The Way We Were
Chapter 7: Morning Laced With You
It was past noon when Nathan woke up to the heat of the sun coming in from his window. He groaned and covered his face with a pillow. Then, a smile passed on his face when he realized what had happened the night before. He bit his lip, then reached for the phone.
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Peyton had been up for a couple hours when the phone rang. She barely heard it over her music, but didn't bother to turn it down when she answered the phone.
"Hello?" She asked impatiently.
"Hey... it's me," his voice said on the other side.
Something about it turned her stomach. She had an overwhelming urge to push him away. "Hey Nathan," she said.
"Something wrong?" he asked, sensing something in her tone.
"No, I'm just kind of busy right now," she said, looking over at her sketchpad. She'd been drawing since she woke up.
"Oh, sorry. You want to do something later?" he asked.
"Well," she said, taking a long pause, "how about we talk about that later?"
He didn't really understand what was going on, but he agreed to call her later and hung up the phone.
On the other end, Peyton put the phone in the receiver and sighed, collapsing into her bed.
She wanted to talk to a voice of reason, somebody who could help her to understand how she was feeling. She knew Brooke would get lost in the excitement of Peyton losing it and be totally unhelpful, and she didn't know anybody else she could talk to about this.
On a sheet of paper she scrawled "If I lose myself in you, how will I find myself again?"
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A couple of hours later Peyton woke up the somebody gently touching her shoulder. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see Nathan sitting beside her on her bed.
"Hey," she said, yawning, "how long have you been there?"
"Just a few minutes, " he lied. It'd been ten at least. She looked so happy when she slept.
"Oh," she said, leaning up against her headboard.
He ran his hand across her sketchpad. He wondered if he should bring up what he'd seen on the page.
"Are we okay, Peyton?" He asked, a little worried about her answer.
She breathed in sharply. She looked down at her sketchpad and realized he must have seen the statement she'd written in her mass of confusion.
"I..." she stuttered, "I... Nathan, I've never been this girl before. I'm scared." She didn't know how to explain it. How to say that he brought out a side of her that she wasn't even sure was her at all.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Peyton," he said assuredly. He always seemed so sure.
"It's not..." she trailed off. She knew she couldn't explain these feelings. His smile, the way he looked at her should be enough, she knew. So what if he didn't know about the dark parts of her soul. Maybe this was better for her. Maybe he would help her escape those parts of her.
She smiled at him, and kissed him.
"We're definately okay."
"Good," he grinned, "because i'd hate it if last night was a one-time thing. I don't know if you realized, but we are pretty hot together."
She laughed. He was so good at lightening the intense mood. She hit him with her pillow and they wrestled and she rolled over on top of him.
"Oh yeah?" she asked, grinning, then kissing him.
"Ohhhhh yeah," he repeated, laughing.
At this particular moment Brooke walked into the room.
When she noticed the couple on the bed, she groaned and covered her eyes, "Okay, lovebirds, get off of each other before you overwork my gag reflex."
Nathan and Peyton laughed, but disassembled themselves to sitting beside each other.
Brooke was about to say something, but then she looked between the two back and forth and announced, "Oh, my GOD! You guys did it!"
Peyton bit her lip and Nathan grinned in response, and Brooke had her answer. She practically squealed as she jumped onto the side of the bed and said to Peyton, "Okay, I need details."
She then looked over at Nathan raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, you need to leave. She'll call you later.
Nathan hesitiated for a minute, but Brooke waved him away and he left.
Brooke smiled, "Okay, now, why didn't you call me and spill this as soon as it happened?"
"Well," Peyton said, "I guess I figured you'd still be hungover. Somebody was WAY too drunk last night."
"Yeah," Brooke said, making a face, "Thanks for taking care of me though. Wait -- That was you, right?"
Peyton gave her a look, "No... last I saw you you were making out with Tim and headed off to the back of the house."
Brooke opened her mouth in shock. "No!"
"Nope, but Brooke, you really shouldn't be so drunk that you'd fall for that," Peyton said, sighing.
"Okay, mom," Brooke said, and then demanded all the details.
Peyton begrudgingly filled her in. She had always thought it was silly how girls spilled all the private details of their sex lives at the drop of a hat, but she saw no real way to get out of it with Brooke.
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Across town Nathan met up with some of the guys to play basketball. It was summer, but that didn't give him any chance to be lazy.
Somehow, however, the game had turned into Nathan proudly announcing that he had indeed got some from Peyton.
He didn't like the guy he was around the guys, but he couldn't help it. They had teased him about not having slept with her yet, and when the asked today, he couldn't restrain himself at all. He found himself sharing all the details with the guys on the team. He shrugged off the immense feeling of guilt that hit him when he did.
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Word spread like it does in small towns.
Soon, most of the high school crowd heard that Nathan had finally got Peyton to sleep with him.
Lucas Scott was working at Karen's Cafe when a group of guys he knew from school came in. They were gossiping, but he didn't start listening until he heard them mention Peyton. He'd had a thing for her since he could remember. He didn't know if he was imagining it or not, but he felt sure they had a connection.
Now, she was dating Nathan, and it made him a little bit sick. His half-brother had the girl that he thought was somehow his.
Then, one of the guys mentioned that Nathan and Peyton had slept together. He felt his stomach turn a bit.
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