After my fainting incident I hadn't spoken to Lucas, or Nathan, or anyone other than Brooke. I'd stayed at home, and missed a few days of school. Brooke had been by everyday to check up on me and tell me what was going on at school, and apparently Lucas hadn't been showing up either.
Brooke was due to come home straight after school, while I had just spent the whole day moping around the house, mostly trying to distract myself from thinking of Lucas, and Brooke had laid things around the room in order for me to do this successfully. She'd suggested that I stay at hers for a few days as I wasn't going to school and she thought that Lucas, also not being at school, may pay me an unwanted visit. This was the first day I'd spent over hers.
I was sat on her bed playing with my fingers when she bounced through the door with her signature grin playing on her face, this made me smile.
"Guess what P Sawyer, I'll tell you what," She bounced over to me and jumped on the bed so that she was lying across it. "I've got us invited to an awesome party tonight where there will be booze and boys, the perfect mixture to get your sorry mind off a certain Lucas Scott." I grimaced.
She slapped my thigh with the back of her hand smiling at me. "And," she added, "I picked you up a super cute outfit on the way home." Again, I grimaced; Brooke's taste in super cute was vastly different from mine. She pulled the outfit from a purple bag which I had somehow overlooked upon her entrance to the room. She jumped up and held a black slinky dress against herself. I was shocked at how short and revealing the dress was. It was low cut, a typical Brooke trait, but what was not a Brooke trait, was that while it was low cut, short and overly revealing it still somehow managed to look classy. I smiled.
"Thanks Brooke." My voice was lacking emotion, which Brooke picked up on almost straight away. She dropped the dress back into the bag and walked over to me, slinking her arm around me and rubbing my arm.
"Hey Peyton," she cooed, "If you're not up for this we don't have to go, but I thought it would be a good idea to keep you distracted." I knew she was doing this to be thoughtful, and I knew that we would end up going, but at the moment I just felt like staying home all night would be better for the both of us.
"It's okay Brooke, I'll come, but am I free to bail whenever I want?" I tried my hardest to smile compassionately at her.
"Of course," she replied pulling me tighter. "We can even have a signal." She said suppressing a cheeky laugh. I could tell that she was excited; she even asked whether she could do something with my curls. I had to admit having these curls, although I loved them, was a bit repetitive. I agreed to her request, and she yanked her straighteners from under her bed placing them on her bedside table.
After about three hours of Brooke getting ready she finally walked out of the bathroom and advised that if we didn't leave soon, we were going to be late. I smiled at her, and looked down at my outfit. This was not something I was used to wearing, firstly a dress, and secondly high heels and make-up. Brooke had straightened my curls which fell just below my shoulder; it was odd at how much warmer my head was with straight hair.
We left Brooke's house and decided to walk to the party at the college, as Brooke had decided that it would be a good idea to up our antics and try hanging out with college guys. It wasn't necessarily one of her worst ideas ever as some of these guys were so hot, but none of them held my interest the way Lucas does. I sighed as I thought that this night would just involve me wallowing in the thought of how none of these guys compared to Lucas. It was almost as if Brooke could read my expression as she lightly nudged me in the side.
"Peyton, stop thinking about him, he's not worth it." But he was he was so worth it.
"He is, Brooke, I think I love him." I'd told her for what seemed like the millionth time. She rolled her eyes, obviously bored of hearing it, but this time she seemed to listen as she wrapped her arm around me a gave my body a slight squeeze.
"I know Peyton, I know." She had seemed to attract some boys' attention as three guys stalked over to us. "hell-o fun." She said under her breath.
All three of them were fairly good looking, one was tall with golden coloured hair, it wasn't styled, just kind of scruffy looking, another was average height with sandy blonde hair, green entrancing eyes and a mind blowing smile and the third, well he had Brooke's full attention and I could see why, he was tall and wearing a tight black t-shirt which showed of how defined his muscles were, he had bright blue eyes and bright white teeth, if he wasn't here I would probably say he was a model.
The tall one with sandy hair introduced himself to me. "Hey, I'm Edward, pleased to meet you"
"Hey, I'm Brooke, and this is my friend Peyton." She introduced us, while I just smiled. Brooke was eyeing up 'Chase'. It was kind of odd how the other two, Edward and Alex, were talking to me, while Brooke and only held the attention of Chase. Not that I was complaining as this was a pleasant distraction.
"So, Peyton," Edward said after about an hour "Have you got anyone special holding your attention at the moment?" I shook my head with a coy smile, every one of my thoughts rushing back to Lucas.
"How about you?" I asked. He shook his head. Alex came back over to us with three drinks. I took mine with gratitude and downed it; I needed the feeling that alcohol gave me, numbness.
Brooke and Chase had gone off to dancing when Edward and Alex took either one of hands and lead me outside, which I was grateful for as I wasn't sure if I stop myself throwing up for much longer. When we were outside however Edward pushed me firmly up against a wall. I struggled under his strong hold, but knew that it was pointless. My hands were trying to hit him, but for some reason none of my body moved when I ordered it to. It was really starting to bug me, when Alex spoke,
"Are you sure you didn't overdo it with the pills man? None of them are ever this bad." Great, just what I needed, to be stinking drugged while Brooke was off dancing. There was me thinking that I was actually attractive to someone other than Lucas, must have singled out the weak one. I tried to scream, but my voice was weak and broken.
