There was a point in his life when he had it all mapped out. Everything to a 'T'. The life he wanted was waiting for him and all he had to do was take the necessary steps to make it a reality.

They had chosen the house they wanted to build their life inside. They had chosen baby names for the children who would run in the yard. They knew they would have it all, but it was always just a 'someday'.

After high school, they had spent the perfect summer together. Knowing his assistant coaching job would only be three hours away made thinking of the fall bearable.

Come fall, Lucas moved away to live with Nathan, Haley and Jamie. Peyton stayed in Tree Hill and took business classes at the local college. They saw each other nearly every weekend for the entire four years. It wasn't as hard as they'd thought it was going to be.

After the four years were up, and Nathan had his accident, the 4 Scotts moved back to Tree Hill. Nathan and Haley bought a big house for their small family, and Lucas moved into his mother's home. She was traveling the world with his little sister and Andy, her new old love.

Peyton all but lived with Lucas. They spent nights together on his porch, basking in the warm breeze and spending time how they'd wanted to for the entire four years prior. Peyton had graduated and was job searching and Lucas was up for the job coaching the Ravens. It was perfect. They were perfect. They were still as happy as they were when they first started dating.

Then the call came. Peyton was offered a job in Nashville as a junior A&R rep for a major label. She had been so scared to tell him that she waited as long as she could before mentioning anything to him about it. One night over dinner when she couldn't wait any longer, she blurted out the news.

"Luke, I was offered a job in Nashville and it sounds really great. But I don't have to take it and I don't know what to do because everything's been so good with us." She didn't take a breath through her whole spiel and couldn't look at his face.

"Peyton, that's great!" He was excited and happy for her. "You should take it."

"What? You just got your coaching job." She looked at him, finally, with worry in her eyes. He grabbed her hands across the table.

"Yes. Now it's time for you to chase your dream. You can't do that in Tree Hill. What are you gonna do, start your own label? You should take it."

"What about you?"

"I'll be here. Missing you. And on my way to Nashville every chance I get."

"Luke..."

"Peyton, I want you to get everything you want." She got up from her seat, knelt beside him and put her hands on his knees.

"Lucas Scott, you are my favourite person in this whole entire world."

A week later, they were packing her things into a U-Haul and saying goodbye to Haley and Nathan, with Brooke on speaker phone from New York. Luke drove with Peyton to Nashville and did the heavy lifting as she settled into her new, tiny apartment. When it was time for him to leave, she suddenly felt like everything was going to fall apart and that she'd made a huge mistake.

"Luke, I need you to tell me that everything is going to be OK."

"Peyt, everything is going to be fine. You are going to be amazing." He folded her into his arms like he'd done a thousand times before.

"No, it's not the job, it us." She was sobbing into his chest, leaving tear drops on his blue shirt.

"We're going to be fine, Peyton." He pulled away from her and wiped the tears from her eyes so he could look into them. "It's you and me. Forever."