Title: March 8.
Author: Helen (Helen or HelenItsme)
Rating: T
Summary:It's March 8, 1993. Then it's March 8, 1998. And before you even know it, it's March 8, 2003. Five years later it's March 8, 2008. What will happen between the two of them after all those years? BL.
Spoilers: non other than that this is completely AU, and BL.
Authors Note: this one shot isn't beta'd, so all spelling and grammatical errors are mine, sorry. Anyways, I hope you still enjoy this and please review. They make me happy, hehe.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from One Tree Hill. Never have, never will.
March 8, 1993.
"Come on Lucas let's play!" For a cute five-year old girl, with two pigtails in her chocolate brown hair and too expensive clothing she already knew how to wrap anyone around her little finger.
"But- but I don't want to play."
She pouted. "Why not?"
"Because it's for girls! I want to play with my truck."
"Lucas!" She whined again as she crossed her arms. "We can play with your truck later. First we play that I'm the Princess who's stuck on the highest tower and you're Prince charming and you have to fight all these dragrons to save me!"
"Dragrons? You mean dragons."
"That's what I just said! Now come on and let's play!"
"You're so bossy." He now pouted too.
She stuck out her tongue but then got serious. "Please?"
"I don't know." He paused. "Can I use my sword?"
"Of course silly! You can't save me without your sword." She got excited, bouncing up and down with a goofy smile on her face.
He watched her and narrowed his eyes on her face. "What happened to your cheeks?"
"Huh?"
Lucas pointed to her cheeks. "You've got holes in them."
The girl started laughing really loud as she poked both her index fingers in her 'holes'. "They're called dimples silly! Daddy says it makes me pretty."
He shrugged and just grabbed his sword.
The two of them played for about an hour, and when Lucas finally fought all the dragons and climbed up the highest tower, he found that the girl was laying completely still on her bed, with her eyes closed.
"Brooke?" He carefully touched her arm. "Are you asleep?"
The brunette opened one eye and whispered, "I'm only pretending. You have to kiss me so the evil spell will be broken."
He made a face as he scrunched up his nose. "What evil spell?"
"The one that the mean witch put on me, because she's jealous of the Princess."
"Why is she jealous?" The boy asked, obviously confused by it all.
"Haven't you heard of fairy tails, Lucas?" When the boy shook his head no and telling her fairy tails were for girls, she scoffed but explained it to him anyway. "The witch is jealous because she's not as pretty as me. So as revenge she put a spell on me that put me to sleep for a gazillion years!"
"Wow, that's really long! What a mean witch."
"I know! And the only thing that can wake me up is a kiss from Prince charming!"
"But I don't want to kiss you."
"Why not?"
He stuttered a little as he said, "because you're- you're a girl."
She now opened both eyes and glanced up at him. "So you will kiss boys but no girls?"
"No! I don't kiss boys either."
"Don't you kiss your mommy goodnight when you go to bed every night?"
"Well, yes of course."
"So why would you kiss your mommy but you won't want to kiss me?"
"Because she's my mommy and you're… You're my Brooke."
Brooke ignored his statement and continued, "They do it in every fairy tail, like Cinderella. And Snow-white, and Sleeping Beauty, and the Little Mermaid. And-"
Before she could go on with her rant, Lucas quickly placed his mouth on hers, and not even two seconds later he broke the kiss.
"Are you happy now?" He said, a little disgusted by what he just had done.
"I guess. But actually you had to do it while I was pretending to sleep. Now I'm not sure it counts…"
"I'm not going to kiss you again! It's gross."
She agreed after hesitating for quite a bit. "Yeah it kind of is. Hey, let's play with your truck now!"
After watching Brooke get up really quick, he followed by running after her. "OK!"
March 8, 1998.
While dribbling the orange ball, Lucas jumped as high as he could and aimed for the basket. The ball went right in, only touching the net. He grinned and automatically turned around and glanced at the bench that was momentarily empty.
Normally a certain brunette girl would sit there drawing all sorts of clothes and accessories, sometimes looking up if he'd scored. But now Brooke wasn't there, because she was busier with her new girly friends, gossiping about stupid girly things.
He sighed and shook his head, dribbling the ball again but not really paying attention to what he was doing.
All of a sudden, a voice came out of nowhere, startling him. "Hey Lucas!"
He turned around again with a grin on his face, immediately recognizing where the voice came from. "Brooke!"
But Brooke wasn't alone; she'd brought someone with her. Another girl walked up towards him, with red hair so shiny it almost hurt his eyes.
"This is my friend I was talking about. Rachel, this is Lucas." Brooke told her friend.
