Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.

A/N: Hi everyone. Here's the latest chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who keeps reading this and those of you who review, a million more thanks. Your feedback truly inspires me to keep going.

"Peyton, come on. How long are you gonna keep this up?" It was early Wednesday morning during Nathan's supposed run and he'd come to her house dead set on getting her back today. He hadn't been sleeping well since their breakup and last night he'd been awake half the night working on that damn essay – as nerdy as it sounded, he wanted that A. The rest of the night, like the eight nights before it, he'd been plagued with memories of his former girlfriend. Hell, even when he managed to fall asleep she would haunt his dreams. Nine days and nights had passed since she'd told him they were over. From the time they'd begun dating, he'd never been this long without her and he couldn't take it any longer. He had to get her back.

Things were going from bad to worse with his dad and he knew it was partially because of his own increasing irritability – the lack of sleep, the grueling schedule his father had imposed, the loss of basketball, one of his best friends, and his girlfriend, all played parts in his surly moods. Nothing was going right for him lately so he was lashing out even more than usual, and his father seemed to be especially ill-tempered these days as well, which didn't help matters any.

He needed Peyton. She and basketball were his sure comforts during life's trials and right now he didn't have either one. Yeah, he still practiced the game on the court at home, but it was under his dad's strict guidelines, which in no way settled his mind. And normally he would have Brooke to confide in – another comfort he no longer had. Yeah, she'd tried explaining her reasons for what she'd done, but as far as he was concerned, the minute she'd shut him out was the minute their friendship had changed. He'd still look out for her but he couldn't see past that slamming door.

He stepped closer to Peyton and placed his hands on her shoulders, needing to be near her and knowing this was the best way to soften her. However, it didn't slip by him that his touch didn't seem to faze her. Normally he'd feel her resolve weakening at this point, but she showed no reaction, like she was completely unaffected by the gesture. It killed him to see that blank look in her eyes, but he had to press on. "I get it, ok. You need me to be different, a good boyfriend…and I can do that, Peyt. Just give me a chance to prove it."

Robotically, she removed his hands from her shoulders. "You've had plenty of chances."

"And I blew them all, I know. But I can't do this anymore, Peyton. I don't want this breakup. I'm sorry for everything I did. Ok? I just…" He had to pause to swallow the pain that her cold expression ignited within him. "I want us to go back to normal."

Peyton rolled her eyes. She too had been up all night, thinking of her birth mother and trying to process this new information. She was tired, cranky, and emotionally drained, and Nathan's latest comment did nothing to improve her mood. "Ok, trust me, the last thing I want is normal. In case you haven't noticed, normal sucks with us, Nathan."

"I know, but if I change…"

Her bitter laugh cut him off sharply. "If," she scoffed. "We both know that'll never happen."

"Peyton, please," he cried out, his voice croaky and desperate as he came closer and gently grabbed her by the arms. "I need you. Everything's messed up right now and…" He halted as their eyes locked. "I just need you," he repeated in a whisper as he bent his head to kiss her.

Any other time she would have wavered long before, but especially now. This time, however, she pulled her head away and her features remained indifferent.

"You don't need me," she said emotionless. "You're just horny."

"No, Peyton. That's not it," he denied, shaking his head. "You know…" He stopped dead when Haley suddenly appeared in the doorway, wrapped in a bathrobe and a towel securely knotted on her head.

Haley shivered at the death glare Nathan sent her way. Clearly he didn't appreciate the interruption. "Oh, umm, I think I left some conditioner in my hair," she mumbled, turning to head out.

"Haley, wait," Peyton called out. "You don't have to go. Nathan was just leaving," she said, shooting him a scornful look.

Nathan dropped his hands in dismay and sighed deeply. "Are we ever gonna talk about this or are you just gonna avoid me forever?"

"There's nothing to talk about, Nathan."

"According to you," he countered.

"Ok, what else could there possibly be that hasn't already been covered a gazillion times?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about why you assume all I'm here for is sex."

Peyton rolled her eyes at the comment. Was he serious? "Call it woman's intuition," she said snarkily.

"Call it fucking bullshit!" he shot back irately. "I know your damn cycle by now, Peyton," he said truthfully. He'd quickly learned and remembered which days of the month he wouldn't be getting any from her. Sure he'd held on to that information for selfish purposes, but it also now served to quash her accusations of his original intent for coming. "If this was about sex, I would have waited until next week to come."

"Oh right, cuz next week I'd surely give in."

"I didn't say that. Why do you twist my words?"

"Why do you bother coming at all? I told you we're done."

