No, this story isn't dead. Sorry for the lack of updates, I really didn't know that I actually went months without updating until today, which totally motivated me to finish this chapter. It's a long one, so hopefully it serves a purpose. With school over, hopefully I can update more frequently. This is actually where it all changes…

So we sat and talked
Then we walked and talked
Said it was the truth, but
What is your secret?
What Is Your Secret- Nada Surf

It was an early Wednesday morning, and normally she would be just waking up at this time, but today was different. She was dressed in her cheerleading uniform, and oddly enough she was already outside. She slowly walked up the porch steps and stood there. What was she doing? She walked up to the door and hesitantly knocked. Waiting patiently, she busied herself with looking down at her cheerleading uniform. She couldn't express how much she hated the new rule that the cheerleader's had to wear their uniforms all day on game days. And just when she wasn't paying attention, the door swung open, causing her to stumble back a little.

"Peyton?"

She stood there for a moment, wondering what to do or to say. She had come there with a plan, but that plan was becoming forgotten.

"What are you doing here?"

Once again she was silent. Just one look at him, and she was rendered speechless. What was wrong with her?

"What are you doing here?" He repeated again, as he played with the tie that was slung on his shoulders.

"I..." She trailed off, wondering what exactly to say to him.

"It's like 7 AM. What are you doing up so early?"

Looking down at her sneakers and then back up at Lucas she finally replied, "I was wondering if," She paused, and shook her head as a new idea came to her head, "You wanna walk to school together?"

Lucas didn't even have to think about it. Of course he wanted to walk to school with her. Even though she had a car, and he did, too, he still jumped at the chance. He needed to have a good, long talk with her.

"Sure, just let me finish getting dressed, and I'll be right out."

Peyton's eyes widened when she realized he wasn't fully dressed. That was why only his head was sticking out of the door. Suddenly she felt very embarrassed.

"Oh… Oh " She blushed as she finally caught on, "I um, yeah…you go and do that."

Chuckling slightly, Lucas nodded and closed the door.

Once the door was closed Peyton covered her face with her hands. That was so embarrassing. This whole situation was sort of embarrassing. Why on earth did she come here? Sure, when she woke up this morning going over to Lucas' house and talking to him seemed like a very good idea, but now that she was actually standing on his porch she wasn't so sure.

Within another five minutes, Lucas was out the door, and this time he was fully dressed. She watched as he closed the door behind him, and then walk over to where she was standing.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah."

She followed him down the steps, and they began walking.

"You know this is kinda nice." He spoke up. After walking down a few blocks in silence, he just had to say something.

"What is?"

"This…walking to school, together, talking, or lack of," He said which making her laugh a little, "And of course we can't forget the fact that you're in your cheerleading uniform, and I'm wearing, well, something other than my red shirt that you know and love." He joked, which made her laugh some more.

"Yeah…it's nice to see you in more presentable clothing." She joked along with him.

"Ouch Peyt. That one hurt. Remind me to comment on your horrible singing."

She laughed at this, "All right, all right. You know I'm just joking…I love that red shirt."

He smiled a little, "And I love your off key singing."

"Hey!" She laughed a little, as she gently hit him on the shoulder, "You're not any better!"

"Okay, okay," He laughed, "I'm sorry. I really do love your singing…no matter if it's only meant for singing in cars."

"Whatever Luke, why don't you just save that energy for your game tonight? I'm sure you'll need it."

"Okay, okay. You win." He surrendered.

She smiled triumphantly, "Peyton 1; Luke 0."

He laughed, "Yeah, yeah Peyton."

"You're right though. This is kinda nice." She looked over at him, and they both shared mutual smiles before walking in silence again.

"So," He drawled, "What's new with you Sawyer?"

She shrugged, "Nothing."

He almost cringed at her cryptic answer. Even though he hadn't spoken to her since their little talk in the library, which was about a week ago, he thought he would be the one acting quiet and reserved, but instead it was her. He was even more surprised that she began acting like this since they had just shared a short little conversation.

