That Yesterday Rain - Chapter 6 - Off Unto the Unwritten Road
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Peyton's funeral had been small and personal, just for the relatives and close friends. Lucas had come and gone in what seemed like the blink of an eye. He had been there, standing just behind Brooke's chair, resting his hand comfortingly on her shoulder, as the priest dashed holy water on Peyton's casket. Then he was gone, left with the rest of the crowd once the roses had been laid on Peyton's casket. He never said a word to anybody, not even a final word to Peyton.
Brooke returned home two hours after the funeral had ended, having gone out to get a bite to eat with Nathan and Haley. Lucas was, unsurprisingly, nowhere to be found. His mom's car was gone and the house was silent. Brooke shook off her rain soaked overcoat and slumped down on the couch, finally letting her thoughts consume her. When did life get so complicated? Why did it have to be raining that day? Why did I have to be in California in the first place? Would things have been different if I had been here? Why doesn't it feel any different now that she's gone?
Brooke sat up suddenly as the kitchen door slammed open and Lucas stumbled through, smelling strongly of alcohol and holding on to chairs and countertops for support as he made his way across the kitchen.
"Hey, where have you been?" Brooke asked, standing up from the couch and trying to sound casual.
"Out," he said shortly, making his way down the hallway to his room.
Brooke watched him throw himself into his room and shut the door behind him.
"It's just one thing after another round here..."
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A few days after the funeral, and after much persuation on Brooke's part, she finally got Lucas to go out to dinner with her, Nathan, and Haley. It had been a quiet affair, none of them ever finding much to say. They'd push conversations to the point of sheer awkwardness, hoping that they'd turn into something funnier for them to joke about before they got to that point. Lucas hadn't said much; spoke only when spoken to and threw in a few comments on random topics, but nothing even close to his old self.
It was now well after dark and the four friends were on their way home, having chosen to walk instead of drive due to the relaxing climate of the crisp cool night. They were just passing a club, decked out in neon signs, the bass from the speakers shaking the side walks 40 feet away, when three young men walked out. They appeared to be a little tipsy and, when they spotted Brooke and Haley (with Lucas and Nathan trailing slightly behind them) the jogged to catch up.
"Hey, Girl, where you headed?" the tall, dark-haired guy asked.
Brooke kept her pace and looked over at him with her brow knitted in pity, "wow, is that your pick up line? I feel bad for you, I really do."
"Oh yea? How 'bout a little sympathy sex then?" the shorter, blonde guy asked, walking along side Haley and reaching out to stroke her arm.
Nathan walked as close behind Haley as he could and the guy dropped his arm.
Brooke kept walking, hoping that if she ignored them long enough, they'd go away. She didn't feel like fending off drunk, horny men tonight.
"Hey, I asked you a question, Bitch," the dark-haried guy snapped, grabbing Brooke's arm and spinning her towards him.
Lucas's head snapped up and in one swift movement, he strode toward the man and connected his fist to his jaw. The man stumbled back a few steps and hit the wall of the club.
The third guy -- a smaller man with light brown hair, who had been walking slightly behind the group -- ran forward and jumped on Lucas's back. Lucas fell back a few steps as the man rung his arms around his neck, cutting off Lucas's air supply.
Nathan dodged a fist flying at him from the blonde guy and hit him in the stomach. The man doubled over and Nathan kneed him in the chest. He fell to the ground and he turned towards Lucas, who was still attempting to fight the guy on his back.
Just when he was about to pull him off, the tall dark man tackled him sideways to the ground. Brooke and Haley screamed and backed away from them.
Lucas, now getting weaker and weaker by the second, was running out of ideas. He had tried slaming the guy agasint the wall, he tried spinning in fast circles, he tried clawing at his arms, but he just wouldn't give up. Finally, for some unexplained reason, the man fell off his back. Lucas quicly spun around and began punching the guy, when out of nowhere, the blonde guy tackled him to the ground.
Lucas, who was caught off gaurd by this sudden attack, smacked his head on the concrete sidewalk. Stars burst in front of his eyes as the two men began kicking and punching him. One of them bent down and hit him square on the nose, and Lucas could immediately feel blood start to gush out of both nostrols like a faucet.
He could hear the girls off to the side, still screaming and yelling at the three men, and he could hear Nathan's grunts and groans as he faught the other guy. But just when he thought all was lost, he could hear police sirens roaring down the street, blocking out all the other sounds except for the panicked voices of the three guys. He could hear one of them say "Quick! We gotta get outta here!" and suddenly the kicking and punching and grunting and groaning stopped. The sirens stopped as the squad car pulled up to the sidewalk and two officers stepped out.
