Undiscovered
Chapter Eight
Heart-Shaped Box
She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black...Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint Forever in debt to your priceless advice Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint Forever in debt to your priceless advice Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint Forever in debt to your priceless advice Your advice-Nirvana: Heart-Shaped Box
Peyton went through her locker getting all the books that she needed. She sighed; she didn't want to get caught in this Haley-Nathan-Brooke love triangle she had already been in one herself. Peyton loved Brooke with all her heart Brooke was her best friend, but she felt bad for Haley. Haley was the sweet and innocent type who is destined to marry doctors and lawyers. She knew Brooke had the reputation of a slut, but Peyton knew her better than anyone, and she was just a lonely girl in need of attention, and who could blame her? Brooke's parents didn't give a shit about her, and it has to hurt to know that you could light yourself on fire and your parents wouldn't even care. Peyton made her way to the tutoring center; she usually went there to draw and talk to Haley.
Peyton walked into the tutoring center and sat down beside Haley, "Hi," she said quietly so she didn't disturb the other people that were studying.
Haley smiled, "Hey," she said as she took off her head phones, "Do you know where Nathan is today?"
"He' not at school?" Peyton asked, she thought about earlier and about how Brooke had asked Peyton to cover for her, she knew exactly what was going on now.
Haley shook her head, "Nope, maybe he's still sick from last night," she shrugged.
"Haley," Peyton said apprehensively, "This is just a hypothetical question; what would you do if Nathan cheated on you?" She asked, hoping that Haley wouldn't think anything of the question.
"Well," Haley said putting her pencil down, "I'd be really hurt, because I think I love him," she said looking down at the table shyly.
"What?" Peyton asked with her eyes wide.
Haley laughed, "I know it's stupid, but I just have this feeling when I'm around him, and he's so special to me," she explained.
Peyton looked down at her watch, "Hey I got to go," she said quickly as she gathered her stuff, "I'll talk to you later."
Haley watched her leave and sighed, "Bye."
Peyton got into her car and drove to Brooke's house, she saw Nathan's car there and she went inside the house. She looked around the downstairs for any sign of the two, but they weren't down there. Peyton walked up the stairs quietly, she saw Brooke's door closed. She opened it slowly and saw Nathan and Brooke in bed together sleeping. Peyton walked into the room and saw the clothes scattered on the floor, she put her hands on her hips and sighed, "Shit," she said softly to herself.
Brooke heard someone talking she opened her eyes and looked past Nathan and saw Peyton standing there with her hands on her hips, "Pey?" She said groggily, "What are you doing here?"
"I should be asking Nathan the same thing," she said coldly. Nathan woke up to the loud voice and saw and looked at Peyton and then back at Brooke, "What the hell are you two doing?"
"What does it look like we're doing?" Brooke exclaimed.
Nathan pulled on his boxers and a pair of shorts from the bag he brought, "Peyton, are you going to tell Hales?" He asked worried.
"No," Peyton said, "But I really think you should tell her, because today she told me that she was in love with you," she said disgusted, "Brooke, why are you doing this to yourself?"
"I don't know, did you ask yourself the same question when you were making out with Lucas while he still had a girlfriend?" She said sarcastically.
Peyton sighed, "This isn't about me and Lucas."
"Well in a way it is," Brooke said putting on a shirt and cheerleading shorts, "Because if you wouldn't have made out with my boyfriend, me and Lucas would still be together, and I would've never slept with Nathan," she said.
"Don't try to blame this on me," Peyton said sternly. "Look," she said calming herself, "I'm not going to tell Haley what happened, but Nathan you seriously have to figure things out." She threw Nathan his shirt and walked out of the bed room.
Nathan looked at Brooke, "She's right," he said flatly.
Brooke sighed heavily, "Yeah," she said as she laid back down on her bed, "She is." She looked at Nathan and gave him a weak smile.
"We slept together Brooke," Nathan pointed out.
"Do you regret it?"
"No."
Brooke rubbed her eyes, "Do what your heart tells you to, I know that Haley changed you."
