Brooke had never let her tears spill like she did in Karen's arms. And Brooke made three, three girls had sobbed in Karen's arms today. Three. There are days that none of them would ever reveal the brokenness in them, and today Karen got three girls, what was it about today? Then Karen got it, it had nothing to do with the day, it had to do with the breaking point, and it just happened to be a coincidence that all of their breaking points happened to be today.

"Brooke, it is okay, sweetheart."

"No, no, it is not okay. My tears are shed and the pain is still here. I have been keeping all of this in for years, afraid that if I let anything out then they would win, all those people who wanted me to be this way. But they won anyways, I am weak, and I still feel pain."

"No one wins, Brooke. And no one wants your life to be this way. That is just too cruel of a thing to wish upon anyone, especially you."

"But it is the story of my life, Brooke plus pain equals true life story. It is all I know, I just do not let anyone else see it, which is all. But I failed, and I let it out, I let others see my tears, basically with my tears, the mask was pealed away. Here I am world; you can do whatever you please with me now."

"Please, don't speak like that. This is your world, no one else's; do not let what others have done to you in the past control your life."

"You say that, and I want to believe it, but I have never felt as if it really was my life for the taking. There has been no one there for me to tell me otherwise. You see I have grown up with out a lot of direction, so if I do not know the answer, I basically figure it out for myself. And the answer could be wrong, it normally is, but that is all I have to live with."

"How long have you been alone, Brooke?"

"Would you believe birth? This is my theory, but you see supposedly you do not remember the first three years due to infantile amnesia, you see I remembered something in my psych class. Anyways, I am pretty sure I came out of my mom and it was then that she realized 'shit, I just made the worst mistake of my entire life, now if I just got rid of her, that would look really bad on me, so lets get a nanny to raise her, and she will never know the difference.' Well you were pretty wrong about that Mom, 'cause, it is really easy to tell the difference between having parents and not. Urgh," Brooke was getting angry, angry at her parents for never being there for her. Where the hell were they when she needed them the most in her life? Brooke knew the answer, but she did not want to admit it.

"So your parents have never been there for you, how do they still have custody of you? They seem pretty neglectful to me."

"I am 18, it is too late now, they managed to be 'my parents' so long that I could never get away from them."

"I am sorry, Brooke, I wish that I had known this earlier."

"And what would you have done? Would you have knocked some sense into them, tell them hey your daughter needs some support? Or would you have stood up and been my mother? Because either way, it is not going to happen. I have already turned out this way, I am already screwed up."

"Stop it, Brooke. You are not screwed up, you are the person you are all based on you, and your parents can take no credit for the way you have turned out."

"Oh they can take all the credit for all that I care, I do not want to take any credit for all the mistakes and missteps. I rather just blame it for the lack of parents in that category. Just imagine this: Oh did you hear Brooke Davis thought that she could sleep with all of the guys on the football team and they would win the championship game? Oh it is okay, she doesn't have any parents to tell her that it is not okay to be a slut. See wasn't that fun."

"I really do not like the light in which you see yourself in. You are not a slut, and you are not a mistake."

"I am going to have to strongly disagree with you there. If I was not a mistake then why do my parents hate me so much? I think that I have messed up their perfect little world. Was it to make their image look better? Bullshit, I do not want to hear that. If they never intended on loving me, then I really wish that they did not bring me into this world. Just give me away; it would have been easier on the both of us."

"Are you saying that everything that has happened in your life you wouldn't mind erasing, and saying that it never happened? You would be happy if you never had to live this life? I know that it has been hard Brooke, it has been awful for you, no one should ever have to go through what you go through, but are you telling me that you have found no happiness in there along the way?"

"It is hard, because the cloud of sadness, it sometimes covers the rest of it up, and I forget that some good things have happened along the way."

"Name a few."

"Peyton and I used to be the best of friends, it was me and her against the world, and that was okay, as long as it was just me and her."

"But?"

"But, look at where we are now. We lost that, I lost that. I finally was forced to believe that you could only fight the world for so long until it fought back. And I lost. I always lose."

"What else have you lost along the way?"

"My way. My love. My friends. Myself."

"Why are you fighting this battle alone?"

"No one else wants to be on this rollercoaster of a life I am living."

"How do you know that?"

"I have tried to bring people along before, and they got sick. You know at the end of this ride, there are two backwards upside down turns, I normally lose them before the first loop."

"How many people know about your life?"

"Umm, no one. I do not let the world see it. I mean Peyton knows that my happiness is a fake. But soon after she found out I pushed her away even further, and she never came back for another ride. I don't blame her though. She already had her own attraction to ride."

"Does she know the real truth though?"

