Beside You

Written by Tears of Mercury (A.K.A. OnTheOutsideLookingIn)

Summary: Lucas looks to his right and finds, to his surprise, that the girl there isn't Brooke Davis after all.

A/N: This came from a pretty weird, angsty place, which is kind of odd since this isn't really angst at all. It's just a 473-word drabble from Lucas's point of view taking place after/during 4.02; I'm not even sure if it qualifies as a one-shot. Whatever it is, I hope you guys enjoy, read, and review.

Peyton.

The answer had been so simple, just one word, one small and solitary "you." But his voice couldn't quite find itself in the split second that he considered telling her the truth. Maybe he was too out of practice to dive in again now. Regardless of the reason why, when she'd looked at him, hazel eyes shining and hair ruffled just enough to make him want to reach out and smooth it back, he'd lied. Not an imaginative, eloquent one like the ones that she had required; just a simple and rehearsed word. And she had believed him.

He wasn't sure exactly how it happened; he even saw the hint of doubt and resignation flicker in her eyes. But she pressed on, giving him exactly what he had claimed he wanted. If only it had really been what he wanted. And now, standing in the middle of a department store he felt extremely out of place in with no one in sight, he realized that his lies were crumbling at his feet, following the charade he'd made his life for the past seven and a half months.

As she walked toward him, giving him a small, sad smile when he told her of the failure that he wasn't sure was really a failure at all, his heart skipped a beat. A feeling he hadn't felt in so long around anyone suddenly erupted, filling his senses with her. But because they were best friends, something they'd always told each other, he simply put his arm around her shoulder, surprised at the sparks it ignited.

The night was cool, and he told himself that it was the reason that he couldn't stay more than a step away from her, the reason the urge to be next to her, in contact with her, was so overwhelming. And as she smiled, handing him a bottle of perfume that he knew he would never wear but always treasure, something hit him right between the eyes. She wasn't the person that he wanted beside him when all of his dreams came true; they always ended up side by side in spite of themselves anyway. She was the person that stood beside him and made all of his dreams come true. And in that instant, he realized that no matter what happened, he would be the hand to hold for her, the warm body beside her in bed on the nights too lonely to spend alone, and the lips on her forehead when tears streamed down her face.

He had always ended up coming to her, no matter whom he was with or what was on his mind. But now, for the first time in two years, he chose to come time after time until he mustered the courage to ask her to go back and forth with him.