–––––

Haley felt a tug on the back of her bathrobe, pulling her out of the doorway. "What are you, a peeping Tom?" she heard. "Give'em some privacy, will ya."

She turned to face the red headed girl as the duo in the bedroom continued to argue. Rachel Gatina.

"Welcome to the Nathan and Peyton land of heated arguments, continuous breakups, makeups and all around dysfunction," Rachel said. "I'm outta here. You might want to do the same. They'll be a while."

"Umm, Peyton wanted me to stay…"

Rachel shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "Your choice, but if you do, I suggest you go down and make yourself some breakfast. I doubt either of them would appreciate you hanging around for the makeup session."

"Assuming there will be one," Haley said. "And I don't think…"

"Either way," Rachel cut off haughtily. "You don't need to be in there. Tell Peyton…and Nathan, I'll see them at school," she added before heading down the stairs, making it abundantly clear that she figured Nathan and Peyton, after today, would be a couple again.

Haley stared after her a while, thinking back to a conversation she'd had with Skills a few days ago when he'd talked to her about his new relationship with Bevin. He'd said most of her friends were very much the assholes they portrayed themselves to be, who looked down their noses at those not in their clique. He'd named off several of them, but two in particular – Nathan Scott and Rachel Gatina. She'd asked him about Brooke Davis, and he'd told her he found Brooke surprisingly pleasant and not at all the snob he'd expected her to be. One thing Haley knew for sure was that Skills was right about Nathan and Rachel. She'd already known Nathan was an ass, but in just one encounter with Rachel, brief as it was, the girl had proven to be the bitch Skills said she was. However, she did have a point that Haley didn't need to stand witness to whatever happened in Peyton's bedroom so, following Rachel's snooty advice, she went downstairs and made herself a bowl of cereal.

It was about a half hour later when she heard footsteps on the stairs and Nathan's angry voice. "Yeah, well you left all kinds of shit at my house so you're gonna have to come pick it up."

Peyton's voice just came out tired. "Listen, just pack it up and bring it to school whenever."

"Forget it, I'm not packing anything. You want your stuff, come and get it."

"That's just a way to get me to your house," Peyton said knowingly.

"Whatever."

"Ok, you know what, keep it, keep it all."

"Yeah, cuz I could use some women's clothes, makeup and hair clips. I was running out," he remarked sarcastically. "And like I really want all your crappy music."

"Then just…I don't care, do whatever the hell you want with it."

"Fine, I'm gonna toss everything then."

"You do that," Peyton replied dismissively.

"Including that Autumn Effect CD," he said smugly, reaching the desired effect as she fell silent and simply glared at him. He knew that would get to her. He opened her front door and then turned back. "Oh, and don't bother sending someone else to pick it up for you. I'm not handing it over to anyone but you." He sent her a triumphant smile before walking out the door.

"You ok?" Haley asked, coming to stand beside Peyton.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Peyton said. "My resistance skills still need improvement though. I was this close to letting him kiss me up there," she confessed, gesturing with her thumb and forefinger how close she'd been.

"But you didn't," Haley responded. "Right?"

"Right," Peyton replied with a firm nod of her head.

"So then, you did good."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Anytime. And besides, you can always kiss him tomorrow," Haley commented, making Peyton chuckle at the reference to her new motto. But the blonde's smile quickly turned into a frown. "What, what's wrong?" Haley questioned.

"That CD he mentioned…Autumn Effect…" Peyton began.

"Yeah?"

"Well, it was really hard to find. It was an import," she revealed. "I hope he doesn't actually toss it."

The remark caused Haley to giggle, but Peyton's scowl remained.

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Haley slipped into her seat beside Lucas, ten minutes late for class. He gazed at her curiously. Haley hated being late and he wondered why she had been. She later informed him that she'd stayed the night at Peyton's, and the girl's car hadn't started this morning so they'd had to cab it, running them off schedule. Lucas smiled, knowing the timing issue, as small as it was, was enough to set her nerves astray, to shake that perfect symmetry she had mastered years ago. Haley needed organized; she didn't do chaos very well.

"It's not funny," she said when he made fun of her.

He gave her an innocent look to indicate he hadn't been laughing, yet he clearly was.

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When Peyton later joined them at the lunch table, Lucas asked about her car and offered to have Keith take a look when she told him it was a recurrent problem that had been happening more frequently lately. Peyton agreed, acknowledging that she needed to get it checked and they arranged for she and Lucas to take it to Keith's shop after school.

