Authors note: I had to re-post this story due to problems with updating and people not being able to see all chapters. Sad to say that this made all the reviews for the first three chapters disappear. Well... i hope this time it's going to work without complications.

I don't own anything other than my ideas...

So this story starts after episode 4x07 (All these things I've done) and is centered around Brooke Davis.

Summery: Love is about taking chances. About not being scared and just putting your heart out there. But if your heart is broken, with the pieces scattered at your feet, then what are the chances of gluing it back together? Brooke used to believe in the love she had for Lucas. But when trust is gone and friendship is out of sight, is love really enough?

CHAPTER 1 – Love don't owe you anything

It is weird, Lucas thinks. He doesn't know anyone who can look as cold as Brooke Davis.

And it's weird because if someone had told him that just weeks ago he would have disagreed totally. Because then he had felt the complete opposite. Then he hadn't known anyone who could look more loving. Passion had been in her eyes all the time, not only for him but for life in general. She'd had that spunky, yet cocky attitude that he loved and she was always smiling that dimpled smile. Always.
Now, as he watches her looking at him from courtside, she looks so different. She's leading her squad, putting up a good game face while cheering for the boys on the court, but her eyes are completely empty. The usual glimmer nowhere to be seen. It's not that she looks angry really, and that surprises him. It's more like she's indifferent to it all. Like she is looking right through him. The only word that seems to fit her way of looking at him is cold. And it makes him wonder; How long has she been looking at him like this? And why didn't he see it in time to fix it?

He shifts a bit on the bench trying to focus on the game but this new rule, only letting him play fifteen minutes per game, is giving him too much time to think. So much has changed in these last months, he thinks as his eyes travel along the line of cheerleaders.
Rachel, standing next to Brooke and doing her best to match Brooke's poise, has suddenly become Brooke's new right hand. Her new best friend even.
After months of the two girls more or less hating each other, the break-up between Brooke and himself and the no longer existing friendship between Brooke and Peyton, seemed to have forced Brooke into revaluating Rachel. And seeing them next to each other dancing and waving their pom-poms, this doesn't really surprise him. Rachel is pretty much everything Brooke had been when he first met her. An overly confident, rich and spoiled, rather bitchy tease. Not quite as sexy as Brooke, but pretty close, and with the same reputation for being a partying man-eater. And seeing that Brooke seems to be getting back into her old ways, they probably get along well, he thinks frowning.

Next to Rachel there is Bevin and then Theresa, both of them being little too much of the typical ditzy cheerleader for him to really ever getting to know them. And beside Theresa there is Haley.
Haley, who a little over two years ago, had been only his. His best friend that is, but still. It had been just the two of them against the world. Of course, that was before the world had suddenly changed, making him the popular basketball-star and boyfriend of Tree Hill High's own queen Brooke Davis. And before Haley had married his half-brother. Now, with her living with Nathan and being pregnant with his child, he doesn't really get to see her that much. The little time she has between her marriage, school and the part time job at the café she usually spends with Brooke. And since Brooke has been going out of her way lately to avoid him, hanging out with both of them is kind of out of the question.Then at the far end, on a safe distance from Brooke, is Peyton. Her blond curls are bouncing as she jumps up and down with a big smile plastered on her face, cheering for Nathan who just scored. But just like Brooke's the smile seems fake to him and he should know this since he has been spending lots of time with her lately because of all of the drama with the two 'Dereks'.
Seeing how Peyton repeatedly glances over at Brooke he thinks that it's actually kind of strange that Peyton still has her spot on the squad. With everything that has been going on in hers and Brooke's friendship Brooke could easily have kicked Peyton off the team, she most definitely could if she wanted to. But however angry she is, Brooke is not a mean person and she wouldn't do that to her former best friend. At least he doesn't think so. But today, seeing Brooke's eyes, he is suddenly not so sure. If the looks he is getting from her are cold then the ones she's giving Peyton can't be called anything less then freezing.

The half-time signal is buzzing in the speakers and his eyes return to Brooke who is huddling her squad together before their halftime performance.
She looks as beautiful as always, her perfect body barely hidden under the microscopic uniform and the dark hair long and shiny down her back. She smiles to the crowd; showing of the little Raven's R painted on her perfect face, and poses sexily as the music starts.
His former girlfriend, the beautiful, oh so hot, cheerleading captain that no longer has the glimmer in her eye, and it hurts him to see that.

He's more than aware that the entire audience is watching her as she steps out on the open floor and he does the same, feeling that little pain in his stomach that he has been feeling lately every time he's realizing that she's not his anymore. And tonight, at the post game-party, it will be the same as last week. She will be open game…

"Lucas! Snap out of it!"
Whiteys harsh voice startles him and he quickly gets to his feet to join the team in the locker-room for a halftime huddle, after shooting one last glance at Brooke. Then Nathan walks up next to him.

"Man, are you okay? You looked totally spaced out."

"I'm good. I was just thinking about some stuff."

"Stuff meaning Brooke?"

"Nah…" he shrugs and sits down on a locker-room bench. "Just stuff."

Nathan puts a friendly hand on his shoulder and sits down next to him. "You think you could postpone that for later? I kind of need your head in the game Luke. We need to win tonight."

Whitey pulls out the board and starts sketching up the plays for third quarter. Lucas sighs and pushes his thoughts to the back of his brain. "Okay Nate."

