AN: Thanks for all the reviews guys. Just to clear something up that might be a little confusing, Skills is the only one from the group who knows about Rachel and Brooke. I'm sorry if I didn't explain that well enough before. Anyway, Happy Holidays and I promise you won't have to wait a month for the next update.
Brooke and Rachel had made their way home from the bar not long after the conversation in the bathroom. Neither one had stopped long enough to explain what had happened on the dance floor to their friends, instead Rachel paid her tab, and they both walked out the door. Blair and Skills both gave them knowing looks, but the rest of the group were more than confused as to what was going on.
Closing the front door behind her, Brooke walked nervously to where Rachel sat on the couch, not sure what to do in the situation she was in. Sure she had been here plenty of times with guys but never had she been with a girl, especially one of her friends.
Although she was better at masking it, Rachel was just as unsure as the brunette. She didn't want anything this new relationship might bring to ruin the friendship they already had. There were only a select few who were there for the girl when she needed them, and Brooke was the most important one.
Brooke sat down next to the girl with enough distance between them so that they weren't touching. Rachel looked over and smiled, some of the nervousness leaving her body. "What do we do now?" she asked trying to get Brooke to relax.
"Go on a date? I mean, that's what people usually do after they kiss, right?" Brooke asked and slouched further down into the couch.
"I don't."
"Right, well you're a whore," Brooke laughed at the glare she received from the other girl.
"Ha ha. I could take you to the party tomorrow night."
"You could take me to the party I'm throwing?"
"Yeah," Rachel answered confused as to why that would be a problem.
"It's my party. That's not very romantic."
Rachel laughed at the upset look the girl was wearing and couldn't help but to continue to tease, "Who said anything about romance? I'm not in this for that."
Brooke looked up at the girl, not sure whether or not she was joking, "Then why are you?"
"Well, you're kinda hot," she started and scooted closer to Brooke, "and you're a pretty good kisser," she continued leaning in, just inches away from the girl's face, her soft breath hitting Brooke's slightly parted lips, "and I've got to repay you for letting me stay here."
Surprised at what came out of the redhead's mouth, Brooke gently pushed her away, "That's not fun..." she started but was cut off by Rachel's lips on her own.
It was the first time they had kissed since the night at the bar, but it didn't take long for Brooke to respond. Her hand quickly found its way to the back of Rachel's neck, pulling her closer than what she already was. All the awkwardness drained away as the kiss continued, growing deeper with each second that passed.
Rachel started to push Brooke down onto the couch, never breaking the kiss, and once they were both laying down, Rachel gave her one last quick kiss before pulling away and smiling at the girl.
"Why didn't we ever do this in high school?" Brooke asked after finally catching her breath, moving her hands down to the redhead's hips.
"Because you were always too busy chasing after boys."
"Ok, Miss. I tried to kill Cooper and then hook up with a married man, I wasn't the only one who was boy crazy," the brunette laughed.
"Please, that was just to get your attention. It obviously didn't work," Rachel responded, re-situating themselves so that they were laying on their sides facing each other.
They sat there for a few minutes just looking at each other and being comfortable in the other's company. Rachel moved a piece of hair that had fallen across Brooke's face back behind her ear and smiled, "I've never done romance. I've done fun, and the party tomorrow should be fun. Can we just start with that and move up to the romantic stuff?"
"Yes," Brooke answered, snuggling in closer to the girl laying beside her and resting her head just below the girl's chin.
Sometime during the night the girls had fallen asleep. Brooke was still curled up next to Rachel, and Rachel's arm hanged loosely around the girl's waist, but, being that they were on a couch, the position had proven to be very uncomfortable after hours of not moving.
Groaning at the cramps and soreness that plagued her body, Rachel opened her eyes to the sun filled room and remembered why she was in the uncomfortable position in the first place. She smiled at the thought of what had happened the night before and tightened her grip around the sleeping girl's body, but her smile faltered when she felt a distinct wet spot on the top of her shirt.
Rolling Brooke over to her back and hovering just above her, Rachel looked down at her shirt and saw that there was, in fact, a wet spot visible on her shirt. "Wake up, nasty ass," she said in a not so soft voice.
Letting out a similar groan to the one that Rachel had done just moments before, Brooke slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times before they adjusted to the light.
"What the hell, Rachel? I was comfy."
"No kidding. You drooled all over me," she said pointing to the spot on her shirt.
"I did not!"
"Really? Then how'd that get there?"
"You obviously drooled on yourself."
"Right, Brooke. I just happened to drool in the exact spot you were laying. It's time to get up anyway, we need to set the store up."
