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Brooke walked over and leaned against Sam who was sitting all by himself right now. Sam smiled at the brunette and softly kicked the shoulder she leaned on.
"Sleepy?" he wondered and Brooke nodded. She was tired to try and avoid Nathan and now she didn't have any distraction.
"But I have to wait for your brother before I can leave" Brooke mumbled and Sam grinned at her. She was brambling tiredly. Brooke was so tired that it seemed that she was already asleep.
"Where is your boy toy?" Sam wondered and Brooke looked up at him with a warning look. Sam's eyes were starring her down and she felt like she had to explain things. Was Sam really against Brooke and Lucas? It was way better than her screwing around with Nathan behind Peyton's back – than again never when they were actually dating.
"He is not a boy toy" Brooke warned him "he is cute" she smiled and Sam put his arm around her. It was sweet how caring Sam was right now. Brooke smirked as she cuddled into his arm and smelled his after-shave. It smelled good, especially because it didn't smell like Nathan's.
"And he left, because it is already late" she whispered and looked up "he is a good one"
Sam checked his watch and laughed.
"3 in the morning, you're getting old Davis" he joked and she nodded simply.
"So why are we waiting for my brother? Lucas would willingly give you a ride I guess" Sam joked and Brooke joined him.
"Like I said…he is a good one" Brooke rolled her eyes.
"I am driving Dean, I needed to stay sober…and he…" she looked at Rachel who now was sitting alone with a glass of wine. Sam followed her stare and understood.
"Oh, I get it" he nodded "they are both kind of messed up"
Brooke agreed and got up. She hadn't seen Rachel alone all day, and didn't want to talk to her while Owen was there. She liked Owen, but she needed a friend's moment with the red-haired.
"Excuse me for a moment, will you?" Brooke asked and Sam nodded.
"I'll search Dean" he said and Brooke smiled at him. She appreciated that she barely needed words with Sam. He always was the quite one and still he understood all that was going on. Brooke just hoped he didn't know what was going on between her and Nathan. For a while she hasn't seen the dark-haired Scott. She was regretting the question she asked as soon as it left her mouth.
"Have you seen Peyton or Nathan lately?" Brooke wondered and Sam shook his head. Brooke shrugged.
"Wanted to tell them goodbye" she lied and Sam nodded.
"Nathan needed to talk to Peyton, so they left" he whispered and walked away. Brooke exhaled. She knew exactly where they went. It didn't include a lot of words, because she knew exactly what they were doing and somehow she didn't like it. She walked over and sat next to her red-haired friend. She was tense now, but she had to concentrate right now. She needed to be a good friend.
"Hey" Brooke mumbled and Rachel looked at her and nodded.
"How are you holding up?" the brunette wondered and Rachel gave her an asking look. Brooke rolled her eyes at that. Again someone pretended not to know what she was talking about. What the hell was wrong with them?
"I thought that maybe you had troubles to see Dean here, but I guess I was wrong" Brooke whispered and leaned against the wall. Rachel took a big sip of her wine and swallowed.
"I have" she mumbled and Brooke put her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Maybe you guys should talk" she suggested and Rachel laughed.
"I don't know where to start" she whispered "we screwed so many things up"
"I know…" Brooke agreed and Rachel shook her head. Brooke knew a lot of things the two of them pulled, but Rachel was sure that she also missed some of the problems they had.
"I am not ready yet" she mumbled and Brooke nodded. Rachel needed time to deal with Dean's return. No one could have hurried her and Brooke wouldn't have dared to.
"And Owen?" the brunette wondered and Rachel sighed. Yeah, Owen was a subject they also needed to talk about. This guy affected Dean and Brooke never had seen this guy ever been scared away by a guy…any guy for that matter.
"I need him right now…" she whispered and Brooke nodded. She knew the feeling just to well.
"Okay" she agreed "call me if you need anything" she suggested and the red-haired nodded.
"Did you really spend your whole evening talking to the blonde Scott?" Rachel wondered and Brooke nodded.
"I needed him at the moment" Brooke whispered and Rachel nodded, though she didn't have a clue how Brooke meant that, she just knew that the brunette would tell her if she was ready… That's something they had in common, they needed time to deal with their own problems all by themselves first. Rachel looked up to Brooke, but brunette's eyes were not concentrating on her anymore.
Brooke's eyes were pinned at the doorway, where Nathan appeared. He was standing there all by himself and looking at her. Nathan was already wasted and she noticed that his hair was messed up. Of course, she knew what he was up to in the past few hours. She got up and smiled sweetly at Rachel when she noticed that Owen came back with her coat. He was the only one who got her of her trance. Rachel gave her a weird look, like she was sensing something…and Brooke swallowed.
