Brooke walked into her house. She bumped right into the staircase.
"I guess that's something to get used to."
Victoria put down the bags on the side. "Do you want to see your room?"
"The doctor said I should look at albums, you know see myself as who I used to be."
"Well, okay. I have a lot from your childhood, but none recently. I think that you should ask your friends."
"Fitting since I don't remember having friends."
"I'm going to try and help you in any way that I can. So, would you like something to drink?"
"I don't know what I like?"
"I'll fix you a banana and pineapple drink, those are your favorite."
"Thanks Victoria…mom."
"You're welcome. The albums are on the table, go though whichever one you like."
Brooke sat herself down on the couch and opened up an album. She saw a young girl who looked like her having fun. Ice cream, birthday parties. She had a lot of friends. But one person stuck out in every picture?"
"Who is this?" She pointed to the blond.
"Peyton Sawyer, your best friend."
"If she's my best friend, how come she didn't see me in the hospital?"
"Sometimes it's hard for people to see their friend after something bad has happened."
"And why won't anyone tell me what happened?"
"Baby steps, Brooke, baby steps."
"Maybe you can tell me, what I was like before. Was I kind or was I mean?"
"Well, you were, what most would say…lost. You partied a lot and I hardly saw you. So it was like you weren't around most of the time."
"So I was a slut, if that's what I should be called."
"No honey, you were…adventurous."
"Is that what the doctor told you to say in an effort to keep me from knowing how horrible of a person I was?"
"No, it's nothing like that. But I would like you to take it one step at a time. When we go back to the doctor in a week, we can ask all those questions."
"Mom, did I keep a diary?"
"I think so, but I've never seen one, I keep thinking all girls keep some type of diary or journal."
"It's probably up in my room, if I can find my room."
"At the end of the hall, it's all purple."
"So, purple is my favorite color?"
"Yep. I gave you a purple monkey when you were little and ever since then every thing in your room had to be a shade of purple."
"I'll be upstairs then."
"Okay."
She walked up the stairs and slowly entered her room. Her mother was right, everything was purple. Brooke started to open up drawers in her nightstand to see what kind of life she has…or had.
"Whoa!" Brooke slammed the door shut. Slowly she opened it again to huge box. "I don't think I'll need those anytime soon."
"Finally." She picked up a photo pack and opened it up. She saw herself smiling in every picture, with the same boy almost every time. "I guess I have a boyfriend?"
Then Brooke found some pictures where she felt ashamed of herself. She tore them in half and threw them in the trash. "Slut was right."
A knock on the door sounded, Victoria peered her head around the corner.
"There is a boy down stairs to see you, his name is Lucas. I know you don't remember him, but he would like to talk to you."
"Sure, send him up."
Brooke got the urge to look at herself in the mirror, making sure all the hair was in place and her face looked good.
Lucas shut the door behind him. "Hey Brooke."
"Lucas, hi…how are you?"
"Pretty good, how are you feeling?"
"Good, I guess. I guess how I'm supposed to feel after a horrible accident and having no memory of what happened to me."
"I'm not here for me, I'm here for Peyton." Brooke noticed he kept playing with his ring…on his ring finger. "It's hard for her."
"You're married. Wow, high schools around here are sure advanced."
"I want you to know that Peyton does care, it's just hard for her, after everything."
"Yeah, it's hard for me too." Brooke was giving a confused look as to having a feeling they were talking about two different things.
Lucas sat down beside her, on the bed.
"I just wanted to see how you were."
"I'm fine."
"I guess I can go now."
"All you came to see is how I was. No questions about how I've been for the past six months, away from everyone, in a hospital?"
"Look, everything is just really hard. And I don't want to go into the Brooke Davis world again, it was too damn mixed up the first time."
"Hey, Lucas…"
"Yeah…" He stopped in the halfway of the door.
"Who's Peyton?"
"Funny Brooke."
"No, really, was she like my friend."
"Brooke you're not making any sense."
"And neither does all of this. Prior to me coming back home, I don't remember anything. All I know is that my name is Brooke Davis, I live in a nice house on Tattersalls Drive and I go to Tree Hill High School. I would love for someone, anyone to help me fill in the blanks for the first eighteen years of my life."
"I'm not the person to do that."
"Then who is. Because right now I feel like the next forty years are going to be me recovering what happened the day of the accident. Or what ever accident it was. Honestly, I could've been run over by a car or thrown over a bridge. I don't know, and everyone is just telling me that it'll come back, it'll come back. It could come back, and right now, it feels like no one wants me to let it come back. Was I a bad person?"
Lucas walked over to Brooke's computer and logged onto the internet.
"You posted videos of the Ravens victory parties online. Here's your former self. I'm not one to say you were a bad person, that's all one's own interpretation. I hate to judge people and right now, you don't know who you are or were. So, that would be a little unfair."
Brooke sat down in front of the computer and watched her life appear online. She started to cry about the many things she said about people and now not even knowing who they were. She saw so many videos of herself that it looked to be like a movie. Like someone who just happened to look like her doing all these mean things. So disgusted, she shut the computer off and ran downstairs.
