The loud but enjoyable music engulfed my ears as I felt the wind dry my long hair. The rural scenery relaxed my never sore muscles and my arms glistened with the thin layer of sweat from the fast movement. I felt a light burn on my toes from my very old running shoes that were finally giving in. They were not expensive to begin with, and two years of my excessive running only induced burnt rubber and ripped fabric. But burnt rubber and flimsy fabric wasn't going to stop me from enjoying the only thing that cleared my mind.
Checking the clock on my phone; it was just after 8:00. Many might have thought that sleep was all too cherished to be given up for a morning run, but for me there was nothing more therapeutic. I had left my house at 6:00 since I couldn't sleep. Something was bothering me and I couldn't let it go. Every other teenager who goes to school was sound asleep enjoying their day off, but I was on the other side of Sydney making my way home to shower for the second time that morning. My mother would have been home in few hours time and I was happy to have her with me again. The experience of her not being at home was good for me- as much as I didn't want to admit it.
In Atlanta, I was mostly by myself. Independence was not a problem, but once we came to Australia, I felt a magnetic pull to my mother and I just didn't want her to be away from me. Her being away, helped me get some of that independent feeling again. I figured that I would clean up a bit so that she would have a nice clean house to come home to, so I picked up the running pace, so I could do everything I had planned before her arrival.
On my way back to my small little townhouse, I knew that something else was bothering me. I tried my hardest not to admit to it; but last night's events got to me. I made the promise to Ashton, that I would make Luke be grateful for my help, but I wasn't't going to pull him by his ear and wait for him to squirm in gratitude. Luke was what he was and he was obviously not even the slightest bit fazed by what I had done for him. It was like one of those looping roller coasters that were high and low in matter of seconds with great velocity that often gave you whiplash. He had obviously had some sort of remorse for his stupid comment at the mall, or else he would not have apologized. But he continued to pester me to the point where I just wanted nothing more than to pester him until he turned blue.
Too many thoughts and characterizations flowed through my mind and I had come to the realization and to the promise that I made to myself on the big plane. I might have taken my mother's advice, and warmed up to people, but people still weren't trustworthy enough for me just yet. Ashton was what he was. Maggie was what she was. Everyone was what they were and Luke was just that as well. His actions and behavior may had caused confusion or wonder, but it wasn't something I could afford to pay attention to. My only promise to myself, was to be as decent as a person as possible, and give that, what I myself get. Luke might have been rude and vile but my promise of decency could not have allowed me to leave a person on the floor sick. Luke or not. Whether he would have done it for me, was another question that didn't't bother me now. If he were to truly prove his indecency than he would get that, what he deserved. But I wasn't't going to let petty comments or acts of a modern day 'bully' rent parts of my brain for no charge.
Once I cleared my head of all of that, I was able to reminisce on the fun parts of last night's events. The bands were fantastic and I was more than happy to do it again. I did remember being bored sometimes, or just not knowing what to do with myself. I had expected it to be more time spent as a group but everyone scattered away into their own, and left every man for himself. I understood that Ashton was helping Maggie, but it couldn't be that Maggie got wasted every single time and Ashton was her babysitter. I scolded myself for the inner gossip I was having with myself, but it wasn't his job to be the responsible one. But in reality, I wasn't the one to talk, since I babied Luke.
Either way, the long run was almost over as I saw the little house from a distance. I had just passed Luke's house moments ago and saw a few truck sized cars, implying that some of the staff were there. I was happy that Liz let me off for those few days. She had enough staff for a factory so I was sure that I wasn't missed. I never really interacted with any of the other staff and I barely even saw them. I saw the cook Manny a few times, but other than that, nothing.
More questions decided to creep their way into my mind and I warned them off, since my usual conspiracy theories were suited for another day.
-
My hair was finally dry, my face was taken care of and the carpet was perfectly vacuumed. It was extremely hot today so a crop top and shorts were the only things that could have been worn since I was always way too warm.
I quickly washed over the counters and table one more time to make sure it was perfect. The flight wasn't too long but she was still tired and I wouldn't want her to feel like she was coming home to a dirty house. I left my phone in my room to prevent any sort of distractions, whether it be messages or the socialite telling me I only had ten minutes left of my photo shoot. I was finished with everything, so I decided to take a peak from my phone only to find two missed calls and two texts from Ashton.
