I reread the last part of the previous chapter and it did come out harsher than I intended...but we all make mistakes ;) It did, however, motivate me to get this chapter up faster. Hope you like this one more.

Chapter 23

The lone light from the kitchen guided her through the dark house. Feeling the cool 4AM air, she wrapped her arms around herself to keep from shivering. She let out a tired yawn just as she entered the kitchen.

"Couldn't sleep either?" she asked without even looking to see who was sitting at the kitchen counter.

"Nope," Nathan said as took a bit of his pop-tart.

Peyton opened a cupboard and scanned its contains for something to eat, "Dude, don't tell me you ate the last pop-tart,"

"Well, I was going to," Nathan gently pushed his plate, with the last remaining S'mores pop-tart towards her.

Peyton grinned happily. "Thanks, Nate," she picked up the plate and took a seat beside Nathan. "Thanks for letting me crash here tonight, by the way. After my night with Lucas, I don't think I could have handled facing Brooke,"

"Yeah, no problem," Nathan took a sip of his milk, "At least your phone stopped ringing,"

"You heard it?"

"Yep…like once every hour…but I think it was going off once every 15 minutes at one point,"

"Sorry," she crinkled her nose, slightly embarrassed, "I hope it didn't keep you up,"

"Nah, I was up," he had been up thinking about Brooke."So did you finally talk to him?"

Suddenly she didn't feel like eating anymore. Peyton put the pastry down and shook her head no.

"Love sucks," she finally said, pushing her plate away.

"Yup," Nathan said, reaching for her uneaten pop tart, "Want me to kick his ass?"

Peyton rolled her eyes, "What's with guys and kicking each other's asses? You know it won't solve anything,"

"No, but it'll be fun," they both laughed.

"Look," Nathan continued, "Lucas has this complex of some sort…he feels that he has to protect everyone he cares about…stick up for them, whatever…but at the same time, he also ends up hurting the other people he cares about,"

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience,"

Nathan only responded with a nod.

"Do you think you'll ever forgive him for going after Dan like that?"

"Will you?"

Later that afternoon Peyton and Nathan found themselves browsing through albums in the downtown record shop. Peyton was in the back of the store flipping through the used vinyl records while Nathan was near the front looking at the CDs in the 'new releases' wall.

Since they had been in the store for almost 45 minutes, Nathan wasn't really 'looking'. He had already read the same titles at least 8 times. Nathan sighed as he saw that Peyton was only on the letter 'L'. He had hoped that in the last five minutes that she would be at least on 'N' but since he had nothing else to do that day, he was going to be patient.

Nathan was about to go back to his 'browsing' when he saw Lucas walking by the front window. He kept his eye on his older brother, hoping that he wouldn't look into the store.

Lucas was almost past the shop when he happened to glance in. Almost immediately, he saw her curls. His feet stopped walking and walked him closer to the window. It was Peyton. Without another hesitation, he quickly turned around to head for the doors. His foot barely made it to the first step when Lucas noticed that someone was already standing on the front steps of the store.

The blonde looked up to see his younger brother glaring at him. Nathan stood there as if he was waiting for Lucas, "Don't even think about it," Nathan said coldly.

"Get out of my way," Lucas said through his teeth, "I'll deal with you later,"

"You're going to deal with me later?" Nathan scoffed.

"I need to talk to Peyton,"

"No. What you need to do is to turn around and walk away,"

"I can't do that, Nate,"

"Look at her Luke. She's fine right now,"

"She may look ok but you and I both know how's she's really feeling,"

"And whose fault is that?"

"Just get out of my way before…"

Nathan stepped down, causing Lucas to back up a few steps, "Or you'll what?" he dared.

"This has nothing to do with you, Nathan,"

"That's where you're wrong, Luke. I told you that if you ever hurt her again, you'd have me to answer to,"

"Funny, didn't I say something like that to you about Haley?"

Meanwhile, back inside the record store, Peyton was oblivious to the argument that was quickly escalating between the two Scott brothers. She was about to move on to the 'N' section when the teenaged cashier, who was waiting for the first punch to be thrown, yelled, "Fight!"

