Top 10 Times Lucas on One Tree Hill Was The WORST

After the whole mess with Brooke and Peyton, Luke decides that it is best for him to leave town and get a fresh start. But let’s be honest, he was running away. Rather than taking some accountability for his actions, and dealing with the consequences, he abandons his friends and his mom. This is a straight-up cowardly move. Brooke and Peyton, who were best friends before he came along are still all messed up because of him, and he leaves them with nothing but a letter. He doesn’t even tell them he’s leaving! He just bounces and leaves them behind in his wreckage.

Lucas spends the entire first season hating Dan for abandoning him and his mom, so everyone is thrown when he decides to go live with Dan after his heart attack. Though he claims it is a chance to get to know the new Dan, it is revealed through his time capsule video that his true motive is to learn Dan’s secrets and take him down. It might be tempting to see this act as heroic, but truthfully, all he did was hurt all the people he loved most. He destroys his mother by moving in with Dan. He wrecks his new brotherly relationship with Nathan. He becomes estranged from Keith. Even his friendship with Haley is affected.

After his near fatal car accident, Luke sneaks out and decides to drown his sorrows over Brooke and Peyton at a bar where he meets someone who he thinks is a complete stranger. It turned out to be the last girl he should have been sleeping with. Granted, he didn't know Nicki was Jake's ex at the time, but it's still not great. Like Peyton said, after everything that happened she couldn't just go out and hook up with someone. He, however, seemed to have no qualms about doing something like that - especially while Karen, Brooke, and Peyton are looking for him. And when everything eventually hit the fan, he acted like Nicki was the only one to blame. Remember that fight at Haley’s party? Luke didn’t start it, but come on, it was his fault.

To be fair, there are some mitigating factors here. Luke and Peyton had only seen each other for the first time in ages, after a harsh break up. They're standing in their old hangout, talking about their relationship, so it's understandable that they got caught up in the moment. But it is still no excuse. Lindsey put her faith in him. She read his novel about the epic love story of Lucas and Peyton, and still trusted him, and he betrayed that trust. Then after kissing Peyton and letting her think that maybe there was a future for them, he doubled down on this jerk move by proposing to Lindsey right after.

We can sympathize with Luke’s initial fear of finding out about his heart condition, but there is no denying that this is a pretty selfish decision. He first refuses to take the test, and then when he finally does, he lies about the results. Not only does he put his own life in jeopardy, but he also gets Nathan to lie for him, and he jeopardizes the team’s future, all while putting his mom through hell. Perhaps worst of all, he puts Haley in a bad position when she has to lie not just about his condition, but also about him stealing money from his mom’s cafe to pay for his meds.

We’ll be the first to admit that Brooke was being quite cruel to Luke in this particular moment, but we will give her some latitude here considering she was in the midst of a pregnancy scare while still reeling from Luke cheating on her with Peyton. Yet, even though he was the one who was unfaithful, Luke throws Brooke’s promiscuous past in her face during a fight over their pregnancy scare. He reminds her that he is not the only guy she’s ever been with, and maliciously suggests that someone else could be the father. Not cool Luke, really not cool.

Brooke, understandably, has some trouble trusting Luke again when he wants to get back together in season three. So she implements this whole nonexclusive rule. As a way to challenge her, Luke uses Rachel to make her jealous. Not only is this hurtful to Brooke, because she and Rachel hate each other, but it is hurtful to Rachel who develops real feelings for him. She might not be great, but she doesn't deserve to be treated like that. He never goes out with Rachel to actively participate in the nonexclusive experiment, he only does it to antagonize Brooke. And when they both get mad at him, Luke acts like the victim and treats Rachel like she’s the villain in the whole thing.

Haley says it best herself; when Luke decided to leave the River Court and join the Ravens she didn’t understand it, but she supported it. But when Haley becomes a cheerleader to help out Brooke and Peyton, Luke's first response is to laugh at her. He, himself, started breaking into the popular crowd by joining the basketball team. But when it comes to Haley, he looks down on her. He sees it as her somehow losing herself when he’s the one that has been acting out of character at the time. Isn’t Haley allowed to grow as a person and have a little fun, too?

This is the love triangle that started it all. Lucas could have chosen to be with Peyton if he wanted to, but he stayed with Brooke instead. He knew how insecure and fragile Brooke really was in spite of how self assured she always seemed on the outside. Yet he cheated on her with her best friend. He spends so much time convincing Brooke that she's crazy for thinking that he has feelings for Peyton, which makes the whole thing that much worse. Even his own mom was pissed at him when she found out - and he totally deserved it.

Anybody can make a bad mistake once, but what happened with Brooke was not a one time deal. Leading women on was a pattern with Luke. It was basically his MO. Brooke says herself that he hides himself in relationships with the wrong people. He played Brooke and Peyton off each other in season one. He messed Anna up in season two by being with her when he clearly still had feelings for Brooke. He purposely tried to make Brooke jealous with Rachel. When he did get back with Brooke, he never really let her in like she deserved. And he almost married Lindsey knowing that he really wanted to be with Peyton. And we thought Nathan was supposed to be the bad boy brother!