"Love is a game in which one always cheats."

Lucas looked down at his phone. He got off of Ace. "Um, give me a second... Gotta take this," he said nervously. He grabbed Ace and walked a little further down the trail, leaving me behind him.

I could tell something was up, so I let him go. I tried to eavesdrop, but all I got was Lucas saying, "I can't right now... It's a bad time... In a little."

He hung up the phone and walked with the horse back to me and Sugar.

"Who was that?" I said.

"Doesn't matter. You wanna go back?" he said quickly changing the subject.

"Sure..." I answered. I didn't want to pry into his business, but all the sudden I had a bad gut feeling. I tried to push it away, but as we rode the horses back in silence, it became stronger.

We got back to the barn and took off our gear. "Ready to go home?" Lucas said. He seemed like he was suddenly in a rush.

"Yeah, I'm tired anyway," I said acting like I didn't care.

We got into the car and drove home. The ride was mostly silent. Lucas sat there brooding and thinking about something that seemed serious. He kept wrinkling his forehead and squinting his eyes, like he was making a decision. Suddenly, he broke the silence.

"I can't hang out tonight," he said plainly, focusing on the road. His forehead became less tense, like he had made a decision.

"Oh, okay... Maybe I'll try and get Nate to talk to me or something," I laughed. Nathan was not forgivng me for, whatever I did wrong, for awhile. But maybe it was worth a shot. He was a great friend so far. And besides, Peyton and those girls had little to no potential to be trusted from what I could tell. I looked out the window and thought about everything that had happened the past week or so. What if I hadn't shown up with Lucas at that party? Would all those people still have wanted to talk to me? Would they have been nice to me? What was going on with Lucas? Did Nathan have the same type of status as Lucas did, popular, jock-ish? They were the same age, and both great looking in their own different ways: Nathan with his dark hair and green eyes, Lucas with his blue eyes and messy blonde hair. Nathan seemed more vulnerable than Lucas. But, Lucas had opened up to me. We were similar in that way: having trouble letting people in.

If anything, though, I'd imagine Nathan being the one to put up walls. Having a mother who left him as a kid? I wouldn't ever trust anyone again. What happened to Lucas, besides Brittany, that was so bad to make him not trust people, that made him block people out of his heart? Could a girl really destroy him like that? I mean, it was freshman year that he had his heartbroken, and we were now juniors. Had he still not gotten over it?

I wouldn't know about getting over a first love. I had never even had one. In California, I was more of a guys' girl. I had my group of three close girlfriends, but besides that, I liked just hanging around with the boys. So, that being the case, I had never really had a relationship. I was afraid of ruining friendships and friendships were much more important than relationships. At least in California they had been. Now, I wasn't so sure.

We got back to the house. As we got out of the car, Lucas gave me a shy smile and went straight for the door. After he got inside, he walked up the staircase. I heard him open the door to his room and slam it behind him. I sighed and made my way to the kitchen.

Nathan was sitting at the kitchen table with Jake. There were some empty beer bottles and they each had a half-a-bottle in their hands.

"Hey guys," I said shyly as I walked in.

"Hey babe," Jake purred from his seat.

"Look who it is," Nathan murmured.

"Come have a beer," Jake said, turning my attention from Nathan to him.

I grabbed a beer from the fridge. Jake took it from me and opened it with the bottle opener. I took a gulp.

"So where were you so early?" Nathan said coldly.

"Your barn actually," I smiled to try and break the tension.

"Ha, he has you at the barn already! Never fails..." Nathan said, laughing sarcastically.

I was confused. "What does that mean?" I said trying to figure out what he meant.

"Man, some things never change..." Jake said, beginning to laugh too. "We're going to the beach, wanna come? Peyton's going too..."

"Uh, sure," I said, still confused. I wanted to know what they had meant, but I was afraid to ask. The two stood up and got their stuff together.

"We're going to the beach Lucas!" Nathan called up the stairs. "You're here alone! Later bro."

Lucas didn't answer and Nathan just shrugged. You could tell from Nathan's face he didn't approve of whatever Lucas was doing, or what she had done in the past. I walked out the front door, following the boys. We got into the car and drove, me in the backseat, Jake shotgun and Nathan driivng, but I couldn't help but keep thinking about what Nathan and Jake had said about Lucas. What did they mean? 'Some things never change?' What was Lucas doing? And did the phone call have something to do with it? My mind was racing. What had they meant?

"Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too."

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Thanks for the reviews you guys! 100+! That's amazing! You guys rock! I know you guys all wanna see different things happen with the story, but I have everything I wanna do planned. And I promise Brathan and Brucas lovers will both like it so just bear with me! Next chapter will be DRAMA!!! Reviews as always! xoxoox