The girl studied him from head to toe, and then a smile covered her face. "Hi Lucas."
There was so much confidence in her voice that it scared Lucas a little. He looked down, blushing and said quietly, "hi."
An arm was thrown around his neck and he relaxed as soon as he felt them. "Don't be so shy Lucas, it's just my friend."
"You're cute."
Brooke knew that Rachel's comment made him even more uncomfortable, so she grabbed the basketball from him and tried to dribble it as an attempt to get her friend's attention somewhere else. "Look Luke! Don't you think I can be the best girl basketball player ever when I grow up?"
He chuckled. "You suck at basketball, Brooke. And you don't even like it that much."
"When I grow up I want to be a cheerleader."
Brooke and Lucas both stared at the red head, not really sure if she was joking or not. By the look on her face, they both knew she wasn't.
"You mean, when you're in high school?"
"Yeah, and when I'm out of school too."
The brunette raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything. Lucas watched her, and when he finally found the courage to speak up he said, "Nobody does such a thing. There are only cheerleaders in high school or college."
Rachel clearly thought different. "So? I'm going to be the first thirty-year-old cheerleader in history! That would be super cool."
"Don't you want to be a mommy when you grow up?" Brooke tried, but immediately regret her words as she saw Rachel's angry face.
"No, I don't want any babies. They only cry, sleep and eat. And they puke too. They're boring and stupid."
Lucas knew that those words would upset Brooke. She loved kids more than anything. "Well, cheerleading is even more boring and stupid."
Rachel narrowed her eyes on him and spat, "you're such a loser!"
"Hey! He's not a loser! He's my best friend."
"That's just weird Brooke, I don't know any other girls who're best friends with a boy. And I don't know if I want to be your friend if you're friends with him." She glared at Lucas as if he was some kind of alien.
"Brooke is smart enough to choose her own friends. And besides, she doesn't even want to be friends with someone like you. Right Brooke?"
The brunette stood there between her friends, one she'd just met and one who was her best friend for as long as she could remember. She knew that Rachel was popular for a ten year old; her mother had made sure she'd understood that. If she wanted to be one of the popular girls, she'd to try and stay friends with Rachel.
"Um, Lucas? We're going to go OK?"
"But-…"
"I'll talk to you later, bye."
He watched as Rachel stuck out her tongue towards him and grabbed Brooke by the arm. Brooke turned around while she got dragged away by Rachel, mouthing the word 'sorry' to him, before disappearing.
He'd then known that her 'bye' would mean 'goodbye' to their friendship.
March 8, 2003.
"I'm drunk."
Rachel giggled as she heard her friend's sudden outburst. "Me too."
"I mean, I'm really really drunk."
"I think we've established that. Let's get another drink."
They both stood up, stumbling a little bit as they did so. While walking towards the kitchen, Brooke lost her balance and felt right into two strong arms.
Not even noticing who it was, Brooke turned her head to see Rachel still walking towards the kitchen, completely obvious that she'd lost Brooke on her way.
She now looked up to see two piercing blue eyes staring down at her, a look of worry crossing his features. "Are you OK?"
Brooke was so shocked to see who was holding her, that she couldn't say anything for a good minute.
The soft voice was now replaced by a sarcastic, nasty tone. "What? Cat catched your tongue?"
His voice was lower than she remembered, and she was almost positive that he hadn't ever talked to her in such a tone before. Then again, they hadn't really talked to each other in years.
But Brooke wasn't one to let anyone talk to her like that. Not even her old childhood friend. "Let go of me!"
"Whatever." He said as he did what she'd asked for. "Next time I'll let you fall down on your drunken ass."
"There won't be a next time." She spat nastily as she straightened her skirt. "What are you doing here anyways?"
"Oh are you surprised that a person like me actually got invited to a party thrown by the popular people?"
She ignored his comment. "I didn't know you were into these kind of parties."
It didn't go unnoticed by Lucas that Brooke was desperately trying to stay upright, but she had a hard time trying doing so. He'd heard many rumors of her always being drunk at every party, making out with a new guy every week. He didn't know what to believe, but seeing her now like this, he knew that some of those rumors were definitely true.
"You don't know anything about me. Not anymore anyways."
She looked away ashamed, again not knowing what to say.
Then a loud shriek was heard, and they both turned around to see Rachel standing there with a red cup in her hand, gasping at the two of them.
"What are you doing with him?"
The question angered Lucas more than it should, but before he could answer Brooke beat him to it. "Nothing, come on, let's get me something to drink too."
He could swear he heard her saying, "preferably something strong" after that.
