Home Sweet Home

The Red Room

Following in Sawyer's direction, Peyton headed up the stairs as well. It had felt like she had stepped into a time warp. Suddenly, she was that angsty, brooding teenage girl, living home again. Her fingers traced the original off crimson, swirled design wallpaper still leading up the stairwell. The hallway was still as she had left it, all of the empty rooms still looking very much as they had her whole life.

Sawyer was sitting in the middle of the floor in Peyton's old bedroom. The bright red walls, and the original paintings she had done, made her heart swell. No one had changed anything in the years she had not owned the house. She turned to look at the closet doors. Sure enough, Brooke's girly hand writing with their dream lists were on either side. "Momma, can I have this room? Please? It's so pretty!" Sawyer begged. "Absolutely. You can have any room in here." She kneeled down next to Sawyer. "We can go look at paint colors later today, maybe do that pretty pink that was on your walls back in LA?" A frown settled on her daughters face. "No thank you, Momma. I like it how it is." She said pointing to the red walls. "Whatever you like, it's your room now, Bug." She said with a smile. Secretly extremely happy nothing was changing in her once treasured space. They had looked around a little more. The two spare bedrooms and into the master bedroom, that once belonged to her father. "Alright. Ready to set up?" Sawyer nodded excitedly.

With the boxes unpacked nearly two hours later, and their bedrooms set up they were finally ready to surprise their family. She had locked up before heading into town. She pointed out so many things as they drove by, explaining to Sawyer, her big blue eyes taking everything in with such a big smile permanently etched onto her face. They finally pulled up in front of Karen's Cafe. Butterflies, that was the best Peyton could explain how she was feeling. She took Sawyer by the hand and Lucas followed up next to her on the other side as they entered the building.