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Beyond Good and Evil

Chapter Six: Oh God

"Oh God. I can't believe this. How… what… oh God…" a female voice groaned from the other side of the large bed. Lucas Scott briefly snapped his eyes upward to last night's conquest, before rolling them in irritation, and returning his attention to the journal in his lap. The exquisite leather-bound book came and went everywhere with him. Since he had received it at the tender age of twelve, it had acted as his favorite scorecard. In it, he had kept a record of every woman he had ever been with, what it was like, what she was like. At least, all of them that he wasn't too wasted to remember.

This was Lucas's prized possession. While he shared everything with Haley, including most of the information contained within, he could never bring himself to let his wicked stepsister read his journal. Maybe it was because a journal is a book for writing down your feelings, and they spent most of their time pretending they didn't have any. Or perhaps it was because with what he had written about her, he was afraid of hurting hers. Or of her hurting him.

On a scale of one to ten, which was how he ranked most women, Peyton Sawyer was about a 6.5. Not bad for her first time. However, with all the whining and hyperventilating she was currently doing, and the fact that the sunlight glinting off her dyed-blonde curls was impossibly blinding and was doing absolutely nothing for his hangover, he was seriously considering demoting her.

"How? Oh, come on Peyton, I know that you're inexperienced, but surely I don't have to explain the birds and bees to you," Lucas sneered cruelly, setting aside his journal and lighting a cigarette nonchalantly. Peyton gaped incredulously from the other side of the bed. Though they were separated by only sheets, there were worlds between them.

Finally finding words, Peyton began to speak, to scream, to rant, to break down. How had this happened? She didn't even like Lucas! But with those intense blue eyes, and those finely carved features, and that adorably spiky blonde hair, and those abs…

Okay, maybe it wasn't that hard to see how this had happened.

The crisp, clear ringing of a cell phone cut through the air, slicing apart her words. Clearly startled at having the wind knocked out of her sails, Peyton turned, startled, to see Lucas casually pick up the phone.

"Lucas Scott," he said professionally, a smile curving his luscious lips.

Peyton couldn't quite make out what was being said, but could tell from the look in his eyes and the muffled sounds that it was a woman on the other end of the line. Far from being hurt, the attractive blonde just felt …pissed.

"Of course I did," Lucas boasted arrogantly into the phone.

Pausing for a few seconds to take in the response, he rolled his eyes, and said with no real malice, "Oh, blow me."

Raising an eyebrow, Peyton was more intrigued than she'd admit as to who he was talking to. What girl would let him talk to her this way!

"Peyton? Hey, Sawyer, you here?" Lucas called to her, waving his large hand in front of her face, snapping her back to attention.

"Yes?" she snarled, anger returning. She had just given her virginity to this asshole. The thought was setting in, as was the soreness, and the thought made her quite uneasy.

"Well, not for long. You need to leave. I've got plans," he said breezily. Standing up from the bed, sans attire, he stood shamelessly before her. Then again, there wasn't much for him to be embarrassed about. Unabashedly checking him out, Peyton asked a question she already knew the answer to.

"You're just throwing me out? Just like that?"

"Looks that way. I'm going to shower. I'd ask you if you want to join me, but I'm in a hurry. You know how it is," he called over his shoulder, disappearing into the large adjacent bathroom. The whole room was very masculine, full of warm colors and earth tones. Shining hardwood floors lined the base, while the walls alternated between cream and burgundy and forest green in different sections. The room screamed of a hunter, and in a way, that's exactly what Lucas was. He ruthlessly sought out his prey, luring them with a look, a word, a touch, a glance, trapping them exactly where he wanted, before going in for the kill. Peyton noted with a wry smile that she could now consider herself his carnage. She didn't bother calling after him. 'Inexperienced' as she was, she knew that there wasn't a girl in the world with a hope of taming Lucas Scott, and though she had just given him her most prized gift, she no longer had any particular desire to even try.

Gathering her clothes as quickly as possible, Peyton tried to figure out a way of escaping the Scott house without being detected. The thought that Haley James lived her too had suddenly occurred to her, and what on earth would her best friend say if she found out what she had just done with Haley's stepbrother!

