CHAPTER FIVE
My heart is full
Summer was long gone, the unusual heat wave that had struck Tree Hill had gradually disappeared. As she was walking down the street, Brooke tightened her scarf around her neck and sped up.
When she crossed Karen's Café's door, her shoulders immediately relaxed. She unbuttoned her coat and looked around her. There were quite a few customers here tonight, more than Brooke had usually seen during a week night. Haley looked like she had been running a marathon: her hair was unkempt, her apron askew and her eyes kept darting from one end of the room to the other. They landed on Brooke just as she was walking to her.
"Oh, hi Brooke! Erm, just get a seat somewhere, I'll get you a drink whenever I can."
She rushed to another table, holding a tray full of empty cups. Brooke hesitated but eventually followed her and asked, "Can I help you with that?"
Haley stared at her with eyes full of hope. "Do you mean it?"
She shrugged. "Yeah. I mean, no offense, but you look like hell."
"None taken. Oh Brooke, thank you so much! I don't know what went through Deb's mind to bail on us on a Friday night!"
"More like who," she muttered to herself.
Holding what seemed to be a very heavy tray with her left hand, Haley grabbed her arm and pulled her along. She brought her to a storage room right behind the counter, quickly scanned the room before finding an apron, and handed it to her. "You can put your stuff here. I'll be right back."
Haley dashed out. Brooke looked at the apron, confused; that was not what she had had in mind when she had offered to help. She had simply noticed how heavy that tray seemed and thought that she could get it out of Haley's hands, then go to a table and do her homework as she had planned. But she couldn't really get out of this now, could she? So, she took off her coat, tied the worn-out apron around her waist, gathered her hair in a ponytail and exited the room just as Haley was coming to see if she was ready.
Brooke could see why Haley looked so overwhelmed. In the few minutes it had taken her to get ready, the number of customers had grown again.
Haley quickly explained to her that her mission would be to work the cash register and clean any empty tables she could spot. That sounded like an easy job to do, but it happened to be quite draining due to what Haley called the clients turnover.
On her first trip to the kitchen, with a tray full of empty plates and cups, she was greeted by a dumbfounded Karen. She didn't have time to chat though, since she knew there were clients queuing up to pay.
After an hour, which Brooke could swear had in fact lasted three hours, the turnover slowed down until there were just a few customers left. She sat down for the first time since she had entered the Café, and stretched out her arms. Haley slumped down on the stool next to hers and yawned.
"I wish I could just teleport straight to my bed."
Brooke turned to her, "I have no idea how you do this every night."
"Technically, it's just three nights a week, and it's not always this hectic. Thank you so much for helping me," she added with a grateful smile, "I don't think I could have survived this night without you. You can go you know, I can finish on my own."
Brooke glanced at the few clients who were lingering around and shrugged. "I wanted to stay here for a while anyway…" ─she gave her a hesitant look─ "I don't feel like going home."
There was an awkward pause, then Haley said, "I know the feeling."
"Are your parents acting like maniacs too?" she asked back, surprised.
Haley chuckled. "No, but they went on a trip for a few weeks. And because apparently, I can't take care of myself, they asked Taylor to come and babysit me." She noticed her confusion and explained, "Taylor's my older sister, and er, let's just say that we don't really get along. On anything. Ever."
"She doesn't live in Tree Hill anymore?"
"No, she left a couple of years back. She's always moving around though, she could never stay put. When our parents called her, she was working in a bar somewhere in Texas."
"That's nice, though."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she dropped whatever she was doing to come stay with you, right?"
"Yeah, I guess," Haley mumbled with obvious reluctance, making her chuckle. "What about your parents? What did you mean by maniacs? Are they trying to murder you?"
"Okay, maniacs might be an overstatement," she admitted with a quiet laugh. "But they've been acting so weird since this summer, and it's been getting worse lately. It really doesn't feel like they're fighting, but more like… Like one of them is sick. I don't know," ─she shook her head─ "I'm probably just imagining things."
"Have you talked to them about this?"
Brooke sighed, and looked down at her intertwined hands. "No. We're not very… Let's just say that communication is not our strong point." She paused for a second, wondering what her family's strong point was, and if they ever had one. "So anyway," ─she looked up at Haley─ "I figured I'd do my homework here."
Haley stood up when she noticed that a client was asking for her. "I'll be right back."
It had been two weeks since she had realized that Lucas had a crush on her. She had been frequently coming to the Café ever since, though she hadn't run into Haley much. When she came by, it was almost always Lucas who was working shifts. In fact, in the last 15 days, she had only talked once to Haley, the week before, on a night she had spent here. She had asked her if Nathan's movie-night plan had not really been her own idea. Haley had admitted that yes, she had figured it would be a good way for Lucas and her to talk things out. Of course, at that time, she hadn't known that Brooke had already apologized to Lucas and that they were back on speaking terms. In a way, Haley's plan had worked since it had helped them to get to know each other better. And it had helped her realize that Haley and Nathan knew about Lucas' crush.
Not just them, in fact. When she thought about it, it also explained why Keith had been overly enthusiastic when they had met. And even though she couldn't remember what Karen's exact words had been when they had met, somehow, Brooke felt as if she was also in the know.
So, pretty much everyone around her had known about this, either because Lucas had told them or because they had guessed, like Peyton had, but what she couldn't figure out was how long this had been going on. How long had Lucas had a thing ─an expression that Peyton had qualified as a euphemism─ for her? They had only started properly speaking this year, but he had begun acting weird around her way before that, though she couldn't precisely put on a date on it. All this time, she had genuinely thought that he wasn't over Peyton. She understood that no one had told her about it out of respect for Lucas' privacy, but still, she felt a bit fooled. And maybe, if she had known sooner, she would have acted differently. She couldn't help but wonder: would it have changed the future?
That was the main topic of her latest meetings with Mouth. Was the future, as he had put it, non-malleable? They had divergent opinions on this. Mouth thought it was all set in stone, and nothing they would do now could change the future. But Brooke refused to accept that concept because it was simply frightening. Not that her future seemed to suck, quite the opposite, but she liked the idea of having a say in her life. As a kid, she had always believed in destiny and such, but now that she was really, truly, facing it up, she did not know what to think anymore. If everything that was going to happen was bound to, wouldn't that mean that they had no free will at all?
She had suggested, half-jokingly, that during her next travel she could check the winning numbers of this year's lottery. Mouth had panicked and begged her never to do that, that it could completely change the future. She had retorted that it was precisely the theory they wanted to test out. Yes, Mouth had admitted, but what they wanted to attain was a small change in the future. They didn't want to alter their entire lives. What if, by becoming filthy rich through lottery, Brooke were to become a gambler, eventually lose all her money, be dumped by Lucas who just wouldn't be able to handle her anymore, and end up homeless? Brooke had laughed at that, which had only made him more serious about this. She had eventually promised him that she would never try to do that, and that she would never try anything without getting his opinion first.
But what kind of action would only have a small impact in the future? What about the butterfly effect? Was there even something that they could do right now and that wouldn't drastically change their lives? And if unfortunately, things did change for the worse, would they be able to take it back? There were just too many factors which neither Mouth nor Brooke could predict.
The doorbell rang again. She raised her eyes and saw with relief that it was just Keith and Lucas. Keith stopped to greet Haley, but his nephew walked straight to the counter, looking bemused.
"What are you wearing?" he asked Brooke, his eyebrows raised.
"I just wanted to try it out. I've always thought it would look nice on me." She stood up and did a little twirl. "What do you think?"
He laughed heartily. "Looks good. Did you get hired?"
"Just for the night."
"She was great!" Haley chimed in as she was coming over to Brooke's side with another tray.
Keith stopped next to Lucas. "Hi Brooke. Haley was just telling me about the amazing work you've done here."
"Well I have to live up to my reputation, haven't I?" she retorted, making them laugh. "Anyway, I'm done for the night," she said, untying her apron.
"I did ask for your help, you know," Haley said to Lucas with a slight frown. "Where were you?"
"Sorry, but I was training with Nate, so I didn't check my phone."
