"Peyton…"
Lucas couldn't help but stare at the woman in front of him. The only thing he could really tell that had changed was she had cut her hair short and the curls that use to cascade down her back had been straightened. The woman's smile fell from her lips and her eyes softened into his.
"Lucas…"
Peyton couldn't believe it. Lucas Scott, the love of her best friends life was standing in front of her after ten years. She silently thanked God that Brooke didn't want to leave Haley, otherwise it would have been Brooke that would have run into him. Anger flared inside Peyton and she raised her hand to slap him in the face. As her hand collided with his cheek a few costumers looked up to see the scene.
"Peyton I'm sorry-" Lucas was having trouble coming up with what he wanted to say. This wasn't how he pictured doing things. He simply wanted to see his mother and then find Brooke. Everyone else he wanted to deal with later. And now he had to deal with whether or not she was going to tell Brooke that he was back in town. Peyton laughed.
"You're sorry? That's great to know Luke. But I am not the one you should be apologizing to. Hey I know. Why don't you apologize to the daughter you abandoned and the girl you claimed to love more than life itself," Peyton said before heading out the restaurant doors. Lucas waited a moment for exiting the door behind her. He jogged towards her and grabbed her by the arm just as she was opening her car door.
"Peyton look. I know I screwed up but that was a long time ago. Things are different"
Peyton raised an eyebrow. "Things are different Lucas? For who? For you? Because Brooke's been raising your daughter everyday since you left. It wasn't easy for her but she's had all of us. And she's had Nathan too. Not to mention your daughter. I've been there every year as your presents arrive at the house. What kind of jackass sends presents but doesn't come to see their kid?"
He looked down at the ground unsure what he was supposed to say.
"You need to tell Brooke you're back in town. It's not fair that she here's it from me and to be honest right now we have bigger things to take care of. But damn it Lucas Scott, Brooke's my best friend. And I love Izzy like she was my own daughter. If you hurt either of them-"
Lucas cut her off. "You'll kill me."
"I won't have to. Nathan will do that just fine," Peyton said as she got into her car and slammed the door behind her. She drove off and Lucas couldn't help but wonder what she meant by that. Was it possible that Nathan and Brooke had become really good friends?
He laughed. There was no way that Brooke Davis and Nathan Scott were friends, they had absolutely nothing in common and never really had any interest in each other. Ten years couldn't change too much could it?
……
"It was awful Brooke. Things have been so bad with Chris that I wanted to surprise him with something. So I showed up at the studio wearing black heels and my trench coat with nothing underneath and as I opened the sound room door there his secretary is propped up one of the speakers. Her legs wrapped around him-"
Haley wiped her nose with a Kleenex and shook her head. It had happened twenty four hours ago and the shock still hadn't lessened. Brooke's mouth fell open and she brought her friend into a hug.
"I'm going to kill him. He is such a freaking man whore. Who the hell does he think he is?"
"He's Chris Keller." Haley laughed.
Brooke rubbed her friends shoulder and shook her head. "Well we'll figure this out okay Hales? You can stay with us and Nathan and Jake can go and get your stuff from the apartment. That way you won't have to deal with it. Did he say anything to you at all?"
"He's called. Thirty two times actually. He keeps trying to tell me it's not a big deal that it wasn't what it looked like and I overreacted. God why in the hell did I stay with him that long Brooke? You all told me to leave him."
"Hales you can't change the past. All you can do is fix the future. And now you're aware of how much of a creep Chris is. You're talented, rich, beautiful…you're going to find someone great. There's no doubt about it."
Haley nodded her head and smiled slightly. "Like you found Nathan?" The smile fell from Brooke's face and she sighed inwardly. She tried to erase the thoughts about their past and the fact that her friend had once been madly in love with Nathan, but had never acted on it. That was years ago, back when they were in college and Brooke had been with Lucas. "Yeah, like I found Nathan."
……
Nathan walked across his nieces bedroom and sat beside her on the bed. "Can you tell me a story Uncle Nate?" Isabella asked him. She was laying down and Nathan smiled down at her. He shook his head and asked what type of story she wanted to hear. "Tell me about my dad? How he was when you two were younger. Tell me about him and my mother."
Nathan swallowed. This was always a touchy subject between him, Brooke and Isabella. Brooke for the most part had been honest with her daughter, but hadn't gone into detail about things perhaps the way Isabella had wanted. And Nathan didn't feel comfortable explaining the relationship between his brother and the woman that he had fallen for.
"Well your dad and I were never really close growing up. He lived with your grandmother Karen on the other side of town and I lived with your grandparents Dan and Deb," Nathan explained. "It wasn't until freshman year of high school that we really talked at all. It's when he wanted to play on the basketball team that we really got to know each other and each others friends."
