Chapter 2

Brooke POV

"Mom? You coming?" Talia asked, pausing with her car door open.

"Yeah," I said pushing the mirror up and getting out the car. My stomach filled with butterflies as I walked up to my best friend's house for her birthday party. It didn't take a genius to work out that Nathan would probably be here too; after all Peyton was just as much his friend as she was mine. She was also his brother's wife which sort of meant he had more right to be here than I did.

All of the interconnections between our group of friends is probably what made this situation so hard. We didn't want our friends to have to choose sides when we split up since it wasn't fair on them. Me and Nathan had gone into our relationship with the same group of friends so it wasn't like we could leave with the ones we came with. The fact that his brother married my best friend only made this a little bit harder.

Talia knocked on the door, and it flew open as Peyton appeared on the other side.

"Happy Birthday!" Talia said happily, hugging Peyton.

"Thank you sweetie," she said, as Talia went past her into the house.

"Happy Birthday Peyt," I said hugging her myself.

"Thanks B," she said over the noise coming from the house. From the sounds of it, it was already a full house, "you look like you need a drink."

"Like you wouldn't believe," I said laughing.

We went into the kitchen, and I helped myself to some punch, as Peyton poured in vodka over the top of the alcohol that was already in there. It felt like we were back in high school.

"Peyton!"

"What? You're childless for the night," she said.

"Did you forget about Talia?" I asked, taking a sip.

"Relax, she's old enough. Remember what we were doing at fifteen?" Peyton said casually and I spluttered on my drink.

"Careful there Brooke," Lucas said coming into the kitchen with Nathan behind him.

"Hi Brooke," Nathan said.

"Hi," I said. My voice sounded calm but my inner voice was yelling 'It's Nathan!' over and over again.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine, you?"

"I'm good," he said and there was an awkward few seconds, "where are the kids?"

"They're with my Mom, I figured this was more of a grown up party," I said gesturing to my 'special' punch.

"Oh," he said looking slightly disappointed.

"Talia is inside though, she's probably with Kaitlyn,"I said referring to Lucas and Peyton's daughter.

"Oh ok," Nathan said.

"So I'm going to go see who's around," I said feeling faint, and it had nothing to do with my drink. There was something about Nathan that took me right back to high school. I felt like a teenager again, not being able to keep composed when in front of the guy I 'liked'. I hated how I couldn't stop that part of me having feelings for Nathan. I wish I could make myself listen to the grown up rational side of me that understood that we weren't together anymore. The fact that I saw him every other weekend and also at events like this didn't really give me the space I needed to get over him.

I went into the living room and saw lots of people I knew. I also did a quick scan for Talia and sure enough she was with Kaitlyn and Jenny, Jake's daughter.

Before I could go and say hi to Rachel though, I felt Lucas drag me into the hallway.

"What was that?" he asked.

"What?"

"You could have actually made an effort to talk to him," Lucas said. "Like today, you know I didn't mind picking up El and Cody from school but you know you could have asked him, he would have loved it. Why are you being so hard on Nathan?"

"Luke you know why," I said not making eye contact.

"Why are you being so stubborn?" he asked me, and I felt myself get annoyed at the way he was talking to me.

"Excuse me?"

"He's clearly trying Brooke," he said, "and you're just being stubborn. You're not a teenager anymore."

"This isn't actually any of your business," I said.

"Well he's my brother and you're my best friend, and you're both the parents of my nieces and nephew so it kind of is," he said.

"Well everyone needs to stop assuming they know what's best for me," I said raising my voice, "What if getting back together isn't the right thing for me or Nathan or the kids? What if we're meant to be apart?"

"That's ridiculous and you know it. The only reason you two are apart right now is because of a stupid drunken mistake, not because of any real issue between the two of you," he said as if he knew everything about our marriage. The issues started way before the 'stupid drunken mistake' as he liked to put it.

