Chapter 24:

It was now Friday and Brooke had cried herself to sleep the late three nights. She knew that they were both being stubborn and that one of them should have just swallowed their pride and taken the first step but she just couldn't get herself to do it. She stared at her phone countless times and she could see herself apologizing for picking a fight with him but there was something she still couldn't figure out that was stopping her. She had just gotten back from all her classes and she was getting ready to go out to dinner with some friends when her phone rang. Part of her was scared to look at the caller id, the other was hoping that it was him. So when she saw 'Best Friend' blinking on the screen, she was both disappointed and relieved.

"Hey, Peyt. What's up?"

"Nothing much. I just wanted to make sure that you remembered to come pick us up tomorrow."

"I'll be there. 10 right?"

"Yeah. Are we gonna fit with Jake and Jenny and all our stuff?"

"I'm gonna borrow my neighbor's Suburban. We wouldn't fit in my car."

"Cool. Umm...Brooke. I don't know if you've talked to Luke recently but um...he's not coming with us. He told us this afternoon."

"Oh..."

She felt as if someone had just ripped her heart out of her chest. She knew that it was bad but she didn't think it would so bad that he would cancel on the trip. Part of the reason, she didn't rush into talking into him was because she knew this was something better done ace to face and she would have that chance over the weekend.

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"I don't even know what's going on, Peyt. Did he tell you what happened?"

"Not really. He hasn't been talking to any of us much. He's kinda pissed."

"I guess I don't blame him. I was being difficult. I just couldn't believe how defensive he got and I was just instigating."

"Why? If you realize it, why can't you just make up with him?"

"I can't. I just can't. I admit that I'm not being very mature but he's not guiltless in this."

"Well one of you has got to make the first move. You can't just give up on him like that after all you've been through."

"I know. I just don't get why it's always so hard when it comes to him."

"You had to have known the whole long distance thing wasn't going to be easy."

"As hard as I imagined it, it feels 100 times harder living through it."

"Ok, well I'm gonna say one thing and then I'll drop it. Don't wait two years this time, Brooke. As much as that boy loves you, he's human."

"You don't have to remind me. Listen, I actually have to meet some people for dinner. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow. Night Brooke."

"Night Peyt."

Brooke snapped her cell closed then she stared at it. Gulping she pressed down on the two on her cell.

"This is Luke. Leave a message."

"Hey, it's me. Peyton just told me you weren't coming tomorrow. Umm...can you give me a call when you get this?"

Her phone never rang though. She checked it as she parked her car after coming home from dinner. She walked towards her apartment, thinking of all her options. She didn't really have many except to call him until he picked up. She couldn't fly out to see him with everyone else coming to visit over the weekend so she dialed again.

"Hey, it's me again. I'm just gonna keep calling until you call me back. Please Luke."

As she hung up, she started to cry, thinking she may have lost him for good this time. She got to her door and her tears were making it hard for her to find her keys in her bag. She cursed, not knowing why she threw them in after getting out of her car when she was going to need them again right away.

"Do you need some help?"

She froze as she heard the voice coming up behind her. She slowly turned and was stunned to see him standing there. She hastily wiped her tears away so that she could make sure that she wasn't imagining things.

"Luke..." she whispered.

"Hey."

Forgetting about the past three days, she ran to him and hurled herself into his arms. He caught her and pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair as she sobbed into his shoulder. The stress was finally catching up to both of them.

"Shh, Brooke. Please don't cry."

"I...thought...you weren't...coming..." she mumbled into his shirt.

"I didn't tell anyone I was coming tonight. I didn't think Peyton would have a chance to tell you before I saw you. I'm sorry."

"I'm ..sorry...too." she cried.

"Let's go inside."

She pulled away and nodded. She rummaged through her bag and finally pulled out her keys. He grabbed his duffel bag and followed her in. Once inside, he dropped his stuff by the door and saw her looking at him through her tears.

"What?" he chuckled.

"You're really here."

"Yeah. I am. Come here," he said, opening his arms to her again. She didn't hesistate to wrap her arms around him again. She buried her face into his chest and held on as tight as she could as he rubbed her back.

"It's gonna be ok. We're gonna be ok. I'm not going anywhere."

And that was it. Those were the words she needed to hear even though she couldn't figure it out. She needed to know that he still wanted to be with her more than she needed to hear him say 'I'm sorry.' Three days of being so confused and those four words made it perfectly clear. Impulsively, she pulled him his face down to hers and as soon as thier lips met, she felt as if the tightness in her chest just released. He deepened the kiss causing her to moan. The both finally pulled away to catch their breath. They locked eyes with thier foreheads pressed against each other.

