Grabbing the paper she needed, Peyton headed from her office to the bar of Tric. She needed to leave the list of wristband colors there for tonight. They changed up the colors every time, so no one could use an old wristband, and no one knew ahead of time which colors would indicate what. "What are you doing here so early?" Peyton asked when she saw Owen. His presence surprised her, because she had expected to be gone before he got there at 6:30 to start the evening shift.
With a confused expression, he cocked an eyebrow, and stared at her for a moment. "No, I'm running a little late, actually. I was sure you'd be long gone by now," he didn't really give her a chance to respond before he continued, explaining the confused look that was still on his face. "Were you humming just now? I think I've caught you humming and/or whistling more times in the past month than in the previous two years of working together," he said.
It took Peyton a moment to respond, because she was really considering his words. She realized he was right, but just shrugged it off. "Well, I have a lot more things to be happy about, recently I guess. I mean, things are going great with Lucas, and I'm confident that the benefit concert will go well today, because the CD has already done great. There's just a lot to be happy about," she informed him.
Before he could say anything else, she decided to get back to the matter at hand. She handed him the list. "Make sure you and your staff know thses colors. I will not have underage drinking in my club," she said firmly, even though she knew that Owen was always very strict about the wristband colors. She, Haley and Karen had hired a very good bar staff. The other two women had already left, since she was mostly the one in charge of the benefit, and she really needed to be going, too, so she would be ready in time.
An hour and a half later, Peyton was still running around her room, dressed in her robe, with her hair in a towel as she tried to figure out what to wear. She was running extremely late, because she hadn't been able to leave her office until 7, because last-minute things had kept popping up, and she didn't want to have to deal with them when she was with Lucas. Then she had managed to hit every red light going through town, which was completely ridiculous, but she had forced herself to sit through every one of them.
When she had gotten home, Audrey had just been getting out of the shower, so she had to wait for the water to heat back up, making it about 7:30 by the time she actually got into it, and now it was fifteen minutes to eight, which happened to be the time when Lucas would get here, and she still had to do her hair, and make-up, and choose something to wear, and she had no idea what to do about it.
The door to Peyton's room opened, and Audrey came into the room in a blue tank top and white tiered mini-skirt, with a pair of black Converse on her feet. Like Peyton had in high school, her daughter also preferred the classic Chucks. Audrey immediately noticed her mother's state. "You need help," she said matter-of-factly. Peyton paused mid-dig through her closet to throw her daughter a sarcastic look.
Letting the look roll off of her, she shrugged her shoulders. "It's true, isn't it? I mean, you have fifteen minutes, and you're nowhere near ready," she said, before taking charge of the situation. She stepped forward and moved Peyton out of the way. "Go do your hair. I'm thinking you should spray it with hairspray, but leave it curly and down. Lucas likes it that way, and it makes you look younger," she instructed.
Moving forward even more, she stepped into the closet to take Peyton's place in it, focusing on the clothes as her mother followed her advice. "I'm thinking for an outfit, you should wear something semi-casual, but still datelike. You'll probably be running around backstage, making sure things run smoothly, and you have to go onstage to announce all the bands, so pants would probably be better than a shirt," she mused as she dug through the clothes.
As Peyton moved on to her make-up, Audrey continued to dig, finally thinking of the perfect outfit for her mother. "Aha, here it is," she said, pulling out the silky green off the shoulder shirt, which Peyton hardly wore because it showed way more cleavage than she thought a mother should show. She tossed the shirt on the bed, then moved to Peyton's dresser, pulling open drawers until she found Peytons ripped black skinny jeans. "Pair this with your black converse and leather jacket, and you'll look bomb. I'm also thinking you rock some slightly dirty girl lingerie, because Lucas will love that," she said as she headed for the door.
Before Peyton could tell her daughter that she and Lucas hadn't taken that step yet, her bedroom door had closed. She rolled her eyes and continued to work on her make-up, decided to go with the outfit that Audrey had picked out. She was just finishing getting ready when she heard the doorbell ring. She wasn't sure if it was Lucas, or Sean to pick up Audrey, but she decided to go downstairs.
It was Lucas, she noticed as she descended the stairs. He looked up as she descended them, and their eyes met, and she smiled at him, lifting her hand in a wave. She still felt butterflies at the sight of him, and he looked good tonight, wearing a pair of jeans and a light blue button up shirt. "Audrey watched the two of them for a moment, glad that he was making her mother so happy, before she noticed that Sean's car had pulled up in front of the house. "Have fun you two, I'll see you there. Love you, Mom," she said before taking her leave.