"Luke, drop it," I warned, "whether he was drunk at the time or not he still subconsciously wanted to do it."

"That's bull and you know it. Nathan hasn't touched a drop of alcohol since you two split and he's really trying. You're just too stubborn to see that," he said, "You need to stop keeping him on a string because the unknown is killing him. I know you still love him."

Of course I still love him; it was never about that. Why did everyone feel the need to ask me that? Did nobody understand we weren't together anymore?

"I can't do this right now," I said, feeling the tears start to fall.

I pushed past him and out the front door.

"Brooke don't go," I heard him call after me but I ignored him.

This wasn't the first speech about getting back together with Nathan that I'd gotten but I was finally sick of everyone treating me like a child who was just being selfish.

I didn't understand why everyone was acting like I was the one being difficult for not letting Nathan back into my life. I'm sick of them acting like it's no big deal and I was overreacting and not dropping my grudge.

I was an adult and all I was doing was protecting myself, and my kids from further heartbreak.

Maybe I did need to stop keeping Nathan and me in limbo and sort this out once and for all.

Xxxxxxxxx

Nathan POV

"Was Brooke crying?" I heard Peyton ask from the doorway to the kitchen and I automatically turned around.

Lucas came into the kitchen and ran his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, she just left," he said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We had a little disagreement," Lucas said.

"About what?"

"You."

"Shit, Luke what did you say to her?" I asked feeling dread fill my bones. She didn't deserve to go through this, "I told you to just leave it."

"She's being stubborn but not giving you a chance," he said.

"Tell me you didn't say that to her," I said.

I didn't even deserve for her to be talking to me at all let alone give me another chance. I didn't want her to feel pressured in any way because Lucas couldn't keep his opinions to himself.

"It's true!" Luke said and I sighed, "you're being just as stubborn by not telling her how you feel."

"Oh my god Lucas, is she ok?" Peyton asked.

"She'll be fine," he said sitting on the chair.

Peyton took her phone out and looked at the screen, "That's Brooke now, she asked if someone can drop Talia off later."

"I'll do it," I said and Peyton nodded.

I didn't want Brooke to think I'd pushed Lucas to talk to her because I didn't want her to feel like I was forcing her to do anything.

I stayed at the party for another twenty minutes but I couldn't keep the worry out my mind. She was clearly upset enough to leave and I felt like I needed to know she was ok.

"Tal you ready to go?" I asked my daughter.

Natalia looked up at my voice and bit her lip.

"Where's Mom?"

"She left and wanted me to drop you home," I explained.

"She left?" Talia asked confused.

"She was a little upset," I explained vaguely.

"What did you do to her?" she instantly accused.

I hated how she instantly assumed I'd done something to upset Brooke, although I couldn't blame her.

"Nothing, she just didn't like something Uncle Luke said," I said.

"Can we go now?" she asked, clearly concerned. Even though she wasn't on my team right now, I was glad Talia was on Brooke's.

I nodded and we headed out to the car.

We drove silently for about five minutes. Talia sat slightly to the side, staring out the window.

"So how have you been?" I asked. It was weird having no idea what was going on in my own daughter's life considering how close we used to be.

"Fine," she replied shrugging.

"You've had a lot of school work right?"

"Huh?"

"On the weekends?"

"Oh right, yeah," she said clearly lying.

"Listen Natalia—"

"Talia," she corrected.

"Tal, I don't want things to be like this between us," I said turning into the road where Brooke lived.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I know you're mad at me, but I love you and I want to things to be ok between us," I said.

"Everything's fine," she said unbuckling her seatbelt.

I sighed at how well that went and went to take off my own seatbelt.

"Maybe I should just go check on her," Talia said.

I thought about it then nodded. Maybe turning up at her house at this time wouldn't really help. I hadn't actually been in the new house before, always meeting them in the parking lot but this didn't really seem like the right moment to change that.

"Ok," I said, "Night Talia."

"Bye," she said without looking back.

xxxxxxx