He could hear Brooke and Haley quickly telling them what happened and the cops took off after the three men. Then he was being lifted off the ground by two people, one on each arm, pulling him to his feet.
"Come on, man. We have to get out of here before those cops come back, the last thing we need is police issues," Nathan said, beginning to pull him along.
Lucas could barely see through the blood that was running into his eyes from his forehead, not to mention the stars and fog that still lingered from when he hit his head. His ribs were trobbing in almost unbearable pain and his feet felt like lead.
They cut down an alleyway, Brooke leading the way and Haley helping support his weight by wrapping his arm around her shoudlers.
Lucas started coughing, making pulling him along slightly more difficult, when he dropped to his knees, seemingly unable to walk any further. He leaned forward on his hands as the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. He quickly spat it out and sat back against the alley wall, whiping at his face with his sleeve.
"Oh, God, Luke. Here," Haley said, pressing some sort of cloth to his nose to try and stop the bleeding.
"Come on, we have to get you home and get you cleaned up," Brooke said, tugging up on the sleeve of his shirt. He painfully got to his feet again, with the help of Haley and Nathan, the latter who had the preceedings of a black eye and a few cuts on his face and arms.
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It had been three days since the fight, but Lucas was just starting to feel up to leaving the hosue again. They had never gone to the hospital like they should have, under Lucas's demands, but concluded that a few of his ribs must have been bruised, if not cracked. His nose had finally stopped bleeding after half an hour and they were certain he had a concusion.
He was out for a "mind-clearing" walk on a cool September morning -- just one week before school started -- when he passed the cemetary where Peyton now laid. He couldn't bring himself to go in, he couldn't stand on top of her grave and preach to her about his wrong-doings, he was sure Peyton -- wherever she was -- was dissappointed in him. Hell, even he was dissappointed in himself. He knew that he hadn't been treating his friends fairly, after all, they were suffering too.
But they didn't kill her, he thought. For all I care, they should hate me.
He shook his head and walked on past the cemetary gates, today was not the day for mourning. He wandered on, not really wanting to go home, but having nowhere else to go.
Lucas bent down and scooped up a rather large rock in his hand, running his fingers idly over it as he finally allowed all the pain of the past few months to catch up with him.
He hated himself for the way he had been acting. Pushing his friends away. Drinking far too much. Not caring at all about what happened to himself. Possibly never being able to play basketball again. Finding out that he had HCM.
He angrily gripped the large rock in his hand and looked around, letting his emotions get the better of him, he hurled the rock at the window of a bank that was just across the street. He looked to the front door of the bank and saw that people were streaming out of the front doors while the security sirens rang out. He faintly heard the sound of police sirens a few blocks away and smiled at the effect that he had created. His depressing emotions seemed to be receeding inside him as his adrenaline kicked in. It was like some sort of devilish beast was living inside of him, and it fed on his new-found "bad" side.
He quickly turned the corner, sprinting down it as fast as he could until he saw a police car speeding down the road towards him and he cut sideways into an alleyway. The tires of the car screeched to a stop and soon two policemen were chasing after him, telling him to freeze and put his hands in the air. Lucas did neither, trying to speed up and use his basketball skills to his advantage, but found that they were no use when he suddenly found himself trapped. A fence blocked the alleyway, and with no boxes or dumpsters for him to climb on to get over it, there was nothing to do.
He spun around, fully prepared to fight the cops to the end, but didn't have much time to react before they flattened him against the fence. The one on his left pulled out a nightstick and held it to his throat, trying to get him to stop resisting while the other cop held one hand to his chest and pinned his arm up to the fence with the other.
Thinking against his better judgement and letting his survival instincts take over, he pulled his leg up and kneed the cop on his left in the stomach. He backed away a foot or two, but so did the other one, and soon he was being thrown to the ground, face first, with his arms held out at his sides. Unable to break his fall, his chest connected solidly with the ground and he hollared out in pain as his already injured ribs throbbed with a new pain.
His arms were pulled behind his back and handcuffs were roughly tightened around his wrists. Before he knew it, he was hauled to his feet, walked down the alleyway, and thrown in the back of a squad car as passersby stared on.
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to be continued...
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Once again, I'm sorry that it took so long to get this chapter up but I've been working 5 shifts a week and I had such a bad day today. It's so far from funny it'd make a nun laugh. Reviews would really cheer me up! (I only got three for the last chapter! come on guys!)
I know the timeline of this story doesn't really fit at all, but I wanted to get things sped up to fall. Summer just wasn't going to work for me. I've decided to add a few more little things into the story, so stick with me. I don't think there's anything else I need to tell you guys...
Thanks for reading, please reivew (seriously)! -McB