A/N: Hello everyone, thanks for the reviews! To start with, in regards to whether that last bit of punishment was realistic, I'm sorry to anyone who didn't like it. Where I went to school, punishments were pretty unorthodox at times depending on who was handing them out. I saw students working in the cafeteria, helping janitors mop the floor and picking up trash outside. So to me, it was realistic but I understand if not everyone agrees.

Hope you all like this next part and again, thanks for all your reviews. They help me to see what I'm doing right and wrong. Thanks!

Chapter 19 - Underneath Your Clothes

Because of you, I forgot the smart ways to lie

Because of you, I'm running out of reasons to cry

When the friends are gone, when the party's over

We will still belong to each other

Underneath your clothes, there's an endless story

There's the man I chose, there's my territory

"Did you ever love me?"

Though Brooke and Peyton had been unable to make it to practice due to the detention Whitey had also issued them, the blonde cheerleader showed up at the doors as the gym began to empty. She was almost certain that Nathan was the last of the players to leave when she slowly approached him.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"I asked if you ever loved me," Peyton repeated quietly. "Because I used to think that you did but now I'm not so sure. I mean… you never would have been able to cheat on me if you had actually loved me," she mused. Her curls were unruly, as though she'd ran her hands through her hair several times. She also looked tired, Nathan couldn't help but notice as he looked at her face. "So then maybe that's my answer, huh? Maybe I just saw what I wanted to see."

Shaking his head, the tall basketball player set his bag down on the wooden floor and looked at the walls around them. He wasn't sure what he could say that would actually make his ex-girlfriend feel better. Nothing, he supposed. So he opted for honesty instead. "It wasn't about that Peyton," he finally said. "You just have these walls that I couldn't break down. Eventually I got tired of trying."

Her eyes lit with fire in them. Nathan knew then that he had said the wrong thing.

"When, huh?!" she demanded. "When did you ever try, Nathan? When did you care more about talking than getting into my pants?"

"When I figured out that sex was the only thing we'd ever be good at together," Nathan responded in the same irritated tone of voice. "You didn't give a crap about anything besides having the basketball captain on your arm when we first started going out. Then when you wanted to actually get to know me… I was done trying to let you."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Peyton denied. "You never wanted me in. You didn't need me because you had Brooke. She's the one you talked to."

"Damn it, Peyton! This has nothing to do with Brooke," Nathan declared as his frustration began to get the better of him.

"Doesn't it?" she questioned. "I asked you repeatedly to just stop that stupid feud you have with Lucas but you kept blowing me off. You didn't care that your vendetta was changing you and driving us apart," she yelled back. "But when Brooke asked you to stop, what did you do… huh? You just let it all go." She let out a bitter laugh before adding, "I saw you today. In the cafeteria… you were standing there with Lucas and his tutor friend. You were talking."

Nathan couldn't deny that he had talked to his brother and Haley. But Peyton had the wrong idea as to why. "The truth is that Brooke and I do have a connection but it's not a threat to her and Lucas. It wasn't a threat to us either. She wasn't why we broke up and you know it."

"Oh that's right… it's because you cheated."

"Yeah, I cheated," he quietly acknowledged. "And I'm sorry for that, whether you believe it or not."

Shaking her head, Peyton wrapped her arms around herself. As if she was trying to stave off the chill that seemed to consume her. "The point is that you weren't willing to do it for me but you were willing to do it for her."

"I can't explain it, Peyton. I wish that I could but…"

"Are you in love with her?"

"What? God, Peyton. No," Nathan stated definitively. "It's like we're going in circles here. No, I'm not in love Brooke. It's never been anything like that."

"Then what is it?" she asked, almost pleadingly. "What is this connection you have with her? Why couldn't you have had it with me?" Peyton finished in a small voice.

Sighing, Nathan dug his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "I can't compare the two of you, Peyton. You were my girlfriend and she's my friend." But he knew that the words would be of little consolation to the blonde standing before him. She needed answers and he just didn't have many to give. "You know that we've been friends since we were kids," he added, referring to a friendship that developed because of two sets of parents that had similar society connections. "She knew me then. So I never really had to tell her what my problems were."

