2/5

NEW YORK

Brooke walked out of her room with a yawn asshe pulled her robe tighter around her, and walked to the living room to join her mother.

"Hey Mom. How are you feeling? " Brooke yawned again

"Much better. How about you?" Ellie offered Brooke a small smile

"I'm alright."

"Do you want to talk Brookie?" Ellie asked, using Brooke's childhood nickname

"Peyton used to call me 'Brookie'." Brooke smiled sadly at the memory

"Oh sweetie." Ellie stood from her chair and went over to sit on the couch next to Brooke. She wrapped Brooke in a hug. "Have you talked to her at all?"

"No. I cant Mom. Its too hard. It hurts too much." Brooke cried. "How am I going to get over this? Not only did I lose my girlfriend, I lost my best friend. She's not the woman that I fell in love with anymore. She's completely different now."

"How so?" Ellie said softly

"She lies about everything. She says she loves me, but she's not honest with me. She put drugs over me Mom. I cant deal with that."

"I don't think she would ask you to. Sweetie, Peyton is a good person; she's just lost her way. Let me ask you something that you really need to think about."

"What?"

"Do you love her?"

"With all my heart." Brooke said without any hesitance

"Are you willing for her to get better?"

"Of course I am. But I'm not sure it will get better. It always seems to get worse." Brooke sighed heavily. "Besides, I'm not sure that she would even want me back."

"Because of Faith?"

"And someone else." Brooke looked at her mom wide-eyed. "I'm not sure why I just told you that."

Ellie stifled a laugh. "It's ok. We're both adults."

"Mom, do you think this will get any better?" Brooke asked, barely above a whisper

"I don't know Brookie. I don't know."

TREE HILL

"You sure you don't want to say good-bye to anyone?" Peyton asked as she and Faith stood outside Faith's car the next morning

"Nah. I think it's best if I just slip out. You sure you can get someone to take you to your car?"

"Yeah, I'll call Haley."

"Ok. Take care of yourself Peyton. Call me if you need anything, even if you just want to talk." Faith offered

Peyton hugged Faith. "Thanks Faith. Umm…keep an eye on Brooke?"

"I already am." Faith couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt as she looked at Peyton, who still clearly loved Brooke. Faith took a deep breath, and got in her car. "Tell everyone I said good-bye."

"I will. Drive safe."

"Always." Faith smiled as she peeled out

10 Hours Later

NEW YORK

"Yo B! You home?" Faith called out from the front doorway

"At least your not just running in anymore." Brooke laughed as she walked out of her room. "Where the hell did you go?"

"To visit a friend." Faith smiled

"How are they?"

"I think that they'll be ok."

Brooke gave Faith a weird look. "Ok?" She walked up to Faith and gave her a kiss. "I'm glad you're back." Brook smiled

"Brooke, we need to talk." Faith said, not returning Brooke's smile

"Uh oh. You called me Brooke. That's never good." Brooke tired to joke. When Faith didn't laugh, Brooke got serious also. "Let's go to my room. My mom's still home."

Faith followed Brooke into the room, and shut the door behind her. While Brooke sat on her bed, Faith took a seat at Brooke's desk. Brooke gave her a weird look. "What's up with you Faith?"

"We cant do this anymore."

"Do what? Talk?"

"You know what I mean. Brooke, you still love Peyton. What we're doing us unfair to both of us. And Peyton. We cant have anything that will actually mean something in the long run, so why make things between us weird. I like you, I admit it. I like you a lot. But I also like the friendship we have. And I don't want to ruin that anymore than we might have already done."

Brooke sighed. "Why did you have to become the voice of reason?"

"I just realized some things this weekend." Faith shrugged

"I'm so sorry Faith, but you're right. I do love Peyton. A lot. And this thing between me and you is just making things more complicated for us all." Brooke looked at Faith. "But just so we're clear, I havent been using you. I really do care for you Faith. It was never just about using you to try and get over Peyton."

"Friends?" Faith asked hopefully

"Of course! I just hope that things arent going to be weird between us." Brooke smiled

"I agree." Faith stood up. "I should probably get my dad's car home to him before he has a heart attack. Or before he beats me to death."

"That's not funny." Brooke said sadly

"Sorry." Faith made a face. "See you at school B."

"Wait." Brooke stood up and walked over to Faith. "Since umm…we're not going to be…doing whatever it is that we are doing, what do you say to maybe a, umm…goodbye fuck?" Brooke asked semi-sheepishly. "I mean, I know-"

Brooke was cut off by Faith kissing her hard. Brooke giggled as Faith lifted her up and led them both to the bed.

TREE HILL

"Hey." Lucas said when Peyton answered the door

"When did people in Tree Hill start getting manners? It's starting to freak me out." Peyton joked.

"How are you?" Lucas asked as he followed Peyton into the living room

"Good. Faith and I had a good talk. But then again, you already knew that. Why'd you call her Lucas?"

"Because I knew that she had a story you might listen to. Did it help?"

"Yeah. In making me feel even worse. I don't need Brooke's new fuck buddy to drive 10 hours to see me to make me feel even more like shit."

"Hey, that's not fair." Lucas protested

"I know. I appreciate Faith telling me the things that she did, because I'm sure that it was really hard to share all of that." Peyton ran a hand through her curls. "I'm sorry Luke, I'm just spent. It's been a long week."

"I know."

"I just cant believe where everything has ended up. My whole world got flipped around over the past few weeks, and it's just hard to deal with it. I mean, have you looked around at us all lately? Compare where we all were today to where we were 6 months ago."

"Crazy huh?" Lucas chuckled

"Yeah. How did we let things get so fucked up?"

"I honestly don't know Pey." Lucas looked her in the eye. "Are you ready to change? Or are you going to go back to the life you were living?"

"What does it matter Lucas? Brooke's gone, I never talk to you, Haley, or Nate anymore, my dad is never home, I don't have a job, I don't want to pull Taylor or Sydney down anymore than I already have, so I really don't want to be around them anymore…what do I have to get better for?"

"Peyton, we all love you. Even though we aren't as close, I don't want to lose you. Neither does anyone else. Even Brooke. She still loves you Peyton, you just have to give her time. Don't you dare say that you don't have anything to clean up for."

"It's just to hard Luke."

"You havent even tried! Don't give up before you even give it a chance. We're all here to help you. Just don't be afraid to ask." Lucas smiled

"Why did you come over here Lucas? To try to motivate me even more? Because frankly, I don't know how much more I can listen to your speeches without going insane. So how about you give me a day or two before you start trying to fix me again, huh?" Peyton suddenly snapped

"Peyton, I-"

"No Lucas. I'm serious." Peyton interrupted. "I apprecaite what you are trying to do, but it isnt helping. So please, back the hell off." Peyton stood up. "You can let yourself out, right?"

Lucas stood also. "Yeah." He nodded sadly

"Good." Peyton walked out of the living room to her bedroom

"God this is bad." Lucas said to himself as he let himself out