AN: Sorry for the wait. I got kind of stuck as to where I wanted to go, but I think I figured it out. Hope you guys like it. And thanks again for reading & reviewing!
Love, Katie.
Just you and me. You and me. The words sounded over and over inside her head. She had heard the same words spoken from his lips before, yet this time it just seemed real.
He was her protector. A shoulder for her to cry on. He was there where no one else was, and always could provide her with those few comforting words she needed.
Peyton had no doubt that together she and Lucas could make it through anything. Even Brooke's wrath. This was the day, she knew, she could look back on their past and not regret a thing. Everything had happened for a reason, and if it hadn't have happened, she would not feel as strongly as she did for Lucas. Her heart would not ache whenever he was not around. And he would not be able to say that he loved her, as he did now.
Now, they were the two against the world.
Underneath her schemes, Brooke knew it as well. She had always seen their connection, but she had given everything she had to repel them from each other. Even today, as she had so desperately tried to guilt Peyton away from Lucas, she had failed. Love is stronger than deception, and it will always win in the end.
But Brooke still, even after failing miserably, yearned to break the two up. She did not fear their strength, as it was two against one. She had always been the one to break the rules, so why couldn't she break the rule that love conquers all?
As she watched the two of them, her ex-boyfriend and so-called "best friend," through Peyton's webcam, she became more and more resentful.
Jealously overwhelmed her as she concentrated on Lucas' subtle flirting gestures. She recognized each and every one of them as if they belonged to her, which in essence, she felt as if they did. The way he placed his hand on Peyton's face, holding it lightly as he gazed into her eyes. The way his lips brushed Peyton's so delicately, yet so passionately. The way his crystal blue eyes gazed deeply into Peyton's. Everything he did. She remembered it all, how it felt, and her response.
The only difference was she had taken advantage of every moment they had shared. When Lucas had looked intently into her eyes, she didn't capture his gaze with her own as Peyton did. Their relationship didn't have the same depth or intensity as Lucas' and Peyton's did.
However, Brooke still wanted it back. All for herself. She grew envious of Peyton, so much that she thought of harming her own best friend, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
But harm to Peyton would do nothing except push Lucas away from her even more.
What she needed was for the both of them to experience the same jealousy she was getting so familiar with now. If she could reach down deep into them and pull out their weaknesses, she would feel accomplished.
Reaching for her cell phone, she found the number she needed from her phonebook and eagerly pressed 'Send.'
"I need you to help me. It's about Peyton and Lucas. You in?" She didn't provide much more explanation as to why because she was nervous she wouldn't receive the help she desired.
"I really need to get going, Peyton. I've been out of my house for over a day now; my mom had only kicked me out for the night." Lucas said as he rolled onto his back on Peyton's bed. However, she brought herself over right next to him into his arms again, pleading for him not to leave.
"You can always call your mom; you don't have to go home." She said, kissing down his neck gently.
"I wish I could stay here with you forever, Peyton, but I don't want her to worry. She didn't even know that I came here with you in the first place. She probably still thinks I'm out on the Rivercourt, or worse, with Brooke."
"Just a few more minutes like this," Peyton wrapped her arm around his chest, finding a comfortable place to lean her head on his shoulder.
"Alright," he said with no complaints whatsoever. He lifted his neck up, extending down just a little to reach Peyton's lips with his own, interlocking them tenderly.
No more than five minutes passed by, and in that time, Peyton had watched Lucas head out her bedroom door, and she had fallen back into her bed, reliving every second over the last day they had spent together.
The sounding of her cell phone disrupted her, and as she picked it up, she was hoping to hear Lucas' voice. Yet the known voice was not his, but belonged to someone else. Someone of her past.
What's past is past, right?
"Peyton?" She could hear him repeating her name, yet she was blocking it out, caught in a flashback of her past. She had tried calling him, e-mailing him, everything. No contact at all. Yet now he's calling? Now?
"You there, Peyton? Hello?"
"Oh yeah, sorry," She snapped back to reality, not really sure if she was ready to face him again, now that she had Lucas back in her life.
"Peyton, what's going on with you? Why won't you talk to me?"
"Jake, I, I need to go." And with that, she threw the phone across the room, cracking into her closet door, right above Jake's name on her 'list' that Brooke created.
Two weeks ago, Peyton would have longed for his call, to hear his voice, and to hear him tell her how much he missed her. But, now? Now was the time she had fallen back into Lucas' arms, he had taken a grasp of her heart, and he was holding it dearly.
But Jakeā¦He had also at one time taken hold of her heart, and he never let it go. She needed to let that sail away, into her past, never coming back, but was she able to let him go?
She just needed to keep repeating it to herself that what's past is past.
Jake was her past. Lucas is her present, and her future.
Right?