"Well now that I'm fully dressed," He joked earning a stifled laugh from Peyton, "And we've just had more than our share of banter, I guess it's a good time to ask you what's with the walk?"

Once again she shrugged, "Well we haven't talked in a while, so I just thought we could do it now."

He glanced at his watch, "At 7: 20 in the morning?"

"Well… yeah."

Dragged it on and on
Even favorite songs but
Your division's always wrong
What is your secret?

"Okay," He nodded, "So what do you want to talk about?" He looked over at her as they walked.

She took a deep breath and stuffed her hands in her pocket, "Where to start?"

"Anywhere you want." He said softly.

She quickly glanced over at him as they walked, and then turned her head away. She didn't know if she could actually do this.

"You don't know how hard it is for me to tell you this, Lucas, but I figured that I'd better do this now before I end up regretting it later. I um… " She paused. She just couldn't get the right words to come out.

"What's going on Peyt?" Her words were beginning to worry him.

"Do you remember the night of Rachel's party?" She asked hesitantly.

"Well yeah, that was only what? A week ago?"

"Yeah… something like that, I guess." She shrugged.

"So what about it?" He edged her on. Whenever he needed Peyton to admit something or if she needed to tell him something her responses would always be so drawn out, like she always had something to hide.

"You know this is kind of funny, the whole 'the jock and the cheerleader' thing." She let out a nervous laugh, as she tried to change the subject at the last minute.

But Lucas would have none of it, "Peyton."

She looked up at him, and her eyes met his pleading gaze. She lowered her head once again, and looked down at the sidewalk. She hated for the conversation to take a sudden turn like this, but she needed to get her thoughts out.

"I remember, you know?" Was all she could bring herself to say.

His brow furrowed in confusion, "Remember what?"

As she stayed silent, he let his mind wander to that night, and that's when it suddenly dawned on him.

"Peyt–"

"I remember kissing you, and I just wanna say that I'm sorry for lying to you about not remembering it, but I just didn't want to cause anymore problems between me, you and Brooke. We have enough drama as it is, with senior year and all, and I just I'm trying, I'm really trying not to let this get to me, but it is."

"You're not doing anything wrong, Peyton–"

"I'm sorry for lying to you about not remembering what happened that night, but I'm not sorry for that kiss, Lucas." There. She said it, she had finally said it, and it felt good. She couldn't keep lying to herself anymore. It was becoming useless.

"What?" He was stunned. He hadn't expected her to say that, not at all. Everything that had came out of her mouth in the past few minutes had just taken him by surprise. He didn't even notice that they had stopped walking.

And despite finally telling him the truth, she still couldn't bring herself to look at him. "I know that I was drunk, and I admit, maybe at that moment it was stupid of me to do it, but that didn't make that kiss any less real… at least not to me. I know this is probably unfair of me to spring this on you like this, but I had to tell you, Luke, and you know what? From now on if you want to avoid me then I'm okay with that." Okay, so maybe she wasn't okay with that last part, but what else was she supposed to say?

"I can't do that, Peyton. You know I care about you, and what you just told me– I'm not gonna lie, I'm still a little shocked by it, but I'm not gonna stop talking to you or stop being around you, Peyt. I just… I need some time to think about all of this."

She nodded, "I do, too."

"When we kissed that night, I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't feel anything. But with everything with Brooke, I don't know where my head is. I don't even know where we're at, Peyt. Are we just friends? Are we suddenly more? It's a lot to handle." He could only be honest with her right now. He had waited for this moment, to hear her say that their kiss meant more to her, too, but now that it was finally here he didn't know what to say, or what to do.

"We're friends Luke. I don't want to lose your friendship, and that's why I think maybe you and I should just spend some time apart." The words were coming out before she could stop them.

"What?" He was so confused. How could they have gone from friendly banter to impending friendship?

"I think we should spend some time apart. You said it your self, we've got a lot to process these days, and we both need some time to think about things, so maybe this is for the best."

