Havent checked for grammar, I just wanted to get it out!
Chapter 11
Just as my phone rang my hand shot out to stop the irritating noise that was disturbing my sleep, I patted my bedside table with my eyes shut cursing whoever it was that didn't know they shouldn't call me before twelve. After a few failed attempts which results knocking over my lamp, I found my phone.
"What?" I asked without looking at the ID.
"Morning sunshine," I recognised Nathan's voice in a tone that was way too happy for the morning.
"Seriously Nathan? What could you possibly want at this time of morning?" I said, rolling back into bed and closing my eyes.
"Brooks, it's gone ten!"
"And your point is?" I said.
"Just wake up, I'll be there in fifteen minutes," he said.
"Why? Did we have plans I forgot about or something?" I said, mentally thinking back. It wasn't like me to make plans before midday on a weekend.
"I'm busy tomorrow so I was hoping we could move our Sunday hang out to today."
"Oh, we're still doing that?" I said referring to our tradition of hanging out on Sundays.
"Of course we're still doing that! You've got six months of Sundays to make up for so don't even think about making up an excuse,"
"Fine. You win," I said. Maybe it would do me some good to get back to our routine, and what was normal, or as normal as things could ever be between us. Our Sunday routine would be the first step in reminding me that we were 'just friends'
"Well don't sound so pleased,"he said pretending to sound hurt.
"Sorry," I said feeling slightly bad. "I'm looking forward to it, I'm just half asleep"
"Ok, fine. I'll see you in a few."
I turned the phone off and threw it somewhere on my bed, before forcing myself to get up. I opened the blinds, wincing at the intrusion of light.
After taking a quick shower and throwing on a pair of ripped jeans and a black tank top with my leather jacket, I wondered out of my room.
"Morning," I said to Julian, who was sitting at the breakfast bar eating a bowl of cereal. Julian spluttered and looking at his watch.
"Did I forget it was Christmas?" he said.
"Ha funny."
"I don't think I've ever seen you emerge before twelve on a weekend before," he said "What's the special occasion?"
"Nathan's coming over in a bit. We're going to hang out today," I said casually, biting into an apple.
Julian just raised his eyebrow. "You and ?All day? I don't know if I think that's a good idea."
"J, It'll be fine. We're friends, and that's what friends do—they hang out."
Before Julian could protest further, the buzzer rang.
Nathan POV
I nudged the doorbell with my free hand and gripped the freshly picked up coffee cup in the other.
The door flew open, but instead of seeing Brooke I saw Julian, who was wearing pyjama pants that rested low on his waist and no shirt, a rude reminder that Brooke was not living in her apartment alone anymore. Of course I knew that Julian was there too, along with Rachel but it hadn't really hit me until now, that Julian was 'living' there. With her. Half dressed.
Julian 1-Nathan 0
I ignored the feeling of uneasiness, which came with the thought that Julian was comfortable to wonder around after taking his shirt off, or if he had even put one on to begin with.
"Sorry, forgot my key," I said focusing on his face.
"You have a key?" Julian said, and I took pleasure in the fact that he didn't know that or look too pleased.
"Yep," I said trying not to smile. "I've always had a key. I'm practically always at Brooke's place."
Ok, yes I knew I was acting slightly childish but at that point I really didn't care.
Julian 1- Nathan 1
"Hi," Brooke dragged out, walking up, sounding half asleep. Her eyes scanned me and lit up at the coffee in my hands. "Bless you, Nathan Royal Scott!"
"I know, I'm amazing," I said handing her the cup, and choosing to ignore her use of my middle name. If that got out, it would completely ruin my reputation.
She took a sip and moaned in appreciation, and I tried but to no avail not to commit the sound to memory.
"Perfect amount of sugar," She said smiling, and picking up her keys, and I beamed. As much as I didn't agree with her obsession with sugar, I figured out a long time ago that it was better to give in than deal with a grumpy Brooke all day.
"So I'll see you later?" She said to Julian, who gave her a one armed hug and kissed her on the head.
"Take care of my girl, Scott," Julian said to me, making eye contact and not looking away. It looked as though he saw me as a threat, and he was right to.
"Oh, I will," I said smirking and not looking away from our staredown either. Why was it that Julian viewed me as a potential problem now and not earlier?
"Brooke, wait!" Julian said, seeing my smirk, which promtly fell when he pulled her back, almost spilling her coffee and pressing his lips on hers, to ,mark his territory.
"Um….Thanks," Brooke said, looking surprised and half dazed.
"We should get going," I said wanting her away from him.
Brooke nodded and waved goodbye to Julian, and followed my down her drive. She looked around for my bike, and looked confused.
"Did you walk here?" she asked.
"Nope," I said walking over to my newly built car that I'd parked on the side.
"That's yours? " Brooke said looking shocked.