Haley watched the exchange silently, knowing Lucas was doing exactly what she'd warned him against. Getting his hopes up. And secretly she was too, because she knew, if Peyton gave Luke a chance, unlike his brother, he would never hurt her. And it would make him the happiest guy on the planet, which was all Haley really wanted for him.

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Sitting in English class, Brooke handed Mouth the folded paper to give to Peyton. Inside she'd scribbled 'Are you ever gonna talk to me?' She sighed dejectedly as she watched Peyton crumble the note without bothering to open it, much less read it. She didn't know what it would take to get back on Peyton and Nathan's good sides. Even Rachel was still upset with her. She missed her best friends and none of them would even listen to her.

After classes she made another attempt to speak to the blonde, but Peyton was either still too angry, or too stubborn, to grant the forgiveness Brooke desired. And then Peyton had noticed Lucas and had gone off in his direction, leaving Brooke staring after her. Because of this, Brooke felt her own temper rise. Wasn't she taking this whole thing just a bit too far? Yes she'd messed up, but she'd apologized. What else could she do?

"Aww, Peyton's not speaking to you either?" Rachel, who'd come to stand beside her, asked.

"No," Brooke spit out furiously, too angry to question Rachel's motive. "Apparently unless your name's Holly or Lucas, you're not worthy of Peyton's time these days," she complained, deliberately louder than she would have normally since she'd spotted Haley nearby.

Rachel noticed Brooke's despondent expression and changed her mind about the fun she'd intended to poke at her. "She'll come around," she said.

"Possibly, but they'll be hot on her heels. They're like her freaking shadow."

"Tell me about it," Rachel replied. "I went to Peyton's this morning and…" She filled Brooke in on what she'd found, embellishing the events just the tiniest bit.

"Creeper."

Haley, who'd heard enough, took a deep breath and surprised the two girls by turning on them. "What is your problem?" she asked.

They may have been taken aback by the girl's forwardness, having expected the shy, timid girl to run off crying before speaking up for herself, but they were in their element here and recovered quickly.

"Well, that poncho for one thing," Brooke responded, crinkling her nose. "Seriously, someone needs to call the fashion police."

Haley gave her an unimpressed smile. She could handle the girls not liking her, even if she'd never done anything to warrant their dislike, but to verbally attack her clothing style? How immature could they be? "Brilliant come back," she said dryly. "But then, for you, I guess it was."

Brooke chuckled at the intentional slight. "I'm sorry, was that meant to hurt my feelings?" she scoffed. "Because opinions from the nobodies of this world don't tend to do that."

Ignoring the personal jab, Haley answered in the same condescending tone. "Not all that surprising considering your best friend's opinions don't even matter to you."

"Meaning?" Brooke pressed with a quirked eyebrow.

"Meaning you're jealous that Peyton's developing new friendships, but can you blame her for pulling away from you? Maybe if you'd stop and actually listen to what she's saying and support her in her decisions…"

"Ok, first of all, I am so not jealous of you," Brooke stated distastefully. "Why would I be?"

"And secondly," Rachel piped in, "who are you to say Brooke doesn't support Peyton? Honey, they've been best friends for almost a decade and you have no idea how much shit they've been through together."

"That's right," Brooke stated firmly, though Rachel defending her was almost comical, considering she'd told her the very same thing just a few days ago. Yet she wasn't surprised. She and Rachel may not agree on everything, but when it came down to it, the fiery redhead, much like Brooke herself, had a fierce loyalty to her friends. "We've drug each other out of plenty of messes over the years."

"It's dragged," Haley couldn't resist pointing out. If there was one thing she hated, it was improper word usage. "Drug is any substance which creates psychological effects, so unless you meant you've fed each other some sort or narcotic or stimulant to get by…"

"Are you even serious right now?" Brooke scoffed. "Not all of us read the dictionary for fun. And what is this anyway? Grammar school?"

"As opposed to Glamour school?" Haley shot back. "But anyway," she continued, getting back on topic with a heavy sigh. "The point is, if you want to fix things with Peyton, then you're going to have to back off the matchmaking efforts and actually accept that she's not going to take the jerk back."

"Excuse me?" Brooke huffed, having a problem with every aspect of that statement.

Rachel didn't like it either and found her voice before Brooke could. "Ok, honey, you're new so you really have no clue what you're talking about. Peyton always says the breakup is for real this time, but those of us who know her, know better. Mark my words, they will make up and get back together eventually. Neither of them can stand being apart. Also, don't tell Brooke what needs fixing with Peyton. Those two aren't just best friends, they're like sisters. There's no breaking that kind of bond. And as for calling Nathan a jerk, you don't know him well enough to form that opinion so you need to shut up."

