Chapter Two: It's Getting Closer

Chapter Note: The chapter title is a lyric from Paramore's "Pressure."

Peyton tried her best to not to hang up the phone right then and there, but she didn't. In all honesty, Peyton wanted to see if Brooke would apologize or just take Peyton's long silence as a 'forget about it' pass.

"So," Brooke started with mild awkwardness in her voice.

Peyton sat down on her bed limply with a rueful smile on her face. "So," she replied shortly.

"I'm glad you're coming to the reunion, I seriously thought an hour ago you weren't going to show." Her friend finally said after a few seconds of nothingness. She must've been contemplating what she should say.

"I actually booked my flight last minute," Peyton responded with anger still evident in her voice. "I wasn't sure if seeing old friends would bring back happy memories." She was trying to egg Brooke on; she wanted to get a rise out of her so-called best friend.

Brooke huffed loudly enough for Peyton to hear over the phone. "Gosh Peyton! It's been a year practically."

"Wow, I'm surprised you kept track of that one." Peyton said ruthlessly—she wasn't in the mood to pity Brooke or forgive her either.

"How many times do I have to say that I'm sorry before you actually believe that I am?" Brooke yelled in a frustrated manner which surprised Peyton slightly.

Peyton didn't respond right away. Instead she got up off of her bed and walked back over to her closet and saw her conflicted sketch of Brooke, Lucas, and Peyton executing Lucas's heart.

"Look, I wasn't the one who sued her best friend because I sketched a piece of her and sold it without giving a 'fee' that was supposedly rightfully hers and then sleep with her boyfriend of three years to seal the deal." Peyton stated in a controlled manner, but sarcasm was happily layered in there. "By the way, how is Shawn?"

Brooke laughed in a 'I can't believe this is happening' sort of way. "I wouldn't know, we broke up a few months ago."

"Right," Peyton said looking over her old vinyl trying to find the perfect record to play to showcase her feelings her moment at that moment. She pulled out A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by Panic! At the Disco and hastily started to play "Lying is the Most Fun."

"If we're going to bring up the past, then if I recall correctly you and my boyfriend sneaking behind my back junior year," Brooke replied quickly. "So I guess I'm not such a terrible friend as you are, too."

"Right, well, I'd love to stay and continue to chat with my bestest friend, but I have better things to do." Peyton said vehemently and hung up.

"Bitch," Peyton seethed as she looked down at the phone and saw Brooke's number disappear.

As soon as she put the phone down, Peyton unzipped her bag and got out the black strapless dress she decided she would wear and also got out her make-up bag and walked into her bathroom. She stared at herself in the mirror for a few seconds, just thinking. She was thinking of the good time and the bad times, mainly the bad times. Peyton had to endure so much crap in her life ever since her mom died. Only a few times in her life did she finally feel okay ever since then, but those were sometimes overshadowed by the darkness of her soul.

Unconsciously, Peyton looked down at her watch as she tried to shake those thoughts from her. Seeing that it was 7:20, she gasped, "Oh shit!" Quickly, Peyton ran around and started to get ready hastily. She still had to get dressed, do her make-up, and try to primp her golden curls a little bit more since they had got a little flat.

By 7:50, Peyton was finished and walking out of the door feeling extremely hurried. She walked over to the closed garage and opened it up revealing two cars: her father's classic Corvette and her classic Mercury. Feeling the past finally overwhelm her, Peyton slowly walked over to her old car while running her fingers down its side. As she opened the door, she saw her luscious red leather seats and slid into the driver's seat.

Gripping the cold steering wheel and smiling slightly, Peyton whispered excitedly, "Whoa, déjà vu is coming on!" She then got the keys out of her small black purse and turned the ignition hearing her old car's engine purr. "Here goes nothing," she said to herself as she put the gas pedal to the floor, speeding out of the dark garage and towards her old high school.

Lucas tightened his sleek black tie while grimacing at himself in the mirror. He was sporting a nicely fit and fashionable black suit with a white dress shirt and lastly a black tie. Lucas felt as if he were going to a banquet at the White House or something since he was getting all dolled up.

He was thinking about shaving earlier but didn't and was now thanking his lucky stars for not doing so since he felt cheesy already enough and if he had shaved then he would have felt even more fake.

