Chapter Four

I Can't Break Her Fall

Brooke kicked her shoes off, watching them fall to the curb of the street. She let her bare feet dangle out of the car as she glanced at the oh-so-familiar house in front of her. She smiled at herself remembering the bar-b-ques in the backyard, how she had her first wreck in her own driveway when drove into the corner of the house, and how, when she was little, she would sit on her mother's bed while her mother brushed her hair.

As soon as her feet touched the wet grass Brooke ran for the front door. The front yard was long and wide, the perfect yard as a child, but now Brooke just wanted to get to the front stoop. She put her hand on the cool cement stoop and closed her eyes. She glanced up at the house and ran her hands over the brick. As she slowly turned around to sit down, she noticed a figure walking toward her.

She had always been scared of the dark and cringed at the sight of the figure nearly 20 feet away. Knowing Brooke's fear to calm her, the image said, "I figured I could find you here."

It was Nathan.

Brooke took a deep breath, "Yeah well, I guess I tend to be kinda predictable in the face of despair." As he came closer, she saw him put a smile on his face to comfort her. She crossed her arms and pulled her legs to her chest. She rested her chin on her knees, "I had no intention to come here," She said, pointing to the house. "But as soon as I got in the car…" She shrugged her shoulders, "I just knew this is where I would end up."

Nathan smiled at her and nodded; "Yeah, it's just kind of a natural thing I guess" She looked up at him, confused, "I just mean… this is where you are used to coming when you are at home…"

"This isn't home," Brooke said, quickly, "This is not my home anymore. Even when my parents were…" She looked down at the ground and then back up at Nathan, "You know…" Brooke let her feet slide out from under her arms and shook her head, as if clearing the thoughts out of her head. "But anyways," She looked up at him and gave him a half hearted smile.

"Don't you think we should talk about this… I mean, Brooke, it's been five years since it happened and we still haven't talked about it." Nathan said as he sat next to Brooke on the concrete stoop.

"We have gone this long without talking about it, why should we talk about it all of a sudden?" Brooke ran her hands over her legs and turned her head to look at him. "I just think that we should," She sighed and pushed her hands away, "just push it away and try to forget about it." She closed her eyes for a moment and then looked at him.

Nathan shook his head, "I'm sorry." He said, bringing up the one thing that Brooke had been trying to forget about since she left town. "I am so sorry for what happened. It was so irresponsible of me."

Brooke shook her head, "No, stop, its okay. Its in the past."

"Brooke, come on talk to me."

She stood up and walked into the yard. She turned around, letting the motion light hit her, "Nathan, I have tried to forget about what happened and so far in my life, it has worked, maybe you should do the same."

"How can you even say that Brooke? Your parents are dead."

"I know!" Brooke screamed at the top of her lungs. "You think I don't know that my parents are dead. You think I don't know that I am the one who killed them. You think I don't know it is my own damn fault that the reason my parents aren't on the other side of that damned door is because of me." She pushed her hands deep into her pockets, "Trust me, I know all of those things, but that is no reason for you to bring it up."

"Brooke you did not kill your parents."

"Okay then Nathan, explain to me how they died." She said, calmly, as the first set of tears dropped from her eyes.

Nathan shook his head at her and said, "Don't do this to yourself. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Well this is what is happening! You want me to tell you how they died Nathan?" Brooke said, yelling at him, "Okay I will tell you. They died on impact. They died from excessive head trauma on impact…"

"Yeah," Brooke said, in between kisses, "Airport. Yes. Cove." Brooke let her tongue dance in and out of Nathan's mouth as his hand lingered up the bottom of her shirt. Nathan's hand reached the bottom of her pink lace bra and Brooke mumbled into his lips, "No, wait." Brooke pushed away from Nathan and let their eyes meet. She smiled at him and then winked. "Just wait. You've been waiting this long, I think you can wait a couple minutes."

"Once more, just once more." Nathan said, as soon as the last word escaped from Brooke's mouth.

She nodded in reply and let her lips meet his once more. Brooke put her hands through Nathan's dark hair and Nathan let go of the steering wheel to pull Brooke's shirt over her head. He kissed her all along her neck and down her chest. Brooke closed her eyes and moaned in agreement. She found his belt with her hands and quickly unbuckled it. Through her eyelids Brooke could see lights flashing in front of the car. She slowly opened her eyes as Nathan placed kisses on her stomach. When she realized what was happening she screamed, "Nathan! Watch out!"

Nathan immediately sat up and Brooke grabbed the steering wheel, her intoxication kicking in as she turned the wheel to the left. She closed her eyes quickly and felt Nathan's SUV crash into the incoming car

Nathan's head slammed into the front corner of the drivers side window, shattering the glass. His knee jolted up and hit the bottom of the steering wheel. Brooke's body crashed forward and cracked the glass of the windshield. The SUV flipped once, some considered them the lucky one. Brooke and Nathan both had concussions, Nathan broke his right leg from trying to slam on the break, and Brooke fractured her collarbone as well as breaking her left arm. They were the lucky ones.

Newspaper reports said that the Davis' car flipped seven times into a muddy ditch, killing them on impact.