Hey guys! I'm back with a new installment. I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's definitely all about Brooke and Nathan. As I have said many times before, I appreciate all of your reviews, and I always look forward to reading them. Read and review this, and I will have a new chapter VERY SOON. Love all reviewers. I know a lot of you love brathan and brucas, so we will just have to see what happens. I am a fan of both, so it is up in the air right now. It's all gonna be so DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA. Two brothers fighting over the same woman! C'mon guys, how hot is that?

Chapter 9

Popcorn kernels lay scattered across the blue living room carpet of the Davis residence. All that remained of the large order of pizza was three slices that lay upon the grease-smeared Dominos box. The television was abandoned to reveal Big Bird teaching the local kids of the neighborhood the alphabet as the vivacious theme of Sesame Street played against the background. "Sunny days, chasing the clouds away," drifted throughout the air.

A form lay sprawled atop the plush texture of the couch. His chest rose and fell with his calm breath. A mat of brown hair concealed his face as he slept deeply. Directly to the right of his sleeping form, lay Brooke Davis lounging on the recliner. Her hair sat upon her head in a messy bun while lose hairs framed her lovely face. Her mouth remained open as little breaths escaped her flaring nostrils. Some would mistake her current respiration as snoring. Unbeknownst to her, she was affected by the horrendous predicament of a bad case of nasal congestion. Her face twitched as the rising sun's rays hit her formerly tranquil face, and she groaned as she reluctantly opened one eye to reveal an image of Big Bird dancing in the streets. Slowly, she became aware of her surroundings. Brooke yawned in satisfaction as she realized she had slept a full night compensating for the lack of sleep the night before last. She felt her limbs spring to life as she stretched out her body lazily against the recliner. As she glanced over at the sleeping form on the sofa, she smiled at the lump that rolled over and groaned between snores.

All had been resolved the night before as she and Nathan resolved their differences with one another. She felt a sense of relief. Now she and Nathan could actually converse civilly with no more snide remarks. Best of all, they could actually become friends. And converse they did the prior night. After Brooke and Nathan forgave and forgot, Brooke insisted on ordering pizza and watching some movies. It was Brooke's method of apologizing and in her nature to be generous. That is, except when it pertained to the choice of movies. She had told a relenting Nathan that she could pick the movies since she ordered the pizza. The choices were obvious in Brook's eager eyes as she flaunted her collection of romantic comedies and drama. All Nathan could resort to was a roll of the eyes and a reluctant nod. After all, he was used to that sort of thing. He had been married to Haley hadn't he? He clearly remembered the traditional Friday nights at his Tree Hill apartment. As always, Haley chose the movie and they dined in, usually partaking in Haley's favorite dish, macaroni and cheese, which she enthusiastically declared to be, "the food of the Gods!". First on the list was the tragic story of a beautiful woman beleaguered with cancer who falls in love with the pompous playboy. In the end, the gigolo falls for her just in time for her to ultimately die. Nathan sat through Autumn in New York attempting to look interested in the predictable storyline when in reality he was really ogling over how hot Winona Ryder was. Brooke would glance over in Nathan's direction every now and then to determine if the movie had piqued his interest, and she took delight in the fact that it did. Well, at least the hot chick piqued Nathan's interest.

Next up on the list was Love and Basketball. The story was about a couple who fall in love through basketball. This time Nathan's interest was piqued as he watched the amazing basketball sequences featuring Sanaa Lathan in awe. Who knew a hot chick could play basketball so well? Although Nathan did have a genuine interest in the movie centered around his favorite sport, he still couldn't accept that beneath the basketball storyline, was a love story. Regardless of his cynical attitude, Nathan enjoyed the movie immensely. Last on the list was French Kiss starring the insanely adorable Meg Ryan. Nathan did not have a chance to enjoy Kevin Kline's fake French accent or Meg Ryan's intense fear of flying, because Brooke had the sudden urge to jabber. In fact, the girl would not keep her mouth shut throughout all three movies! By the end of the night, Nathan discovered it was nearly impossible to watch an entire movie without one of the infamous Brooke comments.

"If I were a guy, then I would totally want to date someone like Meg Ryan. Isn't she cute?" Brooke looked over at Nathan who was laying on his side against the sofa, while she popped a kernel of popcorn into her mouth. Nathan shrugged as he continued watching the movie.

"I don't know. I guess." He took a bite of pepperoni pizza.

"C'mon, Nathan. You're a guy right?" Nathan laughed.

"Last time I checked."

