"What have I done?" Nathan murmured quietly under his voice. He stood next to the fridge staring into his and Haley's bedroom. Brooke's hair was hanging off the bed, along with her hand and her bra. Nathan walked to the bedroom door and shut it. He grabbed his keys, and took off in his car leaving Brooke at the house.

While Nathan was driving his cell phone rang. He picked it up, "Hello?"
"Uh, hi, is this Nathan?" Peyton asked.
"Yeah, who the hell is this?" Nathan was regretful and bitter, and it was made clear this was a bad time.
"Hello Nate, its Peyton. Listen i'm in town visiting, and I wanted to see you." She spoke thoughtfully.
"What??" He gathered his thoughts for a moment. "Uh, yeah. Okay?" He said almost speechless.
"Okay…so are you busy right now?" She asked.
"No, not really", he smirked a little, "Where are you?" He said as he pulled over.
"Well I am staying at Tree Hill Hotel, but if you want we could meet up somewhere. I know it's a little late, so we could probably just go for a walk?" She asked hopefully. She just wanted to have a normal conversation with someone.
"Sure, I'll meet you at the Rivercourt in a bit." He hung up almost immediately, without giving thought to her response.
Peyton hung up her phone as well, and headed towards to the park.

Ring…ring…ring.
Brooke tumbled off the bed onto the floor. She scratched her head, and looked around half asleep, searching for her phone. She found it and flipped it open, "Uhh, hello?" She said groggily.
…
"Crap I missed it." She checked her missed calls, and there were 4 from Luke. "Dammit, Oh God!" Brooke had just realized where she was.
"Nathan! Nathan!" She called out, and no one answered. She tip toed out of the bedroom peaking around for Nathan. She grabbed her clothes and keys, and stomped out to her car. She sat down, breathed deeply, started the car, and backed up. "Oh my God, what am I going to tell Haley", she spoke as she stared into her rearview mirror.

"Well hey there Mr. Scott" Peyton said with a smile on her face as she emerged from a few bushes to half-court. "How are you"?
"Peyton!" They hugged for a few seconds, and she pulled away. "Man I haven't seen you in so long."
"I was hoping you wouldn't be mad"
"Whatever, you know. I get it, you had to get out of here and do your own thing, seems to be a habit with you Tree Hill girls." James said humorously, although he thought nothing funny of the matter.
"I'm sorry about Haley, Nate. Let her chase her dreams for a while, i'm sure you guys can pick up where you left off when she gets back." Nathan smiled.
"Well, anyway, it's good to see you! Does Lucas know you're here?
"Yeah, actually, I called him and he didn't really want to talk." She said staring down at the cement.
"Sorry." Nathan spoke kindly, "he'll come around. How long are you here for?" Nathan asked.
"Only a few more days, but I was thinking of cutting out tonight, but I wanted to see you first."
"Well i'm glad you did. I'd offer you to stay at my place but I have to get up early for work tomorrow, and Luke's going to swing by and pick me up." Nathan looked guilty.
"Okay, yeah, it's alright. But i'm freezing, and it's late. It was nice to see you Nathan." Peyton started to walk towards him.
"Yeah, well," he paused for a minute while they hugged, "it was nice to see you too. I'm going to tell Luke I saw you, try to knock some sense into him." They both smiled, "thanks for calling P Sawyer, I missed you, you know that right?" He said as she began to walk away.
She gave him a smile, and continued back to her car. She was packed, and ready to leave Tree Hill, but something was pulling her back. She made a right in the intersection, a right back to her hotel.

"Brooke?" Nathan yelled when he saw her boots were gone. He headed to his bedroom, and stripped the sheets off the bed. He put everything in a basket ready to take to the Laundromat, and lied down on the couch.

