Summary: Lucas and Peyton return to their normal lives; Brooke makes a startling confession; and Haley gets asked to a party by someone unexpected.

Disclaimer: I don't own OTH or any of the characters, however I do own the plotlines and dialouge.

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Chapter Two: Return to Normal

The morning sun hit Peyton's closed eyelids and she groaned. She started to roll over to avoid the light and began to fall. She didn't realize it until she landed on the carpeted floor with a thud. She groaned and rolled onto her stomach, pushing herself up with the palms of her hands, and rubbed her butt. "That's going to leave a mark," she muttered to herself.

Brooke moaned and opened one eye, "What the hell are you doing?" She sounded as if her throat had been scraped with sand paper.

"I slept in here to make sure nothing happened to your boney ass and ended up rolling out of the chair." Peyton glowered at her.

"Shut up," she whined, "stop yelling."

Peyton rolled her eyes and stood up. She opened the blinds causing Brooke to bury her face into the couch cushions. Peyton snickered and began to sing off key. "She's a lover, she's a bitch, but she's everything to meeeeeeee." She watched her best friend thrash on the couch, as if she were avoiding a knife. The louder she sang, the more her friend squirmed. She shouldn't be deriving this much pleasure out of making her suffer, but after what happened last night she deserved it. Drunk or not, her words had stung. Pushing her to kiss Lucas, losing everything when she did. Something she could never have back.

Brooke picked up the pillow her head been resting on and smacked Peyton's skinny legs, "Truce, please." Peyton ignored her and kept singing, "I'll do anything, just stop." Her head was pounding and with every note Peyton sung it only made it ache more. Every sound produced a piercing stab of pain in her skull.

Peyton laughed, "Lay off the bourbon." She plopped onto the end of the couch. Brooke rolled onto her back, lifted her tiny feet up, and placed them in Peyton's lap.

"Vodka never has this affect on me." Brooke sighed miserably. "Why are you so happy this morning?" She looked at her blonde friend curiously, "Did you finally do loverboy?" She grinned wickedly.

Peyton gasped in feigned shock, "Brooke Davis."

"P. Sawyer." She sat up and offered her a smirk, "You did, didn't you?" She raised an eyebrow, "Where is he?" She looked around the room, "Lucas!" She called into the empty room, cringing at the tone of her own voice.

Peyton suddenly felt weary, "Nothing happened." When it came to hooking up and sex, Brooke never missed a beat, no matter how hung over she was.

"I may not remember much…." She grinned in amusement, "Or nothing, but you two were hot for each other." She leaned closer and lowered her voice, "Don't tell me he went all wonder boy on you."

"What?" Peyton looked at her incredulously.

"P. Sawyer, I don't know why I hang out with someone so lame." She exhaled loudly and looked at her blonde friend knowingly. "He couldn't get it—"

"Okay, okay, I know what you mean." Peyton interrupted and turned her head, pretending to focus on the shaft of sunlight on the carpet. She felt her face fill with embarrassment, an emotion she hadn't experienced in a long time. She had always told Brooke everything, but she didn't want to tell her about Lucas. It felt sacred. "He's just too serious for me." She finished lamely.

"Figures, he broods too much. Not even sexy brooding either." She scrunched up her face in disgust, "We don't need him. There are many fine fish in the sea my friend." She linked her arm with Peyton's, "One of those you used to date." She winked.

"Who, Nathan?"

"Who else? Why you let him go I don't know, but I think I may have to do some fishing."

"We just broke up!"

"Green isn't a good color on you, friend."

"Last night you were trying to get us back together."

"I made a mistake, I think this Scott brother will prove to be more of a challenge."

"He likes Haley."

"Tutorgirl? Please." She seemed to dismiss Peyton's statement with a wave of her hand, "After tonight he won't even remember her name."

"Brooke what are you planning on doing?"

"It's a secret, but I can tell you it involves me, you, Tim's party, and a lot of alcohol." Peyton stared at her best friend in silence. She didn't want to go, but after a night like last night she needed it. Needed to cut loose, have some fun. Drink until she couldn't feel anything anymore. Until Lucas' words were a distant memory.

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Jake looked through the large glass window in front of Karen's Café. There she was, cleaning off the counters. The sunlight behind him streamed through the window and bounced off her brunette locks. It made her look like she was wearing a halo. He swallowed nervously, trying to gain the courage to ask her what he had come to ask. After a few minutes he strode through the door with as much ease as he could muster.

Haley heard the bell above the door shake and she looked up, "Hey, Jake." She smiled. She had seen him around school a few times and had talked to him after the last game.

"Hey, Haley." He felt like a schoolboy asking a girl to the dance for the first time. He wasn't exactly inexperienced; he had a daughter after all. But he hadn't liked a girl since she had been born so it made him feel like a newbie at the whole dating game.

"Luke isn't here, he went out on a delivery." Haley said after a few moments, wondering why he was so silent, he usually seemed animated and talkative, at least around Luke and the guys on the team.

"Actually that's not why I'm here." He blushed, feeling like a fool.

Haley leaned over the counter and smiled, she couldn't help but notice how cute he looked. She shook her head, where had that come from? "Yeah?"

"There's this party at Tim's tonight, I was wondering if you'd like to…ummmmm….go with me."

"Like a date?"

"No…well….maybe. I'd like to get to know you better."

