Many, many apologies for the delay. I officially want to break my computer for not allowing me to upload anything to this site for like a WEEK.
Lucas pulled up in his mom's driveway. She left him a message early that morning that she was on her way to the house.
He walked inside, closing the door quietly so he wouldn't wake up Brooke, but it turned out not to be necessary.
"Hey Lucas." Brooke said, walking into the room.
"Hey…I thought you'd be asleep."
"No, your mom got home so we talked for a little bit and now she's just finishing unpacking."
"Is Andy with her?"
"No. He's coming back soon though."
"Lucas, you're here." Karen said happily.
"Hi Mom…" Lucas smiled.
Karen hugged her son tightly.
"I missed you so much."
"I missed you too, let me see your ring."
Karen held out her hand.
"That's so pretty Karen." Brooke said.
"Thank you Brooke."
"It's really nice." Lucas said.
"Okay, so I'm meeting Peyton, so I'll let you talk." Brooke said, and left.
"Look at you all muscular." Karen said.
"Nathan and I really got into basketball and stuff this summer. We've been training for awhile now."
"Good for you."
"Yeah it is."
"So I see you didn't bring any of your stuff back here."
"No…"
"You're serious about this joint custody thing?"
"Mom, I don't love you any less, but I want to be able to know my father and my brother too. And my step mom." Lucas added.
"This means I'll be seeing less of you."
"I'll still be at the café and stuff the weeks I'm not here."
"That's true…are you sure you want this?" Karen said, starting to give in.
"Positive." Lucas said, seeing her giving in and smiling.
"Alright, your father and I can discuss and arrangement."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Lucas said, hugging his mom.
"You seem excited."
"I'm just happy to be able to spend time with my entire family without it being considered favoritism."
"That's good."
"I love you Mom."
"I love you too. So I guess I'll call your father in a little while."
"Okay. I'll see you later."
"Bye."
Lucas drove back to Dan's house, definitely excited.
Dan was in his office working on how to get the dealership up and running again. Deb was at the café and Nathan was at Tim's house.
"My mom is going to call you tonight so you can set up a meeting about the custody arrangement." Lucas said, sitting down.
"You're kidding." Dan said in astonishment.
"No lie."
"How in the world did you get your Mom to agree to it?"
"I told her how much I wanted it."
"You know…son, I never imagined you'd be sitting here genuinely happy to be here with me. I can't believe there's so much time that I wasn't there for you."
"There's time now." Lucas said, looking down.
"I'm not going to screw it up this time." Dan said, standing up.
"Me either."
"You did nothing wrong."
"I went behind your back and behind Nathan's back and I-"
"No. Lucas, I don't want you to think that way. We're just going to be a family now. It will take some work, but I think you and Nathan have got the right idea. You seem really close now."
"We are." Lucas smiled.
"I don't know how you do it."
"Do what?"
"Just let it go, all the stuff Nathan and I have done to you."
"At some point you just have to. I for one don't want to live in the past anymore."
"Me either."
"Good."
"Good." Dan smiled and patted Lucas' shoulder. Lucas smiled back.
Lucas was in the middle of a book when Nathan burst into his room.
"Dude, when my brother is going to be living here every other week in a joint custody agreement I would except him to FIND ME AND TELL ME!" Nathan said, whacking him with a pillow.
"I didn't know where you went." Lucas grinned.
"Bull. You're just lazy." Nathan said.
"Probably. But my mom seemed pretty easy to agree with me when I told her how much I wanted it."
"That's great, so you and your mom are good?"
"Yeah."
"When you went over there was Brooke there?"
"Yeah…"
"And…"
"And nothing, I had other things on my mind."
"Come on, you say anything to her?"
"Um, I said hi."
"Come on, I'm dying here."
"Nate, Brooke and I will choose to further our relationship…not now."
"Nice answer. I'm rubbing off on you."
"Probably. I've definitely become more lazy."
"Shut up." Nathan laughed and whacked Lucas with the pillow some more.
"Ouch, ouch you idiot" Lucas laughed.
Three days later, it was 5:30 in the morning and the first day of school.
"Lucas." Nathan whispered in Lucas' ear.
"Lucas Lucas Lucas." He said, bouncing the bed.
"What?" Lucas grumbled.
"We're starting school today. And Haley is going to be there. And it will be really weird and awkward and-"
Lucas turned away from his rambling brother and noticed the time.
"It is 5:30 in the damn morning." He said, getting up.
"I know, I'm sorry but just promise me that you've got my back."
"Of course." Lucas said, running his hand through his hair.
He hadn't done much with it during the summer and now it was a little longer than it was before he shaved it, and blonde from spending so much time at the beach.
"I'm not saying that you ignore her or anything but…"
"I got it." Lucas yawned.
"We could've had this talk on our way to school right?" Nathan said, feeling bad.
"Probably."
"Sorry."
