Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with One Tree Hill, except for a few DVDS and some books.

Authors Note: OK! so, wow it has been a really long time and everyone probably figured I wouldn't be updating this story. After months, I am finally updating! Hopefully I will still have people wanting to read it and I promise the updates will be coming more frequently now. I just wanted to send a special thanks to Amanda (OthRetard) because she bugs me about this story. I finally did it :-) To Miss Hales Carter, you know I love ya! And this is a real girly chapter. Hope you enjoy it. And to L-A-C-18 who despite my LOOOOOOOOONG absense, always use to leave me DETAILED reviews. Thanks girls. And also: KarahBella, DanceDude09, Brucas4Ever, jeytonlover, iluvnaleynbrucas23, BuffyBabe42, Lindsay23, Slimshadyzlady, mystyleismyown (yeah, I am finally updating!), lilmonkeygirl31, Jess, charley075, andJessd4491

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Always Been There

Nathan pulled his car to a stop and shut off his engine. "Have a good time," he said as Haley kissed him on the cheek. Haley smiled as she exited the car, slamming the door behind her. Nathan waited for the door to open and watched as Brooke pulled Haley in the house. With just a quick wave, Haley had disappeared into the house leaving Nathan sitting in his car with nothing to do.

He thought about calling Lucas, he hadn't really talked to him since they had made a deal to find out who had tried to kill Dan. But after two weeks, they still weren't any closer. Nathan was beginning to believe that the truth about Dan's fire would never come out. He was brought out of thought by a knock on his car window and he turned to see Mouth standing there.

"Hey Nathan."

"Mouth."

He opened the car door and stepped outside. "Where's Lucas?"

"I don't know. Brooke's car is in the shop so I brought her," Mouth explained to Nathan. "Sean and her got into a fight last night." Mouth knew that Nathan and Brooke had become closer since school had started and that Nathan wasn't too fond of the idea of Brooke and Sean.

Nathan rolled his eyes and flipped through the numbers on his cell phone. He clicked Lucas's name and called but was only greeted with his answering machine. "Well if Brooke would realize that he's too old for her she'd save herself a lot of drama."

"If Brooke would realize that Lucas is the one for her," Mouth corrected him.

Nathan chuckled as he shook his head. He was about to say something when Jake was pushed out of Peyton's house, most likely by Brooke.

Jake turned towards the door and banged on the door. "Can I at least have my jacket?" He asked, as the door opened slightly and Brooke threw his jacket on the front porch.

"Anything else, you'll have to come back tomorrow. No boys allowed." She opened the door another foot and raised an eyebrow and Nathan and Mouth. "That goes for you two."

Jake walked towards Nathan and Mouth and rolled his eyes. "Want to go down to the court and play some ball?" Nathan nodded his head.

"I'll call Tim."

...…

Brooke sat in front of Haley with two fingernail polishes in her hands. She picked up the pink one and Haley groaned. "I hate pink, remember?" Haley asked as Brooke rolled her eyes and held up the baby blue. Haley shrugged her shoulders, knowing that Brooke wouldn't give up and that the faster she succumbed the faster the night would be over.

"Hot fudge or caramel?" Peyton asked as she scooped the ice-cream into individual bowls.

"Hot fudge!" Both girls said in unison.

After Peyton had successfully scooped three sundae's, and Brooke had finished painting Haley's toe nails the girls sat down in Peyton's living room and were in the middle of going over the movies they had rented.

"Secret Window?" Haley asked and Brooke nodded her head enthusiastically. "Hell yeah, Johnny Depp looks so hot in that movie!" Brooke said. She grabbed a blanket and pulled it around her. As the movie started, the three girls settled into their own seats and started to laugh. "I'm glad we're doing this again."

Peyton nodded her head but then threw a pillow at Brooke. "Me too. But if you talk through this movie, I am never having another sleepover again!"

……

Lucas looked down at the information packets on the schools he had been accepted to and sighed. It was a Friday evening and instead of being at a party or out with friends, he was stuck inside his mother's café because Haley had bailed on working her shift. Alexis hit him with a towel and grinned.

"Hey buddy."

"Oh, hey."

Lucas didn't bother looking up at her as she slid into the booth across him. "What's with the brooding look?" Alexis asked as she stared down at the papers and shook her head in understanding. "Oh, I see. Thoughts about college getting you down?" Alexis asked but already knew the answer. "You know Lucas, you can always go to Duke."

"I always thought that college would be my ticket out of here," Lucas said motioning with his hands. "Why would I stick around now?" He asked. The answer was simple, but he was trying his hardest not to think about it. Brooke Davis was his friend and was in a relationship with someone else. There was no chance that they would ever be anything else and he needed to accept that.

Alexis shook her head in agreement. "I agree with you. Tree Hill sucks. Why would you want to stay here with your family? Your friends? Hell, you're stuck with your family for life and you can make friends anywhere right?"

Lucas nodded his head. "Exactly." Truth be told, he knew that he would never find friends like the ones he already had. Mouth and Haley had been his friends for as long as he could remember and he had become so close to both Peyton and Jake over the past year. And even though Nathan was his brother, his friendship with his younger sibling had meant the world to him.

"And there's not like there is any girl holding you back here," she smiled suggestively. Lucas grabbed the acceptance letters and shoved them into his backpack. He knew the reasons to leave and he knew the reasons to stay but he wasn't sure which weighed the other out. It would have been so much simpler if he knew for sure that Brooke didn't love him. But everything in him said that she did, she was just scared.

