Everywhere She Goes

Chapter One
I Could Stay Away Forever

It was finally the day when everything was coming together. She could feel it. She could just tell. She had been waiting for this moment ever since she realized something was missing. The pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together. Her life, so far, had been one of those thousand piece three dimensional puzzles, one of those thousand piece puzzles where only one piece was missing. You could have every piece to every puzzle in the world, but when you only need one piece, that last piece to that puzzle you have been working on for twenty three years, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters but the missing piece.

It was finally the day when everything was coming together. Her missing piece walked through the door, into her office and sat down across from her. He nervously leaned forward in the seat where her clients sat everyday. Suddenly, she was nervous. She felt sick to her stomach as she watched him fiddle with something in his coat pocket. In her mere twenty three years she had never felt this nervous, sickening feeling in her gut. He leaned even closer to her, now nearly off his seat. She did the same, mimicking him as he pulled his hand out of the pocket. Then it happened. There it was their future sitting in a little black box on her desk. She moved her hand toward the box and slowly looked up at him.

His eyes had aged since the last time she had seen him. The five and a half years between them now seemed evident. The crow's feet narrowing out his eyes seemed to almost walk across his face toward the edges of his mouth. She never remembered him looking like this before. It was almost as if over night everything about him had changed. He had gone from that high school senior basketball player who she had pined over for so long, to this twenty eight, almost twenty nine, year old… old man.

She ran her hands over top of the black box and then looked up at him. Then the box disappeared. Her imagination had led herastray again, as it did from time to time when it came to Leo. Her emerald green doe eyes looked into his baby blue aged eyes and then down at the navy polo shirt she had bought him two years ago on their weekend trip to Hampton, Virgina. She remembered it perfectly, just like in the movies.

I rolled down the window of his car and put my left arm out the window. I do this from time to time, but only when the weather is like this. I pay no attention to the road and just gaze out the window. So many things pass you by when you don't pay attention. The leaves had just started changing colors. This meant I was almost 21. That meant Leo would be twenty six soon. Even if I didn't pay a bit of attention to the months or the days, as soon as the first yellow leaf fell from the sycamore in the middle of the yard of my child hood home I knew it was almost my birthday. And if it was almost my birthday, then it was also almost Leo's birthday. This was the year, he said, he would start going by Leonard. He told me "Brooke, it just sounds better… it just sounds more official, more important, like I know what is going on in the world." I would then lean close to him and tell him, "Baby, it is going to take more than a name change for that to happen."

Deep down, all any of us want is to be more official or more important sounding. That's why I was so excited when I was finally a senior at the University of New Haven. I was suddenly more…everything. I only wish you could sense the sarcasm oozing from my voice. I don't even know why I ended up going to that school being from Tree Hill, North Carolina. No one understood. I didn't understand. I remember during my senior year at Carolina Davis Academy- don't worry that school will be discussed later on since it made me who I am today-again it is a shame you cannot sense the sarcasm- everyone would say, "Brooke Davis! Where are you going to school?" I would reply, "University of New Haven in Connecticut." Suddenly the color would drip from everyone's faces, "Connecticut you say?" Hmm, interesting choice." All I could do was nod because I didn't disagree.

Part of me thinks I went there because I knew, deep down, that there was something waiting on me in Connecticut, like Leo. I didn't even know he was there until we ran into one another at a party the first week I was in college, or at least I pretended like I didn't know he was there. I would put on this façade, pretending I had no idea Leo Johansson was a fifth or sixth, or something along those lines, senior at New Haven. People in Tree Hill would always ask me, right after they asked me where I would be attending college and said "hmm, interesting choice", "Do you know Leo Johansson? I believe he was a couple years older than you. Well, anyways, he goes to New Haven". I would casually nod my head and say, "Yeah, I think the name sounds familiar." When in reality, my brain was screaming, "Are you kidding? The Leo Johansson? Of course I know him!"

My daydreaming was interrupted by the incessant screeching of Leo, "Brooke! This is important. Do I take 1-64? Is that right? Exit 75? Toward Norfolk? But we are just trying to get to Hampton. Is there going to be a sign for th-…"

At first I thought "incessant screeching" was a bit of an exaggeration, but after listening to him repeat the same question more than enough times, I came to the conclusion that my prior description was nothing short of precise. I looked at him and took a long, deep, calming breath and said, "Yes. You are correct." I looked down at the directions I had printed out at my apartment earlier in the day. I read directly from the paper, "Merge on to I-64 East via Exit 75 toward RIC Airport, Williamsburg, and Norfolk." Looking up at him, smiled and watched him slowly turn the wheel. "No need to stress. We are going for a weekend get away." I put my hand on his shoulder, "You need it."

He nodded, his shaggy brown hair swaying. "You are telling me." He fiddled with the radio station until finally deciding his efforts were completely unsuccessful. Leo ran his fingers through his hair, letting his hand rest on the back of his neck. He took at deep breath and slowly let it out. Turning his head toward me he said, "I came to a conclusion last night." I said nothing. "Wanna hear it?"

I pealed my eyes open and nodded my head, "This better be good," I said scratching my head through my chestnut brown hair. "Okay, go ahead, shock me." I smiled, my white teeth glistening in the last summer sun.

Leo rolled his eyes at me and crossed his arms over his chest. I immediately grabbed the steering wheel. He knew that made me nervous and that's why he did it. Typical male. "Fine, if you are going to be like that, then I am not going to share my profound statement with you. I don't want to waste your time Miss Brooke Penelope Davis, Queen of Shiba, Goddess of Greatness, Owner of Tree Hill…"

"Yeah, whatever, Leo just get on with the story. I would love to know what your insightful idea is. I am sure I will find it extremely enlightening."