"Well," Brooke attempted to her best Nathan voice, "I guess" isn't an honest answer. "She either is or she isn't." She leaned back into the recliner in a curious manner as she looked at the screen and then back to Nathan. Nathan ignored her as he watched Meg Ryan cleaning the indents of her computer keyboard with a q-tip. Brooke sighed as she noticed Nathan's attempts to ignore her. "It's not a difficult question to answer. All I'm saying is that every guy has an opinion on whether a girl is attractive. Just like," Brooke pointed to herself, "moi finds certain males attractive. I'm just curious. Do you," Brooke gestured to Meg Ryan on the screen, "think that Meg Ryan is attractive."

Nathan rolled his eyes and finally looked at Brooke. "As a matter of fact, I don't," he replied as he looked back at the screen. Brooke smirked thoughtfully, and Nathan caught a glimpse of those addictive Davis dimples out of the corner of his left eye. Brooke returned her attention to the screen as she pondered silently. Satisfied, Nathan continued to eat his pizza and to watch to the romantic comedy in time to discover Meg Ryan's fiance had left her for another women. Guess we both have something in common, Nathan thought to himself. Several moments had passed without a comment from her, and Nathan began to wonder what was occurring in that busy mind of her's. Before he even began to contemplate the woman that was Brooke Davis, his thoughts were interrupted by another.

"Why don't you think she's attractive?" She glanced over at Nathan in interest and arched an eyebrow.

"I don't know Brooke. Why can't we just watch the damn movie without the inserted commentary from the local peanut gallery?" Nathan intolerantly glared at Brooke from beneath his crystal, blue eyes as his temperature rose. Brooke's eyes grew wide with surprise.

"REAR!" Brooke attempted to hiss in Nathan's direction by using her hands to portray claws, much like a cat would do. Nathan held his hands up in defense. "Remind me to never piss you off." She rolled her eyes in annoyance and stared at the television.

"Sorry. It's just I thought we were trying to watch a movie. Was I wrong?"

"No, sorry. I'll try to keep my thoughts to myself." Nathan nodded his head.

"Good," he replied.

Throughout the next thirty minutes of the film, Nathan gazed over in Brooke's direction. She had crossed her arms over her chest and her mouth was depicted in a full pout. Her eyes appeared to be disinterested in the film, as she was concentrating her intense stare at the painting above the television set. Nathan sighed to himself. Dammit, I give up, he declared to himself as he looked over at Brooke, whose interest still seemed to be on the Thomas Kinkade painting.

"It's not that I don't find her attractive; it's just that she isn't my type. I like girls with a little more substance." Brooke turned her attention away from the painting and looked in Nathan's direction as if she was surprised that he had spoken. Her eyes were inquisitive as she responded.

"What do you mean substance?" Nathan pondered her question as he attempted to explain his point of view.

"I mean that I like girls with curves. I like girls that actually look like they eat something."

"Oh, you mean you like girls with boobs and a butt?" she asked. Nathan nodded his head in agreement.

"Exactly. I'm not a big fan of stick figures. I like curves, or as Mike would say, "a little junk in the trunk." Brooke giggled.

"So you like 'em big then, like Rosie O'Donnel big?" she joked. Nathan's face turned tomato-red in response.

"You know what I mean. I'm not interested in girls that don't take care of themselves. Besides, don't be so hard on Rosie. She's hot." Brooke quickly glanced at Nathan in bewilderment. Nathan chuckled at Brooke's reaction.

"You're kidding right?" Nathan laughed again.

"Yeah." Both of them burst out laughing and turned their attention back to the movie to watch Kevin Kline dancing with Meg Ryan in their hotel room.

"So what about you?" Nathan interrupted as he looked over at Brooke.

"What about me?"

"What do you find attractive in a guy?" he implored. Brooke took his question in consideration.

"I don't know. I guess he has to be nice. He should also care about me. I guess looks don't matter all that much to me," she concluded. Brooke heard Nathan laughed at she looked at him in shock. "What's so funny?"

"You just described Mouth!" Brooke wrinkled her forehead as she thought about Nathan's revelation.

"Nice observation there! What you said is true. Mouth is a nice guy. And I think that he cares about me. It's just," she paused, "it's just that he's..." Brooke couldn't seem to locate an answer as she spoke.

"He's what?" Nathan asked.

"Well, he's Mouth. Don't get me wrong. He's a great guy. It's just there's none of that spark you know."

"Spark?"

"Yeah, you know, chemistry." Brooke turned her body in Nathan's direction as she spoke. It was as if she were opening up to him little by little.

"Yeah, Mouth's cool. But let's be honest, a guy like Mouth will never get a girl like you." Wait a minute! What did I just say to her? Nathan asked himself. A girl like her? Immediately, he regretted what he had previously said as he noticed Brooke's facial expressions shift to amusement.

