AN: Hey guys! So sorry for the super long wait. As I said, I was away for three weeks and didn't have time to update there. Thanks so much for sticking with me! Thanks to: the only sweet catastrophe, jeyton4ever, i never promised, and OTH.Daddy'sgurl.06 for all the great reviews!

Chapter 5

Peyton's POV

Day one of the dating catastrophes. I'm thrilled. No, seriously, I don't really know what to expect. This whole trip has been pretty cool so far, but who knows. From now on it might just be speed dating and dumb set-up games. Still, I don't regret agreeing to go on this cruise. Then I wouldn't have met Jake.

I know it sounds dumb, but after being with Nathan, I really felt like I would never find someone that would really understand me. Jake is nothing like me, yet maybe that's why he kind of compliments me. He's sort of simple and sensitive and I'm pretty much the opposite of that. But that's why we're good together. Or at least that's why we would be good together. What am I even saying? Who says he feels the same.

Anyway, I'm really jealous because Brooke and Lucas are both 'plus-ones' so they don't have to do all the dating games, they just get to lounge around all day. My bet is at the end of the day they'll be all over each other. Although, they haven't gotten together yet, it's pretty obvious that they will.

I woke up on Monday morning at seven A.M. These people are crazy. Worse: They woke us up from these fog horns, I guess adding to the whole boat-concept. But anyway, I got dressed and forced Brooke to come with me to the assembly. When we got there they checked off our names and handed us a program.

"Welcome, singles," The manager said from the stage. Singles? "Today is your first day of the LustFactor pairings. This week is dedicated to finding the right person for you. There are going to be many activities, in order for you to find the person you are most compatible with. Remember, keep an open mind, anyone you meet here, could be 'The One'. First we ask the plus-ones to please leave us and enjoy a nice day aboard the 'Amour'."

I said good-bye to Brooke and she gave me some encouraging words. I told her I hated her and that she owed me, and then she skipped off. Probably to go find Lucas. I sighed and then brought my attention back to the manager.

"Alright, we're going to separate into two groups. Under twenties, please go to my right and over twenties, please go to my left." Uh,oh. "Otherwise, meaning, everyone with a pink program go to my right and everyone with a blue program go to my left." Damn it, my program is pink. But if I want to be with Jake, I have to have a blue one. I knew my lie would come back to haunt me.

I panicked for a while, but then easily found someone who was willing to switch programs with me. I guess they didn't get the whole age concept, they just liked the color pink or something. So I walked over to the left side with my blue program trying to act normal. Since there were only about fifty people in each group, it wasn't long before I found Jake.

And a couple seconds later, he found me too. He smiled, that cute sideways smile, and then walked over. "I was hoping I'd find you," He said and I couldn't contain my smile.

"Yeah, it's good to have a familiar face in the middle of all these strangers," I said. Even though that wasn't at all what Jake was. Just a familiar face. Even if I knew all these people, I would still only be interested in Jake. But I didn't say that.

"What'd you think they're going to make us do?" Jake asked but before I could answer, the manager started talking again.

"Alright, this is how it's going to work," For some reason I was getting really nervous, "Two of my staff are going to come around and pair you up with someone. You will talk to them for ten minutes and at the end of those ten minutes this bell will ring," She rang a bell to show us, "And you will be again paired with someone else. At the end of the hour, you will have met six different people. You will then make a list of those six people. Number one being the one whose company you enjoyed most, and number six being the one whose company you enjoyed the least. Everyone understand?" She didn't wait for an answer, "OK, here we go." She rang the bell and four guys stepped off the stage, two to the right and two to the left. They went up to everyone and paired them off.

I glanced at Jake. "I can't believe I'm doing this," I said embarrassed.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Jake said nodding. Then one of the guys came up to me and then looked at Jake. For a second I was hopeful that he would pair me up with him, but no such luck. He brought me all the way to the end and paired me with some guy that was probably around twenty-five. He wasn't bad looking, no one on this cruise was, but I didn't really care for him. I mean, what were we suppose to talk about for ten minutes, we didn't even know each other!