---
"Listen up everybody, it's time to play truth or dare!"
Lucas thought that by going outside to grab some fresh air, he would be safe from all the drama but boy was he wrong. And by the way Rachel was staring at him with that evil glitter in her eye she always had when she was up to something, he knew he was screwed.
"OK, Peyton. Truth or dare?"
A blonde girl, who he assumed was Peyton, spoke confident as she said "dare".
"Good. I dare you to go give Tim a lap dance."
The crowd ooh-ed and one guy's face turned into the biggest grin Lucas had ever seen. Peyton did what she was asked to do, and Lucas guessed that it wasn't the first time she'd give anyone a lap dance.
Before Peyton could pick her next victim, Rachel whispered something in her ear and Lucas could swear Peyton's eye landed on his for only a few seconds. His worry started to fade away when he saw Peyton scanning the crowd, her eyes leaving his.
"Oh there she is! Hey Brooke, truth or dare?"
It was the first time after their argument that he'd seen her, and she looked even more plastered than she did earlier.
"Ugh, this game is so lame." He heard her say.
"Come on Brooke, don't be such a party pooper."
Brooke rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. "Dare."
He'd to give her credit for sounding so intimidating and confident, while being seconds away from passing out.
Peyton grinned, as if she'd already known that Brooke was going to say that. "I dare you to make out with your old ex-best friend, Lucas."
The dare was still echoing in his head, making his stomach turn. He had to get out of here; he needed to get out of here. As he quickly turned around, his eyes found hers, and he noticed that she was probably just as pale as he was at the moment.
"What Lucas, are you scared to kiss a girl?" Someone asked.
"He was already scared to kiss a girl when he was five." Brooke mumbled, but loud enough for anyone to hear.
Everyone laughed, and as Brooke walked towards him, he watched her with a pained expression. This wasn't the Brooke he'd once knew. This was a different Brooke, a more bitchy and mean Brooke. A popular Brooke.
"I'm not going to kiss you." He whispered, only loud enough for her to hear.
"You said that years ago too but you did it anyways."
"I was stupid and naïve back then."
"Well maybe you still are now."
And before he could protest, her lips were on his. It took only a matter of seconds before he kissed her back just as hungrily as she had kissed him. Clutching her around the waist he tried to close the almost nonexistent gap between them. For a moment it didn't matter everyone was watching them, for a moment he pretended this wasn't a dare. But then he tasted the alcohol on her lips, and he pulled back.
"This was a mistake." He quickly said and he walked away as fast as possible, not seeing the hurt expression on Brooke's face.
March 8, 2008.
Although Brooke really liked her classes, she hadn't any trouble skipping them. Sure, they were interesting, but that didn't mean she would go to every single class. Most of them started early, too early for Brooke, so mostly she would get up, drink some coffee and then went to go to one of her classes, late.
Today was no different.
After she got dressed and put on some make-up, she grabbed her purse and left her dorm room. Most of the time she got some coffee at the nearest café on campus, but today she felt like getting it somewhere else.
She was getting sick of always walking on the same ground, saying hello to the same people and drinking coffee at the same café.
So she took her car and left, driving to wherever she could get some other coffee.
She found a little café not long after that. And after she'd parked her car, she walked into the café, the bell jingling as soon as she opened the door.
As she put her purse on the counter, she sat down on the stool. Grabbing the menu out of boredom, she waited till someone came to help her.
"Can I help you?"
When she saw the guy she was about to throw him a flirty comment, but then noticed his gorgeous blue eyes and the messy blonde hair.
"Lucas?"
"Brooke?"
They both stared at each other, blinking a couple of times because they couldn't believe who was standing in front of them.
"Wh-what are you doing here?"
He was silent for a while. "I work here."
She rolled her eyes at the oh so obvious information. "I mean, what are you still doing here in Tree Hill?"
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
Brooke bit her lip, something that she did when she was nervous. She didn't think that he would actually still be mad at her, but by the tone of his voice she knew she was wrong by thinking that.
"I mean, I always thought that you wanted to play basketball in LA."
He chuckled, shaking his head. "Yeah, well that was my dream when I was ten. Now I go to NCU and work here as a part-time job."
"Oh, well that's…" She trailed off, not really knowing what to say.
"That's what, Brooke? Cat catched your tongue again?"
Brooke looked up to see him smiling, and she had to smile too at the irony of it all. Here they were, both twenty year old and still bumping into each other, even though they hadn't seen each other in years. It was becoming some sort of ritual.
"Hey, how about we catch up a little bit, after my shift is over?"
"Uhm, sure. I actually have to get back to school, so is it ok to meet tonight? Say, this café, around eight 'o clock?"
