Author's Note: Hey, everyone. I know, I'm sorry, I promised this chapter would be up sooner, but there was a problem with my computer. Have no fear though, I'm here now.
-OTH-
"Uh, Luke, stop. I can't do this
right now."
Brooke and Haley had spent the entire night on
the couch in her living room, so needless to say, Brooke didn't get
the best night of sleep. Despite Brooke's protestations, Haley had
left around noon to go find Nathan and see what happened last night.
As if he had some sort of radar, Lucas was at her house within ten
minutes of Haley's departure. They were currently making out on the
couch she had slept on earlier, until Brooke put a stop to it. She
pushed Lucas off of her and sat up, straightening out her
shirt.
"What's wrong now?" Lucas asked with a sigh,
moving closer to her. She did this sometimes, they would be making
out and then she would just stop it. It usually meant that she had
something on her mind.
"I can't stop thinking about
Haley," Brooke answered, snuggling into Luke's embrace. She had
made Haley promise to call her when she knew something, and it had
been over three hours and there was still no word from her best
friend.
"Haley you say?" he teased, raising an eyebrow
and smiling suggestively at her. She nodded her head without looking
at him. "Even though she's my best friend, I have to admit, she's
pretty hot. I think I could get into that."
"I swear,"
she replied, turning in his arms to glare at him. "Sometimes, I
think that you and Tim were separated at birth." Luke pretended to
be offended.
"Oh, please," he laughed, tickling her sides
a little. "I am so much more pretty than Tim is." Brooke smiled
and shrugged her shoulders, turning back around to stare blankly at
the wall across from them.
"Tim maybe," she commented
with a laugh. "But I stand firm on my opinion that Haley is hotter
than you." Luke nodded even though Brooke couldn't see him and
kissed the top of her head.
"So, why were you thinking
about Haley when we were making out?" he asked, trying to make it
sounds as light as possible. He knew that Brooke was worried about
Haley, he was too, but she was the last thing on his mind two minutes
ago.
"I'm just worried," she answered. She had called
Peyton as soon as Haley left that morning, before Luke had come over,
to tell her about the new developments. A part of her was so happy
that Nathan hadn't asked Haley to move in with him, but the other
part felt horrible at seeing her friend in all that pain.
"What
are you worried about?" Lucas still had no idea what was going on.
All he knew was that something had come up and Nathan backed out of
asking Haley to move in with him. He also knew that Brooke and Peyton
had something to do with this and he was going to find out. "Nathan
just got scared, that's all. They'll work this out and Haley will
be fine. You'll see." Brooke let out a sigh and stood up, pacing
the room. Luke watched her in confusion.
"No, she won't
be fine, Lucas," Brooke disagreed. Luke was starting to get worried
as Brooke walked back and forth in front of him. Brooke Davis was
never one to get nervous like this.
"Brooke, calm down,"
he said, pushing himself so he was sitting on the edge of the couch,
his elbows resting on his knees. Brooke stopped walking and looked at
him as if he had two heads. "He made a mistake. I know Nathan, he
will do anything to make it right again."
"You don't
understand," Brooke replied, shaking her head and began pacing
again. She was trying really hard not to tell Luke what was going on,
she knew he would only freak out, but she really needed to talk to
someone about this.
"Then explain it to me," he
suggested. Before Brooke had a chance to even think about telling
him, her phone rang. She stopped and stared at it, afraid to answer
it encase it was bad news. Seeing that she wasn't making any move
to answer the phone, Lucas grabbed it. "Hello?"
"Hey,
can I talk to Brooke?"
"Yeah, one minute." He covered up
the talking end of the phone and walked over to Brooke, handing it to
her. "It's Peyton and she sounds upset." She nodded and took
the phone, bringing it to her ear.
"Hey, Pey," she
greeted, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice. She watched
as Luke walked back over to the couch and sat down so he could watch
her. She turned away from him slightly, not wanting him to be able to
see her face. "What's up?"
"Have you heard from Hales,
yet?" she asked in a panicked voice. She had spent an hour
searching for her friend, going to all the places she could think of,
and there was no sign of her. She checked Haley's house, the Café,
even Nate's apartment again, see was nowhere.
"No," she
sighed. She brought her hand up to her mouth and started to bite her
nails, something she only did when she was scared or nervous. This
did not go unnoticed by Lucas. "She was supposed to call me when
she found something out. Have you seen her?"
"Yeah,"
Peyton answered, plopping down on a bench just outside the Café.
"I went over to Nathan's apartment to see if he was there. Haley
answered the door."
"They were there together?" Brooke
asked. She shook her head, knowing that couldn't be true. If it
were, then Haley wouldn't be missing right now.
"No, I'm
assuming Haley was there looking for him," Peyton answered. "She
got some bad news and took off. I've looked everywhere for her and
no luck yet. I'm stating to get worried." It took Brooke a moment
to digest everything that Peyton had just told her.
"Bad
news?" she questioned. That got Luke's attention quick. He sat up
in his seat and tried to listen to their conversation. She glanced at
Luke and turned away from him further. "Did you tell her?"
"I
didn't have to." She knew Brooke was going to want an
explanation, but she was not in the mood to give it right now. "Look,
can you and Luke just start helping me look for her?"