"Are you getting ready for next week?" Brooke asked. The basketball season was officially starting in 8 days; Nathan was as excited as a child on Christmas morning.
Lucas nodded at her then turned to his best friend with an apologetic face. "I swear I only saw your text ten minutes ago."
"You better let me win at our next game," Haley said with a squint.
While Brooke wondered what game she was talking about, Lucas raised up his right hand and solemnly said, "I will. Where are you going?"
They all turned to Brooke as she was walking towards the back door. She looked at them, surprised. "I'm going home."
"You should eat with us," he added with a quick look to his uncle, who nodded in agreement. "We're all getting dinner here."
"I don't know," Brooke said hesitantly, glancing over her shoulder. "That would just give Karen more work."
"She won't mind," Haley told her with an encouraging smile.
She looked at them, thinking about it for a second. It was a tempting idea, but… Her mother would then probably be dining on her own, and she seemed upset enough already. "Thanks, but I'll pass. Maybe another time?"
She had been right; that night, when she reached home, her mother had prepared dinner and was waiting for her. Her father came home late in the night, way after they had gone to bed, and had already left the house when she got up the next morning.
Victoria said he had gone to work. Lately, her father had been constantly working, even on weekends.
Brooke left her house right before noon, hopped in her car and went to Nathan's house. He had invited her, along with Peyton, for lunch. This had really surprised them both, as they had expected him to spend his entire weekend training for the opening game.
When she arrived, Peyton was already there. Just as Nathan was leading them to the kitchen, Peyton leaned to Brooke's ear and whispered that something was up. She was right; Nathan was acting suspiciously edgy. During lunch, he kept changing subjects, as if he was trying to tell them something but couldn't make up his mind on what exactly he wanted to say. They didn't point it out to him, though; he looked like he was struggling enough on his own. Usually, Brooke would have spent the whole day wondering about his strange behavior, but she quickly forgot about it, when an hour later, as they were cleaning up the kitchen, her eyes landed on a framed picture on the wall. It was a photo of Nathan and his maternal grandparents; he looked like he was about three or four and was wearing a pumpkin costume.
That was when she remembered the Halloween picture from her travel in 2025, the one with the three of them dressed as skeletons. She hadn't thought about it since, but she had never since this picture at her house, nor at Peyton's. Which meant…
"Nate, do you still have our old Halloween pictures?"
He looked up at her, his hands still busy scrubbing the kitchen top. "Yeah, why?"
She tried to give a nonchalant shrug. "I just thought it would be nice to see them again. Where are they?"
He replied that they were now all in the new library, in other words Dan's former study. She volunteered to fetch them on her own and rushed out.
How had she not thought about that before? It sounded so simple now. All she had to do was to rip up that picture and then see if it would still be there on her 2025 fridge. How great could the consequences from destroying a picture be?
Finding that picture may not turn out as easy, she thought, when she saw were the Scott family pictures were. They had all been put away in four different boxes, and they were in absolute shambles. Brooke sighed, and after quickly going through one box, realized that she could not do this on her own. She would have to sneak the picture without her friends seeing her and deal with the destroying later. If she were to just tear it up in front of them, they would most likely have her committed. And anyway, she had promised Mouth that she would inform him before trying anything.
She piled up the boxes and lifted them in her arms; it wasn't as heavy as she had thought, but she couldn't properly see what was in front of her. Good thing that she knew this house like the back of her hand. She advanced half blindly into the corridor that led to the stairs and stopped moving when she heard people laughing behind her. She glanced over her shoulder; no one was there. When the tingle started appearing in her fingers and toes, she felt excited for she knew for sure she was going to travel again.
She froze, wondering how she could hide from Nathan and Peyton. She didn't know how long she would be gone; what if they found her asleep on the floor? That could not happen. Maybe she could just go to the bathroom, lock the door, and wait there. So far, she had never been out for more than a few seconds.
Yes, that sounded like a good idea. She was about to go to the restroom, when, over the buzzing sound that was now ringing in her ears, she heard Nathan's voice calling her from downstairs. "Do you need any help?"
"No!" she shouted, alarmed. "I'll be there in a minute!"
"What did you say?"
"I said don't come!" she yelled, straining on her voice. Panicking, she turned on her heels, and went to the top of the stairs so that he could hear her better. She had enough time; she could still tell him not to─
Brooke started feeling drowsy just as she was about to tell Nathan not to come up. Before she could sit down, or even walk away from the stairs, she felt her eyes shutting and her body going limp.
Her eyes flickered opened right away. Her head was, once again, resting on a table. She sat up and looked around her. She was in a restaurant, though she did not know which one. It didn't seem to be very fancy, more like a simple downtown restaurant. She was sitting at a round table, with three table mats placed on it, including the one in front of her.
Had she already eaten or was she waiting for someone? She glanced around, but none of the other clients looked familiar, and the busboy was too busy running around the place to pay her any attention. She had a hunch that she had not had her meal yet, because oddly enough, even though she had just had lunch with Peyton and Nathan, she felt hungry.
She pondered on leaving this place until she saw, at the far-end of the room, two familiar silhouettes entering the restaurant and waving at her as they walked to her table.
Her heart stopped when she recognized them.
Mouth looked more mature than now. Maybe it had to do with the confidence that was showing on his face, and that was lacking in Brooke's time. His hair was shorter, and his shoulders looked broader. He also seemed a bit taller, but maybe it was just his whole demeanor that made it seem that way.
Haley was walking beside him, checking something on her phone. Her clothing style seemed to have drastically changed over the years as she now looked unusually fashionable. Her hair, instead of being straight, was now wavy, shoulder-length and blonde, just as she had seen in the picture from 2025.
As they both sat at the table, taking off their coats and scarfs, Brooke felt a mix of excitement and fear. She was thrilled to be able to speak to Mouth, but how was she going to handle Haley?
"When did you get here?" Haley asked her as she started looking at the menu.
Brooke stayed silent, not sure how she could answer that. What was she supposed to say? Wouldn't Haley think she's gone nuts if she told her the truth? Maybe if she could get her to go to the bathroom or something, she could talk to Mouth freely.
Mouth, who was also looking at the menu, raised his eyes to meet hers. "Brooke?"
"I got here, er, just five minutes ago," she improvised.
She watched them as they kept reading their menus and when Haley noticed it, she quickly looked down at her own and pretended to choose a main course. How long would it take them to see that something was wrong with her?
As if on cue, Haley asked her, "What's wrong, Brooke? You look nervous."
"I─ I'm not," she stammered, staring at the menu as if her life depended on it. "I'm fine."
"Come on," Haley said with a chuckle. "I can tell you're lying."
That surprised her so much that she couldn't help looking up and asking, "You can?"
"Oh my god," she said, grabbing Mouth's forearm with such force that he flinched. "Are you pregnant?"
Panic rose inside Brooke. "No!" Her hand automatically went on her stomach to check that it was its normal size. "I mean, I don't think so."
"You don't think so?" Mouth repeated with a frown.
"But I thought you still wanted to wait a couple of years," Haley said with a surprised tone. "You know, until your company was stable, and Luke was done touring."
"My─" Brooke fell silent before she could raise any more suspicion. Her company? What company? And Lucas was touring? Why? Was he a rock star now?
Mouth's frown deepened. "What's wrong Brooke?" he asked, his voice getting lower.
She stared at him, wishing that he could just read her mind. "Er, I need to tell you something. In private," she added with an apologetic look to Haley.
For some reason, that made Haley laugh. "Why the secrecy, Brooke?"
"Mouth," Brooke said, carefully choosing her words, "remember what we talk about─ I mean, talked about, during our meetings in senior year?"
Mouth's expression went from worry to confusion. He shared a look with Haley, who also looked puzzled.
"Brooke, why can't you talk about that in front of me?" Haley asked her.
"Talk about what?" she asked back with an innocent look.
"You know" ─Haley's voice suddenly got lower─ "your time-travel."
For the second time in less than five minutes, Brooke was rendered speechless. When she got her voice back, all she could ask was, "How do you know?"
Even though Haley's confusion grew bigger, Mouth looked like he had just put two and two together. "Wait a second… Did you just travel?" he asked her with a hint of excitement.