"Yeah, that sounds perfect."
---
If felt like they'd talked for hours. Maybe they had, both didn't exactly keep track of time. They were talking about their childhood, exchanging old memories.
"Remember how we always had to play only what you wanted to play? I think I was the only five year old boy in town who played with Barbie's."
Brooke giggled. "Yeah well, I was pretty persuasive at the age of five. What can I say? I was a talented kid."
They both shared a laugh and for a moment is was as if they were friends again. As if nothing had come between them in all those years.
"Are you still friends with Rachel?"
The question startled her, and Brooke felt the tension growing in the air by the second.
"Uhm, actually yeah. She's my roommate."
"So you two are still as close as ever?"
The anger was rising in his voice, and she closed her eyes as she sighed. "Look Lucas, I'm sorry for everything that has happened between the two of us OK? I didn't mean for us to grow apart."
"Grow apart? Do you seriously think that we just 'grew apart'?" She looked away, avoiding any eye contact as he continued. "You betrayed me Brooke! You choose to be friends with the popular people because you didn't want to be left out. You choose to ditch your friend you'd known for your entire life, because he wasn't 'cool' enough!"
"It wasn't like that!"
"It was exactly like that!" He yelled at her as he quickly stood up. "And I can't believe that now you're still denying it!"
"I'm not denying anything! I know I was wrong in the past, but it's all different now. We're more mature, we're out of high school…"
"Do you seriously think that I can forgive you so quickly? I know we were only just kids when you turned your back on me at the Rivercourt, but years after that you still humiliated me and denied to everyone that you and me used to be friends."
"Luke…"
"And when I saw you today this morning, I couldn't believe my eyes. At first I wanted to snap and scream at you, but I changed my mind. I thought that maybe, just maybe you had changed and that you weren't the egoistical, psycho bitch you transformed in during high school. But I guess I was wrong, you're still her."
Brooke stood up now too, her cheeks red from anger. "How dare you! How dare you to tell me I'm a psycho bitch while you don't even know anything about me!"
"Yeah well, whose fault is that, hmm?"
"You know what? This catching up thing was a mistake. I'm not going to do this." She grabbed her belongings and turned on one heel, walking out of the café as fast as possible. But as her hand reached for the doorknob, she heard him mumbling something.
She turned around again, narrowing her eyes on him. "What did you just say?"
"I said: yeah, walk away again. Because that's what you're good at, right?"
"Incase you didn't remember Lucas, but you are one to talk. You were the one who walked away that night."
He pretended to act like he didn't know what she was talking about, but of course he remembered. It was the night of the party; the one where they had played truth or dare. The night that had end up in a complete disaster.
"What night?"
"Oh please, don't pretend that you don't remember. I know you do."
He still played dumb. "I have no idea what you are talking about."
She let out a scream of pure frustration as she threw her hands in the air. "Fine! You know what, I'm going to leave. And this time I hope I won't bump into you again after five years."
And with that she left him shocked and alone at the café.
March 9, 2008.
Brooke groaned as she heard someone knock on her door. "Rachel! Can you open up the door for me, I'm kind of busy."
She rolled her eyes as she heard her friend scream from the bathroom, "I'm just about to take a shower! And as much as I like to open the door naked, there's too much of a chance that it's this weird guy who's stalking me, so he's your problem now."
When Brooke opened the door she was shocked to see anything but a guy that looked like a stalker.
Lucas stared right into her eyes, a look on his face that she couldn't quite read. "Uhm, hi."
"What are you doing here?"
He chuckled, and when he noticed that she was glancing at him as if he was crazy, he quickly said, "it's just that, every time you see me, you ask the same question."
Her lips curved in a smile for just one second, and if Lucas would have blinked he would have missed it, but he hadn't.
"How did you find out I was living here?"
"It took me quite awhile." He admitted. "I knew you went here, because you told me last night. The only problem was that this guy, who's behind the reception counter, wouldn't want to tell me which dorm room you were staying. So when I threatened him to beat the crap out of him, he finally caved."
Brooke didn't really know what to say. "But why-…"
"I'm sorry, Brooke. I shouldn't have said those things about you last night. You were right, I don't know you anymore. And maybe you have matured and aren't you anything like the person you were in high school."
She raised an eyebrow. "And that kind of person is…"
"It doesn't matter, because you're not like her anymore right?"
"Yeah, you're right."
"OK, so…"
"So…"
"I'm really trying here."
Brooke smiled. "I know, I just like to watch you squirm. Come in, I guess."
"You guess?"
"I'm positive." She let out a giggle.