"What real truth? She knows more about it then anyone else."

"But does she really know why you pushed her away even further?"

"Why did I?"

"Brooke, sweetheart, Peyton thinks that you pushed her away because of some reason. And the reason she thinks it is, is because you didn't care about her, that you had something better or more important then her. She doesn't know the truth, the real reason why you pushed her away."

"I needed someone, anyone that needed me too. I never wanted to put her in second place, that was never my intention, especially after all that she has done for me. But that is what happened, it needed someone to want me. Felix wanted me, especially after a time in which that I needed that reassurance."

"What are you talking about, Brooke? Did something happen to you?"

"No…no, nothing happened to me…I just…I needed someone to need me."

"Brooke, you are pretty scared right now for nothing to happen, and for nothing to be wrong. It has to be more then just wanting someone to want you. You are shaking, sweetheart, shaking. And you are scaring me."

"She wouldn't understand…I can't even grasp it myself."

"Brooke, please, just tell me where you are going with this."

"Something happened, about 6 months ago, a little bit before everything was going crazy in Peyton's life. I was so scared, so scared, so I pushed Peyton away even further, because I did not want her to need to help me out. She and her dad have done enough for me in my life, I did not need her to have to help me through this to. I was scared and I did not want to get attached to anyone. Felix came along and he did not need attachment, but he was giving me comfort without attachment. And that is all that I wanted. That is all that I ever wanted."

"Brooke, what happened to you? Whatever it is, it has scared you."

"I was attacked," she looked into Karen's eyes, it hurt her to say those words, she had not said it that many times in the last six months, and it hurt, because it was true. She was attacked, and that man took something from her that she is not going to be able to get back, never. Brooke told Karen about that night, and how Haley was there for her even after the person that she been in the past. "Karen, I was an awful person, to her, to the world, and when I walked into your café, she was the only one there. And she did not care what I had done to the world, I needed someone, and she was that person. If Haley can look away from the pain that I have caused her, then I know that people can change, I can change, and I do not want to be that person anymore."

Karen put her in her arms again, "The person that you are, it has not been set in stone, you can change from the person you have been conditioned to be. You are not that person, Brooke."

"No one has ever said that to me before."

"Well then maybe you have not met enough people in your life, Brooke."

Brooke and Karen sat there for a little longer in embrace, it was a new feeling for Brooke to feel, and for once in her life, she felt secure. She was still scared though, scared on the future, scared of what it was going to bring to her. She never knew what was going to happen, at the rate she was living her life, she was pretty sure she was going to be alone forever. She wasn't alone today.

"Hey, sweetheart, do you think that you might want a break from sitting with Haley for a little while, I will sit with her, she won't go anywhere, I promise you that."

She looked at Karen and she knew it was more then just taking a break, she looked past Karen and she saw Peyton, she looked really anxious, like she wanted to get something off of her chest.

"Yeah, I think that I could use a break, but if anything happens, just let me know, I want to be here when she wakes up."

Brooke got up, gave Haley a small kiss on her forehead, and walked past Lucas without a word. Karen gave her a gentle squeeze on her shoulders but there was no response from Brooke, she just walked out of the room. And all that was stuck in her head were those words, 'Haley is not the one that I think is hopeless.' It did not matter the other words that she was told today, none of the rest mattered, just those words, they killed her, they tore her apart. She was walking down the hall and she got a little wobbly, she put her arm out to support her against the wall. She brought herself over to the wall and slid to the ground, hands on her head. No tears though, no more tears were going to fall from her eyes. Not because of Lucas Scott's words, especially not.

Without her even noticing, Peyton slid down next to Brooke, "do you mind if I sit down here?"

"It is a free country."

"It is funny; you were me earlier with Lucas."

"Yeah, he has that tendency to get into someone else's business, especially when you don't want him there. He comes back around so that he can feel better about himself, so that he can be the hero sweeping down and saving me. But maybe I didn't need a hero; maybe I just needed a friend. A friend to be there when I couldn't do it alone. But Lucas never wanted to be a friend; he just wanted to be the hero."

"I am sorry that I wasn't your friend when you needed me."

"Our friendship really wasn't reciprocal, that is probably why it broke down so easily, I guess it really wasn't meant to be."

"Brooke, don't say that. Are you really saying that a decade long friendship really wasn't worth it?"

"I was never the friend to you that you were to me; I am surprised that you did not walk away a long time ago."

"Brooke, I do not even know what you are talking about. You have always been there for me, whenever I needed you. I have been through a lot in my life, and you have been there for me each time."

"Almost every time, not when you needed me the most. Where was I?"

