AN: Thanks so much for the great reviews to OTH.daddy'sgurl.06, and Jeyton4ever. Even though I don't get quite as many reviews as I would like to receive on this story, I'm always blown away by the incredibly kind reviews you give me, so it's all worth it! Thanks again, so much!

Chapter 11

Peyton's POV

"Ow, Peyton, what are you doing?" Brooke asked as I pulled her away from the guys for a second, not noticing that I was gripping her arm kind of hard.

"Sorry," I said as we stopped in a corner. I couldn't help but glance over my shoulder to see if someone was looking at us. It was weird, I know, I was totally over reacting, but something wasn't right with this photographer guy.

"So what's all this secrecy about?"

"Do you believe that that guy is just taking pictures of us for I asked. She looked at me a little weird. Like maybe she thought I had had much too much to drink. Which is ridiculous, 'cause I hadn't had anything to drink.

"Yeah," She said slowly, "Why?"

"OK, it's just that... I've only seen him take pictures of me and Jake and every time I look over at him he just turns away mysteriously like... like he's under-cover or something!" I said, getting way over my head, but I just couldn't stop. I was on a roll here.

"Yes, Peyton, you're right," said my best friend sarcastically, "You must be wanted by the police or something and that guy with the camera must be from the CIA." I sighed. She was right, this was ridiculous.

"OK. I'm sorry I ranted about this to you. We can just forget this ever happened." I said. Brooke gave me a 'yeah right' look and we headed back to our guys.

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Jake's POV

"Hey, babe, is everything OK?" I asked as I put my arm protectively around Peyton. I wouldn't admit it out loud but it kind of worried me when Peyton said she urgently needed to talk to Brooke for a second. Call me insecure, but I really hoped that there wasn't something wrong with tonight. It had been going really well so far.

"Yeah, everything's fine." She said hugging me. That reassured me that tonight was still good. "Brooke made me see that I was just overreacting to the whole photographer thing." I quickly scan the crowd.

"Speaking of which, I haven't seen him around anymore, so you're free anyway." I said.

"Great."

Then Luke and Brooke came up. "Hey," Luke said, "We were thinking if you guys are bored with this yet we can go and hang out in one of our cabins." Brooke whispers something in his ear. "Oh, well never mind, you guys have a good time, we're going to... well, go. Bye." And the rushed off with only enough time for Brooke to yell out "We'll be in his room!" to Peyton.

Great. OK, could this situation be any more awkward? We laugh a little at Luke and Brooke's little bit, but things get weird pretty soon. What should I do or say? I can't invite her over to her own cabin! Is she going to invite me? Will it become even more weird if we go there? My mind is going to explode!

"So...Do you want to-" Peyton starts to say. Someone starts walking towards us. Well, towards me actually. No, no this cannot be happening. Not now. It's the photographer.

"Jake? Jake Jegelski! Over here!" He's yelling and waving his arms around like a mad man. Which makes it extrememlly hard to ignore him as I'm trying to do.

"What? Jake, how does that guy know your name?" Peyton says. Her gorgeous green eyes look alarmed and I can't look at her.

"Um.. well, Peyton... I should probably tell you some-" I try to say but I can't. Not with people around. Not with Mr. Camera here in my face. I turn to face him to tell him to get lost but he just snaps away. I put my hand out to block him but it doesn't really work. "Hey man! Do you mind?" Apparently not, the guy just keeps shooting.

"Mr. Jegelski, who's your new girlfriend?" He yells out. Great, now we're starting to have an audience. Why isn't anyone stopping this guy? Is there no security here?

"Who the hell are you?" Peyton asked. This is killing me. How did this all happen again? What's going through Peyton's mind right now? God, she looks mad. But not at me. That's a good thing right? Damn, is she going to be mad at me when she finds out...

"Look, lady, I'm sorry, this is my job. Didn't you know the price when came here with Jake Jegelski?" The camera guy said. Great. Great! It just keeps getting worse...

Finally someone comes to take him away. I thank them a million times! And I'm almost fully relieved but then I turn to Peyton and realize that the worst is definitely coming. And I deserve every second of it.

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General POV

"OK," Jake said calmly, "Can we talk somewhere more private?"

Peyton just nodded. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to think. To know those things you'd have to have a clue as to what just went on in there, and she didn't.

Jake led them out outside to a quiet place. He opened and closed his mouth several times in a couple of minutes not knowing where to start. OK, he thought, the truth, start with the truth.

"OK, so there's something that you don't know about me... That you should know about... But you don't know about it... Because... well, because I didn't tell you... But I should have..." Jake said just confusing himself. He was rambling and he needed to stop.

"Jake," Peyton said, not looking to happy, "I'm annoyed and confused. Please just tell me what's going on."

"Right, ok, here goes: My mom is mayor of Wilmington." Jake said.

Peyton let it sink in. "OK. Do people really care that much about the mayor of Wilmington. I mean, they hire paparazzi to take pictures of the mayor's son?" Peyton said. This seemed a little too weird for her to grasp.

"Yeah, I was hoping you wouldn't ask that. OK, here's the hard part... Look Peyton, I would have told you this if I thought it was at all important." Jake said. This was not going well, and he could tell.

"Jake, just say it, ok?" Peyton said.

"OK, well there's kind of a... scandal right now. See my mom's running for re-election and there was this whole thing... and I ended up being accused for... sleeping with the daughter of my mom's opponent." Jake said softly. It did feel good to tell the truth. But he was dying inside. How is Peyton going to take this? Should he have told her a long time ago?

"... And did you?" Peyton asked.

"No! No, no, god no! Look, nothing like that happened, but once the press gets a juicy story they're going to stick with it. I had no idea that they would go as far as to have someone follow me on this cruise though."

"How could he even get on here, he's like at least forty?"

"He must have paid the people here to let him on and keep quiet about him being here, these people do things like that all the time. I'm so sorry Peyton. I didn't want you to be in the middle of this."

"So..." Peyton said, trying to understand, "that photographer has been here... the whole time?"

"Yes."

"Jake, I need you to tell me the truth about this: Did you see him anytime during this trip, taking pictures of us, before today?" Peyton said.

Jake took a deep breath. This wasn't happening. This was not happening. "...Yes, I did, but-"

"Oh, god," Peyton said, more to herself. How could this have happened? There were pictures out there of them two? Were they going to be published? Were people actually going to see them and go, 'oh look, there's Jake Jegelski's new girl. I wonder how long she's going to last!'

"Look, I didn't want to say anything, because I didn't want to ruin anything we had!"

"Yeah, 'had' being the key-word there!" Peyton yelled.

"OK, it was stupid I know," Jake said, hoping beyond hope that Peyton wouldn't storm off. "I'm so sorry, I know that I should have told you-"

"I can't, Jake! I just can't take this. This is too much for me right now. I have to go," Peyton said all in one breath. One more second there and she would have lost it. She needed to let it sink in. She needed to relax. And she really needed to be away from Jake for a moment.

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AN: Oh the drama! I'm sorry if that was kind of a weird twist! Hopefully you still like it! Please tell me what you thought and review! Thanks for reading!