"I know more about him than you think. And you're wrong to say Peyton will take him back. She's not going to. She doesn't even want him back."

Both Brooke and Rachel scoffed at the comment.

"Like Rach said," Brooke replied, "you're new to all this, and I think we know Peyton a little better than you do."

"Why do you even want her with a guy like him anyway?" Haley asked. "I realize he's your friend too, so that makes you somewhat biased, but their relationship is not a good one." Her gaze fixed on Rachel, she continued. "You so much as said so this morning. I believe dysfunctional is the word you used to describe it."

Rachel shrugged indifferently. "They both have their issues, but it doesn't mean they don't love each other."

"Oh right," Haley sneered. "Cheating doesn't equal love in my books. Sorry, but it's true."

"Look," Rachel went on. "once you understand Nathan and how he deals with stuff, come back and talk to us. Until then get off your moral high horse and keep your opinions to yourself."

Haley shook her head and walked off. This clearly wasn't going anywhere and she had to get to her tutoring session. Skills, she thought, may have been right about Rachel, but he'd been wrong on his assessment of Brooke. One was as much a bitch as the other.

–––––

"Bitch," both Brooke and Rachel muttered as Haley sauntered off.

"What?" Rachel asked when Brooke gave her a strange look.

Brooke shrugged. "It's just funny." When Rachel then threw her a strange look, she explained. "Nearly everything she said is basically what you said the other day, and almost everything you said was pretty much the same defense I used against you, turned around on her. So that means you admit that I was right."

Rachel rolled her eyes but smiled at Brooke's logic. "Ok, you made a few good points, but I stand by what I said for the most part. Nathan needs to step up and learn how to treat Peyton better. But I feel like I can say that stuff because they're both my friends and I know them well. Her, she comes into the scene a month ago and thinks she knows all there is to know about them? I don't think so."

Brooke nodded. "Yeah," she said in complete understanding. "And," she added reluctantly. "I guess you were right about one or two things too."

They smiled at each other and started making their way out of the school side by side. "So this makes us friends again, right?" Rachel asked, wondering if they could skip the apologies and yet still regain their friendship.

"Well duh," Brooke came back with. "I'm walking with you, aren't I?"

"You must mean am I not?" Rachel teased. "Because aren't I, in that context is just grammatically incorrect."

"Ok, shut up," Brooke warned, a smile tugging at her lips as Rachel burst into laughter.

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"Listen, I really appreciate this," Peyton told Keith once they'd arrived at the auto shop. "Lucas tells me you're the best mechanic in town."

Keith stole a glance at Lucas before replying. "My nephew likes to boost my ego."

"Oh, come on, Keith," Luke protested. "You know it's true."

"Well, I try," Keith conceded. "Can't say how long it'll be though. I'm fairly backed up right now. Business has been good lately."

"Oh, no rush," Peyton quickly assured him, although if she had her way, it would get done today.

"Good. Now why don't you kids get out of here so I can get back to work."

The two teenagers laughed and said their goodbyes before doing as Keith instructed.

"So, you want to grab a bite to eat before I take you home?" Luke asked once inside the truck.

"Actually, I kinda just want to go home and unwind," Peyton said apologetically. "It's been a rough day," she admitted.

"Brooke?" he asked, thinking of the earlier incident at school. He didn't know what had happened, but he knew it had upset Peyton.

She nodded her head. "Brooke. Nathan." She sighed before adding, "some other stuff. Plus I got zero sleep last night so I wouldn't be very good company."

"You want to talk about it?"

"Not really," she replied. "But thanks though."

"Sure. If you change your mind…"

"I'll call you," Peyton finished, smiling in appreciation. "And I just may take you up on that some time."

"I hope you do."

Peyton chuckled. "Are you sure about that? You don't know the can of worms you'd be opening."

"I think I can handle it," he told her.

"So can I take a rain check on that dinner?"

"Sure. When?"

"How about Friday night?"

"It's a date," he said, and then took it back when she seemed uncomfortable with the idea. "I mean, not a date date. A friendly date", he amended, hoping his blunder didn't scare her off. She smiled at him so apparently it hadn't.

They rode the rest of the way in silence, both lost in their own thoughts. Lucas had felt a tinge of disappointment that she'd turned down both his dinner invitation and his offer to talk, but her mention of a rain check brightened his outlook. He took it to mean she wasn't just offering up an excuse to let him down gently. She simply didn't feel up to company today and he could understand that.

But one of these days, he hoped she would open up to him and maybe, just maybe, she'd give him the chance to prove he was nothing like his brother.