Hey all! Sorry I haven't updated I've been really busy with school and I got the lead in the school musical so that's taking up a lot of time. I promise to update again this weekend! Thanks for all the reviews. If you are interested I have a Gossip Girl FF called "How Long is Forever?" Check it out. Thanks!
Is that her?
She looks sick.
What the hell happened?
She needs help.
The fainted whispers echoed around the large living room of the Scott's home as Brooke walked in the front door. She looked around the house and saw many familiar faces and many little children running rampant around the furniture. She scanned the house looking for particular faces but only saw one that really caught her eye; she noticed that the same pair of eyes was staring back at her.
Haley looked at her friend in disbelief. She was wearing a worn out grey tank top and ratty, torn up pair of grey jeans, which did not match Brooke's usual fashion standards. Her long hair was cut unevenly and disheveled; it tangled all the way down to her mid back where the ribs began protruding significantly out of her tiny frame. Her arms and legs were both too skinny and her body had shriveled away to merely skin and bones. Her face was becoming wrinkled, which was odd for a twenty-one year old. Her eyes had deep purple bags beneath them and her eyes looked tired and distant.
Despite her worry, she ran over to her friend with open arms.
"Oh my god Brooke! Hi" She wrapped her arms around Brooke's thin waist as her frail arms pulled themselves around her shoulders. Brooke smiled at Haley. She knew that Haley's warm reception was a cover up for her actual feelings.
"Hey Hales—How are you?" Brooke forced out. I shouldn't have come here.
"I'm good Brooke, My, it's been too long, everyone will be super excited to see you! Come this way, the gang is through here." Brooke followed Haley through the room and into the kitchen. There they were. The gang was all there. Lucas was still blonde and gorgeous as ever. He had his arms around an apparently slightly pregnant Peyton. Nathan w as in the corner, watching his son chase some kids around the house with Skills. There was an unfamiliar face in the crowd though. A handsome young man with short brunette hair and dark eyes that penetrated her when they looked up at her. It made her feel at ease. The group of her once friends looked up at her with the same expression that had flashed across Haley's face when she had first entered the home, but the looks dissolved quickly and turned into "Hi Brooke's" and "We missed you's" and "How are you's" She wanted to scream "How do I look?!?!?!" She shrugged her way through the conversations about her time in New York and Haley's new job and Lucas's book, but when it came to talking about Peyton's pregnancy it became too much. In the middle of talking about how happy she was to be into her second trimester, Brooke needed a break.
"Um, Haley, Where's the bathroom?" She asked, interrupting Peyton.
"Down that hall and to the left," Haley pointed out. Brooke thanked her and made her escape, leaving them to obviously talk about her. She power walked to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She grabbed her ever trusty vial out of her purse and poured the contents onto the counter. She lined it up and did line after line. The higher, the better she thought. She swept whatever traces of the white powder remained on the counter, into the wastebasket next to it and washed her hands and her face. She looked at herself in the mirror, disapproving of herself until the coke began to kick in. With a slight giggle, she smiled at herself in the mirror. She flipped her mess of hair and headed back out to the party. The stares continued and the whispers proceeded, but Brooke didn't care. The Brooke they had remembered and known was now a just a distant memory. This was her now. She was here for fun. She walked back to her group of friends high as a kite, and no one seemed to notice. Well, so she thought.