Brooke stared at them both, unsure of how to answer this. But since it looked like Haley already knew about their secret, she gave him a nod.
Haley jumped from her seat and hugged her with such force that Brooke almost fell from her chair. "Oh my god, it's today!" she shouted in her ears.
"Haley, you're choking me."
"Sorry," she said with a grin that showed that she was, in fact, not sorry at all.
Haley let go of her and before Brooke could say anything, Mouth stood up and hugged her too, though in a gentler way. "It's so nice to see you," he told her as he sat back on his seat. Brooke looked at them both, feeling completely lost. She had no idea what the hell was happening to her. She genuinely felt as if she had traveled to another dimension. They both seemed to notice her turmoil. They shared a look, and Mouth said, "You told us we'd meet you during one of your travels."
"But you never told us when it would be," Haley added.
That puzzled Brooke even more. "Wh─ Why would I do that?"
Haley pointed at Mouth, and said with an accusing tone, "That was his idea."
"I just wanted our reactions to be genuine," he said on a defensive tone.
"So, er…" Brooke said, not knowing where to start. A hundred different questions were now flashing in her mind. "What's today's date?"
Mouth looked uneasy to answer that. "Do you promise not to tell us? I mean, us in the past, you know, your present."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure."
"December 20th, 2024."
"And when do you come from?" Haley asked her, with palpable thrill.
"Senior year."
"Yeah, we know that," she said impatiently. "But when exactly?"
Brooke frowned. "November 19th. Wait, how do you know for sure that I'm still in high school?"
Mouth gave Haley a warning look, then told her, "Because once you get back to your time, you'll find me, I mean the past me, and tell me about this."
Brooke turned to Haley. "So you know about my travels?"
"Yeah, I've known for a while."
"No offense, but why do I tell you? And when do I do that?"
Before Haley could say anything, Mouth stepped in. "Hales, don't," he said with a stern face.
Haley glanced at him, "But─" She quieted down when she noticed Mouth's frown. "Come on, can't we just─"
Brooke silently watched as they both engaged in a staring contest, each one waiting for the other to give up. She knew how close they were, so witnessing a fight between them, though completely silent, felt odd. "Do you want me to leave, so you can talk it out?"
"No!" they both said in unison, their heads swiftly turning to her.
"It's just that…" Haley said, still hesitant. "We've talked about this moment so many times, and there's some stuff we never agreed on. You know, on what we can tell you." Brooke was about to ask them for more details but thought better of it. They were obviously not going to answer her on that. Haley leaned sideways to whisper something in Mouth's ear, who looked thoughtful for a second and eventually gave her a nod. "I can't say when you talked to me about your travels," Haley told her with an apologetic smile, "but I can tell you that it was to help me."
"Help you?"
"Yeah, I was feeling really down, and you told me to cheer me up."
How could that knowledge cheer anyone up? That didn't make any sense.
Mouth interrupted her thoughts. "We should take a picture."
"Right," Haley said with a nod, "before you go back."
"So, I won't see you again after that? During another travel?"
Haley looked suddenly gloomy as she shook her head. They both stood up and knelt next to her, Mouth taking out his phone and counting to three. Just as he was taking the picture, Brooke realized as she was looking at the screen that it was the exact same picture that she had seen on her Brooklyn fridge. So… It had in fact been her on that picture?
After they went back to their seats, Brooke hesitantly asked them, "So, er, I'm not asking for a clear and exact answer, because I know I won't get one" ─she threw Mouth an accusing look─ "but can you at least tell me if we ever figure out how I can travel?"
"How?" Haley repeated with a frown. "Yeah, but more than that, what mattered was─" She stopped abruptly when Mouth kicked her chair. She glanced at him then looked back at Brooke. "Let's just say that it didn't really matter how."
Once again, they looked like they had conflicting thoughts on the subject. What she could not understand, was how they had still not found a common ground about this. They were five years into the future and they still didn't agree on what they could or couldn't tell her? Why did it matter so much what kind of information they gave her?
"Past tense," Brooke muttered as she realized something. "You're using past tense. And you knew for sure I was in high school." She frowned at them. "Do I stop traveling after we graduate?"
They both had unsure looks, but eventually Mouth nodded just as Haley said, "Yes."
Brooke paused as that information sunk in. So, it would eventually end… She wasn't sure how to feel about this. She wanted to ask more about her travels, but she knew they wouldn't answer her and would just feel uncomfortable. She decided to change the subject completely. "So, where are we? Can you at least tell me that?"
"I guess so, yeah," Haley said with a quick glance at Mouth. "We're at Vesuvio's. It's a new restaurant that opened up here."
"And where's here?"
"Oh right, you don't know. We're in Tree Hill."
"But it's almost 2025," Brooke said with a frown. "Shouldn't I be living in New York right now?"
"You are," Mouth said with a nod. "We" ─his forefinger went from Haley to himself─ "still live here. You came for the holidays."
"Okay, that makes sense. And what do you do here?"
"I started teaching this year," Haley said with a proud smile.
"And I work at a local news station," Mouth added with less enthusiasm. "It's not going great so far, but I'm sure it'll get better."
"What's wrong?" Brooke asked.
"Nothing bad, it's just my boss, she's, er─"
Haley cut him off. "Brooke, you called her a conniving bitch."
"Which is a complete overstatement," Mouth quickly said.
"Is not!" Haley argued, rolling her eyes. "Or did she finally agree to take a look at your demo?"
"No," he admitted with a sigh.
"Your demo?" Brooke repeated, feeling lost.
"I don't do much for now," he explained, looking disappointed. "All she asks me to do is get her coffee and, er─"
He stopped when the busboy showed up at their table, asking them if they wished to order. Brooke didn't know what to say; how long was she going to stay here with them? Mouth threw her a quick glance, then told the busboy that yes, they would order now. When he left, Brooke turned to Mouth. "So what were you saying, all you do is get her coffee and?" she asked with curiosity.
He suddenly had shifty eyes. "Well, er… Okay, I haven't told this to the guys yet so you can't tell them─"
"The guys?" Brooke repeated, once again muddled.
"Skills, Fergie and Junk. We're roommates. So anyway, I haven't told them about this because I know that, er… Never mind, just don't tell them, okay?"
"Sure," Haley said with a shrug.
"It's not like I could say anything," Brooke said with a chuckle. "Come on, what is it?"
Mouth sighed, looking mortified. "I slept with her. Twice."
"With the conniving bitch?!" Haley exclaimed, her eyes growing wide with shock. "You said she was the most obnoxious person you've ever met!"
"Yeah, I know, but the thing is she's more than that. She's actually kind of nice sometimes, she just doesn't want it to show."
"Kind of nice?" Brooke repeated with a snort. "Sometimes? Wow, she sounds like a real sunshine."
"Oh Mouth, I don't think this is gonna make things easier for you," Haley added, shaking her head in dismay.
"It's definitely not," he admitted with another sigh. "Now I don't know what she thinks of me, on both professional and personal levels."
Hearing rushed footsteps coming from behind her, Brooke glanced above her shoulder but saw no one running towards her. She looked back at her friends as she understood what was happening. "I think I'm going back."
They both looked disappointed. "Already?" Mouth asked her.
Haley's face was ashen. "But you just got here."
"I know but" ─Brooke looked at her fingers as the tingle appeared on them─ "yeah, I'm definitely going back. Who knows, I might see you again."
Mouth shook his head, his mouth turned into a frown. "No, if we met again you would have definitely told us."
She shut her eyes tightly when the buzzing noise started to ring loudly in her head. When she opened them again, Haley looked like she was in a deep internal conflict. In the end, she stood up, silently grabbed Brooke's arm, pulled on it to lift her up from her chair, and hugged her once again.
She didn't ger her ribs crushed this time, but Brooke felt like Haley was desperately clinging on to her. She wasn't used to them being so close, yet something felt familiar about this situation. Maybe it was like how she was hungry right now, maybe she was just channeling Future Brooke's feelings.
Brooke swiftly looked at Mouth, who was staring at them with a sullen face. Just as she started feeling drowsy, she noticed his watery eyes. Before she could ask them what was going on, her eyes suddenly closed.
