Brooke sat watching TV, but not really paying any attention, her thoughts plagued with what had happened earlier. How could she have been so stupid? Now Nathan will think she is even more of a liar. This was so messed up.
Why, why did she have to be the one to witness what had happened? Why did no-one believe her when she said it had happened?
She jumped, scared when she heard someone banging loudly and hard on her door, and ran over to look through the window. She sighed when she saw Nathans car outside. Was he here to shout at her? To tear her down even more?
Hesitantly, she slowly opened the door and revealed herself, clad in black tracksuit bottoms and a strappy red top, her hair tied up messily and red eyes from where she had been crying. The boy, who stood there, looked broken yet defiant at the same time, he held a brown box held close to his chest, and she noticed his hands were shaking. She slowly brought her eyes up to meet his which were full of hate, sadness and confusion.
They stood there for several minutes locked in a gaze; Brooke didn't know what to do.
"Do you want to come in?" she asked her voice sounded hazy and hoarse.
He didn't break eye contact, just nodded firmly, swallowed and stepped in.
He had never been in Brooke's house before; it was like unchartered territory, forbidden. Perhaps Dan did not want him finding out the truth.
Brooke led them into the living room, it was big with crème walls and plum coloured sofa's it looked like it belonged in a fashion magazine. She sat down on one of the sofa's and stared at him, he guessed he did owe her an explanation of why he was here she must be wondering what he was doing.
He gathered his thoughts together and tried to decide what to say first when she beat him to it, and burst out saying "I'm sorry about this morning, I didn't know anyone especially you would be there, that is why I went so early. I don't know if you heard what I said but if that is why you are here – I just – I'm sorry Nathan. I know you hate me enough already, I can't imagine what you thought of me sitting there at your uncles grave. I just – I don't "
"Shh" Nathan cut her off abruptly, and rudely which he instantly regretted when he saw her face fall from a frown to looking hurt.
"I don't know what to think Brooke"
Brooke looked up and saw him staring out the window as he spoke, his voiced laced with honesty and grief. Her heart was pounding, her hands sweaty in anticipation at what he was going to say next.
"The past 4 years I have been taught to hate you and your family, never believe a word you said, never listen to you, and never ever trust you. I was told you had accused my dad of a great sin, a great evil and you were a stupid little girl. When I was 15, I finally asked why. Why do were you a liar? Why should I hate you? Dan sat me down and asked me if I had loved my uncle, in my head I thought, yes I loved him more that I love you, dad. Because that is what he had been like to me, a better dad than my own. He was always there for me when I needed him, when I needed a break from Dan and basketball, he got me and Luke speaking, someone else I used to hate because of Dan. I will never forget that of Keith because now I have a brother. I didn't say any of that to him, I simply said 'yes Dad, I loved him I still do now" and he replied "Well son, think about how much you love him and how much you want his murderer caught, then think of someone being wrongly accused for this crime. A girl making up stories at the expense of his death, trying to get attention, making a mock of him'. He told me how you, Brooke you accused my own dad of killing his brother"
He looked at me then, and let out a huge breath as if he had not been breathing whilst he had been speaking, his last words hit me and I heard a sob come from me, and felt tears fall down my eyes. He did nothing but stare at me then carried on but this time in a whisper.
"I felt so much hate, loathing for you – it felt like you had been the one to kill him. I could not believe how you would use my uncle's death for an excuse to be in the limelight. We had always been in a different class at school and I never really payed much attention to you, just knew I had to hate you. But from that day, I sought you out I needed to see you and do you know what I saw you doing?"
Brooke looked up interested yet frightened at the same time and shook her head to say no " I saw you hugging your friend Peyton, who was crying and I remember you whispering to her and stroking her hair and I heard her say 'Brooke you are the best friend I could ever ask for'. I don't know why but that made me hate you even more, that you could be such a twisted, sick person yet comfort people and be nice. Then later on that day, we were all at that party downtown, and I walked into a room to get my coat to go and I saw you. I saw you getting dressed with a guy lying in the bed. And the sight disgusted me. Ever since then I have tried to make your life hell, to make you pay for what you did, to show you that I hate you."
"Nath-"
"No please let me finish"
He looked at her as if to silently ask if that was okay and she nodded, her eyes filled up with fresh tears.
"So, for the past three years I have been there trying to make you as miserable as I can yet that night when we played spin the bottle and we kissed. I was disgusted by it at first; I could just see Dan in my head disowning me. But it annoyed me how you were so against it when it should have been me who did not want to so I kissed you. It was probably one of the best kisses ever but after I hated myself. How could I have kissed you, it was like betraying my whole family"
He groaned and traced the outline of the box he was holding, my heart felt like it was going to burst, that kiss was amazing to me, even if at the time I did not want to admit it, a small part of me felt happy that he felt the same but it was overshadowed by the situation and what else he was saying to me.
"Then that time at the away game, and I saw you talking to Luke who looked like he was enjoying whatever was going on made me so angry I wanted to hit you – how dare you even talk to someone who was practically Keith's son, then you made me get on the bench, and then we were stuck in that fucking elevator I just wanted to let my anger out. And we kissed again. Honestly, my first thought was to have sex with you in there then leave you to it, so you had been used but the things I was feeling, I didn't even hate you at that moment I was just so focused on you. It made me even angrier Brooke, so angry."
Brooke started crying but silently as if she did not want to interrupt him in his flow, why him? Why did she have to have these feeling for him?
