Title: Will You Fall for Me?
Author: Jayta
Rating: PG18 - however does contain some coarse language
Show: One Tree Hill
Pairing: Peyton/Jake
Chapter Eight: Wreckless
"It was a good night." Peyton smiled, as Jake escorted her to her doorstep. It brought back memories of the night of semi-formal.
"I don't know if I can call it a success having to endure Alexander." Jake shivered at the attempted epic movie. "I mean, the guy mouth-to-mouth?"
"Hey you called 'no chick flick'," she reminded, laughing at his squeamish reaction.
"But Colin Farell?"
"Hey maybe not a turn on for you but..."
"Don't even say it," Jake warned, pressing his finger to her lips. They were warm and soft. He could feel her breath against his hand. "That is just wrong."
"You didn't find it the least bit hot?"
Jake raised an incredulous brow at her suggestion. "Okay, maybe I don't know you as well..."
"I'm just kidding!" Peyton hit him playfully.
"I was just making sure. You never know." Jake raised his hands in surrender.
"Oh shut up," she laughed, opening the front door. "Do you want to come in?"
"I should go, Jenny hasn't been feeling well the past couple of nights."
"Really?" Peyton frowned. "Does she have a cold or something?"
"Not sure," Jake shrugged. "If she doesn't sleep through the night tonight, we'll make an appointment for her tomorrow morning."
"I guess I shouldn't keep her daddy here all night then," she said mischievously, resting her hands on his chest. "I can see you're in pretty high demand. And definitely deserving."
The way she said that made him melt and his heart race. She had a way of doing that to him. With a look she could make his knees almost like jello. That night, being in the movie theatre was the oddest, yet most natural feeling in the world. They did nothing more than just hold hands throughout the movie, but even that made his heart race.
"It's nice for you to think so," he smiled lazily, sliding his hands around her waist until they rested light against her hips.
"Oh, I definitely do."
Bending down, he gently brushed his lips against hers. He pulled her gently against him until her body molded to his. With his lips, he coaxed hers apart until their tongues danced in a slow kiss.
Peyton slipped her fingers into his light brown curls, drawing him further into the steamy languid kiss. Her hips moved against his, as the desire to be closer to him grew inside of her, causing a groan to escape both their mouths.
"Okay," Jake groaned, gasping for air as he pulled away. "Slow down."
"What?" she asked distractedly, coaxing him into another kiss.
Jake shook his head as he forced himself to pull away again from Peyton's enticing, full, wet lips. Gazing into the sea of blue, he traced the line of her lips with his thumb and smiled. "I do have to face my parents at the end of the night," he reminded her, chuckling.
"And your parents don't think you're still a boyscout, do they?" she asked, arching one brow questionably.
"No, but I don't think they want to think about that at all."
"Well, they don't have to," Peyton pointed out wickedly, as she rose up on her tip toes and nibbled on his bottom lip before kissing him full on the lips.
"Then maybe the way you're looking at me and kissing me isn't the best way to keep this low key," Jake explained, taking a step back, putting some distance between them.
He knew if he didn't, she would just keep pulling him back in. He didn't have the will power to keep saying no. And he didn't want this to be just about the physical.
"All right," Peyton raised her hands up in the air and carefully folded them in front of her, "I'll be good. Hands off."
"Okay." Jake nodded, uncertain that he was pleased at how easily she gave in.
"Okay," she repeated, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.
"So..." Jake was now unsure how to end this date. Everything seemed to be going well until he poured cold water on the goodnight kiss.
"You'd better get home, then, huh?" The relationship she was building with Jake was harder than she thought. She just thought it might be easier seeing he was such a good friend; but at that moment it seemed a little awkward and uncertain. Were they just not connecting?
"Peyton..." Jake felt something had turned sour during the course of their conversation.
"No, I understand." Peyton shook her head, dismissing the need to explain, though part of her would have liked a little clarity to why he had pulled away from her kisses. "I'd better go anyway. I've got some sketches to work on for the paper this week."
Jake opened his mouth to stop her, knowing that somehow he had managed to put his foot in it; but she was in the house before he could say another thing. Staring at the closed door, he closed his eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. He had such strong feelings for her, physically and emotionally, that he could not just let them take full reign. After Nikki, he knew that he needed to take things slow.
He couldn't afford to be wreckless. Glancing back at the middle-class house, Jake sighed, knowing if he kept keeping her at a distance that it would not last either. So the question was: Could he afford not to be wreckless?
-&-
"So you and Jake are an item?" Brooke clamored over the lunch table as they sat in the school cafeteria. She grinned. "I called it. Didn't I call it?"
"Brooke I don't want to talk about it." Peyton began to pick at the greyish-pink slab on her tray that was apparently supposed to be roast beef.
She hated the way they had sort of left the evening of their first date. It wasn't only until after she had closed the door behind her that she wished she had listened to what he had to say after she so abruptly cut him off and sent him home.