It took her several seconds to understand what had happened, when she opened her eyes and was now staring at Nathan's ceiling. She was lying on her back; her body seemed to hurt everywhere. Something was definitely wrong, because she was seeing half in red. After thinking she may have hit her head too hard this time, she lifted her hand and touched her forehead. A red substance was pouring from it, covering her right eye. Blood.
Nathan's frightened voice rang in her ears. "What the hell happened?"
She looked to her left and saw that both Nathan and Peyton were kneeling next to her. On her right stood the stairs, with hundreds of photographs scattered on its steps. The boxes she had been holding were lying flat down on the floor, all in different places.
Now, she remembered. She had been standing above the first steps when she had traveled.
She ignored her friends' protests and sat up, wiping the blood off her face, and wincing as she did so. Something on her forehead hurt much more than her neck or back. "I missed a step," she managed to say after a few seconds of dizziness. She felt blood trickling down her cheek again.
"That doesn't look so bad," Peyton said as she was checking her face, "but we need to clean this wound. Let's get you on the couch."
They helped her up and walked her to the living room. She noticed with relief that she could still walk properly. Nathan dashed out of the room and came back shortly after with a first-aid kit.
Peyton swiftly took out a pack and pressed it on Brooke's forehead. "Hold this," she told her with a firm tone, as she was going through the kit, apparently looking for something. "Nathan, there's nothing for stitches here."
"Stitches?" Brooke repeated, her eyes growing wide in fear.
"You just keep applying pressure."
"Check the side pocket, I think there's some in there," Nathan said as he was sitting on the coffee table, staring at Brooke as if she was going to seizure at any time.
"Found it," Peyton said after a few seconds. "Alright, let's take a look at this wound."
Brooke frowned, flinching once again from the pain. "No stitching, P."
"Come on Brooke, don't be─"
"I'm serious, I don't want any─"
"Just let me take a look at it!" Brooke obeyed and uncovered her forehead. Peyton squinted as she was checking her wound, and her face traits suddenly softened in relief. "It's really small, you'll just a need a butterfly stitch."
"Good," Brooke said with a sigh.
She stayed still as Peyton cleaned her wound and put a single bandage on it. Once again defying her friends' protests, she stood up and walked to the nearest mirror, the one in the hallway.
Thankfully, it was just a small cut, right above her right eyebrow. It was not even 5 millimeters long; Brooke wondered how such a small cut could bleed so profusely.
Peyton's voice came from behind her. "We're gonna have to get you a helmet."
She turned around to face her best friend, who looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or yell at her. "A helmet?"
"Yeah, since you keep falling all over the place."
That made her laugh; even Nathan seemed to relax and gave a hint of a smile. "Only if it's on-trend." She then glanced at the pile of photographs on the floor, and turned to Nathan. "I'm so sorry, it's gonna take a while to clean this."
"That's okay, my mom keeps saying we need to file them anyway."
They spent the next hour picking up pictures and putting them away in boxes. Peyton ordered her to put some ice on her forehead, but Brooke was too busy looking at the pictures. She picked one where the three of them were proudly posing for the camera dressed as the three musketeers. She fondly remembered how Peyton had used melted chocolate to draw fake mustaches on their faces.
There was a lot to reminisce about, especially on the pictures taken at their first days of school. Brooke noticed then that her parents had never both been there at the same time: it had either been her mother or her father who was accompanying her.
They got even more nostalgic when they found some with Peyton's late mother. There were a few that Peyton didn't even have at her house, so she asked Nathan if she could make copies.
And then sometimes, they came across pictures of Dan and Deb together, which surprised Nathan since he thought his mother had burnt all the ones with her ex-husband.
In the midst of all this, Brooke managed to spot the skeleton picture. She grabbed it, and after checking twice that Nathan and Peyton were busy arguing about whose idea it had been to climb on Nathan's neighbor's apple tree, and thus weren't paying any attention to her, she swiftly put it away in her pocket.
When she left Nathan's house that afternoon, she knew she had to find Mouth. She had kept everything that had happened in her travel pent-up so far, but she desperately needed to tell someone, and it could only be Mouth.
Well, apparently at some point, she would also share her secret with Haley. She was still astonished by the news; how would that even happen? If she were to tell someone else other than Mouth, the next person that would come to her mind would be Peyton. Haley would be at the bottom of the list. In fact, she would not even be on the list.
Since Mouth wasn't answering his phone, she drove straight to his house. She knew the route quite well now, since they had done a few meetings there, last month, when they were still researching about time-travel. Which reminded her of something Future Haley had told her, that it didn't really matter how she could travel… How could that not matter? Or rather, what could matter more than that?
Mouth's mother answered the door. She was a small, round-shaped woman in her fifties. She was exactly what Brooke had pictured her to be: a nice, caring, and slightly nosy mother. She had been spot on with that last feature: she had kept knocking on her son's door to check on them, see if they needed anything to drink or eat, but mostly, Brooke suspected, to see what they were up to.
Mrs McFadden seemed to notice her bandage, because her eyes kept darting from Brooke's eyes to her forehead, with apparent worry. She then told her that Mouth was with his friends and most probably hanging out at the River Court.
When she arrived at their spot, she saw that Mouth was indeed sitting on the bleachers, laughing as he was watching his friends play basketball. Lucas was there, with three of his friends. She recognized the one called Skills, as he was playing in the Ravens alongside Nathan and Lucas. The other two were called Fergie and Junk, but she couldn't recall who was who.
When he saw her approaching, Mouth jumped from the bleachers. He looked happy to see her, until she got close enough to properly see his face and saw that he had a look of horror as he was staring at her forehead.
"What happened to you?!"
"Just a small cut."
"A small cut? Brooke your forehead is huge!"
Her eyes grew wide as she reached for the spot on her forehead above her right eyebrow, and touched what felt like a massive, painful bump. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed the throbbing, pigeon egg shaped bruise that had appeared there. Peyton had been right, she should have iced it.
"Seriously Brooke, what happened?"
"That's why I wanted to talk to you actually," she said, her hand dropping from her forehead. "I just─"
She stopped talking when she felt something bumping against her feet. They both looked down; the basketball had rolled down to her. They looked up in unison and saw that the four players had stopped their game and were all staring at her with bewilderment.
They all walked up to the ball; Lucas leaned forward to pick it up and threw it to Skills, but all the while, Brooke noticed, he kept his eyes fixated on her bruise.
"Hey Brooke," he said, his voice unsure. "I don't know if you've met before, but this is Skills" ─he pointed at the one standing to his right, who gave her a playful wink─ "Fergie and Junk" ─he pointed at the two boys standing to his left who waved at her─ "I don't think I've ever seen you here." And then he asked her what seemed to be everyone's burning question. "Are you okay? What happened to your head?"
She didn't know if it was her mind playing tricks on her, but he looked even more worried than Peyton and Nathan, which was quite an achievement. "I'm fine, I just missed a step in Nathan's staircase. Sorry," she added, looking at the other boys, "I didn't mean to interrupt your game."
"Oh, I'm sure Luke doesn't mind," Skills retorted with a laugh, that quickly died when Lucas sent him a death stare. He cleared his throat, looking suddenly nervous as hell, "Yeah, because er, see I was whooping his butt before you came, so that's why he, um, doesn't mind."
She failed at holding back a laugh and made a mental note to add three more people on the list of those who knew about Lucas' crush on her. They all seemed to relax when they heard her laughter. "Don't mind me, you can go back to your game," she told them with a smile.
Lucas gave her a crooked grin, and as he was snatching the ball from Skills' hands, she heard him mutter: "Will do."
"Hey!" Skills shouted as he was running after him back to the court. "You can't do that! No way we're counting this if you score!"
Mouth laughed quietly, shaking his head, then turned to Brooke. "Come on," he said with a head movement to the bleachers, "now tell me what really happened."
"I was standing right above the stairs when I travelled."
"Jesus, Brooke, you could have really hurt yourself," Mouth told her with a frown.
"I know," she sighed. They sat on the lower bleachers. "But I'm fine, apart from this huge horn sprouting on my head. But never mind that, I talked to you during my travel! And Haley! We were eating in a restaurant in Tree Hill."