"Peyton what are you saying?" His head had started to spin. He didn't even realize that they had stopped walking.

"I'm saying that you need to figure things out with Brooke, and I need to figure out some things on my own, and the best way to do that is for me to figure the things that I need to figure out alone," She said all in one hurried breath.

"Peyt don't." He pleaded with her. He already knew what her next move was gonna be, so he tried to stop her.

"So I guess I'll be seeing you, Luke," She slowly began to walk again, but this time it was away from him.

" Thanks for walking with me." She added as she took one final look at him before walking straight ahead again. She didn't want to do what she just did, but she had to. If she really did have feelings for Lucas, she would do things right this time.

You said just what I said
So why's the meter red?
And why's the needle pegged?
What is your secret?

"Well, well, well if it isn't my favorite emo girl."

Peyton looked up from a sketch she was doing to see Brooke saunter into her room, plop on her bed and proceed to talk a mile a minute. Peyton had been sitting in her computer chair sketching quietly before Brooke came in it was actually quiet.

She smirked to herself and continued to sketch, not once taking out her earphones. She was surprised to see that Brooke, who apparently hadn't stopped talking, didn't see the blank, yet somewhat amused expression on her face?

"And there's just nobody around anymore! I mean, it's not like I don't have a life, because I do. I've got clothes over bros, I'm student council president, I'm head cheerleader, the list goes on and on, but that doesn't mean I don't," Brooke paused when she finally realized that Peyton wasn't listening to her, "P Sawyer!"

"P Sawyer!" She repeated again, which made Peyton finally look up.

"Hmm?" She slowly took out her earphones, and proceeded to listen to Brooke.

"You weren't even listening, and there's like a crisis going on!"

Peyton stifled a laugh, "What is it Brooke?"

"That there's no one left." She pouted.

"What?" Peyton finally put her sketchbook down, and turned her full attention to Brooke.

"Everyone's just so occupied. There's no one to talk to anymore."

"Brooke what do you mean? You know you can always talk to me." Peyton was prepared to hear something about a sale at the mall that Brooke had missed, or the latest argument with Rachel, but not this.

"I know that Peyton, but you're not always gonna be here. What happens when we all go off to college? I'll probably be stuck here in Tree Hill while you, Lucas, Nathan and Haley are at some big university." Peyton didn't exactly see where this conversation was going. She never thought that Brooke actually thought about things like this. That just showed how far apart they were actually growing.

"Brooke you shouldn't think like that," She got up from her chair and took a seat right next to Brooke on her bed, "That's college, and who's to say we won't all be together, and even though this is how it's looking we'll probably all be apart, but that doesn't mean we all won't stay friends. And besides that's college, just think about now, we're all together–"

"We're not. Everyone's drifting apart. I haven't seen you for weeks, Haley and Nathan are in their own little world, and Lucas, I don't even know where I stand with Lucas anymore. He's been so withdrawn lately, and it seems like all I have is me." Brooke looked over at her best friend helplessly. She knew if she ever had a problem she could always go to Peyton. They were best friends, best friends who would always be there for each other, but even she couldn't deny that they were growing apart, and she didn't want that to happen.

Peyton had sympathized with Brooke in the beginning, but now she couldn't help but be a little upset. Brooke was all alone? As far as she was concerned Brooke was barely ever alone. Sure, her parents were across the country, but Brooke didn't have to come home to an empty house everyday, spend the holidays alone, mourn the loss of a mother, and go through the absence of another mother all alone. To Peyton, Brooke's "I don't want to leave High School" situation wasn't nearly as big as what was going on with her right now.

Trying to ignore some of the bitterness she felt, she decided to continue with their conversation.

"You've never ever wanted some time to be alone?"

Peyton watched as Brooke contemplated the question, "Well who doesn't? It's just, I miss us hanging out, and I wish that I had my best friend around more."

"Yeah, me too." Peyton sighed.

"So enough about me, what's going on with you? Is there any new boy I should know about or anything?"

She shrugged, "No… not really."

