Hi everyone and thanks for all the reviews – they were all really flattering. Beccy Tee – it gets happier, I promise! IndieBoyheartsCurly, sorry, this is going to be a pretty short chapter too, because I'm just setting the scene, but they will get longer. What I just wanted to do with the prologue was get across how worried and scared Brooke was, so I tried to get straight to the point. I hope this is more to your satisfaction!

Just to explain a little, what I'm going to do each chapter is have a little bit of June, then go back a couple of months, moving on a month each chapter. I know that probably sounds really confusing, but hopefully it'll make sense when it gets there. I did some calculations, and if they're right, then this begins at the end of S1. Anything that happens after that is up to me! By the way, Lucas didn't come back from Charleston and Peyton and Brooke did open his letter. And, by way of a dislclaimer, I don't own any of One Tree Hill, sadly. Anyway, here we go!

Chapter 2 – March

I'm pretty pissed off with Lucas Scott right now. Not only did he cheat on me with my former-but-sort-of-friends-again-now best friend Peyton Sawyer, but he also left for Charleston a week ago without saying goodbye to either of us, just leaving a letter each taped to my front door.

I've read mine over and over again, so that now the edges are ripped and the corners are crumpled. It says:

Dear Brooke,

I wanted to tell you again just how sorry I am for what I did to you. I know you don't want to listen to me, but here it is. I never, ever meant for it to happen. I never, ever meant to hurt you. And I never, ever wanted you to feel the way you feel about me now. That was never my intention.

I've gone to Charleston in the hope of a new start. I hope, maybe when we're older and wiser, we can talk again, and in my wildest dreams you'll forgive me.

A wise man once wrote: "Sometimes we have to choose between what is right, and what is easy." I chose the easy way – to try to have both you and Peyton, while the right way would have been to have neither of you. And you don't know how much it hurts me that I also hurt you.

I will be sorry for the rest of my life.

Lucas.

I can't actually believe he had the nerve to write that. Because he didn't exactly seem sorry. Less than a week after it all came out that he had been seeing Peyton behind my back, he went and hooked up with some slut he met in a bar. Yeah, that's exactly what you do when you want to be forgiven. Peyton and I sort of drifted back together after that.

I've been friends with Peyton Sawyer for as long as I can remember clearly. On our first day of Kindergarten, two boys poured water from the sink on my hair, which I'd begged and begged my mom to curl for me. I started crying, so Peyton came over with a towel and dried it off for me, saying "Don't worry, you look prettier with straight hair," and we became best friends. Then after her mom died, when we were about eight or nine, we went from being BFFs to almost sisters. We were inseparable; nothing could split us up.

Except Lucas.

He was the first thing we ever fought over. She wanted him, I wanted him, but he wanted her. She was dating Nathan, Lucas' brother, at the time, so I assumed I had a bit of a headstart. But while I thought I had Lucas, and I was slowly but surely falling in love with him, Peyton had him all the time. And I was just too stupid to realise it.

Nathan got married last week too. This girl Haley, she's sort of friends with Peyton, she started tutoring Nathan, and then they started dating, and then they got married on the beach. It's so sickeningly sweet, it makes me want to puke. I mean, married in high school? Yeah, like that's ever going to work. Either they think they're in love, or Tutor Girl is very much pregnant. Tick the appropriate box, please.

I've got my money on the latter. I'm not sure if love exists at the moment.

It would be kind of funny if Haley was pregnant, to be honest. I mean, everyone thinks she is so perfect, but I just can't see the halo. It would shatter everyone's illusions of her in an instant if she announced she was gonna be a mommy. Nathan's dad would be pleased though; he got like two girls pregnant at out age – one of them Nathan's mom, Deb, and the other one–

Sorry, I got off track. Yeah, if Tutor Girl got knocked up. God, I hope that never happens to me. I mean, it's not going to. They taught us all about the dangers in health class, so I always use protection. I'm not on the Pill because when I tried it I started to gain weight like crazy, but if neither of us have a condom, we don't have sex. It's sort of a rule of mine.

I know, I know, Brooke Davis abstaining? But I really, really, really don't want to get pregnant. At least until I'm grown up and settled and married to someone like Lu–

Oh my god, I can't believe I'm still moping over him! Yes, I thought he was a great guy, but he cheated on me! Even so, I just can't get him out of my head. I guess, in a way, no matter how hard I try, I'll always feel some sort of connection, some sort of thread that binds us together.

Great, I'll always be hung up on Lucas Scott.