Chapter 3
Headlight on Dark Roads
It was one of those nights on the shore of Wrights Beach where the air temperature and the water temperature are so different that a layer of fog rises over the ocean water. The water was calm that night. Haley James dug her feet into the sand and crossed her arms over her chest. She caught herself smiling at the peaceful, serene night sky. "The calm before the storm," She said to herself as she ran her hands over the cool, white sand.
The front door of the Scott beach house, "Hello Tree Hill High Ravens!" Brooke screeched from the entrance, "Congratulations on the win, but my motto is 'its not whether you win or lose, its how drunk you are at the end of the night'. Am I right?" Bevin Maskey, the head cheerleader of the Tree Hill Ravens, intertwined her arm with Brooke's.
"So I smell you have already been drinking," Bevin lined up four shots in front of herself, and then Brooke, "But I say we keep going." Bevin winked at her, "What do you say?"
Brooke smiled and put her hand on the first shot glass. She clicked her glass with Bevin's, "I say bottoms up."
"You and me, friends we shall ever be, if we shall ever disagree," Bevin raised her eyebrow at Brooke, "Fuck you, here's to me."
Nathan stood at the end of the island table in the kitchen and watched to two girls down the shots of whiskey like they were water. He held a bottle of soda to Brooke. She shook her head. He nodded in approval and began walking away.
Brooke, now two shots away from being wasted, followed Nathan. "So, that's what it takes to get your attention?" She ran her hands over her floral, flouncy top, pushing out the wrinkles.
He finished his beer, grabbed another one, and drank half of it quickly. He then turned to Brooke and motioned for her to follow him out the back door to the beach.
She shook her head, remembering what happened the last time she walked out that back door with him. The night she walked to the beach with Nathan, the last time he had a party, she told him things she had never told anyone before. She let her guard down and that scared her more than anything. It scared her more than her missing parents, more than being alone, more than snakes, more than anything.
"I don't think so." She mumbled as she turned around and walked back to the kitchen.
As soon as she walked back into the kitchen, three more shots of whiskey were lined up in front of her. Brooke took all of them. She threw the last shot glass at the sliding glass door at the back of the house. The shot glass bounced off the glass and crashed to the ground.
Peyton walked behind Brooke, put her hand on her back and whispered into her ear, "I think you need to slow down."
Brooke whipped her head around, her dark hair hitting Peyton across the face. Brooke pointed at her and slurred her words, "I think… you," Brooke tapped her on the nose," should leave me alone." She gave Peyton a catty smile and turned around, "I need to go to the liquor store. My friend here, thinks that I shouldn't drive myself because I need to 'slow down'." Brooke narrowed her eyes at Peyton, "So which one of you lovely people is going to take me?"
"I will." A voice said from around the corner. It was Nathan.
Brooke looked at him with a crooked smile and grabbed her purse from the kitchen table along with a flask of vodka from Bevin's bag. She ran her fingers through her dark brown hair and slowly turned toward the door.
The back door opened and Haley walked in. She saw Nathan and Brooke head for the front door. Nathan had his keys in his hand. Even though Nathan had broken Haley's heart months before, she didn't want anything bad happening to him.
Haley walked up to Peyton, "Where do they think that are going?"
"To the liquor store." Lucas answered, "Brooke is having one of those nights."
Peyton ran after them. "Brooke, don't." Peyton said as she grabbed Brooke's arm.
Jerking her arm away from Peyton, she said, "You never cared what I did before." Brooke opened the car door, "Oh right, that's because you were too busy making out with Lucas behind my back to notice."
"This isn't about that, this is about me wanting to make sure you don't do something stupid."
"Maybe you should worry about you doing something stupid before you worry about me, okay." Brooke slammed the door and turned to Nathan, "Liquor Store. Now. Please."
"Demanding but so polite," He said as he put his hand on Brooke's face and pulled her close to him.
She turned her face away. "Not now." She said, "Just drive."
The theme song from The O.C played from Brooke's purse. She reached into her bag and sorted through her bag to find the phone. "Hello?" She said, slurring the word so it almost sounded like 'halo'. When the voice on the other end of Brooke's phone replied, Brooke suddenly sat up in her seat and cleared her voice. "Oh hi mom."
Nathan turned his head to look at her. He moved his hand toward the volume button on the stereo and Brooke smacked his hand away. "Oh? Really, okay. Well I'm glad you are coming home tonight… Oh… you are home… oh you are at the airport… okay, well… mom I can't really hear you… you are cutting out…"
Brooke closed her phone, "They never get damn service in the airport."
Nathan nodded and put his head on Brooke's bare leg. He moved his hand up her arm to her neck. He pulled her face close to his and let their lips crash into one another. After a minute of kissing, Brooke pushed him off. "Not here Nathan." She leaned over and whispered into his ear, "Go to the Cove."
"That's out by the airport right?"
Brooke ran her hands over the plaid couch in Leo's new living room. She looked out the window at the darkness, "it's weird to be back here, ya know?" Brooke turned around to look at Leo in the kitchen.
Leo nodded as he turned the water faucet on and off and on and then finally off again. "Maybe we could make the most of this. You are only here for a week and honestly, if you don't want to leave the houses all week, then don't eave the house all week." He walked into the living room and sat on the couch, looking up at her. "Whatever you want to do is perfectly fine by me."
She smiled at him and put her hand on the door knob to the front door. "I think I am gonna do drive around. Do you mind if I take the car?"
"No," Leo shook his head and pressed the on button on the tv remote. "Go for it."
She took the keys and walked out the door. She got in the car and pressed her foot on the accelerator. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew where she would end up.