Chapter 20

Unexpected Realizations

The day was finally here for all of them to attend one of their last dances, well almost all. Haley was the one member of their little bunch not graduating this year. After forgoing anything to do with the dance, Luke decided to head over early to the beach house and prepare for the real party that would take place after all of his friends left the lameness of the high school dance. Going through to the kitchen, he began rummaging through the cabinets of his parents alcohol supply area to make sure there were sufficient amounts to last through the entire night. Lifting a bottle of tequila, he smiled thinking of all the fun him and his friends would be having soon. If it was one thing the Scott boys knew how to do, it was throwing the most wild outrageous parties anyone had ever seen. Their parties were practically legendary and talked about from as far as five towns over. People would travel far and wide just to say they attended a Scott party, same held true for their parent's parties. While not nearly as outrageous as the younger Scott's soiree's, their parents and all of their lush friends knew how to party and it was definitely passed on to the younger generation.

Deciding to start the party early, Lucas went to retrieve a glass from the cupboard. He wasn't usually the type to drink alone, but he needed something to pass the time and the heaviness of his recent thoughts. His mind had often found itself wandering to that of the one and only Brooke Davis. Having impure thoughts about his brother's girlfriend was something that Lucas was not proud of, in fact he often found himself feeling guilty lately even just in the presence of Nathan. He knew what Brooke meant to his little brother, and despite his strong feelings toward her, he would never even consider her as an option. Bringing the glass filled with the clear substance to his lips, he downed it in one gulp squeezing his eyes shut as it burned down his throat. He needed to push away his thoughts of Brooke, dull his mind of any of those thoughts. Filling the glass once again, Luke slammed another shot down his throat, this one not burning nearly as bad as the first one had. He was in love with his brother's girlfriend, how screwed up was that, it killed him. Taking the bottle to his lips, Luke began downing the Tequila in full gulping amounts until the bottle was nearly gone. Slamming the bottle down in regret, he suddenly had this overwhelming need to rid his stomach of everything he had consumed in the last week. Running, or actually stumbling he made his way to the first floor bathroom where he proceeded to become one with the cool porcelain. As he threw up he could feel the combination of the alcohol and acids of his stomach burning his throat ten times harder than when he had consumed the alcohol in the first place. This was not good, this was not how he planned on beginning his night. Leaning his head against the wall, Luke began pulling himself slowly to his feet to assess himself in the mirror. He looked like absolute death warmed over. He began running the cold water, and then splashed his face hoping for some type of relief.

"Nice work dumb ass," he scolded himself. "Drunk and a loser." he sighed.

After brushing his teeth and running a cool rag over his face one last time, he prepared himself for the inevitable headache he would most likely suffer through do to his dumb moment. Grabbing the knob of the bathroom door, Luke suddenly heard a loud crashing noise coming from inside the house. Scrunching his face up in wonder, he wobbly exited the bathroom to investigate the current bain of his existence, noise. Where the hell was that sudden noise coming from? He hoped that his parents had not secretly planned a weekend here, which would foil their plans of a party. While the guys had pretty much free reign to do what they wanted, if their parents wanted the beach house for any reason, anything they had planned was automatically doused like a fire with cold water tossed onto it.

He continued stumbling up the stairs in his inebriated state stopping a few times along the way in order to gather himself once again and curse whoever came up with the concoction of alcohol. Whoever thought getting plastered would solve things had to be out of their damn mind, because this was not fun. Finally at the top, Luke walked unsteadily in the direction of the loud thumping noise. Opening the door, he was met with a half dressed Brooke and it looked like she had knocked over a lamp from the near by table.

"AHH!" Brooke screamed. "What the hell are you doing here?!" she yelled at Lucas trying to hold her dress up.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he threw back.

"I'm getting dressed. What does it look like?" she snapped sarcastically at him. "Now what are you doing here?!" she asked again loudly.

"Number one, would you stop screaming, two, this is my house, and three, I didn't think I needed an explanation." Luke said.