"Wow. I haven't even apologized yet."

"You don't have to. You're right. I over-reacted. I'm sorry."

"Me too. I'm sorry Brooke. I don't want you to ever feel like you don't matter to me. Honestly, you're the most important thing to me. The last couple of days have been hell Brooke. Being away from you is hard enough but fighting with you just about killed me."

"I wasn't mad that you didn't call me Luke. I'm just so damn insecure when it comes to us. I blew it way out of proportion. I got scared that you didn't want to be with me anymore."

"Oh baby, I love you. I was an ass. An insensitive ass. I deserved to be yelled at for how I reacted."

"Luke, can we got to bed? I just need you to hold me right now."

"All I want to do is hold you right now. I'm never going to let you go again. I promise."

She led him to her bedroom and they both got ready for bed. She snuggled up to him and he wrapped his arms around her tightly with her head resting on his chest.

"What made you come tonight, Luke? Peyton said you were pretty angry."

"Nathan. He just reminded me of something and before I knew it, I told them that I couldn't go with them. I went home, got my bag and got on the next flight here."

"What did Nathan say?"

Flashback

Lucas was moping in his room. He had two classes on Fridays in the morning but he had all afternoon off and he didn't need to go into work until school started back up. Since he was still in training for the athletic department, he didn't have to be at all the basketball teams games and practices just yet. He was flipping through some tv when Nathan came in on his way to practice.

"Hey dude, why don't you stop sitting her feeling sorry for yourself and do something about it?"

"You don't know what you're talking about man."

"Really? Cause it looks like you and Brooke are fighting over something stupid and you're both too stubborn to take the initiative and admit that you're both wrong."

"What the hell did I do wrong? I went out, got drunk, and didn't call her back right away. She flipped out not me!"

"Right. Do you really think that she's all worked up over a stupid phone call?"

"Look man, I didn't like having this argument with Brooke, I sure as hell as don't want to have it with you."

"Fine. Just listen then. Brooke has got some major trust issues regarding you. I think we can both agree on why. So think about it. She's already paranoid that something's going to go wrong. Then you go on and it might not be a big deal to you but you wait a whole day before calling her back. To you, it's you just trying to sober your ass up. To her, it's you not wanting to talk to her. She turns that into, you don't really love her that much and you might cheat...leave...whatever. I know it's not true. You know it's not true. But if you were in her position and you were the one who was cheated on, would you be able to get rid of that nagging feeling that's always in the back of your mind? She's running again, can't you see that? She's running because she's trying to protect herself from getting hurt again."

"Seriously, Nate. When did you change your major to Psychology?"

"Whatever dude. I'm right. Remember what I told you when you asked me if you should tell her how you feel? You asked what you should do if you told her how you felt and she ran away again."

"Run after her, you dumbass."

"Yeah, I'm a freaking genius. Well, I've said everything I needed to say. The rest is up to you, Luke."

Nathan didn't even wait for Lucas to respond anymore. He walked out and closed the door behind him. Lucas continued to sit and process what Nathan had just said and he realized what he had to do. He went online, switched his flight and called Haley and Peyton to tell them that he wasn't going with them, on the way to the airport. They were really mad but he was already focusing on what he had to do to get Brooke to forgive him.

End Flashback

"Wow. He figured it out so much faster than I did."

"Yeah, I owe him big for this one," Lucas said before dropping a kiss on her hair. He pulled her in close to him. "I can't lose you again Brooke. I can't promise that I'm not going to do something stupid, but you have to trust that I wanna be with you. I can promise I will always be honest with you about that. I just need you' not going to run every time we fight."

"It's hard Luke."

"Yeah, I know but it's worth it right?"

"Definitely."

"Good. I promise thatI won't wait a day to call you back next time."

"And I promise that I won't freak out if you can't call me every day."

"I do wanna talk to you every day. I can't wait until I get to talk to you again even if it's for just a minute."

"I believe you." She raised her head and kissed him softly."God,I missed that."

"Me too. Lucky for us, we've got over a week together. You're going to be sick of me."

"I don't think that's possible."

"Good, because I'm not leaving your side even if you did."

They fell into a comfortable silence and she noticed that his breathing had slowed. Peeking up, his eyes had closed. She looked at her clock and it was past midnight. He was probably exhausted with the time change. She leaned up one lst time and gave him a soft kiss. "Thank you. I love you Luke." Then she leaned into him and closed her eyes.

"I love you too," she heard him whisper before she fell into a peaceful sleep too.