From: Ashton
Did you get home okay last night?
Remember your promise ;)
END OF TEXT
I smiled and rolled my eyes at the same time looking at the phone. He wouldn't stop reminding me of my promise but he didn't realize that there wasn't much I could do. Being bitter or pissed wouldn't take the events away.
I didn't want to repeat the conversation in my head to Ashton for the second time so I just sent a short and sweet message back that would hopefully buy me some time. Some time to get the well deserved thank you, but my mother's arrival was my main priority in that moment.
Her arrival was still an hour or two away and I realized that I might have woken up a it too early. There was nothing left to finish and I was definitely avoiding doing any form of math for the big text next week. The little devil on my shoulder kept telling me how bad I sucked at it, and that it had to be done if I wanted anything close to a passing grade. I ignored the little pest in my subconscious and decided that doing nothing or reading would have been better. Anything would have been better than studying math.
Once I was halfway up the steps, a somewhat loud bell tone was heard throughout the house. I figured that my mother would have informed me once her plane landed and she was on her way, so it could not have been her. Wonder filled my mind as I walked back down the steps towards the door. The only logical visitor could have been the mailman.
Opening the door, I was greeted to an obviously hungover blonde boy with the same navy beanie that I was saw lying around every time I stepped foot into his house.
"Look who's up early today." I said in greet. It was only 10:30 but that was early enough for him. He fidgeted with the buttons on his black jeans jacket and sighed.
"Peyton." He said almost in plea.
"Luke." I retaliated. He kept fidgeting like he always did and said nothing.
"Did I scratch your car or something? Or is there another reason why you're silently standing at my front door?" I prompted but gave up hope. His two second visit was already irritating enough.
"No you didn't. Surprisingly." He said maybe trying to joke but jokes were never really clear with him.
"Is this going somewhere?" I asked annoyed.
"Yeah, um, I feel good. My head is fine and I'm not all that tired." He told and my irritation hit an all time high.
"Fuck Luke is there a purpose for this because there are plenty of things I could be doing other than listening to this." I slightly snapped leaning against the door frame since I figured that it was going to take a while.
"Thank you." He quickly said and immediately moved his gaze to the floor.
"What?" I asked in shock. He said it.
"For yesterday. I should have said it last night but I don't know..." He trailed off not knowing what to say. It obviously took a lot for him to show gratitude. For me, gratitude was something that had to be shown. If the person deserved it at least. Fucked up delivery or not, he was grateful and my promise to myself and Ashton was fulfilled.
"Do you want to come in? I made my mom get a six pack of Cherry Coke and I never opened it." I offered since a conversation would probably have been less awkward inside rather than outside.
"Sure." He said walking and I closed the door sighing.
I ran over to fridge and got out two glass bottles. They were in the original Coca-Cola bottles and I loved them. I reached into the drawer and got a lighter to open them.
"You can open them with a lighter?" Luke asked as I threw the lighter on the counter.
"Yeah. I picked it up with the mole people." I said and Luke's eyes widened. I obviously said it too seriously.
"Kidding." I said to confirm that I actually never lived with or as a mole person.
"Right." He said realizing I was kidding and that made him chuckle.
"So you were saying..." I said sitting down across from him. He started to fidget again and it was a quality of his that was so annoying. He wouldn't stop fidgeting with everything and anything.
"Why did you all of that for me?" He asked again, just like he did last night.
"Like I said yesterday, I try to be as decent of a person as possible. I'm not stupid either and whatever the whole image that you try to pull off is, isn't going to let me let you be sick on a dirty floor somewhere far from all of your friends." I exhaled and shrugged in an explanatory way and took a sip. I felt like I was repeating the same words and thoughts for twelve hours. He just nodded silently and sipped on more Coke.
"Well for whatever reason you did it, thank you. If my mum found me as hungover as I should have been, I would have been dead. Like on a skewer kind of dead." He said and I was shocked with the amount of words coming out of his mouth. He was speaking and speaking was rarely his thing.
"Yeah I thought of that too." I bluntly said because it was the truth. Luke's and Liz's problems still confused me but she doesn't like her son drinking, especially not upon her arrival so it was a no brainer for me.
"And I'm..um" He started again but couldn't finish or say it as usual.
