Disclaimer: I am not Mark Schwahn. This can mean only one thing: I don't own One Tree Hill. I also don't own the song 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' by Simple Minds, I just dance to it.

Summary: "Come with me Brooke" Julian said, observing her. "I am leaving Tree Hill tomorrow. Just come with me." Brulian.

Author's Note: For the past two seasons, I have been watching One Tree Hill for the sake of the show, and of course for the wonderful Sophia. Yet thanks to the Brulian introduction, my enthusiasm level has been flying on the top of the Tree Hillian world, so this is a oneshot I must have gotten out of my system.

Reviews are kindly appreciated.

The Stoner and the Priss

When Brooke opened her eyes to a bright-morning, a spectacularly sunny one compared to the grey days she had lived for the past couple of weeks, she couldn't help but smile inwardly, feeling a new wave of energy conquering her system.

Instead of feeling immeasurably tired from the amount of work she had done, and the burden to be carried on her shoulders, she got up from the bed quickly, and for the first time in long weeks, Brooke Davis spent an approximate half-hour trying to figure out what to wear.

"Despite the common belief, I start to think that you're having an affair with that closet." Sam said, leaning onto the wall. "I just can't figure out how you manage with the sex."

Normally, in the first times Sam had been in Brooke's, this type of witty comment would have driven her crazy, yet in a situation like theirs, especially that morning, Brooke Davis replied with a huge grin, showing Sam the choices of clothes she had demoted after long hours of practice in front of the wide mirror.

"Do you think I should go with the purple dress? Or is this tank-top more relevant?" she asked, ignoring the glaring looks coming from the 15-year-old.

"Whatever, you're going to be stuck making designs in the store anyway." Sam said rolling her eyes. "Unless…" she kinked her eyebrows "you're expecting some special company."

Brooke rolled her eyes, trying her best to ignore the second-wittiest comment coming from the irony-queen Samantha Walker in nearly-two-minutes. She knew what Sam was implying, and she wasn't going to fall for that.

"I think I will go for the top and the jeans." Brooke decided. "Thanks for the advice Sam, you can go and get ready for the school."

Sam looked at her with a slim smirk, and before she left Brooke with the vast amount of clothes scattered around the room, "you can't constantly run away, you know?" was all she said.

/////

It was when Brooke finished designing that night gown (Maybe a black-ribbon would suit the waist-part, but she was going to leave it plain anyway, just to see the effect on the model) the radio started playing to a song she was very familiar to.

Won't you come see about me?
I'll be alone, dancing you know it baby

She was 14, when she first heard the song, in the Breakfast Club of course, and since then, the melodies and the teenaging-cliched-chick-flick-sensation had captured her, so whenever the music played, no matter what she was doing, Brooke Davis had always felt that strange adolescent energy.

Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out and

She had heard the same exact words basically one month ago, when everything in her life seemed relatively simple compared to what she would encounter. Brooke was sitting in the same chair trying to figure out her sketches and designs when Julian Baker had offered her to be a costume assistant in 'Ravens'.

Of course, she was Brooke Davis, and it wasn't that easy to fool her, so when the day was over, Julian Baker had left the store with a rejection and the realization of how Brooke really felt about his presence being strongly correlated with Peyton.

Love's strange so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on

Then, in the same day, when all she planned was to work on her sketches a little bit more and maybe crash at Haley's for warm coffee and warmer conversation- she had learned the relationship between her attack and Sam. For a brief moment, the terrifying memories had assaulted her in the worst of nightmares ever be imagined, and when Brooke had returned to real life, Sam had already walked away in tears, leaving no sign of where her destination would be.

Slow change may pull us apart
When the light gets into your heart, baby

She had tried every single place, from that skating-park she usually hang out with to Haley's but Sam had disappeared. In the meanwhile of looking for her, Brooke had realized how unconscious and apathetic Owen had been, and despite what he had been trying to assure her of (he had said that he wasn't that guy), Julian had been the one looking and worrying over Sam.

Don't You Forget About Me
Don't Don't Don't Don't
Don't You Forget About Me

Brooke had watched him disappearing in a dark, deserted Tree Hill street, dumping the cup of coffee he claimed to come to the diner for. It had been a very long time since Brooke Davis stopped trusting a man, so the reappearance of that forgotten feeling had captured her for some seconds, only to be dissolved again with the worry and fear for Sam.

She had returned to Haley's only to be greeted by worried faces offering every bit of help they could, but for one week, even though they had traced to the little-bit of clue they could find, Samantha Walker had been unable to be found.

