Ian stood in the living room of the little house, watching the brunette girl move her hips, while bowing over a CD-player to find a selected song. His arms were crossed and he smiled at her playful movements.

Ian and Emily had started coming to this house almost a year ago. It was theirs in some way. They'd found it while exploring the deepest and darkest parts of the woods. It had been pretty dirty and wrecked, but they'd spent the next few months working on the house, fixing it up, and now it was a pretty great place for them to hang out in.

Emily stood up, finally being pleased with the song selection. She turned around, looking at him, and he couldn't help but notice how much she was smiling. It was a little weird.

"On the way here, you said you wanted to tell me something. So what's up, Em?" he said hopefully.

Her cheeks flushed slightly and she walked closer to him, the smile still on her face. Her eyes of green glistened so beautifully. "Ian, you've been like my best friend since we started high school together last year. I feel like I can tell you anything. And that's true, right? You won't make fun of me, no matter what I tell you?"

Ian nodded, smirking. "Yeah, of course."

"Great. You're the first person I'm telling this… I-I think I'm in love..." she said slowly, looking at him nervously.

Ian tried to keep a straight face, but his heart was suddenly beating rapidly. Was she talking about him?

"In love?" he said with raised eyebrows. "Really? With who?"

She smiled nervously. "It's kind of embarrassing. But- you know the prom next week?"

Ian nodded, his palms becoming sweaty.

"Um, well… Dean in our class asked me to go with him! And I've had a crush on him forever!" she suddenly burst out, almost squealing.

Ian felt his heart drop down to his stomach. It felt like he'd been punched in the face with a brick. His blood ran cold and his hands clutched into fists.

"He asked me yesterday! And now I'm kinda freaking out. What do you say, Ian? Isn't it amazing?"

He inhaled a shuddering breath. "You have got to be fucking kidding me," he muttered angrily.

His blue, suddenly cold eyes stared at her, jealousy apparent in them.

"What?" she said, a small smile still upon her lips, but her eyes looked confused.

"Dean?" he said sarcastically. His attitude had changed completely.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" she asked, looking a little concerned by his cold stare.

"What's wrong? Dean is the biggest jock douchebag in the school! How can you even like him?"

Emily's eyes went from concerned to shocked. "What are you talking about? He's never done anything to you."

"Jesus, Emily. What did you tell him? Did you say yes?"

Her brows furrowed in a hurt expression. "So what if I did?" she said coolly.

"You're unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable."

Emily took a step away from him, her eyes suddenly glassy with tears. "What's going on with you, Ian? Why are you acting like this?"

Ian shook his head. She had no clue. Was she really so stupid? "You don't even know… I thought you were better than this, Emily. I thought you were different. But you're just like the rest of them."

Her eyes narrowed and a tear fell down her cheek. She didn't understand where all this was coming from.

"You're just as disappointing as all the others. I thought you were special, but you're not."

She took another step away from him, turning around. "I don't know what's going on with you, Ian, but I-I'm going home."

Ian grabbed her arm. "Don't walk away from me!"

Emily let out a small scream. "Let go of me!"

He didn't let go, but held her arm so tightly that she felt like he'd break it. It was like this horrible anger had boiled up inside him, and he couldn't control it.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" she screamed hysterically. "Everybody were right about you! They kept asking me why I bothered to hang out with you, that you were just a freak, and I stood up for you!" Angry tears were streaming down her face as she struggled to get out of his grip. "But they were right, you are just a freak! I can't believe I didn't see it, you're crazy!" Betrayal was evident in her voice. "I thought you were my friend!"

Friend. He hated that word.

Emily stomped on his foot, making him growl in pain and let go, and she ripped herself away from him, then stumbled over her own feet. Tripping, she fell over, her head bounced off the edge of the table and she fell to the floor. It all happened so fast.

He looked down at the girl lying on the floor, her body suddenly quiet. A small stream of blood trickled from the back of her head and onto the wooden floor.