"See you soon" Brooke promised and Rachel nodded. They left and Brooke was still standing there in the living room of Nathan's house. No one was around except the two of them. There was no way to avoid him now and Brooke knew that. Nathan looked her up and down and she was sure she had just witnessed a moment of sadness. She wondered if she just imagined that, but there was sadness in his eyes when their eyes met again.
He wasn't sure what he could say to her. Nathan knew that he was the one in a relationship and he knew that he screwed things up from there on, but he also remembered that after their very first night he wasn't the one who screwed things up.
"What went wrong?" he asked and Brooke was caught off guard with this question. She didn't know where she should have started, there were a lot of things that went wrong.
"When we were 14" he wondered and Brooke looked confused in his direction. He also knew that a lot was screwed up, but he also remembered when they started to screw it up. Their eyes focused on each other and Brooke exhaled before she looked down on the floor. There wasn't an easy answer to that question and she didn't know how she was supposed to answer.
"You were you and I was…me" Brooke shrugged and heard the sadness in her voice. She was surprised at how sad she sounded as she spoke those words. Nathan was surprised as well…he was standing there unable to move any closer to her, though he wanted to be close to her once again, to put his arms around her and take all this sadness away… His gaze was pitiful and Brooke hated it.
"You want to know what went wrong!?" Brooke asked and stepped closer to him. She looked around the room and bit her lip. She never said it aloud not even back then…but she knew exactly what went wrong…he made a mistake, she made one and he made the biggest mistake at that time…that's was about it.
"The next day…we were here at the very same party…" she exhaled "Remember? …the night you scored your first cheerleader?" she shrugged and Nathan looked intense at her. He remembered the night, but under other circumstances.
"The night…" his whole body was tense, the words weren't coming out his throat and Brooke smirked, because she knew he remembered.
"The night…" she whispered and swallowed hard "I made out with Vegas…"
"I remember that" Nathan mumbled and his hand formed a fist.
"Like you didn't…" she raised her voice but stopped immediately.
"Did what?" Nathan asked and there was anger in his voice now. Obviously he saw it all as her fault now.
Brooke breathed out and smiled at him "why wasting time with questions?" she asked and Nathan walked closer to her.
"We're not wasting time, Brooke" he mumbled and she shrugged. He wanted to figure out, why it all went wrong from there on…but she didn't want to talk about it. It was too long ago…nothing they could have changed anyway and now they were having more obvious problems. Nathan wanted to step even closer, to put his arms around the brunette and to sooth her and to sooth himself.
"You have Peyton" she stopped him right in his movement and Nathan looked down on the floor.
"And you have" he stopped to choke the last part out "Lucas?"
His eyes were arrogant as he lifted his view and pinned her down with his blue eyes. She had problems breathing right now.
"You shouldn't care" she whispered and Nathan nodded. There was a silence for a moment where their eyes rested on each other. They both were hurt and still hurting the other.
"I shouldn't" he agreed and Brooke closed her eyes in despair. She wanted him to say that, but she didn't like the way he said it. He didn't agree with her… It was so hard to talk about it and it was even harder to be close to him while they did talk. She knew there was chemistry…she just needed to pretend there wasn't any.
"Brooke, you're ready?" Sam's voice came from the other door across the room and the brunette collected herself and turned around. All this tension was making her sick and she needed to concentrate to have a straight unhurt face and a normal voice, her hands were shaking and she knew she had to control this as well, at least for one word.
"Sure" she smirked and got her purse to walk away. She turned away from Sam. Now she really needed to collect herself. She was fine, not at all affected.
"Goodbye Nathan" she whispered and walked away from Nathan. Her voice was even raspier than usually.
"I still do" Nathan whispered under his breath and Brooke shook her head.
"Don't do that" she said "because there is nothing you can say anymore"
"Brooke" Nathan breathed out and she looked at him. He was drunk and whatever he would say now would be forgotten tomorrow. She needed to get away from him, because right now she just wanted to press her lips softly on his. Her hands were shaking and her voice was almost gone. She looked at him with sorrow in her eyes.
"Go to Peyton" she whispered and Nathan looked up at the lights and couldn't believe she just said it.