"It's alright." Lucas said, throwing a t-shirt and jeans on his bed.
"You're getting up now?"
"Yep."
"You want me to leave now?"
"Yes and for the rest of the year don't wake me up before 7."
"Deal." Nathan said, going back to his own room.
"So are you excited about senior year?" Deb asked Lucas.
"Kind of, but there's a ton of pressure. College and stuff." He said, drinking some coffee.
"That's true. Where do you think you might go?"
"Somewhere around here."
"Good basketball schools around here." Deb said knowingly.
"There is that."
"You and Nathan have been working hard this summer to get into shape." Deb commented.
"Yeah, especially Nathan because he went to High Flyers to work out his injuries and everything."
"You've both worked hard."
"Nathan wouldn't let me be lazy about it. He had me doing weights everyday. Even Whitey gave up after a while."
"Well now you're stronger right? And all the girls will love your new physique." Deb teased.
Lucas cracked up as Nathan came into the kitchen.
"What's up?"
"Lucas and I were just talking about how hard you two have worked this simmer." Deb said.
"Damn straight. Finally got Skinny over here to bulk up." Nathan said, eating Pop Tarts.
"Shut up." Lucas laughed.
"Ooh, boys you better go." Deb said looking at the clock.
"Bye Mom." Nathan said.
"Bye Deb." Lucas called.
"Bye! Have fun!"
"Yeah right." Nathan sighed.
Lucas parked the car in the school parking lot and he and Nathan met up with Jake and Peyton outside.
"Just one more year." Jake grinned.
"Amen to that." Nathan said.
The bell rang so they headed to homeroom. Homeroom was alphabetical order this year, so Jake went off down the hall while Peyton, Lucas, and Nathan went into their homeroom.
The day dragged by with lots of boring syllabuses and information forms to be filled out.
"I hate the first day of school." Nathan complained at lunch.
"It's so boring with all the information cards we have to fill out."
"I already have homework."
"Really?"
"Yeah for math."
"Sucks." Lucas said sympathetically. He knew that Nathan had a hard time in school a lot, and now he didn't really have a tutor.
Brooke walked into the cafeteria and headed towards where Peyton was sitting. She smiled and waved at her friend, who sitting next to Jake.
She got to the table and noticed Lucas and Nathan walking her way. Nathan was tan from the summer and still muscular, but Lucas looked hot. He definitely had been working out and he had his hair all long and tousled, the way she loved it. She hadn't taken the time to notice it before, but it was definitely there.
"Hey Lucas." She smiled.
"Hey Brooke, haven't talked to you in a couple days." Lucas smiled.
"Lucas, have I told you how good you've been looking lately?" Brooke blurted out.
The others at the table kind of laughed in surprise.
Brooke blushed.
"Um, thanks Brooke." Lucas laughed.
"Sorry that was so weird of me." Brooke laughed.
"No problem."
"Your mom misses you." Brooke said.
"I know. But I think the agreement is every other week I go to her house, so I'll be seeing you in a week." Lucas said, grinning.
"Aww I'm going to miss you." Nathan said, pretending to be sad.
"Aww!" The girls laughed.
The bell rang and the rest of the day dragged on.
"Finally!" Nathan said, jumping out of the car when they got back to Dan's house.
"It wasn't that bad."
"Speak for yourself."
"Alrighty then."
A few hours later, Nathan was tapping his pencil on his desk, staring at his math homework. It was a bit of review from last year. Unfortunately, last year his tutor went on a music tour and his grades began to suffer.
He could hear Lucas' music playing across the hall and decided to see if he could help.
"So how many of the English books have you already read?" Nathan asked as he walked in.
"Two." Lucas responded, turning off the music.
"Cool. So…um, you know how to do this right?" Nathan said, showing Lucas his math homework.
"Yeah, see what you do with these kind of problems…" Lucas said and explained it to him.
A few minutes later, it made sense to him. He was amazed.
"Right…right. I get it now. Thanks Luke."
"No problem." Lucas said.
"You would be a good tutor."
"Thanks, but I'll just leave that to other people…"
"It's okay to say her name, I'm dealing with it now."
"Okay."
"It's easier not seeing her."
"You didn't see her today?"
"I did. And it was weird."
"I bet."
"I completely avoided her."
"I understand."
"How about Brooke today? She is so into you man. I mean that comment she just blurted out? Too funny." Nathan said, laughing.
"That was pretty funny."
"You think she's ready?"
"I hope so."
"Go get her man." Nathan said, getting up.
"I'm taking it slow. I want to be sure this time. Mote importantly, I want her to be sure about this before we get into anything."
"Don't wait too long." Nathan advised, tossing Lucas a small basketball.
Lucas shot it through the mini hoop on his door. It bounced up and Nathan caught it, tossing it playfully between his hands.
"We'll see how it goes." Lucas said.
Thanks so much for all the reviews. I just hope some of you haven't lost interest in the story.