"Don't look surprised, I had to do something while you were away!" I said truthfully.
"But you said you never wanted a car, bike's were more fun!" she said walking over and admiring the paintwork.
"And do you remember what you said when I said that?" I prompted.
"Sure. I told you bike's were fun, but it's not a grown up's form of transportation," she said getting into the car, and I sat down in the driver's seat.
"Exactly. I figured it was time for me to grow up," I said, and she raised her eyebrow, shocked.
"You? Grow up? I never thought this day would come," she said seriously.
" I thought I should probably become more responsible, and think about the future," I said. Brooke was still gaping at me with her mouth open.
"But you love your bike," she said sadly. She was right, I did love my bike. I had saved up for it for years, and finally being able to purchase the Harley was one of my best moments, I would probably have saved it from a fire before I saved my apartment and all my belongings.
"I sold it to Chris," I said, ignoring the voice in my head thst told I was crazy. I didn't want to have to sell my bike, but I needed the money to pay for the parts for the new car, and I needed the car to show Brooke that I had grown up, and was responsible like Julian. I knew it would drive me insane to see Chris driving around my baby and not being able to intervene if he was being rough with her.
"Wow," she said. "I guess that's the end of an era." She was clearly thinking of the last three years where we had always driven out to places on my bike, wherever the wind took us, hanging out for the day before realising we had no idea how to get home. Brooke was also the only one, I ever let drive my bike, provided that I was on it, behind her of course. All the girls I went out with that were impressed with my bike were restricted to sitting behing me, holding on, not that they had a problem with that.
"It really is…"
"Anyway, where are we going today?" she said, and I was thankful she changed the subject.
"It's a surprise," I said smiling.
"I hate surprises!" she whined.
"you don't hate surprises, you hate waiting. You have no patience," I told her, knwoing her well. Telling her things in advance and omitting the details would driveher absolutely nuts.
"Pleaseeeee," she complained.
"Nope," I said popping the P, and refusing to give in.
"Fine,"she said crossing her arms and sticking her bottom lip out sulking like a little kid.
"Oh, cut it out, we'll be there soon," I said laughing.
Chris POV
I pulled the comforter closer and hummed in appreciated at the warmth. I lay there for a few seconds before the sunlight was hitting my eyes and I cursed myself for not closing my blinds the night before. I rolled over and sat up slowly, putting a hand to my head and wincing at the evidence of my drinking binge last night.
I slowly opened my eyes, and my eyes were drawn to the lump under the covers beside me.
"Oh be a dream, please be a dream," I muttered, pulled the covers down sliowly off her face.
Seeing Haley lying beside me brought back a flashback of last night. I must have been completely out of my mind to think it was a good idea to sleep with Haley. I mean this was CRAZY Haley! I knew when I invited her back to my place, I wasn't actually that drunk. I had just felt incredibely guilty for some reason for leaving her in that bar all by herself when she was obviously upset. The drinking part came later, once we were back at my place.
I contemplated waking her up, but thought I would have no idea what to do once she was no longer sleeping. I needed to figure this out. I slowly slipped out of bed, and went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth before going into the kitchen.
What was I supposed to say when she woke up? Would she go all crazy on me, thinking she was now my girlfriend? I needed to tell her to back off, despite knowing from Nathan that wasn't so easy. Admitedly that wasn't so sensitive considering I had probably led her on a bit, but what else was I supposed to do? The quicker I got her out the better.
Just as I came to that realisation I heard my bedroom door creak open, and feet softly pad across the living room, and tensed.
She cautiously peeked around the corner, winced when she saw me standing there. I gathered she didn't remember anymore of last night after the drinking than I did.
She crossed her arms and was wearing my t-shirt from last night and was clutching her silver dress in her hands.
"Hi?" she said, looking shy, and running a hand through her messy bed hair.
"Morning," I said smiling weakly.
"Hope you don't mind. This isnt exactly day time wear," she said, she said holding up her dress.
"Sure, go for it," I said. I wanted to say neither was wondering around in a men's t-shirt, just came to just below her ass. That would have started some questions.
She must have caught me looking at the t-shirt because she said, "I mean I know this isnt ok either, but it's better than doing the walk of shame at ten am in what I was obviously wearing the night before," she said playing with her fingers and not looking me in the eye.
"It's ok. Keep it," I told her, and felt oddly shocked at seeing her this quiet and obviously vulnerable.
"Chris, I don't- …..I don't want you to think I do this sort of thing all the time, because I really don't—"
"Oh, don't worry," I said holding my hand up.
"And I would appreciate it if you didn't mention it to your friends. I don't really need that right now, for this to get around that I—"
"It's ok, it's our little secret," I told her. Normally my friends would be filled will all sorts of stories about my escapades whether they wanted to hear it or not, but for some reason I didn't want to reveal the details of last night, even if I had remembered it, either. I don't know why, because even though this was Crazy Haley, she was still smoking hot.