"Nate! Open the door! We're going to be late" Lucas shouted from outside Nathan and Haley's apartment.
Nathan sprung off the couch, and pushed the door open. "Sorry man! I must have overslept."
"What tipped you off?" Lucas said playfully.
Nathan ran off the go get ready, and Luke went back to wait in the car.
Nathan finally walked out of the house, dressed down, looking tired.
"Dude you look like crap. What happened to you last night?" Lucas asked pulling out of the parking lot.
"If I tell you, you have to promise your not going to get pissed." Nathan said making no eye contact.
Lucas looked over at him while trying to focus on driving. "What?"
"Brooke came over because she was upset about what happened with you and Peyton and…" Before he could finish Lucas cut him off.
"Woah, woah, woah. Wait a second, what happened with me and Peyton?" Lucas looked confused.
"Dude, I don't know. We were just talking, and then we kissed and I-"
"Wait, you kissed Brooke?!" Lucas sounded surprised.
"Man, we were both lonely, and then we ended up in bed, I don't know how it happened, man i'm sorry" Nathan winced at the thought of what Luke would say next.
"Don't say sorry to me, say sorry to Haley."
"You're not mad?" Nathan asked.
"I have nothing to be mad about. Brooke and I are just friends, but that's not fair to Haley. I get that your lonely Nate, but you have your friends and your better than that. There's nothing more I can really say. Now put your game face because were this close to making play-off season, and i'm not going to lose a single game because of your marriage problems." Lucas joked.
"Yeah, man. Thanks." They got out of the car, did the home-boy hug, and walked into Tree Hill High School.

Brooke was hanging clothes when Luke walked in on her lunch time break. She looked up at him, and her eyes began to water. "Luke, I-"
"Say no more, I know what happened with you and Nathan. A little skanky but I get it," Luke laughed.
Brooke just stared, "Are you okay?"
"Yes. Why? Did you think I was going to get mad, because Nate did too? I'm not mad Brooke; I have no reason to be. But Nate mentioned something about you being mad at me, and I just want to know are we cool?" He asked, with his hands together.
"Yes, of course. I guess I just-" she began.
"Okay, good. I got to get back, so i'll see you later okay." He asked already half out the door.
"Yeah sure…" the door slammed, "Bye Luke." She sighed and went back to folding and hanging.

"Peyton?" Lucas said, "Peyton? Are you here?" He knocked on her hotel room door.
"Hold on a minute!" Peyton yelled, not recognizing the voice through the thick walls. "Yeah?" Her mouth dropped in shock. "Luke! I wasn't expecting you, come in."
They sat down together on two separate beds, facing each other.
"I know we never got to really talk, because I guess I was pretty angry about the way we left things. But hey, you're here and i'm here now, and I really want to talk about things." Luke said maturely.
"Sure, I do too. So…you first?" She said smiling, inching back on the bed.
"Okay," he sighed, "Why did you leave?"
"Well, I guess it just got too much for me, you know. I mean we were together everyday, and I loved you Luke, but I guess I was feeling held back. Everyone was going off the college, and when you told me that you didn't want to, that you didn't want to be apart, that you'd rather stay with me I got scared. I was young Luke, I still am and so are you. We had the rest of our lives to be together, or meet new people, I wasn't ready to settle down with you in Tree Hill."
"So instead you ran away to New York, and didn't talk to me for years. Peyton, I didn't want to settle down, I just didn't want to go to school out of state, because of you and my Mom, and so many other things. I new I could be happy here," Luke said calmly.
"And I could've too. I could've been happy here, with you, running Tric or starting my own business. I could've worked with THUD, and we could've moved in together, got married. I know I could've been happy with you Luke, don't doubt that for a second, but I just didn't know if I was ready for that yet."
"Why didn't you call?" He asked, seemingly hurt.
"I knew you were mad, I knew you were mad when I left that night. I felt so guilty, and so regretful, and every second of every day I thought about you. I thought about calling you, coming back to you, kissing you. I missed you so much Luke"
"Why didn't you call. I would've come to New York, to visit, we could have kept in touch, I loved you so much, how could you not have known that."
"That's the thing Luke, I knew you did. I knew you loved me, and I knew that you knew I loved you. And that was enough for me, and somewhere along the line I stopped missing you so much, and I moved on. But every so often I'd remember you, and us, and the way we were, and I wanted to come see you for so long, and now that i'm hear i'm happy I did.
"Okay. Last one."
"Shoot" Peyton said.
"Do you still love me?" Luke said.
"Luke.."
"Just answer Peyton. Don't think about it, just be honest."
"I always will." She said, with a tear in her eye.
"He bent over, and put his hand on hers. She stood up, brining him up with her. He dragged his hands into her hair and behind her ear, staring into her eyes. He traced the outline of her lips with his, starting with the top. He ended at the bottom and pulled her closer to him. He laid her down gently onto the bed, and kissed chest, holding face at the same time. He rolled over, pushing his hands up her back, kissing faster, faster.
"I'm sorry I hurt you Luke," Peyton interrupted.
"For the record, I'll always love you too…"