"What?! Are you serious?!" Mouth exclaimed in surprise. "When is that happening?"
"Decemb─"
"No wait!" he shouted, making her startle. "Don't tell me! Otherwise when it does happen to me, my─"
"Reaction won't be genuine, yeah, I know the drill," she said, rolling her eyes.
"So, what happened? What did I look like? And Haley?"
As usual, he quietly waited until she was done telling him all the details of her travel. She liked that he never interrupted her, as it allowed her to properly recall the events.
"Wow," he whispered when she finished her story. "That's… Wow. Haley knows."
"Yup."
"And you'll stop traveling after we finish high school."
"Yup."
"And I'm having sex with my boss."
She laughed. "Yeah you are."
"This is so cool! I wish I could tell the guys right now," he mused, glancing at his friends.
"You'll just have to wait a few years for that. But back to what I think is just a tad more relevant, Haley finds out about this."
"I wonder how that can happen. I mean sure, you guys know each other, but…"
"Not to the point where I'd tell her all my secrets, I know. And she said I told her─ will tell her to cheer her up. What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Mouth thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head. "I have no idea. And there's something more, you said I looked like I was crying when you were about to come back here, right?"
"I'm not sure, it all happened very fast, but… Yeah, that's how it looked like."
"That's weird. Why would I do that?"
"Maybe I'm a bitch in the future and you miss the good ol' me?"
"How is that any different from now?" he said with a laugh.
She punched him on the arm. "I'm seriously starting to think that I have a terrible influence on you."
He stopped laughing abruptly, startling her. "Wait a minute, didn't you say you were going skiing for Thanksgiving?"
Indeed, that was what she had told him. Brooke's parents always went to a ski resort on Thanksgiving holidays. "Yeah, why?"
"What if you travel when you're going down a ski trail?"
Her smile faded away, as she realized that he was right. "I could slam into someone. Or worse, a tree. You're right, I can't go this year."
"And I won't be able to help you, I'll be at my grandparents."
"You won't have any signal?"
He shook his head. "No, not for a couple of days."
"Crap. I can't stay at Peyton's either, not the whole time, what if I pass out in front of her again? She'll definitely freak out, and this time I don't think I'll get away with it."
"I'm sure you'll be fine."
"How do you know that? What if I travel when the stove is on?"
"Brooke, you won't get hurt. At least not badly." He sounded sure of himself.
"We don't know that," she said with a sigh.
"Actually, we do. We know you're safe and sound in 2025, so in the meantime nothing bad can happen to you. But maybe," he added after a thoughtful pause, "just in case, don't use the stove when you're on your own."
She nodded and watched as Fergie was making his way to the other end of the court, only to be stopped by Skills. "I wonder what she meant."
"Who?" Mouth asked with a frown.
"Haley. She said it didn't really matter how I could travel."
"Too bad she couldn't finish her sentence."
Brooke squinted at him. "And whose fault do you think it is?"
"Hey, it wasn't me, it was Future me! If it doesn't matter how you can travel," Mouth repeated with a frown, "then what does? I don't get it."
"Me neither," Brooke lamented, scratching her head. "Oh, but I did think of something!" she cheered up, remembering what she had been hiding in her pocket.
Mouth took the picture in his hands and smiled as he studied it. "How old were you on this?"
"Ten."
"Wait, isn't that one of the pictures you saw on your fridge? In Brooklyn?"
Her smile widened up to her ears. "Precisely. And there's only one copy of this."
He looked at the picture, then back at Brooke and asked, "Are you sure of that?"
"Certain. I've never seen it at Peyton's or at my house. Which means that if we get rid of this one─"
"We can see if it disappears in the future!" Mouth exclaimed. "You're right! And it shouldn't have too many consequences." His excitement toned down a little as he said, "But are you sure you want to do this?"
"What do you mean?" she asked, confused.
"Don't you like this picture? If we get rid of it, it'll be gone forever."
She took the picture back in her hands and stared at it. Sure, it represented a fond memory: it had been the last Halloween they had spent together as kids. But knowing whether she could change the future was worth a few sacrifices.
She took a deep breath, held the picture with both hands, and just as she was about to tear it, stopped when the basketball rolled down to her feet once again.
Lucas jogged to them, picked up the ball and looked down at the picture in her hands. "What's that?" he asked, curious.
"Nothing," she answered dismissively. "Just an old pic."
He leaned forward to take a better look at it. "Is that you?" he asked in awe, snatching the picture from her hands.
"Hey!"
"Wow," he murmured, staring at the picture. "How old were you?"
She stood up. "Ten."
"Wow," he repeated. His eyes travelled several times from the picture to her. "You haven't changed at all. I mean you have, but you haven't. Your face looks the same."
She was struggling not to show her impatience. "I'm sure it's the same for a lot of─"
"Hey, weren't you supposed to get me a picture of Nate dressed as a little girl?"
She had hoped that he had forgotten about that. "Whatever Lucas, can I get this picture back? We need it."
He raised an eyebrow. "We?"
Mouth stood up next to her and gave his friend a shug. "Yeah Luke, we really do."
Lucas looked at them both then turned to Brooke with a playful grin. "Alright then, let's trade."
"Trade?" she repeated, puzzled. "Trade what?"
"You get me that picture of Nate, and I'll give you back this one," he said, wagging it in front of her.
She snickered and jumped to catch it, but he turned out to be faster than her; her hand closed on thin air. She tried a different tactic and looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Come on, I really need this picture."
He chuckled at her. "Well, I guess you better get me what I want then." Brooke stood gaping; she felt like she was seeing a whole new side to him, which, in a weird way, she found to be equally unnerving and attractive. She turned to Mouth and saw that he would be of no help as he seemed to find this whole situation very amusing. Lucas then put the picture in his back pocket and looked at them both. "Are you done talking?" he asked them with a frown.
"Wh─ Why?" she asked back.
He pointed at her forehead. "Because we really should get some ice on this."
"Oh, um, I don't know, I still─"
She fell silent when Mouth gently pushed her forward. "Yeah, we're done," he told Lucas with a nod.
"Come on then, my mom should have what we need," Lucas told her as he started walking away from the court.
She hesitated, then followed him. As they walked down the block and turned left, he caught her stealing a glance at his back pocket and with a chuckle, said, "Don't even think about it." She shoved him to the side and walked faster, with a pouting face that only made him laugh harder.
After a few minutes, they reached the Café. When they walked past the front windows, Brooke glanced at her reflection and immediately froze. To her despair, the bump had grown even further. Lucas stopped next to her and followed her gaze.
"It's really starting to look like a horn," she muttered with horror.
"You should get inside before you hurt someone," he said, stifling a laugh.
She punched his arm, which unsurprisingly didn't seem to hurt him at all, and with her right hand covering the bump, stormed in the Café, keeping her head down the whole time. "Hi Deb," she muttered as she walked around the counter, thankful that Deb was still struggling to properly look her in the eyes since she had been seen half-naked.
"Is she still awkward around you too?" Lucas asked her in a low voice, just before they reached the kitchen door.
"Yup."
Karen was deep in thought, reading some papers spread in front of her. Brooke turned to Lucas and whispered, "She looks busy. Maybe we should─"
"Hey mom," Lucas said in a loud voice, getting Karen's attention.
She looked up, gave them a quick smile, and then did a double take on Brooke. "What happened to you?!"
"That's why we're here," Lucas said as he walked up to her. "Do you still have the ice pack?"
"You mean the boo boo bag?"
He winced with embarrassment. "Can you stop calling it that?"
"You're the one who came up with that name!" Karen said, standing up from her stool. She walked around the kitchen, went to a huge freezer, and took out a small packet. She then rolled a clean dish towel around it and turned to Brooke. "Sit," she ordered, pointing at the stool next to hers.
Brooke obeyed and as she sat saw that it was a packet of frozen peas. Karen carefully placed it on her forehead; the cold immediately soothed her pain. "So that's the boo boo bag?" Brooke asked. "Cute name," she added to Lucas with a chuckle.
