How to Save a Life
Chapter 36 –
The hot and humid month of August quickly ends, drawing summer to a close.
"Colton, come on!" Brooke shouts, projecting her voice throughout the entire house. "We're going to be late!" She stands in the doorway, balancing herself trying to slip on her heels. Not only does she have a busy day at the store today, but it's also Colton's first day back to school.
"I'm comin', I'm comin'," the less than eager boy makes an appearance, dragging his book bag and lunchbox along with him.
Brooke shakes her head with a laugh, seeing as Colton is certainly not adjusted to waking up early for school days just yet.
"Why can't it be summer forever, mom?" he questions, letting out a frustrated groan. He misses the pool and the beach and all the melting popsicles he can eat.
She smiles down softly at him, running a hand through his hair that's just been cut for the beginning of the new school year. "Because you have to go to school to learn and stay smart and get into a great college so you can get a great job and then you'll be able to take care of me when I'm old," she explains dramatically, pressing a kiss to his forehead when she's done with her little rant. "That's why."
Colton furrows his brow and looks at Brooke as if she's crazy. "You're already old, mom!"
"Hey!" Brooke gasps in shock. She tries to suppress her giggles and pretends to be annoyed, but to no avail, fails. "You watch it, mister," she informs, lowering her head to reach into her bag for her car keys. She knows that if they don't get a move on, they will be late.
"Oh, great," she mutters sarcastically, searching through the contents of her oversized bag. "I forgot my phone upstairs. Here, go get in the car and I'll be there in a sec, okay?" She hurriedly hands him the keys with the clicker so he can open the doors and then makes a dash upstairs to her bedroom where she must have left her phone charging over night.
As she walks up the stairs, she takes the time to reflect on the fact that Colton is starting another year of school already. It feels like just yesterday he was a tiny five-year-old starting kindergarten. Brooke concludes he is growing up way too fast.
She walks into the bedroom just in time to find Julian walk out of the attached bathroom having finished up his shower, wrapped in nothing more than a towel from the waist down.
"Hey," he greets with that grin she adores so very much as he uses another towel to dry his damp hair.
She mentally reminds herself that she cannot get distracted. Colton is waiting in the car and they're already running late. However, she feels almost powerless to resist when he walks over and wraps his two strong and sturdy arms around her tiny frame and leans in to capture her lips in a kiss.
"Julian…" she moans in protest, finding all the strength in her to pull away, resting her two hands on his bare chest. "I'm running late," she whispers, a small smirk finding its way on her lips. "I forgot my phone and Colton's already waiting in the car…"
"He is?" Julian frowns. "I didn't even get to say goodbye or wish him good luck today."
Brooke giggles slightly. "It's his first day of fourth grade, babe. Not college."
Julian playfully rolls his eyes. "Still, it would've been nice to talk to him."
"And you will…later," she informs, walking over to remove her cellphone from the wall charger. "But now I have to go. I'm gonna drop him off at school and then head over to the store because I'm running short on staff today. Think you'll be okay without me for a few hours?" she winks teasingly.
"I don't know about that," he chuckles, reaching out to grab her hand and reel her back in towards him. "How 'bout I meet you for lunch?" he wraps his arms around her once more.
Nodding, she leans up on her tippy toes to give him one final kiss. "Sounds good."
Julian sighs as he closes yet another lengthy script. He misses the magic he feels inside him when he's standing on a set seeing everything cinematically fall into place. He hasn't had the opportunity to experience that sensation since his last successful project…and it truly seems like that was forever ago. He knows that by permanently moving to Tree Hill, he has given up a majority of that life. Tree Hill isn't Hollywood. The same opportunities aren't available, and that's been a sacrifice he has been willing to make with no regrets. Missing it makes him feel guilty because he has got this great life here in Tree Hill. But it will always be a part of his life, no matter where he lives. Film is in his blood.
In the past couple of weeks, he has received a flood of scripts in the mail for him to look over. Some of them, he will admit, are really great. But he knows that the directors and the filming are all based in Los Angeles. And he has chosen Tree Hill. There are no questions about it.
Brooke sits back in her chair and stares down at the sketch that sits atop her work desk. For a busy morning, the customer rush in the past hour or so has died down so Brooke has taken the advantage to go to the backroom and work on a few sketches. After whipping up a few new designs for the upcoming Clothes Over Bro's winter collection, she now sits before a sketch that is very dear to her heart. Picking up the eraser and dragging it along the paper to remove any stray marks, she feels excitement begin to bud inside her like it does whenever she thinks about the upcoming wedding. After she had given up the company the first time, never in a million years did she think she'd be sitting in her store again, this time sketching up a design for her own wedding dress. Julian made all of this possible and she's never felt more grateful and blessed.
The sound of heavy footsteps break her out of her thoughts and as she looks up, she feels her smile spread greater across her face.
"Hiding from someone?"
"Oh…just my fiancé…Have you seen him? He's tall and handsome, has this incredible grin…"
"Oh, him. Yeah, sounds familiar, I might have seen him before," Julian plays along as he walks closer towards the brunette.
"Well if you do see him, tell him I'm looking for him because we have a date for lunch?"
"Do you now?"
"Yes," she giggles as he leans down to kiss her.
When the kiss breaks, Julian draws his eyes to the desk where the sketchpad lies. "What is this?"