"Come on P Sawyer, there's gotta be something. I haven't heard from or spoken to you for 3 weeks, and you mean to tell me there's nothing going on?"

"I've just been thinking about stuff that's all." She tried to be as vague as she could possibly be.

"You and Lucas both. He just won't talk to me." She said sadly. Her relationship with Lucas hadn't exactly been great these last past weeks.

"Oh." Was all Peyton could bring herself to say as she suddenly began to shift in her seat.

"I just wish he'd let me in more... I'm starting to think maybe we're just not gonna work." She sighed unhappily as her eyes began to wander around the room. They finally settled on Peyton's closet doors, where Lucas' name was right under hers.

"Brooke." She spoke up after a moment of silence. This was the moment she had been dreading.

"Hmm?" She asked still not taking her gaze off of the door.

"There's um, there's something I need to tell you." Peyton couldn't hold her feelings in longer. She had to do things right this time; she just hoped she wasn't make a mistake.

"What?" Brooke finally brought her gaze on a now worried looking Peyton. The urgency in her voice, the worrisome look, Brooke already had a feeling what was going on.

She waited for Peyton to speak, but she didn't. She just sat there.

"C'mon Peyton you're starting to scare me. Just tell me already." She gently touched Peyton's arm.

She took a deep breath, "The, the thing I've been thinking about for these past weeks, well more like this past month, or maybe even longer than that–"

"Peyton please." She pleaded. She couldn't take the suspense any longer.

She looked at her friend. A few minutes ago her eyes were sparkling with happiness, and now they were just... sad. There was another silence. Peyton closed her eyes and tried to hold back tears.

"I still have feelings for Lucas." Her voice was no louder than a whisper. She couldn't even look at Brooke, and she didn't want to hurt her again, but it felt incredibly good to just be honest.

"Okay... no more Red Bull for me because I could've sworn you said that you still had feelings for Lucas." She said with a nervous, short laugh. She didn't believe it. She couldn't have heard right. Peyton wouldn't hurt her again.

Peyton looked over at Brooke sadly, "I did."

"You're kidding right?" Brooke closed her eyes and tried to let it all sink in. She could already feel the anger.

"Brooke–"

"Don't!" She hissed as she stood up from the bed, "I trusted you, Peyton! After everything you did to me last year, I trusted you, and now you're telling me that you have feelings for Lucas? Were they ever gone Peyton or were you just secretly pining for my boyfriend even while you were with Jake"

"It's not like that Brooke. I don't want to hurt you!" She replied through tears as she stood up to face her.

"That's bullshit Peyton, and you know it! You don't want to hurt me? Then why would you do this Peyton?" Brooke tried her best to hold back tears.

"I wanted to be honest with you, Brooke. I didn't want a repeat of last year–"

"Oh yeah because you're just thinking about everybody else's feelings now, right?" She replied bitterly.

"You have every right to be angry with me, Brooke, but don't let this ruin our friendship again. I don't wanna lose you... you're my best friend."

"Don't you get it Peyton? He's my boyfriend! Do you see that door? His name is under mine!"

She was trying to be nice and understanding, but she just couldn't take Brooke yelling at her, "He's not your possession, Brooke!"

Brooke had enough, "You selfish bitch!" She held up her hand, and in one swift movement her hand whipped across Peyton's face. Peyton let out a gasp as she held her face. She couldn't believe Brooke did that to her. She stared at her in disbelief, looking for any trace of remorse on Brooke's face, but there wasn't any.

"If you think that you can just walk into my room, and yell at me just because I decided to actually be honest with you and actually do things right instead of lying to you and going behind your back again then you're wrong." It was now Peyton's turn to have the upper hand. She was finally sick of being the doormat, and she wasn't going to take it anymore.

Brooke backed away from Peyton a little as she spoke. She admitted hitting her was probably out of line, but she was angry, and she was still angry.