"I was six when I made up that name," he said with an embarrassed shrug.
"The boys were always running around as kids," Karen explained with a nostalgic smile, "so whenever one of them was hurt they'd come here to get some ice. See, frozen peas are a nice trick, because it can take the shape of any bump."
"You're used to this," Brooke stated.
"I'll be right back," Lucas said, walking to a door at the other end of the kitchen. Brooke wondered where that led to. Outside, maybe?
"Where are you going?" his mother asked him.
He took out the picture from his back pocket and waved it at them. "I need to put this in a safe spot."
He disappeared behind the door; Karen turned back to face her, looking puzzled. "You've been around here a lot lately," she said, sounding intrigued rather than meddling.
"Oh," Brooke said, looking down at her lap, feeling a bit shy for some reason. "I guess, yeah."
"Lucas told me that your parents were acting weird around you."
Her head shot up, surprised that Lucas had confided this to his mother. When had that come up? "Yeah, they are." She paused, and hesitated before muttering, "It just doesn't feel like home anymore."
Karen frowned. "That bad?"
She shrugged dismissively and avoided Karen's gaze. There was something in the way she was looking at her, and the tone of her voice, that made Brooke think that she could well up at any moment.
"They didn't…" Karen said, her voice suddenly hesitant. "If you ever need to talk to someone, I mean an adult, you can always come here."
Brooke looked back at her. She looked genuinely worried about her. About her safety. Wait, did she think that… "I fell in the stairs."
"Okay, but still─"
"No, I'm serious. I missed a step at Nathan's. He was there, and Peyton too, you can ask them."
Karen stared at her for a second before looking relieved. "Good. I just… You know, with what Lucas said about your situation, your parents acting different around you, and the fainting at my house and then this bump appearing, I was afraid that─"
Brooke cut her off and startled her with a bear hug. She closed her eyes, a smile spreading on her lips. "Thanks," she whispered. It had been a while since Brooke had felt the warmth of a parent around her. She let go of her, and saw that Karen was still surprised by her reaction.
"You're welcome. Come on," she said, her eyes becoming stricter, "you really need to ice this."
"Right," Brooke said as she put back the boo boo bag on her forehead.
"So, are you going somewhere for Thanksgiving?"
"We usually go skiing, but, erm… I don't think I'll go this year."
"Why not?" Karen asked with a slight frown.
"Just not feeling like it," Brooke said with a shrug. "And maybe if I'm not, I don't know, under their feet, they'll work things out. Whatever it is that they have to work out."
"That's sweet of you Brooke, but you shouldn't have to worry about that. But wait, doesn't that mean that you'll be on your own for Thanksgiving?"
"No, Peyton's on her own too, so Nathan and Deb invited her. I'll just tag along." Hopefully by that time, Deb would be able to look her straight in the eyes.
Lucas came back soon after that; they stayed in the kitchen for another half an hour, until Karen said that she could take off the ice. Brooke could have left then, but instead accepted Lucas' offer to get a warm drink on the house. After her fall, she had to make sure she was properly hydrated, right? And... well, she didn't mind spending time with him.
When she went home that night, she tried to go straight to her room, but her mother spotted her just as she was running up the stairs.
"Brooke?" she called, looking up at her.
"Yeah?" she answered, turning to her mother.
Victoria's mouth dropped in horror, and she yelled what everybody had kept asking her that afternoon, "What happened to you?!"
Brooke walked down the stairs and told once again how she had accidently fallen down the stairs.
"Oh," her mother said, shaking her head in dismay, "this is gonna stay for a while."
Victoria had been right. When Brooke woke up the next day, the ugly bump had taken a black shade and grown even more. Despite all the ice she had kept applying on it that weekend, it took a long couple of days for it to start getting better.
At school, people kept asking her why she had this massive bump on her head. She grew tired of answering them. Plus, the story just sounded lame to her. But to her delight, Nathan soon started to invent incredible stories on how she had gotten the bump. One morning, she had saved an old lady from getting robbed in the street, and in the evening of the same day, she had in fact gotten into a catfight with Peyton over Nathan's endearment.
That week, she told her parents that she didn't feel like going with them for Thanksgiving because she didn't want to leave Peyton on her own. To her surprise, they didn't even try to change her mind; in fact, his father seemed to be in a lighter mood. Maybe they really were in a dire need to have some time alone.
About ten days after her fall, the bump's size finally started to decrease, and its shade turned into a strange mix of green and yellow. By then she had grown used to the inquisitive looks she got wherever she went. That afternoon after school, she went to Karen's Café to do her homework. Like other times before, Lucas sat at her table, leaving it from time to time to do his work. They talked a bit about how their respective days had gone, and then she focused on her essay while he was reading a book written by Steinbeck.
After being stuck for a while, she stopped writing. "Erm, Luke?" she called out.
There was something she had noticed about him: whenever she wanted to tell him something, he always immediately stopped whatever he was doing, which most of the time was reading, and gave her his full attention. She wasn't used to this: when her father would read his journal, and she interrupted him, he would usually lift up his hand, signaling her to wait just a bit until he was done reading a sentence. When Peyton was focused on her art, she would answer Brooke absent-mindedly, her eyes stuck on whatever she was drawing. But for some reason, and despite being passionate about reading, Lucas wasn't like that. At least, not with her.
That night again, he looked up at her, and put down his book on the table. "Yeah?"
"I'm writing my essay for NYU."
"Isn't that for next month?"
"Yeah, the deadline's in a month, but I really want this to be perfect. So erm, do you think you could take a look at it? You know, check for spelling errors, stuff like that."
"Sure," he said with a grin, taking the essay in his hands. He took one of her pens and circled a few mistakes here and there, drew some arrows on parts he said would be better in a different order. Eventually, he pointed at the first paragraph where she had left a blank space, and asked, "What's that for?"
"I thought I could use a quote in the beginning, but now I'm not so sure anymore."
"What kind of quote?"
She sighed, "I have no idea. It's just that… You know, last year, when I wrote my election speech, Mouth helped me and he found this really great quote. I thought I could do the same for this."
"I see," he said, suddenly acting embarrassed. She frowned, wondering why that was, and startled when he stood up and mumbled he'd be right back. He went in the direction of the storage room and came back after a few minutes with a huge book in his hands. She read the title: Great quotes from great leaders. "I think we can find something for you in this," he said as he started flipping the pages.
They tried different quotes, but none seemed to fit, until Lucas found one that pleased him. "I would like to be remembered as someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability," he read out loud. He looked up from the page and turned to her. "That pretty much sums up your essay, doesn't it? What do you think?"
"It's great," she replied, beaming. "Whose is it?"
Before Lucas could answer, they got interrupted by Keith, who came in the Café and stopped at their table. He asked Brooke how she was doing; she answered that she was doing fine. To her surprise, and apparently Lucas' too, he sat down in front of them.
"So, erm, we wanted to ask you something," Keith said to her.
Lucas raised an eyebrow at his uncle. "Who's we?"
"Karen and I. See, we figured we could spend Thanksgiving with Deb and Nathan this year, since Dan won't be here to ruin the day for us." That sounded like news to Lucas. "But Karen said that Peyton and you are also spending Thanksgiving with them."
"Yeah," she said with a shrug, "but that's okay, you should spend it as a family. I'll just stay at Peyton's."
"No, no," he hurriedly said, "that's not what I meant. You shouldn't be on your own. And Deb already said she didn't want to leave you girls alone that day. So, we thought we could just all get together, if you're okay with that. And Peyton too, obviously."
Brooke shared a surprised look with Lucas, who asked his uncle, "Really? When did you talk about this?"
"Well, Karen said something about, er─ Never mind when it came up, it just did. So, Brooke, what do you say?"
She thought about it, a slight frown appearing on her face. "I don't know, we would just be butting in─"
"Haley will be there too, with her sister," Lucas said.
"Really?"
"Yeah, my mom invited them because they're on their own this year. So technically, you wouldn't be the only ones to butt in."
She thought about it for a second. Slightly smiling, she said, "Well then, I guess we can come too. I still have to ask Peyton, but I'm sure she'll say yes."