Will you stand above me?
Look my way, never love me

It had been another sleepless night mixed with sleeping pills and disastrous nightmares when Brooke was waken up from her zombie-like-stupor with the calling of the phone.

Her response was not that quick this time, for every bell rang or every polyphonic-ring on the phone; it was either the police asking for further details, or a concerned-friend wanting to know about the development in the search of Sam. So there wasn't any reason to have Reagan-esque optimism.

"Hello?" she had replied, tired and miserable.

"Brooke, its Julian here. I found Sam, we're coming home."

Rain keeps falling; rain keeps falling
down, down, down

"I just saw that Bill walking in the street and followed him home" Julian had said with that usual smirk on his face. "Thought Sam would be there, and apperantly I was right."

Sam had remained silent, throwing Brooke hidden looks. She had still been feeling guilty, and even though Brooke had pulled her a huge and relieving hug and cried, partially begging her not to do that anymore, Sam thought that she didn't deserve that love after everything she had been doing.

"Thanks Julian. Thanks." Was Brooke's reply, still in shock over Sam, sitting in the sofa, after all those countless nights she worried about how she might never see that teenager who had become a huge part of her life again.

"Look, I gotta go now. You guys may have some catching up to do." Julian had stood up, walking towards the door.

Brooke had accompanied him, and when he had approached for the doorknob, she had leant onto the wall, acting as a barrier on his way out. "Julian" she had said with shining eyes, the effect of the young man apparent, "I need to tell you that...."

Instead Julian had cut her, telling that that he wasn't that guy, and all that effort had been made because he wanted Brooke to reconsider the offer about the costume designing position.

She had been let down by another man in a very short time, but unlike the feelingless-ness in Owen, this time, it actually had hurt.

/////

"I heard that Julian was going to leave the town soon." Sam said, taking a sip from her excessive-sugar-induced coffee. They were sitting at Sam's regular diner, since she had always felt comfortable sitting in that second-class place, in the broken sofa where the toast was always burned, Brooke had suggested to go to there for a cup of coffee after her work was done.

"Satan's work here is done." Brooke murmured, trying to avoid the subject as much as possible. No other person in her life was bringing the constant subject Julian into agenda than Sam, and those underlying implications were getting more and more annoying each time his name was pronounced.

"Good girls always fall for the bad boys." Sam smiled, "have you been seeing him around lately? Since you have been paying extra attention to your clothes?"

Brooke rolled her eyes. "Sam, I think you should go to the ladies to splashsome water on your face. Because you're not making any sense."

"So that you can fantasise about Julian without my disturbing presence?" Sam replied, with her ironical-smirk. "Fine by me."

As she made her way to the ladies room in the diner, Brooke started to think about Julian. After he had found Sam, and practically blackmailed her into the position in the film, they hadn't talked much. Some witty remarks, exchanging hello's in the street, these were all the connection they had had.

"Excuse me miss"

She was awakened by her dream by the sound of a worried looking man, calling for the waitress.

"Did you happen to see this woman around here today?" He showed her a picture, probably praying on the inside that the waitress would reply with a huge smile, telliing him all the details about the missing woman.

Instead, she said. "Sorry, sir. I haven't seen her in my whole life."

Brooke emphasized with the disappointed man, after all, she wasn't in a different situation two weeks before.

"Damn it, Chloe." The waitress complained after the guy shot the door to wander around the streets trying to find the missing woman. "What is this place, the police deparment of missing people?"

The waitress behind the coffee machine, Chloe obviously, shrugged her shoulders. "Do you remember that hot guy who used to come here every single day asking for that chick Sam?"

Brooke startled for a minute, who were they talking about?

"Yeah." The waitress giggled. "He was hot, but completely nuts. Every single day, asking for that Sam-chick over and over again. And he didn't take no for an answer, either.

"And what about those cups of coffees he ordered but never drank?" Chloe said, also giggling. "But he is not coming now, so I suppose he found her Sam. Who do you think Sam was?"

As the two waitresses speculated about Sam's position in Julian's life, Brooke got out from her place, and scrambling a note about an emergency into a piece of paper for Sam, she stormed to her car, driving no faster than the questions scrambling in her mind."

/////

Julian Baker was checking the bank accounts for the Ravens when his door was knocked on. After Lucas had agreed to work with Dixon, things have gotten quite easy, and with her amazing persuasion skills and the programme he had come up with, it hadn't been difficult to find sponsors to subsidize the movie.

When he opened the door, Julian saw the first person he would never expect to see in the threshold.

Brooke Davis.