"Don't you ever put your hands on me again! I've tried Brooke; I've honestly tried with you! I've tried being honest, I've tried being you're friend, I've tried everything, and what do I get? I get yelled at and slapped by someone who I thought would understand, someone who I thought would at least hear me out, but I guess not. So go Brooke, go back to Lucas, tell him not talk to me anymore, and you know what how about you don't talk to me anymore? You'd like it that way right? You having Lucas all to yourself, and me alone because that's how it always ends right?" She let out a bitter laugh through some stray tears. She didn't think their friendship would actually come to this.

"Go to hell." And that was the last thing Brooke said before she stormed out of Peyton's room.

After minutes of staring at the empty doorway, defeated, Peyton collapsed in a near by chair, and she cried.

Haley had been sitting on the couch in the apartment that she and Brooke shared, when she heard the door slam. Casually looking up from her book, she was surprised to see a very angry Brooke. She watched Brooke's every movement before actually moving herself. She watched as Brooke threw her coat on the coat rack, stormed to the kitchen, and started randomly opening and slamming cabinet doors.

Confused and concerned, Haley finally put her book down and cautiously went towards the kitchen area where Brooke was.

"Brooke is something wrong?" She asked as she stood on the opposite side of the table. Brooke didn't answer her. She just kept on looking through cabinets.

"Brooke." Haley repeated.

"Hey Haley do you still wanna stab Peyton's eyes out with a fork?" Brooke asked in rather coy voice as she finally turned around to face Haley.

Haley gave her a weird look, "No… of course not, besides I was just joking when I said that, why–"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah… c'mon you've gotta know I don't mean things literally all of the time. I remember there was a time where nothing would give me such joy like watching you get hit by a bus, but—"

"Because I'm thinking, if the both of us do that I'm sure we could split the time in half." Brooke was still upset with what had happened earlier. After leaving Peyton's house, she drove around the town in an effort to cool off, she even tried visiting Lucas, but he wasn't home. She couldn't believe that Peyton still had feelings for Lucas. She couldn't believe her best friend would betray her again!

"Okay Brooke, I'm sensing you had fight with Peyton."

"Gee Haley I wonder what gave you that idea? You know for a tutor, you can be pretty oblivious at times." Brooke snapped.

"Hey! Don't take your anger out on me. I get your upset, but I'm sure whatever you and Peyton were arguing about, it'll blow over. You guys are best friends–"

"Ex best friends." She corrected.

Haley's expression softened as she reached out ant gently patted Brooke's arm, "It was that bad, huh?"

"I just can't believe her Haley! She promised me she wouldn't do this to me again, and I trusted her. I'm never trusting another blonde again!"

"Once again hey! And if you don't mind me butting in, what were you guys arguing about anyway?" Haley had a feeling what it was about, well more like whom.

"She told me that she still has feelings for Lucas."

Haley sighed, and she was right, "Ouch."

"Yeah and then she proceeded to say how she was only trying to be honest with me, and that she didn't want to hurt me, but I'm sure she does. I just, I got so angry with her in there Haley, then my anger got the best of me, and then I just snapped, so as a result of that we're not friends anymore."

"Brooke... have you ever even thought that maybe this is as hard for Peyton as this is for you?"

"Whose side are you on anyway? Because I plan on using all of this wasted, pent up anger on designing some Team Brooke t-shirts for clothes over bros." Brooke let out a small triumphant laugh at her own little joke.

"I'm not going to pick sides, Brooke. Both of you are my friends–"

"But I'm your roommate." Brooke interjected.

"And that's great, but Peyton is also my friend. I can't do that, Brooke." Haley tried to reason with her, but Brooke who was still angry from earlier was far from thinking logically.

"You know what? I kind of want to be alone right now."

"Brooke," Haley sighed as she saw Brooke's immediate mood change, "You're being really unfair right now."

"Oh yeah? Well then why don't you go talk to your best friend Peyton? You can go bond and listen to her side of the story all night." She snapped at Haley again, and this time Haley just didn't have the energy to try again.

