ONE WEEK LATER

"Okay Brooke, I'm out of here." Kate said as she left the back area of the store.

"Alrighty, I'll see you tomorrow." Brooke replied.

Brooke turned around to straighten the back counter while Kate continued to the door. Peyton entered with the baby carrier and Haley, Lilly and James followed her inside.

"Hey Kate." Peyton greeted.

"Hey Peyton," Kate replied, "hey Haley."

She glanced over at Brooke, then back at Haley and Peyton and said, "It's a good thing you're here. Maybe you tow can get her to take a break. She's been working non stop all day."

"Thanks Kate." Haley said before Kate left out the door. They continued toward the counter and Lilly and James went running up to the counter.

"Hi Mommy!" Lilly said excitedly, running around the counter.

Brooke turned around and smiled as her daughter jumped into her arms.

"Hey baby," she said as she kissed her daughter's cheek. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Momma." Lilly replied.

"Did you have a good day at school?"

"Yeah, but me and James want to color. Can we go color in the back room?"

"Sure, go ahead." Brooke said as she put Lilly back on the ground. Lilly took James by the hand and ran to the back room.

"Thanks again for picking her up and bringing her by." Brooke leaned on the front counter.

"It's no problem," Haley replied, "anytime."

She and Peyton stared at Brooke until Brooke realized why they were staring like they were. She sighed and said, "Let me guess, Karen told you about Mouth and me, right? Well, I don't want to talk about it."

"Talk about what?" Peyton said. "Why you broke up with him?"

"Exactly."

"Why don't you want to talk about it?" Haley asked and waited thirty seconds before finishing, "Because you love him?"

Brooke stopped moving, but did not look up at her friends. But it didn't matter, they had figured her out. She wasn't surprised. Haley, Peyton and Karen always seemed to know more about her than she knew about herself.

"Brooke, what happened?" Peyton wondered. "Why did you break up with him if you love him?"

Brooke finally looked up at them, sighed and said, "It's complicated."

"Your feelings are always complicated, Brooke." Haley said. "And that's because you never talk about what you're feeling when it's something that is hurting you or scaring you. So what is it?"

Finally, Brooke gave in and told them about the dream. She remembered everything so vividly that it was easy to recall.

"I can't be with Mouth anymore because I don't want to lose him like I lost Lucas."

"Brooke, it was just a dream." Peyton said. "What you saw in that dream is very unlikely to happen."

"Actually, it is totally likely, Peyton. I had the same dream about Lucas, remember? Only that wasn't a dream. It really happened."

"But you don't know that it would happen again with Mouth." Haley said, "Sure, it's a possibility, but the chances are slim. And you shouldn't let a dream hold your feelings back. If you want to be with Mouth, you should be with him. If you love Mouth, you should tell him."

Brooke stared at her friends and thought about what they had said. They had good points, but nothing about what they said changed the fact that she was scared. She didn't want to go through something like that again. She couldn't lose somebody she loved like that again.

Brooke noticed a customer walk in and she quickly changed the subject.

"You know what, I can't really talk about this anymore right now. I need to get back to work."

TWO WEEKS LATER

"So Lil," Brooke said as she pushed an empty cart through a toy store with Lilly by her side, "What should we get James for his birthday?"

"Umm…" Lilly replied, "Well, he really wants a dog."

"Sorry, sweetie, that's a present Nathan and Haley have to handle if and when they think he can have a dog. So what toy do you think he would like?"

"Hmm…well, he likes baseball and games and…oh, an magic! He told me he wants me to get him a magic set so we can learn tricks and then play them on Andy and Coop."

Brooke chuckled and said, "Okay, let's go find a magic set."

They walked towards the back of the store and as they turned down an aisle of games, they came face to face with Mouth and Noelle.

"Noelle!" Lilly said excitedly and Noelle looked over and smiled at her.

"Hi Lilly!" She squealed as Lilly ran over to hug her while their parents' eyes remained locked together.

"Hey." Mouth finally spoke while the girls still giggled together.

"Hi." Brooke replied softly.

This meeting was definitely awkward. What was she supposed to say to him about how she left things with him? She surely could not tell him about the dream, otherwise he might try and convince her that it wouldn't come true, as Haley and Peyton had tried to do.

"So, um," Mouth spoke again, " I wanted to talk to you about what happened—

"Mouth, I'm sor—

No, I'm sorry. I understand why you ran out like you did. I understand you were afraid we were getting too close and that my saying I love you meant we were betraying Lucas or something. I understand that you don't share my feelings because you still love Lucas."

He was right. She did still love Lucas and she would always love him. But that dream had helped her realize how much she loved Mouth too. Yet, she could not admit that to him if she wanted to keep him in her life. She could never tell him she loved him, not if she didn't want to lose him. She could be a friend with him maybe, but she could never love him.

"Look Mouth," she finally spoke, "I still am sorry about how I left like I did. I should've called or something afterwards to explain. I don't want things to be weird between us every time we see each other."

"I don't either. So maybe we can agree to go back to being friends." Mouth glanced over at the kids, then back at Brooke and said, "At least for them."

She smiled and said, "I think you're right."

Well, since she could not have Mouth to love like her heart wanted her to; she could at least have him back as friend and only as a friend. That was the way it had to be.