"Then that stupid project in health class, which we actually told each other private stuff, personal stuff I could not believe what had gotten into me. That is why I flipped in the car, not just because of what had been said on the phone but I was so angry at myself for letting myself feel things for you, I have never felt anything proper for a girl before yet I was with the one person I hated more than anything. That night I got drunk and had sex with three girls to get you off my mind. And it really did not."
"I make myself sick, I have just been so angry at myself recently and it is all because of you – you make me question everything! I have now started thinking my own dad killed his brother. I went to see my mom after I saw you this morning, then I broke into his office and stole this. You. You make me so angry. Why is it that just because I start to get to know you better, because we have had certain moments I start to question everything?"
He started breathing heavily, his eyes were narrowed as he looked at me, his loathing and anger at me evident on his face.
He said in a low voice which made me shiver as it was so full of bite "So, tell me the truth. Tell me the fucking truth. What happened? Look in here, look in this fucking box Brooke and tell me the whole story".
He threw the box at her, with force and she tried to ignore if that was intentional or not. She lifted it up, and explored the contents – thousands of pictures of Keith as if he had been followed.
It was this moment, where she wished more than any other time she had not been there when it happened. She did hate Nathan, he had made her life hell for the past few years and while she could not blame him in a way it was not fair she was the one who got treated like the criminal when she had been telling the truth. She would never ever lie about something so important and life changing.
She looked at him "I will tell you. I will tell you my version of events but please do not interrupt me and if you still don't believe me then just leave"
He clenched his jaw and his fists were clenched but uttered "okay" so quietly she barely even heard it.
Brooke took a deep breath not sure if she was ready to tell this story again after so long "I- I was at the cemetery visiting my grandma V's grave – she had only died around a month before. I was making my way back to the gate, when I heard shouting. I wanted to go see what was happening and obviously –"
Nathan looked at her as she started speaking, her voice husky and shaky, crying as she spoke. Was he ready to hear this? Was he ready to hear what could be the truth? He had wanted to hear her side for so long and yet here she was, looking scared sat in front of him.
"Obviously, I should not have. It was coming from down by the river in the cemetery"
The place where Keith was shot, Nathan noted.
"There were two men there, one I recognised as being the mayor from all the posters around town. And I was happy, that I could meet the mayor my dad always spoke about him in such praise yet I had never been allowed to see him when my dad did"
Brooke had a faraway look on her face, and Nathan realised she was recounting the story as if she was there again – she was reliving it.
"I got close enough to hear what was going on, and hid behind a tree and I was about to go over when I heard the man with the mayor say 'Danny you are being ridiculous I never tried to kill you' but the mayor kept going on and on about how he had had him followed saw him buy scotch – the exact one which had nearly poisoned him. And how he will pay for this. When the other man started laughing – the mayor got out a gun and – and"
She broke off, and started crying deep loud sobs that sounded so genuine and heart wrenching that if it were not for the circumstances Nathan would have tried to comfort her.
Instead he said "and?"
She hiccupped and replied, although it was hard to hear from her crying "and he took the gun, and shot the man. He then walked off. I stood behind the tree crying I was so scared in case he came back and I did not know what to do but I ran over and rang the ambulance on my phone. No-one asked me if I had seen anything at first – they all thought I had just found him. But at the hospital, he came. And looked so upset that I just did not understand, there was a blonde woman who would not go anywhere near him and screamed when he tried to touch her. Then a nurse asked if I was ok and I wasn't okay. I had just seen a man kill someone and he was acting as if he was sad, as if he had not done it. So, I said 'No' and pointed at the mayor and told everyone he had killed him'.
Brooke then turned to look at him properly "I am sorry Nathan but that man was Dan and he had killed Keith"
We both sat in silence. Nathan just didn't know what to believe. His dad was cruel, but even he would do that? He couldn't.
After some time, Brooke spoke up again "Everyone was shocked when I said that and turned to look at him, he gave me a look of pure loathing and I knew I had done the wrong thing. He started laughing then shouting, shouting at me saying I was a stupid girl why would I say such a thing. I got taken home then, my mom and dad shouted at me called me a pathetic liar, and my dad hit me saying I had probably messed up his job. I never heard that Dan had got punished so I assumed he had got out of it somehow or no-one believed me and that is how it has stayed. Until now."
Nathan ran his hand through his hair. Looked at her. Stood up abruptly and stormed out of the house. A million thoughts running through his mind, a million emotions filling him, the funny, most ironic thing of all, something which shocked and disgusted him is that deep down he actually believed her.
Why would she be lying? How could she sit there in front of him, crying her heart out, her voice filled with honesty and be lying. No-one would do that, especially when she had lost someone of her own, someone who she truly loved.
"NATHAN"
Hearing his name, he stopped and looked around he realised he had run down the street and from the sound of his voice it sounded as if Brooke had to.
She had finally caught up to him and was panting, trying to get her breath back "Nathan" she breathed looking at him.
He met her eyes – hazel eyes, almost green yet almost brown at the same time, filled with sadness, honesty, rimmed with tears, and red from all the crying. It was that moment where he said "You are not lying are you"
Her eyes widened. "No" was all she replied.
And then, she unexpectedly threw herself at him and embraced him in a hug, something which after a few seconds he returned by wrapping his arms around her waist. They stood there for ages, Brooke crying with guilt at how no-one should be told their dad is a murderer but also anger at how it had taken four years for someone to finally believe her.
Nathan broke the silence and embrace but stayed close to her so their bodies were pressed against each other "Can I stay here the night?"
She smiled, weakly but whispered "sure".
