A/N: Hi people! Today is a very important day (or at least for me). For the first time I publish chapters that are 'corrected' by a beta reader. And my beta reader is 'Shnoz08' and she is the best. She already helped me and gave some kickass advice. So a big, big, big, big, big thanks towards her, I can't ever thank her enough already for willing to be my beta reader. So think about her too when you read this and thank her too 'cause she deserves it. Thanks already everyone for reading. Don't forget to review…they are the reason that the sky is bluer, the sun brighter, and the day better. Much love, Veronique.
Calm Before The Storm (Evening Out With Your Girlfriend)
The cosy feeling which yesterday evening had been drabbed around the room like a warming blanket was now far gone, into silent pain and unspoken words of self caused sorrow. Dark tears escaped Peyton's green eyes, travelled down her cheeks and jaws, sliding into her neck, getting stuck on her collarbone.
"It might hurt a little." Lucas said, and even through her blurry vision she could see the compassion drip from his blue eyes. But she also saw something hiding behind the compassion, was it satisfaction she saw through her tears?
Carefully Lucas reached for Peyton's hand, pulled it towards his body, placing it on his lap. Softly he placed his fingertips between her fingers, parting them so he could get to the specific little wound on the finger were her wedding ring supposed to be.
Actually she hadn't worn it for a long time. The whole time she was hiding her marriage to Pete, she had been wearing the ring and a 'bracelet' around her ankle.
With a clean tissue Lucas disinfected the little but painful wound. She couldn't suppress a high hiss when the red fluid collided with the hurtful spot. The tears from inside and outside pain were mixed together, and ruined her porcelain skin with black tracks.
"Done." Lucas whispered when he placed a little plaster on the inside of her cut finger.
"Come here." Lucas said in his familiar comforting tone and pulled her to him when she cried. He placed his hand on the back of her head, burying his hand into the velvet curls of blonde hair, the other one stroked over her back. "Peyton", he whispered into her ear. Hearing her name made her only cry harder. She rocked on his lap while he felt the hurt drowned tears wet his chest through his shirt.
With his strong arms Lucas brought her body even closer to his. The strong smell that was drenched into her curls overtook him. He closed his eyes and buried his face into the golden treasure of softness. Lucas could feel how reality had left him and was replaced by his tempting fantasies. They pulled him over the edge and began to control his body. Somehow the way he touched Peyton got more intimate, his lips began to place feather light kisses on her hair and his fingers travelled lower.
He heard Peyton slightly groan. It was a quiet complaining. "What about you take …" But she didn't let him finish. "No, just let me stay in your arms Luke." She cried and clenched her hands full with his blue polo shirt.
Flashes of happiness shot through his body, Lucas was aware of how inappropriate his feelings were, but her words were so incredibly sweet. He had been waiting for this kind of words for such a long time, and now finally hearing them, he didn't care if it was wrong or anything, they were spoken …
"I am not going anywhere." Lucas whispered and his embrace became tighter, more loving.
It was a little after noon when Peyton's body decided to give up on the crying, drifting to sleep in Lucas' strong arms. Carefully he picked her body up and laid her under the sheets of his bed. As he covered her body with the sheets, his heart swelled with love for her. For once, his blue eyes could look through her broken face because he knew that this was only a phase she had to go through. They had to go through, and then Lucas could softly begin to work her over … making her long for home, more than she already did, making her long for him.
When he noticed she was fast asleep and she wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, he decided to go downstairs, with a few special requests. He opened the door, walked down the hallway and when the elevator doors opened he bumped into Elle.
"Hi." He said politely, trying not the blush when he thought back on the last few times he saw her. "Hello." She said back, somehow the French accent dominated her voice. It was cute, somehow sexy at the same time.
Lucas could have slapped himself, why did he feel himself so attracted to this girl? His mind searched for answer but it was soon interrupted by Elle. "Oh my god, is that blood on your shirt?" She asked, her finger almost pressed on the red spot on his blue shirt. "Kind of", Lucas swiftly answered, not wanting to get further into this now.
"I also kind of need your help." He said and saw her blue eyes light up, she nodded happily and her long dark blonde hair waved around her shoulders. "Could you get me all the sweet things you can get, cookies and ice-cream and stuff?" Her face got a weird expression when he asked that. "Maybe some fruit too?" She laughed slightly. "Are you that hungry?" Lucas smiled but decided not to make a conversation with her. "Just bring it, okay?" She nodded and left.
Lucas took a deep breath and decided to return to his room, he carefully opened the door, trying to make not any noise, because he didn't want to wake up the sleeping beauty in his bed. He walked towards the window and took a look outside.
Chicago looked the same as always from where he stood. The same streets, filled with different hurried people. Nothing seemed to have changed there in the last twenty-four hours. Not like as enormously as things had between those four walls of the hotel.
His thinking was interrupted by the noise of his cell phone. Quickly he took it out of his pocket, hoping the noise wouldn't wake Peyton. It was a reminder message, and Lucas suddenly realised why it went off again. When he came here, in his spare time and when he knew Peyton wasn't paying too much attention to what he did, he left the hotel and wasted his time in a magazine store, scanning every single paper and magazine for news on Peyton. The daughter of the owner noticed it and promised to hold every paper and magazine with Peyton in it at the side for him, if he would help her to clean up the store when he picked up the magazines once in the week.