She blushed, she hadn't expected him to say that. She wasn't sure if she should, her head was still wrapped around Nathan, but maybe this was what it'd take to get Nathan to notice her. She felt a stab of guilt at the thought, but firmly pushed it away. "I'd love to."

"Really?" He couldn't believe his ears, "Pick you up at eight?"

"Sounds great."

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"You're going to a party, with Jake?" Lucas stared at Haley in disbelief.

"Yes, Luke, are you deaf?"

"Why?"

"Jake's a sweet guy, he asked me to go and I am." She walked around the counter he was sitting at and began to wipe down the counters. Avoiding his eyes. She had cleaned the counters a million times that day, but she needed something to keep her busy.

"Haley, I know you aren't telling me everything."

She sighed in defeat, "I want to make Nathan jealous."

"Hales! Jake is a good guy, you shouldn't do that to him."

"Luke, I've never done anything for myself so please just let me do this." She looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping he'd see how important this was to her.

"Okay, Hales, but just be nice to the guy, okay? Don't lead him on. I'm not sure what happened in his past, but it's hard for him to open up to people. He's been a good friend to me."

"I know which is why I know he's harmless. Besides we could at least be friends. He said it wasn't really a date unless I wanted it to be." She paused and looked at him, "So are you going to Tim's party?" He shook his head. "Why not?" He stared down at the floor silently, "Because of Peyton?"

"I just don't want to push things with her. After last night….." He felt defeated, he didn't know where to go from here. How to keep fighting.

"It's okay, Luke, I understand. I'll still miss you, you know?"

"Yeah I know Hales,"

"It used to just be us…what happened?"

"I joined the basketball team, you started tutoring the jocks and going out on dates with them." He teased and she rolled her eyes at him. "I think it's part of growing up."

"Well it sucks," She laughed and threw her dishrag at him. He tossed it back at her, but she dodged his aim, "I always win Luke." She stuck her tongue at him and while she was distracted he picked it up and wrung the dishwater into her hair. "Ewwww!" She shrieked. He laughed at the look of disgust on her face, this felt good. Just joking around with his best friend, it almost made the tightness in his chest disappear.

Peyton stared at her reflection in the mirror, asking herself for the millionth time that day why she was letting Brooke drag her to the party. It seemed like parties always ended in disaster, at least the ones she went to. She absently put on a thin layer of pink lipstick and pressed her thin lips together. This was as much color as she was going to wear tonight. Brooke had brought over a lace top and short shorts for her to wear earlier, but she couldn't make herself put them on. They didn't suit her. She wasn't there to hook up, she was there to get her mind off the thing with Lucas.

She wondered if he'd be there or if he'd stay at home and read for the night. He seemed to enjoy getting lost in reading more than hanging out with a bunch of wasted teenagers, not that she could blame him. She had been to a lot of parties since she had been in high school, but most nights she wanted to stay home. Just to draw and listen to music. But she never did. Brooke would beg her to not leave her alone and then remind her that as a cheerleader she had an appearance to uphold. Not that Peyton cared what other people thought, she just hated to let Brooke down. Even when she was angry at her. It was just how they were, how it had always been. No matter how screwed up it sounded, it was their version of normal. Whatever that was.

She sighed deeply. You can do this, she told her reflection. She could always come home early if the party was a total drag. But if Brooke was there that wasn't likely to happen. She always found a way to make even the lamest party a little more interesting. It was one of her many talents. She just hoped Brooke wouldn't get drunk tonight, she worried about her sometimes. Drinking so much. It was like she was trying to forget about her life. Hypocrite, her reflection seemed to sneer at her. She turned away from the mirror when she heard the doorbell ring. Here goes nothing.

Lucas looked at the clock on his nightstand, 7:43. The house felt quiet with his mom gone for the weekend at a cooking convention. Keith had dropped by earlier and now it was just him and J.D. Salinger. He must have read Catcher in the Rye a million times, it was one of his favorites. He felt like getting lost in it tonight, maybe it would take his mind off everything that had been going on lately.

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

This was what always drew him into the book, the honesty and matter-of-fact tone of Holden Caulfield. It made him want to know more about this character, what had happened in their life and how to figure them out. Like Peyton, he still had yet to figure her out. But he was determined to be around to find out. If he was patient and approached her slowly, she would open up to him, he was sure of it. It just wasn't as easy as reading a book. Or talking to Haley. She was a different kind of person.

He groaned in frustration, he was already failing at not thinking about her. It seemed like his thoughts were always on her and his brain found a way to place her in his current stream of thought. If only his mom were here now, he wished she hadn't left this morning for the convention. Their talks always helped him figure things out. And if he didn't come up with a solution he'd at least feel like he was farther than he had been before. He was lucky to have a mom like that and he knew it. Having her made up for not having a father and looking at the way Nathan was, he was glad Dan hadn't been around. It used to frustrate him when he was a kid and it still hurt sometimes, but since he had joined the team it had eased. He shook his head and turned back to the book, letting his eyes consume the words before him.

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A/N: Thanks for all the reviews on my last chapter! I really enjoy feedback, I'm trying to stay true to the characters as they were in s1 even if I am changing things around. If you read this please leave me a reveiw, I thrive on feedback and it helps me tweak the story even further. This chapter was originally shorter, but I decided to give a little more background on Jake. He is highly underdeveloped at this point, but as the story moves forward he will have more depth. I'm just having a harder time on the JH plotlines and they are in the background of the fic so far, but don't worry they will come to the foreground. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! More to come soon, I never write fics I don't plan on finishing.