Chapter Three: That's Me Inside Your Head

A/N: Alright, so this chapter is a bit different. The very beginning and end of the chapter are from Lucas's perspective, while the middle is general POV. Hope you like it!

Someone once said "High school is the best years of your life". For the first couple years of my high school career, I completely disagreed. But as time went on, I realized how true that statement actually is. My life pretty much remained the same. I was still the straight A student, and was always hanging out with my best friend Haley James. My want for Peyton never stopped. Peyton became captain of the cheerleading squad, and of course, she started dating the captain of the basketball team; none other then Nathan Scott. That's right, my evil half brother. I had seen many of the arguments they had in school and I knew that Peyton wasn't happy. I was determined to get her to open up to me, even just the slightest bit.

--

Peyton was sitting on her bed, sketchbook in hand, when her best friend Brooke Davis popped up in the doorway. She closed the sketchbook as Brooke walked into her room.

"How's my bestest friend doing this wonderful morning?" Brooke asked, a wide grin on her face.

"Since when is Brooke Davis a morning person?"

"Let's just say I started my morning off with a bang." She smiled at Peyton, noticing the broody, pissed off expression on her face. "What's eating you?"

"Nothig, it's just...Nathan..." Peyton replied with a soft sigh.

"Ugh, you two are fighting again? I thought you said things were going good between the two of you?"

"Yeah, well they were. Were being the key word."

"So can I see it?"

"See what?"

"Your latest 'Nathan sucks' work of art." she said grinning. Peyton smiled back and opened up her sketchbook, flipping to her latest drawing. It was a picture of Nathan driving off, Peyton standing and staring as he left. The caption read: It's Not Ok.

"Aww, P. Come here." Brooke said, pulling Peyton into a hug. "We need to find you a new guy...a better guy."

"I don't know if I want to find another guy right now."

"Oh c'mon. How about we go out? Maybe do some shopping...get back at Nathan." Brooke suggested with a grin. Peyton shook her head.

"Sounds like fun, but I'm not really in the mood for fun right now. I'm just gonna stay here...do some wallowing?"

"You want me to stay? Wallow with you?"

"You have nothing to wallow about." Peyton said with a laugh. "It's ok. You go out and have fun."

"Alright. But call me if you want to come out, okay?" Peyton nodded as Brooke left. She wasn't really in the mood for hours of shopping and all of Brooke's cheeriness would of gotten to her. She loved the girl, but sometimes it was just too much. Peyton glanced out the window, making sure Brooke had left. She grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair, picked up her sketchbook, and headed out to her car. She needed to go through her very own healing process. This consisted of driving around for a few, blasting music through the speakers and singing along at the top of her lungs. She climbed into her car and put in one of her Dashboard Confessional CDs. Peyton turned the volume knob, putting it up as high as it could go and started to drive. The wind blew through her hair and she sang without a care in the world. Everything was perfect. As she turned onto the curve on River Road, smoke started seeping from underneath the hood of her car.

"Oh shit!" She topped the car and got out quickly, taking her sketchbook with her. She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and called up Keith Scott's Body Shop.

"Lucas! I need you to take a service call!" Keith called out to him after he hung up the phone. Lucas closed the hood of the car he had been working on and walked over to Keith.

"Alright. What's the address?"

As Lucas pulled up to the car, his breath caught in his throat. It was Peyton Sawyer. He pulled the tow truck in front of her car. The two didn't speak as he hooked her car up to the chains. He pressed the button which lifted that car onto the back of the truck. Peyton was looking out at the water and Lucas was looking at her shyly. His eyes wandered to the sketchbook she held in her hands. There was a NOFX sticker on the cover. He finally got the courage to speak.

"That's me inside your head." Peyton looked over at him confused.

"What?"

"NOFX. That's me inside your head. It's the lyrics from-"

"I know the song." Peyton turned away from him, pulling her cellphone out of her pocket and calling Nathan. "Nathan...it's me. All right, well, listen my car broke down. You're gonna have to come and pick me up." Lucas looked over at her as she spoke. He couldn't hear the other end of the conversation. "So leave the gym! Listen, it'll take you like 10 minutes. I'm on River Road around the curve. Well sucks to be you." She hung up the phone and sighed in frustration.

"Listen, are you sure you got a ride? I mean, I can wait if you want." he said, handing her the bill to sign.

"Yeah, that's what I want. Listen, have your dad call me with an estimate." she replied, handing him back the bill.

"My uncle."

"If that's your story."

"Can I ask you a question?" Lucas asked randomly.

"It's a free country."

"Why are you a cheerleader? No offense or anything, but you're about the least cheery person I know." He smiled at her and opened the car door. He climbed in and looked over the paper work before putting it in the glove compartment. He sighed softly, trying to pull himself together. He stepped out of the truck, closing the door and walking over to her. "Come on. Let me give you a ride. I'll let you insult me."

She walked closer to him and said, "First of all, you don't know me. Second of all, you don't know me. God, why are guys suck jerks?!"

"Guys or Nathan?"

"Him. You."

"I don't know. We share the same father." Lucas said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I heard that. He's kind of an ass. So that must suck, having to see him around."

"For my mom. I never knew him."

"But she told you he was your dad?" she asked.

"Yeah, eventually. We used to be in junior leagues together- me and Nathan."

"Basketball?" she guessed.

"Yeah, and I loved it, and I was good at it. You ever have something that you knew you were better at than almost anybody else?" he asked, looking right into her eyes.

"Sex." He looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Joke." He chuckled softly.

"Anyway...guys kept teasing me about it. About how Nathan's dad was my dad too. So I asked my mom and she said he wasn't. But I get home, and I hear her crying in her room. I knew it was true. So, I never went back. I told my mom it was because I didn't want to have to see his face. But...it was mostly because...I didn't want her to have to." he admitted. He sighed and walked back towards the door of the truck. She quickly followed behind.

"So, why'd you just tell me all that? I mean, we don't even know each other." He pulled open the door to his truck.

"Maybe that's the point." He motioned into the truck and she climbed in.

--

That was the most progress I had made in years. It gave me the biggest confidence boost; she had truly cared about what I had to say, and she had listened. After that conversation I vowed to myself that I would never give up my pursuit of her, no matter how difficult that task was or how many problems I would face. The first major problem was with her boyfriend, my brother. I thought he had the perfect life, the perfect girlfriend, the perfect everything. I was only partially correct. He began to grow jealous of my growing relationship with his girlfriend. I never would of guessed that he would have gotten so angry, or taken things so far.