"Wake up sleepyhead, it's 7 o'clock and we're gunna be late." Peyton shook Brooke's shoulder after pulling the blanket off.

"Peyt wouldn't you rather just stay in today." Brook grumbled as she sat up and stretched her petite arms above her head.

"Nope, did that yesterday." Peyton threw Brooke one of her emergency outfits. Since they became best friends they had always kept a draw with the other's clothes, just incase clothes. Brooke moaned one last time before slipping out of bed and heading into the bathroom. She turned towards Peyton and glared before closing the door. An already dressed Peyton laughed to herself as she turned on her web cam. She began to turn around when an IM popped up.

-Hey how r u feeling- her stomach dropped as she read the sentence. After what she had done yesterday, Lucas still cared. She was hoping that he would just leave her alone for a bit.

-Better. Listen I g2g – Peyton quickly signed off and shut down her cam. Lucas sat in his chair once again confused by Peyton's actions. He just couldn't understand why she didn't want any kind of help.

"Give it time Lucas. She'll come around" Luke spun around to look at his mother leaning in the doorway.

"I know, I know…it's just hard knowing what happened." Karen gave her son an understanding look, not quite sure what else to say to him.

"Just give it time" she repeated, worry threatening to reveal itself on her face. She returned to the kitchen leaving an unsatisfied Lucas staring at the empty doorway. He turned back towards the now blank computer and sighed.

"Time" he mumbled to himself, aggravated at how hard he knew that was going to be. He shut down his computer, grabbed his keys and walked to the back door. He gave one last look at the black screen across the room and then turned and left.

Peyton fell back into her chair. She wanted Lucas to leave her alone. He had seen her at her worst and she hated that. The only person that was supposed to know what she was going through was Brooke. She knew she was hurting Lucas by pushing him away but she couldn't let him get close. Peyton stared down at the picture she had thrown on her desk the other day. Nathan and Brooke. They were proof of her wonderful effect on people. She pushed the thought out of her head, but it was only to be replaced by the guilt of her mother. She picked up a pencil and began to draw. Her hand remained steady as she curved the face lines. She was so involved in her work that she didn't notice Brooke had finished getting ready.

Brooke walked over to Peyton's chair and stared down at the drawing. The tears formed in her eyes as she took in the images in front of her. Holding back the tears grew harder as she watched Peyton create her mother on the page. She knew her former best friend hated self pity, so she never pitied herself, she merely hated herself. Brooke understood the meaning and hatred behind Peyton's drawing, something she knew no one else would ever really understand on their own. "Peyt, I'm ready" she plastered a fake smile on her face and hid her grief.

Peyton placed the unfinished picture face down on her desk and grabbed her keys, wondering how long Brook had been standing there. "Let's do it" she said casually, turning to Brooke, and placing on her own counterfeit smile. Peyton took a breath and buried her pain away deep inside her, like she had done every year. Somewhere inside her fortress she had dug a whole that no one would ever find. Her pain was her business and that was how she liked it. The two girls strolled out to their cars secretly prying for the day to be more or less decent.

The bell for first period rang as Peyton slid down into her seat in the back corner. She reached into her bag and pulled out her sketch book and a pencil. She sat for a moment, not sure of what to draw. Then she noticed Lucas's eyes on her. For a brief moment she was caught by the majestic blue, but she bowed her head and started drawing. Lucas sighed and turned around to listen to his teacher drone on about some European war. His mind was racing with thoughts of her. The pain churning inside of him. He felt like her was literally being torn apart, piece by piece, by his own misery.

Peyton's eyes shifted upwards occasionally to stare at his ruffled blonde hair. Although the period dragged for Lucas, it sped by for her. She was so engrossed in her drawing the she didn't notice the bell ring. It wasn't until she shifted her gaze and saw him approaching that she quickly threw her things in her bag and rushed out the class room, brushed right past him. His face fell as he watched her leave the classroom. He hunched his shoulders and turned to leave the classroom as something caught his eye. He made his way over to Peyton's desk to recover the drawing she had dropped. He picked it up vigilantly and looked at it with amazement at it accuracy. His eyes scanned the picture. He saw himself standing in her door way, walking away. It was when he reached the bottom corner that his face dropped further. As usual Peyton had added a comment connected with her image. "Thank you and goodbye." He quietly said to himself. His eyes lingered on the picture while his mind clung to the words. He closed his eyes and shook the thoughts away as he strolled on to his next class.

The rest of the day Peyton avoided Lucas as though he were some fatal disease. Lucas noticed it and felt like he had been stabbed in the heart. 'Give it time' he kept telling himself, but it didn't make him feel any better. He didn't want to give it time. Whenever he saw her in the halls he was tempted to run up to her, but then she would speed up and move as far away from him as possible. It went on the whole day, so he decided to watch her form a far. He was astonished by her happy-go-lucky act. You never would have guessed that the event of the prior day had occurred. He watched her flash her smile and laugh with her friends. Lucas's only wish was that her emotions were real and not some show to block everyone out. When the final bell rang, he watched her storm to her car and drive off. He shook his head and walked to practice.