The Way We Were

Disclaimer- Don't own it.

AN- Sorry for all the delay, I've been pretty busy, but I hope that yall like this chapter.

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The next morning, Lucas woke up, feeling terrible, emotionally and physically. He was slowly getting used to the fact that he was not going to be able to feel his legs. As his eyes opened, he realized that he was not alone in his room. He looked across from his bed and saw Nathan and his mom sitting in chairs beside the couch, looking down at Brooke, who was laying down, possibly sleeping, Lucas wasn't sure.

Once Karen caught sight of her son's eyes, she walked over to his side. She smiled and kissed his forehead. "Good morning, Lucas." She said in a cheerful voice.

"Oh yeah, it's a great morning. I'm paralyzed and can't get out of this fucking bed for the next 2 months, it's wonderful, Mom." Lucas replied sarcastically.

A flash of pain went through Karen's eyes, but she looked back down at her oldest son and simply smiled. She kissed his cheek and said, "It's gonna be okay, sweetie."

Lucas saw the pain that he was putting his mother through; he smiled and squeezed the hand that she had on the side of his bed.

Karen sat back in her seat and Lucas saw Brooke slowly get up from her place on the couch. Brooke was definitely the last person that Lucas wanted to see at that moment. The day before, he had been terrible to her, but that truth was, all he really needed to be happy, was her.

She slowly walked towards his bed and sat in the chair next to it. She smiled, but he looked away, and her face turned into a frown. She tapped her fingers against the sheets of Lucas' bed. "Right..." she said after they sat in silence for about five minutes.

He finally looked back at her and sighed. "Look, I understand that you wanna play the whole 'doting' girlfriend part, but you don't have to. I'm letting you off the hook." He said quickly, not looking her in the eye.

Tears started to well up in Brooke's hazel eyes. Then she did something that surprised Karen, Nathan and Lucas. She threw her arms around Lucas and started to bawl. Lucas couldn't help but hold her as she cried. He hated to see her like this. He always used to hold her when she cried and this time was no different.

He realized what he was doing an instantly pushed Brooke away. She looked up at him with a tear-streaked face and asked, "What.. what are you doing?"

"No," Lucas screamed. "What the hell are you doing? Oh, wait, I don't give a shit, because you're not my girlfriend, you're not even my friend. Actually, I wish that I would die in this hellhole that I never have to see you again, because I hate you."

By this time, Brooke was sobbing. Lucas hated her. She couldn't believe that he had actually said that. He'd never told her that, even as a joke. She sat there, staring straight into his icy, blue eyes and realized how bitter he was. She swallowed her tears, got up, and then turned around. "You know, Lucas, I used to think that you were different from the other 99.9 of the dicks in this world, but I was wrong. You're just as bad as they are. I'm trying to help you, even though it's hard for me, but no, you have to push me away. Well, that's just fucking fine, you sit here and rot in that shitty bed for all I care, because I don't. I never want to see you or talk to you again. You are dead to me. I wish that I had never met you, known you or fallen in love with you."

With that, Brooke walked through the door and slammed it on her way out.

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Later that night, Brooke sat in front of her mirror. She looked like shit. Her face was blotchy and red. Her eyes were bloodshot and had mascara stains all around them. She didn't know what to do with herself. For the past four years, Lucas had been the constant in her life. They rarely fought, but when they did, they would usually make up about five minutes afterwards.

She decided what she needed was a wild night out, so she called Peyton and asked her to come over and go out with her for a girl's night. Peyton agreed and arrived at Brooke's house about twenty minutes later, just as Brooke was getting out of the shower. When she did, she found Peyton sitting on her bed.

Peyton looked her up and down and laughed. "Now, that's a mighty fine outfit to go

clubbing in, Ms. Davis."

Brooke laughed. "Well, there's only one outfit better," Brooke said as she was about to pull her towel off. Peyton covered her eyes and they both giggled. Brooke loved that no matter what was going on, they could always forget about all the crap that was going on in the world when they were together.

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About an hour and a half later, Brooke and Peyton got out of Peyton's car and they headed into the club, called the Marquee. Once they got in, Peyton went to go get them drinks, while Brooke went to go get them a table.

Peyton came back with an Apple Martini for Brooke and a Diet Coke for herself, because she was playing designated driver.

Once they had their drinks, they were out on the dance floor. At first, they were dancing with each other, but then two guys came up and started to dance with each of them. As the alcohol started to go to Brooke's head, she slowly started to get closer and closer to the guy.

Brooke flipped her hair around to tease him. She started to grind against him and wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist. His hands slowly started to slip as they got more into the rhythm of the music, and landed on her butt, she surprised herself as she barely flinched when he did this. Once the song finished, Peyton went back to their table alone, but Brooke came back with her new "friend".

"Hey, I'm Mike." He said as he sat down next to Brooke.

"Brooke, it's nice to meet you." Brooke smiled seductively.

Mike was hot. He had medium cut brown hair and green eyes. He was about 6'2 and well- built, and with an amazing smile. He definitely wasn't Lucas, but she'd take him.

After they talked for about half an hour, they back out on the dance floor. They were both totally in sync with each other. They finally moved right up against each other and Brooke started to tease him by playing with his belt. He pulled her closer to him, kissing her neck and whispered in her ear, "Wanna come back to my place?" She looked up at him, as to contemplate whether or not to go. She could tell that he was a little nervous, and giggled, then nodded yes.

She ran over to Peyton and told her what was going on. Peyton was a little wary at first, but then she recognized Mike from school. She thought that at least, if he went to Tree Hill, he might not be that bad. So she said that she would cover for Brooke.

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Brooke and Mike pulled up to a huge stucco house with a black door. Brooke always knew how to pick the rich ones. Mike got out then and came around to open Brooke's door.

