Chapter 6- All or Nothing

Oh and I don't know
I don't know what he's after

But he's so beautiful

He's such a beautiful disaster

Brooke called Lucas' cell phone several times but had no luck reaching him. She didn't know where he lived exactly so she couldn't try going there, but she had tried his home phone number and received no answer. She knew her best bet was to figure out where this river court place he was always talking about was, she was fairly certain that he was there.

Brooke drove all down the riverfront until she spotted it. It was basically a slab of cement with a hoop at either end. There wasn't much else to it. Brooke drove onto the grass and pulled up near the court. She got out and headed over to a bench, she sat down next to a brown haired boy.

"Hey, I'm Brooke."

"I'm Mouth."

"Nice to meet you Mouth."

"So you're here to see Lucas?"

"How'd you guess?"

"By the way he's looking at you."

Brooke looked over and saw Lucas staring at her curiously. He had seen her as soon as she pulled up and was shocked that she was there. Not only had he never told her where exactly the river court was, he didn't expect to see her ever again, not after the fight they'd had. It took all Lucas had for him to look away and focus on the rest of the game.

Brooke watched anxiously as Lucas played basketball with his friends. Brooke had never seen him play before, and she was pleasantly surprised to see that he was really good. She wondered why it was that he didn't play for the Ravens.

Lucas walked over to Brooke, dripping in sweat, after his team had won.

"Brooke, hey, this is Fergie, Skills and Junk." Lucas pointed to each as he introduced them, "Guys, this is Brooke."

"Damn dog, she's even hotter than you let on."

Brooke laughed, "Thanks, you're not so bad yourself." She playfully winked.

"Hey now you two, I'm right here!" Lucas cried, pretending to be angry but laughing just the same.

"Well man, we're out." Skills held out his fist, which Lucas promptly knocked with his own, "See ya later dog. And Brooke, feel free to come cheer for me anytime."

Brooke laughed and nodded.

With that the other boys left, leaving Brooke and Lucas alone.

"I was surprised to see you here." Lucas said quietly.

"I know. I wanted to tell you something. I, uh, broke up with Nathan."

Lucas smirked, "So what?"

"So what? I did that for you, because of you. It wasn't fair for me to stay with him when I feel this way about you."

Lucas' expression softened a little, "How did it go?"

"It was okay. Turns out he likes my best friend Haley, so really it wasn't any big deal. I actually laughed when I found out about the two of them, made me feel a lot less guilty."

Lucas nodded in understanding, "So then pretty girl, where do we go from here?"

"Lucas I don't know." Brooke started as she walked over to sit back down on the bench. "I mean, obviously I want to see what happens with us, but I guess I'm just not sure if I want the whole world to know."

"That's the difference between you and me Brooke, I want everyone to know and you want no one to know. I get it, I get that we're different. We obviously don't run with the same people at school, but why does that have to matter?"

"It just does matter Lucas. Really, it does. I'm going to have to deal with enough gossip surrounding me and Nathan breaking up, I'm not sure if I can deal with the backlash of you and me dating as well."

"Who says anyone is even going to care?"

"Lucas, it's me, people always care. If I wear a pair of shoes that doesn't match perfectly with my outfit people care, I can't even imagine what they would say if I started dating someone from outside my circle."

"Why worry about them though? Why can't we just worry about you and me?"

"Because I can't do that Lucas. I just can't. I do worry about what other people say. That's just how I am. Its how I've always been. Can't you just accept that Lucas? I mean come on, I don't know what you want from me. I broke up with my boyfriend for you, isn't that enough?" Brooke looked towards Lucas, pleading with her eyes that he would say it was enough.

"What do I want? I want us to be together, all the time, not just when others aren't around. I want to walk down the hall holding your hand. I want to walk up to your locker and kiss you. I want the whole world to know how much I care about you Brooke. I don't want to hide it. That's what I want, does that make sense?"

"It's just more than I can give to you, I'm sorry. I don't understand why we can't take this slow. Baby steps ya know? Let me deal with this one step at a time."

Lucas sat there shaking his head, wondering what he could do to get through to her. He didn't know what it would take to make Brooke understand how he felt.

"Okay Brooke, let's pretend for a minute. Let's pretend we do this your way, we start slow. We just hang out outside of school and whatever. So then what happens in school, when we see each other? I am supposed to just ignore you?"

"No, you don't have to ignore me, you just can't…" Brooke trailed off.

"Can't act like we're dating, right?"

Brooke slowly nodded, "I'm sorry Lucas. I'm just not ready for everyone to know."

"Well then, if you're not ready for everyone to know, I guess I'm not ready for you. Sorry Brooke."

Lucas stood to walk away, Brooke watched him.

"Lucas, wait."

Brooke walked over to him and stood on her tip toes and reached behind his neck, lowering his head to her so she could reach his lips. She kissed him softly at first, and then deepened the kiss. Slowly she pulled away and looked up at him.

"Can you really tell me you can pass that up?"

"Yeah Brooke, I can. It's this easy, now listen close. You want to know what I want? All or nothing. So tell me, what's it going to be? All or nothing?"

Lucas stood there looking at Brooke, waiting for her answer. She said nothing, but her silence spoke volumes, her silence answered his question.

Lucas nodded, "Just like I thought, nothing."