2/14 Valentines Day
NEW YORK
"Happy Valentines Day Friend." Brooke laughed when Faith came into her room
"This is the worst holiday ever." Faith said
Brooke shrugged. "Does this help?" Brooke smiled and handed Faith a box of chocolates
Faith's face lit up. "Hell yeah it does!" She pulled a box out of her backpack and handed it to Brooke. "Happy Valentines Day B." Faith smiled as she handed Brooke the chocolates
"You nerd."
"I know. So what would you say to dinner?"
"I would ask if you were asking me out on a date." Brooke joked
"Of course not. Just two single ladies enjoying each other's company." Faith shrugged
"Well ok then." Brooke smiled and looked at her phone when it started ringing
"You ok B? You look a little pale." Faith asked when Brooke just stood staring at the phone
"Peyton." Brooke said simply
"Oh. Well…are you going to answer it?"
Brooke looked at Faith. "I don't know. I'm not sure I can talk to her yet. It's just too much." Brooke said, starting to breathe heavy as she started getting overwhelmed
Faith walked over to Brooke and took the phone from her and set it on the desk next to them. She looked Brooke in the eye, and spoke softly. "Then don't."
Brooke smiled a little. "Thanks."
Faith smiled and pulled Brooke into a hug. "Come on Brooke. Let's go get some dinner."
TREE HILL
Peyton sighed and set the phone down. "Voicemail." Peyton told Taylor
"I figured; you leaving the message and all." Taylor smiled
Peyton smiled and rolled her eyes. "Shut up. Is Syd meeting us here, or do we have to pick her up?"
"She's meeting us here. Pizza and beer. What a way to spend Valentines Day, huh?" Taylor said popping a chocolate in her mouth
"Well, I can't think of a better way for three hot single ladies to spend this stupid holiday." Peyton shrugged
"I could tell you what would make it better." Taylor said
"And I would agree." Peyton sighed. "Faith came to visit."
"Yeah, I know. She interrupted out little beach house party, remember? What did she want? And it took you this long to bring that up?"
Peyton rolled her eyes. "Lucas called her to talk to me."
"About?"
"Her life. She has an interesting story. She was a heroin addict."
Taylor's mouth dropped open. "No way. She never said anything about that."
"Yeah. Some things she said made me think about everything, and so did what Sydney said. Tay, do you think that we're too far gone to turn around?"
"Well, do you want to turn around?"
"Yes. And no." Peyton let out a ragged breath. "I went to see Rick."
"What! When?"
"The other day. I didn't get anything from him. I paid him, but I left the drugs and bolted. He said that I was too far gone to turn around, and that everything would be gone eventually. It really got me thinking. I don't know if I can change Taylor."
Taylor shrugged. "Until you figure that out, it's going to stay like this. But you're a strong girl Pey, if you really wanted to get past all this, you could."
"Thanks Taylor." Peyton smiled as the doorbell rang. "Let the shitty holiday begin."
NEW YORK
"Ok. What is it?" Faith said suddenly
"Huh?"
"You're lost in thought. Care to share?"
Brooke chuckled. "Peyton left a message. I'm trying to decide if I want to listen to it or not."
Faith reached across the table and took Brooke's hand in her own. "How about you wait until after dinner to worry about it, and just enjoy being at such a nice restaurant." Faith smiled
Brooke smiled and looked around. "How long have you been planning this Faith? This place is gorgeous."
Faith shrugged. "I pulled a few strings. Order what you want. Dinner's on me."
Brooke laughed. "Not a date my ass."
"What?" Faith laughed
"Hmm…lets see. A nice restaurant, you're wearing a freaking dress, you're paying, and you're holding my hand." Brooke said, feigning thoughtfulness
Faith blushed and let go of Brooke's hand. "Whatever."
Brooke grabbed Faith's hand again. "You look beautiful by the way."
"Thanks Brooke." Faith sighed. "This is kind of a last hoorah."
"What do you mean?"
"Brooke, what are we doing? You just got out of a serious relationship, and there's no way in hell you are over Peyton. We should have never brought our friendship to this level. I know that we said we weren't going to do this anymore, and I know that we kind of forgot about that. This time I'm serious."
"How about we don't think about this until after tonight. I just want to be with you, even if it is just for tonight."
Faith smiled shyly. "You look incredible tonight."
"Thanks." Brooke smiled shyly also
TREE HILL
Peyton, Taylor, and Sydney were all in Peyton's living room, all 3 lying on the couch.
"How is it that we are actually comfortable with all three of us laying on this thing?" Sydney laughed
"I'm not sure, but I need another beer." Taylor said getting off the couch
"How are you doing?" Sydney asked, sitting up to look at Peyton
"Let's see…it's Valentine's Day, my ex-girlfriend wont even talk to me, I'm not drunk yet, and I'm horny."
"Well then." Sydney laughed
Peyton laughed too. "That last part kind of slipped out."
"Maybe you're a little more drunk that you think."
Peyton grabbed Sydney's shirt and pulled her on top of her. She brought her lips centimeters from Sydney's. "Maybe I just want you."
"It is possible." Sydney giggled and kissed Peyton
"Would you like me to leave you two alone?" Taylor said when she walked back into the living room. "You two have gotten pretty cozy lately."
