Chapter Three:

1:00pm – 5 hours until the game

Lucas was sitting in his last class of the day, which happened to be Current Events, his least favourite class by the way. The teacher was standing at the front of the classroom, talking to the students about the huge outbreak of teenage and young adult drug and alcohol abuse throughout America and the rest of the world, and how it's affecting the education of America's youth.

He knew that this was a massive issue in today's society, and that he was amongst these so called "teenagers", but somehow he didn't really care about anything that was being said, because all of his thoughts were on the game that was taking place in only 5 hours, this was about the sixth or seventh time, today alone, that he found these thoughts, actually, I think daydreams would be the more appropriate word to use, running around in his head, and now, the more he thought about it , the more that he realized that he sounded a lot like the old Nathan Scott, with his mind entirely on the game and nothing else, then the more he thought about that scary fact, and the game, he then began to get extremely nervous and then pretty much any thought that entered his mind started to scare him half to death. He never got nervous before a game… well, there was his first game as a Raven, but he tries to forget that as best that he can, and besides back then he let the overwhelming pressure of the game get inside his head, but it wasn't like that anymore. He had now played so many games that he ended up putting it down to the fact that it was the State Championships, and that's why he was more nervous than he had ever been before in his entire life.

His mind was suddenly elsewhere, it had drifted off to what would happen if they lost the game, and how the Ravens would be a disgrace to Tree Hill, how devastated Whitey would be and how all of the guys on the team, who were riding on this game to get scholarships to college, and Nathan's dream of becoming a Duke Blue Devil, would all be shattered.

By the time that he had realized that he was stuck in the middle of one of his daydreams, the bell had rung and everyone was walking out of the classroom. He got up from his seat and left the classroom with everyone else, he went to his locker, dumped his books inside, and grabbed a pile of other books, shoved them in his bag, closed his locker, walked down the hallway and headed out of school. As he was halfway across the front of the school grounds, he heard someone walking a huge distance behind him yelling out something, he turned around and saw that it was Peyton; he instantly turned in the other direction and kept walking.

Peyton eventually caught up to Lucas when he had reached the school boundaries and had begun walking down the street.

"Lucas."

"Don't do this Peyton," replied Lucas.

"Do what?" asked Peyton, who was, again, confused.

"This Peyton… all of this," Lucas had replied to Peyton.

"What… trying to have a decent conversation with you, because that's all I'm trying to do here Luke, I just want to talk to you… I miss talking to you Lucas," said Peyton, waiting for some kind of response from him, anything at all.

They walked down the street for the next couple of minutes in complete silence.

"Please say something… Luke please?"

"What is it that you want me to say Peyton?" asked Lucas.

"Anything… anything at all, I mean… why are you acting like this, why are you always freezing me out?" said Peyton, as she began getting upset and she suddenly couldn't control her emotions anymore and tears starting falling down her cheek.

Lucas stopped walking as he noticed that Peyton had stopped several minutes ago, so he decided to stop and start walking in the other direction, towards Peyton.

"Peyton…wait!"

Peyton quickly turned around at the sound of her name.

"Look Peyton… I miss talking to you too, I really do, but I can't do this, not now."

"Why… why, not now," replied Peyton.

"I've just got a lot going on right now," said Lucas.

"Like what?" asked Peyton, sympathetically.

"Nothing, it's nothing Peyton, look… I can't talk to you anymore okay," said Lucas.

"Wait, Luke."

"I've said it before Peyton… I love Brooke and I want to be with her more than anything and if she saw us talking right now, she would flip-out, I'm doing this for her because I don't want to hurt her again… I don't like it Peyton, cause you're a really great friend, but it is for the best, I mean I know you don't want to hurt her again either… hey, you can't help who you love right," said Lucas honestly.

"Yeah… right," said Peyton, as she thought to herself, "Yeah, you can't help who you love, just like I can't help the fact that I love you so much Lucas… if only you knew.", the she suddenly snapped back to reality.

"Bye Peyton."

"Yeah… see ya round Luke."

Peyton and Lucas separated and went in different directions, Lucas casually walked past a small section of grassy area that had been turned into a very small park, after Lucas had completely walked past the park, a female figure appeared from behind a huge bush, she stood in the middle of the footpath and stared at Lucas as he continued down the footpath towards his house. She then turned around in the other direction and looked at her former best-friend, who had just turned around the corner.

"What are you up to Peyton… cause trust me, I'll find out eventually, Lucas is mine," said Brooke. She then decided to go to Lucas' before the game and find out what he and Peyton were talking about. "I swear to god, if they're sneaking around behind my back again, I'll never forgive either of them," thought Brooke to herself as she walked in the direction of Lucas' house.