Peyton turned around to see what the commotion was about. She saw a bunch of boys standing near the doorway, all trying to get out of the store to watch the fight that was taking place just outside. She rolled her eyes. She didn't understand what the point was in watching others fight.

Remembering that Nathan was with her, she quickly scanned the room for him. He wasn't there. Curiously she made her way to the front. Up on the tips of her toes, Peyton strained to see the brunette boy. Finally, she caught a glimpse of him outside. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened when she realized that Nathan was fighting Lucas.

With adrenaline pumping through her body, Peyton pushed and shoved everyone who was in her away aside to get to the fighting brothers.

"Hey! Stop it!" She yelled several times and even whistled loudly for them to stop but the two boys continued fighting. She finally had enough and waited for a chance to step in without getting hit by a stray fist.

The opportunity finally arose and Peyton grabbed each boy on the back of their arms, near their triceps. At first, they didn't really seem to notice, not until she started to pinch the sensitive flesh.

"OW," they both screamed and dropped their fists. Both of them tried to wriggle free, but Peyton just squeezed harder. "Ow...Peyton, Stop...Ow!"

The crowd of boys watching the fight groaned disappointed that the fight was already over. Annoyed, Peyton let go of Lucas and Nathan and turned to face the boys. She dared the boys to make another sound. But they were all too scared to see what would happened to them if they did. So instead, the on lookers quickly dispersed, going back to their own business.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Peyton yelled at Lucas and Nathan who were both holding on to the back of their arms where she had pinched.

"He started it," the two brothers said at the same time, blaming each other.

"Whatever," Peyton wasn't going to deal with their immaturity. She opened up her purse and took out a package of Kleenex. Peyton removed a few plys and handed it over to Lucas to wipe the blood on his split lip.

"Thanks," he said. Lucas tried to make eye contact with her, but she was able to elude his apologetic eyes.

Peyton nodded and then looked at Nathan. He didn't appear to be bleeding, but instead his right eye was beginning to swell. "Let's go, Nathan. Take me home," she took Nathan's hand and started to pull him away.

"Peyt, wait," Lucas called out.

Still upset with him, Peyton kept on walking until she felt a tug on her arm, stopping her in her tracks. Nathan had stopped walking. Slowly she turned and looked up at Nathan with confusion.

"You should probably talk to him. Just hear him out at least," Peyton didn't move. "I'll wait over there,"

Nathan looked back at Lucas before walking to the spot where he said he'd wait.

Peyton crossed her arms as Lucas approached her. He wiped his lip one last time before shoving his hands into his pockets.

Lucas was about to speak when Peyton interrupted him, "I don't want to hear some stupid quote from some book or some person,"

He was surprised at first at her comment but then he realized that Peyton knew him just as well as he knew her. Almost everything he said or did was based on someone else's words and she didn't want that. She didn't want to hear someone else's words or Lucas's rehearsed speech. She wanted to hear Lucas.

"I'm sorry, Peyton. I know it's not an excuse but when you told me that Haley left because of what he did and then defended him, I…I just got upset. I never meant what I said…I…"

"I know," Peyton said quietly. "I know you didn't mean it but it still hurts, Luke. It hurts that you said it and knowing that you even thought it,"

"I was an ass and I was out of line," he admitted. "I know it hurt you and I am so sorry. I don't know what I can do to make it up to you, but just say it and I'll do it…I'll do anything to erase the last 24 hours,"

She bit her lip as she watched him unfold her arms and held her hands. Slowly his head neared hers until his forehead lightly rested on hers.

"Please forgive me, Peyton,"

Peyton closed her eyes and let out a sigh. Then she nodded her head.

Lucas grinned happily and then winced as he split the cut on his lip wider. Peyton shook her head and laughed. Gently she placed a kiss on his cheek and looped her arm through his. "Come on; let's get the both of you cleaned up,"

"Peyton, I don't think…"

"Hey, you said you'd anything for me, remember?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Well, you can start by getting along with Nathan again,"

Reluctantly, Lucas agreed. It was going to be hard to get on good terms with his brother again, but he did promise to make it up to Peyton and he wasn't going to let her down again.