Disclaimer: I still own absolutely nothing

Chapter 5 Where do you go when you're blue?

No one had talked to Brooke in a few days. Peyton and Lucas were really starting to worry about her state of mind now. It's Tim's annual beginning of school year party. Peyton, Lucas, Haley, and Nathan all went together. Lucas kept looking for Brooke, he figured she would be there because the student council president couldn't miss the hugest party of the year, but he still wasn't sure if she would decide not to come. Finally he saw her at the bar, talking to Theresa. Lucas went over to see her, when Brooke saw him she smiled

"Hey Luke, do you want a drink?" she asked waving her cup in his direction.

"Maybe later." He said

"Hey Luke I'm drunk, and you're hot, why don't we go have sex." Theresa suggested putting her arm around his neck.

Lucas moved from Theresa's grasp. "Brooke how are you? I haven't seen you in awhile." He said

"Oh yeah I've been busy. You know presidential stuff."

"Peyton and I both have called you many times, we wanted to know how you were doing." He said

"Oh Brooke's great, she has us to help her forget her problems." Theresa chimed in.

Lucas rolled his eyes and walked off.

Peyton saw him. "I take it you found Brooke?" she said seeing the look on his face.

"Oh yeah. She's already drinking. And Theresa believes that they can just make her forget everything that's happened."

"That's how Brooke deals. She drinks and tries to forget."

"It won't help Peyton."

"I know that, you know that. We just have to show Brooke that." Peyton said looking at Brooke from across the room.

"Yeah we do." Lucas said nodding.

Lucas kept his eye on Brooke throughout the night. He wanted to take her home, Brooke had worked hard to get away from the party life and now she was going back down that road again. Haley and Nathan came over to him.

"Hey Luke let's go get something. I'm starved and there's nothing to eat here." Nathan said

"Yeah why is that? I mean who throws a party and doesn't have some kind of chips or something." Haley asked

"Tim because without any food, then the girls get drunk faster."

Haley nodded. "Anyways, Luke you have to come with us." She begged.

"You guys I can't I need to stay."

"No Brooke will be fine for a few minutes. Come on we'll go eat quick and come back." Haley said grabbing him by the arm and dragging him with them.

When the three of them got back to the party Lucas immediately started looking for Brooke, but he couldn't find her. He saw Theresa was drunk and hanging all over a guy. Bevin was drinking with some other girls. Mouth was being the DJ. Finally he saw Peyton.

"Peyton have you seen Brooke?" he asked

"Um not in a few minutes. But last I saw of her she was headed upstairs."

Lucas nodded and went upstairs. Once he reached the top he saw Brooke passed out on the floor. He sighed and picked her up.

"Brooke what are you doing to yourself?" he asked as he carried her out to his car.

Lucas carried Brooke to her room and sat there while she slept. He noticed a blue book with a big sequin 'J' on it. He knew that must be Jaclyn's journal. He tried to fight the urge not to read it, but lost. He read a few things that made his skin crawl about Tyler, so he decided to skip over to something else. When he saw his name he stopped to read.

"So Lucas and I went out on our first date tonight. Everyone thought it was going to be weird because we've been friends for so long, but it wasn't. We had a great time, we went to dinner and then went for a walk. It was so amazing. Lucas is the best guy I've ever met. I had started to believe that I deserved what Tyler did to me, but being with Lucas tonight I started to think that maybe I didn't.

He heard Brooke start to wake up so he put the journal down and went over to her.

"Hey how are you feeling?" he asked

"I've been better." She said

"I bet. You were hitting it pretty hard tonight."

"Yeah." She said

"Brooke what's going on?" he asked

Brooke shrugged and slowly sat up. "I just wanted to forget everything ya know."

"That's understandable, but you don't have to get wasted to do that. You could have just come and had a good time with us."

"That wouldn't have worked, I needed something stronger."

"To do what?" he asked

"To erase Jaclyn from my mind...not permanently, just for the night, even a few minutes would be ok. She's all I think about. When I'm asleep I see her face or I imagine what Tyler did to her."

"Brooke you can't keep focusing on the bad stuff. You have to remember the good stuff too. Do you think Jaclyn would want you to be this miserable?" he asked

"No, she'd yell at me if she could, and tell me to quit moping around and live my life."

"Exactly, plus you know that she would freak out about you trying to forget her."

Brooke laughed. "Yeah you're right about that."

"So the next time you fell overwhelmed by the bad stuff, call me." Brooke nodded. "I should go, its late." He got up and walked towards the door.

"Lucas."

He stopped and turned around "Yeah."

"Thanks for everything."

"Anytime."