"But that's not fair," Peyton declared sadly. "It's like I was being penalized for not growing up with you. I was just… I was never going to be first with you, was I?" she asked, wondering if their relationship was doomed before it ever started. If maybe they both just had too many walls between them. "Was I?" she repeated when he stayed still and silent.

"I don't know Peyton," he finally said.

It may not have been what she wanted to hear, but it was honest.

"Right," she muttered quietly. "Right."

With nothing more to say, Peyton turned on her heel and began walking. A part of her wished that Nathan would call out and ask her to stop. But he never did. And Peyton tried to tell herself that it was for the best because all they ever managed to do was hurt each other. Or at least all he ever did was hurt her.

So she kept walking and didn't let the first tears fall until the gym doors had closed behind her.

-----

"So why does she think something happened between you and him?" Lucas asked quietly as he and Brooke laid together on her bed. She'd tangled her legs with his and rested her head against his chest while he ran a gentle hand through her long dark hair.

"Because I think it's the only way for her to believe that their relationship fell apart," Brooke answered back just as quietly.

"But he cheated on her. Wasn't that the reason?"

Shrugging, Brooke searched for the words to explain a very complex girl. "Peyton doesn't have a lot of people in her life that she can depend on. But me and Nathan were supposed to be those people for her and I guess she's mad that we somehow disappointed her." Or so Brooke could guess. She was meant to take Peyton's side after Nathan cheated but when she couldn't reveal the truth about their initiation, Peyton assumed that Brooke had chosen Nathan instead.

It wasn't the case, but Peyton was too hurt to see that.

"Would you tell me about it?" Lucas asked, sounding almost hesitant.

"About what?" she wondered.

"About you and him."

Shrugging once more, Brooke began to trace invisible circles on his chest with the tip of her finger. "There's not much to tell," she admitted. "My mom and his are friends… at least when she's around. So we've known each other since we were kids and have been friends for about as long." Though they grew apart sometime during the 7th grade, freshman year renewed the friendship that had been neglected for two years. "We both made varsity, freshman year so we went to all the same parties and had all the same friends. Then with him and Peyton going out… we were around each other a lot."

Brooke was aware that many people, including her former best friend, assumed that Brooke and Nathan had hooked up at some point. They were supposed mirror images of each other. The male and female version of the same person. But the truth couldn't have been further from the truth.

He may have been Lucas' brother but sometimes he felt like hers.

"Sort of like you and tutor girl, I guess. Only with basketball, booze and parties."

Sighing, Lucas tightened his arms around her. Brooke snuggled a little closer, content in the safety of his embrace no matter what they talked about. "I won't say that I understand it but I know he's making an effort to get along with me. I know it's because of you that he's doing it," Lucas said and something in his words triggered something for Brooke.

"You know that you're the lucky one, right?" she asked suddenly, remembering the night she spent in his room, waiting for him to wake up after the guys on the team got him wasted.

Brooke sat up a little then and peered down at him with serious eyes.

"I know that his life seems ideal. The whole dad, money and popularity thing but it's overrated. And what you have… it's the real thing, Lucas." She would give anything to have at least one parent care half as much about her as Karen did about Lucas. Not to mention Keith, who looked at him like a father would look at his son. "He has things, but you have people. You have love and security… you really are lucky. I promise you that."

Vulnerability blanketed her gaze. It was one of those rare moments where she let him see inside of her. When she opened herself up just a little bit more and gave him a small piece of herself that no one else had. "I am glad for the people I have in my life, Brooke," he quietly acknowledged. "I'm glad I have you. Pretty girl."

Gently running his finger down her face, he felt her shiver against him. Her smile was soft. Her eyes locked with his.

Nervously, she ran her hand along the hem of his t-shirt before slowly pushing the material up. "I just want to feel you," she whispered, dancing her fingers over his skin. She enjoyed the way his muscles, taut and defined, tensed at her feather light touch. "Please." A voice that was filled with uncertainty, she was asking him for something that had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with the connection that seemed to grow by the day.

