Later that day when I arrived home I went straight upstairs to my room, it was filled with my art. That was another word I would like to use to describe myself, artist. But to be an artist, didn't your art have to matter to someone? That's what I longed for most in this mixed up world that my drawings would mean something to someone, somewhere. I smiled as that thought played in my mind, that someone would see my art and be touched and it would influence their world, even if it were a little, to appreciate the little things, like the smell of your mom when she hugged you close enough.
I fell back on my bed when my cell phone started vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw the caller ID, although I should be happy that my boyfriend was calling me I was less than disappointed. I rolled my eyes and pulled my cell phone open holding it up to my ear.
"Hey Peyton?" He almost shouted.
"Hey." My voice came out softer than intended, making me sound small and insignificant.
"You are still coming later aren't you?" He asked, almost sounded sincere. I smiled at him, something that I had not done in a long time, and sighed.
"Yeah I'll be there. See you soon, yeah?" I replied, playing with my hair as I spoke to him. We agreed to see one another at the party rather than me come over early and see him. I was meant to be meeting Brooke anyway. I though that maybe I could sleep for a few hours first but decided against it.
I strolled over to my record player and pulled out the first record that I lay my hands on, Stray's Don't Sleep. I pulled it from the cover and placed it on the player and placed the pin on top of the record and it began playing 'For Blue Skies'. I smiled at the memories this song held and walked into my bathroom. I pulled my curls back from my face and pushed a few pins to keep most of them that way. I applied a light layer of lipstick and looked back at the mirror. I sighed deeply feeling unworthy again. I had to stop this; I could see that it was bringing Nathan and Brooke down with me, making them want to spend even less time with me. I pushed a big smile on to my face and walked to my closet.
I was just about to pull out a jumper when Brooke came in and warned me against pulling it over my head. I smiled.
"Hey Brooke," she walked over to me and pulled out the top she had given me for my birthday, sequined and low cut, typically Brooke. I pulled it over my head, and pulled a khaki skirt on, I slipped into some black low cut converse and headed for the door.
"Peyton," Brooke called from my closet, I turned to face her and saw what she was holding "What are you doing with this?" She asked holding a child's blanket.
"My mom gave it to me Brooke. You know that." I replied a little confused at how she could have forgotten. She sighed, noticing that she was holding the blanket and laid it across my record player.
"Not that, this!" She held up a diamond necklace. She had her big Brooke Davis smiled plastered across her face.
"That?" I asked shocked as to how she had found it. "Nathan got it for me." I replied remembering why he had given me this gift.
"Peyton Marie Sawyer, get this necklace around that beautiful neck of yours." She ordered coming toward me.
"Brooke, I'd rather not. Nathan got me that after he slept with Shelly." I half smiled. She dropped the necklace on the floor and came over to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me out the house.
We got into my car, as we both knew she shouldn't drive, she would get drunk, want to drive home, and crash her beloved Beatle. I drove fast with the music playing at a less than audible level as we stopped off at a few other houses. The sun was on the brink of setting and the air was moist as we drove down the long road that led to the beach house. Brooke was laughing and play fighting the whole way there, while I was concentrating on keeping my eyes on the road. We finally pulled up outside the beach house.
There were numerous other cars there that I recognised from school. Brooke unloaded her stuff from the Comet and slammed the door shut. As I scanned the house for Nathan my eyes fell upon the other Scott brother, Lucas Scott, and shortly behind him, his best friend Hayley James. I smiled as I caught his eye and he smiled back going slightly red, but I just put that down to him being shy. He'd always lived in Nathan's shadow which must've been hard. Even though Nathan and Lucas were brothers, they didn't live together, Nathan's Dad, Dan, had kicked Lucas out and he had gone to live with his biological mother, Karen and her husband Keith, while Nathan lived with Dan and Deb, his biological parents.
Dan had kicked Lucas out because he had somehow realised that Lucas was not going to conform to his schemes. This had disappointed Dan greatly, causing him to tell Lucas that his massive house had become cramped. Lucas was happy to oblige and leave, but for some reason he looked up to Nathan. Peyton had no idea why.
When Lucas had lived with them Peyton had always been close to him, and when people had teased him and Hayley about being girlfriend and boyfriend she got over annoyed.