I parked the car outside of Tric and got out. It looked dead, which was good. I didn't want to be seen by a lot of people and have them jump to conclusions. I couldn't risk anything getting back to Lucas.

As I walked up the stairs, I tried to think about what I would say to Jake, but all I could think about was what he would say to me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I stood in front of the door. Here we go.

I walked in and looked around for Jake. "Peyton!" I turned around to see him standing beside a table and I headed towards him. "I'm glad you called". I sighed. "Lets just sit down for a bit. I need to talk to you." "well, I need to talk to you too." I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. "Jake…" when I opened my eyes again, he was looking at me, and his faced looked so serious. "I know you talked to Lucas." He opened his mouth to say something, but I held me hand up, stopping him. "I appreciate you not saying anything to him about the day of the wedding, or about me. However, I wish that you wouldn't have said anything to him at all." "Peyton. He pulled over to talk to me. Him and I are friends too, remember?" "Yeah, I know. But I feel like it just complicates things further." "How? Its not like I gave anything away about us. I-" "Us?" The look on his face was one of confusion. "Well…Yeah." "Jake, there is no us. There can never be an 'us' again. I'm with Lucas now, why can't you understand that?" He looked a little hurt. "I can. I understand that you love Lucas, but you and him will never have a love like we had. Peyton, our love was so strong. It still is. I can feel it. Why can't you?" I was getting angry and upset. I could feel tears threatening to spill over. "Jake," my voice was hard. "Why are you doing this? After all this time, why did you have to come back? I. Am. With. Lucas. I love him. That's all there is to it." I stood up and bolted out the door and down the stairs. I just wanted to get away from him.
I heard the door slam open again. "Peyton! Please! Don't go."
I dug around in my purse trying to find my car keys so I could get out of here. "Hey. Please juts listen to me." I felt his hand on my shoulder and jerked away from him. "What? What else do you want Jake?" I was starting to cry. "Is trying to get me and Lucas to split up not enough?" He looked defeated. "I'm sorry Peyton. That's not what I'm trying to do" "Oh? And what exactly are you trying to do?" "I just want you to give me a chance to show you what we can have. What we can be together." "Don't…" "Did Lucas tell you what I told him?" "…Yeah" My voice was a whisper. "That part about me coming back to find something that was important to me that I left behind?" "Jake," "It's you, Peyton. You're that important something that I left behind. Ever since then, I've regretted it. I know it was the best thing for Jenny, but I hate myself for leaving you." That pissed me off. "You're the one who told me to go! Because of some stupid dream where I said 'I love you, Lucas'." I scoffed, "I guess it wasn't so stupid after all, was it?" "Telling you to go back to him was one of the hardest things I have ever done. My head was telling me it was the right thing to do, but my heart was telling me not to let you go. I should have listened to my heart. I shouldn't have let you go". He reached out and touched my arm. "Please just give me another chance." "I'm with Lucas. I can't" "Peyton. Please". Why did I feel like I should give him a chance? No matter how much I wanted to just ignore it, there was a part of me that did want to give him that chance, as well as the other part of me that wanted to go to Lucas. I had to find out which part of me was stronger, the Jake part, or the Lucas part.
"Okay. Fine." Jake smiled and my heart almost skipped a beat. I really missed his smile. "But you need to know that I do love Lucas. I really love him. Nothing will happen between you and me. We can go out together, but I will not cheat on Lucas. Understood?" He stifled a laugh. "Understood.
I was going to get an earful from Brooke about this.
"Thank you Peyton." He reached out and pulled me in tightly, wrapping his arms around me. I hesitated at first, but I returned the hug.
I smiled to myself. He smelt really good.
He released me from our embrace. "So, I'll see you later then?" I smiled softly and replied, "yeah". "Okay, how about tonight?" "Tonight?" "Yeah. It'll just be a casual thing, I promise." Casual? I didn't know if anything between Jake and I could be casual. "Uhm…yeah. Tonight sounds good." "Good. Then I'll see you tonight. Bye Peyton." He gave me a quick hug and headed to his motorcycle, waving to me as he drove off.
After he turned out of the parking lot, I turned back to my car. When I looked up, I froze. I could see Haley standing over by the bottom of the stairs, her eyes glued to me.

Haley poured us some Coffee and handed me a cup before sitting across from me at her kitchen table.
"Why do I feel like this has trouble written all over it?" she smirked. "I think that the only way to get him to leave is to show him that there isn't anything between us anymore." She looked at me curiously. "Is there?" "What? Of course not!" She glanced out the window and sighed, looking back to me. "Look, Peyton, you and Jake…there was something there when you two were together, we could all see that." "I know that, but things have changed Hales. Were not together." "Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the love you guys had is gone. From what I saw today, that love is still there. It looks stronger on his end, but your love for him isn't as non-existent as you think it is. Maybe there is still something there…"
I was having a hard time believing she was saying this to me. Haley has always been team Lucas.
"I want you and Lucas to be happy…" she looked me in the eyes, "but maybe you two aren't meant to be happy together." Was she actually saying this to me?
"Haley, Lucas and I are happy together." "You're happy together now, but its not guaranteed that you'll be happy together 5, 10 or even 20 years from now. If Jake is the one that will make you happy for the rest of your life, then that is so okay, but you need to let Lucas know. The sooner the better." It sure makes it difficult when your two best friends have completely different opinions on something so important. I guess it just proves that the only who can figure this all out and make the right decision, is me.
"I love Lucas, Haley. I mean, yeah, I love Jake, we were together for a while and what we had was an amazing and intense love. But that was then, and this is now. Lucas is now. He is the one that I love." I could see doubt in her eyes, but she just nodded. "Okay. Well, you have 3 more days before Lucas comes home. Hopefully you can figure things out before he does." I felt doubtful myself, but I needed Haley to trust me. "Yeah, lets hope."I smiled, taking a sip of my coffee.

I took a deep breath and thought to myself " just think about Lucas, and everything will work out perfectly." I smiled to myself and repeated Lucas' name in my head.
Tonight I was going to prove that whatever Jake and I had, is gone.

"I love Lucas. I love Lucas. I love Lucas. Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, Lucas. I love Lucas. Lucas. Jake. Jake. Jake…"

Well, my plans to upload this chapter as soon as possible didn't quite go as planned. Sorry!
I promise I will try and get Chapter 5 up as soon as i can!
In the meantime, i hope you enjoyed this chapter!

*Please R&R! LoveLoveLove 3*