HEY GUYS! Well, I'm back after a sort of hiatus that you guys probably hate me for lol. Anyway, I was down the shore for a week and a half, and was without computer access, which was pretty damn irritating. Then, the day after I got home, I left at 4:45 in the morning for a trip to Quebec with my French class. And, as all who have ever left the country with a bunch of people your age, spent a few nights in a hotel and had little supervision know, you spent the next few days dealing with the drama. Then my parentals whisked the family away to Boston for a few days. No comment. But now, I'm back! I'm beyond motivated right now, because I just got a very interesting e-mail… turns out that this story has just been nominated for the Sexy Vixen Awards! So now, instead of jumping around the room and squealing as loudly and excitedly as I can, I'm going to try and focus this energy into this story, where I think we all agree that it belongs lol. So one big huge enormous massive thank you goes to Lindsay for the nomination. You really have no idea how much it means to me. The place where I first heard about the awards was in the author's notes for A Woman's Worth, and I do not consider my story on par with Jess's… anyway, I'll just say a huge thank you, and move on. Lol. Thank you all for sticking with this story!
Disclaimer: I own nothing… although when I was in Canada, I bought these totally awesome slippers with giant moose heads on the front of them, even though my bestest friend told me not to. What can I say? They're cute!
This chapter is dedicated to Lindsay, who I've already given a reviewer gold star to, and I can't think up that many more prizes, so I hope that she'll be happy with a chapter or two…
And to Liz. Happy Birthday! Everybody should thank her if you like this story, because she's the one who sent me the message to get my ass back to working on this story! Lol Happy Birthday Liz!
At the Heart of It All
Chapter Twenty Two
Private Conversations
"Johnny Depp?"
"Totally gorgeous… but too old."
"Conor Oberst?"
"Isn't he that guy from that band? Yeah… little too depressing. They don't call me Cheery for nothing."
"Owen Wilson?"
"He looks a little too much like Ellen DeGeneres. That'd be majorly creepy."
"Ryan Phillippe?"
"YES!"
"He's not too old?"
"Oh, hell no! Ryan Phillippe is so hot that he's just timeless. Cruel Intentions, anybody?"
Electric green eyes met warm brown ones in a moment of serious silence. The stare down was over soon as both girls were overcome with giggles.
"Hahahah… yeah, I'd do him too," Haley conceded with a nod from her place on Brooke's bed. Brooke smiled up at her from her place on the floor, propping herself back up on her elbow and waiting for the next guy. This had been the routine for the last two hours. When the girls first arrived back at Brooke's, having just escaped the awkwardness of Lucas's, they were bored out of their minds. They now found themselves in an intense game of "Who Would You Do? Celebrity Style".
"Okay, hold on… are we ever going to talk about what happened at Luke's?" Brooke asked, her eyes squinted in question.
"Besides a whole lot of awkwardness?"
"Yeah, besides that," Brooke said, waving her hand impatiently as if to wave away the question itself.
"Umm… well, there was Anna…" Haley said slowly, fumbling for whatever Brooke's topic was.
"Besides her!" Brooke nearly shouted, her eyes blazing.
Touchy, touchy.
"Well what else was there?" Haley demanded, fed up with their game.
"There was Nathan giving you the 'I want you, but I hate you' look!"
"The what?" Haley asked incredulously.
"Oh, come on! You totally saw it! He's mad pissed at you!"
"Did you just use 'mad' in the same context as 'really' or 'very'?"
"Yeah. I heard some skaters at the park using it. Thought I'd try it out," Brooke shrugged.
"Yeah? How did it feel?"
"Kind of strange. I think I'll revert back to really and very."
"Cool. I was actually watching this movie called 'Heathers', and they use very instead of cool. They say really awesome things are really very," Haley explained.
"Huh? That's pretty cool. Maybe we should try to bring that back," mused Brooke.
"Maybe," Haley nodded.
"Yeah…wait! Anyway… Nathan was giving you the evil look!"
"Trust me, I noticed," Haley grimaced.
"Tigger!"
"What!"
"Okay, let's go over this slowly, in terms that you 'smart girls' can understand…"
The tutor opened her mouth to protest. Then she thought better of it. Once Brooke had an idea, it was best to just let her run with it, she though as she settled back on the bed for what was sure to be an interesting lecture.
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"Man, what was with you today?" Lucas Scott asked his half-brother as he let the ball fly from behind the three-point line.