"Well, hello, Brooke." He said, smirking. "I knew that you'd been missing me, but showing up in my door at a time like this…it's fabulous."

Instead of replying, Brooke stormed into the room, looking at Julian questioningly.

"Why Julian?" she asked suddenly, after seconds that could be stretched into hours spent in silence. "Why did you find Sam?"

Julian smiled in relief. "I thought I made it clear, I wanted you in my cast. That's why."

"I know you'd been going to the diner everyday asking for her." Brooke blurted. "I know the efforts you made."

Julian's cocky face fell down, being replaced by a serious attitude Brooke had never encountered before.

"Brooke…"

"Nobody does that for a simple costume designing position!" Brooke cried, trying to hold back tears. "Why Julian, just tell me why?"

All of a sudden, Julian took a few steps further, and even Before could react, he pulled her to a deep kiss. It was exactly the type of kiss that could be expected from Julian Baker. Passionate and caring at the same time. His lips were dominating all the action, mouth wide open as if screaming his lungs out. Tongues were fighting for power, and still in that battle, she felt as if his flesh was massaging hers in the most attractive way that could ever be felt.

When they broke the kiss to get some air, Brooke felt all the rationality that had flown away with his touch coming back to her senses.

"Come with me Brooke" Julian said, observing her. "I am leaving Tree Hill tomorrow. Just come with me."

Brooke stared in amazement, while her heart was giving the most brutal war against her mind.

"But Peyton…" she mumbled, trying to find the accurate words. "Peyton…"

"This is not about Peyton, for God's sake!" Julian cried. "This is about you and me, Brooke. Come with me, to New York. We can find Sam a school there, start all over."

"But…" Brooke's voice failed, so instead of fighting for words to come out of her mouth, Brooke chose to leave Julian alone in the middle of the room, feeling slightly disappointed and curious.

/////

Brooke had found herself lying on the sofa, looking at the plain walls when Sam had entered the room.

"So, I assume you talked to Julian." She said, taking a sip from her juice, sitting on the nearby couch. "That explains."

"He wants me to go with him." Brooke blurted out, no visible feeling in the tone of her voice. "He wants us to go with him to New York."

"I know" Sam said, shrugging her shoulders. "We've been talking about this for some time."

Brooke got up, clearly surprised. "What do you mean you knew? How did…? What the hell is..?"

Sam got out of the couch and stood up in a teacher-like manner as if getting ready to lecture her students.

"Look Brooke. Julian…he wants to have a new life with you. And before telling you about it, he came to me. He asked for my permission. He wanted to know whether I'd be ok with this and I said I was more than fine."

Brooke looked at Sam speechless, wondering which feeling inside was winning the battle: the need to know about what Julian said more or the anger of Sam and Julian going behind her back?

"But Peyton." She said. "He is Peyton's ex-boyfriend and I can't do that to her."

"Really?" Sam asked ironically. "She stole Lucas from you two times, and used being in love as an excuse. Maybe this time, it's your turn to 'fall in love' huh?"

After a brief moment of silence, Sam started talking again.

"Look Brooke, I'm not forcing you into anything. Especially after all the things you did for me. It's just…Julian likes you a lot, and I don't want you to give up on that just because your so-called-best-friend had some usual past with him. Julian had already let go of Peyton, and now it's time you did so."

/////

Don't you try to pretend
it's my feeling we'll win in the end

When she had heard the song for the first time in her life, Brooke Davis was 14, and due to recent experiences with men, she was fully aware that she would never find someone who can make her move one step forward from the mess she had been dwelling in.

It was 11 years after, Julian Baker had come, taught her to move on, to find what pleased her the most before thinking about those people who had counted on her loyalty even in the middle of constant heartbreak.

Now she had taken a risk, was flying to New York with a guy she barely knew- yet Brooke Davis knew that it was the best decision she had ever made in years.

Don't you forget about me
I'll be alone, dancing you know it baby
Going to take you apart
I'll put us back together at heart, baby

"I still have no idea how you happen to know all my high-school past that well." Brooke said to Sam, who was skimming through the magazine the airline serviced.

"I have my sources." Sam shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, but her excitement was crystal clear too.

"Maybe I should contact those sources, too." Julian said, holding Brooke's hand. "Just to learn what the priss had been up to for all those years."

"Well" Brooke said, "She ended up with the stoner, and that's all I can say." Before pulling Julian into a deep-passionate kiss.

"Dude!" Sam opposed, turning her focus to the magazine instead of watching the 'gross-scene' Julian and Brooke shared. "I'm so regretting my decision to convince Brooke into this right now."