A/N: So..I know it's been forever since I updated this. And I apologize with my whole heart for what it's worth. College keeps me busy just about 24/7 and I just have not had the time to write ANYTHING since I've been there. But, with the new year I made it my goal to start updating again, at least as much as I can until I head back to college when my break is over. If you're still interested in the story, let me know. I hope this is ok, I was rusty.

Miles passed, the sun went down, and Lucas' eyes got more and more tired by the second. They kept shutting on him...like they were punishing him for making them stay open this long. And when your eyes are doing that when you're driving..it's never good. But he kept going..because what else was he going to do? Ask Peyton to drive? He didn't even ponder that question in his mind for more than a second before he knew the answer was no. His head dropped, but came right back up, his exhausted eyes refocusing on the road. He rubbed a hand over his face, feeling the scruffiness that had evolved over the time on the road. Sighing heavily, he tried to look around for something to keep him distracted..to keep him awake. His sight fell on her. On Peyton. On his good friend Peyton. That he had gotten in the car to help...that he had given up his girlfriend for to help. Why? Why had he done that? Why was everything so messed up now? Things had been moving along fine. Lucas was dating Brooke..Lucas loved Brooke. Peyton was..with Jake..and then Pete..and out of his reach. And then him and his mother had taken a roadtrip of their own. A little time away from the world that had fallen down on the two of them with Keith's death and the revealation of his heart condition. And his mother had been speaking of the future, of what he wanted with his life..for his life. One question was asked: "What's your next dream Lucas?" Lucas' mind tried to imagine himself some years in the future. Impulsively, without thinking at all about any implications. He just closed his eyes and whatever came to his head..was what he wanted.

He saw himself at a desk, laptop in front of him. On the screen was a title. Of a story, he had assumed. The walls were decorated with awards. Looking more closely he saw that they were for books. His books. He would be an author. It was fitting was it not? At one point, before basketball..before all the drama that the past few years had involved..his life had been literature. His hands could never be seen without a book in them. So now that basketball was done..he would go back to how it was then. Then his eyes came to a frame on the desk. Naturally and obviously a picture was inside. Squinting to see it more closely, he realized it was a picture of him and another person. He assumed it was Brooke, the way his hand was wrapped around her waist..the way she was looking at him. Moving closer still...his eyes widened in wonder. Brooke had curly hair? Curly, blonde hair? And then it hit him. It wasn't Brooke in the picture. It was Peyton.

His mother had chosen that particular moment to clear her throat and Lucas was brought back to the present day..in the car with her. And he had answered normally, with his choice dream being to study literature, of course. But his brain had been elsewhere the rest of the trip. It had been on Peyton.

Somehow, no matter where his life was in a certain moment, is always came back to Peyton. Why? That's all he wanted to know. And he wished there was someone there to give him the answer. Anyone.

Spying a gas station, Lucas pulled off the road and up to one of the few gas pumps at the small rest place. He stood pumping the gas while Peyton slept on in the passenger's seat. Maybe she really was just faking sleep to ignore him. Sighing, his legs moved him into the station to pay. Digging in his pocket, Lucas' eyes brought themselves to looking at Peyton, who he could see through the large glass windows. He sighed again, involuntarily.

"Are you okay?"

Lucas' head swiveled straight ahead of him and his eyes met those of an older woman- the cashier. She was looking him over in concern. He cleared his throat to cover his surprise at her voice. "Yeah..yeah I'm fine. Twenty in gas," Lucas told her as he handed over one of his remaining twenty dollar bills.

Her hand took the money from his and his eyes returned to Peyton, who still hadn't moved an inch. Was she still alive even, he thought with a minimal amount of amusement. He heard the noise of the register in the back of his mind. "Is she okay?" the woman asked, emphasis on the pronoun of the question.

"Who?" Lucas asked startled.

"Your girlfriend in the car."

Lucas shook his head slowly. "She's not..she's not my girlfriend."

"No? Then why do you keep looking at her then?"

