Lainey led Peyton upstairs to her room.
"So" Peyton said
"Soooo......." Lainey repeated.
"I, uh, I'm sorry I don't know what you want me to say here."
"Why?"
"I'm sorry I-"
"No" Lainey interrupted.
Peyton furrowed her brows confused at what she said wrong. "Huh?"
"Quit apologizing, you did that multiple times earlier. I'm tired of hearing it. Why did you say what you said?"
"Oh, o-ok I uh I... I don't... ughh"
"I'm going to need more than just sounds from you P. You're going to have to use your words here." Lainey said getting impatient.
"P?"
"Not the point."
"Right. Words. Ok, umm..."
"WHY DID YOU SAY IT DAMMIT?!"
"I'm sorry, I just didn't know what else to say." Peyton said, the words spilling out before she could really comprehend what had actually come out.
"Why couldn't you have told her we were friends?"
"Lainey." Peyton sighed. "You can't actually think she would have bought that? We literally couldn't stand each other in school. You think she would have bought it if I'd have just said 'oh we're friends now no big deal'? No, she would have seen right through that and known something was up, and she wasn't really my friend in high school we just hung in the same crowd and I really didn't trust her to keep it a secret that we're engaged, let alone the fact that it's only because of our fathers. So I went with the first thing that came to mind and played into her bitchiness. I'm sorry if I don't have friends I can exactly trust like you do. I've only ever had one person I really thought of as a friend and we drifted apart in high school because she didn't like the people my dad told me to hangout with."
"Why are you here with her? Business. What kind of business? I don't know something to do with our fathers, but we just got here so we haven't really talked yet." Lainey said making different voices to mock Peyton and Amber. "That's all you had to say and it would have cleared things up without you having to tell her that I was your 'charity case'."
Peyton retorted with a fake conversation of her own. "Why are you here with her? Business. What kind of business could you possibly doing with her? I don't know something for our fathers. Bullshit, your dad doesn't send you on business outings without telling you what for, and if it's for business why's her little sister here, and why are you getting froyo and not doing it over a real meal? This was easier, and more our style. Really, because I'm starting to think this isn't for business at all? Are you two on a date or something?" Peyton retorted with a fake conversation of her own. "That's more like how it would have gone."
"You could have avoided letting it get that far and you know it. Or you could have just told her that we worked things out and were friends now. You didn't have to put me down in order to end that conversation unless you still care what she thinks of you. If you care so much about her opinion that you have to make me look bad in order to stay friends with her then this isn't going to work out and we need to just live separately from now on. I'll take my portion of the family business and move to a different city and live there. We can just tell people that for business purposes we have to live separately right now, and people won't think twice about it because they know how our families are about business. Because I'd rather do that than be your little punching bag for when we see any of your little high school puppies who followed you around like you were the last treat on earth, and hate me just because you told them to." Lainey yelled angrily.
"No" Peyton mumbled
"What!"
"I said no. I don't want you to move. I don't expect you to be my punching bag either, and I know you're not a charity case. I'm sorry I panicked and said the wrong thing. I'm sorry I'm not as good as you under pressure, but I need you."
"You... need me?" Lainey questioned.
"Yes, Lainey, I need you. I hated it here by myself when you were gone. I hated seeing you hurt. I hated knowing I was the one to hurt you. You are a good person and deserve someone better than me but dammit I'm trying to fix it, but I can't take it back." Peyton said choking out the last part as tears started to roll. "I know I should be better at confrontation by now, but I've never had to really deal with it. I always played the good girl so that no one started anything with me. I never did interviews without my parents so they always took the hard questions. I didn't grow up like you did. Your parents forced you to learn how to answer the hard stuff at a young age so you're a lot better at it than I am now. I'm sorry that when I panic I put out the same energy the other person is giving at the time. So when Amber was being negative towards you the easiest thing for me to do was reciprocate the same negative energy. I know that it's no excuse and I should have said something else and stuck up for you, and I'm sorry for that. I will literally spend the next however long it takes to regain your trust, but please don't leave. I know you don't see us as friends, but I do. You're all I have right now. I'm not on good terms with my parents and Scott is out of the picture so I don't have anyone because all of my friends were his friends."