Lucas, sick of looking at himself, walked out into his old bedroom and took a seat at his old computer. For some strange reason he wanted to turn it on, so he did. It was much slower than computers these days. But once it did come up to his user, he immediately saw the shortcut to Peyton's webcam. He knew she turned it off during the summer right before senior year, but he wondered if she would've turned it on for old time sake.

With his becoming clammy and shaky, for who knows why, Lucas clicked on the shortcut. Once the window popped up, only a black frame came up showing that she hadn't turned it back on.

"Figures," Lucas said softly as he got up out of his computer chair and walked out to the kitchen. He found that his mom had baked cookies just for him. Smiling down at them appreciatively, he took one up like a giddy child and took a big bite out of it.

Right at that moment, the kitchen door opened and his long time uncle and now step-father came in.

"Keith!" Lucas exclaimed with his mouth full.

Keith seemed a little shocked to see Lucas, beamed jovially and hugged Lucas. "How you doing, Luke? Huh? You big 'New York Times: Best Selling Author!'"

Laughing and almost choking at the same time, Lucas hugged Keith back warmly. Finally swallowing the delicious cookie, "I'm doing great, Keith. Thanks for asking."

Keith let go of Lucas and took a step back to look over him, like his mother had done only a couple hours earlier. "Man, you look great, Luke—you really do. If Dan could only see you now and see that he missed out."

Smiling still and taking a seat at the small kitchen table, "How's he doing anyway?"

"Aw, well, you know how he usually is," Keith said doing the same exact thing Lucas had done only seconds before, "constipated and vindictive."

"Yeah, I guess I should've known," Lucas said picking at the corner of the table he had always done years before now.

Keith waved as if to forget about him. "So tell me," he stated happily, "how's New York these days?"

Lucas shrugged in a lazy manner, "You know, busy, impersonal, and rude. Same old same old, I suppose you could say."

"So I guess that means no women, then?" Keith asked blandly. He had been on Lucas's back about settling down as soon as Lucas had finished writing his first best-seller.

Lucas shook his head, "Nope." Leaning back in his chair, Lucas looked up at the ceiling in thought. "All of the girls I've dated up there didn't feel right. They aren't like the girls down here."

"Meaning like Peyton," Keith intervened quickly while smiling mischievously like he always did when he secretly knew something Lucas didn't know.

"What makes you say Peyton and not someone else?" Lucas said sitting up straighter; intrigued.

Keith shrugged this time and played with the placemats. "Oh, I don't know," he said trying to avoid the conversation.

"Yeah you do, so please do tell." Lucas responded goofily because he really wanted to know.

"Oh c'mon, Luke! Are you as daft as this or are you just wanting me to tell you?" Keith exclaimed as if it wasn't rocket science, but to Lucas it really was. "Fine," Keith gave in, "I'll tell you."

Smiling from his victory, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet because you might not agree with what I'm gonna say." Keith replied looking down at the table as he leaned forward slightly.

"Why do you say that?" Lucas asked as he too leaned forward.

"Because." Keith answered hastily. "You and Peyton have always had this thing or connection that you and Brooke never had or even Haley could touch upon." Keith paused and then looked at Lucas, making Lucas swallow the lump in his throat. "You saw Brooke just as a sex buddy even though you said you were 'in love' with her, you weren't because if you were you wouldn't just have thought about sex with her. Though when you and Peyton had your small—whatever it was you two had—I didn't see crazed hormones in the picture."

Lucas pushed off of the table and got up swiftly and walked over to the cookie plate. "So what are you saying that I compare every woman I date to Peyton and I dump them because they're not her or something?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Luke," Keith stated straightforwardly.

Lucas shook his head choppily. "I don't know what gave you that idea because Peyton and I haven't shared anything together ever since our junior year and I sure as hell haven't felt something for her since!" Luke exclaimed exasperated since he felt as if Keith was just pulling the past from under him and piecing it together.

Raising his hands defensively, Keith stated, "Okay, okay so you haven't felt anything for her since your junior year, but," he paused melodramatically, "that doesn't mean you've hadn't had them and labeled them correctly."

Looking up at the ceiling and praying for this conversation to end, Lucas then looked back over at Keith. "Whatever," he said forcefully and then looking down at his watch and seeing it was 7:52, Lucas decided it was time to head over to the reunion. He pointed towards the kitchen door, "I guess I better get going then."

Keith nodded halfheartedly, "Okay, okay, I'll see you later."