"Aw hon, there isn't already trouble in Sweets-ville? That's a record even for me." Brooke reached out across the table and patted her hand. "What could he have possibly done? I mean, this is Jake we're talking about!"
"And I said I don't want to talk about it." Peyton eyed Brooke warily. "And I don't."
"Testy testy," Brooke clucked her tongue. "You look about ready to shove bamboo shoots underneath my fingernails."
"What?" Peyton shook her head, completely lost as to what Brooke was talking about. Not that that was something new with Brooke. Nobody ever knew what she was talking about, including Brooke, herself, sometimes.
"Ugh." Brooke looked at her in digust. "Lost! The newest tv craze since Jennifer Garner, the girl a part of Bennifer redux by the way, about these people who get stranded on a weird island after a plane crash."
"O-kay." Peyton still did not understand how she connected that to her present situation.
"Look, seriously? How much could it be you mistook something Jake said for something...well, something bad?"
Peyton lolled her head back and let out an exasperated cry. "I said I didn't want to talk about it!" She tilted her head to the side and glanced over at Brooke whose expression was skeptic. "What?" she said irritably. Brooke remained unmoved. "Okay! Maybe." She threw her hands up in the air.
"Maybe you were too quick to jump to conclusions?"
"I wouldn't go that far."
Brooke raised a dubious brow.
"Okay maybe I jumped to conclusions," Peyton sighed, giving into Brooke's stubborn streak.
"Whoohoo!" She jumped in her seat and began to clap excitedly. "I knew it!" Brooke stood up and wagged her finger at Peyton. "You should listen to me more often, ma sista!" she declared. "And maybe you wouldn't get into these messes."
"And how is your love life going?" Peyton raised a knowing brow.
"Shut up." That seemed to deflate her friend's ensuing victory lap around the cafeteria, proclaiming her wisdom and insight into the soap opera that was high school.
Peyton bit her bottom lip, trying not to laugh at her friend. "What did I say?" she asked innocently.
Brooke just rolled her eyes at Peyton and stalked off.
-&-
"Jake, my man," Nathan bellowed in the guy's change room. "So you and Peyton? Nice work."
Jake smiled awkwardly, nodding along, before grabbing his gear from his locker and heading out. This was one conversation he neither wanted to have here or with the guys. In fact, he just wanted to get in and out without any hassle.
"Late for your shift aren't you?" Lucas asked rather loudly.
"What?" Jake was confused. He did not have to work that day.
"You're probably going to be late for your shift at the cafe, if you don't get going," Lucas repeated, while making strange expressions with his face.
Then it dawned on Jake - LUcas was trying to help him out of the 'Spanish Inquisition' about his love life. "Right. I completely forgot about it!" he exclaimed, pretending to be in a rush towards the door.
"I'll come with you," Lucas smiled, following behind Jake.
"Hey, thanks man," Jake sighed, glancing back at the guys in the locker room clamoring over the latest gossip over their conquests. "I really didn't want to be in the middle of that."
"No problem." Lucas nodded understandably. "I'm not one to dish and tell," he agreed. "Besides you and Peyton are just starting out and maybe you guys don't know where you stand. It's like Addison wrote, 'Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, Hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee...'"
"Yeah that sounds about right," he groaned, slinging his bag over his shoulders. "It's all so up in the air."
"So not so great on the Peyton front, huh?"
"I'm just not sure about this...not after Nikki." Jake pushed open the entrance door and shrugged. "It's easy to flirt with a girl, but dating someone is a whole different arena."
"True," Lucas said, catching a glimpse of how hurt he was by Nikki. "But you can't let that keep you from being happy, man."
"I keep telling myself that, but everytime I get close to her..." Jake didn't know how to explain it. His head told him to go for it, but his heart....He froze everytime.
"What's up with the Nikki front anyways?"
"Haven't heard from her," Jake replied quietly. He hoped it would stay that way. She came on strong, but like their relationship, she never finished strong. At this point, he was praying that she had given up. "And I'd like it to stay that way."
"I don't blame you."
"I'm just grateful she's kind of disappeared into the background so far." They stopped in front of Lucas' truck. "I don't think my parents could help me out with a court case," he grimaced. "Maybe things are going my way for once."
"Well, if you've got that," Jake followed Lucas' gaze to where Peyton was talking with a couple of the cheerleaders, "then I'd have to say the answer to that question is yes."
Jake nodded, grabbing Lucas' hand in their usual departing handshake. "I'll talk to you later."
"Later." Lucas walked around to the driver's side of his vehicle and got in. "Go talk to her," he said, rolling down the passenger side window.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea."
"Be a man," Lucas chuckled. "What's the worst she could do to you?" With that he pulled away from the curb.
"Her?" As he observed her from the safety of the sidewalk, Jake smiled with her as she laughed at something one of the girls said, as if she was linked to him in some way. Closing his eyes took a long deep breath. "Oh, there's a lot she could do," he muttered to himself. "She could wreak havoc with my life."