Hesitating for a step on her way to tip-toeing out Lucas's bedroom door, curiosity got the best of her. Weighing it for only a moment, she crept back towards the bed. Chancing a glance back at the bathroom, she could see steam billowing out from beneath the door, and the soft humming of a lullaby sounded strangely sinister could be heard. It was now or never.

Gingerly picking up the phone, as if someone would pop out of nowhere, screaming that this was just a test and now she was in trouble for God knows what, Peyton took the silver cellular phone into her artistic hands. She knew that she definitely shouldn't be snooping through Lucas's things, but she was just dying to know who had called him. With whom did Lucas Scott have so close a relationship that he would drop the trademark ice from his voice, share a laugh, speak to as if they were a person, not a pawn?

Trembling features clicked into the caller ID.

Haley.

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The tutoring center was most students' favorite place to be. Full of books for the studious, confidentiality for the embarrassed, comfort for the desperate, and hidden locations for the horny. Haley James was a regular fixture there, shining as the example of the model Oakwood Prep student. When the administrators' backs were turned, that was when the real fun began.

But today Haley would have to hold off. Though the beautiful blonde detested denying herself anything, she would have to exercise her willpower for now. It was her first meeting as a prospective mentor for none other than Brooke Davis.

Haley had to hand it to her. Brooke was no ordinary trust fund princess. She was far more beautiful than many of their classmates, and clearly more intelligent. But Haley James was born to exploit the weakness in others, to find flaws where they barely existed, to widen the hairline fractures to a gaping wound. She struck swiftly and deeply and imperceptibly, getting far ahead of her victim before they even knew they'd been duped. This had been the case with Peyton Sawyer, her new "BFF", or "best friend forever", for those who have never been a thirteen year old girl. While Peyton had been enamored with her newer, more glamorous life, her friendship with Haley and the growing embers of a relationship with star basketball player Nathan Lee, she had missed the slight deceptions. Now, if everything went according to schedule, she would be lying abandoned in a king sized bed feeling empty side, and Haley would have extinguished 'Neyton' forever, as the couple was called by their peers. So endearing. Unless, of course, you had one or more of the five senses, in which case it made you want to be very, very ill.

Yet there was something about Brooke Davis that managed to cloud even one of Haley's most triumphant days. She spoke exactly how a well brought up girl should, but there was something glimmering in her eyes that showed that she really meant it. She was courteous to people—she just was. She liked doing charity, and helping others, and being kind.

When Haley's games had gotten out of hand with male suitors, and it happened more than you would think, Lucas had always defended her fiercely. He was dismiss it with a casual, "The world needs someone like you to fuck it up," but Haley had always known there was more to it. There was always something more between her and Lucas.

He was wrong. It wasn't people like Haley that fucked up the world, it was people like Brooke. People are horrible, and corrupt, and constantly wage war against their own dark sides. They only win every once in a while. Yet they would be perfectly content to wallow in their own amorality if it weren't for the self-righteous breed which Brooke was. If there was no one to make people feel guilty about it, the world would go much more smoothly. There would be no need for people to put on a show, to fake sincerity, to pretend to be full of good intentions when they were really just like everyone else.

"And have you met Lucas yet?" Haley inquired, a sickly sweet tone doing well to disguise her contempt for the beautiful brunette opposite her.

The telltale blush. It spread across her porcelain skinned face, and gave Haley her first indication that she had found Brooke Davis's weakness. It betrayed her true feelings, because try and deny it as she might, Brooke liked Lucas. She could preach herself hoarse about morality and goodness and heaven, but at the end of the day, she still wanted the bad boy. Haley was a little repulsed by the thought that inevitably, Lucas would take Brooke's virginity too. It would be like corrupting Pollyanna, fucking over Dorothy. She could hardly wait for the shit to hit the fan. Checking her Cartier diamond-studded watch, Haley knew it wouldn't be long now.

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Well, not sure how that came out. It didn't do exactly what I intended it to, but please review and let me know what you thought.

Thanks for reading guys!

Xo Sam