Just friends

Peyton and Lucas sat down on the ground and cried. But suddenly some guy came out from the hospital door.

„Nobody's hurt inside! That guy shot police officers but they got him now. They are coming out so please clean the way." He hollered and people started straggling. Peyton and Lucas stood up and ran to the guy.

„Where are Brooke and Haley? Girls who were tied down?" Lucas asked from him.

„They will come out in a few seconds. Are you cousins?"

„Just best friends."

The guy nodded and smiled to them. Soon Haley ran out from the hospital and jumped to Lucas. Then Peyton hugged her.

„Where's Brooke?" Lucas asked and Peyton looked around hysterically. Right after that they saw her walking out calmly. Lucas, Haley and Peyton ran to her.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked and hugged her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered and Lucas let her go so she could hug Peyton. And she did that against all expectations.

"I was so worried about you." Peyton whispered to Brooke's ear and she pulled Peyton even closer to her and hugged her stronger.

"Let's just leave that place." Haley said and they all headed to Lucas' car.

"Maybe we all would go to my place, just sit and talk. What do you think guys?" Lucas offered while they were driving.

"Yeah. That would be great." Haley answered and Peyton nodded with a smile. Only Brooke seemed to not like this idea.

"Can you drive me home? I'm tired and I just want to get some sleep." She said dully. So Lucas put Haley and Peyton down in front of his house and drive on with Brooke. Either of them didn't say a word until Lucas stopped the car in front of Brooke's house.

"Are you sure you can handle it? I mean seems like your dad's not at home." Lucas said and looked at Brooke but she still looked away.

"You never know. My dad doesn't have lights on when he's having sex. Usually at least." She said and finally looked at Lucas with a very foxy look. Lucas laughed a bit.

"Anyway, thank you for bringing me home. And thank you for being there." She said and gave Lucas a kiss to cheek. Then she stepped out from the car and walked to house without looking back. Lucas looked at her few minutes and then drove off.

Next day at school all the news about hostage drama in hospital had spread out and everyone around Haley and Brooke were whispering and acting weirdly. Once they saw each other on the hallway, Brooke wanted to talk to Haley about what happened. So she ran to her to stop her.

"Hey tutor girl!" She shouted at Haley and she turned around. Brooke walked up to her.

"It's Haley."

"Yeah. Haley. How did you sleep last night?" She asked quietly because everyone around tried to hear what they were talking about.

"Very bad." Haley answered.

"Oh, so I'm not the only one." Brooke said and sighed with ease.

"Why are you talking to me anyway? I'm the tutor girl, remember?" Haley said and had a very confused look on her face.

"I just needed to talk to someone about this. You are the best for it because you were there. And the fact that I'm popular doesn't mean I can't be friends with you." Brooke explained and smiled to Haley. "So see you at the post-game party, right? I hope you're coming but I have to go now. Bye!" Brooke said and walked away quickly.

At the night everybody gathered to the gym to watch another Ravens' game. Brooke came there with Bevin. On their way to locker room they met Nathan.

"Hi Nathan." Bevin said to him but Brooke only winked.

"Hi Bevin. Hi Brooke." He answered.

"Go ahead Bevin. I'll follow you later." Brooke said and sent Bevin away so she could talk to Nathan.

"So, Nate. Tonight. Don't you forget that. Wait up for me after the game. We're going to have some fun." She said to Nathan and slipped her finger over Nathan's chest; then over her lips and then walked away. When she reached to the locker room she saw Peyton standing in front of the cheerleaders.

"Ah, there she is. Come here Brooke." She said and Brooke sat down to other girls.

"You know I'm your captain. But I have been thinking and I think that I'm not the best person for that. We have a better one here. So welcome your new captain, Brooke Davis!" She announced and smiled to Brooke. But she seemed to be too surprised and gave Peyton an evil look. She was pretty sure there was some trick behind that. Girls around her exulted and Peyton were still smiling to Brooke. Then all girls went to the court but Brooke stopped Peyton from going.

"What was that about?" She asked angrily under her breath.

"Look, that we are fighting doesn't make me a better cheerleader than you. So take it or leave it. I can find someone other too."

"Of course I'll take it." Brooke said and turned around. She ran to the court, followed by Peyton.

After the game Brooke and Nathan met outside of the gym. Then Brooke noticed Peyton, Lucas and Haley coming out. Peyton and Lucas went away together but Haley went another way alone.

"Tutor girl!" Brooke yelled to her and everyone around looked at Brooke. "What are you looking at? Mind your own business." She said arrogantly to a girl next to her.

"Hey tiger." Haley answered when she walked to Brooke and Nathan. "Hi Nathan." She added.