And today was that day again. He quickly switched his clothes to a training suit and decided to jog to the store, since he was certainly missing the exercise.
When he came back an hour later, he tried to sneak in again without making too much noise. When Lucas closed the door, he found Peyton already up and about with her laptop at the table, which was covered with different sorts of candy. She had a lollipop in her mouth when she turned to him.
Lucas couldn't help but laugh when he saw her cheeks flush a little. She said something he couldn't understand because the candy wasn't making it easy to understand what she said.
She must have noticed the strange expression on his face, and she slowly pulled the pink strawberry lollipop from between her lips. She looked so childish with the two curly braids in her hair.
She left the chair and a whirlwind from colours seemed to dance with her. She looked so childlike in that yellow tee, covered with an orange and blue tank top. The stars on her chest seemed to sparkle like happiness in her eyes.
Peyton began lively dancing towards Lucas, probably inspired by the brightness from Mika's music that was playing in the apartment.
I said,
Everybody's gonna love today,
Gonna love today, gonna love today
I said,
Everybody's gonna love today,
Gonna love today,
Anyway you want to, anyway you've got to,
She threw her arms around his neck, making Lucas' heart almost stop from her unexpected actions. She moved her mouth just a few millimetres away from his ear, before letting the other words escape her mouth.
Love love me, love love me, love love
Then she turned around again and went back to her laptop. Then Lucas saw her brightness was broken by her black legging.
Her grief still wasn't stilled, and maybe it was better this way. It took her a long time, but she finally seemed to have learned she didn't need to put it away. And Lucas was happy for that, that she finally let herself deal with it in visible way towards him and the world.
"Luke, move your ass." She suddenly said, more excited then she had sung already. "Why?" He said, not moving a bit. "Because, tonight, 'we' are going to 'The National' concert," she said with her braids swaying around.
"What? Since when?" he asked excitedly. He couldn't hide it, he loved that band. "Since about a half hour ago. I got the last tickets for their concert tonight," she said, smiling. "But the concert was sold out!" Lucas reacted, disappointment showing in his voice.
"Well, well." She got up again. Mika's 'Relax, Take It Easy' was playing in the background. "It has some benefits to be 'a little famous'." She said, her lips formed a grin and her hands glided over the table and then she waved with two tickets in her hands.
"God Peyton, that's amazing." And he walked up to her, and lifted her from the ground. As he was about to spin her around, he saw a flash of pink velvet after his eyes closed. He almost dropped her when he sat her on the ground again.
"Wait, isn't that very important event tonight, where you have to go? The one you searched for that pink satin dress for a while ago." The happiness fell immediately from Peyton's face. "I am not going." She pouted. "I would be nothing more than an enhancement of Pete's success." She almost spat the words out.
"But let not think about that, I'd rather think about this fabulous concert tonight!" She screamed and hugged him.
The rest of the day they spent chatting, listening to music and playing some lame games. The afternoon passed quickly, and soon Peyton disappeared into her room and came back fully changed. She had never looked so girlish and herself, since she had been in Chicago.
She looked like a sweet rock 'n' roll girly in her pair of black trousers and tiny black top that didn't even reach her navel. Over the tiny top, she wore a sweet pink tank top with a low neck and little black buttons sewn on it. Her pink Vans slip on's were the perfect finishing touch.
Lucas tried as best that he could to find an outfit to go with Peyton's but he didn't have anything pink in his closet, because he wouldn't ever buy anything pink for himself. The thought of it made him shiver. So he decided to keep it simple by wearing a pair of black jeans and a white tee.
Soon, it was 8 o'clock and they were ready to go. Peyton had been so nervous, she hadn't eat more than six bites of her lasagne. Lucas instead had been so hungry he had eaten two plates, he loved lasagne. "Come on, eat a little Peyton." He said, she needed to eat, she was already slender enough. "I'm not hungry. I'm too excited. It has been ages since I have seen another band live except Fall Out Boy." Her joy had ups and down.
Out of the blue, the phone began to ring. Lucas took up the phone and heard an almost familiar voice flooded into her ear. It was the girl from the reception. "Your taxi is here." The girl friendly said. "Thanks to let us know", Lucas answered warmly.
"Come on girly, let's go!" Lucas said and invitingly threw his arm at her. She smiled and took him by the hand.
When they arrived in the hallway, they bumped into Pete, who was in a black suit. He looked like he could destroy the hallway. Quickly, Lucas dragged Peyton along with him, and in a few minutes they were on their way to the place where the concert was.
"This is going to be so cool." Peyton let out, her voice was chased by a girlish giggle. Lucas couldn't help but smile, he hadn't seen her so thrilled about anything in weeks, and with that Peyton almost jumped out the car. She was totally shivering and doing nervous stuff, she just acted like a teenage girl when she looked at the crowd before her. "This is going to be kickass." She predicted and tugged on Lucas' tee. "Isn't it?" She asked, her green eyes, never so innocent. "Yeah it's totally going to be." And their fingers entangled as they moved their way through all the lucky people who had showed up.
