I know it's been forever since I've updated..so here ya go. Please review! Thanks!
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Lucas didn't say anything as Peyton left his house. His and Brooke's house, he reminded himself. It was him and Brooke now...
-- -- -- --
Lucas let the heavy box down on the counter with a grunt.
"That too heavy for ya," Peyton asked from the other side of the counter.
Lucas rolled his eyes at her.
"Thanks for helping me out, Luc. With your mom gone, and Deb a little... preoccupied, I really need the help to keep this club up and running."
"It's not a problem," Lucas told her with a shake of his head. "I'm glad you decided to keep the club running and not give it up like you were going to.."
"I figure why let Jake's absence stop me from doing something I enjoy?"
Lucas nodded. "Good." He started to pull things out of the box. "You know what? We are both gonna move on- you from Jake and me from Brooke."
Peyton nodded slowly in response. "But not onto each other...right?"
Lucas glanced at her, then back to what he was doing. "Of course not," he said unconvincingly to Peyton and even himself.
"Right," Peyton added softly.
-- -- -- --
Lucas sunk himself into the couch. That was not how he had imagined a reunion between him and Peyton. As many times as he had imagined her walking back into his life, that was not how it was supposed to go. He ran a hand through his hair as Brooke came mowing through the door, bags of food in her hands.
"That took you long enough," Lucas said grumpily as she set the bags down on the table.
Brooke, whose hair was mess, decided to ignore that little comment. "You know the lines, Lucas," she repeated. "You should just get it yourself next time, then."
"Fine," Lucas uttered as he took the food out of the bags.
Brooke looked around the room. "Where's Peyton?"
"She went home."
Brooke screwed up her face. "Why?"
Lucas feigned a shrug. "Said she wasn't hungry. Nate took her over to her apartment."
"Oh."
Lucas got his food and sat at the table. Brooke followed him. "Back to just you and me, then."
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- - - - - - -
Peyton looked around her new home for a year. Although she really didn't feel like unpacking, Peyton crossed the room to one of her bags, unzipping it. She went searching for one of her records and the player, when her hand came across a cd. Taking it out of her bag, she ran her fingers over it fondly. It was a mix cd that Lucas had made her about a month into the summer.
-- -- -- --
"I've got something for you," Lucas said as he led her into his house.
Peyton hadn't been in there in a long time. He made his way into 'his' room, where he lifted a cd up from the table with the computer on it.
"A mix?"
"Yeah," Lucas said. "Don't read too much into it."
Peyton smiled with remembrance of that line and took the cd. She looked around the room, which had all of Brooke's stuff still in it. "Do you like sleep in here and everything?"
"Sometimes," Lucas told her. "It's weird, though. Doesn't feel like my room anymore. I don't wanna touch anything."
Peyton wandered through the room, looking at all of Brooke's stuff. "I miss her. She calls, but it's not the same as her being here. She claims she hates California, but then she goes on about the shopping deals, and the hot boys, and all these other things.." Peyton stopped talking when she saw a picture of her on the floor, half under the bed. "Looks like she forgot a picture.." Peyton reached down to pick it up at the same time that Lucas tried to stop her. He beat her to it and snatched the picture up, keeping it hidden from her.
"What are you doing? Why can't I see the picture?" She asked, looking at him strangely.
"Uh..because-be- just because."
"Good argument, Lucas," she said as she moved towards the door of the room. She layed the cd back down on his desk. "Ya know, I thought after about a month that we were to the point of friends, but I guess I was wrong."
She walked out the door, leaving Lucas with the picture in his hands. As soon as he heard the outside door slam shut, he looked at the photo in his hands. It was a picture of him and Peyton. One of the memories from his Peyton box. Sighing, Lucas kept the picture in his hand, grabbed the mix cd, and ran out of his room after Peyton.
--- --- --- --- ---
Peyton put the cd back down and went into her room, lying herself on her bed. It had been a long day, and she was starting to feel it. Just then, her phone rang in the other room. Groaning, Peyton forced herself to get up and go get it.