And he actually pulls it of. Being able to play a good game and keeping his eyes on the ball. That is until the other team looses the ball. And as he runs off to the sideline to get it, he sees the guy who dropped the ball stop in front of Brooke checking her out.

"Nice shot!" she says in a sarcastic tone, but the guy just smiles.

"Nice legs."

She smiles back at the guy coldly, pulling the really short skirt up even higher to show of a perfectly tanned upper thigh and then, when she see him look she hisses; "Go fuck yourself, pervert! I'm SO out of your league!"

And with that, the little concentration that Lucas has mustered is gone. He sees the other guy loom off with a long face and it's not that he isn't glad that Brooke had told the idiot off. It's just that her being like this is definitely the Brooke Davis she'd been when he first met her. Not the sweet and caring girl she had proven to be later but instead the front she used to put up. The queen bitch that had ruled the school with iron hand. Captain of the cheerleaders, Class President and Ms. Most Popular. Brooke, in a habit of getting what she wanted. And as of lately she didn't want him.

That's what really scared him.

---------------

Brooke lets go of her skirt and returns to the cheering, not giving the player a second look. "Guys are such predictable little pervert's" she says mostly to herself without letting go of her happy cheer-face even for an instant, but Rachel picks it up and hisses back giddily;

"Yes I know! Don't you just love it!"

"Actually, no."

She's not up for this today. The whole happy and cheery masquerade that is game-night. She is not looking forward to the party they're having at Rachel's house later either, knowing what type of crowd who's going to be there, but she feels like becoming really drunk. Wasted like she hasn't been in a long time.

The last six months she's been responsible Brooke. The nice girlfriend, loving best friend, not partying that much and actually trying to behave, but look where that had gotten her. Nowhere really. Her former boyfriend had proven to be a fraud and Peyton had stabbed her in the back royally. Even Nick, her rebound-lover, had turned out not only to be her teacher but also an asshole and now she is fed up with being the nice Brooke.

"I think I'm going celibate." she says seriously to Rachel as they walk out on the floor to make their cheer-routine between third and fourth quarter, but it is Peyton coming up beside her that answers;

"Yeah good luck with that! Not your strong side huh?"

She gives Peyton an icecold look before saying calmly;

"Oh sorry. I just don't want you to feel as if I'm after your spot as the frigid whore."

The music starts and she goes thru the routine without even needing to concentrate. She could do this in her sleep. Without even having to think about it the sexy smile is secured on her face and it would probably be harder for her to try and wipe it off.

She sees Lucas watching her from the bench and she looks back at him until he is the one who breaks the stare. He's looking sad and somewhat puppy-like but she shakes it of, thinking that the situation between them is his own fault. And of course Peyton's.

"But I'm not going to think about them anymore", she thinks to herself as she finishes in a perfect split, bringing down whistles and cheers from the grandstands. "They can have each other. I deserve better!"

She is aware that it's not that easy though. Lucas was her big love and will probably keep being just that for a long time coming. Her first.
Not her first lover of course, there had been many before him, but he had been the first one to actually touch her heart enough to make her want to let him in. And she had, hence the 'first'. Before Lucas, all the guys she'd met had just wanted two things from her. Sex and hopefully a rub-off of her social status, and she had settled for that thinking that the attention was enough for her. But then Lucas stepped in from out of nowhere, being all nice and caring and made her feel as though he actually wanted to get to know her. She never wanted to fall him and yet, she had fallen like a rock. A sixteen year old stupid and naïve rock.

The first time he cheated on her with Peyton, she had been crushed completely. She had invested so much emotion into their short relationship and it had taken her months and a messed up relationship with Felix to get her back on her feet. But then Felix, formally known as her neighbor, had also turned out to be a complete idiot.

She looks over at Peyton as they walk back to the sidelines and just shakes her head at how stupid she had been back then, forgiving her best friend for cheating with Lukas behind her back. And even more so for letting herself fall for Lucas the second time around and believing his 'I'm the guy for you Brooke Davis-speech'. She should have known after their first break-up that it just wasn't meant to be. All that 'people that are meant to be together always find each other in the end'-crap just wasn't for her. And a little over a month ago, when she found out that Lucas and Peyton had cheated on her again it hadn't hurt as much as she would have thought it would do.

It wasn't that she hadn't loved him this time. She had loved him so much more.
"Maybe it's just because my heart is already broken from before", she thinks. "Or maybe it's because I'm so tired of feeling sad".

The screaming crowd snaps her out of her thoughts and she jumps up and down to cheer for Nathan's perfect three-pointer. He deserves a little extra cheering, being one of the few nice guys left in her life. And who would have thought that two years ago, when he was still dating Peyton and being the biggest bad-boy and manwhore of Tree Hill, and Peyton and herself had been attached by the hip. Now, Peyton is the whore. And Nathan is a husband and soon to be father but he's also becoming a real friend, like back when they where kids.

Haley, who's jumping and screaming even more to support her husband, is smiling at her from further down the sideline and she smiles back, genuinely this time. Haley, being the only one she really trusts nowadays.

The buzzer sounds, signaling that the game has come to an end, and she is the first to run out on court to congratulate the team for their 20-point win. She hugs Nathan and then she feels herself being lifted up spun around in the air by one of the other players.

"Put me down Gabe!" she laughs and wraps her arms around his neck, missing the look on Lucas' face. Haley is laughing right beside her and she decides to stop the gloomy pouting. It's Friday night and in a couple of hours she and Rachel will be hosting a party.

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