"I am not sure where you were, Brooke. But it was not fair for me to just expect you to be there every time that I was in trouble. You have a life of your own to live, and it was not fair for me to stop believing in your friendship because of one incidence."

"But it was a big incidence; you turned to cocaine because I wasn't there for you. And now look at where your life has taken you, you are in a whirlwind of drugs and missteps, and this is because I wasn't there for you."

"You cannot blame everything that has happened to me on yourself. You were not forcing me to sniff cocaine day after day. It was my decision; it was my choice, Brooke. And yeah, it was the wrong one, but it was not because of you, not at all. I have never blamed any of this on you. I just pushed you away because I was selfish. I was selfish to not be your friend when you needed me just because you were not always by my side. If I am being honest, Brooke, even if you were there for me, we do not even know if our lives would have turned out differently. I could have still turned to drugs; I could still be with Gavin. We really don't know about our worlds unwritten."

"Peyton, it wasn't that I didn't want to be there for you, I really did. I just couldn't, I needed some sort of comfort for once in my life, whether it was real or fake, I just needed it. And at that point, I failed as a friend, I friend as your friend. You have always been there for me; you gave me a home and a family when I didn't have one. And I never thanked you for it, not once. I just accepted it, took and ran, because it was all that I had, it was all that I ever had."

"You never needed to thank us, you know that we were lacking in the family category as well, it was nice to have another addition to the family. You were our strength after my mom died, and you were only seven years old, Brooke. You have always been there; it was a comfort to know. I took advantage of you; I thought that you were always going to be there. That wasn't fair of me, Brooke, I wasn't fair to you."

"Peyton, I really didn't need anyone, yeah I had you and your dad, but I think that I would have been okay with out you guys too."

"As much as I do not want to admit it, there was no way that we sufficed for a family, your family."

"Don't say that Peyton, that isn't true. You were more of a family to me then anyone ever was, especially my own family. I actually don't even know if I can consider them that. Family, what the hell is that anyways? Peyton, I am so alone," she looked at her former best friend, "so alone."

"You are not alone, Brooke. We are going to start anew, and I am going to be here for you, because you know what? You need me more then ever. Whatever has happened in our pasts, whatever it was that tore us apart, it doesn't matter anymore. It has past us."

"Peyton, I really am okay though. This alone thing is so normal to me, I do not think that I would know any other way."

"It won't hurt to try a different way. I pretty much believed in your theory for awhile, but things happened, lives were changed. My life was changed. It changes everyday, Brooke. I have lost control of the changes going on; I do not want that to happen to you. I do not want you to feel the same pain that I feel; I wouldn't wish it on anyone, not even an enemy, Brooke, not even you."

"You had people that cared about you and they left your lives, I do not know that pain, and I cannot live with that, and you have. But you have never lived with the feeling that no one in this world loves you. That you were a mistake, and forgotten, you do not have to live life that way. The people that left my life, they didn't die, they chose to leave. They chose not to love me."

"It was their loss."

"Peyton, please, we are not friends anymore, we were best friends, but we lost that, tonight doesn't change anything. I wasn't there when you needed me; I don't deserve your friendship tonight."

"Brooke, I want to tell you something and it has nothing to do with who we are now, but who we were then, at one point, at the best point of our lives. I would give the world to bring us back to that point. To one point when everything was okay in the world, a point that we were both happy."

"Peyton, when was this? When we became friends you had just lost your mother, how can you ever be happy after that? And me? I really doubt that I was ever happy."

"How about content? How about a time when we were content? Content with who we were, content with who we weren't. Just simply content with where we were in our lives, can we just go back to then?"

"What will this accomplish?"

"I don't really even know, Brooke. But I just wish that we could go back to the past to the exact point where I lost you."

"Honestly, Peyton, did you really have me? Was there really even something to have, there is no part of me that is worth keeping or holding on to."

"I guess I lost you a lot longer ago then I thought."

"I guess you did. So what did you want to tell me, Peyton?"

"Never mind, it doesn't even matter."

"Wait, Peyton, no, you wanted to tell me something, and I am not going to stop you. I have some experience with this. No matter what you have done, no matter what I have done, if you need me, Peyton, I am here for you."

"I never doubted you were, Brooke, I hope that you know that. It was just an error in my judgment to not trust you anymore."

"What happened to you, Peyton? It cannot possibly be as bad as the other shit that has happened in your life. What can be worst then death and heartbreak?"

"Rape. I was raped last night."

"What? Peyton, I didn't know, I…I tried to stop Gavin last night, he pushed me away. If we got you away from him…if…I could have prevented this."

"You cannot be the hero all the time, Brooke."

"But it is all that I know how to do, if I am not, then who the hell am I?"

"You are my friend."