Author's Note: Ok. One, I'm back! Whoo hoo! Yeah. So. After taking me almost an hour and a half of looking through music, I have decided to do a smart thing. I am not going to turn all of these into songfics. I'll end up writing more and I can write everything I want instead of just stuff that fits the song. I'll still base it on a song and if you, for some strange reason, like my taste in music you can look it up. There now I will write… I'm trying to make this extra long just for the people who actually have been waiting for me to update.

Song: "Side" Travis

"Hey. Where have you been?" was the first thing Luke heard when he came in. It was Nathan. He was sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal. It wasn't like he was sitting there waiting for him to come home, but he looked like he might care if he had gotten kidnapped by some of the druggies. That was an improvement from the last time they spoke.

"Umm, I went out with someone after school," he said, not knowing how much information he was supposed to be giving. He didn't want to tell him exactly where he had been and with who and what they were doing because he didn't want to get his hopes up that Nathan actually cared. Maybe he was just making conversation since he was, apparently, alone in the house.

"So you met somebody who doesn't think your scum? Good for you." The way he said it confused Lucas. He didn't say it in a jerky tone or in a mocking tone. It was more of a good for you that he would have gotten from Dad, or the man he had come to call Dad before his mom died.

"Who is it?"

"Excuse me?" Luke had been so caught up in memories of his 'dad' that he hadn't been paying attention to Nathan.

"Who were you with? Someone I would know?"

"Yeah, actually. Peyton Sawyer. She said she's friends with you."

"Yeah, you could say that. We used to date. She's too complicated though. We're still friends and everything. She just needs someone that likes what she likes. She's a huge music freak."

"Yeah I can tell."

"You hungry? Mom and Dad called and said they were going out for dinner after work. They won't be home for a while."

"I'm actually good for now. Just a little tired." Nathan just nodded in response and went back to eating his cereal. Lucas took the chance to go upstairs to his room and think. He realized how sweaty he was and hoped in the shower to think.

He suddenly felt guilty, relieved, stressed, horrible, and sick. The second he thought of David, the man who he had called Dad for years. He hadn't seen him since his mother's funeral. David was his best friend's dad and his mom's best friend. He and Sam, David's daughter, had met in school in seventh grade. David, also being a single and involved parent, quickly hit it off with Karen. To Sam and Luke's discontent, they never dated. They were just friends. Just like Luke and Sam. Sam and Luke spent so much time at each other's houses; they soon started claiming the other's parent as their own. At first it was just as a joke. David would call them down for dinner and Sam would call "coming, Dad" and Luke would mock her in calling "coming, Dad." They soon just picked up calling Karen and David mom and dad. They were practically family.

He felt so guilty that he hadn't thought about them at all. He was convinced that he'd be calling them everyday. He hadn't called them once. He felt awful. He decided to call them as soon as he got out of the shower. He didn't have a cell phone so he decided to use the phone sitting on his end table next to his bed. Hey, it was there to be used, wasn't it?

"Hello?" answered a man in a gruff voice. He had probably been working. He worked at home and hated interruptions. Luke felt bad that he had disrupted the man's work, but he had felt worse before he called and decided to ignore the man's crusty voice.

"Hey, old man, what's shakin'?" Luke could almost see his face. He would run a large hand through his disheveled brown hair, the effect of not owning a brush. His dark brown eyes would light up. They would have deep circles under them from lack of sleep. His mouth would turn into one of the biggest smiles Luke had ever seen making the laugh lines around his face look deep.

"Luke?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "It's you!" He gave a hardy laugh that made Luke smile like he hadn't in months. They both just spent probably thirty seconds laughing. He almost felt high. He had had a great day and now he had something to make it ten times better.

David filled him in on how Sam was doing in school and how he was dating a really nice girl and how his work was going while Luke filled him in on how school was and how he had found people to play basketball with. David had always done all the father-y things with Luke and Sam. Camping, fishing, tossing the football around. Everything but basketball due to the knee injury he had gotten in college while playing football. Sam had never played with him either. She sucked at basketball. Not because of the whole 'she's a prissy girl' thing. Because she's not. She could take out most of the guys in their old school if she had wanted to. It was just that football was her game. Every time she tried to play basketball with him, she would throw the ball way too hard. It would either not even come close to hitting the backboard, or she would hit it hard and it would come flying back and hit Lucas. He had some good memories of playing with her.

David got off the phone and put Sam on. She screamed so loud he thought he would pop and eardrum.

"So I hear you got yourself a girl," she teased.

"Hey, she's not my girl." He almost regretted telling David about Peyton, but he didn't. He talked to David like he would talk to his real dad. That is if his dad had been around at all. Somehow he couldn't see him and Dan talking about girls.

"So tell me about your girl." He laughed and thought well, that's Sam for you. She never listened to what he said unless it was something serious. They spent almost three hours talking and it was past ten when he got off the phone. He just hoped Dan wouldn't mind that he was on the phone for so long and went downstairs to get himself something to eat.

Author's Note: Yay me! I finished a chapter. Thank you! Thank you! I know it's not that long but I swear I will write tonight and have another chapter posted by tomorrow. Consider this a filler chapter since I didn't even start writing about what I said I'd write about. So I was going to make David Keith but I like the name David better so screw Keith. And no David is not supposed to be Keith. Maybe I'll still bring Keith in. So there. I just wanted to write something to keep my Sweets from biting my head off and for you guys to know I'm still alive. And thanks to all the people who suggested stuff! Still taking sugestions about anything and constructive criticism and mean criticism as long as it's helpful to my writing. Over and out.