Left alone in the house, Peyton and Lucas just stared at each other for a moment, both of them taking in the other. Lucas's breath had caught in his throat when he caught sight of her coming down the stairs, and he had to remind himself to take a breath. Peyton finally closed the distance between them, pulling him into a kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She smiled as she pulled away. "You know, I really like that. Remind my why we haven't been doing that for years," she said rhetorically.
The question wasn't meant to be answered, but Lucas answered anyway. "Because I'm obviously an idiot," he said, before pulling her into another kiss. "I could seriously do this all night.. Are you sure you have to go tonight?" he asked, only half-joking. Peyton looked up into his eyes, but her own mind was trying to search for a plausible excuse to tell everyone for her not going. "I love you,." the words slipped out of his mouth as he stared into his eyes. He just couldn't help it; her green eyes had him mesmerized.
And just like the flipping of a switch, Peyton's walls went up. He could see it in her eyes. Just like in high school, she was going to run away at the thought of any sign of real feelings, or commitment. She turned to pull away, opening her mouth to insist they had to go, but his hands on her waist tightened. He wasn't going to let her run away this time. "No, Peyt, don't do this. Please. Just tell me how you're feeling. Don't shut me out or push me away. It's okay if you're not ready to say it back yet. Just don't run," he said.
Averting her eyes, Peyton stood where she was. She couldn't look at him right now. It wasn't because she didn't love him, because she knew she did. She just didn't feel right saying the words when she wasn't being completely honest with him about everything. She just didn't know how to tell him the truth. She was afraid he would be the one to start pushing her away if she did.
With a tender touch, Lucas raised her chin so he could look her in the eye. His blue eyes gazed at her imploringly. She sighed. "I just, I'm afraid, I guess," she said, with no more explanation than that, but he didn't ask her for anymore, because he knew that was all she would say. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her crown. They stood like that for a moment before he pulled back and they left the house.
The ride was silent for a while, but by the time they entered Tric, Lucas had her laughing and talking again like normal. She took his hand as they entered the club, and it seemed almost immediately that one of her assistants was there, with some crisis. She bit her lip and looked at Lucas, who laughed at her. "No big deal. Go save the night, Peyton. I'll go get us some drinks from the bar," he said, waving her off.
It took twenty minutes before Peyton could tell her assistants that they could handle everything, and she was going to spend the next twenty minutes before the bands started playing with Lucas. She found him and came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Hey, you. I'm all yours," she paused, "for the next twenty minutes," she added, as he turned around. "Whatever will we do?" she pretended to think.
As he pretended to contemplate, he raised his eyebrows. "You know, I think I have a few ideas," he speculated. She raised her own eyebrows, as if intrigued. "We could do some of this," he leaned down and kissed her lips. "Or this," he moved his lips to her ear as he whispered the words, and began sucking on her earlobe. "Or even some of this," he said, moving his lips down to her exposed collarbone, to leave hot, open-mouthed kisses there.
Biting on her lip as her eyes slid closed, she realized that Lucas still knew exactly the spots that got to her the most. She wondered if sucking on the hinge of his jaw still elicted the same response from him. She decided to explore that theory, but before she could, they were interrupted by a voice. "Okay, guys, I know you'd like to think you're still two horny teenagers, but we're actually not anymore. Get a room," Haley's voice fell upon deaf ears as the blonde couple continued to kiss.
After another few moments, she turned to her husband. "Why don't you kiss me like that in public anymore?" she pretended to pout, but she quickly got over it as she caught sight of Keith and Karen stealing a few kisses of their own on the other side of the bar. "You know, since everybody's doing it," she said, wrapping her arms around Nathan's neck as her voice trailed off. She didn't have a chance to finish that statement before his lips were on hers.
From across the building, Audrey was watching her mom kiss Lucas, and then she saw Haley start making out with Nathan. She thought it was better than the scene closer to her. She turned her gaze on the guys next to her, who had still managed to get alcohol despite the wristband rules. She knew she should tell her mom what was going on, but she didn't want to get her boyfriend, and the rest of the varsity team in trouble.
