Treacherous

Truth

Peyton’s POV:

“You think she’ll wake up soon?” I heard a deep voice say, a hand pushing my hair to the side. I heard a squeak coming from below where I lay, sounding like a body sitting down in a chair near me.

“The doctors said she’s fine, just sleeping. I’d guess she’s exhausted after… everything. And well, jet lag isn’t cool either.” She says, the last part sounding like a small effort of a joke. Why does she sound like me? Is this Zoey?

I feel a warm hand, much smaller than the other that had touched me, grip mine on the opposite side of me. Then a dragging sound before the same squeak and thump as she sits down on the chair.

“Did you call Harry?” The voice, who sounded much like Lucas, asks Zoey.

“No, I called Zayn though. I told him to tell Harry… Harry and I aren’t really speaking right now…” She sighs, her thumb rubbing circles on my hand, “But Zayn was nice to me. He’s a good guy, and I’m just realizing how horrible I was to him. I want to apologize when he gets here.”

Gets here? Why was Zayn coming here? Where even was here? I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes. I just wanted to go back to sleep, but these voices wouldn’t shut up.

“You should apologize to Harry too, Zoey.” Lucas says softly.

“What?” She sounds shocked, “I know what I did was wrong, but he initiated it. I didn’t hurt him, I hurt Peyton and I apologized to her for that. And saying that I saved her life, I think I’ve paid her back.” Zoey snaps at him.

She saved my life?

“I don’t mean about what happened. I mean apologize to him about how you treated him before. When you were hurting Zayn, you were hurting Harry too. It’s the first step to mending your relationship with him, if that’s what you want anyways. You need to apologize for being a bitch…” He pauses, “Sorry… but you need to apologize for your behavior, and ask for a clean slate. Maybe you two can move on and it can be how it was before.”

It was silent for a moment, before Zoey spoke again. “What makes you so good with relationships?”

“I’m not. But I know if I was Harry, and Peyton had done that to me… Not that Peyton and I were ever in love, but we’re best friends. If Peyton apologized for going psycho on me, maybe we could start again.” He explains.

“I guess.”

They’re silent again. Lucas’ hand starts trailing up and down my arm while Zoey continues to rub circles on my hand with her thumb. Why was she doing that? I thought she hated me…

“So you really jumped into the fire to pull her out…” Lucas finally speaks; his voice quieter this time, as if it was hard for him to say.  

“I didn’t really think about it… I didn’t even realize I cared at all about Peyton, let alone enough to run into a burning house to pull her out. I mean we hardly even know each other, and from what we do know, it hasn’t been very good.” She pauses, releasing my hand. “I guess I’ve always wanted a sister, and at that moment, the thought of letting the one chance I had at having my sister with me… It terrified me.”

“Well thank-you. I’m as good as Peyton’s family, and if I’d lost her…” He takes a shaky breath, “I don’t know what I’d do.”

“It’s not like she got out of it completely unharmed… There’s the scar on her leg, and then Tom…” She stops talking her hands reaching for mine again.

“Yeah… There was nothing you could do about that. I hope they catch the asshole who did this.”

I let out a small groan, causing the two to fall silent immediately. I force my eyes to open, the bright lights temporarily blinding me. I blink, reaching up with my free hand to cover my eyes.