School just needs to end. Like, now. To all those who are free, you're lucky…and I hate you : ) Thanks for all the well wishes on my finals. I will most definitely need them.

"I think you should go talk to your son." Deb said to Dan early Saturday morning.

"Which one?"

"The one who woke up at 6:00 and has been staring at a bowl of Fruity Pebbles while watching cartoons ever since."

"Nathan?"

"Actually, no."

"Lucas? That doesn't sound like him."

"I don't know. All I know is that Nathan told me that Lucas and Brooke broke up or are on a break."

"Oh boy." Dan sighed.

"Lucas?" Dan said, sitting down next to Lucas and taking the uneaten bowl of cereal out of his son's hands.

"Hi." Lucas said listlessly.

"Nathan told me what happened. Are you okay?"

Lucas remained silent for a moment, during which Dan got a good look at his oldest son. He wasn't smiling like he usually did when he stayed with Dan. Dan always thought that Lucas let himself be a little less serious when he was at his house. Probably because of Nathan.

"Do you think we spend too much time together?"

"Who?"

"Me and Nate."

"Oh. I don't know. I really don't know how to tell."

"Why?"

"Well Keith and I haven't really been close in a long time."

"He's been gone for months."

"I know, but I was talking about when we were kids."

"Oh."

"I'll tell you what though, when we were really young we were inseparable."

"What happened?"

"I became a jackass." Dan said simply.

Lucas laughed a little despite himself.

"Look, watching you and Nathan really makes me wish Keith would come back. I would give anything to be able to just move forward and be that close."

"It would be great if he came back."

"It would be. So Brooke said you and Nathan spent too much time together?"

"Yeah."

"I don't really think you do, but then again I'm probably the wrong person to ask."

"I miss Keith." Lucas said suddenly.

"I do too."

"It was right around this time last year he came to live with me while my mom was in Italy. We fought a lot, which sucked. But it was also a lot of fun, having him there all the time." Lucas smiled.

"I bet."

"We always had fun when he was around."

Dan smiled, happy to see Lucas finally getting better.

"Are you going to call her or just wait until tomorrow?"

"I don't know what to say." Lucas sighed.

Dan instantly regretted bringing up the subject again.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were feeling a little better."

"I don't know. I'm just confused. I feel like I should be apologizing to her, justifying some action to her or something, but I'm not really sure what I'm apologizing for. I mean, apparently I love my brother too much? That doesn't make sense to me."

"Want to know what I think?"

"Sure."

"You don't have anything to apologize for. Honestly I love the fact that you and Nathan are best friends. That's probably any father's dream."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

Nathan was walking toward the café when someone from behind pulled him aside and pushed him up against the wall.

"Theresa, you scared the crap out of me." Nathan laughed.

"Sorry." Theresa grinned, leaning up against him and kissing him.

"I guess I'll forgive you." Nathan teased.

"Yes. I'll never do that again."

"Please do."

"Okay…so I talked to Brooke last night." Theresa said, taking his hand and walking toward the café.

"Oh joy."

"Yeah she wasn't too happy when I suggested all of us going to Tric."

"I guess not, considering she decided to dump Luke for no reason and now she has to deal with the fact that he's not there for her to kick around anymore." Nathan said bitterly.

"You're really pissed off aren't you?"

"I would love for them to just be happy. I thought everything was going great, and then this happens."

"How's he doing?"

"Not too good. He hasn't really talked to me since Friday."

"Aww, why?"

"My guess is that he's been over thinking everything she said to him and he thinks that if we don't hang out, she'll forgive him."

"I wanted to say something to her about it all, but we only just started being friends."

"What are you talking about? You've been cheering together since middle school."

"Well yeah, but it was mostly her barking orders at me or insulting me."

"Sounds familiar."

"We never really talked before you and I started dating."

"And how is being friends with her working out for you?"

"She's stopped bitching at me in practice."

"Excellent." Nathan grinned.

"Yeah."

"So that's why you've been dating me?"

"Oh absolutely." Theresa teased.

Nathan's phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket.

"It's Tim. I'll call him later." Nathan said, putting it back.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Let's go." Nathan smiled.

Lucas stared at the book in his hands without really reading it, and was playing music without really hearing it.

He almost fell off his chair when Nathan threw the door open.

"Ever hear of knocking?"

"You are depressing the hell out of me." Nathan said.

"Huh?"

"You've been up in here since Saturday morning."

"I have not."

"She's going to realize when she sees you tomorrow in school that she made a mistake."

"No she won't."

"Trust me, she will. Especially if she sees that you're not completely bummed over this."

"But I am."

"Well you don't show her that."

"Nathan, that's crap."

"Why?"