At the same moment on the other side of Chicago, Pete exited his black limousine and was almost immediately blinded by the bright lights. He made his way on the red carpet, feeling lonely without someone on his arm.
"Where's Peyton, Pete?" Some guy who was a part of the paparazzi yelled at Pete. "Not here!" He screamed back into the crowd. "Why not?" Another guy shouted back. "Other obligations!" Pete yelled back, bitterness just beneath the tone of his voice.
Back at the concert, Lucas and Peyton were deeply enjoying the music, and each other's silent company. Peyton was swaying on the rhythm of the song the band was playing, an unknown song for Peyton, but she could feel herself fall in love with it. As Lucas stood behind her, watching her fall in love with the music, he couldn't help but to fall in love with her again.
He was about to sneak up to her again, to let his arms rest around her, burying his chin in her blonde hair, so they could sway together to these songs of love. But suddenly a voice overwhelmed the music.
"Oh my God, aren't you Peyton Sawyer?" Annoyed, Lucas knew she was, but with a smile plastered on her face she turned around to the brunette who was saying her name. "That's what they call me." Peyton said jokingly. "Ooh, I can't believe I am standing here with Pete Wentz's girlfriend, is this real?" Lucas saw Peyton hesitate to answer. Yes or no, that was the question.
"Yes, I am." She said and the fake smile made Lucas sick inside. "Ooh, you're such a lucky girl." The girl rambled. "I wish I could be with someone as hot as him." She winked dreamily. "Yeah", Peyton responded, and Lucas could see how her dreams which involved Pete shatter and fall to the ground.
"I have to go. It was nice to meet you." The brunette screamed before disappearing in the crowd again. Peyton's response was too late, she was already gone, and probably also too weak, her voice barely was audible.
Then Lucas heard the first tones of his favourite song from The National. Slowly he walked up to Peyton as the voice of the singer began to be heard through the music.
Every time you get a drink
And every time you go to asleep
Are those dreams inside you head
Is there sunlight on your bed?
And every time you're driving home
Way outside your safety zone
Wherever you will ever be
You're never getting rid of me
And Lucas did what he had wanted to do just minutes before, sneaking his arms up around her, welcoming her, burying his chin in the softness of her blonde hair, breathing in the sweet smell of it.
You own me
There's nothing you can do
You own me
Slowly their bodies began to sway against each other, with each other, as Lucas' big hands found their places on her hips.
You coulda made a safer bet
But what you break is what you get
You wake up in the bed you make
I think you made a big mistake
He tightened his grip on her waist when he felt her relax in his strong arms. Lucas could even feel how her tummy rose and fell under her tank tops.
You own me
There's nothing you can do
You own me
You own me
Lucky you
The bittersweet melody dragged Lucas into his fairytale world again, out of reality, only recognizing her and the music, everything else faded.
You own me
There's nothing you can do
He could feel how his hands tried to have a mind of their own. His body ached for Peyton in the worst way possible. The closeness they were sharing was very slowly killing him, and he had to have her …
You clean yourself to meet
The man who isn't me
You're putting on a shirt
A shirt I'll never see
The letter's in your coat
But no one's in your head
Cause you're too smart to remember
You're too smart
Lucky you
Peyton was in another world too, because when the song ended, she or Lucas didn't let go and just kept standing there, lost in the sensation of being far away from the cruel reality …
At the celebrity party across town, Pete really needed to go the bathroom. He swiftly made his way between all the people and when he entered the bathroom, he saw Ryan and Jerry trying to do something with Jerry's cell phone.
"Hi boys" Pete said, and swiftly the boys looked up, embarrassedly with red faces. "What are you trying to do?" He asked when he looked at them and then looked at the mirror to admire himself a bit, checking his clothes and hair.
"Nothing, just trying to take a picture" Jerry said while brushing his free hand through his hair. "Well, let me take it." Pete said and looked up at his bodyguards. "No you don't have to." Jerry quickly reacted. "But I want to." Pete reassured them.
Jerry gave in and his cell phone to Pete. Ryan and Jerry posed in this very stupid way and waited for Pete to take the picture, but one of his fingers touched a wrong button and suddenly he was in the menu with the clips Jerry had recorded with his phone. And a clip began playing. A curly blonde kissing a brown haired guy, cheers of other guys in the background. 'But wait, isn't that …' Pete's mind began to run numerous thoughts. "Peyton and Ryan?" his voice shot out without permission, his thoughts becoming harsh words.
"Goodnight Lucas." She said and threw her arms his neck, leaning in for one of those famous hugs shared between them. Intimate, stuffed with old feelings but well, the first hug like that they shared in a long time, they both let go. "Goodnight Peyton." Lucas softly said on an almost singing tone.
His soft lips pressed a noiseless kiss on Peyton's forehead. His fingers stroked back a few lost curls. With an almost blissful smile she entered her room. She hummed 'Lucky You' from The National while dancing around a little, she was about to pull of her pink tank top when she saw Pete sitting at the table. This was when she recognized Jerry's cell phone embraced by his fingers, a clip playing …