"Fine Brooke. Call me when you've formed other human emotions besides anger!" And with that Haley grabbed her coat and was out of the door.

"Knock, knock." Haley said as she stood in the doorway of Peyton's room.

"Haley... hey. Come on in." She spoke. Her voice was hoarse, and her eyes were red from crying.

Haley walked into her room and immediately noticed Peyton's appearance.

"Oh Peyton." Haley whispered as she walked over to the computer chair Peyton was sitting on, and hugged her.

Peyton closed her eyes, and gently held on to Haley's arm before she let go. A friend was exactly what she needed right now, but she was shocked that Haley would actually be here.

"Thanks Hales." She whispered appreciatively as she wiped away some tears off of her face.

"Its no problem," Haley gently patted her shoulder, "Hey what do you have there?" Haley had just noticed the stuffed bunny that Peyton was holding.

"Oh this, this is just my stuffed bunny named... well, bunny."

Haley laughed, "Well that's just perfect because I've got Mr. Waffles here to cheer you up."

Peyton laughed as Haley held out Mr. Waffles to her, "Thanks Hales."

"See Mr. Waffles never fails to make someone feel better. I'm sure you're bunny does a good job, too. I actually didn't think you had stuffed animals."

"Oh my grandmother gave this to me a little after my mom died, so it's just been with me ever since. I guess you could say it's special."

"Yeah Mr. Waffles, too. He was the only thing I had to myself living in a house of like 12," They both shared small grins, "But dude we've gotta get another name for you're bunny."

Peyton laughed, "Yeah... we'll have to work on that."

"Of course, but um I don't know how to exactly bring this up but," She approached the topic cautiously before she took a seat on the edge of the bed "Listen, Brooke told me what happened–"

"Yeah I kind of figured that. I'm just surprised you're here... with Mr. Waffles," She playfully acknowledged the little bear's presence, " I'd figured you would be on Team Brooke."

Haley shook her head, "Yeah well Brooke kinda figured that, too."

"Haley it's okay if you want to take Brooke's side. She is your roommate." Okay so of course Peyton wasn't okay with that, but what could she do?

Haley let out a stifled laugh. She was getting sick of saying this, "And you're still my friend. Look Peyton, I'm gonna tell you what I told Brooke. I'm not choosing sides at all. You both are my friends."

"You're a good friend Haley."

Haley shrugged, "Yeah well, with nearly two years of friendship it'd just be wrong if I didn't hear your side of things."

Peyton sighed, "Yeah well there's really not much to tell."

She nodded, "Well does Lucas know?"

Peyton shook her head; "I went to Brooke first, but with how angry she's with me now, she'll probably tell Lucas the first chance she gets in an attempt to humiliate me."

"I doubt it Peyton. Sure, Brooke is upset, but I doubt she'll get that vindictive–"

"You know for you to be living with her, you obviously don't know Brooke that well. She can be a huge bitch when she wants to. She proved that to me earlier when she slapped me for being honest with her."

Haley was shocked. Brooke definitely left that part out, "Apparently I don't. She slapped you, Peyton?"

"Yeah... believe me I was just as shocked as you were." Peyton kept on playing the events of earlier this afternoon in her head. A life long friendship had been thrown down the drain in just a matter of minutes.

"Wow... Brooke was really out of line for doing that. I almost can't believe she would do something like that," Haley let her mind wander, "So it's really over this time isn't it?" In the back of her mind Haley hoped that Peyton and Brooke would eventually reconcile even if it wasn't exactly the best of times for them right now.

"Afraid so. So let's sum it up. I've got a dead mom, another mom somewhere I don't even know, a father off at sea, no best friend, and a boy who I'm probably hopelessly pining for that'll probably never know how I feel. Life's just great when you've got no one isn't it?" She laughed bitterly. She didn't think she could go any lower at this point.

"Hey you've still got your bunny, and if you want I'll even let you borrow Mr. Waffles—"

"Haley."

Haley smiled sadly at her friend, she wondered what she could say to cheer her friend up, and then she thought of something.

