With the trial date set for Valentine's Day and Dan safely in prison until then everyone took a collective breath. For a while everything went back to a semblance of normalcy. Except for a few key changes: Nathan had suddenly decided that he didn't want to play basketball anymore. He said it was because he didn't want to anymore, Luke thought it was because he didn't want any connection to Dan. Without the Raven's other star player they quickly and quietly lost their season. While it was sad and a bad way for it to end, no one was really surprised. Brooke had lost her spirit, Nathan had lost his love of the game, and the world had pretty much tipped upside down.

"Brooke," Haley called as she and Peyton walked through her house.

"Brooke Davis," Peyton called.

"In here," Rachael's voice sounded from the kitchen, "bring some of the booze from the study. We're going to need it."

Haley and Peyton walked into the kitchen a few moments later and stopped in their tracks. Brooke was in full melt down mode. She was wearing her pajama's, her hair was a mess, and she was stuffing her face with spoonfuls of Butter Pecan ice cream.

"Jesus, I haven't seen her this bad since Brian from the Backstreet Boys got married," Peyton muttered to Haley.

Haley went about doing what she did best, mothering. She poured four shot glasses full of brandy, "to calm us all down."

Brooke took her shot and then continued to sniffle. This method was a tried and true method for picking yourself up when life seemed to be giving you low blow after low blow. In the past weeks Nathan had denied her every attempt to reconcile their differences. After the hearing to determine when the trial date would be had been the last straw.

She had caught him as he had been walking to practice alone.

"Nathan, wait up," she had caught up to him and stayed in step beside him despite the fact that his strides were massively longer then hers.

"What do you want now," he asked not even sparing her a glance.

"I want you to come to your senses but since you're not ready I guess I just want you talk to me. We used to be friends Nathan. Before we were ever anything else," Brooke reminded him.

He stopped, "are you saying you want to be my friend?"
"I always considered you my best friend," Brooke admitted. And it had been true Nathan had been more then a boyfriend, more then a mere high school sweetheart. He had been in her heart long before high school.

He started to walk again, "I don't want to be your friend."

"Why not?"

He stopped and turned to her, "when will you get it through your head that I don't want to be with you? Let me make this perfectly clear. I don't want you as my girlfriend, or as my friend. I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to look at you or hear you, I don't even want to know you!"

Even he had seemed shocked by his words and his depth of passion. And for the first time Brooke didn't argue back. He didn't want to know her.

She swallowed hard and nodded. There was simply nothing left to say. Nothing to argue for, she didn't want this Nathan Scott back, she didn't even recognize him.

"Oh my God, I cannot believe he said that," Peyton gasped.

Brooke nodded and tears ran down her face again, "it's really over. He doesn't want me anymore."

Peyton and Haley shared a look, Brooke very rarely gave up on something when she really believed in it. But now she sounded like she truly was letting it go, and it was tearing her apart.

"Take another shot," Haley poured another for Brooke and then herself. This was some tough shit. Even when she had been trying to get Nathan she had still never pictured him with anyone beside Brooke.

Rachael dabbed at Brooke's tears as Haley poured another shot. Peyton shrugged her shoulders, "it's Friday, basketball is over, let's get sloshed!"

"The best idea I've heard all day," Brooke agreed, she took the bottle under her arm, her ice cream in one hand and sniffled her way into the living room.

1111

Luke, Jake, Keith and Jake's father were helping Nathan and Deb move into their new home. Their new condo wasn't nearly as big as the old house but neither of them had wanted to remain in a house where Dan had committed his worst sins. It was a nice neighborhood and the house was nice. It had four bedrooms and a big kitchen, and Nathan still got his own bathroom. Not that he'd be showering with anyone for a long time.

Since his last talk with Brooke he had been doggedly avoiding the female population of Tree Hill High. He didn't want to make this transition any harder for her, but he had been afraid he'd have to sleep with one of the groupies for her to get the take home message.

"…so Haley and Brooke turn around and dropped it right there in the middle of the kitchen," Jake was cracking up as he relayed the story to the other men.

John nodded his head, "my wife had a fit and grounded all of them. Like they were our kids, but the girls adhered to all of the rules until the two weeks was up."

Nathan smiled he remembered that story but as he thought about it he could only see Brooke. She had become a professional at making herself scarce; he hadn't seen her for more then a brief second in weeks.

"I think that's it guys," Nathan smiled at the group of men.

The guys nodded and Keith clapped Luke and Nathan on the back, "what do you guys say to pizza?"

"Sounds good," Nathan agreed and tried to push down his thoughts.

1111

"Okay, seriously, why are we here," Nathan finally put his foot down and asked his captors.

Peyton and Haley grinned, "we are here, at this fine establishment because we haven't had time with you in a long time."

"Tell me she is not going to show up halfway through dinner," Nathan frowned.

"No," Peyton shook her head and refused to speak another word about it.

Haley signaled him to look through his menu, "I've been waitressing here after school on Fridays since basketball ended and I can tell you from experience that Karen makes an amazing roast chicken."

Nathan was still mulling over Peyton's quick and decidedly angry response, "you promise?"

Haley didn't pretend not to know what he was talking about, "tonight she's out with Luke and Jake, like you're out with us. They made plans to go to the restaurant on the docks."

"Okay," he looked over the menu.

The tension slowly slid way as the three friends talked and joked. It was almost like old times except it was rather obvious that they were divided. But for a moment it didn't matter because Nathan could look at them and see the girls he'd known for more years then he wanted to acknowledge.