"What are you trying to say, Nathan?" she asked suspiciously. Nathan cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Um, you know. Real life is like a John Hughes movie. In this case, you'd be Molly Ringwald." Nathan's mind panicked as he quickly attempted to search for an excuse to his "a girl like you" speech, when in reality he did not even have an answer to Brooke's question. How could he answer her question when he had no knowledge of why he had said it in the first place. He continued, albeit gracelessly. "Mouth would be Ducky, your official fan base. Let's face it. The nerd never got the girl. Ducky never got the girl. Therefore, the girl is unattainable in Mouth's eyes. You are unattainable to guys like him."

"Hey, I can be attainable!" Nathan looked at Brooke, and she noticed his serious expression. "Okay, maybe you're right. Maybe Mouth will never get me, but that doesn't mean he won't find some gorgeous girl and get married someday. That person is just not gonna be me. Believe me. I have tried to be attainable for Mouth. I just can't be that girl."

"Do you honestly believe that looks don't matter?" Nathan asked her seriously.

"In some cases it doesn't. I guess what I said earlier wasn't the whole truth," she said as she looked at Nathan. "I think that looks are apart of the initial attraction. That's what draws me to someone. You know, the look in his eyes when he looks at me, or the way he walks, or even how he talks. But then you really get to know that person, and you fall in love with not whom they look like on the outside, but who they are on the inside." Her eyes were glazed as she spoke, and Nathan looked into them as she spoke. Her hazels melted into the pigment of his blue eyes, and his heartbeat did an unexpected flip-flop as she continued. "So, yeah. I guess looks can be a part of attraction in that way, but that doesn't take the cake when it comes to love." Her voice quivered as she looked at the intrigue on Nathan's handsome face. Instinctively, she turned her attention back to the ending of French Kiss. Nathan did the same as the tension in the room slowly subsided.

The ending was predictable as Nathan had foreseen. The guy gets the girl and vice-versa. Nathan glanced at Brooke and saw a tear escape from her eyes as she watched the credits and a French song provided background for the conclusion.

"Are you crying?"

Brooke immediately turned her head in Nathan's opposite direction in embarrassment.

"Maybe a little." She swiftly wiped her tears and looked over at Nathan. "I know it sounds dumb, but I always cry at happy endings," she admitted abashedly. Nathan smiled. Typical. She was a girl, wasn't she, Nathan thought to himself.

"No it's not stupid," Brooke looked at Nathan appreciatively and peeled herself away from the seat as she discarded the DVD. Nathan's eyes followed her movements. "Although, I'd hate to see your reaction to a tragic ending," he added.

"So, what do you want to watch next?" Brooke stood in the television's light as she turned toward Nathan. She looked adorable in her over-sized pajamas and pink slippers as he took in her appearance. Her face was glistened with smeared tears and her hair was standing in each direction from the loose bun Brooke had left on top of her head. She looked beautiful, and she was unaware of her beauty at that moment in time. He found that utterably irresistible. Nathan pushed thoughts of his attraction out of his head as he answered Brooke.

"Wait a minute. You're asking me what movie I want to watch? Who are you, and what did you do with Brooke Davis?" he gasped.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. I'm just trying to be nice. Better hurry before the offer no longer exists," she teased. Nathan towered over Brooke as he stood as she nearly stumbled backwards at the realization of his height.

"What ya got?"

"I don't know." She pointed at the bottom of shelf which contained numerous DVDs. "You can look at my dad's collection of machismo-filled action while I go to the bathroom." Nathan grinned as he watched Brooke depart in her fuzzy slippers. He shook his head as he managed to locate a movie worth watching. As Brooke entered the room with an armload of blankets, Nathan had popped in the DVD and had flung himself into a comfortable position on the sofa. Brooke approached Nathan's figure from behind and dropped two blankets onto his head. He was startled as he sat upright. She giggled.

"That's for comparing me to Molly Ringwald earlier," she huffed as she settled into her chair and Nathan glanced at her in amusement.

"Hey, it was just an observation."

"Oh please! Molly Ringwald's hair looked like a tractor ran over it. And did you see her clothes. Pink and brown so don't complement one another. She's so..."

"Eighties?" he interrupted Brooke looked over at Nathan irritably.

"What movie did you pick?" she asked as she snuggled under her covers. Nathan laid on his left side and pulled the blankets over his body.

"It's a surprise, he taunted.

"I'm sure it is," she added dryly as she punched the play button the remote. A few minutes later, Brooke discovered Nathan had chosen Die Hard as his ultimate pick. Nathan turned his head from his position on the couch and took glee in Brooke's disappointed reaction.

