A/N: Sorry for the late update. My family came over this weekend so I had no time to write.
Flashbacks in italics
Chapter Fifteen:
The stars twinkling in the sky was a major indication that the party was over. The large group soon became smaller and smaller the people leaving the large home.
"Brooke, are you sure?"
"P. Sawyer I'm a big girl." Brooke held Peyton at arm's length. "Plus I think Haley would kill me if I took you away from the cleaning barraged."
"Fine, but promise you'll call as soon as your plane lands."
"I promise."
The two friends' embraced in a warm hearted hug the cab's honking caused them to acknowledge the car that had been waiting for ten minutes. Spending a couple of days in her hometown was a long awaited visit for the brunette. She would most likely have spent the whole summer there if her two children and fashion career weren't calling her name.
Watching the yellow taxi speed away from the Scott's house Peyton took a deep breath. Wrapping her slender arms around herself she realized that she needed her friend here with her more now than ever.
"You still have me, Goldilocks."
Chris Keller stood his arms crossing his chest bumping his shoulder with Peyton's.
"Yeah, but for how long?" she smiled turning to look at the spiky haired musician. "I mean you're still going to be staying at Nathan's house. You do know that you're still not his favorite person, right?"
"Blondie, someone's at your door."
Chris yelled from the couch his legs propped up on the coffee table a bowl of salted chips on his lap. The button to the bell had been pushed twice and again for a third time before Peyton came out from her room. Chris' constant yelling and the door's bell woke her from the nap she was taking.
"You're a lazy ass. What's the point of having you here if you can't at least answer the frigging door?"
Peyton muttered loudly. She was exhausted and she really needed some rest. Then there was her current house guest who wasn't helping just like he'd promised he would. Opening the door she was glad that she was wearing an oversized band t-shirt to hide the small bulge that was currently known as her stomach.
"Nathan?"
The tall dark haired Scott stood behind the previously closed door his fingers fumbling with the ends of his long sleeved shirt almost nervously.
"Hey, Sawyer. How's it going?"
He observed her thoroughly; her tired eyes begging to rest, untamed curly hair that was put up in a messy ponytail, her body's frame seemed fragile, and looking like she was about to vomit any second. Was she sick?
"What are you doing here?"
She didn't answer his question as she asked her own. A hundred and one other questions running through her own mind. Why was he here? Why at her door? Why now? And the most important question of all. Did he notice?
"Uh, I came to check up on you."
It wasn't a lie.
"Your about eighteen weeks overdue."
She had stopped counting by months replaced it by counting the number of weeks instead; especially since pregnant lingo was spoken in weeks not months. She could see Nathan doing his own math in his head; multiplying then adding finally coming with four and a half months.
"Better late than never, right?"
"Well as you can tell I'm freaking fantastic." Closing her eyes tiredly she wrapped her arms across her chest a sigh escaping her lips, but a second later she let those very same arms drop to her sides remembering when she did that it defined the crease of her growing belly."Not that it's great to see you…" Sarcasm was always her best friend. "It's not a good day today, okay."
Worry suddenly filled Nathan's blue eyes. How many 'not good days' has she had?
"Peyton, is everything okay? Are you sick?"
He still stood at the door's way. She hadn't invited him in and for good reason.
"No, everything is not okay." The words slept out of her mouth the anger rising in her blood. Thank you stupid hormones. "I'm always nauseous, I'm tired twenty-four seven, I can't keep anything down, and the stupid jerk in the living room is the worst friend ever."
She turned her head to look towards the living room yelling her last comment just loud enough for the mystery friend to hear and chuckle.
"Peyt-"Nathan began to say wanting to ask what exactly was wrong with her, but stopped when he noticed the man walking towards the door. The worst friend ever, Peyton forgot to mention that this 'friend' was none other than his worst enemy. "What is he doing here?"
Nathan demanded to know pointing an accusing finger towards the man who almost broke up his marriage.