"She did," Nathan said picking up his cell phone, "I have a voice message hold on." Nathan listened to the voice message and felt bad.
"Did Haley call when we were going at it?" Brooke said, trying not to laugh.
"Yeah," Nathan said listening to the rest of it, "She wanted to know if I was okay because I left the party early."
"Oh," Brooke said, "So, what do you want to do?"
Nathan sighed, "I think I'm going to go back to school," he said picking up his clothes and shoving them in his bag, "I have a big game tomorrow I have to be at practice."
"Don't do this to me Nathan," Brooke said sternly. Nathan looked at her, "Don't make what happened act as though it never happened, because as much as you want to block it out of your mind we did sleep together, and I know I sure as hell enjoyed it."
"She's my girlfriend, Brooke," Nathan said, "She's my girl."
"So what happens now?" Brooke asked, "You just forget all about me?"
"Why don't we just go back to the way things were," Nathan suggested, "Just friends."
"Right," Brooke said with a dry laugh, "Just friends." Brooke got up and walked over towards Nathan, she kissed him on the lips, but he didn't kiss back. Instead, he pulled away quickly. Brooke looked down at the ground and bit her lip.
"I'm sorry," Nathan said genuinely.
Brooke walked over and opened her door, "I'll see you around Nathan," she said with the door still opened. Nathan picked up his bag and walked out the door while Brooke closed it lightly behind him.
Nathan walked into Tree Hill High and new where Haley would be, he saw Haley sitting at one of the tables. He ran up to her and sat down beside her, "I love you," he said taking her hands in his.
Haley looked at him in utter shock, "W-w-what?" she stammered.
Nathan laughed, "I love you," he repeated.
Haley smiled as her eyes watered, "Nathan," she whispered softly, "I love you too," she said cupping his face in her hands and kissing him passionately on the lips.
As the kiss ended, Nathan looked at Haley in the eyes, "I never want to stop kissing you," he said as he kissed her being as soft and gentle as possible. Haley put her tongue in Nathan's mouth, which surprised him a bit because she was never so controlling before. They were stopped when a teacher coughed. Nathan and Haley stopped kissing and laughed.
"Sorry," Haley said quietly to the rest of the students staring at her and Nathan. She started laughing, "Nathan I can't believe we just did that here."
"Aren't you glad we did?" He asked winking at her causing Haley to laugh.
Brooke looked at the unlit cigarette in her hand. She never smoked before, but she remembered her aunt always smoking. Her mom hated the smell of smoke, so her aunt would always go outside. Brooke always wondered what she did when went outside, so one day she followed her. She saw how mature and how almost beautiful her aunt looked as she held the cigarette and blew the smoke from her red lips. She watched in awe at how graceful she did it, Brooke was seven and she already wanted to start smoking. Brooke laughed as she remembered when she was 10, how she rolled up pieces of paper and pretended they were cigarettes, she would prance around the house in her hells and when she pretended that the 'cigarettes' were gone she would drop them on the ground and stomp them out with the tip of her heels.
Then they had to go through all the shit in school about how smoking gave you cancer and how you could die. Brooke wasn't afraid of dying, she was more afraid of living. She wondered why she did it to herself sometimes, why she hurt herself and others the way she did. Brooke walked downstairs cigarette and lighter in hand. She walked to the back porch, she knew that if she lit it in the house it would take a couple of days to get the smell out, and she couldn't take the chance of her parents walking in at any minute.
Brooke lit the cigarette and took a drag; she blew the smoke out slowly. She watched the smoke float into the sky and disappear. She looked at the cigarette and smiled, "I think I found myself a new habit," she said to herself. Brooke took another drag of the cigarette and realized how it calmed her. She knew that she would crave it one day when she was stressing on a major test, but Brooke knew about control. Brooke finished the cigarette and threw it on the ground, stomping it out with her shoe. She walked in her house and got a shower, trying to get whatever remains of Nathan Scott that was still on her body. Too bad she couldn't take her heart out and scrub that.