Brooke walked towards Sam and smiled though her hands were still shaking and she still had problems to pretend that she was fine. She hated that she was affected by this talk. She and Nathan were just not meant to be and she needed to accept that. There was no fighting it. They went to far already and screwed so much up. She tried to make it clear to him right there, but he wasn't listening and now he even brought all this unsolved feelings up. Normally she was the one who wanted to talk things through and he was the one refusing, actually they both always refused the talk…until he got together with Peyton. There Brooke noticed that the talking didn't solve things, couldn't make things undone. Brooke couldn't get his sad look out of her head now. She knew that he must have seen how hurt she was as well. They were just causing each other pain and they needed to stop. Like the feeling she couldn't fight when she exactly knew that he spent his night with Peyton and somehow her whole body tensed when she thought about it. Nathan sat down on the couch and the image of Brooke shaking when he asked her what went wrong was burning into his brain. He wanted to make things undone. He only wanted to throw his arms around her, to calm her down and tell her… well, that was the problem, what could he possibly say to her? He made her feel like he used her…and it was his fault. He didn't know why he did first say it, but now the damage was done. He got up and walked towards the big window where he looked at the shadows that were walking towards the blue beetle. He leaned against the window. All this pain was unbearable.
Brooke went slowly behind Sam, who was listening to his big brother.
"And I think I might get her to sign with me" Dean explained and Sam laughed. Brooke was standing there next to them, but barely was getting any words they said. Dean didn't pay attention. He was lost in his own thoughts now otherwise he would have noticed the absent-minded look and the unsure gestures that Brooke was making. Every now and then she turned around to see towards the lit living room. He was still standing there, starring at her. She wished he was just leaning against the window but somehow it felt like his eyes were burning in her back.
"She really thought you were trying to make a move on her?" he grinned and Dean elbowed his brother. Sam enjoyed mocking his brother, because basically he never got a chance to.
"Who cares?" Dean asked "I mean I came here, because…" he paused and thought about the red-haired "however I might have found my first artist" Dean said proudly and looked at Brooke with his swollen with pride eyes and saw a barely breathing Brooke: shaky hands, tears-filled eyes and uneven breath. She also felt like her heart was exploding. It was natural for Dean to just pull the brunette closer in his arms. He wanted to console her, to make all her pain go away. Sam looked at his friend and put his hand on her shoulder. Her whole body was shaking now and Sam gave Dean an asking look.
"It still hurts" she mumbled into his shirt and Dean nodded at Sam who took the keys from Brooke's hand. She was barely holding them anymore. It seemed like she had no power to hold herself right now… it scared Sam a little and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or say.
"I can drive" Brooke insisted and Sam softly stroked her hair. She wanted to be okay, she needed to forget this accident. It didn't matter that he said all these things, tomorrow was a brand new day and all these promises would be gone. Brooke also knew that she was suffering the consequences of her lack of…she didn't know exactly what she was lacking, she only knew there must have been something: like self-control?
"I haven't been drinking all night" Sam promised and she collected herself and smiled at him. He knew that she forced this smile on her face, but looked straight into her green eyes.
"I know" she nodded "still" she opened her hand and Sam put the keys back in. There was no point in arguing with B. Davis right now.
"I am fine" she promised Dean and he looked skeptical at her but she rubbed away her tears and smiled at Sam. Dean slowly let go of her and she moved away from him. Sam had no clue about what was going on and she didn't want him to know. He was close friends with Peyton.
"I am tiered, but I am fine" she explained and Sam looked back into the living room where Nathan was still standing at the window. He sensed something. Actually he was sensing it a long time ago. He warned Peyton, that Nathan didn't solve some things. She thought he meant his family, basketball or his ego, but Sam meant Brooke.
"Sure" Sam nodded his arm was around Brooke and she looked up at him. She was surprised that Sam wasn't mad at her. By his look at Nathan she could have sworn he figured things out.
"I…" she wanted to explain it, because she was afraid at what Sam was thinking and she knew he was friends with Peyton, but Sam just shushed her.
"I know you and Nathan have a history" Sam smiled at her and Brooke breathed out almost relieved. Sam was friends with Peyton, but it was a different way of friendship than the one with Brooke and he hated to see the brunette this down. He wanted to make things undone, to punch Nathan and talk some sense into the guy, but he knew he had no right to. Dean also glimpsed into the living room through the window and saw Nathan sitting down on the couch now. His head was in his hands. They both were down. The talk must have been intense. Whatever the two of them had talked about it was at least a start. Dean wondered when Rachel left and if he could ever talk to his girl. Maybe work things out? They sat down in her car and she drove them home.
"Call me tomorrow" Dean winked at her and she nodded. Brooke was okay now, she was listening to Dean's whole story about his soon to be a superstar girl and she even laughed at Sam's little mocking jokes.
"Good night guys" she whispered and Sam smirked at her. Brooke loved Sam's smirk and smiled brightly at him.
"See you tomorrow" she said and drove away. The two guys walked towards the door in silence.
"So you still haven't told her?" Sammy asked and Dean rolled his eyes as they both walked into the house. They both weren't talking about Brooke anymore, and both knew it.