"I'm assuming your parents aren't home?" Brooke asked as they entered the house.

Mike laughed. "Nope, they're out of the country for a month."

"Not bad." Brooke replied.

They went into the den and sat down on the couch. "Do you want to watch a movie or something?"

"Movie sounds good for now."

"Cool," Mike said as he went to grab one.

When Mike came back to sit on the couch, he and Brooke cuddled a little bit. She leaned towards him and said in a husky voice, "We can do 'or something' later."

He smiled and turned to look at her. He held her face in his hands and dipped down to catch her lips. Her tongue traced his lips and he parted his lips for access. Their kisses were full of lust, something that Brooke had never experienced before with Lucas. Mike pulled her onto his lap and she straddled him. Mike pulled back for a second to look at Brooke and asked, "Are you sure you want to?"

Brooke nodded and Mike lifted her up and took her to his bedroom. Brooke spent the rest of the night experiencing the lust that she had never had before.

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Brooke woke up the next morning with a pounding headache and an arm wrapped around her waist and a head on her back. She heard snoring and turned around to look at Lucas. She was shocked when she found that the snoring boy was not Lucas, but Mike. Last night's events came back to her. She felt awful. The love of her life was lying in a hospital bed, paralyzed and here she was in bed with some random guy that she screwed all night. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't seem to get out from under him. As she tried to lift his arm off her waist, he woke up and smiled at her.

She gave him a pity-smile. "Morning."

"Good morning, gorgeous." He replied and kissed her neck. 'Shit.' Brooke thought. 'How do I let him down easy?' She asked herself.

"What time is it, Mike?" She asked.

"About 9."

"Oh shit." Brooke jumped up in a fake panic and wrapped the sheet around her as she tried to retrieve her clothes.

"What is it?" Mike asked with concern.

"I'm supposed to meet my parents for brunch at 10, and I have to go home, take a shower and get dressed in less than an hour. I'm really sorry."

"Do you need a ride home?" He asked, trying to be as helpful as possible.

"Uh... no. I can walk from here. You don't even need to get up. I'll let myself out. Last night was fun." She leaned down and kissed him quickly, then left.

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It turned out that Mike only lived two streets away from Brooke, so the walk home was pretty easy, besides the fact that she was seriously hung-over. She snuck quietly into the house and made it up the stairs unnoticed. The problem came when she got to her room. She found her brother sitting on her bed, waiting for her, and he didn't look happy.

"Jake!" Brooke said, surprised to find him there. She laughed, trying to make the situation a little less tense, it didn't work.

"So, Brooke, how was Peyton's?" Jake asked in a suspicious tone.

"It was great. You know, nail painting, boy talk, all that good girly stuff." She said with a smile.

Jake laughed and then stopped abruptly. "Nice, Brooke, want to lie to me some more?"

Brooke's smile faded. She knew that she was in some deep-shit.

"How'd you find out?" She asked.

"Brooke, how the hell do you think that I found out? You were out with my girlfriend. Do you honestly think that she wouldn't tell me?" He asked in an angry voice.

"I don't know, but I thought that she was MY best friend and she would keep my little secret, but of course not, she has to tell 'Big Bad Jake'."

"Yeah, she had to tell me, Brooke. You went off with some random guy that you met at a bar, you think that's safe?"

"You know what, Jake? For once, I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to have a good time."

"So, now a good time includes getting pregnant and an STD? That's good, Brooke, slut it up." He said in a mean tone.

"Jake, we were safe, if that's what you're wondering."

"No, that's not what I'm wondering, Brooke. What I'm wondering is what the hell were you thinking? Lucas is in a hospital bed, paralyzed, and you're out screwing random manwhore's brains out."

"Look, Jake, Lucas made it clear that he didn't want to see me, ever again. So, I'm respecting his wishes."

"Brooke, you know that's not true. He loves you, you know that."

Brooke's hazel eyes stung with tears. "Yeah, I thought that I knew that, until he kicked me out of his hospital room yesterday and told me that he hated me. You're right, he's really in love with me, Jake." Brooke started to break down and Jake ran to her, feeling bad for all the things he had just said. Brooke was hurting more than anyone knew.

Jake tried to wrap his arms around his baby sister, but she smacked them off of her. "Stay the hell away from me, Jake."

"Brookie, come on, don't do this. I'm sorry."

"No, you're not, you just feel bad, but you think that I'm a slut. That's great, Jake. Get the hell outta my room!" She screamed and sobbed at the same time.

Jake nodded, leaving her room and closing the door behind him.

He had never seen Brooke like that. Whatever Lucas said must have messed her up pretty badly. He regretted yelling at her like that, but was still pretty angry at what did to Lucas.

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Lucas sat in his bed, rethinking the last conversation that he had with Brooke. He knew that he had hurt her alot, but he meant to. He didn't want her to want him. He couldn't handle being with her, it hurt him, because he was never going to be enough for her. The way that he figured, he was doing her a favor by pushing her away and letting her have the freedom to date and not feel pinned down by him, he still regretted what he did.

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Brooke sat in her room crying. She thought about the last two days and what had happened. She felt terrible for all of the things that she had said to Lucas and that she had left him at all. Mostly, she felt terrible for sleeping with Mike. At the time,when she was drunk, it seemed like a good idea, but when she was sober, she realized that she barely even liked Mike, because he wasn't Lucas. She regretted everything that she had done in the past two days and didn't know how to make it all better.

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Hey Yall! I know, you guys might not love the direction that I'm going for the story, but i need some drama if I want to keep it going. If you have an questions or ideas, PLEASE REVIEWt. It helps so much! Thanks!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!

xoxox