Brooke looked at the clock, school had ended by now and she had missed her first cheerleading practice. She knew that the bonfire was tonight, it was some big thing where you burn stuff in this big fire. Brooke just went because some kid usually had a keg hidden in his truck, and she happened to always know the kid that had it. Brooke got dressed in tight fitting jeans and light blue hoodie. She dried and straightened her hair, and put on her make up and waited till she made her appearance at the fire. Brooke went through her drawers and got out her pack of Marlboro's, 'Just in case,' she thought to herself as she stuff them into her purse along with make up and money.
Peyton walked out of the gym after practice and saw Haley waiting for Nathan; he came out and kissed her passionately on the lips. Peyton watched in awe, Nathan saw her looking at them and told Haley to "hold on" and jogged over to Peyton.
"I don't want to know," she said holding her hand up to stop him.
"I broke things off with Brooke," he said quickly, "We're just friends."
"And she's okay with that?" Peyton asked in disbelief.
"Yeah."
Peyton shook her head and smiled, "I'm glad that you know how to make up your mind."
"Thanks Peyton," Nathan said with a smile, "I'll see you at the bonfire tonight."
Brooke found her parking space near the field where the bonfire always was. She looked at the swarm of kids and some parents. She got out her pack and lit a cigarette. Brooke took a long drag and sighed, "Here goes nothing," she said as she got out of the car. She saw Peyton coming towards her, her face went from happy to what-the-hell-are-you-doing?
Brooke just held on tightly to her cigarette, as she took another long drag. "Tell me you're just doing this because you want to be able to join the Pink Ladies," Peyton said as she stood in front of Brooke.
Brooke laughed, "Nope," she said blowing the smoke off to the side, "It really does relieve stress."
"Is this about Nathan?" Peyton asked.
Brooke clenched her hand together so tight her knuckles were turning white, "Nope," she lied, "This is about me."
"Why are you smoking?" Peyton asked, "You might get cancer or something."
"And why do you care?" Brooke said with a dry laugh, "You wouldn't care if I died! Hell, you'd be happier than ever!" She exclaimed taking another drag.
Peyton shook her head and held back from crying, "I already lost my mom Brooke, and I hardly ever get to see my dad. I couldn't stand seeing my best friend die," she said sternly.
"At least you would still have Haley," Brooke replied coldly.
Peyton shook her head, "No Brooke. Haley could never take your place."
"It looks like she already has," Brooke said as she turned around and saw Haley walking towards Peyton waving and smiling. Brooke dropped her cigarette butt and stomped on it with her shoe, "I'll see you around Pey."
Peyton watched as Brooke walked away. Haley walked up to Peyton and gave her a hug, "Guess what?"
"What?" Peyton said trying to act interested.
"Well," Haley said smiling, "Nathan said that he loved me!"
Peyton gave her a weak smile, "That's good Hales."
"I know I'm so happy," Haley said as she walked arm and arm down to the campfire.
Brooke sat on a bench away from everyone else and lit up another cigarette, she watched as Nathan mingled with everyone like the stupid jock he was. Brooke took a drag from her cigarette as Nathan's eyes met hers. He walked over to her, "Smoking?"
"Yeah," Brooke said looking at the cigarette, "I have to find something to do in my past time."
"Why are you doing it?" Nathan asked as he grabbed the cigarette out of her mouth and threw it in the fire.
"I've got a whole pack," Brooke said sarcastically.
"Throw them out," Nathan said, almost fatherly.
"I'll buy more."
"Fine," Nathan said sternly, "I don't want you to hurt yourself."
Brooke handed him her pack, "Here," she said, "I won't buy more."
Nathan smiled at her and threw the cigs in the fire, "Thank you."
"Nathan," Brooke said as he started walking away.
"Yeah?"
"Can we be friends again?"
"We already are."
Nathan smiled as he walked away. Brooke smiled and watched as Peyton and Haley came down to the fire arm in arm. Peyton walked over to Brooke solo, "Are you still mad?"
Brooke laughed and hugged Peyton, "I think I'm starting to see reality."
Read and Review