Her solution was always to dance.
"I'd love too."
While Samara and Eryk danced, Lucas and Peyton caught up on all the years that they'd been away from each other. Jenny had her head rested on Lucas' lap and would every so often mumble something in her sleep. When Peyton finally looked down at her watch, she saw that it was quarter after 12.
"Wow," she said with surprise. "We've been talking for almost an hour."
Lucas smiled and wrapped his arm around Peyton, drawing her into him. It felt so nice for her to be able to just relax on someone else. For the past five years, she had been on her own, raising Jenny, supporting herself and maintaining the center. Thankfully, she had Samara and Eryk and everyone else to help her out with all of it. But even so, it seemed like it had been forever since she could happily lean on someone's shoulder and just feel safe, feel like she wasn't alone.
"Well, it takes some time to catch up on five years." Lucas said turning to see the look in Peyton's eyes. "I missed you so much." He said and drew her face into his. Lightly he laid his lips on hers and kissed her for the first time in many years.
"I missed you too." She said and rested her head on Lucas' shoulder. She closed her eyes and just listened to him hum a soft melody.
Peyton was half-asleep when there came another a loud knocking on the door. It was quite unusual because people usually just stepped in. Peyton jumped out of her seat when they continued to knock getting louder and louder.
"Hold on!" She yelled. "I'll be right back." She said to Lucas as she stood up. She silently cursed at the knockers for disturbing her sleep.
"What do you want?" she said as she opened the doors. In front of her, were two young men dressed in all black. Assuming they were a couple of teens that frequented the center, she invited them in then asked casually, "What do you need guys?"
They grinned mischievously under the shadow of their hooded sweatshirts. Before Peyton could even react, the bigger one extracted a gun from his pocket. "Okay just put the gun down and
Peyton was cut off mid-sentence by a bullet in her chest. Eryk, Lucas and Samara raced over to the doors. "PEYTON!"
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It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
- ?