Quickly, Brooke's frantically reaches out to turn the page to a clean, blank one. "That is something you cannot see!"
"Sorry," he quickly backs up and holds his hands up as if to surrender. "I didn't see anything! I promise."
Brooke nods hesitantly. She's never really believed in any of that superstitious stuff, but she needs everything to go perfect.
"Good," she says in relief. "So how was your day so far?"
"Uh, well lets see…I watched a movie, went to the store to pick up stuff for dinner, did a load of laundry…" he trails off, knowing full well how uneventful and pathetic he sounds.
"No good scripts?" Brooke frowns.
Julian sighs and shakes his head slightly. "The scripts are good, Brooke. They're just not possible for me."
Brooke swallows a lump in her throat as she hears him say this. She hates when he talks about things like that because it just makes her feel so goddamn guilty, almost as if she's responsible for singlehandedly ruining his career. He had been the one to reignite her passion, why can't she do the same for him?
"Julian…" she mumbles sadly. "I-"
"-No, stop," he cuts her off with a small smile. "We're not having this conversation. I know what you're getting at. But I'm happy here, Brooke. In fact, I've never been happier. And if being this happy and having you and Colton means me sitting at home acting like Mr. Mom, then so be it."
Brooke slowly gets up on her feet and walks from the desk to him and embraces him in a hug. "You're going to find the perfect script that can be made anywhere. I just know it."
"Yeah," he replies softly, brushing her hair away from eyes. "But lets not worry about that. It doesn't matter. Not now at least…Oh, I almost forgot," he unwraps from her embrace and reaches into his messenger bag slung on his shoulder. He pulls out a card and presents it to her. "Look what came in the mail…"
Her eyes trail to the card in his hands as she reaches to take it. "Wow," she takes a deep breath, allowing that anxious, excited feeling to take over again.
"The big box of them is back at home, but I knew you'd want to see it right away."
She nods and blinks back burning tears as she carefully studies the wedding invitation. It's becoming all the more real, and soon enough she will be Mrs. Baker.
"So how about that lunch date?"
After having lunch with Brooke, Julian headed home while she stayed at the store to work some more. He decided to spend some time busying himself cleaning out the garage. He'd noticed the abundance of unused things in there and even saw some of Colton's old toys. With really nothing else to do, clearing the cluttered mess seemed to be one of his best options.
Hearing a school bus pull up in front of the house, Julian turns around and walks out of the garage and up the driveway. He thinks back to a few weeks ago to when Colton practically begged to be allowed to take the school bus home from school. He claimed he was old enough and all his friends were doing it so he had to, too. Reluctantly, Brooke had agreed, only if she would be able to still drive him in the mornings.
Julian waves as Colton steps off the bus.
"Hey, Colt," he greets, automatically agreeing to hold the young boy's bags. "How was your first day back?"
"It was alright," the blonde shrugs. "Nothing special. But it was fun seein' all my friends again."
"Well that's what I like to hear. So, you want to do something fun while we wait for your mom to get home?"
"Yeah!"
Julian laughs, not surprised at all by the child's enthusiasm. He guides him towards the garage where he'd been working. "Well I was cleaning stuff out of here and I found your bike. What do you say we go for a ride?"
Instantly, Julian notices Colton's smile fade as he awkwardly shrugs his shoulders and looks away.
"What's wrong?"
Colton sighs and looks towards his barely touched bike. "It's just…I don't know how to ride it," he admits glumly. "I was always scared…and then finally I agreed to let dad start teaching me…we…we never got to finish."
Julian immediately feels awful for even suggesting such a thing even though there really was no way for him to know.
"I…I'm sorry, Colton. I didn't know. But you know what?" The boy looks up, curious. "I could teach you if you want."
His baby blues widen in interest. "Really? You'd do that for me?"
"Are you kidding?" Julian walks the bike over to Colton. "Of course. You're going to officially be my son soon, after all," he smiles as Colton's face lights up.
"About that…" Colton begins cautiously, and if he didn't have a smile on his face, Julian would definitely be scared as to what he was getting at. "Do you think after it becomes official I can change my last name to Baker?"
Completely stunned, Julian remains silent for a few minutes. The adoption would be a sure thing but not once had last names been discussed.
"Uhh..." Julian honestly doesn't know what to say. He feels this is a conversation that needs Brooke.
"It's just…I love being a Scott…but I think I'd like being a Baker, too…"
Slowly, Brooke walks up the winding path to the front door. This moment has been months in the making. She's spent many sleepless nights thinking about this, crying until there were no tears left to be cried. Finally, she feels it is time.
She's not sure she'll ever be fully prepared for this, but she's spent enough time pretending, enough time ignoring, and enough time being angry.
She reaches for the doorbell and gives it one ring, slowly standing back and waiting for something to happen. When it feels like an eternity has passed, the door finally swings open.
The person on the other side seems startled, yet in a way hopeful.
"Hi…"
"Hi, Peyton. I, um, was wondering if we could maybe talk?"
A/N –
Anonymous reviewers:
ilovebrulian – Thank you! :)
ali – Thanks so much for the review! And regarding the ages, since this story is AU, their ages don't follow the actual show. So Naley didn't have Jamie that young. Hope that helps! :)
Sorry this update took a bit longer than I would have liked. I actually came up with another mini-storyline I might do, which would stretch this story out for a few more chapters! PLEASE REVIEW :)
-Melissa