"You will need one when I kick your ass." she said to an amused Luke. Why did she have to be so damn cute? She was even the most beautiful girl he had seen in his drunken state.

"Anyway, now that we have established that you're getting dressed. It still doesn't explain what the hell you are doing here." Luke said.

"My house is being renovated over the weekend," Brooke said. "Since my non-existent parents are away, I'm homeless until they return. Nathan said that it was okay if I got ready for the dance here. I thought he cleared it with you."

"No he didn't, its fine though. I'll leave you to it." he said getting ready to leave the room.

"Wait," she called. "You're here now, make yourself useful. Zip this up for me will you." she said turning her exposed back to him.

Lucas nearly lost it seeing her beautiful creamy skin glowing, begging to be touched. Taking a loud gulp, he dreadfully stepped closer to her so that he could reach the zipper of her dress. Standing there like a mindless idiot, he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away or accomplish the task at hand. It wasn't until Brooke called his name that he pulled himself out of his catatonic state.

"Lucas?" she said.

"Oh sorry." he said shaking his head of the cobwebs. His hands had begun shaking with fear as he brought them to her zipper and raised it slowly. Steadying himself, his hands rested on her exposed shoulders and he had no plans on moving them anytime soon. He was getting too close to the fire and he would surely be burned.

"You look beautiful." he said getting a good whiff of her hair which smelled of strawberry.

Brooke looked at him through the mirror they were facing, trying to figure out if he was about to make some smart ass comment, but she was pleasantly surprised when none came.

"Thank you." she let out smiling at how sincere he sounded.

Brooke slowly turned but Luke's hands remained in placed atop her shoulders as she seemingly fell against him. "Oops." she giggled to a smiling Luke.

Brooke noticed after a second or two that Luke had stopped smiling and instead was looking at her in the most intense way, he looked like a man staring into the eyes of the woman he loved. She had never seen someone look at her this way and it was beginning to unravel her. His hand lifted to her face as he soothingly rubbed his thumb over her perfect cheek bone. Brooke closed her eyes as the soft stroking of his touch was relaxing her into a euphoric state of comfort. As her eyes remained closed suddenly Brooke could feel Lucas's soft lips latch onto hers. She couldn't move, she was in an absolute state of shock as Lucas was kissing her. Gathering all of her senses back, she quickly pulled away with a questioning stare.

"Luke, what was that?" she asked with a slight shake in her voice.

He was horrified, he couldn't believe he just crossed this line with her. This was his brother's girlfriend, his friend. Maybe he could blame it on the alcohol and hope that Brooke could forgive him and never mention it to another soul.

"Oh god," he said finally releasing her. "I'm so sorry Brooke. I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking, that's what. I've been drinking, please can you forgive me?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah Luke," she said nervously brushing at her dress. "Let's just forget it, ok? This never happened." Grabbing her purse on the near by vanity, she took one last look at herself before facing him. "I should get going, I don't want to be late."

"Yeah, have a good time." he said as she nervously smiled while walking towards the door.

"Thanks. I'll see you later." And with that she was gone, leaving behind a regretful Lucas.

Brooke quickly made her way out of the beach house into the safety of her car sitting in the Scott driveway. What the hell had just happened? Lucas had kissed her and just sent her night into major bizarre territory. Little did she know he was watching her from the second floor window. Did she tell Nathan about this, tell him that his brother had touched her so intimately, that his lips had kissed where he had kissed so many times before? She couldn't do it. As much as she hated keeping things from Nathan, telling him would be a thousand times worse. She couldn't live with causing friction between two brothers who loved each other so deeply, she wouldn't .This had to stay between her and Lucas, that's it. "It never happened," she said. "It never happened. "

Starting her car Brooke made a conscious decision to keep this kiss between her and Luke buried. She was going to have a good time at the dance and she was sure in an hour or two it would be long forgotten, at least she hoped so. She had no idea what the night had in store for her, this was just the beginning of her troubles.

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