"Brooke," I muttered lamely. Edward pushed his face right into mine, I could feel his breath all over my face, making she shudder.
"No one can hear you blondie." He sneered. I felt a shiver run down my spine. As he looked me over I noticed Alex had gone. My phone started to ring, somehow, I managed to pull out of my pocket, and press the answer button.
"Help, me." Was all that I could choke out before Edward took my phone,
"Who's Lucas?" he asked. A sigh of relief washed through me as he must be reading the caller id. Hopefully Lucas would know something was up. But then the fear returned; he had no idea where we were.
Edward pushed Peyton against the wall so hard that she felt her back crunch against the bricks behind her. Alex had run off, frightened by how many pills Edward had slipped this girl. At first he was up for it, this was a regular occurrence for them, slip a girl a few pills, and 'get with her'. There was no harm in it, but Edward had told him that although Peyton was the weaker one of the two, she was still pretty strong and would need a few more bills than the others. When Alex had seen how bad Peyton was he decided to run off.
He ran around the corner to see Brooke looking lost, and slowed down, not wanting to attract her attention; too late.
"Hey, Alex isn't it?" She smiled at him as she made her way toward him. He continued walking, not wanting her to see Edward with Peyton.
"Yeah," he replied casually when he reached her.
"You were with Peyton; I don't suppose you'd know where she is." Brooke questioned.
"Err, no. Can't say I do." He stuttered, Brooke picked up on that and eyed him suspiciously. She grabbed his jacket.
"Look, if you don't tell me where my friend is, I swear to god that when I do find her, and I will, I will hunt you down and hurt you in ways you can only imagine." Brooke's threat was enough for Alex to cave.
"Edward. She's with Edward around the corner, but be careful Brooke, he's not someone you want to get on the wrong side of." Alex ran off.
Brooke was fuming, how could she have left Peyton with two strangers? Was she the worst the friend ever or what? Brooke ran toward the corner where Alex had pointed to when she thought that she wouldn't be able to fight this guy off, and probably make this situation even worse. She stopped in her tracks, when she thought of the only thing to do she knew Peyton would either be mad at her for doing it, or grateful. Either way Brooke didn't have much time to think as she dialled the number.
"Lucas! It's me, Brooke." She breathed.
"No, listen to me. Peyton needs your help, we went this party a few blocks away and some guys slipped her some pills and now he's around the corner with her. I don't know what he's doing to her."
"Because I'm not strong enough to just go and start attacking him Lucas!"
"Well, bring her with you!" Brook said slamming her phone shut.
Lucas was coming; Brooke was going to keep an eye on Peyton, as long as things didn't get too out of hand. If they did, well then she would have to attack the guy. But at the moment he was holding her against a wall and speaking to her.
Edward held me up with one hand, whilst rubbing his other up and down my arm. I shuddered underneath his touch, it made me feel dirty, not like when Lucas touched me, when we used to hug and a jolt of electricity would shoot through me.
"Please…" I muttered. Edward just smiled at how pathetic I was. My body was getting weaker and weaker, but I tried to fight against it. I could hear my heart slowing down, I tried to think of Lucas and Brooke to make this seem like a bad dream, but every time Edward's breath hit my face I knew it was real. He ran his hand down my arm, taking my jacket off with it, as my jacket hit the floor I could hear someone gasp.
It was Brooke, she came running over to him and starting hitting him, he grabbed her wrists with one hand, while I fell to the ground. I didn't feel a thing.
Brooke saw Peyton's jacket fall off, and knew that if she didn't intervene now, that things would be taken too far. She ran over to him and started batting him with her hands.
"Leave her alone!" she screamed, but this just made Edward laugh. She saw Peyton fall to the floor, and she kicked Edward in the shin. She smiled as he let go of her wrists, she then managed to punch him in the face as he leant down to grab his shin. "I said, leave her alone!" Brooke screamed at him and jumped on his back, she pulled his hair, and scratched his face, and she had no idea how to really fight. Edward screamed in pain as Brooke continued to scratch his face. At least this would keep him distracted until Lucas got here, if he got here.
Edward struggled to get Brooke off of him, but she clung tightly around his neck, almost strangling him in the process.
Finally Brooke heard a truck door slam shut. "Lucas!" she screamed. Edward seemed distracted by the call of this mystery man's name long enough for Brooke to jump off his back and kick him in the back of the knee. He fell to the floor and Brooke felt proud of herself.
Lucas ran into the alleyway with Hayley closely behind. Hayley ran over to Brooke and grabbed her. "Come on, let Luke get Peyton, we need to get you away from here." She stated. They ran from the alleyway as Luke ran straight to Peyton.
"Peyton, oh my god, Peyton!" Luke shouted. Lucas lifted her head up and put it on his lap, not caring that Edward had run off when they'd shown up. He stroked her forehead and lifted her upper body across his lap. Tears ran from his eyes and splashed onto her face. He lifted her up and her body hung limply in his arms as he carried her into the clearing. Hayley and Brooke ran over to him. "She's not breathing very well. Her pulse is weak." Lucas' eyes were pouring out tears like a waterfall, but neither of the girls paid any attention to this as they ran over to check Peyton.
"What are we going to do?" Brooke asked. "Can we take her to the hospital; I mean she's been drinking?"
Peyton's eyes closed and her whole body drained of colour, Lucas felt his heart sink as he had seen this happen before.
"Oh my god!" Brooke screamed, "She's not breathing!"