Two of the guys were checking out the new chick and she couldn't help but study the girl too. Kristine had never been in Tric before, but she knew that the brunette was the daughter of Brooke Davis, famous fashion icon, who had been married and divorced more than anyone else in Tree Hill put together. The story was that when Brooke had divorced her latest husband, two years ago, she had moved her and her only daughter to Tree Hill, but Kristine had never started going to Tree Hill High school. Rumor was she was starting this year.
Immediately, Audrey didn't like the girl, but she supposed that it was mainly due to the fact that her boyfriend was one of the guys who kept checking her out. She downed the drink she was holding, her third of the night. She didn't know what was in it, because she kept getting them from Sean, when he managed to acknowledge her presence, but she had a feeling that it wasn't exactly non-alcoholic.
Once she finished the drink in her hand, she started stalking towards her boyfriend, deciding she wasn't going to take this anymore. "Why don't you just go over and see if she wants to screw you, it's obvious you want to," she slurred, poking him in the chest when she reached him. He looked at her for a minute, before shrugging and turning, like he really was going to go talk to her. "I swear, if you go over there, we're over," she said before he could take two steps.
That stopped him, but not really for the reasons she wanted him to be stopped. He turned to give her a condescending look. "For how long this time, Audrey? Is it for just an hour this time, or all night? Tell me now, because I need to know what I'm doing tonight," he called her bluff, sure she wasn't serious, not about them really being over, because they were broken up practically every other week.
His tone, and his words snapped something inside her, but the alcohol was probably the thing that pushed her close enough to the edge to fall off. "Damnit, Sean, why do you have to be such a jackass?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest. Her voice was rising, but it was only high enough to be heard by the few people around them over the music. Those people turned instantly to the drama that was being played out.
Noticing the people, of course Sean had to make a scene. She would prefer to not be so public about their fights, but he was nothing without his fans, and he wasn't about to look like a wimp in front of them, even if he knew he should probably back down now. "Why do you have to be such a frigid bitch?" he shot back, raising one eyebrow cockily. The crowd around them gasped and waited for her response.
That was it, she decided. She would take no more of his shit. The tears wanted to well in her eyes, but she swallowed them back, keeping her pissed off look on her face. "You know what, go ahead and screw anyone you want. We're done. For good this time," she said, turning and walking away. She made it out of the crowd and backstage, going to a corner where she could be alone before she punched the wall. Then she leaned against it and slid down, burying her face into her knees and letting the tears come.
A few minutes later, she felt arms wrapped around her, and she instantly knew it was Logan, or she would have pushed them away. As it was, she buried her face in Logan's chest, and cried out all of her tears. He rubbed her back and whispered soothing words to her while she got it all out. She hated crying over Sean, especially on Logan's shoulder, but she wouldn't let anyone else see her cry for him. She wouldn't let anyone else see her cry period.
After she finished crying, he pulled back to look at her. Even with her make-up smeared, and her face wet with tears, he thought she looked beautiful. She looked up at him and for the first time noticed the way his dark chestnut colored hair fell over his green eyes. For a split second, she felt the urge to kiss him, and she wondered where the urge had come from, finally deciding to blame it on the alcohol.
Brushing her curls out of her face, he looked into her blue eyes and wanted to kiss away her tears, but knew it wouldn't be well-accepted. So he settled for wiping them away. "Come on, let's get you out of here and sobered up before you have to get home," he said, helping her to her feet, and practically carrying her out of the club, going out the back door so they wouldn't be seen.
When they made it to the car, she sat in the front seat, wiping her eyes and trying to control her tears as she drove. "I'm so sorry for this," she gestured to herself, knowing what a mess she must look like. "Seriously, I don't know why I acted like that. It's just, I think it really is over between me and Sean, and I've never actually felt like it was really over," she took in his expression, and decided to stop talking about what happened, because she knew Logan hated the way Sean treated her. "Sorry," she couldn't help but add again.
Instead of responding, he kept his eyes on the road. He didn't understand why Audrey put up with all of Sean's crap, and he never would. Even though the guy was his friend, most of the time, he treated his girlfriend like crap, and he let everyone know it too, and Audrey just allowed it. He knew if he opened his mouth right now, he would let his anger at Sean out on her, and he knew she didn't need that right now, so he just continued driving to the beach.
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Taking a deep, steadying breath, Brooke rallied her courage for what she had to do. She was going to tell Kristine's father the truth. Tonight. It had taken her a long time to come to this point, but she was going to have to go through with it now. Especially since Kristine would be going to school with her sibling now. She took another deep breath before pulling the keys out of the ignition, and getting out of the car, headed for Tric.
