Chapter 10- Three's Company

The next morning Brooke was in the shower when the doorbell rang. Peyton ran to open the door knowing that she would see one of her oldest friends standing on the other side. As she opened the door and saw Nathan standing there she jumped into his arms. "Nathan, I have missed you so much." Peyton had dated Nathan once upon a time and their friendship after that was a little strained. But, they had one night that changed it all. There had been this Boy Toy Auction at Tree Hill High their junior year of high school. Nathan had been dating Haley but Peyton had "won" Nathan for the night because Haley wanted to spend time with Lucas. Lucas and Haley had been best friends for years but hadn't spent much time together so Haley wanted to have an entire night doing the stuff that they used to do together. When Nathan walked up on stage and Haley saw the girls in the crowd go crazy she begged Peyton to buy Nathan. That night Peyton and Nathan began getting their friendship back on track.

"I missed you too Peyton." Nathan started to pull away from the hug, "It has been a while hasn't it?"

"Yeah, I don't think we have seen each other since Christmas." Peyton had run into Nathan at the mall during their Christmas break and grabbed lunch together. "How are you Nathan?"

"I'm good, I have had the past few weeks off to relax. I really needed it so I am feeling great." Nathan was pretty sure the question that Peyton really wanted to ask. "How have you been?"

"Good. I am so happy to be back in Tree Hill with Jake and Jenny. Can I ask you a question Nathan?"

"Sure, anything." Nathan knew what she was going to say.

"What is going on with you and Brooke? She is freaking out because she can't understand why you would start something with her when you weren't going to be here for that long."

"I know that this has been bothering Brooke, it was quite obvious that she upset when I told her that I had to leave in a few weeks. But if it is okay with you Peyton, I would really rather discuss this with Brooke myself." Nathan wanted to do this right, he and Brooke had to learn to talk to each other about important things.

"Yeah, that's fine. I just don't want her to get hurt, ya know?"

"I do know. And I will tell you this much, I am not in this just to sleep with her. I do genuinely have feelings for her." Nathan had to give in to Peyton a little, after all she was only looking out for Brooke. "I will talk to her about it soon. I didn't plan on saying anything until after you left because I wanted this weekend to be nothing but fun for the two of you, but she asked me about it and I couldn't lie. I plan to talk to her about it once you leave, until then I just want her to have a good weekend."

"I'm with you on that. I am sure between the two of us we can see that that happens." Peyton was relieved to hear him admit that he did really care about Brooke. She would let her know that much so she could relax and have some fun this weekend.

"Speaking of Brooke, where is she?"

"In the shower. She is the only person I know who showers before she goes to the beach. She is going to get all sandy and dirty anyways." Peyton loved Brooke's little quirks.

"Yeah well that is Brooke for you, she can never do anything, or not do something, just because everyone else is."

"Hey, no fair talking about me behind my back." Brooke walked out of the bathroom in a towel.

"Hey beautiful." Nathan walked towards her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Peyton and I were just catching up on things and I asked where you were."

"Oh, how cute, you missed me. Hey, P. Sawyer, come help me pick out an outfit." Brooke of course had planned out down to her shoes what she was going to wear, but she wanted to see if Peyton had asked Nathan anything yet.

"Okay, we'll be right back." She looked at Nathan, it was obvious he knew what was going on.

The second they were in Brooke's bedroom with the door shut she wipped off her towel to start getting dressed, "Ok, spill. What did he say?"

"Well, he said that he really wanted to talk to you about everything before anyone else, but he wanted you to be able to relax and enjoy the weekend so he did tell me a little somethin somethin."

"Best friend, don't leave me hanging!" Brook yelped as she pulled on a halter top and khaki skirt over her bathing suit.

"He said that he really does like you, it really isn't about getting a piece. Now, knowing that can you please relax and enjoy this weekend?"

"Yes, I can, thank you. I guess we can talk about the rest later." Brooke threw some sunscreen and lip gloss into her beach bag, "So, how do I look?"

"Like the textbook definition of a bathing beauty." Brooke always dressed perfectly for every occasion.

"Good answer, now lets go."

ooooOoooo

A few hours later Peyton was just about to doze off while lying on the beach when she propped herself up on her elbows and looked out at the water. She had to laugh at what she saw, Nathan was chasing Brooke through the water splashing water in her face. Brooke gave Nathan an angry look and charged at him, he knew what was coming and grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. Brook had a shocked look on his face and Peyton could hear her yelling for Nathan to put her down. Next thing Peyton knew, Nathan flipped Brooke right over and into the water. When Brooke surfaced she ran over to him, jumped on him and kissed him. Peyton had to laugh, they were absolutely adorable together.

A few minutes later Nathan and Brooke walked towards Peyton holding hands. "So best friend, are you hungry?"

"Yeah, I definitely am, what time is it?"

"It is almost 5. I know a really good place that we could go and have some drinks and grab some dinner." Brooke thought that some drinks were definitely needed to get their night off to the perfect start.

"Sounds great, lets go."

ooooOoooo

Later that night, after finishing up a fabulous dinner of burgers and fries, the three friends were sitting back enjoying some drinks on the outside bar patio of the restaurant they were at. They were clearly enjoying each other's company, there was lots of laughing and plenty of teasing.

"I hate to be the one to break through all this fun, but Nathan, I really want to ask you a question." Peyton started.

"Sure, what's up?" Nathan felt comfortable talking about most anything but Haley. He had moved on completely from her, but it was always painful for him to talk about her.

"Brooke told me that your mom moved down here to get away from Dan, so I was just wondering how things were with you and Dan?" Peyton hoped that this didn't anger Nathan, his father was always a really touchy subject. Dan had always bothered Nathan, pushing him to be the best at everything while at the same time making him feel like he was never good enough. Peyton knew of Nathan's struggles with his father and she was curious to know if those had eased through the years.

"Well, thing started to get better when I first went off to school. I was still dealing with a lot so I wasn't really on top of my game. He loved it because that meant that he had finally done something better than me. But then when I got my life back together and started working harder and playing harder my game got a lot better. Actually, I was playing better than I ever had in my life. Things started to get a lot worse after that. He would always call me after a game and tell me about all the things I had done wrong. Finally it got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore, so I changed my cell phone number. At that point I was living in an apartment with a buddy off campus so that was the only phone I had. I changed my e-mail address, I did everything I could so that he couldn't get to me. I put in a formal request that my address and any other information not be given to anyone, including family members. My mom was already trying to move away so I knew I could give her my number and stuff knowing that she wouldn't give it to him. I haven't heard from him since then, and that was back in sophomore year of college." A pained look formed on his face as he told the story. It was clearly difficult for him to talk about.

Brooke saw the look of pain on Nathan's face and reached for his hand. It was right at that moment that all three of them knew that Brooke and Nathan would find a way to work it all out.