Thanks for reading and reviewing. A lot of you were so excited about Lucas' letter, sorry it's pretty crappy, I can't write like Lucas, sorry!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you think you've read, heard or seen before...
Dear Peyt,
Well I can't say it wasn't a shock. You never mentioned anything about him and I mean anything! I still don't understand why you didn't tell me, or maybe you felt you couldn't, which I also can't understand. I know you told me I have Brooke now so I shouldn't care, but Brooke has nothing to do with this, with us. I care about you more than anything and I never want to be left out of what is going on in your life. Especially something like this. I mean you're actually dating someone and that's something I never thought I'd see. Joke. Or maybe I just never thought it would be anyone but me. Wow, I don't know why I just said that or where it came from, let's just pretend it didn't happen. Okay, so you're dating Nathan, I have finally accepted that and I'm sure you're happy. I have no hard feelings towards either of you and I'm happy that you're happy. I'm even more happy that it's one of our closest friends that's making you happy, I know he will treat you well, like you should be treated. I have to say that things really haven't been the same since Brooke came into the picture. I changed, you changed, our friendship changed. I can just imagine you giving me one of your typically dark responses right now, maybe something like 'People Always Leave'. Can I ask you for just one thing? That we stop right now. We stop changing because I'm scared that things are going to change so much that you dating Nathan isn't the last thing you won't think to tell me. So I don't know what else to say, except that I'm sorry. Sorry for not being there and making you think you couldn't tell me any of this. Sorry for the way I acted this morning when I saw you two together. Sorry for pretty much everything. Please, I can't have you not in my life. I love you, you're my best friend and just excuse my idiotic reactions to the good things in your life. I wasn't part of this and I want to be, I want to always be part of it.
Love Lucas.
By the time Peyton finished reading the letter, tears were streaming down her cheeks. She couldn't believe what she had just read and she was so happy but also sad at the same time. It seemed he had just summed up everything she had ever wanted to tell him in the one letter. She wanted to ring him straight away and apologise for everything, to explain the whole stupid plan. However, before she reached her phone, it started ringing, cutting through the silence of the room.
"Hello?" Jamie answered, the sound of tears still evident in her voice.
"Peyton? Is everything okay?" Haley asked worriedly. "What did Lucas do now?" Peyton couldn't help but laugh at her friends quick jump to conclusions.
"It's okay, I'm fine. And Lucas didn't do anything other than prove to me he is the best friend a girl could have."
"And more?" Haley asked slowly.
"Of course." Peyton smiled, glancing at the letter beside her.
"Okay, so if he is perfect, explain to me why you sounded so sad when you answered the phone. I thought I was going to have to go over there and kick his ass, okay maybe send Nathan over to do that." Haley laughed.
"Well as funny as that would be to watch, the you kicking his ass, not Nathan, he didn't do anything wrong. Today in first period he passed me a note asking about Nathan and I,"
"Passing notes? Very mature." Haley interrupted.
"That's what Nathan said." Peyton mumbled, before continuing. "Anyway so I think he wanted to talk about it since he had to watch an impromptu make out session near the classroom door,"
"You what?" Haley cried, interrupting again. Peyton rolled her eyes.
"Are you going to keep interrupting or let me finish?" Peyton didn't wait for an answer. "So the kiss was nothing interesting, believe me. I just wanted to increase our little experiment and see what Lucas' reaction to me kissing Nathan would be. It was nothing. So he passed me a note, I passed him a note and so on until he just didn't write back."
"Ass!" Haley commented.
"Not really, he just needed time, and that time produced a letter about a page long that was so sweet, hence the tears you heard when you rang."
"Aww, okay, tell me what the letter said." Haley demanded.
"I don't think so. It's for me only." Peyton refused.
"Please?" Haley begged.
"No, Hales."
"Fine, you're so mean you know that?" Haley pouted.
"I know. But I will tell you the main idea of the letter did not indicate that he was jealous, so again I have to tell you that I think this plan is backfiring. He's proving to be a great best friend, yeah, but nothing more than that."