"Friends don't treat friends like that. If that's what friends means to you then I don't want to be friends with you." Lainey said getting up to walk out.
"No" Peyton said, grabbing Lainey's arm as she walked by. "Please don't leave. That's not what being friends means to me. Please let me show you that. Let me prove that I'm not all bad. Let me prove that you can trust me. Give me one month, and if you still hate me after a month you can leave. You can pack up your business and move as far away from me as you want, and I won't try to stop you. I'll even support you when it comes to our parents because we both know they'll be against it. Shit Lainey, I'll move. You shouldn't have to move away from your friends and family because of me. I'll move, and I'll take all of the repercussions that come with it from our parents."
Lainey let out a frustrated sigh. "No one's moving Peyton."
"But you said-"
"I know what I said ok" Lainey snapped. "And I don't hate you. As much as I've tried, and trust me when I tell you I've TRIED, I can't hate you. I hate myself for thinking you'd stick up for me, and for not getting up and saying something to Amber myself when she was talking shit. I was trying to let you handle it since she was your friend, but don't worry next time I won't expect so much and I'll just do it myself and then leave so that you don't throw me under the mountain again."
"Bus" Peyton said.
"Huh?"
"The saying is, throw you under the bus, not throw you under the mountain."
"Are you kidding me right now?" Lainey raised her brows. "That's all you got out of that?" Lainey asked facepalming her forehead.
"No, I heard you, you can't hate me so you hate yourself, which is bullshit by the way you shouldn't hate yourself for that it was all my fault. Oh, and you don't trust me, which is understandable. But mountain? How do you even throw someone under a mountain?"
"I don't know but it's bigger than a bus so I just went with it ok."
"Planes are bigger than buses."
"Planes fly you idiot, everything goes under planes." Lainey said shaking her head.
"Hey at least they move and you can get under them, but a fucking mountain?" Peyton exclaimed trying to hold back her laughter.
"Will you let the damn mountain go please?" Lainey yelled.
"Sorry, damn, not my fault your comment didn't make sense." Peyton said finally letting her laughter go.
"I hate you."
"No you don't. You just said that you couldn't hate me."
"I changed my mind." Lainey said smiling.
"No you didn't you like me." Peyton said dragging out the last two words.
"More than you know." Lainey said under her breath.
"What was that?" Peyton said unable to catch what Lainey had just said.
"Nothing. Can we just go to bed? I'm worn out from this EMTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER you put me on." Lainey said laughing and throwing a pillow at Peyton.
"Oh you're going to regret that one Howard. It's on now" Peyton said charging at Lainey with the pillow she had just thrown.
"Ahh!" Lainey screamed ripping the blankets up to protect her.
Peyton ripped them away and hit Lainey with the pillow a couple of times before Lainey came to her senses and grabbed a pillow of her own to hit back with.
As they were having their pillow fight Peyton tripped and ended up falling on top of Lainey on her bed. Both girls froze at how close they were to each other. Things went dead silent for a bit before Peyton cleared her throat and said, "Sorry" but still didn't move.
"It's ok" Lainey replied breathlessly, while looking between Peyton's eyes and her lips. Both girls wanted to kiss each other, but neither wanted to make the first move.
"I should go to bed" Peyton said getting up.
"Wait!" Lainey yelled as Peyton was walking out.
"Yeah?"
"We did just tell the world that we're engaged."
"Yeah, and" Peyton asked not seeing where Lainey was going with this.
"I mean, don't engaged couples like sleep in the same bed or something?"
"Yeah, but I mean it's not like anyone is going to come in our house and see that we aren't sleeping together if that's what you mean."
"No" Lainey sighed facepalming herself yet again. "That's not what I meant."
"Oh, then what'd you mean?"
"I-", but Lainey stopped herself, assuming Peyton just didn't want to sleep in the same bed as her. "Nothing. Goodnight I guess."
"Night Lainey" Peyton said walking out, oblivious to everything that just happened.