"Yeah," Lucas said as he turned the knob of the kitchen door. He opened it quickly and got out of there. He felt as if that little 'eye-opener' so to speak was too intense and overwhelming.

As he reached into his pocket and grabbed his keys, a black Mercury sped down his street loudly. His stomach dropped and his heart began to speed rapidly. "Peyton," he whispered softly as her tail lights went out of his view. Shaking his head slightly to get rid of his recent case of the jitters, he took his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his black Escalade. When he got in and turned the key to start up his truck, a familiar song started to play; "For Me This is Heaven" by Jimmy Eat World.

The shock the song brought sort of knocked the air out of him, but again he shook the weird sign from himself and slowly backed out of the driveway and drove over to his old high school with many emotions starting to overcome all at once.

Since she was the Senior Class President, Brooke was in charge of setting up the reunion, which meant she had arrived back in Tree Hill a week earlier than everyone else to start setting up.

She was hoping that she would've mended things with Peyton before tonight, but she expected Peyton to be indifferent to that and even though it hurt her that her old friend wouldn't do it just for old times sake, she wasn't going to let it ruin her night. People were already starting to mill in, but no one really from her crowd had shown up yet.

Brooke walked over to the welcoming booth, where people were getting their name tags, and took a seat next to her V.P., Erica. "So, anyone you were tight with show up yet?" Brooke asked with mild interest.

"No, not really," Erica replied as she gave a name tag to a guy named Tyler Watson. "Some jocks I guess I partied with, at least that's what they say."

Nodding slightly, Brooke replied, "I know what you mean; no one's really shown up that I really hung out with then. I suppose they're going to be coming after eight, y'know fashionably late."

Then someone entered the gym, emitting darkness from the outside, and walked over to the two. He was talk, dark, and handsome and had a heck of a fashion sense, but something about the guy sent a trigger of familiarity in Brooke's mind to go off. Intrigued and attracted, Brooke smiled seductively. Erica on the other hand looked shocked, extremely shocked.

"What?" Brooke whispered sideways to Erica wondering why she was so taken aback.

Not right away did Erica respond and when she did it wasn't a straight answer, "I can't believe it."

"What?" Brooke urged a little bit more impatiently as the guy was almost at the table.

Erica now looked right at Brooke with her eyes wide, "It's Mouth."

"What!" Brooke said rather loudly and right at the moment, Mouth reached the check-in table.

"Hey guys," he started smiling broadly, which was so memorable to Brooke that it had to be Mouth. "It's been so long!"

Brooke was flabbergasted to say the least, but she recovered quickly and nodded. "I know, it has been a long time." She got up from her seat and rounded the table and hugged her sweetest friend ever, and probably now one of her handsomest. "It's so good to see you, Mouth!"

He must've been a little shocked that she would've hugged him since he was a little tense at first. But slowly he hugged her back warmly, "It's nice to see you too, Brooke."

Finally backing out of the hug, Brooke is still shocked. "Gosh, you've sure have…."

"Grown into my body?" Mouth offered with a goofy smile.

"Yeah, I guess you can say that!" Brooke said stilling looking him over and feeling extremely attracted to him, especially since it was Mouth. "C'mon, let me show you the mural I had made," she said excitedly as she grabbed his hand and led him over to her secret area in the gym that was curtained off.

She pushed the curtain open somewhat, just enough to let them both get in and cover the mural at the same time. It was a black and white mural that only had some color here and there on certain objects and places. The theme of the mural was "Who We Were," and it was rightfully so because all of the pictures/paintings were from 2006, their senior year.

"Wow," Mouth said softly as he looked up and down at the beautiful mural.

"So you like it?" Brooke squealed excitedly, still not having let go of Mouth's hand.

He looked back at her, his subtle but lively blue eyes sending butterflies to go haywire in her stomach. "Of course, it brings back so many memories just looking at it!"

Again, Brooke smiled happily, but her she was slightly surprised by her soft, "good."

Mouth seemed to have noticed it as well and looked back over at her with interest in his eyes.

Nathan sped over to Tree Hill High School with a pained expression on his face. He wasn't the happiest camper or even looking forward to seeing his old pals. The closer he got to the school the more he wished he had gotten drunk before coming to take the tension and pressure off.

Obviously, the thought of seeing Haley for the first time in a few months was definitely taking a toll on his nerves and his heart. He didn't know what he was going to say, do, or even think when he saw her there. Ten years earlier, when she had come home, he was angry and embittered; he could possibly be that way again. But for some reason, he highly doubted that since he did cross the line this time.