"He didn't seem even the slightest bit jealous?" Haley asked.
"Not that I can pick up on. Really he's only jealous because I didn't tell him and am supposedly happy with someone and he's not involved."
"As in a threesome? Kinky.' Haley laughed at the suggestion.
"You know what I meant." Peyton replied. "And eww!"
"So what do you want to do? Do you want to continue with Nathan and see if you two can provoke anything in Lucas?"
"I don't know, not really. I'm beginning to think that all of this is really unfair on Nathan, asking him to do something like this."
"I'm sure he doesn't mind. It looks like someone actually likes him."
"Like he needs help in that department." Both girls laughed.
"Look, you're going to have to tell me something about Lucas' letter so I know what to tell you to do." Haley prompted. Peyton scanned over the letter finally spotting something that may be helpful.
"Well there is this one part. He says he is happy that I'm with Nathan because he's a close friend and he know Nathan will treat me well, the way I should be treated."
"Wow, he does have a way with words."
"But it's not worth anything in terms of knowing what to do next."
"Actually," Haley suddenly formed a new plan. "What if we prove Lucas wrong? Show him that Nathan isn't treating you the way he should. Lucas will feel so bad about expecting Nathan to take care of you and leaving you alone with him, he'll want to make it up to you."
"Huh? More information, please."
"Okay, think about how Lucas would expect Nathan to treat you?" Peyton shrugged even though Haley couldn't see her.
"I guess he just doesn't want Nathan to hurt me in any way, have him make sure I'm happy, that sort of thing."
"And if Nathan was to hurt you?" Haley asked innocently.
"Lucas would have an aneurysm." Peyton said like it was obvious.
"Exactly!" Haley announced excitedly.
"Exactly?" Peyton asked confused.
"You know for a normally bright girl, Peyton, you sure are slow when it comes to this whole Lucas situation."
"Hey." Peyton protested at the insult.
"So back to the point. Lucas expects Nathan to treat you well, not harm you. If Nathan hurt you, Lucas would have an aneurysm, you said so yourself. Lucas would feel so terrible for just assuming that you would be okay and would want to help out in any way that he could."
"Anyway that he could, huh?" Peyton was sceptical. "That doesn't exactly mean he is just magically going to have feelings for me and we'd end up together."
"Okay he won't just magically have feelings for you, because he already does, we just have to get him to act on them."
"Oh right, you're theory that he does see me as more than a best friend, he just forgot to act on those feelings every time we've been together."
"Shut up. Even you know there is something there, I just happen to admit it more than you do. Now, can we get Nathan to harass you?" Haley asked excitedly.
"Okay maybe you can try to not be so happy about someone harassing me." Peyton grumbled. "And I don't know if this is such a good idea. What if Lucas doesn't talk to Nathan after all of this and we ruin their friendship. Nathan is only trying to help out."
"Sweetie, they don't exactly talk every day, I'm sure they will get over it. And if Nathan is sincere about helping you out, he'd agree to do this right?" Peyton remained silent.
"Right?" Haley tried again.
"I guess." Peyton sighed frustrated.
"Okay I'll just have to be enthusiastic for the both of us. I'll arrange the whole thing and then we'll see how Lucas really feels about his best friend."
"About me?" Peyton asked.
"No, me." Haley replied sarcastically.
"Are you sure Nathan will go for this?"
"There's only one way to find out."
"No!" Nathan exclaimed.
"Why not?" Haley sighed frustrated.
"Because I don't want to. There is no way I'm going to look like I'm hurting Peyton. I can't do that. I won't do that."
"Well I don't really care what you want to do, you have to do this for her." Haley swapped the phone to her other shoulder as she continued typing away at her computer.
"I don't have to do anything. Why the hell is she even still trying to win Lucas? He's an idiot if he can't see what's right in front of him. He's going to lose her because of it and he doesn't deserve her."
"You love her." Haley quietly stated.
"What? No way." Nathan quickly denied.
"Nathan." Haley warned in that tone of hers. Nathan sighed, defeated.