"I could ask you the same thing? When was the last time you even spoke to Peyton?" Chris asked, but Nathan didn't say a word rubbing at his eyes wondering if all of this was a dream. "And now you come over unannounced. What on earth would cause Nathan Scott to grace us with his presence? Especially since Lucas received you in the 'divorce' breakup."
"Chris." Peyton scolded her new friend. "Will you go back to not helping?"
She gave him the 'I can take care of myself' look and he drudged back to the couch leaving the old high school friends slash ex-lover's alone.
"You do remember what Chris did, right?" Nathan watched as she rolled her eyes. "Peyton, you seriously don't consider him a friend."
"No. I mean yes. You don't get to protest or object or have any say in who I get to call my friends. We haven't talked in two years let alone since me and Luke broke up almost five months ago." She informed him in a low murmur. "I know the phone works both ways I do, but maybe I just needed to know that someone cared enough to at least call. He's been there more than anyone else has."
Nathan inwardly groaned. What was it with the Tree Hill girls and Chris Keller? The guy was always trying to steal one of the Scott's girls away. He wouldn't let that happen to his brother and his brother's girl.
"Look, tonight my teams playing against UCLA's Bruins." Peyton raised an eyebrow. Why should she care? "My brother's an idiot and if you go maybe he'll realize that he shouldn't have let something so great fall through his fingertips."
Peyton's facial features twisted feeling light headed the feeling of bile rising in the back of her throat her fingers brushing against her lips. Running down the hallway into a room Nathan assumed was the bathroom he could hear heaving.
"Please just come to the game."
Nathan asked as soon as she reappeared her breath smelling like mouth wash. Once she agreed to go he finally left taking a glance at his watch he was already late for practice.
She never did show up to the game and he wondered why. Seven months later he finally realized why she never showed and it was all thanks to a call from his older brother informing him that he was a dad.
Chris brushed off her comment laughing.
"So have you talked to Julian lately?"
"Yeah, early this morning. Your buddy still manages to call me when it's four in the morning."
"Peyton, this is my very good friend Julian. He's a hot shot movie producer who used to be a failed guitarist."
Chris introduced the two people over lunch.
"Dude, you didn't tell me she was pregnant."
Julian spoke above a whisper causing Peyton's eyebrows stitched together in confusion. What did he exactly mean by that? Looking at Chris the toothy smile that was plastered on his face told her everything she needed to know.
"Keller! You better not be trying to hook pregnant me up with one of your comrades?"
"No, no. Of course not." He then turned to look at Julian. "Three more months, man, and she won't be 'with child' any longer."
Peyton slapped Chris' right shoulder while Julian punched his left shoulder simultaneously.
"See you're perfect. You can be violent together. Just don't use me as a punching bag."
Chris stood from in between the two and walked away having to use the bathroom as an excuse.
"I'm so sorry." Julian began to apologize. "It's just that Chris said he had this really hot single friend and you are beautiful and everything…"
"But I'm huge and pregnant. Julian, right?" Peyton asked and he nodded his head. "You don't have to be sorry for anything. Chris was most likely dropped when he was a baby and probably on the head. He's just Chris y'know."
She made him chuckle and extending her hand out she offered him her friendship one that he took.
"Friends?"
"Friends."
"Don't think either of you are getting out of cleaning." Haley mentioned walking out onto the patio her hands tightly wrapped around two full garbage bags. "So there's the dishes and vacuum duty-"
"I call the vacuum!"
Chris shouted raising his hand into the air like a kindergartener and Haley laughed dumping the large bags into the tin trash cans.
"Looks like the winner to washing dishes is Peyton. Come on."
Haley shoved the two inside leading Chris to the hallway closet where the vacuum cleaner was placed and Peyton towards the kitchen. She whispered a 'good luck' to her blonde friend patting her back and leaving the room.
"Oh, thank God, I thought I was going to have to do all of these by myself."
Lucas voiced the water splitting out of the faucet the bubbles rising; he appreciated the new face that had help with the mountainous range of silverware.
"Does Haley not know about the wonderful use of paper cups and plates? And the equally wonderful throw away plastic utensils."