"Thank you," she said giving me a small smile.
We stood there for a few minutes, me shuffling my feet and her still playing with her nails. Ignoring the fact that this was Haley, I generally didn't do very well with dealing with the morning after. The girls usually expected more, or some sort of invitation to go out again, but I had a strict rule about that, which was why I always stayed at the girls house, and very rarely brought them back here to Chris Keller's 'bachelor pad'
This is it Chris. Tell her you have somewhere to be! Just as I was working up the courage to say something, she spoke first.
"Um….I should probably go," she said, pointing to the door.
I nodded and walked her slowly toward it. She picked up her shoes on the way, one by the couch and the other in a plant before starting to put them on.
"Unless….." I started, and she looked up at me. Shut up Chris! This is not what you do! You have a strict one day a week rule! And this was HALEY! H-A-L-E-Y! she could turn her crazy on you at any minute, even though I hadnt seen any evidence of it today or last night as a matter of fact.
"Unless?..." she said.
"Unless you want some coffee?"
Brooke POV
"Oh my gosh!" Brooke squealed, showing me she was super happy since she didn't squeal very often.
"Ok, ok. Try to contain your excitement," I said, but I was thrilled she liked her surprise.
"I had no idea the fair was back!" she said, unclicking her seatbelt, and getting out of the car. "I can't believe we're here! You hate the fair!"
"But you love it," I said, revealing my reason for us being here. She was right though, I did hate coming here. It was one of those family fairs, filled with little hyper kids, and doting parents, and little kiddy rides as well as the bigger ones. Along with people finding out about the 'Royal' part of my name ,me being here would destroy my rep further, hence the reason why I pulled on the baseball cap from the boot of my car, and pulled it down low.
Brooke giggled when she saw me, "Oh you love it really!"
She grasped my arm and pulled me toward the entrance, her eyes glossed over with excitement. Ever since we were little, Brooke had always loved coming to fairs. She said they made her happy, and she felt like a little kid again with no worries. When we moved to New York, and she found out about the annual Zippo's Fair she made it her mission to go every year, and despite my protests, I was the one at her side every time.
I handed the man at the counter some money and got a strip of tickets in return, but one look at Brooke's puppy dog eyes, had me getting six more strips.
"Come on then, " I said, putting me arm around her. Right now in this moment I could pretend Julian and everything else didn't exist and it was just me and Brooke here together.
The first thing we did was go over to the candy floss stand, despite it being too early for the sugary treat but sugar called to Brooke like a moth to a flame, and she argued that it was tradition to get candy floss, and we were just walking past all the games stands when an old man caught our attention.
"Shoot down targets to win a prize!" he yelled out. Seeing us walk up he said, "Win a rabbit for your girlfriend !"
"Oh, he's not my—" Brooke began, but before she could I handed over a ticket.
"Sure," I said. The man handed me the gun and I gave my candy floss stick to Brooke.
I was about to take and shot when the targets started moving, and I missed the shot.
"That's not fair!" I said, but the man and Brooke both just giggled.
The targets were now moving in a circular motion and stayed like that for the next three shots, of which I only hit one.
"Need some help there? Maybe we should have stayed near the kids games," Brooke said with a smirk.
"Oh, please! It's harder than it looks!"
"Here you go sir," the man said handing me a little beanie rabbit, about the size of my hand, clearly the smallest prize out of all the ones hanging up.
Brooke just grinned. I was not going to let her have this one over on me and think I couldn't do it. Today was about impressing her, although the original aim had nothing to do with fairground games.
"ok, you think you can do better?" I said, giving the man another ticket and handed Brooke the gun, and took the candyfloss from her.
"Brooke gripped the gun, and shot all four targets down, resulting in a whirring sound. She high fived the old man, and laughed at my expression. The man handed her a huge teddy bear, about half the size of her.
"Maybe I should have said win one for your boyfriend!" he said.
"Here you go sweetie," she said handing me the bear. I won it for you!"
I took the bear from her and put my arm around her, milking the 'boyfriend' façade for all it was worth.
We said goodbye to the man and Brooke started leading me to the merry go round and I groaned.
xxxx
A/n: So what did you think? I really like Chris, and I loved his scene! Thoughts?
I was disappointed for the review amount to have dropped a lot with this story, and I really hope you guys review this one! It makes the time I take out to write it worth it. Thank you Steph, you are amazing! And Roch, x
Love you all…x
Ps. For all those Prelude to a happily ever after readers out there= I will be updating later today so keep a look out!
I go back to school next week so am going to try to get as much writing done as I can this week because school takes a lot of time out of my hands! (Teachers are so inconsiderate right? They don't get some people have fanfiction to write!). So obviously I will be slightly slowed down once I'm back, so reviews get more chapters for now!