"I used to love your braces," Peyton told him dreamily, her earlier tension gone for now.

"Really? I hated them, I was convinced that they would never come off," Nathan told them.

Haley laughed out loud at her thought, "remember when you had that huge piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth at summer camp during the camp photo?"

Peyton laughed with her and eventually Nathan joined in. It was the first time he'd laughed in a long time.

1111

Brooke tried to stop herself from being dragged from Jake's truck to the chair at the restaurant but one thing she figured out was that basketball players were stronger then they appeared. Luke plopped her unceremoniously onto the chair and sat down with Jake.

"I'm not hungry and I'm a mess," she huffed.

"You also haven't hung out with us in a long while," Jake added.

"And you also haven't been eating well," Luke shook his head in disapproval.

Brooke pulled her sweater up shivered, "it's cold."

"Because you're nothing but skin and bones. Damn, don't you eat at all Davis," Jake asked.

Brooke thought of the copious amounts of ice cream she'd been eating since the last time she'd spoken to Nathan and shrugged, "some."

"You have to take better care of yourself," Luke chastised her gently.

"It's hard to remember. I have so much going on and sometimes I just forget to eat," Brooke lied. The truth was that food was unappetizing. Why should a chocolate cake or a piece of roast taste good when her taste buds were numb. All she could remember was numbness. If she thought about the pain then it would consume her.

As the evening wore on Brooke grew more comfortable, remembering why she had considered Jake a brother and Luke a trusted new friend. They took her mind away for a moment and she actually found herself eating some of the steak they had ordered for her.

The evening grew warmer so Brooke slipped her sweater off, she didn't notice the boys as they glared at her ridiculously skinny arms. It was obvious that she had lost too much weight.

Afterward they insisted on buying her ice cream for dessert. When Luke noticed Nathan and the girls at the stand he quickly directed Jake and Brooke toward his mother's café where she sold some basic soft serve.

But the girls and Nathan had noticed them. Nathan stood in shock, "what the hell happened to her?"

Peyton refused to answer, her mouth set in a hard line of disapproval. Haley just sighed, "she doesn't eat much, she doesn't have an appetite."

Nathan just shook his head, her arms had been disgustingly thin, and she had seemed so disheveled, he'd never seen her like that. Not even on her worst day when her parents had upset her and she and Haley hadn't been speaking.

"You told her you didn't want to know her, Nathan. Did you expect her to take that well," it was the last time Peyton would mention Brooke for the rest of the night. Her take was that if he wanted to know then he'd talk to her himself.

Haley sighed again this time even longer and followed the pair as they began to walk down the pier.

1111

Brooke had gotten his text message around midnight. She arrived at the River Court in time to see him sit on the picnic table, his ball between his ankles.

"You said it was important," she was proud of herself for keeping her voice so strong and steady.

He looked up and into her eyes and in that small moment she remembered every single emotion she had ever felt for him burning through her until they finally rested in the gaping hole that had once held her heart.

"You need to take care of yourself," Nathan muttered.

Her eyes widened, "what?"

"You can't go on like this. I don't know who you think you're going to be able to be strong for if you end up in the hospital because of malnourishment."

"You cannot do this," Brooke told him quietly.

"What," this time he was confused.

"You can't tell me that you don't want to know me and then text me out of the blue and tell me to take care of myself! Either you want to be on my side or you don't. You cannot keep playing with me like I'm a yo-yo."

"You can't keep going like you are! You have to eat," Nathan had risen.

Suddenly she understood, she took a step back, "do you think I'm doing this for you? Do you think that you're effect on me is so powerful that I would chose to starve myself if I couldn't have you? Or worse, I would starve myself to get your attention?"

He shrugged and she could only release one bitter chuckle, "well let me tell you. I haven't eaten because I haven't been hungry. I used to think that I couldn't go on without you but I was wrong. I don't know why you're punishing yourself or why you pushed me away but I will tell you one thing, it's over."

"Brooke-"

"No," she held up her hand, "I went to you over and over, crying and begging for you to take me back. I dropped my pride and my reputation and my shield for you! And now you think that I'm starving myself because I can't have you. I haven't had an appetite because every time I think of how I begged I want to puke. Every time I think about how I cried for you I want to vomit. I can't eat because I make myself sick, Nathan. Thinking about how I let you rub my face in the dirt over and over makes me sick, literally, to my stomach."

Nathan's mouth dropped open as he watched her tears well up and swell over. She stood in front of him, fifteen pounds thinner then was healthy, her hair a mess, no make up, yet as her self-respect grew to palpable sizes she had never seemed more gorgeous.

"Everyone is so amazed about how I'm obviously the one suffering while our break up has had no effect on you. Not anymore. I don't need you to feel good about myself. I don't need you to feel validated. I don't need to feel your arms around me at night and I don't need the security of your love. I'll be just fine on my own," she took a deep breath but even then her voice was cut out by sobs, "I don't need you, Nathan Scott. I deserve better!"

Nathan watched her walked away and even after she was long out of sight he was still standing there. The wind picked up and his ball rolled to his foot. Absentmindedly he shot the ball toward the hoop. It missed, it was a shot that he had knocked over more times then he could count yet he had missed. Brooke had said that he wasn't affected by their break-up. She didn't know that he was affected in one of the worse ways he could be; his game was gone.