"It's a long story. Thanks," Lucas said with a nod as he went to head out the door.

"Sir?"

He paused in his exit and turned back towards the woman. Somehow she looked older than he first calculated. "If you keep looking at her, it's for a reason. If you keep coming back to her, your heart is trying to tell you something. Tell her what she means to you. Before it's too late. Before you have no time left." She paused for a moment. "Just take an old woman's advice, will ya?"

"Okay," he said slowly. "I'll..try."

"Okay," she echoed. "Good luck."

"Thanks." Lucas left the store, his face screwed up in confusion at what had just happened. A rain drop attacked his cheek and he looked up into the cloudly sky where dusk was beginning to fall. Reaching the car, it took the steps needed to put up the top to Peyton's car. She shifted in her seat and her eyes opened quickly when she heard the noise it made. Shaking her curls off her face, she took in her surroudings quickly. Lucas, unable to stop staring because of the fact that she had actually opened her eyes, looked at her with such..rapture that Peyton actually felt her eyes drawn to his. And they connected for a second. She felt her heart speed up and looked away quickly. She readjusted herself in her seat, closing her eyes again. She begged for sleep to come. Anything to distract her from her present reality.

Lucas, dealing with the disappointment of having Peyton's eyelids cover her hazel orbs again, finished installing the top and got back in the car. It seemed smaller now..more confining. Fighting off a sense of clausterphobia, Lucas turned the engine and returned to their journey home, listening only to the steady thump of rain on the windshield.

His exhaustion was starting to consume his body just a few miles down the road. His head was filled with his thoughts- too many thoughts. How random was that lady in the gas station? Telling him what to do..what continously looking at Peyton meant. Wait- she had said the reason he kept coming back to Peyton. Hadn't Lucas just asked for someone- anyone- to tell him why everything kept coming back to the girl in the seat beside him. And she gave him an answer. "Your heart is trying to tell you something," he whispered outloud to himself.

Was it Peyton? Was Peyton the one that he had been looking for all along? "Tell her what she means to you. Before it's too late." Those words echoed in his head. That had always been the problem with him and Peyton hadn't it? He had always been too late to tell her how he felt. He had always missed his chance. First, he had chosen Brooke when Peyton had confessed her feelings to him suddenly. Out of fear. Then again, somehow he had chosen Brooke a second time after his conversation about the girl that was slipping away with Nathan. This time it was because Lucas knew that Peyton's heart was with Jake. So didn't that mean that Brooke was his one? Why did he always choose her if it didn't?

He fought to keep his eyes open, but it was to no avail. Even as his head whirled, he couldn't stay awake any longer. His eyes closed, and an image, a memory automically came to mind.

"Peyton," he managed to get out, as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him. Back into his arms. He met her with a kiss. A simple kiss. A simple kiss that meant all the world at that moment. She broke it, pulling back with a look on her face.

"See? It does mean something."

Her eyes darted everywhere but his face. "It can't," she almost whispered.

"But it does," he restated.

"Lucas, you're dating Brooke!"

"I know. And she's great. Okay? But, she's not you. Look ever since you came to my room and you told me how you felt about me I've been hiding with Brooke. Okay? I've been trying not to get hurt again." He paused, letting his words sink in. "I don't want to hide anymore."

She looked down to the ground. "Even if we could be together what makes you think it would work?"

He thought for a second. "Cause I feel it in my heart." His eyes scanned her for a reaction. "Don't you?"

"Yes," she replied quickly with a nod of her head. "So what are we gonna do?"

He hid with Brooke. Brooke protected him. And he loved her because she protected his heart from Peyton. He finally knew. It was Peyton. Peyton was the-

A horn sounded. Now he knew there were no cars in the hallway at school. But there were on a road he realized. His eyes snapped open and were met with a blinding light. The light of two headlights feet in front of him. Panicing, Lucas pulled the wheel to the right, launching the car out of the wrong lane and into the ditch on the opposite side of the road. As his head connected with the steering wheel in front of him, he was lauched back into darkness. All was still around him.