Luke stroked her hair and allowed Peyton to cry into his chest.
"I'm so sorry, Peyton. I just can't believe that Jake would leave again." He couldn't think of what else to say or how to make her feel better about this situation.
She lifted her head from him, "It's not just that, Luke…this lady, she umm…she came to my door and she told me that she was my mother." She looked away, for some reason she didn't want to face him.
"What? But that's not possible, I mean, your mom died. This is probably just a misunderstanding."
"Yea, I know. She was probably just some weirdo or something. But for some reason, it just got me freaked out. I mean what if some guy came to your door and said that he was really your dad and Dan wasn't?"
He laughed, "Well I would probably cry, but with tears of joy…are you sure your ok Peyton?" He asked rubbing her back. She nodded.
She wasn't sure why she didn't tell Luke the whole story. The whole story that the lady told her. The story that actually made her wonder what was the truth. Maybe she didn't tell Luke because there was something blocking her from doing that. Maybe it was because she was afraid that if she did, then she would start to trust Luke and the feelings they had would rekindle. This was something she was sure that she didn't want to happen.
"Lucas? Peyton?" They heard a small voice call from behind them. Their heads turned around and they saw her.
"Hales………..you came back!" Lucas said excitingly as he stood up and walked fastly to her. He grabbed her in his arms and his warmth surrounded her.
"I came back," She whispered as they continued to embrace each other.
"Ummm, you guys? I'm going to go, you guys should be here alone." Peyton said as Haley and Lucas separated. "Welcome back Haley."
"Thanks." She said giving her a small smile.
"Peyton, are you going to be ok?" Luke asked her, concerned.
"Yea, I just need to be by myself" She said. She gave a small wave and continued to walk away.
Luke looked back at Haley, smiling. His best friend was back. But his smile soon disappeared as he noticed that she had tears in her eyes.
"Haley, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"Oh nothing, I guess I'm just overwhelmed by being back here." She started to turn and walk, "Let's go, I want to go see your mom…."
"That's crap, Hales" Luke interpreted her, "I can tell when your lying so next time you want to, don't lie to me, your best friend. Now tell me what happened. Was it Nathan?" He asked, concerned.
She looked down at the sand as she felt the tears well up in her eyes. She nodded her head slowly because she knew she couldn't lie to Lucas. "I went to him and he said that we were over and he's moving on and that I should too."
Lucas pulled her into him and began to stroke her soft, brown hair.
"Hales, I'm so sorry."
"It's all my fault, god, I have no one now." She said as she sobbed into him. He pulled her closer.
"That's not true Haley, because you have me. You always have and you always will. You're my best friend and there's no way your leaving me again because it was hell without you. He whispered softly into her ear.
She whispered in his ear, "I could never leave you again, Luke, because it was hell for me too."