The next day at school, after getting Peyton's approval, she confirmed to Lucas that they would both be spending Thanksgiving with his family. The smile he gave her happened to be very contagious.
That week, Mouth kept asking her if she had travelled again. Part of her was convinced that he wanted to know what would happen with his boss. But as she had told him, his future self was convinced that they wouldn't meet again. She told him that he would know right away if it happened, but as it turned out, she didn't keep up her promise. Not that she didn't want to, but her next travel took place two days before Thanksgiving, after she had gone home from school. That day, Mouth had left early in the afternoon to leave for his grandparent's place, and thus had no signal.
She was taking her shower when heard the faint voice of a little girl, saying "I'm coming!". When the tingle started, she turned off the water, put a towel around her and sat down on her bathroom floor. Her bump was almost gone now, so there was no way she was getting another one.
When she opened her eyes, she blinked a few times. She was lying flat on her stomach, on a wooden floor, under some kind of furniture. She crawled out of it and saw that she had been under a bed. What had she been doing there?
She dusted off her pants and stood up. With one quick glance around her, she knew she was in a new place. She didn't recognize this bedroom at all, but for some reason, the walls looked a bit familiar. There was a double bed, two nightstands, and two chests of drawers. Above one of those stood a huge mirror; she approached it and examined her reflection. She didn't look much older than when she had been in Brooklyn; her hair was a bit longer and lighter than in 2025. She patted her jean and found her phone in the rear pocket.
June 26th, 2026.
She put down her phone and looked around until she saw a picture on the nearest nightstand. Karen and Keith were posing with smiling faces.
That was why the walls looked familiar! She walked to the door and opened it; she immediately recognized the hallway in Karen's house.
So once again, she was in Tree Hill. She slowly walked down the corridor, in the direction of Lucas' bedroom, paying attention to the pictures framed to the walls. Many of them included a little brown-haired girl that she had never seen before. She wondered who that could be, until she reached a picture of Karen, looking just like in 2019, sitting in what seemed to be a hospital bed, with Keith sitting next to her and holding her close, and a baby in her arms.
She was speechless. From the looks of it, that picture had been taken around Brooke's time; did that mean that Karen was already pregnant?
She felt something pull on her pants and looked down to see the little girl from the picture tugging at her. "Found you," the little girl said with a grin. She tilted her head. "You're not very good at his."
Brooke knelt to be on her eye level. "Good at what?"
"Hide and seek."
"I am excellent at hide and seek!" she retorted, which made the girl laugh.
"Not today," she said with a playful smile. "I still have to find Lucas. I found Jamie after five seconds."
"Jamie?" she repeated, intrigued. Lucas' hypothetical son was here again? "Where is he?"
The little girl pointed at a spot above Brooke's shoulder. She glanced over it to see the front door, at the far end of the kitchen. "He went outside?"
"Just on the front steps," she said before dashing off. "Luke, I'm coming!" she shouted as she went to the dining room.
Brooke stood up and turned on her heels. She pulled the front door open and saw that Jamie was there, sitting crossed legged on the ground at the bottom of the steps. His head was down and when he noticed her going down the steps, he looked up at her. He looked so different from last time! And then she remembered that it made sense: he was a year older than the last time they had met, which was a huge amount of time for a child of his age.
He gave her a warm smile and went back to staring at the ground. She imitated him and asked, "What are you doing?"
He pointed at a spot right in front of him. Brooke squinted and only then noticed a dozen of ants, walking slowly in single file. "I'm counting them."
"I hated those when I was your age."
"Really?" he asked, sounding somehow amazed by this random information.
"Yeah, they really creeped me out."
"Mom says they're very smart beings. She read a book about them."
"Your mom, huh?" she asked innocently, wondering how she could know who that was. She improvised, "She does know a lot of things."
Jamie's smile widened. "Dad always says she's smart enough for the both of them."
Brooke frowned at that. If that kid really was Lucas' child, who the hell would his mother be if she could outsmart Lucas that much? "So where is she right now?"
His eyebrows lifted a little, then turned into a slight frown. "You forgot?"
"Forgot what?"
"Grandma's sick, so she went to see her for the weekend."
"Grandma?" Did he mean Karen? Or his maternal grandmother?
"Don't you remember?"
She gave him an apologetic smile. "Not really, no." What was the use of lying to a child?
To her surprise, he didn't seem puzzled by her answer. On the opposite, his eyes brightened up as if he had figured something out. "Are you having one of your episodes?"
No way. Had she told this child about her secret too? Did everyone in her life know about this? "My episodes?"
Jamie straightened his back and looked like he was concentrating. He then said in a single breath, "You said one day that sometimes you forget about stuff and act weird but that I shouldn't get worried because it only lasts for a short while."
"Oh," she said, stunned. At least she had not really told him she was time-travelling. "Okay, yeah, I'm having one of those."
"Are you okay?" he asked with an inquisitive look. "Do you want something to eat?"
"No, thanks," she answered with a smile, "I'm fine."
"Good," he said before going back to observing the ants.
That kid genuinely looked relieved that she was okay. How cute was that? "Jamie?"
"Yeah?" he asked, keeping his head down.
Who's your mother? No, she couldn't ask him that, he would definitely tell someone how his Aunt Brooke had lost her mind. Then what? What could she possibly ask him in order to understand who his mother was?
What if she asked him something else? Something he would know, about her, and…
She didn't know why exactly, but without a second thought, she blurted out the first question that crossed her mind: "Do you think I'm happy? With my life, I mean."
It almost didn't surprise her when he briefly looked up at her to answer, "Yes, very happy." He raised his head. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you want me to call Uncle Luke for you?"
"No, that's fine, I─" she stopped, taking in what he had just said. "Uncle Luke?" she repeated, incredulous.
She knew it was weird for Lucas to have a son this early! Or with someone else! If he liked her so much, why the hell would he go and knock up some other girl? But still, the physical resemblance had made it hard for Brooke to believe that Jamie could be anyone else's son.
Well, now, she knew that wasn't the case. She felt a mix of relief and confusion: if Lucas wasn't his dad, then who was? And why was he calling them uncle and aunt?
She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice the car parking in the alleyway. She didn't notice the car door opening, or Jamie jumping on his feet to run towards the person coming out of it. She only paid attention when she heard Jamie yell in an excited voice, "Daddy!"
Her head shot up so fast that she almost hurt her neck; she stood up to see that a man was lifting Jamie high in the air, his face hidden behind the little boy's body. He then turned Jamie around so as to secure him on his shoulders, and smiled brightly at Brooke.
"Hey Brooke," a slightly older looking Nathan said as he was walking up to her. "I hope the little monster didn't bother you too much."
"Hey," Jamie complained from Nathan's shoulders, ruffling his father's hair. "I'm not little!"
Nathan had a hearty laugh. "That's what's bothering you?"
Nathan was Jamie's father.
Nathan Scott.
Nathan Scott, whom she had known her entire life, was the father of this adorable kid? How in the hell would that happen? And who was the mother then? He wasn't dating anyone right now, not that she knew of, or maybe except─
"I know," Nathan told her, interrupting her thoughts, "we weren't supposed to come back before tomorrow but Lydia's feeling better now."
"Grandma's fine?" Jamie asked, bending over his father's head so quickly that Nathan had to grab his arms.
"Hey, careful! Yeah, she's fine now."
"Sweet!" the little boy said, pumping his fists in the air.
Nathan kept walking to the front porch and glanced at her when he went up the steps. "You coming, Brooke?"
She looked up at him, still flabbergasted. "Yeah, sure," she mumbled, following him.
Nathan put down his son ─ Jesus, his son, he had a freaking son, Brooke kept thinking─ and gave him a soft kick on the butt. "Come on, go get your Uncle Luke."
Jamie rushed head first into the house. Brooke stared at Nathan, "Nate?"
"Yeah?" he asked, turning to her.
He didn't look much different from now; his hair was a bit shorter, and his face showed he had matured, but otherwise, he was the same Nathan she knew. "No, never mind."
He frowned. "You okay Brooke? You look pale."
