Lucas
and Peyton were lying in bed, both awake, but neither aware that the
other one was. Peyton was rolled over at the edge of the bed, and
Lucas was on his back.
"Lucas…" Peyton said quietly, to see
if he was awake.
"What are you doing awake?" Lucas said
sweetly.
Peyton rolled over onto her back. "It's 2:00am, what
are you doing awake!" Peyton joked.
"I asked you first."
Lucas replied, as Peyton rolled once more, with her head and face on
his chest. Lucas breathed deeply, and rubbed her back with his
hand.
"I was just thinking about graduation."
"Well, i'd
love to hear your thoughts…"
"I don't know. I guess I was
thinking about how different things would have been if I never left."
Peyton sounded sad.
"I don't think it's the fact that you
left, I think it was how you left." Lucas kissed her forehead as he
spoke.
"Do you think we'd have stayed together all these years
if things were different?"
"I don't know. What I do know is,
that I wouldn't change a thing, you know why?" Lucas pulled
Peyton closer to him.
She held her head up, until it was inches
from his, "Why?"
"Because now I know who I am, and i'm
sure that I love you more than anything. Maybe we would have had some
stupid fight, or drifted apart, but I know this time you'll be here
forever. I feel it in my heart, I love you Peyton, and I know that
it's real, because after all these years, I love you just the
same." Lucas kissed Peyton.
Her eyes were closed, and she was
speechless after the kiss ended. "I would change it." Peyton
said, with her eyes still closed. "I had a miserable 5 years
searching for something that I had all along. I wanted to be happy.
After my mom died, this feeling of emptiness never left. No matter
what my grades were, or how successful I was, nothing could ever make
me as happy as I could have been if she was with me. I thought that
if I could take a little more from the world, maybe i'd be truly
happy, but somewhere along the line I realized that I wasn't happy
at all anymore. Eventually I realized that I found my happiness years
ago, and I found it in you."
Lucas and Peyton kissed again, as
she pushed her body further on top of his. He held her face in his
hand pushing her hair back, kissing her deeper. They both pulled away
and smiled. Peyton relaxed herself in Lucas' arms, and they fell
asleep simultaneously.
Haley was lying awake, next to Nathan.
She couldn't sleep, and she was restless for hours.
"Are you
going to stop that, and get some sleep?" Nathan asked groggy.
Haley
was caught off guard, "Oh Nathan, i'm so sorry; I didn't mean
to wake you, I just…" Haley whispered.
Nathan sat his head up
a bit on the pillow, and readjusted his body to face Haley's.
"What's wrong," he ran his fingers through her hair.
"I
was just thinking about the tour, and what would have happened if I
never left."
"Haley, don't think like that. You got to do
something that you loved-"
Haley interrupted Nathan, "Yeah but
I left something behind that I loved even more."
"Haley…"
Nathan kissed her forehead, and held her closely as a tear rolled
down her cheek.
"I wasted so much time doing something that I
knew I was never going to make me as happy as being with you. I mean
I spent so many nights trying to justify what I did; i'm on a world
tour, I have thousands of fans, i'm doing something I love, i'm
going to be famous…but nothing worked. I thought that my
selfishness was making me unhappy, I thought that it was the person I
was that made me miserable. Eventually I realized that it was you,
you were the one who made me happy, and you were the only way I would
ever feel whole. If I could take it back, I would. I would have
stayed here with you. I feel like were starting all over again, I
feel like nothing we did before mattered, and that I lost you."
Haley spoke through soft tears.
"You never lost me Haley. I've
been here all along. Whatever you choose to do with your life, i'm
going to support you. If you want to put out another album, i'll
wait. I'll wait for as long as I have to, because there is nothing
in this world that would ever keep me from loving you." Nathan
smiled, while Haley still cried.
"I don't want to wait another
moment to be with you, never again." Haley leaned up, and kissed
Nathan. He pulled away and used his knuckle to wipe away her tear. He
kissed her again.
Brooke rolled over onto her back in the darkness of her room. She stared at the clock, as it changed from 2:13am to 2:14am.She sat up, her eyes watery, and took a good look around, by now the alcohol had drained. "This can't be who i'm supposed to be, i'm better than this, i'm better…" she whispered under her breath. She hopped out of bed, and turned her lamp on. She grabbed her notebook sitting across from her bed, and sketched out a dress. It was a wedding dress, beautiful with a flowing train at the bottom. She sat awake flipping through her book of fabrics, picking out different materials. When she had finished picking fabrics, and had the design perfect, she smiled, and turned off her lamp. She lay in her bed, watching the morning light from her bedroom window. She rolled onto her side, and fell asleep.