He panicked, bending down next to her. His shivering hands struggled to turn her limp body around on her back, and he was met with the cold stare of empty, green eyes.

"Shit… shit… EMILY! Fuck!"

He never meant for it to go this far…

X

He stood in the back of the living room, hidden in the shadows, watching his blonde beauty play with her little pet. He could hear muttered words leave her pretty mouth, but couldn't make out what she was saying.

He thought of Emily, how it had all happened in this very room. But it wasn't his fault. She had disappointed him… She wasn't the person he had thought she was. She'd just been another stupid girl. But that was all of the past, it didn't matter anymore. He had his Peyton now, and she would never let him down. She was unique, special. She loved him. They were meant to be together forever. The incident with Emily had been for the best, he realized that now, because otherwise he wouldn't have found Peyton.

Peyton had spoken out to him when everything had been at its darkest; he'd stumbled upon fate in one random web-search, and ever since he'd seen her, he'd imagined what it would be like to become a part of her life. He couldn't let it go. He knew she needed him as desperately as he needed her. Then he found her, and it had been a sign, he knew it. Once he'd gotten the taste of being with her, of having a part to play in her life, he knew he could never let her go; he had become obsessed with the thought of making her his. He had realized... Peyton had been the one for him all along.

Peyton sat on the floor in front of the couch, petting Penelope. She was completely unaware of him standing behind her, watching. She was lost in her own world at the moment, and laughing at her cat's adorable behavior. It was funny, how much of a personality a cat could have. Penelope was pretty spoiled, loving all the attention, and she walked around with an attitude as if she was made of royalty. Peyton couldn't think anything other than the fact that if Brooke had been turned into a cat, she would act exactly like this. At least that's what she liked to believe, but maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see.

Derek had installed a cat-door, so Penelope could go in and out of the house whenever she wanted. Peyton found it kind of ironic, how he trusted a cat more then he trusted the girl he claimed to love. Penelope would bring dead rats and all sorts of things, happily wanting a reward for a good job. She obviously loved it out here.

"You know, if I had been at home, I would have been finished with high school right now…" Peyton muttered sadly. "I could have spent the summer with my friends… like last summer… with Lucas." She couldn't believe it was so long ago. But at the same time, it felt like it had happened in another lifetime. She imagined Lucas and Brooke sitting on the beach together now, probably wrapped in each other's arms, kissing, being in love… She shook the thought away.

"Brooke and I always used to go to the beach together during the summers. She would tease all the boys and I would put on loud music, and… it was great."

Penelope was lying down, purring softly while staring up at Peyton with big eyes. It did feel like she was listening in some way… Sometimes Peyton thought herself crazy for speaking to an animal like this though. It felt like this was some weird version of Cinderella, where she had gotten so lonely that she'd started to make friends with all the animals. It was just so much simpler to talk to a cat, than to talk with Derek.

She couldn't really talk to Derek about things… most of the things she cared about, were things she weren't allowed to talk about. Truth would make him mad, so she lived on lies with him. And she didn't want to talk to him, anyway. Penelope on the other hand, she could listen to any subject, and she would neither care nor understand what was being said, which gave Peyton the chance to talk about whatever she wanted.

She stopped petting Penelope for a moment, staring off into the air. "You know, I don't even have any pictures of them. None of them… not my mom, or dad, or Brooke, Lucas, no one… I'm so scared I'll forget… forget what they look like, forget what their voices sound like… I feel like it's all slipping through my fingers."

Penelope stood up and rubbed herself against Peyton, meowing softly. It was obvious she wanted more attention, and Peyton went back to petting her with a small laugh.

"Oh, you definitely would have loved Brooke. You're like the cat-version of her… which is good, 'cause I could really use her here." Peyton smiled.

"Peyton."

His voice reached her from behind and she froze.

"What are you talking about, baby?"

