Almost Honest
Disclaimer- If I were to own One Tree Hill, Lucas and Peyton would be together, so obviously I don't.
Chapter 3-Clarity Comes with a Price
After she left Peyton's, Brooke went directly to Lucas's. She stepped into his room for the first time in what seemed like ages, but she figured she couldn't ignore him any longer. Lucas was obviously surprised to see her, which made the whole ordeal that much more awkward. "Hey," she said simply, hoping he wouldn't ask any questions.
"Hey," he replied. "So…I left you a few messages."
"Yea. I got them," she admitted.
"That's all?" he questioned. "You…got them? Normally when someone's boyfriend calls them they at least have the decency to answer the phone or call them back."
"I just needed to clear my head," she sighed. "I had a some things to deal with."
"Would one of those 'things' be making up with your best friend?" he asked as she looked down.
"No. That's pretty much over," she answered. "But speaking of, have you talked to Peyton recently?" She tried to sound as casual as possible, but the reality was that it had been killing her to know.
"I wasn't aware you had given me your blessing again," he mocked.
"I didn't feel the need to give you permission since I knew you would talk to her anyway," she said honestly. He shook his head slightly as she stared directly at him, "Are you telling me you really haven't seen her?"
"No…well, yes. I--"
She cut him off when she laughed a little under her breath, "That's what I thought."
He looked at her in disbelief. "Are we seriously back here again? I feel like we keep having the same fight over and over again. You know, I thought after the wedding we decided to make a fresh start. We were gonna try things differently. But what do you do? You ignore me for three days and when I finally see you, you pull the same insecure bit you have since we got back together. And it's played out, Brooke."
She was taken aback by his sudden outburst but she wasn't all that surprised by the fight in and of itself. Lately they had done nothing but fight. At first she thought it would be good to get all of their frustrations with each other out in the open, but recently the more they screamed, the less seemed to get said. She couldn't take it anymore.
"Well then, if you're so unhappy with the way things are, why don't we solve it once and for all?" she spit out and, by the look on his face, got Lucas's attention. She calmed down a little and continued, "Maybe we just need some time apart…or something. I don't know."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you…breaking up with me?" It sounded so cliché, but he couldn't have cared less. "Brooke, I'm really trying here…"
His last sentiment was enough to make her look up and when she did the tears that had been building up began to slowly slide down her cheeks. "All we ever do is try, Lucas," she breathed. "And I can't do it anymore."
After a few minutes of mind-numbing silence, he finally spoke. "I…I don't understand," was all he managed to say.
She began to wipe her eyes and move away from him. "Think about it. We spend more time trying to make our relationship work than we do actually having one. And I can see if the universe was at odds or something, trying to keep us apart. But it's not. It's us," she said with a mix of emotions evident in her voice. Lucas was about to get defensive when she backed up even more and spoke again, "Tell me one good reason why we're together. Just one."
"I love you, Brooke. Why isn't that enough?" he asked staring into her eyes which were now filling with new tears.
"Because it's not enough," she cried, shaking her head. "You can love me until hell freezes over but it won't matter unless you talk to me. There's a part of you I wouldn't even know existed, spare a few glimpses I get that only last seconds."
"Okay, okay. Tell me what you want to know. Anything," he said, desperately trying to prevent the inevitable.
"It's too late. That part of you has been closed for a long time. It just took me a while to realize it," she said as she began to make her way towards the door.
It finally sunk into Lucas that this was really happening, "Brooke, I'm sor-" he started but was almost immediately cut off.
"Yea. You're sorry. I know. That's one of the things you have no problem telling me. But seriously don't worry about it," she said assuredly as she stood in the doorframe. "It just wasn't meant to be." She left his room quickly, with nothing more than a slight wave goodbye.
Lucas sat there, completely unsure what to react to first. All of his thoughts and feelings came rushing towards him in one big emotional tidal wave. To make things worse, his cell phone kept ringing on the table, and although he knew he wasn't exactly suitable to talk to anyone, he flipped it open and answered anyway. "Hello?"
There was no answer and he was just about to look at the screen and see who it was, but then she spoke. "Luke?"
He could tell it was Peyton and that she sounded nervous, but he wasn't sure why. "Everything okay?" he asked, getting more concerned the longer she was silent.
"Yea, I'm fine," she answered.
"Okay," he laughed. "Well then, what's up?"
She took a deep breath before answering him, "There's actually something I've been needing to talk to you about. Are you busy tonight?" She knew once they got face to face everything was going to change, and there would be no going back.
A/N-This will be the last update for a couple weeks due to the fact that I'm going out of town. I know it's shorter than the others, but when I get back, I promise lots and lots of LP interaction. I was going to write them more in this chapter, but then I decided I'd rather tie up a few "loose ends" first, and save that for a later chapter.