---
For the second time they tried to ignore the somewhat awkward tension and talk about whatever came to their minds.
Just when Lucas was about to ask Brooke something, another person walked into their living room.
"Well well well, if it isn't the famous Lucas Scott who's sitting right in my living room."
Lucas knew that it was inevitable to avoid Rachel's presence; it was only a matter of time before they met again.
"Hey Rachel."
Like she'd done years and years back, she studied him from head to toe, a sly smile forming on her lips. "No blushing! I see you've made some improvement."
He tried to force a smile, but even that didn't work out right.
"Rachel, why don't you go to find your stalker guy, ok? Lucas and I need some catching up to do."
For a moment it looked like she wasn't going anywhere, but then she nodded her head and left the room.
"You really hate her don't you?"
He wasn't going to lie to her. "Yes, actually I really do."
Although Brooke knew he had lots of reasons to feel that way, she couldn't help but defend her best friend. "Why? You don't even know her."
He simply shrugged. "She was the one girl who took you away from me."
The tension that had left moments ago was now in the air, again.
"I guess."
"Does she still want to be a cheerleader when she grows up?"
Brooke stared at him confused, watching his amused face. Then, a giant smile covered her face and she let out a hard laugh. "She really wanted to be one, didn't she?"
"I think she said something about how cool it would be to be 'the first thirty year old cheerleader in history'. I would have laughed at the situation if she wasn't so drop dead serious about it."
The brunette laughed again, shaking her head in amusement.
"And you asked her if she didn't want to be a mommy, and then she basically said that babies suck."
"She still feels that way about babies though. No matter how hard I tried to make up her mind."
A comfortable silence fell between the two of them, the first one in a long time.
"You know Luke, I don't want to say that I regret being friends with Rachel, because although you might hate her, she's the best girl friend I've ever had. She might seem a little cocky and bitchy, but she still has a heart of gold and I know I can trust her with my life. The only thing that I regret is leaving you there on that basketball court, and that she made me choose between you and her."
"It's OK. I know you regret it and…"
"Actually, like you told me yesterday: it's not OK. Though I was so mad at you last night, you had some good points. I hate the person I'd become during high school, the one who got drunk at fifteen and kissed you because someone dared her too."
He watched her pause, clearly occupied by her own thoughts. Then he heard her whisper, "but most of all, I hate it that you didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I did."
"Brooke…"
She bit her bottom lip again, and both knew it was because she was nervous for what she was about to tell. "All those times I kissed random guys were just because I wanted to feel something, a spark, an electric tingle, just something. But nothing like that happened, ever. But that night when I kissed you, I felt it. I felt all of those things that I wanted to feel. And then abruptly broke it and told me it was a mistake." She shook her head. "It hurt me so much."
"I had no idea…"
She quickly wiped the single tear that was streaming down her cheek away, not wanting to cry in front of him. "It's OK, I get it. I've moved on." She shrugged as she let out a shaky breath.
"But Brooke, the only reason why I stopped the kiss was because I knew you were drunk. I didn't want to take advantage of you."
They stared at each other, Brooke's breath still a bit shaky, and Lucas' (still) even and steady.
"So you're saying that if I hadn't been drunk…" She stopped mid sentence, both knowing what she was trying to say.
"We were both young, hormones all over the place and I'm pretty sure that if you weren't drunk, I would have never stopped the kiss. And to be honest, if you would kiss me again, now at this moment, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to break the kiss either."
Brooke shifted in her seat, her body now much closer to his. "Are you sure about that?" She whispered in a husky voice.
"I guess."
"You guess?"
"I'm positive." He smiled at her.
Leaning in she kissed him urgently on the mouth as if her life depended on it. He quickly reciprocated it, his fingers finding it's way throughout her dark locks. Pulling her even closer, his tongue lewdly pushed its way into her mouth.
After what seemed hours, Brooke slowly broke away from him, not because she wanted to but because of the lack of oxygen. She smiled when she saw his eyes heavy with lust and his mouth was a little swollen. As she brought her index finger to his face, she teasingly traced his jaw line followed by his puffy lips.
"It was about time."
They both looked up to see Rachel smiling down at them. "I knew you two had a thing for each other, but jeez, ten years guys? It took you two ten freaking years to figure it out?"
"I guess." Brooke said again, smiling as she looked at him.
"You guess?" Rachel asked, her eyebrow rising, her face reading confusion.
"I'm positive."
"But that's not going to happen again. Now, Brooke won't get rid of me that easily. She's not going to bump into me again after five years." He stared right in her eyes again. "She's going to bump into me again tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that…"
THE END.