Chapter Twenty-Two: The Way it Should Be

"Jake, it's me. Can you come over this afternoon? We need to talk."

Jake Jagielski sighed as he pressed the replay button on his message machine, knowing he was being pathetic.

"Jake, it's me. Can you come over this afternoon? We need to talk."

Peyton's voice was so similar. How many messages had she left over the years? Too many to count. Her voice was so assured that he was waiting for her.

"Jake, it's me. Can you come over this afternoon? We need to talk."

Peyton hadn't spoken to him in weeks. What could she possibly want to talk about?

After ten minutes spent agonizing over what she precisely meant by "this afternoon", Jake got into his car at two thirty and drove to his best friend's house.

XxxxxxX

"What are you still doing here?" asked Davis in surprise. Peyton rolled over and groaned as Davis flicked on the lights in her bedroom.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked sleepily.

"It's like two. We have to go do something," she said.

"I told Jake I'd meet him here soon," protested Peyton, as Davis bounced onto the bed and sat cross-legged beside her.

"Perfect. I can get a good tan, and you can play hard to get for a while. Let's go, girlfriend," said Davis, taking Peyton's hand and yanking her into a sitting position before skipping off to her closet to locate a bikini.

XxxxxxX

Jake confidently let himself into Peyton's ever unlocked home. Over the years he'd made various pleas to her to lock the doors to avoid being raped, murdered or robbed, but she'd never listened and had never felt the affects of it.

He frowned in disappointment when he entered her room to find it completely empty. Her sheets were mussed, her closet door was hanging open, her web-cam was still on, but Peyton was nowhere to be seen.

Instinctively he turned off her web-cam and let his eyes wander around the darkened room. He remembered the room from years previously, before Anna Sawyer had died. Peyton had never been a girly girl, but when they had been kids, the room had been blue. Peyton had slept on a white single bed with yellow sheets.

Jake's mind flashed to a time in the sixth grade when the four of them had all slept over at Peyton's house. He and Peyton had been the last to fall asleep. Brooke had worked herself into an early night by obsessing over the antics of her very first boyfriend, Kyle Stewart.

His fingers automatically closed around the only picture Peyton had one her desk. Shaking away his guilt, he looked at it in surprise.

It was a work in progress. But unlike most of her drawing it didn't depict irony, or a twisted view of the world. It was merely wishful thinking.

The page featured three couples. The first one his eyes rested on was obviously Brooke and Lucas. Brooke was pregnant, and Lucas pushed a baby carriage. It was as far as possible from the actual Brooke, and her relationship with Lucas.

Haley and Nathan were kissing tenderly in the center. Chris was nowhere to be seen.

But it wasn't those that made Jake stare. It was the couple on the right. Him and Peyton Sawyer, the girl he'd loved since what felt like forever. Depicted by her as obviously a couple. Without the shadow of Davis, with no hint of their entirely platonic past.

"Jake," said a voice from behind him. He turned around slowly to face her, and let his eyes absorb her as he never let himself do. Her blonde curls, held messily back with an elastic, her tall, slim figure, the hint of cleavage exposed in her shirt.

"Sorry. It was on the desk," he said, not sounding remotely sorry.

"It's okay. I…" Peyton tried to explain, tried to reason, but found herself unable to. Why had she drawn it? It had come to her, and she had been unable to suppress the urge.

"Yeah," he said. Dropping the picture on the desk beside him, he walked toward her.

"I wanted to talk…" she began, her voice unsteady.

"There's a lot of memories in here. I was thinking about that while I was waiting for you," he said.

"Yeah. Davis and I went out. Sorry. Remember the time I dared Haley and Brooke to kiss?" asked Peyton.

"Good times. I miss them," he said.

"Me too," said Peyton.

"Would you have them back, if you could?" asked Jake, looking into her eyes.

"I don't know, Jake. I want to talk about us," she said.

"Really?" Jake paused and snaked a hand around the back of her neck, cradling her head and feeling her soft curls. "Because I don't want to talk at all."

He'd spent countless hours wondering how much a kiss could really accomplish. If touching lips could let her know how much he loved her, how much he'd always loved her.

Now he had no doubt.

Peyton responded eagerly and immediately. She ran her tongue along his lips, inviting him to open them, as her hands wound around his neck and slid into his short curly hair.

Jake had never experienced such a strong want for her. For years it had been his love for her tormenting him, not his desire. Suddenly he'd wanted her more than anything, and nothing was about to stop it.

He wrapped his free arm around his waist and they fell onto the bed. Their hands eagerly shed each other's clothing, unbuttoning buttons with ease. Jake felt Peyton say his name as he kissed her neck.

"Wait," she said a moment later. Reluctantly he broke away and looked at her.

"I can't do this. I'm sorry," she said, readjusting her clothes and getting off the bed, looking freaked out.

"It's… okay," he lied, watching her go in confusion. She stopped at the door.

"You're a good kisser," she said.

"Thanks. I've had a lot of practice," he joked. Peyton sent him an odd look and departed.

"That came out wrong," he muttered to himself before falling back on the bed and wondering if he'd made a mess of things again.

Author's note: So it occurred to me that you guys must be getting impatient. About the naley thing. So it's not happening soon, exactly, but since I stated that it was going to happen in the summary, I can promise that it will happen eventually. And I've written ahead of where I've posted, so the updates will keep coming daily. More often, if I get lotsa reviews. So sorry about the wait.