Chapter 4

The next morning both of the girls slept in. They had both decided, separately, to skip work for the day because neither wanted to face their parents. Neither of the girls had tried to talk to one another since Peyton had asked last night. Lainey woke up around 8:00 and couldn't go back to sleep so she got up and started showing herself around the house.

She started with the upstairs and found two bathrooms, three other bedrooms besides her own that were all identical in layout, a living room, and of course the master bed and bath. The master bedroom was beautiful.

It had a balcony that led outside to look out over the back end of the house, large windows to let in plenty of natural light, two big walk in closets, a king sized bed, two vanities, a couple of dressers, a tv mounted to the wall, a desk, a little nook in the corner with books and a chair, and a bathroom attached.

After going through the upstairs she went through the main level of the house. There was a living room, kitchen, dinning area, two office spaces, a study, two more smaller bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Next she went out back and found a large swimming pool, a hot tub, a tanning area, and an area to host people. In the hosting area there was a fire place, an outside tv, some outdoor furniture, a bar and grill area, and it was all underneath an overhanging roof from the back of the house.

She then went downstairs and found a gym with a juice bar and an entertainment area with things such as a pool table, ping pong, large tv, some chairs and a couch, a dart board, a fridge, a bar for serving drinks and stuff, and a few arcade style games.

After Lainey was done looking around she decided to put on her workout clothes and go back down to the gym.

Peyton woke up a little after 9:00. She too got up and started looking around the house as well. To say what she found in the basement was a shock would be an understatement. Peyton had never seen Lainey workout before. She knew that throughout high school the girl had played all kinds of sports, but other than just passing through the gym on occasion she had never seen Lainey actually working out.

Lainey was facing away from her doing bodyweight squats with a resistance band around her thighs when Peyton came down. Peyton couldn't have pried her eyes off of Lainey even if she'd wanted to. Lainey was only in a sports bra and spandex that stopped only a couple of inches under her butt.

Lainey had her airpods in so she hadn't heard Peyton come down the stairs. Peyton took full advantage and took in all of the blonde's beauty. Just because Peyton wasn't really the biggest fan of Lainey didn't mean she couldn't find her beautiful. Lainey was tall, with platinum blonde hair, her eyes were an ocean blue, and she was skinny, yet defined, with a slight hourglass shape. Peyton knew that Lainey had always played sports when they were in high school, but she never went to the girl's games because she was always at the boys games.

After 5 minutes or so of Lainey not turning around Peyton broke the silence by clearing her throat loud enough to break though the sound of her music, scaring Lainey and almost causing her to fall if it weren't for Peyton rushing over and catching her before she ended up on the floor.

"What the fuck! You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry" Peyton said now staring at Lainey's abs.

"Hello" Lainey said drawing out her word "My eyes are up here." she said with a smirk.

Peyton looked up wide eyed. She couldn't believe that she had just been caught staring at Lainey of all people. The girl she had hated for as long as she could remember. "Sorry, I've just never noticed how fit you were. I mean don't get me wrong I never thought you were fat, but wow look at your abs! They are phenomenal. They must have taken a lot of work!" Peyton rambled.

"You've never seen a girl with abs?" Lainey asked getting a drink from her water bottle.

"Well, no I... I mean yes I have but... I mean I've seen girls with abs before I've just never seen... yours."

Lainey furrowed her brows trying to figure out what Peyton had meant, but shortly gave up. "What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be at work or something?"

"Didn't feel like going in. You?"

Lainey sighed "Yeah, after last night I just wasn't in the mood to go in and see my parents."

"You're close with them?" Peyton asked taking a seat at the bar and facing Lainey as she was still standing over by her water, but now focusing on wiping her sweat with a towel.

Lainey scoffed. "Pfft, please, quite the opposite actually."

"What do you mean?"

"Meh, they may have given birth to me but they didn't raise me and they aren't raising my siblings so I mean... I'm sure you can put the pieces together for yourself. Last night was the first time I can remember having dinner with my parents two nights in a row, and they only did that because it benefitted them."

"Oh. I'm sorry I didn't know."

"You think you know everything Chapman. Well newsflash you don't know my life story. I guarantee we had very different childhoods. What were your parents like? Did you get to have them there when you won an award, or when you competed in things, or even if all you needed was someone to talk to?" Lainey said suddenly defensive.

"Well, Yeah, but don't all parents do their best to make it to everything? I'm sure your parents didn't purposely miss your stuff."

"See that's where your wrong, my parents couldn't care less about being there for that kind of stuff. Ever wonder why we didn't get along in high school?"

Peyton thought about it. "Because we were both competing for valedictorian?"

Lainey scoffed "No"

"Because of Scott?"

"Please, I couldn't care less about your high school 'boy toy'. I don't date men." Lainey paused. "And come to think of it you don't date girls so why did you even agree to this?"