"Oh… nothing." She turned around forcing a small smile to him, while praying inwardly that he hadn't heard her talking about Tree Hill. "Just silly things, really." She swallowed.

He sat down in the couch, looking down at her with a grin.

"Good." His fingers started twirling into her hair, his favorite thing to do, and he slowly dragged her backwards by her hair, making her lean in on his legs. She was stiff at first, but forced herself to relax against him. He leaned down, kissing her on the forehead. "Come here, sit with me."

Peyton hesitated for a moment, before she stumbled to her knees and got into the couch with him.

Penelope looked offended to be ignored so suddenly, and turned around with her tail in the air, majestically leaving out of the tiny cat door.

Derek crept his arm around Peyton's shoulders, making her lean in and rest her head on his chest. Her body was slightly rigid, but not as much as it used to be before. She was learning.

"Hey, I was thinking we could have a nice dinner together later? I'm going out to buy some stuff, so is there a specific meal you would like, hm? You can have whatever you want, babe."

"I-I don't know…"

"Come on, Peyton. Anything you want," he pushed.

She stayed silent for a moment. "Um… I would just like to have something simple. Like… pizza, maybe?" she asked nervously.

"Just pizza?" he said with a slightly mocking tone. Peyton raised her shoulders, unsure.

"Well, pizza it is then. And how about a movie? I could buy one for us to watch tonight. Is there any movie you'd like to watch?"

She thought about it. "There- there is one… I watched it with… with Ellie. Before she-" her voice traced off.

"What's it called?" he said, intrigued.

"The… The Invisible." It wasn't a very well-known movie, but Peyton and Ellie had stayed up late one night, talking about all sorts of things, when this movie had suddenly popped up on television. It had caught both their attentions, and by the end of the movie, Peyton had winded up crying in Ellie's arms. It probably wasn't the best choice to bring this movie up to Derek, but she would really like to get back some of the comfort she had felt that night. If only for a little while.

"The Invisible? I'll see if I can find it, if that's what you want," he said with a smile.

"T-thank you…" Peyton mumbled.

"What's that?" he said with a raised voice.

She gasped. "Thank you!" she hurried to say, speaking more clearly this time. Her mumbling was something he often got angry about.

Derek patted her cheek. "Good girl."

Her right cheek was slightly swollen from an anger outburst he'd had a few days ago, and she flinched and whimpered in pain from his touch, then realized her mistake a second later. "I-I'm sorry," she said hastily with a hint of panic in her voice.

"That's alright, Peyton. You're good to apologize. Everything is much simpler now when you behave, don't you agree?" he said gladly.

Peyton nodded. "Yeah."

It got quiet for a minute, and Derek continued to drag his hands through her hair. Peyton listened to the clock tick, hoping he would go soon.

"Are you happy, Peyton?"

"Yeah… I-I am." There was an uncertainty in her voice, but he ignored it.

"That's what I like to hear, honey. You know I love you, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you love me too?" he asked expectantly.

Peyton willed herself to answer, nodding slowly. "I do."

"Tell me, then. Tell me you love me," he whispered in her ear, his cold breath giving her goosebumps.

She stayed silent for a moment, until she could suddenly feel his grip on her shoulder tightening. That was her signal. "I love you," she said, putting all her effort in to sound convincing.

She could suddenly hear his heart beating faster; she could feel it drumming against his ribcage where her head was resting. Derek grabbed her hands and made her sit up to look at him. His cold, blue eyes seemed captivated as he stared at her, his fingers interlocking with hers. She struggled not to break eye contact. She didn't know whether he wanted her to smile or stay serious, but he seemed pleased with her. His face leaned in on hers, their lips joined, and she answered to his kiss, just as she was supposed to. It was all just some twisted imitation of love.

He withdrew to stare at her again, smiling. "Say it again."

"I… love you." As the words left her mouth, he slipped the strap of the dress off her shoulder.