Brooke Davis didn't have many firsts left but the ones she did have… she wanted them to be with Lucas.

He held her gaze with blue eyes for a second more before he sat up and pulled his shirt away in one fell swoop.

Brooke reached for the elastic waistband of his black basketball shorts and with a shaky hand, tugged them down his hips. Mesmerized, Lucas watched as she removed her own shirt. Blue denim jeans followed, joining the pile of clothes on the end of the bed. "I've never done this before," she whispered and planted her palm against his chest to lightly push him back down against the mattress. "I've never really wanted to," she admitted.

"You're beautiful," he murmured as she stretched out on top of him.

Thin barriers of her green lace and his striped cotton boxers kept her movements from being sexual. It was intimate as she laid her head against his chest, listening to the rapid beats of his heart. She smiled when she felt his arms come around her, holding her body against his so that no amount of light or air could pass between them. "Your skin is warm," Brooke murmured, almost sleepily.

"That's because its touching yours," Lucas whispered back.

She smiled again.

He didn't see it… but he felt it.

-----

When Nathan showed up at the library for their tutoring session, Haley could see that something was definitely wrong with him. He seemed distract and distant. He offered nothing more than a quiet "Hey," before pulling out the chair across from her. And though the obvious topic of concern would have been basketball, considering the way he was dressed in workout clothes, Haley guessed that it was something else entirely.

But she couldn't ask. She didn't think it was her place. So instead she focused on the work they were supposed to be doing.

"Okay… so how far have you gotten on the Steinbeck essay?"

Glancing down at her small stack of pages, Haley waited for his answer. But Nathan didn't respond. The faraway look in his eyes told her that even though his body was with her… his mind was somewhere else entirely. So she sighed, wondering again what she should do before opting once more to stay on topic.

"Nathan?" she hissed persistently and managed to not only catch his attention but the gaze of an annoyed librarian. "Great," Haley muttered under her breath and waited until the older woman had turned away before repeating, "The Steinbeck essay. How far have you gotten?"

His eyes were questioning at first before a light seemed to go on in his head. "Not far," Nathan admitted, his sudden movements startling her. "Listen, Haley I'm sorry but I gotta go. I just… I'll work on the essay when I get home, okay?" But he didn't wait for her to respond before reaching for the bag he'd deposited on the carpet not more than minute before.

Open mouthed, Haley watched him go until he disappeared behind the reference books.

"What in the world was that about?" she muttered to herself while a few streets over, Peyton Sawyer sat in her car with the top down and the wind blowing through her hair. She watched the green shine out from the overhead streetlight, waiting for its color to turn yellow and eventually red. Waiting for a chance to tempt again as she did whenever her frustrations began to feel like too much to handle.

Once, when she first found out about it, Brooke told her that she was being selfish. She said that if Peyton wanted a rush, she should bungee jump or parachute out of an airplane. Any type of extreme sport rather than waiting with her foot on the brake for the exact moment the lights turned. "You're not just risking your life," she said, almost scolding. "But what about the mom or the five year old twins that might be in the car that picked the wrong moment to drive across the street you're on?"

Peyton said that Brooke didn't understand and never would.

The brunette was inclined to agree.

"Come on," she muttered impatiently as the green dimmed and the yellow took its turn illuminating the quiet street.

When she saw red, Peyton hit the gas and went speeding down the road. Knuckles began to turn white as she gripped the steering wheel tightly, holding the car steady as it picked up speed.

She blinked and a car was suddenly at her side.

Instinct kicked in and Peyton jerked the wheel, sending her car went skidding in a circle across the road. The blaring horn filled her ears along with the quick beats of her heart. Breathing was ragged, scared. She felt like she couldn't catch it. She couldn't slow down the frantic thundering as her heart hammered the inside of her chest.

She was alive.

Suddenly all she could do was lean her head against the wheel and cry.