"Mom, could you take me to see Peyton, because I want to know who she was so I can apologize for what my former self had done."
"It's late, but maybe tomorrow? You've had a long day, you should get some rest."
"No, now. I don't want my former self to be out there and for everyone to judge me based on her."
"Okay…we'll go."
Brooke took the piece of paper with the apartment address written on it. "Okay, apartment eleven." She stood in front of the door, afraid to knock. But the hard work was done for her when the door flew open in front of her. A very scary blond girl was on the side.
"What do you want?"
"You must be Peyton."
"Good one, and you're the lying bitch I'm gonna slam the door in front of."
"I'm sorry."
"So you think one 'I'm sorry' is going to fix a years worth of torment? You don't get it do you, I hate you…Brooke. I can't stand you. Stay away from me and you better stay away from my husband."
The door was slammed in Brooke's face and the lights were turned off.
"That did not go as planned."
Owen showed up for work at Tric. Karen had already gave him a list of drinks to make for the party being held there tonight.
Karen sat in front of him. Starring at the way he did everything.
"What?" Owen looked at her.
"Why are you here?"
"Well, shot in the dark, I work here."
"I thought you would be going to see Brooke."
"Why would I do that; and yes I heard she is out of the hospital."
"I remember you having quite the attraction to her when she showed up at this club."
"I was attracted to her, I will admit that. But that's all it was. I mean she just has this life that I can't keep up with."
"Maybe things are different."
"Hmm, yeah sure. And we'll just magically ride off into the sunset and get married. Sorry, I don't believe in fairytales."
"Fairytales aren't always about riding into the sunset. My son's father is Dan Scott. That's not the kind of fairytale I ever thought I would tell my daughter, Lily. But I am happy now, and I do believe in fairytales. And mine didn't involve a fairy godmother or any type of pumpkin made carriages. But it does involve being happy."
"Who says I'm not happy."
"The customers? Before when you were seeing or dating or whatever you doing with Brooke you were happy. You were excited. That bartender made me a lot more money."
"So this is a business arrangement for you?"
"No, it's not. I just want to see you happy. And I think we both know who can fix that."
A couple of minutes later, Owen say Lucas at the bar.
"Sitting there long enough to see your mother giving me advice?"
"No, but I've been there. She loves giving advice, it what makes her a great mom."
"I'm not her son."
"But she still gives great advice."
"About a girl I barely dated and really have no interest in dating again."
"That's what I said about Peyton, we were eleven, but I still said it."
"You dated Peyton at eleven?"
"No, just the part about not being interested in ever seeing her again. She would always take my juice box and give me her grape soda. I hate grape soda. I found it annoying, now I find it cute as hell."
"Why are you taking me a trip on memory lane?"
"Because the way you see things now, as messed up as they might be, it doesn't mean you'll always feel that way. And I went to see Brooke."
"And you're married to Peyton? Are you asking for a divorce, or just hinting loudly?"
"I love my wife, no doubt about that. But I am my own person, I make my own decisions. I knew no one would go see Brooke, but I'm glad I did. She's completely different. She has no memory of who she is, and that certainly includes you."
"Like this pep talk is supposed to change my mind."
"It's not supposed to do anything…I was never even here." Lucas walked away and hugged Karen goodbye before leaving.
Owen went back to his job and heard another person sit at the bar.
Before turning around. "You know it's really annoying, everyone giving advice." He stood there, in front of Brooke. "Sorry."
"No, it's okay. I've been getting a lot of that advice too. But considering my former self, I could probably use quite a bit of it."
"We're not open yet, happy hour starts later on."
"That's probably fair but considering I don't remember much about anyone or anything, that line or insult or whatever has no affect on me."
"As in, you don't know a few things?"
"I'm here because you have been in a lot of pictures that I have all over my room and I don't know who you are. Did we date?"
"For a little bit, yes."
"Okay, you seem to be sort of intolerable tone towards me; apparently we broke up and not on the best of terms."
"For us to break up, we would have had to have dated. We went out a few times, but nothing I would call a relationship to break from."
"Oh, okay. I guess I was hard to handle."
"In a few ways. Dragging you out of a bar when you're not even legal to drink yet was sort of getting old after the first time. You're life is a little above what I like to do for fun on weekends."
"How long did we…go out?"
"A few months. But hey, it's not big deal. You don't remember, and I…" He starred at her, not wanting to say the first thing that came to his mind. "And I moved on." And he didn't.
"At least you sound honest, looks are a different story. With having a memory loss, you get a chance to read what people say in difference to how they say it. And you know something Owen, you're a terrible liar."
"Maybe I was never telling the truth, maybe we don't know each other at all."
"Maybe…but I guess only time will tell, huh?"
Brooke got up and walked in the view of Peyton.
"Hi Peyton." She smiled.
She ignored Brooke's attempt to be nice and walked towards the bar. Brooke turned around to see Peyton talking to Owen, the conversation didn't look friendly so she took that cue for her to leave.
"And why was she here?"
"Peyton she has questions. I'm in a few pictures. And she wanted to know who I was."
"You know she's not allowed in here. No matter what."