Up until this point they were enjoying comfortable banter, but now that it was over, their close proximity and the newness of their relationship became apparent. Rachel wasn't sure what to do because if this had been a man, she would have been long gone by now. Not only was waking up with someone completely new to her but waking up with Brooke was something entirely different. Even though they hadn't done anything more than kiss, both girls were feeling awkward laying there looking at each other.
"So...this is weird, huh?" Brooke asked, almost as if she could read the girl's mind.
"A little."
"I thought so. I know that we're going on our first date tonight and we're starting out with fun, but why don't we take things slow. Like, don't sleep together until we're ready to...you know...sleep together."
Rachel smiled, relief washing over her face, "I can deal with that, but we really need to get up and get the store ready."
Brooke returned the smile and nodded before they each got up and went about getting dressed.
Lunch time rolled around while the two had been steadily getting the Clothes Over Bros shop ready for the night's party. Brooke knew that it was time to take a break when she heard Rachel's stomach growl from across the room.
"Wow, Rachel, hungry much?" She asked as she set down the streamer she had been trying to wrap around a clothing rack.
"Well, being your slave is hard work. My body obviously needs more energy."
"Ugh, sometimes you can be so annoying, you know that?"
"Awe, did I make wittle Penelope mad?" Rachel asked in a mocking tone and made her way over to Brooke, who had her hands placed firmly on her hips, obviously annoyed. "How will I ever make it up to her," she asked as she wrapped her arms around the brunette through the openings the girl's arms created and pulled her closer.
Brooke removed her hands from her hips, placed them around the redhead's neck and tried to suppress the smile that was on the verge of escaping, "Quit being so mean to her and she'll probably forgive you. She may even feed you."
Rachel let out a chuckle before lowering her head and closing the distance between them. Their lips were nearly touching when the bell above the door sounded, sending Brooke flying away from the girl.
In walked Peyton, Haley and Lucas, oblivious to what had almost happened before they arrived.
"Oh, hey, you're almost ready. We were coming by to help," Peyton said as she looked around the room and saw that it had already been decorated.
"Uh, yeah, for the most part," Brooke responded still a little de-shelved from almost being caught kissing the girl that nearly all of her friends hated.
Rachel looked more than a little upset at being interrupted and hurt that Brooke hadn't wanted them to see, "Still hungry," she said with her arms crossed over her chest.
"You guys want to go get something to eat? I can pick up something for Nathan and Jamie when we're done," Haley suggested to the group.
After everyone agreed and decided where to eat, the five of them left the store and headed down the street in somewhat awkward silence.
Rachel had just finished her burger and onion rings when she noticed everyone at the table staring at her, "What?" she asked wondering what was so interesting about her eating. She made sure there was nothing on her face by wiping it off with the napkin in her lap, but when nobody looked away, she raised her eyebrows and waited for a response.
"I don't think I've ever seen you eat that much," Lucas answered for the group.
"I was hungry."
"I guess I just didn't think such a little person could hold so much food."
"Don't worry, I'll be throwing it up in a few minutes," she answered, a small smile playing across her face.
"Rachel!" the three other girls with them exclaimed at once.
Not being able to help it, the redhead let out a laugh, "It was just a joke....I haven't done that in at least a year."
"It's not funny. You know I only hire healthy models," Brooke spoke up, cutting into the girl's laughter.
"Which is why you fired the drug addict. I get it Brooke, but if you don't like my answers, quit talking about how much I eat."
"I didn't bring it up, Lucas did," the brunette tried to defend herself.
"No, you just bring it up every other time. You guys want to know why I eat? Because it's better than the alternative. I get a craving I eat. Would you rather me go around screwing guys or shooting up?" When no one responded, or even looked at her, she continued, "Right, didn't think so because if I did that I wouldn't get to see Jamie or even be treated with respect by you people. Oh, wait, I already don't get those things."
Finished with her rant, she pushed back her chair, causing it to fall over and walked away from the table. Brooke didn't wait for reactions from the other people at the table before she was chasing after the girl.
"Rachel, wait. Rachel!" She yelled to the girl's retreating back. When she finally caught up to her, she grabbed her arm and spun her around, seeing tears covering her face.
"This was a mistake," she chocked out between sobs.
"Lunch?" Brooke asked confused.
"Me coming here and thinking I'd be accepted."
"You are accepted, nobody meant anything back there."
"Nobody ever means anything do they, Brooke? Your two best friends belittle me every chance they get, I know what Lucas and Nathan think of me, and where the hell is Mouth? And then you, you couldn't get far enough away from me in the store. I thought you weren't ashamed of me."
"Rachel, stop. I'm not ashamed of you, but I'd like the chance to tell my friends about us instead of them just walking in on it. You think you're my dirty little secret? You're wrong, but no I don't want them to know about us right now. I want us to be able to just be us and figure this thing out. Them knowing would just complicate things," Brooke said, trying to calm the girl down.
