What is a birthday anyway?

Author- Emily-Grace Mendes (Brookebynature)

Disclaimer- I own none of the following characters, so please don't sue me.

Summary- It's Brooke's birthday and where is everyone? She sure as hell doesn't know, but there is someone that cares. Someone who'll give up a great oppertunity to make her feel loved. Part 1 of a short(ish) story

A/N- So I know I should be focusing on my current story (Life is what you make it) but i couldn't resist writing this since I've just had a similar experience last weekend. I've got some more ideas for one shots about these two, I just can't help myself!

I loved writing this, so I hope you enjoy it too. Please leave me a review at the end :)

Chapter 2-Alone...For Now

Lucas put his bags into the car and shut the door, taking one last look at the huge building where he had been staying. So he was missing a 'vital' game. So what? Brooke meant more to him than basketball ever would, and as much as Nathan had told him to stick it out a few more hours, Lucas knew he couldn't.

There wouldn't have been much point in him playing a game that his heart wasn't in anyway. His heart was with Brooke, she just didn't know it yet.

Brooke set the cards down on the mantle piece, displaying them on the sideboard when she ran out of room. There was a gap in the middle of the mantle however, the place that she had reserved every year for the card from her parents.

'Just because it's not here now, doesn't mean they won't send you one' she told herself, forcing a smile, although she didn't know who it was for. Peyton and Haley were coming over later and they had told her that they were going out for dinner, since neither of them could cook. Brooke had never imagined Haley as someone who was a disaster in the cooking department. She'd always thought that being married would mean that Haley was domesticated. Obviously not.

"You sure about this man?" Nathan asked over the phone "You'll still be able to make it of you turn back now"

"Nathan, it's Brooke's birthday"

"Yeah, and it will still be her birthday in a few hours when this game is over. Can't you just see her then"

"I don't expect you to understand, o.k" Lucas told him "but I need to go back home, and my mind's made up. You can't talk me out of it"

"Well I tried" Nathan laughed

"And failed" Lucas laughed back "See you in a couple hours. Good luck man"

Lucas pulled into a gas station, stopping for a break and wondering whether he should call Brooke to tell her he was coming back. But then he realised that he needed to do something special to show Brooke how much she meant to him, and that he didn't want her to feel alone. If he couldn't tell her how he really felt, then at least he could try and convey it with words.

"Happy Birthday Broody" Brooke said in that sexy voice that he loved so much. He opened his eyes after Brooke took her hands away from them, looking around to see where she had brought him.

"I remember this bar" he said, a knowing smile on his face.

"As do I Broody. I believe this is where we started our night of passion"

"It's where we started my night of being grounded by Keith"

"You should remember the good things Luke" Brooke laughed, rolling her eyes. "I thought you might like to get your ass kicked at pool again"

"By who? The girl who called squirrels, Squillers until the third grade?" Lucas said, raising his eyebrows the way Brooke had done to him when she made the first shot.

"Good comeback" she said, grazing her body against his as she handed the barman the fake I.D's that she'd brought along with some money, in exchange for two beers.

Yep, she had gone all out for his birthday, starting off where they had their first date, moving on to a small restaurant overlooking the ocean, and then ending with a heavy make-out session in her hot tub, surrounded by lit tea-lights and white rose petals as Brooke had decided that red or pink were too girly for Lucas.

He needed to think of something good.

Lunch had passed, but Brooke couldn't be bothered to eat. She had no energy-no desire to do anything really. Had all of this stemmed from her parents not sending a card, or what it something more than that? She wondered.

Brooke sunk down into the couch with the remote in one hand, a blanket in the other. She flicked through most of the channels, finally settling on an old friends re-run. Well this sure as hell wasn't how she imagined spending her birthday. She'd thought that even if she didn't have a party, at least her, Haley, Peyton, Lucas and Nathan would go out to a club somewhere, and they'd all have a good time.

She stared blankly at the t.v, deciding to switch it off after she had gotten sick of watching America's Next Top Model which had come on after friends had finished. Brooke looked down at her outfit. Sweats with a tank top underneath. Hardly the glamorous birthday outfit she had planned.

It had taken him a few hours but Lucas finally had Brooke's birthday surprise set up. At least he had already bought her present a few weeks ago. God only knows how long it would have taken him to choose something today, because it had taken him long enough when he knew exactly what he was looking for. He hoped that she wouldn't notice that he hadn't cooked the food himself, and that in fact, it was take out, cleverly arranged so that it looked like he'd cooked it.

The longest part of getting ready was actually, getting ready. He didn't understand how Brooke could take this long to choose her outfits every day, it had driven him insane picking something suitable to wear tonight. Still, she always looked amazing, so the outfit-deliberating must have paid off.

He looked at himself in the mirror. He had a light blue jumper on, one that he had bought recently when he was shopping with Brooke. He had only really bought it because her eyes lit up when she saw up, her telling him that it would look perfect on him as it would 'bring out the blue in his eyes.' But thinking about it, it did suit him, and teamed with the dark blue jeans, his eyes did look bluer.

Brooke lay on her bed, mascara running onto her pillow. Peyton had called to tell her that she couldn't make dinner because her Dad was sick, and she needed to go visit him in hospital, so Brooke had rung Haley to tell her that they should cancel and do something next weekend. Haley had offered to come over, but Brooke had told her to 'go have phone sex with Nathan to get him pumped for the game', faking a laugh through her silent tears as she did so.

So now, at 7:00pm on the night of her birthday, Brooke Davis lay crying on her bed, her back to the door which led outside. She wanted to stop crying-she didn't even know what she was crying for, but she couldn't. She'd tried to block out all thoughts of Lucas, wondering whether he was having a good time at the basketball camp.

'Of course he is' she thought. She didn't even hear the knock on her door through the sound of her crying, which she could no longer keep silenced.

Lucas waited for her to answer, getting more and more anxious with each second which passed that she hadn't come to the door. He knocked again, harder this time, but there was still no answer. Lucas tried peeping through the hole in the door lock, and upon seeing Brooke's figure lying on the bed, he knocked again, but this time walked straight in.

"Brooke?"

Sorry to leave it on a (sort-of) cliffhanger there. Thankyou so much for all of the reviews you've given me-It enspired me to write more for you guys, perhaps you'll like the next chapter better. I won't say any more...