"Hi Haley." Nathan answered and smiled to her.

"So, tutor. Are you coming to the party?" Brooke asked and winked to her.

"Actually I wasn't coming. Lucas is with Peyton and I don't want to be between them all the time." Haley explained and tried to wiggle herself out.

"Oh, Peyton and Lucas, team broody. That's a whole another story. But you can always come with us. Right, Nate?" Brooke spoke and looked at Nathan.

"Yeah. Of course." He said and nodded.

"Okay. I'll come with you." Haley finally gave in and they all sit to Nathan's car. When they arrived to the party, house was already full of people. They stepped in and looked around.

"I'm going to my mates right now. It wasn't easy to watch them playing without playing with them. So I just want to hang out with them a bit. I'll find you later." Nathan said then and walked away from Haley and Brooke.

"Okay, tutor girl. Let's have some fun." Brooke said, grabbed Haley's hand and bear her off.

"My name is Haley. Please don't call me tutor girl or whatever." Haley said to Brooke when they were in the middle of the crowd.

"Okay, okay. Just don't hit me to face. I love my face." Brooke answered and laughed. She almost screamed because someone turned music up loud and everybody started dancing. "C'mon! Dance with me!" She hollered and made Haley dance.

"Is that Haley there?" Peyton asked when they sat on a sofa and drank. They didn't even notice her before and now she was there and everyone was looking at her and Brooke. Now Lucas looked at her too and he was amazed. Two amazing girls are laughing and having fun. That made Lucas happy too.

"Looks like Brooke have an amazing affect on others." He said and smiled sweetly.

"Yeah. She's a class of her own." Peyton answered to her and they both smiled.

After a while Lucas took Peyton home because of a head ache and came back. He found Jake and they took drinks and hang out together. Further away Nathan and Brooke were making out so Haley left them alone and joined Lucas and Jake.

"So you and Barbie are friends now? I thought you are not the Barbie type." Lucas picked on Haley. She punched his forearm for that. "Okay, okay. I was just joking."

"Brooke is worried about that hostage stuff. She had a nightmare. She just needed someone to talk to and later she needed someone to party with. I like to help people, sorry, Barbies." Haley explained and now even Jake laughed at them. But soon the fun was over when Nathan came to them with Brooke trying to hold him back.

"Hi. How is it going, daddy? Already buying diapers?" Nathan asked derisively and Lucas stood up. "I guess it's going to be one ugly baby." He added and now Lucas got mad. He grabbed Nathan by his shirt.

"You guys are so … ugh." Brooke said after that. That fight obviously irritated her and she just ran out. Lucas let go of Nathan's shirt, pushed him away and followed Brooke.

"You are such an ass!" Haley said to Nathan and walked away too.

Brooke was staring an empty place alone in the back yard when Lucas walked towards her.

"I'm sorry, Brooke." He said when he stopped behind Brooke.

"You here again." Brooke answered to him without turning around. "I thought we already talked about this." She added and turned around.

"You can talk to me. Haley already told me that you had a nightmare and that you need a friend so you can talk to someone. I'm here for you. You can lean on me." Lucas said and stepped closer to Brooke.

"Yea, so your girlfriend can this time think that we got married in secret." Brooke threw at Lucas face and walked away from him.

"Brooke!" Lucas hollered. Brooke stopped and turned around. "She understands. I promise to you." He said. Brooke walked back to him.

"You know what? She doesn't! If she does, she would never ever read my diary and right now she would be next to me so I could lean on her. But she isn't. She betrayed me and left me dealing with all that crap alone." She spoke and slowly started crying. Lucas wrapped his arms around her once again and pulled her close.

"I need friends, Luke. Real friends." Brooke whispered and Lucas fondled her hair.

Haley has sat alone on the stairway for a long time when someone sat down next to her. That someone was Nathan Scott.

"Why are you sitting here?" Haley asked from him and stood up.

"Don't go, Haley." He said and Haley stayed right where she was. "It's really hard for me to fit to the world. I don't know where I belong. Everybody around expects more and more from me. They won't let me be who I really am. It's good to talk with you. I hope that one day you'll see the real me. Real Nathan Scott."

Haley didn't say a word but just stayed there and stared at Nathan. There were no words to say at all.

... I saw you there last night
Standing in the dark
You were acting so in love
With your hand upon his heart
But you were just friends
At least that's what you said ...

Preview:

Brooke won't get over the hostage thing easily. She will get help from her friends.

Is Brooke ready to talk things through with Peyton?

Lucas is having second thoughts about marrying. Will he come over it or will he be just like his father?

It's end of a school year and start of a summer!

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Lyrics at the end of the chapter are from Gavin DeGraw's song Just Friends.