Flashback

The sun was slowly falling under the horizon and she still wasn't home. Nathan hastily got up out of his fine leather chair and started to pace in his study. He had expected her to be home early since she knew that he was coming home from a four away games in a week and half.

Finally, he heard the front door open and close. Nathan then quickly walked out into the foyer and looked over at his tired wife.

"Oh, Nathan! I thought you weren't coming home until tomorrow." She said faintly with a subtle smile on her face. Haley then crossed over to him once she took off her coat and wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to kiss him, but he pulled his head away.

"Damn it, Haley! I left four messages on your phone," Nathan responded in an exasperated manner as he broke from her embrace.

Looking hurt and abandoned, Haley threw a hand up in the air. "I forgot my phone here today, Nathan—I didn't know."

Now laughing, "Right," he spat, "just like the two times before."

"Don't give me that, Nate! My job is very demanding these days," she said in her defensive.

"Right, I forgot you're living your dreams through those singing teen freaks!" Nathan said vehemently as he backed into the kitchen to get a drink, a hard drink.

Haley followed him on his heals and then stopped when she finally comprehended what he had just said. "D'you really think I'm living my dream through them? I already lived my dream before!"

"Oh, yeah," Nathan replied as he began to pour the vodka in his glass, "I bet you had a kick ass time making out with Chris Keller on tour!"

She looked like she wanted scream or slap him, probably more like slapping him, but she refrained. "Are you trying to push me away, Nathan?" Tears were starting to appear in her eyes now, "First, you say you don't want children and now it's blaming me for petty crimes of not being here for you."

Now, Nathan felt pissed, extremely pissed. "For crying out loud Haley, why the hell would I want to do that?" He slapped the counter, "Huh? Why would I want to do that?"

Haley looked down at the floor for a few moments and then back up at him. "I don't know Nathan, I really don't know." She turned and started to leave the kitchen, but turned at the last moment and looked back at him with tears slowly falling now. "You've changed; you aren't the man I married."

End of Flashback

Surprisingly, he was turning into the school's parking lot already. Shocked and slightly more nervous now, Nathan parked sloppily. The memory he had just relived, vividly, was making him have second thoughts, many second thoughts. His throat had become swollen with the painful lump that had formed there.

He leaned his head back against the head rest and closed his eyes imagining the awe-inspiring rain kiss he had given Haley in their junior year, right before they had gotten married. Then the passionate kisses she gave him in his bedroom when she had come back and begged to talk to him.

Nathan felt tears start to sting his eyes; he was starting to regret coming back. It was as if he was inviting his memories to kill him.

Suddenly, someone knocked on his window causing him to practically jump out of his skin. Nathan looked to see who it was and it was his older half-brother, Lucas. Forcing a smile Nathan got out of his Beamer.

"Hey Luke," he said in a coarse voice, Nathan could tell that Lucas seemed concerned.

"Hey Nathan," Lucas greeted quietly as he patted Nathan's back warmly. "I thought you would walk in there with me, is that cool?"

Nathan nodded slowly feeling a little better knowing that he wasn't going to have to face the entire class on his own. "Yeah, that would great, thanks."

"Don't mention," Lucas replied cordially and wrapped his arm, like a close brother or an old friend, around Nathan's neck as they walked together into the gym.

The past immediately hit Nathan and many memories seemed to weigh his mind down even more. "Home sweet home," he whispered to himself.

Author's Notes: I hope you all liked this chapter. It's a 'fill' in chapter, in my opinion, since it tells you all what went wrong between Peyton and Brooke's friendship and Nathan and Haley's marriage. I wanted to include a flashback for Nathan and Haley because, well, I believe Nathan/Haley scenes are so impassioned (especially since I've watched "Like You, Like An Arsonist"). Also, I thought with Peyton and Brooke's past history with guys intervening in their friendship would most likely occur again. On another note, hopefully you all didn't think I tried to shove Lucas and Peyton down your throats since I had a feeling in my gut telling me that I was. If I did, I'm sorry, and I didn't, that's pretty cool.

Anyway, I thank you guys for reading and please tell me your thoughts! It's awesome to hear from you all since it's one of the biggest perks of being a writer other than seeing your work published. So please tell your opinions even if it means that I have to endure a lecture of my stupidity!