"Well, at least Bruce Willis has his shirt off in this movie," she stated with a hint of optimism in her raspy voice. Nathan smiled.

An hour into the movie, a sleepiness seemed to overcome the pair, as they drifted in and out of images of Bruce Willis wearing a shirt and lacking a shirt. Brooke fell asleep to little images of naked Bruce Willis' dancing around her head, and Nathan pretended not to notice how attractive she was, as he had noticed she had fallen asleep before him. He sighed in resentment and attempted to finish the film, but he submitted to sleep as well. And this is how the pair were left until Brooke had awakened from her full night's rest. Her mind had drifted back to the night before, and she had replayed the night's occurrences in her head like a movie she had recently watched. That is, until she noticed the time on grandfather clock! It was 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday, and her parents were due at home any moment!

She realized this with trepidation. She looked back over at Nathan's sleeping figure in alarm as she literally propelled herself out of her recliner. How would this situation look to her parents if they were to come home and discover their daughter had allowed a boy to sleep over? Let's just say, the future would no longer be bright for herself. Talk about an end to shopping trips, her unlimited access to her parents' credit cards, and that luxurious membership to the health spa. Brooke cursed herself as she nearly tripped on her fuzzy slippers as she approached him. His snores were feint and his face masked by the muscular arm flung over his face. Cautiously, Brooke patted Nathan's stomach. She blushed slightly as she unintentionally felt his surface of his rock-hard abs.

"Nathan, wake up," she whispered. As he slowly opened his eyes, he took in her large, hazel eyes, full lips, brown locks, and luminous skin. I must be dreaming, he thought to himself. She's so beautiful. He felt alive in his dream as he touched the immaculate face of the enchantress. The image instantly pulled back in distress as Nathan's environment became genuine. He blink several times and sat up as he noticed Brooke standing over him. She face looked bothered, but he didn't notice. After all, he believed he had dreamed of her. He did not realize that he had actually caressed Brooke's face as she had attempted to wake him up. Brooke was initially startled at his actions, but ignored her feelings as she roused him out of his slumber.

"What's wrong, Brooke?" he asked as concern filled his eyes.

"You need to go. My parents are supposed to be here any minute!"

"What? I thought they were never here?" Brooke's figure rushed around the living room as she quickly grabbed the pizza box and started picking up the kernels of popcorn scattered amongst the floor. Still in a daze, Nathan grabbed his shoes and hastily put them on his bare feet. Brooke was in the process of retrieving the empty cans of soda when he finally tied his laces.

"Yeah, well, today they decided they would conveniently come home. Can you grab those blankets and put them in the hall closet?" she asked as she rushed into the kitchen to dispose of last night's meal. Nathan nodded his head as he collected the blanket and stuffed them into the hall closet, which contained various board games and such.

"Oh, my God, Nathan there here!" Brooke's voice rang from the kitchen Nathan closed the hall closet. He rushed to the kitchen in response.

"What? How do you know?" Brooke pushed him out of the kitchen and down the hall as she breathlessly exclaimed.

"I heard their car pull into the drive way! You have to hide!"

"Okay, but where?"

"I don't know where!" Brooke screeched in dread. Nathan stopped Brooke's destructive path in the middle of the hallway and gently grasped Brooke's tiny shoulders as he looked her in the eyes. "Brooke, you need to calm down. Why don't you just tell them I came by to visit this morning.?" Brooke rolled her eyes at Nathan's naivety.

"Obviously, you don't know my parents. If they find out that I have a boy here, they're gonna kill me!" Her eyes reeked with panic at Nathan's attempt to calm her.

"Okay, well, where would your parents never look?" Nathan still had his hands on Brooke's shoulders.

"Umm, the bedroom! Yeah, they would never look in my bedroom because they know it is totally off limits!" she cried as if she had made the most amazing discovery.

"Your bedroom it is then," he declared as Brooke pushed him into her boudoir. "Who, Brooke. I've always known you wanted me, but isn't this a bit of a rush?" he joked. Brooke raised her eyebrows before she closed her door.

"In your dreams." Nathan smiled. If only she knew, he thought to himself. "Be quiet, and don't touch anything!" she warned as she closed the door. And that was it. Brooke had abandoned him to her bedroom. It was a place full of all her hopes and dreams, and now he wall all alone in that world. He smiled mischievously as he sat on top of Brooke's purple comforter and took in all the sights of her femininity. Yep, all Brooke had to do was convince her parents that she was alone in the house, and all he had to do was wait in her personal space. This was going to be a very long morning.