Brooke glanced at her watch, "Some place to be?" Les asked. She nodded, "Need a ride?"

"Yeah, I guess." she shrugged.

"So where to Dorothy?"

"My house." she said getting into his car.

"So do you think we got an A?" he asked attempting to make small talk.

"Probably closer to a b." she shrugged, messing with his radio.

"Hey." he said swatting her hands away.

"I'm sorry Luke, but I can't take this crap that you call music." she teased.

Les paused and took his hand away, letting her mess with the radio. It'd been so long since anyone had called him by his first name. But in the past few weeks Brooke had called him 'Luke' twice. The first time he snapped at her, but the second... it was different. She hadn't said it to annoy him or because she was startled and forgot. This time when she said it, she was Brooke. The fourteen-year-old wild child he'd been best friends with. The girl he missed so much.

"Nathan!" Haley said annoyed, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Yes." he sighed.

"What did I just say?"

"Are you even listening to me?" he deadpanned.

"Nathan! We have exams coming up." she said.

"Look, I'm just a little distracted Hales."

"About what?" she asked flipping through some papers.

"Nothing, I've just uh... well I've been having some weird dreams lately." he admitted staring at the table.

"What kind of weird dreams?" she asked putting her stuff down and walking back to the table, "Do you die? Cause my cousin Jen had this recurring dream that she died over and over, in horrible ways. You wouldn't believe the ways. Turned out she was just crazy cause she started trying to do the things in her dreams. My aunt and uncle had to send her to one of those asylum places. So how do you die in your dreams?"

"It's not about dying." he said shaking his head, "Wait Hot Cousin Jen? The one Jake, Les, and I fought over when we were nine?"

Haley nodded, "Yep. So what were your dreams about?"

Nathan opened his mouth then closed it again shrugging, "It's not important."

Jake walked up to Nikki's door, "Okay Jagelski, it's now or never." He took a deep breath and knocked.

"Hey Jake." Nikki said flatly.

"Nik, I have something I need to say and I need to you just let me get it out okay?" he waited for a response but she just looked at him pointedly, "Okay, well... I think we should maybe take a break... indefinitely. I'm still gonna be there for the baby. But you and I we're just too different. I mean we haven't even seen each other in a week."

Nikki bit her lip, "Wow, um Jake." she paused and looked at him with pity, "Sweetie didn't you get my email. I broke up with you like three days ago."

"What?"

"Yeah." she nodded laughing, "How embarrassing." she commented to someone in her house as Jake walked off her porch in a daze.

He couldn't deal with the whole baby issue right now, he'd come back later... maybe when Nikki's laughing subsided.

Peyton sat on her porch swing drawing in her notebook. She'd been back to the old Peyton for two days now. That's how she referred to it. There was old Peyton and there was new Peyton. Currently she was back to old Peyton... so that kind of meant that new Peyton was old Peyton and old Peyton was now the reining Peyton... it all just made her head hurt.

She felt bad for snapping at Jake the day before but she couldn't help it. Sure she made new friends when she was new Peyton,... old Peyton... whatever, but they didn't know the basement wasn't always her room. In fact they'd never seen the bedroom at the top of the stairs, walls painted red because Brooke was in a red mood the week Peyton decided she wanted a change. They had never seen the dent in her wall Nathan's head made when he toppled off her bed after catching a football she threw to him. He'd needed three stitches and the wall had needed a new coat of paint. No one knew that sometimes when she was alone in the house she'd sit outside the closed room for hours just trying to work up the courage to face her past. They didn't know new Peyton or old Peyton.

Only five people really knew who she was and it'd been so long she wasn't even sure about that anymore.

Secrets were Brooke Davis's only friend. Secrets and lies. It's how she got through her days. Les asked if he could come in after driving her home and she shrugged apologetically and said her parents didn't want anyone in the house when they weren't there. When he asked if she was okay she smiled and said yes. When he asked whose car was in the driveway she said the housekeepers, and headed for her door with a quick thanks over her shoulder.

Lucas Eugene Scott was not a stupid boy. He knew Brooke well enough to see through he shrugs and smiles. He knew she was hiding something from him and it was none of his business. He knew he shouldn't even want to know what it was. They weren't friends anymore. Sure he'd had a crush on her when they were younger, but she'd walked out on them.

But Lucas Eugene Scot was not a smart boy either because yeah she'd walked away two years ago but he never followed.

Okay this was short but I hope you guys like it. My old laptop died and I only just got my new one a few days ago so now I have to try and rewrite all the chapters I had written and outlined on my old computer, but I know I've left you guys hanging long enough. Please review.

-Em