AN: Thanks for the reviews to: jeyton4ever, S0phiaVal3ntine, and OTH.daddy'sgurl.06!

Just A Ride

Chapter 13

Peyton's POV

"Oh my god, did you hear?"

"I can't believe it!"

"Is it true? Is it actually happening?"

The sweet sounds of gossip quickly filled the boat just a couple of days after the debacle at the dance. Maybe everyone has been in gossip mode since the dance, I thought, and I just didn't notice it until today because... well, frankly, I've been a mess. The only person who's company I enjoy is Brooke's, she's been great, comforting me and all. But I can't be selfish. She has Lucas. And let's face it... Lucas can't really spend a whole entire day not seeing her at least twice. Which is great... I'm happy for them... really...

"Peyton!" There she is. My little ray of hope. Waiting for me in our cabin.

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked. She seemed really excited about something, and not caring about her hair being messy and wet (a first).

"P. Sawyer, you will never guess what I heard!"

"What is it?" I asked, getting a little excited myself. I have to say, I was never one for gossip before, but being stuck on a boat with barely anyone I knew... I kind of missed it. And by Brooke's jumping up and down, I could tell it wasn't bad news.

"Ok, so this other girl in the pool was saying how this guy that she hooked up had heard from his friend who had hooked up with this girl that actually works here who-"

"Brooke, I'm totally not following. Spare all the in between stuff, what's the exciting part?" I loved Brooke to death, but she really got ahead of herself sometimes.

"Right. Ok, but just remember that this may not be true..."

"Yeah, I know."

"It's just gossip..."

"Brooke, just tell me!"

"Okay, okay," She said smirking, and I sitting down on my bed next to her, who was squealing with excitement. "You know how ever Jake's been all mopey-dopey since your fight?"

"Really? I haven't noticed," I lied. She knew it, but she kept going anyways.

"Well I guess he'd had enough, and decided to finally do something about it."

"What'd you mean? Brooke, what did you say to him?"

"Nothing! For once, I actually didn't intervene!" She said, and I believed her, "So anyways, apparently, yesterday he went straight to the pilot's office and demanded for them to turn around early and go back to North Carolina!"

"What?" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"Wait, there's more. So then the pilot said no, and that if he had a problem he needed to take it to the Lust-Factor people. So Jake went straight to the workers in their office and started going off about how he was going to sue them for letting the paparazzi on the bus. I heard he was so mad, that the workers just complied. They said that he was right, and that it was the right thing to do to just turn the boat around and go back early."

I didn't say anything. I couldn't. What was there to say? This was all... amazing and unbelievable, but it didn't prove that Jake was sorry... that he wanted to patch things up... I guess Brooke took my silence as a sign for her to keep going.

"Jake hasn't been out of his cabin since. Lucas tells me that he never wants to talk to him about it and just kind of keeps to himself. But Jake did say that he was scared that you could never forgive him." I just sat there. Staring into space. Thinking about everything. Or really just thinking about something. Someone.

"Peyton?" Brooke asked, rubbing my back soothingly.

"How could I possibly forgive him?" I said.

"Peyton, I know it's hard, and I know you got hurt, but... I know you could find it in her heart-"

"No," I interrupted her, "I mean, how can I forgive him, if he won't even talk to me?"

"Well, actually..." Brooke said getting up to get something out of her purse, she handed me a small, white envelope. A letter. "He told me to give this to you."

"He couldn't even give this to me himself?" I asked, a little angry. Either Jake was just inconsiderate, or gravely insecure. And knowing Jake, it was definitely the second one.

"Just read it, ok? I hate to see you this way, Peyton, you know that." Brooke said sympathetically. "I guess I'll leave you alone for a bit. Call me if you need me, okay?" I nodded and she left.

After a couple deep breaths, and a few hesitations, I finally opened it.

Peyton,

I don't know if you've heard, but the boat's going to turn around, head back to North Carolina. We should be there in a matter of days. I would hate to go home and leave things the way we left it. Not telling you about the photographer, my mom, everything going on in my life... was wrong. I'm so completely sorry for everything, and for how you had to find out about it. You have to know that I care about you so much. It scares me to think that someone I've met only a couple of weeks ago, changed my life so much. I've never cared so much about anyone in my life, and I mean that. I was only trying to protect you, and instead you ended up hurt, and it's all my fault. I know that you have no reason to forgive me, and I know that asking for you to in a letter is totally lame... so look in your closet.

Jake.

A couple tears running down my cheeks, I walked over to whatever could be in my closet. For all I know this could be a Brooke thing, you know. Brooke writing the letter to make me feel better and hiding chocolates in my closet. She used to do that kind of thing all the time when we were little. With a shaky hand, I opened my closet door.

"Aah!" I shrieked when I found, not candy, not flowers, but an actually human body on the floor of the closet. The body was curled up under a few coats, soundly asleep. Until I had screamed that is. It was Jake. Of course it was. Only he would think of something so clever, then fall asleep at just the wrong moment. When he heard my scream however he jumped up.

"Wha- What's going on?" He said, flustered, until he came back to reality and remembered what he was doing there, and looked up at me. Suddenly I felt weak, I really felt like I was going to faint. I remembered that time that I had scared the crap out of Jake, after asking him to the dance:

FlashBack

Jake's smile broadened about ten times as much when he opened the door to the bathroom to find "Will You Go To The Dance With Me?" written in red rose pedals on the floor and another blue envelope next to the message. He wanted to laugh out loud he was so happy. But he contained himself and opened up the envelope. The message read: "Please say your answer out loud."

Peyton had her eyes tightly closed shut as she sat cross-legged in the bathtub, not sure how long she could take the suspense. She heard Jake laughing, which meant he probably read the final card. He's laughing, she thought, that could either be a good sign or a very very bad one. She hoped for the good one.

"Yes," She heard him yell, and she could practically hear the smile on his face. She rushed to get up and pulled back the curtain in one swift instant.

"Aahh!" Jake said clutching his heart for dear life and jumping back against the wall. Peyton couldn't contain her laughter for very long.

"I'm so sorry!" She said in between laughs.

"God, you scared me half to death," Jake said, laughing a little now, too.

"Come here," Peyton said grabbing his head and pulling him down to her, not wanting to wait any longer. From the second he said 'yes' she had been needing to kiss him fully, and meaningfully.

End Of FlashBack

This memory, however, didn't make me faint, it just made me start to cry harder. I scooted backwards until I could sit down on my bed. Jake stood up but kept his distance. We stayed there for a while, silently gazing into each other's eyes. Neither of us wanted to be the first to speak.

"So..." I said, hating the silence, "You said something about asking for forgiveness?"

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AN: Ok guys, that's all for now... leaving you in suspense! I will update soon though! Please review! Thanks so much for reading!