"So what if I do? Does she care? Does she notice? No, because all she cares about is poor Lucas who seriously must be a total retard if he doesn't notice her."
"Nathan, I hate to say this but I think he actually does notice her, he does see what's right in front of him and he does realise what he's losing. Have you not noticed all of those looks he's been giving you two?"
"Okay, yes I know that look and I've been kind of trying not to give them a second thought. I thought if I agreed to act like Peyton's boyfriend, she would see something in me and it would eventually not be an act. I thought she'd forget about Lucas. And now you're telling me I have to purposefully lose her so she can try to, once again, make Lucas want her."
"She isn't trying to make Lucas do anything." Haley sighed exasperated.
"Right." Nathan was disbelieving.
"Nathan, she doesn't have to make him because he already does. But for some bizarre reason, he's not acting on it. Kind of the same way you didn't and won't act on your feelings."
"Me? I think you know why I never acted on it. I've seen them together okay, I see how they act when they're together and how well they compliment each other. I wasn't about to risk their perfect little friendship for something that would have turned out to be a very short relationship, probably something meaningless to her. Now I don't think my reason is anywhere near the same as Lucas' seeing as how Lucas is that guy that compliments her. Please do not compare me to the wonderful Lucas right now." Nathan rambled.
"Nathan, I'm sorry. I never knew." Haley whispered.
"No one knew. It's always about Lucas and Peyton, Peyton and Lucas. You write songs, I'm sure this would make a good one."
"Maybe a song about longing." Haley agreed. "But there's no conclusion, no moral that makes people go 'wow'."
"Sure there is." Nathan disagreed. "Let's see, there's 'Don't fall in love with your best friend', 'Don't fall in love with your mates best friend' and my favourite 'Don't fall in love with your mates soul mate'."
"Okay so you love Peyton, I get that now. But you said it yourself, it's Lucas and Peyton, always has been. There's one person out there for everyone, and sometimes it may seem like that one person is meant for more than one person but that can't be the case. Fate screws us over, but not that much."
"And how do you know fate is telling us that Peyton belongs to Lucas and vice versa?" Nathan asked.
"Do you really have to ask? After everything they've been through?"
"After everything they've been through, yeah, I think I could be on to something."
"Look, do you want to help Peyton get Lucas so that she'll be happy, or do you want to stop Peyton from getting Lucas so she'll be unhappy and then down the track, maybe be with you?" Haley asked frustrated.
"Fine. Yes Lucas and Peyton are meant to be together." Nathan grumbled. "Now what am I supposed to do?"
"Okay, so I want you to help Peyton out by pretending that you're kind of, harassing her." Haley suggested.
"You want me to look bad?"
"Yeah." Haley answered like it was obvious. "See Lucas thinks that you're the greatest guy for Peyton to be dating because he knows you and that you won't treat her like crap. If you prove him wrong, then he'll feel so bad and he'll want to comfort Peyton, hopefully prompting him to reveal his feelings. Get it?"
"I don't know." Nathan was reluctant.
"Why?' Haley sighed frustrated.
"Because I know Lucas, and if he sees anyone, let alone someone he trusts, doing anything to harm his precious Peyton, he will kick their ass and no one will be able to hold him back."
"That's not true, Peyton will be there and she won't let it get any further than I tell her is needed."
"Then you tell her?" Nathan asked amused.
"Well, if it was up to Peyton, she wouldn't let Lucas touch you, but that doesn't fit into my plan. See Lucas has to do some damage so he feels like he is protecting Peyton."
"Wait, damage? You never said anything about damage!" Nathan exclaimed.
"Please." Haley rolled her eyes. "You play a contact sport. It's not going to be anything worse than a split lip or broken nose."
"Yeah, because you know I just love going home sore and bleeding, especially when I didn't even do anything wrong in the first place!"
"Please Nathan? I'll make it up to you." Haley begged suggestively.
"I'll think about it."
AN: So even though Nathan declared his love for Peyton, should I have Nathan and Haley together at the end?