"And you've always got me."

You want to control
You want to be controlled
You're like a little switch
And then you take your toll

"Brooke!" Lucas called out for her as he entered her apartment, "Are you in here?"

"Brooke!" He called her again, and after a couple of minutes she finally came out of the room.

"Hey." She whispered.

"What's going on Brooke? You left the door open, you know?"

"Yeah it's been open ever since Haley left hours ago." She said glumly as she ran her hand through her hair.

"What's going on with you Brooke?" He reached out to touch her shoulder but she moved away.

"Nothing... nothing," She whispered as she moved away from him, "I'd just appreciate it if you didn't talk to Peyton anymore."

"What?"

"Lucas please," Brooke sighed, "I'm just asking you to do this one thing for me."

"Are you serious?" He looked at her incredulously. He knew at times Brooke could be strangely very selfish, but this was practically crossing the line. He wondered what was going on with her.

"Yes I'm serious. All I'm asking is for you to do that one little thing okay?" She knew where this conversation was headed for... another argument. She was just on a role today.

"That's not a little thing Brooke, and you know it. Why don't you just tell me what's wrong, and we'll talk about." He tried to reason with her. He didn't want this to turn into yet another fight.

"Why? So I can tell you what happened, and you can go and comfort your precious Peyton?" She responded angrily.

"What are you talking about? What happened Brooke?"

"Why should I tell you?" She raised her voice.

"Because I'm your boyfriend." He tried his best not to yell.

"Oh yeah that's right, you're my boyfriend. You know that's pretty easy to forget since you sure don't act like it!"

"Oh don't put this on me! I'm trying Brooke, I'm really trying with you, but all you do is push me away–"

"I am not getting into another argument with you about this Lucas! This day has just been horrible, and I thought out of all people you would be the one to understand, but you don't." There was a hint of sadness in her voice as she did her best to hold back tears. She wasn't going to cry in front of him, she wasn't going to cry In front of anyone.

"I'm trying Brooke." He said softly.

"Just please can you just not talk to her for awhile?" She asked desperately even though part of her knew what he was going to say.

"Brooke she's my friend, and she's your best friend–"

"My best friend who just happens to have feelings for you!" She couldn't hold it in any longer.

"What?" That wasn't what Lucas had expected to hear... not at all.

"She's in love with you, Luke, and I know, no matter how many times you tell me that I'm the one or that you love me, that there's a part of you that's in love with her, too. Or maybe, maybe you were always in love with her." She whispered, her voice full of emotion as she finally let the tears fall freely down her face.

"Brooke." He said softly as he made a move to comfort her, but once again she moved away, this time towards the door. Apart of him knew what she was saying was true.

"No Lucas. I can't keep on doing this anymore. I can't keep letting you hurt me, so just go." She said sadly.

"Brooke you don't mean that." He had already lost Peyton a few weeks ago, so Brooke was almost all he had, and now that was about to be gone.

"I do Lucas. I need a break. We need a break. With the week off from school we have now, I'm gonna go back to California and visit my parents for a few days. I just need to get away from Tree Hill for a while. Hey who knows maybe you'll prove me wrong and things can finally go back to normal again." She whispered tearfully as she opened up the door.

"But right now you need to figure out just where your heart is."

He took one final look at Brooke, who was trying her absolute best not to break down in front of him. At this point, he didn't want to lose her, but he knew she was right. They just didn't have it.

"Brooke you know that I–"

"Don't." She stopped him before he could say those words. The words that she wanted to hear and didn't at the same time.

He nodded, and then he finally went out of the door, and maybe finally out of Brooke's life. He had his chance to make things right now, but he still just didn't know how.

I don't care about you
I try not to think about you
I don't care about you anymore
The people got tired
Our movies don't play much anymore
The actress was fired

I hope I didn't make Brooke too vindictive, but I was just thinking about the finale, and how she over reacted, so I had to incorporate it here in this story. Thank you all for the positive reviews, they keep me motivated, so I guess that's it for now.