"Because that would solidify the fact that I don't care about her feelings."

"Oh. I'm sorry. That was a stupid suggestion."

"Don't worry about it."

"Look, let's go out and get coffee or something."

"You're grounded."

"Dad let me off the hook early. You would know that if you bothered to leave your little hellhole here. I just got back from hanging out with Theresa."

"Did you have fun?"

"Yeah it was great. I was happy we could hang out before the school week started."

"True."

"Alright, so this is an intervention. You need to get out of here.

"But…"

"Let's go." Nathan said, pulling Lucas up.

"I don't know…"

"Look, you can stay up here for another full day moping about her, listening to this same goddamn song all day, or you can go out and just enjoy life a little."

"You're right."

"I always am."

"Yeah."

"You do you realize that I'm the only one pissed about this whole thing?"

"Give it time."

"Really?"

"We'll see how it goes."

"Interesting."

"Shut up and let's go." Lucas said, smacking Nathan's arm lightly.

"I'll be right back, I need gum." Nathan said, getting up.

"Gum?"

"I'll be right back. Just drink coffee and brood like I know you want to."

"Take your time." Lucas said, laughing and rolling his eyes.

Nathan smiled to himself as he crossed the street to the drugstore.

He almost collided with Brooke and Peyton as they were leaving.

"Oh! Uh, hey Nate." Peyton said, glancing at Brooke.

"Hi Peyton." Nathan said, stepping around them.

"Nathan. Don't be like this." Brooke sighed.

"Do you know what you do to him? Do you seriously know how much you hurt him?" Nathan said, turning back around.

"You don't even know my side of the-"

"I really don't care. All I know and care about is that this is the second time in the past couple of months that Lucas has been completely derailed by something you said to him. And the most amazing thing to me is that it's the exact same thing you said to him before. You know he would be so upset over this. You knew he would. That is such a shitty way to treat someone you claim to love."

"I do love him!"

"You had to know what would happen. You knew that he would freak out, that he would obsess over anything you said, and now he's been up in his room since that night and he barely talked to me until I finally got him to freaking go out."

"Nathan, come on." Peyton said.

"Look, I'm sorry that I got in the way of your plans Friday. But you would've had plans yesterday, but then you dumped him. It was one freaking date, Brooke. Get a grip."

"You are being so unreasonable! Of course you side with him." Brooke said angrily.

"Well duh. And for the record? Did you ever consider that maybe it seems that we spend a lot of time together because I don't know, we live in the same house?"

Brooke sighed, knowing he had a point.

"Listen, you don't owe me any explanations at all. I probably shouldn't even have said anything. But this is getting ridiculous. Stop doing this to him. I seriously can't stand seeing him like this again." Nathan said, leaving the store.

"You didn't get gum."

"Got sidetracked."

"By what?"

"Peyton and Brooke."

"Oh boy."

"I only yelled a little."

"Just a little?"

"Maybe more than that."

"How much more?"

"Don't be mad, Luke. I just saw her, and I thought about you and I got pissed off."

"It's okay." Lucas sighed.

"You sure?"

"Uh huh. I know you're just looking out for me."

"I wanted to ignore her, but she just had to say something to me. It really grinds my gears sometimes."

"It what?" Lucas laughed.

"I don't know." Nathan said, laughing too.

Neither of them noticed Peyton and Brooke watching them as they laughed like nothing was wrong.

"You're such a lameass." Lucas said, finally catching his breath.

"Yeah, yeah. So how do you think school will be tomorrow?"

"I don't know."

"Remember, I've got your back no matter what."

"Thanks. Should we get home?"

"Yeah. Feel better?"

"I needed a good laugh." Lucas nodded.

"You have a lot to look forward to, you know."

"Like?"

"Your mom and Andy getting married next weekend, then you're staying with us for three weeks."

"That's true. It's gonna be awesome."

"Absolutely."

"Yeah."

"Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you and Brooke will ever find that right balance?"

"I thought we had."

"Do you think you'll make up?"

"I want to. But I don't want to keep doing this over and over. I can't stand fighting with her when I don't really understand the issue we're fighting about."

"Yeah…"

"I really love her Nate. I just wish I knew how to make her happy." Lucas said sadly.

"I know…"

Yes, Lucas-centric again. I like it when he's sad and his dad finally is there for him. However...major drama for Nathan coming up, but it seemed really out of left field in this chapter so it might have to wait another chapter or two (I can already pretty much promise it's going to be a long chapter, whenever it may be).

So next chapter includes the wedding. Lots of fun there, right? Luke and his new family, Brooke and Lucas, Nathan and Theresa, Haley and Eric, and perhaps…perhaps Keith? Oh I do think so!

…I need to sleep.

As always, please read and review!