"Morning girl!" I heard somebody call out to me while giving me a smack on my butt.

I just groaned and cuddled more into the warm sheets.

"Come on Brooke, we have school!" Peyton said again trying to shake me out of my slumber.

"When did you even get here?" she asked as I finally got up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Late last night," I responded in between yawns. "You were fast asleep."

She knew better than to press me on the subject and I was grateful for it. Besides, I had done this so often, she knew exactly what was going on. In fact, I kept a toothbrush and a couple of pairs of clothes there for Petes's sake!

Getting washed and ready, I joined her in the kitchen. She was drinking her coffee as she handed me a mug.

"So, what are your plans for today, B. Davis?" she asked me.

"You, me and the mall!" I said in a cheery tone. "It's game day and obviously the Ravens are going to win, so we have a party to look forward to and we need new outfits!"

Peyton rolled her eyes and smiled at me as I dragged her out of the house towards the car.

We briefly stopped at my house so I could collect my things before reaching school. Quickly getting into the rhythm of things, Peyton and I walked up to where Nathan and the guys were standing by their lockers with Rachel and a few other cheerleaders.

"So everything is set up for the party at the beach house tonight post the game?" Rachel was asking Nathan when we joined them.

"Of course Rach," he responded. "I have my copy of the key and Tim and I will go get the alcohol before the game."

Nathan was famous for his ragers. His parents very well knew what their beach house was used for after every game, but they conveniently would choose to turn the other cheek and it was fine by us.

"Rach, wanna join Peyton and I for some retail therapy before the game?" I asked.

"You know it," she winked before walking with us to Mr. Greer's first period English Lit.

Just then, Lucas walked by us. I couldn't help but let my gaze linger there for a little longer than needed. Somehow, I felt weird for the first time, as if I had to acknowledge his presence now that we had shared an encounter the previous night.

I knew exactly why I felt like I owed him and I didnt like it one bit. I needed to stop behaving that way. But, I knew I couldn't. This had been going on long enough for me to know that any semblance of control was not possible.

'Easy Girl! You owe him nothing,' I said to myself in my head.

Just then my phone chimed with a text. It was from him. I looked towards the opposite side where he was standing with his friends, Haley and Skills before reading the text. 'Glad you made it in one piece.' it said.

I felt strange reading it, not even knowing how to respond to that.

Lucas was a jock, he belonged in the It circle, and yet, he always chose to hide from it, choosing to hang out with nerds like that Tutor-girl Haley instead. And somehow, that really earned him some playboy points. 'The shy mystery boy was bound to care for you, right?' all the girls wondered, even though his rep clearly spelled out the answer in bold capital letters.

He and Nathan used to be best friends growing up, all the way from Little League. Then some tiff happened between the two in Middle School and they haven't spoken to each other since. They play the game the two of them love together almost every single day, but it's like they have an unspoken contract between them, to be teammates and just that.

I kept passing him through the day, but we managed to be just like old times as I conveniently brushed him off. Our eyes did meet once during practice, but both of us were quick to avert our eyes and concentrate on the activity at hand.

"Ready to go shopping!" Rachel skipped towards me with Peyton in tow once Cheer practice was over!

"Oh, you so know it," I said as Peyton and I got into my VW powder blue bug. Rachel had driven to school in her car, so she would follow us to the mall.

We went to my favourite lingerie store, tried out a couple things before making our purchases. Then going to some other stores, I picked out a strapless navy blue dress for the night. We grabbed a coffee before parting our ways. Peyton was hitching a ride with Rachel since her house came on the way and so I began driving home, to the northern side with huge empty mansions that everyone only seemed to use as vacation homes.

As I crossed a bridge, singing along to the song playing on the radio, a car came from behind me, driving at 100 miles per hour. I had no time to control the crash, which resulted in my car skidding off the road and hitting the tree. The black sedan was unfazed as it jerked off the road, the only damage done to it was a fender bender.

I screamed my lungs out before my car stopped with a jerk making contact with the tree. The impact was strong enough to break my windshield and window. The seatbelt and airbags had saved me from hurting myself too much as I struggled to get myself out of the car.

The seatbelt was stuck. I huffed as I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat and brought my phone out. I opted out of calling 911 because the black sedan was already miles away and I did not want to deal with the hassle of reporting all this to the police. They would try calling my parents since I was a minor and that never ended well. So I just searched for the closest towing company and called them.

"Keith Scott Motors, how may I help you?" said a man answering on the second ring.

"Hey, I got into a little accident, and I need help. How quick can you send somebody to Ridge Road, I'm just past the Creek Bridge." I said calmly.

"That's not far at all. I can have someone be there in 10 minutes," he responded before cutting the call.

"Oh great!" I said to myself as I still continued to tug at the seatbelt in hopes that it would budge.

The other side of the car had no damage, so I just needed to find a way to crawl that side in order to be free. I managed nothing in the 10 minutes it took for a red pick up truck to park on the road by my side.

"In here! I'm stuck!" I screamed out to whoever emerged from the car.

"What, Brooke!" I heard a familiar voice as he opened the door on the passenger side.

"Lucas!" I said, surprised to find him here. "What are you doing here?"

"Let me get you out first!" he exclaimed, already on his way back to the car.

Emerging moments later with bolt cutters, cut the seatbelt off in one swift motion. I was still stuck in the wreckage, so he put his arms on my upper waist, just below my breasts and heaved me out of the car.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest, looking at the wreck that used to be my car minutes ago.

"What happened?" he asked as he got to work, trying to haul the smashed car onto the towing truck.

"This random black sedan just came speeding out of nowhere and hit me," I mumbled.

"Are you hurt?" he asked. "I saw you wincing as I pulled you out."

"I'm fine," I responded, keeping my gaze steadily at the car in front.

Before I knew what was happening, Lucas was at my side. He lifted my top up as the two of us saw that my white skin had turned purple with swellings. "What are you doing?" I asked, fighting with him to tug my shirt down.

He didn't even care as his fingers found the zipper on the side of my black mini skirt. "Lucas!" I started to yell, before I saw the purple swollen mess on my hips, much darker than the ones that ran up my sides.

"Get in, I'm taking you to the ER!" he said as he zipped me up again.

"What! No! It's fine," I yelled. This was exactly why I hadn't called 911 in the first place.

"Brooke, you're really hurt. Why didn't you call 911?" he asked. I wondered if he had read my thoughts.

"I am fine. They are just some brusings and swellings. I will ice them down, Jesus!" I replied after taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. "Can you just drive me home?"

It was when he came to help me climb into the passenger seat of his truck that I realised just how much my hands and legs were trembling from the aftershocks of the crash.

"So, you work at an Auto Shop?" I asked, trying to break the awkward silence between us as we drove towards my home.

"Yeah, well my uncle owns the place. I help him out sometimes when he is really backed up," he responded just as we pulled into the wrought iron gates leading up t the driveway.

"You live here?" he asked, gaping at the ginormous house that stood in the centre of a large property.

"Yeah, it's too big for just one person though," I heard myself say as I stepped out of the car.

'Why did I just say that to him! Have you lost your mind?' I chided myself, not looking back towards him, hoping that he hadn't heard the words that I had uttered.

"I'll text you once your car is ready. We will also need your insurance information," he called out to me from his car.

I just gave a thumbs up as I continued walking towards the red door leading to my house.