"Hi," I said.

"Hi," He said. He looked me up and down, but he didn't seem very enthusiastic, and that didn't make me feel good about myself. Obviously he wasn't really into this whole thing.

"So..." I said trying to think of something to say, "Do you like music?" That was one thing I knew a lot about. Music. But what kind of a question is that? Everyone likes music.

He shrugged. OK, if he had an ounce less of energy in him he would probably be dead. I don't even know how he was standing up. "Okay..." I said. I didn't bother talking to him for the next minute or so. I figured if he wasn't going to make any effort, than neither would I. I knew right away that he would be at the bottom of my list.

I was looking at the ground. Carefully examining it, actually. Hoping and wishing that any second now, that bell would ring. But it didn't... Then I noticed Jake and some girl he was paired with coming towards us. The girl was tall, and I guess kind of pretty. OK, so she was gorgeous. And OK, I was jealous. I wondered if they were coming over here just because Jake wanted me to be jealous. But then I figured that that wasn't really something Jake would do.

"Hey, guys, this is Sarah," Jake said. He looked at my guy and held out his hand, "I'm Jake," he said.

The guy shook his hand but didn't say anything. Jake looked at him weirdly then at me. I figured it was worth a shot, so I gave him a 'help me' look and he nodded. My guy looked Sarah over and looked a little more pleased with her than he was with me. I didn't really care though.

"So, guys," Jake said, "I have an idea. How about we switch. You know, just for fun." And before they could answer I added,

"Yeah, that would be fun. See ya!" I said and I ran out of there with Jake.

"So, do you want to bail on this whole game thing? It's kind of dumb," Jake said. I thought I could just jump up and hug him tightly I was so happy, but I kept my cool and nodded. We just walked out of there. It was that easy.

xXxXxXx

Jake's POV

I can't believe I just did that. But I did. And it felt great. Everything with me used to be about taking precautions and thinking about things a million times before I did them. But I did it, a spur of the moment thing. And it actually worked. The guy had paired me up with a nice enough girl, and I really felt sorry for her, but not as much as I did for Peyton who was over there suffering from some guy. And for some guy I was kind of happy that she wasn't having a good time with that guy. Is that mean? I don't know, but before I knew it I was inviting her to ditch the whole thing, and she accepted. I felt like I was flying.

OK, so I knew it wasn't a date or anything, but I kind of pretended it was. Although all we did was go to my cabin and hang out. I thought about calling Luke to see what him and Brooke were up to so that we could maybe all hang out but then I decided that I would really rather just hang out with Peyton alone.

"Thanks for saving me back there. I swear that guy was making me depressed," Peyton said as she sat down on my bed next to me. It should have felt awkward, both of us sitting on the same bed, in a room, alone. But it didn't.

"Yeah, it was no problem. I'd rather hang out with you than any of those girls anyway," I said, surprising myself. It's like I was all new that day. I was the guy that didn't think before speaking. But I just spoke honestly and it seemed to be working out for me.

She looked at me and seemed surprised that I would have said that. Oh, no. Maybe it sounded like a line...? Maybe she thinks I'm just one of those stupid guys that uses stupid lines from movies to get a girl.

But then she kissed me. It was short. Too short. I couldn't even process what was going on until it was over and then I noticed that I had barely moved. She just took me by surprise and I felt really stupid for not reacting faster. And then my old self came back and although a voice inside my head was yelling 'Kiss Her! Kiss Her!' I became too shy and just didn't say anything.

"So... maybe we should see what Luke and Brooke are up to. See if they want to hang out?" Peyton said. I was still in shock and in the middle of a conversation with my two selves going on in my head so I only heard about half of what she said, but I nodded anyway.

"Okay, I'll call Brooke," Peyton said and she got up and went outside to make her call. That's when I got back to my senses. A little late, but oh well. She kissed me!

xXxXxXx

AN: I hope you liked it! sorry for it being kind of short. But if I get a lot of good reviews I'll update really soon! Well, I'll probably update really soon anyways, now that I'm back, but I would really appreciate reviews anyways! Thanks!