"She seems happy Sam…" Dean mumbled "I already screwed thinks up…she deserves someone who makes her happy"
"Even if she obviously isn't over you?" Sam asked and Dean looked shocked in his direction. Partly he wanted to hear it and then on the other hand he was afraid to hear him say that. Was there really a chance? Could he raise his hopes? Or would they all be shattered in the end.
"Why would you say that?" Dean wondered and Sam sighed. He wanted to make sure his brother didn't just say that to make him happy.
"She asked if you were okay" he mumbled and Dean stopped at the door. He didn't think that the red-haired even cared, nor cared enough to ask Sam.
"What…" Dean started and Sam shrugged. He didn't need to finish his sentence; his brother knew what he wanted to say anyway.
"I told her to ask you…" Sam whispered and Dean sighed relieved. Maybe this way they would finally talk. Maybe Rachel wasn't this upset with him, though he knew he deserved it. Dean put his hand on his brother's shoulder and smiled.
"Thanks Sammy" he whispered and walked upstairs into his bed room. Sam followed him, but went for his own room. Sam thought about the differences that Peyton had with Nathan and the way the Scott boy looked after Brooke went away. Sam lay down on his bed and thought about the words Peyton told him. She knew about one triangle, but it wasn't the obvious one, and neither Brooke nor Nathan knew… Now, he knew. Maybe Nathan was sensing it, maybe he even figured it out by now…but remained silent?
Brooke parked her car and walked slowly towards her house. It was dark as always and she slowly opened the door. She was used to be alone for this long and actually she was happy that her parents were absent in this time of her life. They would only make things worse. Brooke switched on the lights and closed the door. She walked slowly upstairs, one step after the other. Her cell made a noise in her purse, like she missed some messages. She just breathed out and took her cell out. The talk with Nathan was way too intense and she wasn't sure he would message her right now. She opened her cell and noticed two new messages: one from Nathan and one from Lucas. She was surprised that these two people contacted her. The teeny girl in her wanted to know what Lucas' first message would be…if he was as cute and sweetly innocent in text as he was in person, but her fingers wanted to open Nathan's first. She noticed that both messages were some hours old. Of course Nathan didn't write her after what she told him. It wasn't the way his ego worked. Brooke exhaled; she should just erase the message, because he wouldn't mean any of that anymore. Still her fingers were burning for her to open his message. She sat down on the stairs because she now finally released her feelings and her hands were shaking just as they did as she talked to him. She opened the message and read.
"I need to talk to you… just talk…promise – Nathan"
Brooke exhaled. Well, they did talk and it didn't go well. Brooke's hands were still shaking and she felt her chest explode from the pressure of her pounding heart. She wanted to ban the thoughts of him out of her mind, the way she just saw him…the way he looked at her and mostly she wanted to stop thinking about the way things could have been, if Peyton wasn't in the picture. One big tear ran down her cold face and she closed the message. There was nothing left to say. She even knew that she said too much already…maybe not with words, but with the way she looked at him.
She closed her eyes and took two deep breathes and exhaled. She needed to open Lucas' message now. Maybe the guy could once again take away all her sorrows and make her at least….feel relaxed. She didn't dream about being happy right now, all she wanted was to feel human and not a shadow of what she used to be. She opened the message and read.
"Hey Brooke, had a nice evening tonight. Hope you weren't bored. And though you might laugh now, would you like to hang out any time soon…? It's okay if you won't – Lucas"
Brooke smiled at these words and her heart beat was still faster than normal, but now because she was excited. The innocence with which Lucas tried to ask her out was just cute. Brooke remembered the evening and smiled to herself. If he only knew how much he helped her to survive this event… It was ridiculous to feel this towards…Nathan's brother and still she was feeling like a teenage girl that was finally asked to the prom. She pushed the button to answer and smiled at her own writing. Sure she was still not herself right now, but she knew what she wanted to do.
Lucas was lying in his bed asleep as he heard his phone ring. He barely could open his eyes and everything seemed blurry. He wasn't drunk - he was just wide asleep as the phone rang. His eyes just focused briefly on the clock and he rolled his eyes. It was four in the morning and he was woken up by a message. He could have gone to sleep easily, but something inside him wondered if Brooke had answered. He reached out his hand and tried to grope his cell in the dark. After a while he got it and opened it. The light that went on was blinding him again he sat up slowly and decided to switch his light on. His hair was messed up and he yawned before he could open the message.
"Pick me up tomorrow. I know a fun place where we can go – Brooke"
Lucas smiled brightly as he read that. Suddenly he didn't care that he was woken up or that he was blinded. All he cared about was that Brooke said yes. She seemed to be okay with a date and he wondered if he was still dreaming. Sure all this time he had a crush on Peyton, but the dimpled girl was warm-hearted and seemed like fun to hang-out with and she was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen and now she agreed on a date with him - the guy who played basketball on the River Court. Who would have guessed?