"Actually, little miss know it all, I would have dated girls if I hadn't been with Scott since sophomore year. I'm bi thank you very much. But, if it wasn't that then I don't know what it could have been because I didn't play sports so it's not like I was trying to take your spot in any of those."

"Oh please you couldn't have even if you wanted to. The reason we never got along was because no matter how similar on paper our lives were, we had it completely different growing up. You had parents who showed up to everything, mine didn't even show for graduation, or when I got hurt playing sports. You chose to be friends with anyone popular, even if they were rude to others, or didn't have morals when it came to people who were less fortunate. I chose friends who I knew would always have my back, and stand up for those who were less fortunate. You never once went against the grain in high school, even when things weren't fair for everyone. I pushed back when a rule or order was unfair, even if it was in favor of me and put others at a disadvantage. I still stood up to that, but you took everything in stride stepping on anyone and everyone without even a second thought."

"That's not true! Also who my friends were when they weren't with me is none of my business. It's not like I was rude to people myself."

"What do you mean it's none of your business? Who your friends are is a reflection on yourself. Even in your relationship with Scott all he talked about was how easy it was to walk all over you and that he could basically go out and party, cheat, drink, and basically do whatever he wanted because you were too blind to notice. You know, I won championships for the school, I fought for what I believed in and stood up for everyone, but all I heard from my parents is why can't you be more like Peyton? Please more people when you first meet them, be better friends with the rich kids so we can strengthen connections, act happier in public being sad or down sometimes is perceived as weak, work more hours at the company and spend less with your 'rotten' friends, and for Gods sake can you just for once be a normal girl and find yourself a nice boy."

Peyton didn't have a response for that. She had no idea Lainey's parents hadn't been there for her, let alone wanted their daughter to be something she wasn't. She just assumed that her parents were always supportive because Lainey never showed or said any different. "I'm sorry. I just assumed that your parents were supportive, because it seemed like you did whatever you wanted so I just thought that the only way you could get away with all that was if they supported it."

"They were never around to stop me, and disowning me would look bad to the public so they ignored me hoping I'd eventually stop. Why did you guys break up anyway? You and Scott were supposed to be like the perfect couple in high school."

"I don't want to talk about it, I don't know." Peyton mumbled.

"Huh!" Lainey said angrily.

"I said I don't want to talk it. I love him but-"

"Woah, woah, woah" Lainey interrupted. "You love him?"

"Yeah we dated for almost four years of course I loved him."

"No, no, no. You didn't say 'loved' the first time. You said love, as in you still love him to this day."

"I... I... I meant loved ok. Can we please just talk about something else?" Peyton said.

"Peyton, when did you and Scott breakup?"

"It's not important."

"Yes, it is."

"Why would I tell you? You are the last person I would ever talk about that with."

"Fine, have it your way then. So why'd you hate me? I told you why I wasn't your fan."

"What do you mean what's mine? You're literally everything I'm not. You got perfect scores in everything without even trying. Meanwhile I had to literally beg the teachers at the end of the year to give me enough extra credit to raise my GPA so that we could be co-valedictorians, rather than you being the solo valedictorian since you never tried. You are so comfortable being yourself, you're body is flawless. You have business skills like someone who's been doing it their entire life, athletically gifted. I have been compared to you my entire life, so yeah sorry if I'm not your biggest fan either. I did everything academically my parents could ever want but that wasn't enough for them because you did that and more. While your parents didn't show up, mine breathed down my neck every second because I wasn't good enough and they wanted more." Peyton was in tears by this point. "And to top it all off you're literally nice to everyone... Well, everyone but me and my friends."

"Peyton-" Lainey sighed.

"No, you know what? This was a stupid idea. I'm going back upstairs." Peyton said getting up and heading back upstairs.

"Peyton wait!" Lainey yelled to her, but Peyton didn't turn around she just continued her trek back up to her room.

Lainey finished her workout before going back up to her room. She took a quick shower and got dressed. She noticed that it was time for lunch so she went to the kitchen expecting to find Peyton, but the only one in there was Chef Rue.

"Lainey! I fixed a bunch of different sandwiches for lunch since I don't know what your friend likes. I can fix you something else though if you'd like."

"She's not my friend, but this all looks amazing Chef Smith, thanks."

"Really? We're back to last names? I've known you your whole life Lainey what gives? At the house you called me Rue. Why the sudden change?"

"You obviously sided with my father when it comes to this since you moved too so yes we are back to last names."

"Honey, I didn't side with John. But I knew he wasn't going to back off and didn't want you to feel like you were alone in this, so when he asked if I would like to be the chef for you and Peyton at your new house I accepted without question."

Lainey rolled her eyes. "Did you make any Italian BMT's, Rue?" Lainey said smiling and emphasizing the name.

Rue smiled wide. "Of course I made your favorite honey, they're at the end."