"Here's to hoping our futures are brighter than  making a toast for celebration at a school party," Haley chuckles, her structured and serious side beaming through.
                          
'Oh shut up', I thought and nudge into her side, "Oops, my bad, stupid slippery floor."  
                          
"Don't start what you can't finish," Haley challenges and lunges forward in attempts to knock me back.
                          
"Its so on," I go to nudge her back and blocked by the protective slender blonde who fortunately for Haley's sake decides to intervene. 
                          
"Now, now girls," Peyton says whilst wrapping her arms around to either of our shoulders, "We all know I'd win, isn't that right, Brooke?"
                          
Brooke rolled her eyes and sculled her wine like it was a refreshing cup of water.



                          
The night goes on and merges into a hazy blur.  
                          
Following Brooke around like little lost puppies, she eventually stops at an opportunity to introduce us to a few people she crosses in the crowds that she clearly already knew.
                          
"Everyone, meet Peyton, Haley and Bec," She points with each names' announcement. 
                          
We're being studied like an experiment, till we start breaking off into our own little groups. Somehow amongst the group I found an easy target to go for. Slow steps has me stop before them and I give a weak smile.
Sucking in the anxiety, I exhale and reach for their awaiting hand to shake. 
"Hi, I'm Bec," I say with a firm handshake, "What's your name? Where do you go? What're you studying? Any interests? Or secrets that I should know of?"
                          
"Uh haha, hello, thats a lotta questions at once. Okay, let's get this right. Hello, I'm Lucas. Tree Hill University, and English major," He says with a bright and welcoming smile, "I want to be a writer and a little secret, I like you." 
As he says this, I'm Inwardly smiling to myself and enjoy the eruption of butterflies it causes.
                          
It's hard keeping a straight face with one another and end up laughing at our attempt. 
                          
"Oh, Luke, what're we doing? Weren't we just in high school and now here..." 
                          
Turning to his unusually quiet self, I find myself admiring his peaceful side expression as he's studying the crowd we're stood opposite to. 
There's always been something about the way he held himself; at the best of times, he seemed to have it together, nothing could phase him.  No one would know when he's truly hurting, when he hid any emotions so well and only letting you see what he wanted you to.
                          
"It's pretty unreal we made it! That's the shocking part for me, after everything we've been through..." he says and there's something else on his mind, as he goes on to say, "And with you know, uh, the stuff with us..." He said  quietly whilst uncomfortably shifting. 
                          
I hum at him. I'm not sure the word 'stuff' is best used to describe what we've been up too. But it'll have to do, I guess. 
                          
He leans back and folding his arms against his front; his body language still inviting and not a sign to leave. Where as I'm hunched, trying to protect myself. 
He adjusts himself again, now with his forearm propped to the surface behind him and chin lazy placed on top of his shoulder and giving me a weak smile.
                          
"Yeah, true..." I tried my best to keep it in but end up letting out a sigh, "But remember, it's our secret, okay?" 
                          
Standing up right, he pinches his fingers together, zipping his lips shut and tosses away a fake key. This is why he's my trusted, dorky best friend.
                          
"Am I interrupting something?" Brooke says with an uneasy smile. 
Rather than letting either of us reply and it would seem she's also uncomfortable with our closeness, she squishes between to separate us and hands Lucas a plastic cup.