That Yesterday Rain - Chapter 4 - The Prize at the Bottom of the Bottle
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They kept Lucas at the hospital for three days after he had woken up, and through each passing one, he seemed to become more and more distant, avoiding the topics of Peyton and the accident. Dark bags had formed under his eyes after the first night and hadn't gone away since. Haley and Brooke suspected it was normal, seeing that he was just coming out of a week of being unconscious and was being forced to sleep in a hospital bed, connected to machines that surrounded his head, things were expected to be a little uncomfortable.
Lucas returned home, with the assitance of Brooke -- who had to practically be torn away from him, even if it was just to shower.
Lucas had just finished a highly aniticipated shower in the comfort of his own home when he was walking into the kitchen to see what Brooke was cooking for lunch, when the blinking light on the answering machine caught his attention.
Lucas pressed his finger to the 'inbox' button and gingerly took a seat at the kitchen table.
"You have 27 new messages," said the automated voice, causing both Brooke and Lucas to raise their eyebrows in surprise.
"Hey, Honey," the voice of Karen Roe filled the room and Lucas shot out of his chair.
"Oh my God! I totally forgot to call my mom!" Lucas said, yelling over his mother's recorded voice. "I guess I was just getting so used to her not being around already, then I was so caught up with the accident -- I mean, who wouldn't be? -- and I guess it just skipped my mind. Man am I a bad son or what?" Lucas sighed, plopping back down in the kitchen chair, but quickly regretting it when a jolt of pain shot through his ribs.
"Well, I suggest you get to calling her ASAP," Brooke advised, her eyes never leaving the pot of mac n' cheese in front of her.
Lucas let the rest of the messages play through, 99 of them from Karen, her voice becoming more and more worried with each one. One of them informing him that she had called his cell phone over 15 times in one day. "Hey Brooke? What did they do with my truck?"
Brooke turned around and looked at him thoughtfully. "I'm not sure, it was pretty beat up. Call...whoever you think would handle that kind of thing."
"Great, my cell phone's in there."
"Well, I'm sure you'll get it back. Did you take your pills, Broody?" Brooke asked, stirring the noodles around.
"Yes, yes I did, mom."
"Hey, I'm just trying to look after you, don't get all pissy with me," Brooke said, threateningly pointing the cheese covered spoon in his direction.
"I don't need looking after," Lucas said as he got up to walk into the living room, but cliped the edge of the doorframe with his left shoulder and jumped across the doorway, slaming his back into the right side and sliding the down the frame, hollaring in pain.
"Yea, sure you don't. Now get back in here, lunch is served!"
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"Hey, Lucas?" Brooke asked, pushing his bedroom door open and poking her head in.
"Yea?" he replied, sitting up on his bed.
"Tim's havin' a party tonight, you want to come with?" she asked, opening the door more and leaning on the doorframe while keeping one hand on the doorknob.
Lucas looke down at his bed and seemed to ponder the invite for a few seconds. "Yea, sure," he replied, a little too unethusiastically for Brooke's taste.
"You sure? You don't have to go, you can just stay here. You probably shouldn't be going out anyway. Did you call your mom and tell her what happened?"
"Yes, I'm sure I want to go. I think I deserve a night out. And yes I called my mom and told her what happened. She freaked, of course, and said she'd be home by tomorrow night, and Andy would be home as soon as his mom was out of the hospital and back on her feet."
"Ok," Brooke said quietly and nodded, backing out of the doorway after Lucas laid back down, ending their conversation.
She wasn't sure whether to be concerned or not. Was it normal for people to become more distant after surviving car accidents? She hadn't been around him a whole lot after his frist one, seeing as he had dumped her and all, not to mention the cheating with her best friend.
Deciding against pushing the issue any further with Lucas and letting the fashion side of herself take over, she quietly shut the door and headed off to her room to pick out an outfit for the party.
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Brooke and Lucas rode to the party in an awkward silence with Brooke throwing Lucas looks of concern what seemed like every few seconds.
"Why do you keep looking at me?" Lucas snapped after Brooke had glanced at him for the fourth time in one minute.
Brooke, startled from his outburst, swerved slightly on the road and grasped the steering wheel tightly. "Good God, is it so wrong for me to be a little concerned about you? Think about it, Luke. You were lying in a hospital, unconcsious, for a week, stayed for a few days after that, came home for one day, and now you're already going out to party. You can barely keep your eyes open! If your mom was here, she would be beating my ass down for even letting you out of the house!"
"Brooke, I've told you a thousand times already, I'm fine! I can handle one party! God knows I deserve a little break from the insanity of knowing that Petyon could die because of me," the last word came out almost in a hiss and the car fell back into silence again.