Immediately, she spotted her daughter dancing with some boy, and she wished that Kristine didn't have to witness this, but she had known that this would be where her daughter would show up after she had snuck out tonight. She didn't go over to her daughter, though, because she wasn't here to yell at her daughter, she didn't want to fight with Kristine again tonight. She wanted to tell a certain Scott brother the truth.
Spotting the man in question, she made her way through the crowd, headed in his direction. She had to take another deep breath as she got closer to him, but she would not take a drink, though the bartender offered when she made it to the bar. She had worked to hard to get rid of that particular crutch to backslide now. Maybe she would have just one after she had spoken the words she knew were going to change their lives forever.
There were still a few people sitting at the bar between Brooke and the man she needed to talk to. She wanted to wait until he had stopped with the make-out session he was involved in, but she didn't think her courage would last any longer. She stepped around the people seperating them, and tapped on his shoulder, getting his attention. He turned to look at her, and she stared him in the eyes for the first time in nearly 17 years. The face of the man that had broke her heart.
For a moment she really wished she had downed some form of alcohol. She needed the liquid courage more than she ever had in her life, but it was too late now. The moment that she had been dreading since that little line had told her she was pregnant was finally here. She couldn't help but blurt out her reason for being here, deciding the band-aid approach was the far better tactic, for her anyway. "Kristine is your daughter," she said as she looked into those famous Scott eyes.
It wasn't until she heard the others gasp that she realized she had just blurted the information to the other Scott brother and his beau, too. She wished she could take back the words, not because of her larger than she had expected audience, but because of the way those eyes scorched her, telling her that she had been right to keep it a secret, all the news had done was ruin lives. It wasn't until she noticed her daughter, with the boy she had been dancing with behind her, that she realized just how badly she had screwed up.
Before anyone could say anything, Kristine turned, grabbing the hand of the boy at her side, and taken off, pulling him behind her as she disappeared into the crowd. She didn't keep standing there, waiting for the verbal lashing she knew she would receive. She took a recently vacated seat at the bar, signaled the bartender, and downed her first drink in more than 16 years.
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Later that night, after Brooke had dropped her bomb, and Peyton had agreed to continue with the night as planned only after Lucas had insisted, Lucas was driving her home. She could barely concentrate on the fact that Kristine had grabbed Sean's hand when she had run away from her mom, and she didn't know where Audrey was-she had confidence that Logan could take care of her daughter, and she was more distracted by the fact that he would not stop ranting about what Brooke had done.
In fact, he was still going as he parked the car in front of her house. "How could Brooke do something like that? I thought I knew her, you know? I mean, she kept a kid from a guy for 16 years, and then comes in here and drops this bomb, like it won't ruin the lives of everyone involved. How could she be so self-centered? How could anyone be? I just can't belive it," he ran a hand over his face, pausing for a moment in his tirade.
Taking her one chance, Peyton knew what she had to do. She didn't intend to tell him the whole truth. He would hate her. Maybe she should, though, because maybe it would be easier not being with him if he hated her. She didn't think she'd be able to give him up otherwise, and she wasn't even sure if he would let her go. Only if she had to make him, would she tell him the truth. "Lucas, we can't be together anymore," she said, finally gaining his attention for the first time during the whole car ride.
Turning to look at her so fast she could hear his neck crack, his blue eyes studied her, even as he raised a hand to rub at his neck. "What do you mean, Peyt? Don't let Brooke's self-centered carelessness affect us. Come on, Peyton, please. I don't want it to be this way, not after we're finally getting our chance." he pleaded, but she slowly shook her head. "Can you at least tell me why?" he demanded.
Breathing in a deep, shaky breath, she slowly pulled her hand out of Lucas's grip, because he had taken her hand while pleading with her. "Because," she paused, not really sure if she could go on, and he reached out and took her hand again, not letting go this time, silently letting her know he was listening. The tears sprang to her eyes, and even she hated herself as she let go of the secret she had been keeping far too long. "Audrey is your daughter," she admitted, and his grip slackened, allowing her to pull her hand out of his and get out of the car, running to the house, before he could see the tears fall.
A/N: I know I said you'd know who Kristine's father is for sure and you'd maybe know who Audrey's father is in this chapter, but I decided to flip it around. I'm not entirely sure who Kristine's father is yet. I know I had planned on it being Lucas, but maybe I can work the story around Nathan being Kristine's father. It all depends on what y'all think. So let me know! Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.