Score.
"What are you talking about?" Nathan asked, feigning innocence as he went in for a lay-up.
The guys had been down at the River Court ever since the girls had made their hasty exit from the blonde boy's house, nearly three hours ago. They hadn't done much talking, but they rarely did when basketball was involved. But now, Luke decided that enough was enough.
"You. Were being weird," he started, and continued upon Nathan's prompting look. "… to Haley…"
"Oh. Yeah. Her," he shrugged nonchalantly.
"Yeah, her. What's going on with you, Nate?" Lucas asked, frowning in concern.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing is going on between Haley and me," Nathan stated adamantly.
"Why do you sound so pissed about that?"
"Because I like her. I like her a lot. And she's going with Jagelski."
"Haley's going to prom with Jake?" Lucas exclaimed, and Nathan just nodded. "Why didn't I know that?"
"Maybe because you alienated your best friend," Nathan jested, but realized upon the look on his brother's face that this wasn't a matter to joke about.
"I know… man; I really screwed things up with Brooke. I don't even know how this happened…"
"You dated. You broke up. Lucas, I hate to be the one to say this, because I know how much Brooke means to you, but make out kids never have the chance to be best friends."
Luke didn't bother telling him that he knew the song that those words of wisdom came from. He just pondered the truth behind them.
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"How did your afternoon with Lucas go?" a voice inquired from the doorway. She didn't bother to try around and look to see who it was. After all these years of being his twin sister, Anna didn't really need to check and see if it was Felix. She just knew.
"Well, I found him easily enough. At first it was really fun," Anna began tiredly, but a dreamy look entered her eyes. "It was amazing. We were just hanging out, like we used to. He's so awesome, and understanding, and caring, and funny, and smart, and—"
"And then what happened?" Felix bit out.
"And then we were hanging out at his house—"
"Oh God, did you have sex?"
"Pshh… no. I wish. Something much worse happened," she continued, and her features grew dark.
"I don't know, that seems like worst-case-scenario to me," he quipped.
"Brooke showed up."
"Ooh," Felix visibly winced at this.
"At then so did Nathan. And Haley…" Anna continued.
"So I guess that blew your romantic expectations, huh?"
"Yeah, you could say that. God, I hate that girl," seethed Anna.
"Which one?" he inquired curiously.
"BROOKE!" she exploded. "She's such a slut. She's a supreme bitch. And yet everything comes so easily to her!"
Felix said nothing, but frowned slightly at his sister's behavior. It took a lot to get Anna angry, and right now, she looked about ready to blow. Lately, Anna had her brother really concerned. Ever since she came home to Tree Hill, ever since she first glimpsed Lucas again, she had seemed slightly… unhinged. Felix didn't usually care about his partners in crime, but this was his sister, and believe it or not, he actually did feel some affection for another person besides himself. Coming back to the conversation, he realized that her dark eyes were full of fire and hatred, and her hands were shaking and clenched into a fist as she finished her rant.
"—and she broke up with him too, but they can be friends? What the hell is with that?"
"An, are you feeling okay?" he asked, sincerely concerned.
"What? Yeah I'm fine. You know, I'm going to go rest for a bit, actually. Thanks for listening Felix. You're the best," she sighed, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek and walking out of the room.
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He took a deep breath as he knocked on her door. It was ten o'clock, and the sun had set long ago, bathing the small town in moonlight. Lucas dimly noted that he had never been this nervous going to see the girl behind the red door. The door in question swung open, revealing a breathless brunette.
"Hello? Oh, hey Broody!" she beamed. "What brings you here?"
"Just thought I'd stop by to see my best friend," he smiled softly.
And in that moment, a quiet moment between the teens who had known each other forever, with a sudden rising of emotion, both realized that something more could happen between them. They could be something more. But neither would act on it now, and destroy the fragile moment. They'd enjoy this time as a last, uncomplicated moment between best friends, because after this, they could never go back.
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Oh my God, you guys have no idea how self-conscience this chapter has made me. I don't know… maybe I just need to get back into the groove of this story. But anyway, it was just really important for me to update, because I love this story, and I love everyone who reads it, and my stupid hiatus wasn't fair to either lol. I just hope that it didn't totally suck. So please review and let me know what you think! Comments and suggestions are always appreciated! Lol. Thanks for reading!
Xo Sam