Brooke stared at the receiver in her hand, processing the sudden silence. Why now? Was he so bad off? Had the woman on the other end been the cause of so much of his pain? What should she do? Go to him? Run away? Act like the phone had never rang? And just what did the strange woman mean by I could take care of him, he didn't need me? Shaking her head, Brooke put the receiver back in the cradle and turned to walk away.
Pausing, she turned to look at the surroundings, asking herself yet again how she'd ended up in this position. Three years since they'd all split and gone separate directions, three years since she'd watched the life she loved slowly split apart and fade into the woodwork. Sure, she'd stayed in touch with her friends at first. Knew when Rachel had moved to New York, heard when Peyton had found out she had earned the internship in California. She'd tried so hard to help her friends. When Nathan and Haley had their son, she sent an anonymous donation to the hospital in their name so they wouldn't have to pay any medical bills. When Skillz was given the chance to move to Washington to play but didn't have the funds for the cross country trip she'd arranged for movers and placed a deposit on a two bedroom condo near the college he was to attend. Brooke had tried to be there as much as she could for her friends, as long as it didn't mean she had to get too personal. It was always easier dealing with someone else's problems than her own.
Three years had seen a lot of changes in Brooke's life. Her parents had finally divorced, and as a bid to earn her attentions they'd both contributed income to her bank account. Turned out she'd needed neither parent's money, seeing as how her grandmother had left more than Brooke could ever have imagined to her. Graduating from high school had brought about an invitation to New York, and with all the pain in Tree Hill, it seemed like a no brainer.
Leave the pain and torture and broken hearts and lies and love behind for a once in a life time shot at a career of her dreams. Sure. Piece of cake. So why, when she finally left, did she feel like she'd made the biggest mistake in her 22 years?
Walking to the kitchen, she opened the fridge and grabbed a coke. Glancing around, she sighed at the cookie cutter life she had come to expect. Everything looked like it had stepped right from the pages of Better Homes and Gardens, and maybe it had. There wasn't a dirty dish to be seen, no spots on the floor from puppies and kids, and god forbid a piece of laundry peeked from under a bed. It was perfection, and she felt like it all was going to come shattering down around her ears if she breathed too hard.
Rounding the corner, she saw her purse sitting on the table by the staircase, and noticed the flashing coming from the smallest pocket. Flashing lights meant missed calls, and potentially voicemails. Wonder who's tried to call? Reaching into the pocket she pulled out her phone and unlocked the keypad.
Three missed calls. Haley, Rachel, Lucas. Oh god. What were the odds? Two mentions in one night, when she'd managed to go a whole year without a single whisper? What was going on? Brooke sighed again, a deep, burdened expression of the heartache and emptiness she felt inside. Taking the coke and her cell phone with her, she walked upstairs to her enormous room.
Kicking her shoes off in the corner and slipping out of her dress, she began to draw a bath in her over-sized garden tub. Should I call them back? Do I want to call them back? Do I want to open those doors, re-awaken those wounds? Brooke drifted off, lost in her own thoughts, not really paying attention to anything. The vibrating phone in her hand snapped her back to the present, and she turned to shut off the water.
The caller id showed Rachel's name and number, and of the three missed calls Rachel was most likely the least to cause the most pain. Feeling guilty for not having kept in touch after her last visit, Brooke opened the phone and took the first step in what would turn out to be a very, very long road.
"Hello?"
"Brooke? God, it's good to hear your voice! I'm glad you answered the phone!" Rachel's snobby voice came through loud and clear, and a shadow of a smile hovered around Brooke's lips for the first time in months.
"It's good to hear your voice too Rachel. How are you?"
"Honestly, a little worried. I tried to call you earlier, did you get my voicemail?"
"No, I'm sorry. I just realized that I'd missed your call. What's up?" Brooke could sense something bad looming, but tried to shake it off. Just because she'd been so depressed didn't mean the rest of the world was going through it too.
"Brooke, look, I'm sorry but...well…I don't really know how to say this…" Rachel was being uncharacteristically shy, and that bad feeling grew stronger. Settled in the bottom of her stomach in fact.