"It was a mistake. Look, I'm sorry I kissed you, I shouldn't have. There's nothing to figure out. Just leave me alone and give me time to think."
"No, don't do this. I don't understand what happened. We were fine, things with us were fine. What happened, Rachel?" Brooke asked frantically, not letting Rachel walk away from her.
"It's been building ever since I got here," and without letting Brooke get in another word, she pulled out of her grasp and walked away.
Wanting more than anything to follow her, Brooke knew that doing so would cause a bigger rift to form between them, and that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. Deciding it would be better to have a talk with her friends instead of forcing the redhead to listen to her, she made her way back over to the table, wiping her eyes along the way.
When she returned, she was greeted with three sets of waiting eyes, each of them confused at what had transpired just a few minutes before.
"Is she ok? I really didn't mean to upset her," Lucas asked hoping his teasing hadn't upset the girl too much.
"I don't think so. I know you didn't mean anything by it Lucas, but you guys have to try to be nicer because she's trying really hard to change."
"I get that you're friends with her, Brooke, but have you forgotten high school? Her whole purpose in being there was to make your life hell. First Lucas, then the cheerleading squad. Don't even get me started on her almost killing herself and Cooper, stealing the answers to a test and hitting on Nathan. And just a few months ago money was stolen from you, and she may say she didn't do it, but how much can we really trust her?" Peyton complained while Haley nodded in agreement, and Lucas sat there staring off in space.
"I'm not asking for you guys to be her best friends, but I am asking for you to be nice. You don't want to get started on mistakes she's made? What about you three? Were we together when she was trying to get with you?" She asked Lucas, drawing him out of his trance.
"No, but I was married to Nathan when she started hitting on him," Haley spoke up, memories of their senior year making her angry.
"Yeah, and you were married to him when you kissed Chris Keller."
The table fell silent and all accusations from the other two girls stopped.
"And you, you kissed Lucas twice while we were together, so how dare you even bring that up," she continued, pointing at Peyton. "I get that she's made some mistakes. Every one of us has, but for you guys to sit there and act better than her because she's having trouble right now? I don't understand it."
She looked around the table and rolled her eyes when no one made an attempt to speak up or even acknowledge her. "I really didn't want it to come to this, but if I have to choose, I really doubt you'll like my choice because you three have done nothing to make me want to choose you."
As she got up to leave the table, Lucas grabbed her arm forcing her to stop, "I can't speak for the others, but I admit I've been a less than acceptable friend as of late, so I apologize. As far as Rachel's concerned, I don't have a problem with her. I'll make sure she understands that."
Brooke smiled, thankful that she had gotten through to at least one of them, "Thank you, Lucas."
"I'll be nicer," Peyton said, looking up from her plate of food.
"Me too," Haley added.
It wasn't much, but it was better than what she expected, "Thank you. You guys still want to help? I could use some."
It was nearing nine o'clock and Rachel still hadn't been by the house. When she had told Brooke she needed some time alone to think, she didn't realize that she would need hours, but here she was, standing in the middle of the River Court.
She was standing in the exact spot she had been when she walked onto the court, but the ache in her legs never registered in her brain. It was too busy thinking of other things. She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't even hear a car door close and someone walk up behind her, but when the person spoke up, it didn't startle her. She was too worn out from everything that had happened to care about being scared.
"You're gonna miss the party," Skills spoke out into the night.
Rachel turned around and faced the man who had spoken to her and saw that he was dressed in a nice black suit.
"Don't think I'm gonna be able to make it," she smiled sadly and made her way over to a set of bleachers, finally realizing how much her legs were killing her.
"Why's that?" Skills asked as he followed her over to where she sat down.
"You see, I've been standing out here for a few hours now, so to say my legs are killing me just wouldn't do the pain justice. There's no way I can throw on some heels and stand around at a party for another couple of hours."
"You sure it's your legs killing you and not your head? You looked pretty intense with all the thinking."
"Just stupid thoughts," she answered glancing over her shoulder and smiling at the man sitting next to her.
"Naw, see, I think those thoughts was 'bout Brooke, and the reason you've been standing out here so long is you don't know what to do with those thoughts."
"I hate you. How'd you get to know me so well, and when did you start liking me?"
Skills laughed and threw his arm around the girl's shoulders, bringing her closer to him, "I never didn't like you. Sure we had trouble when you messed around with Haley, but the way I see it I owe you one."
Looking at him confused, Rachel raised an eyebrow and waited for him to explain.
"If it hadn't been for you talking Bev out of her draft choice, she may never had picked me, so you were kinda like our matchmaker. Hopefully I can do a better job of it."