Isabella smiled. "Tell me when you and daddy first started getting along?"
Nathan thought about that day a lot. It had been summertime and right after when Brooke and Lucas had first started dating. Lucas had invited him down to the river court to play basketball with him and Fergie and Skills and Skills and Nathan had won. After the game the other guys had left, leaving Lucas and him alone with nothing but a basketball.
/flashback begins/
"I'll play you for her."
Nathan threw the basketball at his half brother and Lucas raised an eyebrow at him. "Play you for who?" Lucas pretended to play stupid as he threw the ball into the basket.
"Look Peyton's been bitching at me recently about Brooke. She says that Brooke doesn't pay attention at cheerleading practice and she's barely keeping her grades up. So the way I see it is this… I win you stop seeing Brooke so I can continue to have a girlfriend."
Lucas chuckled at his little brother. "But that would imply that you would have to beat me and we know you can't really do that. Besides I'm not giving up Brooke."
"Why? She's just a cheerleader. Trust me, Peyton's got a ton of friends and they're all exactly like Brooke."
Lucas shook his head no, throwing the ball once again into the basket. "Not like Brooke. She's different. We're total opposites and yet she gets me better than anyone else. It's like we're connected."
It was Nathan's turn to laugh. "Shit, you're turning soft on me? Tell me is this your first girlfriend? Is it cause she went down on you or what?"
"I think…" Lucas stumbled for the right words. "Dude- I think I'm in love with her."
/flashback ends/
Nathan shook his head trying to bring himself out of that memory. They had been fifteen then. Nathan had been a different person and Lucas had said he wouldn't give up on her. He couldn't believe that sitting beside his brothers daughter, that he had fallen in love with the very person he had played for that many years ago.
……
"Mom, are you here?" Lucas knocked on the house door but wasn't surprised when no one answered. A girl from the café had told him that Karen had taken a few days off and was probably out of town with her boyfriend. So when he let himself into the house he was shocked to find his mother sitting on the couch.
She was watching television and barely took her eyes off of the screen to say hello. When she realized that it was Lucas, her eyes widened and she jumped off the couch. "Oh my God, Lucas! My boy!"
Lucas laughed despite the fact that his mother had him in a death gripped hug. "I'm not exactly a boy anymore there ma," he chuckled and she finally released him. She smiled up at him before putting her hands on her hips.
"Lucas Eugene Scott you will always be my boy until the day you die," Karen said with a scowl. Lucas watched as reality sat in on his mothers face and for the second time in twenty four hours, a hand was brought to his face. It was the first time his mother had hit him and he was sure it surprised not only him, but her. "Lucas I'm sorry…"
Lucas shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "It's nothing I don't deserve. Although I think I am not really liked by the women of Tree Hill anymore, since that's the second hit I've gotten since I've been back."
Karen raised an eyebrow. "You ran into Brooke I take it? I don't blame her. Lucas what you did was wrong. Even if the two of you broke up, for you to just up and desert her. Lucas I raised you better than that."
"I know. I've known that every time I talk to you and I have apologized for it time and again ma. I made mistakes. Big ones. All I can say is I am here now and I know that doesn't change what I have done in the past. But I am going to change the future. I have to. For my daughter."
Karen smiled. "Well that's good to hear. Isabella needs a father Lucas. She has Nathan and he is there for her and all but she needs her father. But what about Brooke?"
"What about her?"
The smile that just moments ago was visible on Karen's face disappeared and she sighed. "Lucas don't play dumb. Are you here because of Isabella or did you come back to try and make a family with Brooke Davis?"
Lucas wasn't sure what to say. If he wanted both, was he able to have them both? He wasn't even sure he could have one of them. Ten years was a long time to try and get past and if he had been either one of them, he knew he wouldn't be able to let it go. "I'm here for my family ma. That means Brooke too. But if it's too late for me and Brooke… If she's happier without me than that's fine. But no one is keeping me away from my daughter."
Karen saw the determination in her sons eyes and she forced another smile. Lucas had a hard road ahead of him. Rebuilding trust was hard to do, and knowing Brooke she wasn't going to make it easy. Gaining his daughters trust would be an easier feat and she wasn't sure just how easy that was going to be for him as well. As she stared at her son, she couldn't help but wonder if he knew what he was getting himself into, if the world he had left behind had become too unreachable. And if he was aware of the role his brother played in it.
TBC.
Author's Note: Okay, that is the first of 12 new chapters that I have written. Hopefully you all enjoy this and haven't given up on it. It's been a really long time but I am finally out of my writers block stage and ready to update ALL of my stories. Hopefully you'll enjoy and leave me a review :-)