He pouted for a moment and then began speaking. "I got to thinking last night-" He glared at me, thinking that I would say something about him thinking and how he shouldn't do that too often. I shook my head, letting him know that I was totally listening, no comments from the peanut gallery today. "So, I got to thinking last night and I realized something," He looked up at me. My heart started pounding. I felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. I looked down; making sure that my heart was in fact still in tact. I flipped down the visor in Leo's 2002 Ford Explorer and ran my hands through my dark mop. Looking over at him causually I noticed he was watching my every move.

"Yeah…" I chewed on my bottom lip until I could taste the blood on my tounge. He stared at me, raising his left eyebrow. I shook my head at him. "No, okay, yeah, what?"

Leo nodded his head, "Okay, so…" He blinked his light blue eyes quickly and ran his tounge across his teeth. "I came to the conclusion that…"

He paused, letting the question mark between us linger for barely over ten seconds, but that ten seconds lasted far too long. I knew exactly what I wanted him to say. I hope that the words, "Brooke I want to be with you" or "Brookie for the longest time I have been head over heals in love with you and I think that it is time that we do something about it". Then I would fall into his strong high school basketball player arms and say, "Leo! I have been waiting for this moment since I was in middle school. I love you too! Let's be together!" I laughed to myself and let out one, long sigh.

"Brooke…"

Oh god, here it comes.

"I for the longest time…"

It is really doing to happen. All I ever wanted was about to be mine, I didn't know what to do. I looked awful. My make up looked like I had slept in it and my hair looked even worse, I ran my hands over my hair and down my shoulders. I wish I looked good. This was a huge moment in my life and I looked possibly the worst I had ever looked in my entire life. I took one, long, deep breath and looked at him.

"…I have been head over heals in love…"

Oh, my gosh, it really was about to happen. All those nights I spent laying in my bed, eating Ben and Jerry's dreaming about being with Leo was going to come true. I put my hand on his arm and smiled, "I feel the exact same way."

"That is great!" Leo said, extactily, as he threw his arms in the air. I quickly grabbed the steering wheel. "I can't believe you think I need to switch jobs too."

I never knew it was possible to feel the color drain from your face, but at that moment in time, I realized that you could. "Definitely." I smiled, "I definitely think that it is time for you to switch jobs."

"Awesome. Perfect. Yes." He smiled and moved his hand toward the radio, turning it up, letting an old Oasis song, "Wonderwall", play throughout the car.

"Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you. By now you should have some how realized what you've got to do. I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now…"

"You are looking old today, Leo." Brooke said as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her desk chair. She spun the chair around to look out over the city of Richmond. The sun would be setting in about an hour and she had planned to walk her dog down to the river and watch the sunset. By the looks of Leo, it didn't appear that she and Raven, her two year old Maltisse, would be doing that tonight.

Leo smirked at her and stood up. He paced across the room, mumbling something under his breath. The only words Brooke could decipher were "damn" and "shit". As he ran his fingers across her picture frames he said, abruptly, "I am moving back to Tree Hill."

The chair spun back around. Suddenly missing the sunset was the last thing on Brooke's mind. She quickly stood up from her desk and said, "What? Excuse me?" She laughed quietly to herself, "It sounded like you said you are moving back to Tree Hill, but the Leo Johansson that I know and love would never, ever say something like that."

Brooke watched Leo dig his hands deep into his pockets and then pull them back out to rest them on the back of a wooden chair. "I know. And I would never go back but-"

"But what?" Brooke said, as she turned around and stared out the large window.

"It is just, I have been here for ten years and… I don't know. Do you ever feel like something is missing?"

She smiled at his comment knowing that he had no idea what it was to feel like something in your life was missing. Brooke wished she could tell him that yes, she knew what it felt like. She knew because he was the one thing missing in her life. He was her missing puzzle piece. But Brooke pushed all of those things back and just nodded her head.

"I need to go back, Brooke, I just need to." The room was silent for much more than a moment. Brooke couldn't bear to break the silence knowing that if she did, her voice would be weak and filled with emotion. Finally, after moments upon moments, Leo broke the silence "I want you to come with me."

In shock, Brooke said, "No, there is no way." Her voice was, just as she expected, filled with emotion. "I can't. No."

Leo walked close to her and put his hand on her arm, "Please, Brooke, please. I need you to do this for me."

She shook her head, "No, I can't." She threw her arms in the air and motion toward her office. "I have this," She crossed her arms, "What would I do with this?"

"Take a vacation."

"That will last a lifetime? You're insane."

He tilted his head and said, "No, just go to Tree Hill with me for a week, just to help me get on my feet. Then after the week is done," Leo smiled at her, "So are you."

"I don't know, Leo. This is crazy." Brooke couldn't stop shaking her head. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Maybe," He said as he shrugged his shoulders, "I think home is the only place I can go to find it."

Brooke closed her eyes tight and continued to shake her head, "Fine." She opened her eyes to look at him, "But under one condition." Leo nodded his head and she continued, "After a week, seven days," She held up her fingers, "I am done. Deal?"

"Deal." Leo wrapped his arms around her and she breathed him in. "Thank you Brooke. I love you for this."

As Brooke nodded her head and put her arms around his waist, she knew immediately that she had just made a life altering decision. She knew today was going to be the day everything changed. She had no idea.