"Yes. Go away." Peyton said in-between kisses
"Funny." Taylor said humorlessly as she popped the top to her beer and sat down, watching the other two girls make-out
"What are you doing?" Sydney asked as she propped herself up to look at Taylor
"Just watching the show." Taylor smiled and took a sip of her beer
Sydney and Peyton shared a look, and Sydney smiled as she got off Peyton and went and straddled Taylor's lap. Sydney kissed Taylor, and Peyton just laughed.
"Poor baby. Did you feel left out." Sydney said
"You know I did." Taylor smiled and brought her lips to Sydney's again
"You know what this little scene is missing?" Taylor asked
Taylor and Sydney both brought their attention to Peyton, and Peyton raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
"My how tonight has gotten interesting." Peyton said as she stood and walked over to the other girls
NEW YORK
Brooke and Faith walked up to the door of Brooke's loft, hand-in-hand, when they had finished their "date".
"So did you want to come in?" Brooke asked as she turned to Faith
"I think it would be best to say good-bye out here." Faith answered
Brooke pouted. "That's no fun."
Faith leaned in to place a soft kiss on Brooke's lips. "I know. But it's better that way."
Brooke sighed. "I know."
The girls shared a long kiss, and Brooke rested her forehead against Faith's when the kiss finally broke.
"I wish things were different for us." Brooke whispered
Faith kissed Brooke again. "Bye Brooke." Faith smiled and turned away to leave
"By Faith." Brooke whispered
When Brooke got into her room, she quickly changed and sat on her bed. Her phone in her lap, she sighed as she tried to decide about Peyton's message. Am I ready to hear from her? At this point, I'm so confused about everything. What if she's cleaned up? Even if I took her back, would she take me back after everything that I have done?
"Fuck it." Brooke muttered as she picked up her phone and checked her voicemail
"Hey Brooke. It, umm, Peyton. I was just calling to see how you were and all. I understand if you aren't ready to talk to me yet, but I just wanted to call and say Happy Valentines Day. I know you probably don't want to hear this, but I miss you Brooke, more than you could imagine. I hope that you're doing ok. Umm, I guess I'll talk to you later. Bye Brooke. I, uh…I love you."
Tears fell down Brooke's cheeks as she hung up her phone. She wiped her face and took a deep breath as she dialed Peyton's number.
"Hello?" Peyton answered with laughter in her voice
"Peyton. Hey." Brooke said quietly
"Brooke." Peyton said, the laughter gone from her voice
"I got your message."
"Oh. Ok."
"How are you?" Brooke asked, trying to keep her composure
"I'm doing ok. How are you?"
"Good." Brooke heard a scream in the background. "I'm sorry, do you have company? I didn't mean to interrupt."
"No! Don't go. It's just Taylor and Sydney." Peyton said quickly
"Oh. Umm…ok."
"Did you have a good Valentines Day? Do anything interesting?"
"Faith and I got some food, but other than that, nothing much." Brooke said, leaving out the 'date' part. "What about you?"
"Taylor and Sydney came over and we ordered a pizza. Nothing exciting."
"Fun."
"Brooke, I miss you. I miss everything we had, our friendship included. Do you think we could ever get that back." Peyton blurted suddenly
Brooke sighed. "I don't know Peyton. All I know is I can't even think of you without my heart breaking."
"I know that feeling. Brooke, I am so sorry for everything. You have no idea how much I wish that I could go back and change the way things played out."
"Me too." Brooke said as she started to cry
"Brooke, please don't." Peyton said, also starting to cry. "I know this is hard for you; hell it's hard for me too. But I want to make things right between us. I don't know if I can live happily if you aren't by my side. I know that's a lot to ask-"
"I love you Peyton. I think that I always will. It's not too much to ask, but I don't know if things will play out that way."
"I love you too Brooke. Do you think we could start over? As friends first?"
"I would like that, but I'm not sure I can right now Peyton. It's still so overwhelming. Everything is just too much."
"Oh, umm…ok. I understand that." Peyton paused to catch her breath from crying. "I'll let you go. Bye Brooke."
"Bye Pey." Brooke said as she hung up the phone
Brooke tossed the phone onto her nightstand and curled up into a ball on her bed. Sobbing, she cried herself to sleep.
TREE HILL
Peyton hung up the phone slowly, and wiped the tears off her cheeks. She sighed as she walked back out into the living room from her bedroom.
"It went that well, huh?" Sydney asked gently
"I don't want to talk about it. Are you guys crashing here tonight?" Peyton asked
"We don't have to." Taylor said
"No, I want you guys to. You've been drinking, and I don't want you to drive home if you don't have to." Peyton said with a yawn
"Ok. We'll just crash out here. Are you going to be ok?" Sydney offered Peyton a smile
"Yeah. I'll be ok." Peyton said, failing miserably in trying to return Sydney's smile
Peyton walked into her room, and collapsed on her bed. Why did I screw things up so bad?
A/N- I'm not sure how I feel about those chapters, but it all has a point I suppose. ; ) Hopefully you guys enjoyed them. If you're confused about the time line, just ignore it. I dont think that it makes too much of a difference if you do. I'm just trying to give you a general idea of the dates. I'll try to get a couple chapters out this weekend for you guys; Sunday night the latest! Thanks for being patient with me, and thank you so much for reading my story. : )
Also,'Sara'said something in a reviewabout a previous chapter about Brooke's cell phone, and how it was working after she threw it against the wall. I personally have thrown my phone against the wall numerous times, and it still works. So you can choose to believe that she was able to fix it, or maybe went out and bought a new one. : ) I'll leave that one up to you to figure out.