"Yeah,
okay," she answered. She didn't like not knowing what was going
on, but she was willing to wait to find out. "You call Jake and
we'll call Tim and Lacy. They can help us look for her."
"Don't
bother," Peyton instructed her. "Nathan's probably with them.
I'm sure they're all waiting for an important phone call." She
didn't mean to sound bitter, but that's how it came out. She
hated Nathan more than she thought it was possible to hate another
human being right now and she just didn't have the strength to hide
it.
"What are you talking about?"
"We don't
have time for the long version," Peyton sighed, looking around her
to see if anyone she knew might overhear her and spread it all over
town. "So here's the short one; Lacy's pregnant, Nathan's the
father and Haley knows about all of it."
"What?" All the
color on Brooke's face disappeared, leaving her looking ghost
white. Peyton gave her a minute to recover. "Please tell me you're
joking?"
"I wish I was," Peyton answered. "The doctor
called and thought she was Lacy and told her that Nathan was the
father. Then to top it all off, I told her I knew about this all
along and now she hates me."
"I hate to say I told you so,
but..."
"I know, I know," Peyton stopped her. That was
the last thing she needed. She felt horrible enough about all of
this; she didn't need Brooke giving her a guilt trip.
"Maybe
I should just stay here," Brooke suggested, starting to get control
of herself again. The thought of Haley alone and this upset was
starting to scare her. "When she gets pissed at you or Nathan,
she'll come here. I'm sure she'll be here any minute."
"I
wouldn't count on it," Peyton mumbled. Brooke heard the guilt in
her voice and closed her eyes. She knew where this was going.
"What
did you do?" she whispered. She balled her hand up in a fist and
placed in on the entertainment unit holding the television in place.
Lucas was really starting to get worried and was debating whether he
should go over to her or stay in his spot. Deciding he wanted to keep
his balls firmly in place, he stayed seated on the couch.
"I'm
so sorry, Brooke," Peyton answered in a rush. "I didn't mean
to, but I mentioned that you knew about it so she's pissed at you
too."
"What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't,"
Peyton cried. She really didn't mean to tell on Brooke. "I was
just so scared that she would never talk to me again, I let it slip.
I'm so sorry, Brooke."
"Thanks a lot, Pey," Brooke
snapped. She slammed her fist into the wood and groaned. Before
Peyton could say anything else, she spoke. "We'll start looking.
I'll have Luke call you if we find anything."
"Brooke..."
She was too late; Brooke had already hung up. She sighed and hung up
her phone as well. There was only one person left to call. She
scrolled down until she reached her boyfriend's number and pressed
connect.
----OTH----
"Hello?"
"Hey, babe,"
Peyton greeted. This time she didn't bother trying to hide the pain
in her voice. She knew there was no point anyway, Jake would see
right through it. Hearing the tone in her voice, he knew she was
upset. He carefully put Jenny down in her bed to sleep.
"Hey,
sweetie," he replied. He switched the phone to his other shoulder
and sat down in the chair. "What's wrong? You sound really
upset."
"God, Jake," she cried, finally letting the
tears start again. "I'm such a horrible person and an even worse
friend. I deserve to be shot."
"You know that's not
true," Jake assured her. He listened to her take a few deep breaths
before she was able to continue. "Now, what are you talking
about?"
"I lied to Haley for a month," Peyton told him,
wiping the tears off her cheek. It didn't do her much good, since
they kept coming, but she continued to wipe them away anyway. "I
knew something that she deserved to know, that I should have told
her, but I didn't and now she hates me."
"She does
not," Jake told her, knowing that it couldn't be true. "You
know that she could never hate you." He wasn't really sure what
was going, but he had some sort of an idea.
"I don't
blame her," she continued, ignoring what Jake had told her. "She
should hate me. I'm a terrible best friend, the worst
ever."
"Sweetie..."
"Whatever," she cut him
off. She knew he was just going to try to make her feel better and
she didn't deserve it. She deserved to be miserable after what she
had done. "Can you just help us look for her?"
"I
can't," he answered sadly. He knew that she was freaking out
right now, but he couldn't do it. He looked over at the person
sitting on the couch, listening to their conversation. "I have to
watch Jenny."
"You can bring her," Peyton suggested. She
really needed him right now. She could always count on him to calm
her down when she was panicked. He just had this sort of calm feeling
to him. "Please?"
"I can't," he repeated again,
staring at the other person. He was more than a little uncomfortable
right now. "I have company, I have to go. Love you." Without
giving her a chance to say anything else, he hung up.
"What'd
she say?"
"She worried about you," he answered, watching
her lower her head and shift in her position. "She's really sorry
about everything."
"She should be,"Haley answered,
standing up and walking over to where Jenny was sleeping. She looked
down at her little face and she felt a thump form in her throat. It
killed her to think that Nathan was going to have one of these with
another woman. She wanted to have kids with him one day. Now that was
never going to happen.
-OTH-
That's all. I know what
you're thinking, 'We waited that long and that's all we get?'.
I'm sorry that nothing exciting happened in this chapter, but they
can't all be winners right. I had this typed up last night, but it
didn't save so I had to redo it this morning and this is the best I
can do. Anyway, please tell me what you think.