Peyton said walking towards the sink that was filled with bubbles and clean water.
"Well at least there rinsed out." Lucas said looking at the small mountain range of white plates. "Preston and Leighton weren't too thrilled they got stuck with that job."
"They do dread washing dishes. Why do you think we order so much take out?"
"I thought it was because you can't cook."
Peyton's jaw dropped, the slightest smile curling at the tips of her lips, and her eyes widened with Lucas' cruel sense of humor. Her fingers running across the top fluffy soap flickering some towards Lucas.
"Okay funny man you might want to rethink that."
Pretending to think for a second Lucas brought his finger up to his chin his eyes staring up at the ceiling for a second before they met Peyton's once again.
"I do remember some cookies that ended up burning. And from what our son and daughter have told me you have gotten better at that, best damn cookies I ever tasted. But other than that they say your culinary skills are fantastic when it comes to putting a frozen pizza in the oven."
"Really?"
Peyton questioned, Lucas nodded and she patted her wet hands across his chest causing his shirt to become drenched in the form of her hand prints. Scooping up the top fluff of white bubbly soap she cradled it in her palm for half a second before splattering it across Lucas' head. And she laughed just like when she was seventeen and throwing cookie dough.
"Oh you're going to pay for that." Grabbing the same bubbled soap he threw it towards Peyton. "Ha-"
Surprised that he had actually did what he just did she grabbed the faucet's spray, the extending cord gave her enough room to where the 'water spray thingy' as she called it was placed nicely in front of her as she pushed the small trigger. The water splattering across his face interrupting his previous laughter.
Once he was sure she was finished he grabbed the blue bottle of Palmolive soap and squirted it across Peyton's blouse; the blue line looked slanted as it began to ooze down.
"Nice move, Luke. But who do you think is going to run out of ammunition first?"
She looked at the full bottle and back into the blue eyes that matched the color of the dish soap. He took the moment of distraction that she had just given him and grabbed the faucet's spray letting the bottle of Palmolive to hit the ground.
Picking up the bottle carefully half its contents splattered across the semi-wet tile floor Peyton made herself look like she was surrendering, but Lucas wasn't falling for any of it. He was right not to the blue liquid flew his way in slow motion the sticky soap impacting his arms and he began to squirt water in Peyton's direction.
She didn't yelp or tell him to stop as she charged a couple of steps towards Lucas. The sprayer still sprinting water into the air while Lucas was holding it up high and Peyton tried to grab it. His arms felt slippery underneath her touch still trying to grab the spray, which was now wetting them both, losing her balance she grabbed the edges of the sink to keep her steady which in case caused a small pile of dishes to break across the floor.
"Are you okay?"
Lucas instantly asked letting go of the spray and helping Peyton to her feet. The small commotion had brought Haley, Leighton, and Preston to them.
"Oh my God."
Haley all but yelled as she noticed her newly wet kitchen; water dripping from the ceiling, cabinets and countertops were the new artwork the blue lines going into all directions, and then there was the slippery floor that had her two favorite blondes almost falling to the ground.
"Hales-"
"Luke, I don't want to hear it. Just make my kitchen look like the way it did before you and Peyton destroyed it."
She cut him off walking away; she wasn't mad, but she was a little irked hoping that the two hadn't done any real damage to her home.
"Whoa, this is worse when Leighton was five and made mud castles in the living room."
Preston spoke remembering when his sister had grabbed the dead potted plants and added water to the dirt; causing a trail of wet dirt from the kitchen into the living room.
"Hey, you were an accomplice to that! But this is way worse than when Preston made chocolate syrup power rangers on the walls."
Leighton added reminiscing about the time when the poorly drawn action figures covered the walls the chocolate substance seeping onto the white carpet.
"The both of you blamed that on the Rochester kids."
Peyton used her disapproving motherly tone which earned her a nervous laugh from her children.
"Well you heard what Aunt Haley said." Preston spoke then clapped his hands together. "Chop, chop."
A/N: So there you have chapter fifteen! What do you think? Push the green review button and let me know :D