Rachel laughed and leaned into Skills, resting her head on his shoulder, "Sorry about that. I can try again if you want."
"No, you've done enough already."
After the laughing had subsided, a peaceful silence settled between the two as they just sat on the cold metal of the bleachers looking out into the water.
Another few minutes passed before the silence was broken and Skills spoke up again, "Let me take you home so you can get ready."
Rachel finally pulled out of the man's embrace and looked up at him, not sure if she wanted to go to the party or not, but after thinking it over she responded, "I need to make a stop first. How'd you know I was here anyway?"
Skills smiled, "Funny thing about the Court, it tends to draw people who need to think."
The party was in full swing and the store was packed. Brooke had already sold five of her more expensive dresses, and even though two of them were bought by Peyton and Haley, it was more than she thought she would have because of the bad press and the store being closed as long as it had been. As she rang up a shirt, she glanced around the room and noticed that all of her friends were in attendance except for Skills and Rachel, even Jamie was walking around dressed in his little tux.
She hadn't expected Rachel to show up and was upset that their first date would probably never happen now, but she was also upset that Skills hadn't shown when he promised that he would be there. After closing the drawer to the cash register, she walked around the counter to where Haley stood fixing Jamie's bow tie.
"Mama, quit messin' with me," he protested while giving his best pout.
"Ok, ok. Brooke, can you straighten it out for me. He doesn't want to be seen with his mom in front of all these girls."
"Sure, come here little guy," she answered and scooped up the boy and placed him on the counter.
"Thank you. I'm gonna go find your daddy, maybe he won't be embarrassed to be seen with me," Haley said as she leaned down and planted a big kiss on her son's cheek.
"Mama!" he cried out and wiped the spot she had kissed clean.
Haley took the hint and left the boy alone to go find her husband, laughing as she walked away.
"That wasn't very nice, Jamie," Brooke pretended to scold the child.
"But there's all these pretty girls here."
Brooke laughed and looked around the room, "I guess they're ok, but you should still be nice to your mom. She's one of the pretty girls."
"Brooke, Brooke! Look at her! She's the prettiest one here!" The little boy exclaimed, shaking Brooke's arm and pointing to the door to show her who he was talking about.
"Yeah...she is," she answered not really paying attention to the rest of the boys excited remarks because, across the room, her eyes locked with Rachel's, who had come in with Skills.
As they made their way through the crowd to where the brunette stood with Jamie, Brooke couldn't help but notice how gorgeous the girl was.
She thought that if there was a definition to little black dress, Rachel's picture would be under it. The dress came down to mid thigh and dipped low enough to show off the right amount of cleavage. It was a simple dress accessorized with simple black heels, but the way Rachel pulled them off was remarkable. Her hair was slightly curled, her long bangs clipped up out of her face, and bounced with each step she took. Looking at her now, Brooke remembered why she had hired the girl to do shows for her in the first place, she was stunning.
"You made it," she said as the two came to a stop in front of her.
"I wouldn't have missed it," Rachel answered smiling at the girl only to realize the small child sitting behind Brooke on the counter with his mouth hanging open.
Catching Rachel's gaze had shifted to Jamie, Brooke took the opportunity to introduce them, "Rachel, this is Jamie, Nathan and Haley's son. He thinks you're the prettiest girl in the room."
"Awe, then he's not looking hard enough," she answered and glanced back over to Brooke before continuing, "you're not so bad yourself, kid."
Noticing the blush creep up both Jamie's and Brooke's cheeks, Skills spoke up from behind the redhead, "Well, since no one wants to complement me and how pretty I look, why don't you and me go find a girl that will?" he asked Jamie who quickly nodded so that he could get away from the embarrassing situation.
Silently thanking him with a smile, Rachel grabbed Brooke's hand and led her to the back storage room. After closing the door she turned back to face the brunette, placed a hand on either side of the girl's waist and started walking her backwards towards a table on the opposite side of the room.
"I'm really sorry," she whispered as they walked across the room.
Brooke knew that she should be upset with the girl but, with how she was looking at her and talking to her, it was almost impossible to stay mad, "It hurt when you said I was a mistake."
"I didn't mean it," she answered simply as they reached the table and came to a halt. Brooke turned her head and glanced at the object and back towards Rachel with a cocked eyebrow. The redhead grinned and helped lift the girl to the table's surface. Standing between the brunette's legs, Rachel dipped her head just enough to where she was just inches away, "You look pretty."
"Yeah you better say that, you almost ruined our first date," Brooke smiled and grasped at the girl's waist, trying to pull her in closer.
"How am I doing now?"
"Better," Brooke answered as she sat up enough so that their lips connected with each other's.