Lucas stood up and smiled slightly at the girl beside him. "Thanks Alexis, but I really should get back to cleaning up." She nodded her head and watched as Lucas walked away.

……

"This is stupid and we're going to get caught," Jake said.

Mouth nodded his head in agreement and turned towards Tim and Nathan. "I feel stupid, like we're in some lame episode of Saved By the bell or something." The four guys were standing uncomfortably close outside Peyton's living room window. They could make out the sounds of the girls laughing and Brooke singing a song off key. "They're just playing karaoke and no offense or anything but I hear Haley sing all the time," Nathan said. He motioned for the guys to follow him but Tim put his finger over his lips.

"Shut up! They've stopped."

All four guys once again were side by side, listening for the girls to say something. When Brooke suggested they tell each other secrets that they've never told anyone, they grinned in satisfaction. Maybe Tim's 'great idea' was actually great.

……

Peyton took a handful of popcorn and crossed her legs Indian style. "Brooke, this isn't fair. We've told each other everything," Peyton complained. Brooke shrugged her shoulders.

"No we haven't. There has to be something you've been hiding P. Sawyer."

Peyton thought for a moment and then smiled slightly. "I always thought that sex with Nathan was amazing…" Peyton started much to the disgust of Haley.

"That's my husband you're talking about!"

Peyton rolled her eyes and continued. "And then there was Lucas, who I never actually slept with but I did feel these strong feelings for," Peyton continued. Brooke looked down at the bowl of popcorn and kept a straight face. She had forgiven Peyton so long ago for what had happened between her and Lucas but it was still hard for her to think about. "But when Jake touches me… I feel like I'm on fire. I've never felt that way before. And there's this thing he does when we're having sex…"

……

Jake blushed and hit the Tim who was laughing. "Shut up, or we're going to get caught!" Jake said. He knew it was wrong to stand out there and listen to what Peyton and her friends were talking about, but he couldn't turn away. It had amazed him that how he felt about Peyton was how she felt about him.

……

"Okay, that was enough with the imagery. And I'm the horny one!" Brooke said with a laugh. She turned towards Haley and smacked her shoulder. "You're turn."

Haley sighed and then nodded her head. "When I was younger, I had always imagined I would marry Lucas," she laughed. "It was totally silly because I never thought we'd actually be in love, I just thought that since we were friends and I loved his family that somehow we'd be related."

"So you married his brother?" Brooke smirked. It amazed her that both of her friends secrets were about Lucas. He was so important to everyone he came around and she wasn't sure what she would do if he wasn't in her life.

Haley nodded her head. "And I made the better choice if you ask me. Nathan really understands me. He knows how important my dreams are and yet he still understands that he's the biggest part of my life," Haley smiled. "I'm 18 years old and married and the happiest than I ever thought possible."

……

Nathan smiled. It was good to hear Haley talk about how happy she was. He didn't want her to have to give up her dreams and he was so thankful that she knew that. "Remind me to tell her I've never been happier okay?" He said to Mouth who nodded his head.

"She really loves you man."

Nathan nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess she does."

……

Haley threw the pillow at Brooke. "You're turn Tigger," she said with a laugh. Brooke thought for a moment and shrugged her shoulders.

"Skip me. I don't have any secrets."

Haley and Peyton both smacked her. "You made us tell you something so it's only fair you return the deal Brooke." Peyton crossed her arms across her chest. Haley nodded her head in agreement and sighed.

"There has to be something you're keeping from us."

Brooke looked around the room and shrugged her shoulders again. "There's nothing. I mean, I guess I could tell you about the dreams I have about your husband and your boyfriend…" Brooke said. Both girls slapped her shoulder and she waved her arms, surrendering. "I was just kidding. God."

"I guess my secret is something you already know."

Haley raised an eyebrow and laughed.

"Umm, Brooke. Then it's not a secret."

Brooke rolled her eyes. "What I meant was, you both know it but I haven't actually told anyone." She shot Haley a dirty look and continued. "I'm hiding. This thing with Sean, I'm just doing it so I don't get hurt again."

"Hurt by Lucas?"

Brooke nodded her head. "The truth is, I love Lucas. I really do. But when we broke up, it was so hard because I had never loved someone like that before. I never cared and I was never vulnerable. You know I spent all summer writing him letters? 82 letters that were never sent. Can you believe that?"

Haley and Peyton both looked at each other and smiled sadly. "Brooke, why didn't you tell him?"

"When I came back, I think I was ready to work it out. I really was. I wanted to play hard to get for a while, but I still wanted him. And when he told me he was with someone else… it killed me. All those thoughts and feelings that I had about getting hurt again came back to me," Brooke paused for a moment. "I was so angry at him. Because I spent the summer wanting himso bad and what did he do? He slept with someone."

Peyton looked down at the floor and then back to Brooke. "But, Brooke- guys are stupid. He thought he'd lost you so he made a mistake. It didn't mean he loved you any less or that he still doesn't love you."

"I guess it doesn't matter anymore anyways," Brooke said shrugging her shoulders.

Haley nodded her head. "Because of Sean?" She asked.

Brooke shook her head no and then took some popcorn. "Because Lucas got accepted to UCLA and I am stuck going to Duke. A long term relationship is something that neither of us would want."

"Don't you think you should at least say something to him about your feelings? And then let him make his decision?" Haley tried to reason with her friend. Brooke shook her head no and looked away from her.

"Whatever Lucas and I had, it's over now."

TBC…
Well, did it suck? Hopefully everyone will still be interested in this story. There's only 5 more chapters left so please R&R.