"Lucas--" Brooke started, but was quickly cut off by Lucas, "I know," he said shortly.
"Fine," Brooke replied harshly, stomping her foot on the break in frustration, "we're here anyway."
They both got out of the car and walked up to the house in, once again, silence. The party was already in full swing when they walked through the front door, immediately being ambushed by Tim.
"Hey guys! It's good to see you back, Luke. Alcohol's that way," he said, pointing down the hallway towards the kitchen and receiving an angry glare from Brooke. Lucas immediately headed off down the hallway without a word to her.
"And the bedrooms are upstairs," Tim said, draping his arm around Brooke's shoulders and grinning at her.
"Yea, you wish," Brooke replied, stepping away from Tim and disappearing into a crowd of people.
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Four Hours Later...
Brooke wandered through the house, pushing her way through groups of drunken people, slightly tipsy herself, in search of Lucas.
She found him in the kitchen, swaying back and forth, moving his feet to stay upright as he opened another bottle of beer.
"Whoa there, Broody," Brooke said, grabbing onto his upper left arm to help him steady himself. "How many have you had?"
Lucas looked at her as if he'd never seen her in his life before. "What do you care?" he spat.
"Lucas, come on, I think it's time we get you home," Brooke said, attempting to pull him towards the front door.
"I'm nnnot going homme," he slurred, successfully getting the cap off the beer and raising the bottle to his lips.
"Lucas, that's enough, I think you've exceeded your limit already," Brooke said, trying to pull the bottle away.
Lucas pushed her shoulder lightly and pulled the bottle away from her, raising it to his lips once more and taking a large swig. He gave a sorrowfull look at Brooke before stumbling off into a crowd of people, knocking into a few of them. Brooke stood back and watched him walk away, shaking her head, and walked back towards the front of the house.
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Two hours later...
The party was starting to die down, seeing as it was closing in on three in the morning, and Brooke was wandering through the house once again in search of Lucas.
She found him, yet again, in the kitchen, slumped against the wall on the floor and taking a sip from a bottle of vodka.
She snatched the bottle away from him and threw it in a nearby trashbin.
"Hey! I wasss drinkin' that," he slurred, attempting to stand up.
"We're going home, now. It's late, I'm tired, I've been trying to watch after you all night, you're drunk off your ass, we -- are --going -- home," she grabbed his arm as he stood up and started dragging him towards the front door.
"God, Brooke, you have to let loose once in a while," he said, stumbling along behind her heavily.
Brooke spun around on a dime, making him stumble back a few steps, and stared him in the eye. "I would be able to have fun if you would just act responsible for once in your life."
Lucas, quickly sobbering up, stood up to his full six feet and glared down at Brooke. "You know what? You're right, I'm not responsible. I was responsible for driving the car, I was responsible for protecting Peyton, and now look what happened! I'm responsible for her lying in a coma right now!" he cried anguishly, a few tears silently escaping his eyes and rolling down his cheeks as he set off down the sidewalk unsteadily.
"Lucas, come back here," Brooke called. She quickly ran to her car and started it up, slowly driving along the road next to him. "Lucas, get in the car. You've had way too much to drink, it's dark, it's getting cold out, just get in."
Lucas stopped walking and stared at the car for a few seconds before roughly opening the door and clumsily getting in.
Brooke sped off down the road towards home, never once glancing over at him.
By the time they got home, the alcohol was quickly taking over function of Lucas's body and his eyes were half closed.
"Come on, Luke, gotta get inside," Brooke said, getitng out of the car and walking around to the passenger side. He lazily drapped an arm over her shoulders and stumbled towards the house as Brooke half-dragged him up to the front door.
She guided him inside and to his room, where he collapsed face down on the bed as soon as he was close enough. She pulled off his shoes and covered his unconcsious form with a blanket, giving him a light kiss on the forehead.
"It's not your fault," she whispered, but her words fell on deaf ears.
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to be continued...
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Well, I haven't been getting as much feedback as I had expected, so, if you're reading this, please please please give me a review and let me know what you think. The opinions of 2 or 3 people is not enough for me to work off of. I need to know what you think about how it's going. I know how many of you are reading and how many are reviewing! But, I'm sorry about the horribly long wait for this chapter, I've been super busy, and it's only going to get worse. I got a new job today so that'll be taking up a lot of my time, plus there's training and school's starting in a few weeks, so I could really use some motivation to get this story moving. I promise, the best is yet to come, drama drama drama!
Thanks for reading, please review!