"Rachel, just spit it out. It's not like you to shy away from something, especially if it could bring drama to a situation." Brooke tried to make light of the situation, for both their sakes, but it just ended up falling flat.
"Brooke, seriously, I'd never joke about something like this. You have to believe me. But you HAVE to come back to Tree Hill. You're needed, and it's an emergency."
"What? What in the world is going on? Some strange woman just called here saying that…well…that Lucas needed me." There. She'd said his name. Without busting out in tears. It was progress. Even if she swore the entire world heard her heart break again.
"Seriously? Wow. Hales must have gotten thru to the thick headed bitch. Did she tell you why?"
"Bitch? Excuse me? She didn't seem like a bitch." Brooke's curiosity was peaked now. God, when had she turned morbid?
"Well, she is. If you knew half the crap that's gone on because of that whore, you'd be agreeing with me. You didn't answer my question…did she tell you why you needed to go back?" Rachel was seething now. What the hell?
"No, she was interrupted by someone. I could have sworn I heard Lucas' voice in the background."
"I'm not surprised. She'd been insistent on staying with him, even though we've all told her she's not welcome. She seems to think that…shit. I've said too much. Hales and Nathan will kick my ass. Look. Just get your rich ass back to Tree Hill, and NOW!" Rachel was acting awfully strange for someone who, the last time they'd spoke, didn't want to hear another mention of Tree Hill and would have burned every shred of memorabilia she could get her manicured nails on if Brooke hadn't stopped her.
"Rachel-"
"Look Brooke. I know you're hurting. I know you're trying your damnedest to distance yourself from this. But we need you to come back. Just for a little while. We all need to be there, and we all need your strength to fix this situation. Lucas has gotten himself into quite a pickle here and the only one he'll listen to is you. Or at least that's what we're hoping for, since he hasn't listened to the rest of us. And lord knows we've tried."
"Rachel, I can't. You know why I can't. It's been too long, too much water under the bridge. How in the world could I help? I was never the one he wanted. He made that quite clear when it was time to settle scores. Who's this mystery chick? What's Lucas gotten himself into this time?"
"I can't explain it over the phone. The chick needs to take a flying leap off the tallest building and then land with a nose dive into thirty feet thick concrete. Have you talked to Haley yet?"
"Why are you dodging my questions?!" Brooke was starting to get seriously pissed. She'd left Tree Hill to AVOID shit like this, not spend twenty minutes in a round-about conversation while her bath water cooled.
"Please, Brooke, just come home." Home. And there it was. Tree Hill was home, not because she'd grown up there, but because she'd been loved, had loved, and experienced life there. Her friends were there, her heart was there…did she have enough strength left to go back, only to turn around and leave it all again?
"Rachel, I need to know what's going on. If you won't tell me, then I'll call Haley. The bitch as you so kindly refer to her, didn't tell me much other than Haley threatened her. Which, for Haley, is pretty big." Brooke pushed the plug on the bathtub, it didn't look like she'd be taking a bath anytime soon.
"Yeah, maybe calling Haley is for the best. She's been the glue that held us all together the past six months, and she'd know best what to do. That's a really good idea, call Haley and talk to her. But please, say you'll come home?"
"I can't say any such thing. Not right now. Look, I'll call you when I make up my mind, okay?"
"Alright, just listen to Hales, okay? Don't shut her out just because it has to do with…well, with him."
"I'll do what I can, Rach. Take care." Brooke hung up the phone after saying goodbye to Rachel. Her nerves were shot and the coke wasn't helping any. In fact, the caffeine was making things worse. Wrapping a robe around her slim body, Brooke stopped for a moment and examined her reflection in the mirror.
A couple changes here and there, a maturity to her structure and poise. She'd stayed slim and fit, and even had managed to tone some areas of her body that before weren't as perfect as she'd have liked. Her skin was smooth and blemish-free, her hair was as luxurious as ever. So why did she always feel uncomfortable in her own skin? How come she had such a strong desire to change it all?
Shaking her head, she tightened the robe around her waist and walked downstairs back to the kitchen. Sliding her cell phone up again, she pulled up Haley's contact information and pushed send. Now to find out what all was going on, and if it'd gotten so bad that they needed reinforcements, then how come she hadn't heard anything about it before?
