Chapter 5

Brooke comes up to her during English class on Monday. Haley is surprised but pleased; Brooke never talks to her in class. A piece of hair keeps falling in Brooke's face and she keeps pushing it back. She says, "Hey, Haley."

Haley says, "Hey, Brooke."

"Do you, um, want to go on a double date with us?"

"A wh-what?"

"You and Nathan and me and Lucas on a double date."

"I d-don't know."

"Oh, come on, say you will."

Haley half-smiles at the encouragement. "All right," she says, "I will."

Brooke goes to sit down in her seat. Haley watches her as she does. Haley likes the way she walks, hips swinging.

Haley is having a funny dream. She and Brooke are watching Disney movies again. "Disney characters," Brooke says, "aren't very good kissers." All of a sudden, Haley is a Disney character and she says, "Try me."

"Okay," Brooke says, and she kisses Haley.

Haley wakes up; the phone is ringing. She checks her digital clock. The red numbers swim for a moment and then she sees that it's three o'clock in the morning. She groans; who would be calling her at three o'clock in the morning?

She answers the phone. "Hello," she mumbles.

"Hello!" says a cheerful voice on the other end.

Brooke. She could've guess as much.

"Brooke? Brooke? It's three o'clock. Why the hell are you calling me in the middle of the night? I was sleeping."

"Oh, really? I didn't think of that." She honestly sounds like she didn't think of it, and Haley forgives her – slightly.

"Well," says Haley, "Why are you calling me?"

"Oh, you'll be so happy. It's wonderful. It's brilliant. It's simply amazing."

Brooke's enthusiasm is sweet, if not excessively annoying at three o'clock in the morning.

"Well, what is it?"

"I have figured out what we can do for our English project."

There was a pause. "Go on," Brooke says, "Ask me what we can do for our English project."

"What can we do for out English project?" Haley says.

"We," Brooke says, "Are going to make a music video."

Haley rubs her eyes. "We're going to do – " she yawns – "a what?"

"A music video," Brooke says. "We're going to make a music video. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it excellent? Isn't it the best idea you've ever heard? I'm sure it is."

"Yes, Brooke, it's the best idea I've ever heard."

"You sound a little funny. What's wrong?"

"Oh…just a…just a funny dream."

"Oh. Well, I'm sure that just talking to me will make everything all better."

No, actually, it was making it worse.

"Yeah…"

"So what do you think? I mean, tell me. Break my heart if you have to."

Haley rubs her eyes and lies up in bed. "I'm really, really tired, Brooke – "

"So what? You can still tell me what you think about it."

"I like it," she says after a moment. "I like it a lot. It's a really great idea. But I don't think it's going to work. I think that being up so late is playing with your brain."

"It's not," Brooke insists. "C'mon, with your voice! We can use the poem as lyrics and you can write the music to it – "

"Stop. Brooke, I really don't think that it's going to work. I don't write music. I just plagiarize."

"Yeah you do. I saw you once in English class – I walked by and you were scribbling down notes and everything."

Haley blushes. Music is a very private thing for her, something she keeps secret from everyone else. She sang in front of Nathan once, but she never sang anything she'd written for him. And now Brooke is asking her to write music for her.

Brooke's still talking, "And then there's me, right? And I can dance, which we've established already. And I'm beautiful – well, really, you're beautiful, too – so I could be, well I guess, we both could be the woman in the poem and – Haley?"

Haley's head is still swimming at the possibility of sharing her music. For some reason, the thought of playing something that she's written for Brooke and for Brooke alone doesn't freak her out, but the whole class would eventually end up seeing the music video…

"Haley, are you there? C'mon, Haley, what do you think?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Maybe?" Brooke whines. "Say yes, Haley, please! Please, please, please! With lots of cherries and whipped cream and steamy hot sex on top?"

"Oh, all right."

"Yes! You won't be sorry! I promise!"

"All right then – I'm gonna go back to bed now."

"Oh, don't do that. I just had a double shot of espresso."

"Brooke – "

"Please, please, please, please, please!"

There was something irresistible about her entreaties, and Haley sort of wanted to talk to her, so she said, "Okay."

"Good. What should we talk about?"

"Tell me about your dream."

Haley feels her face heat up. "Well, um, it wasn't anything, not really."

"Are you sure? 'Cause you sounded really weird when you answered the phone." Haley's cheeks are flaming now. "Yes, it wasn't anything."

There is silence. "Haley," Brooke says, "You can go to sleep if you want to. Just don't hang up. Okay?"

"Okay."

And it's kind of nice, listening to the sound of Brooke's breathing, as she falls asleep.