When Brooke got to Lucas' house, she slowly walked up to his bedroom door and thought about knocking, but then deciding against it and surprise her boyfriend, she quietly opened the door and found Lucas' bag sitting on his bed, but no Lucas anywhere nearby, she moved slowly across his room and into the hallway, and saw Lucas in the kitchen with his head stuck in the refrigerator. She quietly crept up behind him and jumped on top of him. He leapt up in to the air and hit his head on the refrigerator door, she jumped off of him and he turned around and realized that it was Brooke that had just jumped on top of him, not some creepy guy trying to break into the house.

"Sorry Luke, I just thought I'd surprise you… I'm sorry," apologized Brooke.

"Well… mission accomplished, you sure surprised me," responded Lucas, "… what are you doing here anyway?"

"I just thought that maybe we could hang out for a bit or something, then go to the game," said Brooke, "… unless you're busy, cause if that's the case then I guess I'll just go."

She turned around, walked into Lucas' room and was about to leave, when Lucas grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close to him.

"Oh no you don't, come here," said Lucas, as he pushed Brooke onto his bed and they kissed passionately.

About an hour later, after their passionate make out session, Lucas was sitting on his bed, typing on his laptop, while Brooke was lying across the end of the bed looking through his CD's.

"Okay, you have been extremely quite for like the last hour or so, what's up Lucas, in fact you don't really look like yourself at all, are you feeling alright Luke, and don't tell me that it's the game tonight that's got you so nervous… so what is it, huh?" said Brooke, looking and sounding really concerned about her boyfriend.

"It's nothing Brooke," said Luke.

"You see that's where you're wrong Lucas, because I definitely know that it's something… something that has a skinny boney ass, blonde hair and goes by the name of Peyton…" said Brooke, as Lucas looked up from his laptop with a vacant expression, "… yeah I saw you two talking before, what… thought that I wouldn't find out, what were you guys talking about."

"Brooke…" said Lucas, but was cut off by Brooke.

"No, you know what… save it, you and Peyton are sneaking around behind my back again, aren't you?" stated Brooke. Lucas looked at her with a blank, kind of hurtful stare.

"Unbelievable, I don't believe this Lucas, I don't understand how you could do this to me again," said Brooke.

"What is it exactly that you think I'm doing?" Lucas asked.

"You and Peyton Luke… wait, are you sleeping with her?" asked Brooke cruelly.

Lucas was completely shocked, how could Brooke say something like that, how could she say something so hurtful.

"What!" said Lucas angrily.

"You heard me… are you two sleeping together… huh, come on just admit Lucas, all those arguments with Peyton, were all some kind of act," said Brooke, stern fully.

"How cold possibly say something like that to me Brooke?" asked Lucas.

"Gee, I don't know Luke, you two did sneak around behind my back last year, didn't you, so whose to say I can trust you now, and that you actually aren't seeing Peyton," stated Brooke, angrily.

"I can't believe that you would even question that about me," replied Lucas.

"I can, it's happened once before, it can happen again," said Brooke.

"So that's really how you feel, you really don't trust me?" asked Lucas.

"It is how I feel Lucas, how do you expect me to feel, especially when I see you and Peyton secretly talking," said Brooke.

"Fine… alright, but before you go jumping to anymore conclusions about me sleeping with Peyton behind your back… what you supposedly saw was before was me telling Peyton that I can't talk to her anymore because I couldn't risk losing you again, I told her that I loved you, that I cared about you and that I wanted to be with you more than anything… huh, and to think I told her that I was doing all of this for you, because I didn't want to hurt you," said Lucas, defensively, "… I've lost a really good friend because my love for you was so much stronger and because I knew that I would do anything to be with you, I guess that was a stupid and selfish thing to do."

"Lucas…" said Brooke sympathetically.

"No Brooke, now it's my turn to say something… you clearly don't trust me, because if you did, you would believe me when I say that I'm not sneaking around behind your back and I'm not sleeping with Peyton… and I can tell by the way that you looking at me right now that you don't."

"Luke what is it that you want me to say, that I trust you completely, because right now I don't think that I do, and that's the truth."

"Well that's all I needed to hear, now that I know how you really feel, I think I'll leave," said Lucas, as he headed for the door.

"What you leaving to go and meet Peyton, have a little consoling session," said Brooke, hatefully towards Lucas.

Lucas turned around instantly and looked at Brooke as she said this to him, he suddenly got so angry at her, "You know what I was going to go and check in with my mom at the café, seeing as she's pregnant and all, but now I think I'll go and see Peyton later and have a little make out session, at least she trusts me no matter what," said Lucas, "… actually I think I do need some consoling, after all my girlfriend just told me that she doesn't trust."

Lucas turned back around in the direction of the door and left, slamming it shut as he did so. Brooke was left standing in the middle of Lucas' room, "What have I done, how could I have done this to Luke, how could I say that I didn't trust him, of course I do, oh my god, what have I done, now I've really lost him for good, and Peyton will finally win, she'll get Lucas and I'll be all alone just like before" thought Brooke to herself, as she sat down on the end of Lucas' bed.