You Come Over Unannounced

Peyton ran to her first class of the morning snatching a glance at a clock in the hall. She was already ten minutes late. Gasping for breath she reached the door to the classroom and stopped. Running a hand over her forehead, she composed herself and opened the door and slipped into the classroom. The room was dark. Her teacher was using one of his boring slide shows again and he tended to doze off during them. Closing her eyes and whispering a silent "thank you" she made her way to a desk in the back.

"Ms. Sawyer?"

Peyton flinched at the disembodied voice coming from the front of the room. Damn.

"How nice of you to join us. I trust you'll be on time to your detention this Friday."

"But I don't have…oh. Wait, you're giving me detention?"

"Class, let's give Ms. Sawyer a hand, she is quite sharp this morning," he glanced around and then back at Peyton. "Yes, detention this Friday, after last period. May I get back to my slide show then?"

She rolled her eyes, muttering curses at him and sank down into a chair. Turning her head to the left she realized she had just plopped down next to Lucas. He was smirking and she wanted to ring his neck.

"Sorry about that," he whispered.

"Stop talking to me. I don't need a second detention." She looked away to the other side of the room. Nathan and Haley were sitting a few rows ahead of them. She watched as they smiled at each other and made faces when the teacher's back was turned. Haley turned around and caught Peyton's eye. Immediately Peyton forced a smile to her lips and Haley grinned back. She put her hand up to her ear in a "call me" gesture and Peyton nodded.

Sighing, she slumped into the back of her desk chair and stole a sideways glance at Lucas. When she realized he was staring back at her, she turned away feeling slightly disturbed that he had caught her.

Irritated by her attitude, though he was largely the cause of it, Lucas decided to take matters into his own hands. He wrote a single line on a piece of notebook paper and ripped it out, throwing it to the ground and pushing it towards Peyton with his toe. She pretended not to notice it, staring resolutely at the front of the room until she felt her desk give a jolt. He had kicked her desk! She glared at him furiously and finally leaned down to retrieve the note. She opened it and read….Meet me at the Rivercourt at 10.

It was not a question, but a request. She scribbled I'll think about it and tossed it back to Lucas. He read it, then looked up at her, straight into her eyes and mouthed "thank you." She knew he meant it. But she also knew she was in deep trouble. The sincerity in his sweet blue eyes brought back all kinds of memories that she had held prisoner in her mind for weeks since she had decided to break it off with him. Before she could get too lost in the memories and in his gaze, the bell rang and class was over. Lucas broke their eye connection and she was left feeling slightly empty once more.

"I'll be seein' you," he said before walking out of the room. The small good-bye had come to mean so many things to her and she found herself really smiling at him for the first time since he had returned. "You just might," she said softly. He stopped and looked back at her, smiling and then winked. "Good to know."

She blushed furiously when she realized that he had heard her and took off towards her next class. Lucas just chuckled and shook his head and went his own way as well.

She had waited all day. She had checked the clock no more than five times an hour; tapping her foot nervously and now she was finally only a half an hour away from going to see Lucas. She had put on three different outfits and decided they were ALL wrong before going back to what she had been wearing all day. She had dialed Brooke's number countless times for advice, but always hung up before it began ringing. She was sure that Brooke wouldn't really approve of this "meeting" after Peyton's description of their first encounter in the café. But now, here it was, 9:30, and she was sure her heart was going to burst from anticipation.

"I could leave now," she said to the wall across from her bed. "I mean…I'm going to walk so it'll take a few minutes to get there." She got up from the bed and then immediately sat back down. "But maybe I should make him wait. Make him a little worried. Yeah. That sounds good!" So she planted her feet firmly on the floor and put her hands in her lap. After about 5 seconds of glancing around her room, smiling pleasantly, she threw her hands up in the air and exclaimed, "That's it! I have to go now!"

She threw on her jacket and ran down the steps and out her front door.

A tall blonde haired boy could be seen sitting in the park at this very moment. I wonder if she'll come, he sat thinking. He had been at the Rivercourt for at least an hour, shooting hoops even though he actually wasn't supposed to. It had calmed his nerves about this thing–whatever it was--that he and Peyton were about to have. Now he was waiting on one of the picnic tables, the ball between his feet. It was a really beautiful night. The sun had set in fabulous fashion and now the sky was full of stars. The air was crisp and cool as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When they opened, she was standing in front of him.

"You're not going all, Zen Buddha on me, are you?" She asked, amused.

He laughed. "No, just enjoying the night. You're early."

"Yeah, well…I didn't want you to think I wasn't coming and be all heartbroken, you know." She replied as she sat down next to him.

"Thanks for the concern."

"Hey, it's more than I could say for you." She said, hearing the bitterness as the words left her mouth. He winced.

"Ouch. I guess I deserved that," he paused waiting for her to object, but she just waited and looked at him pointedly. "All right, I get your point. But listen, I asked you to meet me here because I really think we should talk about what happened between us and what is …or isn't…happening between us now."

"Don't you think it would have helped to have this conversation before you left with hardly a word to me and then came back with even less?" Peyton questioned angrily, getting up from her seat on the bench.

"Peyton," he started, reaching out for her, but she stepped away, "I wanted to talk to you, I did. But I honestly thought it was the best choice to leave Tree Hill. I screwed up so many things in the past few months…so many lives. I thought I could get a fresh start and find the guy I used to be. I wanted to be better for you."

"The guy you used to be…" she scoffed, "you mean the one that sleeps with random strangers or the one that cheats on his girlfriend?"

"The guy you fell for, Peyton!" He walked towards the river and then spun around. "Damn it!" Lucas yelled in frustration. Then, he came back and stood in front of her, watching her blonde curls fly in the breeze. He reached out and tucked one behind her ear and spoke again, much softer. "I know I've made mistakes Peyton, but I wanted to fix them."

Then he did something she never expected him to do. He came so close that she could feel his breath warm on her cheek and she felt dizzy as his lips met hers. She closed her eyes and thought what am I doing?

AN:

Well, hi there! I'm sooo sorry it's been such a long time since I updated. With school starting up in August I just got very very busy. So from now on if it's awhile from update to update, don't think I've given up. I'm just trying to find the time! Right now, I'm too lazy to do individual shout-outs, but I want to thank EVERYONE who reads my stories and responds. It means so much to me. Whether you are a regular or a new reader. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm expecting to do different things later on, but I thought I'd do some more LP for everyone. Let me know what you think! Thank you again for reading. I should be updating TTTMU as well.

--Jess

Oh! Title from Mae's "The Ocean."