"So what, because you had some fight about a high school problem you ban the girl from a club? A little immature, Mrs. Scott."
"Okay, don't forget, I do pay your salary. And you know, the unemployment line is getting a bit full, you might want to rethink your words."
"If I were say a little bit younger, maybe in high school, I'd care what you say. But right now, I don't. Oh, and since you hate Brooke Davis, you might want to talk to your husband. It seems you two have some words to get straight."
Peyton walked into Karen's office to see Lucas filling out papers.
"Have you talked to Brooke recently?"
He looked up. "I went to see her, if that's what you're asking."
"Why? What do you have in common with her?"
"I wanted to see how she was. She might have been a bad person, but I'm not. I do care about people, Peyton."
"Why her? She ruined everything."
"Almost everything, we still got married."
"You don't get it do you, I can't stand her."
"You can't stand her, that doesn't mean anything to me." He stood up and walked around the desk. "I know she hurt you, but she almost died Peyton."
"To her own fault."
"And whose fault was it when that guy gave you a drink laced with a date rape drug. No one forced you to drink it. You almost died. What makes you so much better?"
"I only hurt myself, she hurt everyone."
He turned around in the doorway. "You didn't get it that night and you don't get it now. You almost dying killed me, Peyton. I stayed with you the entire night, so did Haley. We looked up the drug, all the side affects and hoped that nothing bad would happen to you. So I know what it's like to almost lose something I really care about. I'm not saying I care a lot about Brooke, but everyone deserves a second chance."
"Wasn't her second chance like ten chances ago?"
"I'm not doing this Peyton. I'm not getting in between this thing between you and Brooke. Yeah, she was a bad person, everyone knows that. I love you and I think you know I'll always be there for you, but don't do this me. Don't put me in the middle. There's something you have to work out, I'll always be here for you. But not at the expense of alienating everyone else to do it."
"Lucas…"
"I'll see you at home, Peyton."
Peyton leaned up against the desk, the wind knocked out of her. Mostly because this was the first time he said that line. Before it was 'see you at home, Mrs. Scott' anything but the raw voice that he just displayed.
Later that night Peyton knocked on Brooke's bedroom door, letting herself in.
"Didn't think I'd ever see you again?" Brooke looked at her outfit. "Different from what I saw you in earlier."
"Here." Peyton handed Brooke an envelope.
She opened it up. "I was a cheerleader?"
"A damn good one too. I think everyone can agree you weren't always the most driven person in the right areas. But I think it's time you see that you were a good person."
"Why did you do this? A few hours ago you wanted to kick me off the planet?"
"I know you don't remember, so I'm going to fill in the details."
Brooke sat down and listened to Peyton's words.
"When we were kids, you promised me to make my wedding dress whenever I got married. And promised to provide a great band at your wedding. I honestly thought marriage would come later, but life comes fast. And you had told me all these details you were putting on the dress, but wouldn't let me see it until the day before the wedding. You assured me it was just like the pictures that I put up on your wall."
"I bet you looked beautiful in it."
"That's the easiest part of the story. The hardest part is telling you what actually happened. I went to go see my dress, the day before the wedding, there was no dress; there was no Brooke. You had apparently sold the dress to some pawn shop to get money to get out of town to go to some fiesta or something. I was so angry with you that you took our friendship for granted and went out and partied. But I forgave you. I actually got to wear Karen's wedding dress that she wore at her wedding to Keith. But the lie that broke everything was the day you skipped out Keith and Karen's one year anniversary party and never did anything. You promised you would send out the invitations, which I found later in the trash located in your bedroom. You promised a lot of things last year and you didn't live up to any of them. You broke my heart Brooke Davis. And I decided at that point that there wasn't going to be anything that you could do that would make us be friends again. We were best friends, we did everything together. And when you met Owen, I thought that this would be the one time in your life that everything would start to come together. Everything would be okay. But it got worse."
"Does this have to do with the accident that no one will tell me about?"
"Yeah." Peyton let a tear fall on the side of her face. "You don't know him, you probably never did before the accident. You were with Nikki, a really bad person. And the police report filed stated that you were like four times the legal limit. You were driving and I guess you want to go to the river court and all that I know is that you never stopped."
Brooke was crying too. "What did I do? Peyton, please tell me!"
"Marvin McFadden, we called him Mouth. He was on the bleachers. He had no idea what was coming. Everyone else ran when the car just knocked into the bleachers. Mouth didn't have a chance."
"I killed someone?"
"Everyone ruled it out as an accident, considering how drunk you and Nikki were. But it doesn't matter if you were drunk or you lost control, someone is dead."
"Wait, how is this true. I…"
"Dan Scott, Lucas' father is the mayor. He pulled a few strings and you walked free. He didn't know at the time if you would live or even be able to walk again. But you did it. That's why no one wanted to tell you, how do you cope with the idea you killed someone?"
"Then why did you tell me?"
"Because that was our thing, no secrets. I may be mad at you and want you out of Tree Hill, but what I really want more is my best friend back."
"Peyton, I'm here…not all the way, but I'm still here."
"No you're not…you and me, we're done." Peyton dried herself off and left the house.