"Luke you need start learning how to talk. You have no problem acting like an ass but now you can't speak all of a sudden?" I said in a more joking matter since I knew that he wouldn't talk at all if I made the situation worse.
"That's the point...I also wanted to apologize. For real this time." He said taking the last sip. He was obviously pretty thirsty.
"Is Luke Hemmings going soft?" I gasped in exaggeration and crossed my arms.
"But thanks. You're not all bad once you take away that fidgeting that you always do." I pointed out.
"Soft? No way. But this asshole told me that there's no shame in having friends so I'm trying that shit out." He said and something about that was so familiar and I wondered who told him that.
"Friends? Wow cool concept. Never heard of it." I said sarcastically again and he did the typical Luke eye roll to which I laughed to.
"Funny." He stated and I noticed that the conversation was going to go dry from there.
"Well I'm doing everything in my power not to study math." I said hoping to bring up the conversation tone.
I felt a feeling of major relief. Last night walking home alone in the dark, made me really uncomfortable. Not because of the darkness but because I felt like I was being way too nice for my own good, which was something I was quite careful of.
But as Luke sat in the chair with the empty glass coke glass in his hands, I realized that maybe I struck a nerve with him, and he finally understood what needed to be said. The extra apology was icing on the cake, but he didn't need to think that I was so easily offended with everything he said. That wasn't at all the case. The pep talk in my head from earlier was still fresh and firm planted in my brain, because people aren't always so easily changed or keen on changing.
"Shit Peyton, you know the test is next week right?" He uttered and I dreaded the sentence.
"I know but I hate it. I hate it with every fibre in my body." I aggressively whelped.
"You want to go to Uni right?" He asked and I nodded.
"Well there's your answer. You're going to have to pass." I shook my head knowing very well that my only chance at achieving a normal future was that stupid test. Every other subject was taken care of.
"Yeah yeah Mr. Overachiever." I teased and got up to throw the bottles in the bin. It was so strange to have Luke be bubbly. Well his version of bubbly at least. No one really knew how long it would last, but I was an open person and I wasn't going to give his character an expiration date.
As I opened the bin I noticed that it was way too full for anything and needed to be emptied out. I mentally scolded myself for not dealing with it before.
"Damn it the bin is full. I"ll be right back I need to empty it." I said picking up the huge bin.
"Okay." He said and looked to his phone.
I walked over to the front door and tried to open in with my butt but that terribly failed. I was very strong and had power but clumsiness still found its way into my life and the bin came tumbling down as did all of the bottles and all the excess liquid on my white crop top.
"Crap!" I exclaimed and Luke turned around to see the delight on the ground and he started to laugh. Admittedly the situation was kind of funny. He walked over to try and help but stumbled himself over a gallon bottle and slipped. Straight on his ass. At that point, my laughter just grew immensely and I laughed without stop. He sat up and joined in since he looked like an idiot on the floor.
"Our coordination is obviously not very good." I laughed pointing at my now see through shirt and Luke's bruised ass on the ground.
"Not at all." He said and I stretched my arm down to him to help him up. He was reluctant to take it but did anyway. I grabbed his hand and started to pull him up when I heard a rattling sound outside of the door.
"I'm home!" I hear a happy voice yell. I turned my head, still having Luke's weight in my hand to see my mother walking through the door.
(A.N: Hey everyone! So I wanted to clear something up that has been bothering me and needs to be said. I really do update as often as I can. Its my senior year and I have a huuuuuge exam of all four years in 5 months and its not something to take lightly. My days are extremely long and it really is hard to write. I put this fanfic before so much but school has to stay in first place. I just wanted you guys to know that and not think that I just don't feel like updating, because I do! All the time! This story is my everything so yeah! Sorry bout that but I hope you liked this chapter its not all too long or eventful but it gives a good flow and its a crustal part of the story. Another thing, some people have asked me who I have cast as Peyton and the answer is no one. I don't want to cast Peyton because she is a very special character to me, and I've had the idea of a Peyton since a year or so. No Hollywood actress or singer or whatever can be Peyton because Peyton is Peyton. So if you guys picture her as someone go ahead but there is no official casting. I want you guys to be original as well and make up your own image of her! Let those minds roam free! Anyway, sorry this AN is long but i thought you needed to know! Thank you so much I love you all ! -Liz)