"I can't do it." Brooke shook her head. She was sitting next to Rachel at a table outside of Tree Hill High. They were watching Nathan and Haley, who were several tables over. So far they hadn't noticed Brooke and Rachel.
Rachel just looked at Brooke incredulously, "What?"
"I can't! He's sitting there with her, and…I don't know." Brooke sighed and jiggled her foot nervously.
"Since when are you afraid to talk to guys?" Rachel squinted at her suspiciously.
"Since they're happy. With someone who happens to be not me. And, Haley's my friend. At least, she used to be, before all of this. And I don't want to do to her what Peyton and Lucas did to me. It hurt a lot, and I don't want her to have to feel that."
Rachel just rolled her eyes and said in an exasperated tone, "Fine. You just took all the fun out of it."
"And since when did you not find making other people's lives miserable fun?"
"Hey! I'm not a bad person, you know. Don't forget that there was a time when I wanted Nathan too. If you can give him up for a friend, then there must be something to this whole chicks before dicks thing."
Brooke laughed, "There must be." A shadow fell across them, and she looked up to see Lucas and Peyton holding hands. "But I guess some people don't know that." She said in a disgusted voice.
Lucas and Peyton made their way over to Rachel and Brooke's table. "Hey guys. What's up? Looks like Nathan and Haley are back together." Said Peyton.
Rachel gave her a tight smile, "You planning to steal him too? Why? You already had him. Oh wait, that's how like 'em."
Peyton ground her teeth and was about to spit a comment back at Rachel, but Brooke interrupted, "Okay! We're going now! Aren't we, Rachel?" she said pointedly, and grabbed Rachel's arm to pull her away.
"What?" Rachel said when they were out of Peyton and Lucas' hearing range.
"Not that I don't appreciate that completely true statement you just made, but I do not want them to know about me and Nathan. The last thing I need is for them to be on Haley's side."