"Yeah I'm good. Just─" she stopped when she felt a stream of air on her neck. When she felt the tingle in her fingers, she mumbled that she was coming back right away, ran into the house, back to Karen and Keith's bedroom, and sat on the floor.
A minute later, she was back in her own time.
She stood up, closed the bathroom's window, and went to her room. She went straight to her desk, took a pen and a piece of paper and wrote everything down. She just couldn't believe that Nathan was going to be a father. Very soon actually, judging from Jamie's age. How could that─
Wait, what about the secret 5th grade girlfriend?
She had stopped teasing him about her, but now that she thought about it, it had to be her. And two weeks before, when Nathan had invited them for lunch, he had looked like he really wanted to tell them something. It had to be about her! But why was he hesitating so much? What was the big deal?
Just as she was done writing, her mother called her name from downstairs. Dinner was ready.
Brooke left her room and as she went to the stairs, passed by her father's study. She stopped in front of its door when she saw that it was ajar, and lightly pushed it.
"What are you doing?"
Ted was sitting behind his desk. He lifted his head briefly and went back to his work. "Just checking what I'll take for the weekend."
She noticed his suitcase on the floor, right next to the desk, and walked to it. "Are you going to work even this weekend?" she asked, peeking at his stuff.
"Just a bit."
She frowned and bent over to pick up a pair of sandals in her hands. "Dad, I think you got the season wrong."
He looked up at her, surprised. "Oh, you know, I'm probably gonna work more than just a bit and it's always warm in the hotel room." He stood up, taking the sandals in his hands and placing them back in his suitcase. "Come on Brooke, your mom's waiting for us."
After dinner, Brooke tried to call Mouth but as he had said, his phone wasn't working. She texted him nonetheless, hoping that he would get at some point just enough signal to get the message.
She barely slept that night. She kept thinking about Jamie, Nathan, and the mystery mother.
The next morning, when she woke up, she found a note from her mother on the fridge telling her that they had left early. There was enough food in the fridge for 5 days and she shouldn't hesitate to call the neighbor in case of trouble.
It was still early, and Brooke didn't feel like staying alone in her house. She knew she was likely to stay at Peyton's for the night, so she packed a few clothes and before leaving, looked for a specific picture in her photo albums. Nathan was going to murder her for this, but it was all worth it: she really wanted to know if she could change the future. She put it in her bag, took her coat and purse, and left for Peyton's house. Before going there, she made a detour, thinking that she could buy two cups of coffee to go at the Café.
When she went in, there was already a bunch of customers, but it was calm and quiet. Haley was sitting at a table, next to Nathan, having drinks with him, and hadn't noticed her coming in. Brooke froze on the spot and stared at them for a moment.
How the hell had she missed this?
It all seemed so obvious to her now. Lucas had told her that lately, he felt like he wasn't seeing Haley much anymore. Nathan had missed High Flyers and wanted to keep it secret. And since the school year had started, Brooke had kept running into the two of them: at the library, in the corridors, here in Karen's Café…
She swiftly walked up to them and sat on the chair across from them.
"Brooke!" Nathan said, startled by her appearance. "What are you doing here?"
"My parents left this morning. Hi Haley."
"Hi," she replied with a smile.
"What about you?" Brooke asked Nathan with a crooked grin.
"Oh, you know, she's helping me work on─"
"Even during holidays?" she retorted, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but you know, my grades are really bad and─"
"Cut it out," she said, rolling her eyes. They both looked very confused. Her grin stretched to her ears, "I know."
"You know?"
"About you guys."
They shared a panicked look. Well, Nathan looked panicked, Haley just looked very intrigued. "What are you talking about Brooke?" she asked with a frown.
Now she was having doubts about this. "Er, you know, that you're dating." And then, though it wasn't really necessary, she added, "Each other."
"Brooke, that's ridiculous," Nathan said with a forced laugh.
"Come on, I keep running into you guys, you're always together."
Haley threw a quick glance at Nathan, then said, "That's because I'm tutoring him."
Brooke laughed at that. "I don't think anyone's ever been so dedicated at tutoring someone."
"No really," she answered, "we're─"
"Yeah, whatever guys, you're not fooling me anymore. But I think it's great, you know," she added with a grin.
"It's not great," Nathan said, "there's nothing great because we're not─"
"We are dating!" Haley blurted out, startling them all, including herself apparently.
Nathan blinked and turned to her. "Seriously?" he hissed. "You said no one could know until you told Lucas!"
"I know, I'm sorry," she admitted with the least guilty face Brooke had ever seen, "but I've been keeping this for so long, it's driving me nuts! Oh Brooke" ─she grabbed her hands─ "thank god you found out, I can finally talk to someone about this! I can't tell my sister because she'd definitely tell Lucas and I can't tell my friends because they're all Lucas' friends and it's really been eating me up!"
Brooke laughed and freed her hands from Haley's iron grip. "Yeah, I can see that."
Haley was beaming now; Nathan looked at her and eventually relaxed his shoulders and gave Brooke a slight shrug, as if to say "Yeah, so that's it."
"But how did you find out?" Haley asked her.
"I just guessed." With a little help from their future son.
"Just guessed?"
"So, um," she cleared her throat, changing the subject, "I guess you're hiding this because of Lucas?"
"Yeah," Nathan said with a nod.
"But why? I know you had your issues before but that was years ago!"
"I know that, but… Hales is like his little sister and I don't know how he'll react to this. So please, Brooke, you can't tell him for now, or anyone. Not even Peyton."
Her face fell. "Why can't I tell Peyton?"
"Because, the more people know about us, the more likely Luke is to hear about us by someone else. That's like Keeping secrets 101, Brooke."
He sounded just like Mouth. "Fine, I won't tell her. But honestly, I think you're making a big deal out of this for nothing. I'm pretty sure Lucas would be okay with you guys dating."
"We don't know that for sure, and we really want to tell him ourselves. I know you've been hanging out a lot with him lately─"
"Not that much."
"Brooke, you've been spending more time here than at Peyton's."
"That's not true."
"Yes, it is. We actually made the math the other day, with Peyton. This past month, you've spent most of your free time here."
"So what? It's a nice and quiet place to work at and─"
"And coincidently, my brother has also been spending most of his free time here."
"Well, in case you haven't noticed, he happens to work here. And stop changing the subject, we were talking about you guys. When did you start dating?"
Haley answered, "Last June, right before summer."
"So, you've been going out for five months?" They both nodded at her. "Five months and you still haven't told Lucas? You realize that when you do tell him, he's probably gonna be more upset about the fact that you lied to him for so long, than the fact that you're together?"
They shared an uneasy look, as if that thought had really not crossed their minds before. Haley eventually said, in a hesitant voice, "We're not really lying to him, you know, just not telling him the entire truth─"
"Now you're just playing with words," Brooke said, rolling her eyes. And then she remembered, "So that's why you bailed on High Flyers?"
"Yeah," he said with a heartwarming glance at Haley. Clearly, he was not regretting his choice.
Jamie's face flashed in her mind. That little boy would be conceived in about two or three months, according to Mouth's calculation. Which meant, in a couple of months, Haley would be pregnant, and it would obviously be an accident. A pregnancy after, what, seven months of dating? They were in for a major shock. Was she supposed to warn them? They should have a right to know, after all it was their whole lives that were about to be disrupted. But what if it changed something? What if, by telling them, if they even believed her in the first place, and that was a big if, what if she prevented this future from happening? Was that even possible? Wouldn't that mean that Jamie's existence would be wiped off?
She shuddered at that thought. She did not want that to happen, but on the other hand… Could she really not tell Nathan that he was about to be a father?
They talked some more, mostly Haley, as she looked extremely relieved to have shared her secret with someone, and eventually Brooke left for Peyton's house.
During the ride, she thought about coming out to Peyton at least on one of the two secrets she was now keeping.
If she told her about the time-travel… No, she just knew that Peyton wouldn't believe her. Her best friend may be an artist, but she had always been down to earth on these matters. Brooke was the one who would read horoscopes, interpret her dreams and believe in things like fate. Peyton only believed in things she could see or touch for herself.
And then there was Nathan and Haley's relationship, which they had begged her to keep quiet. They hadn't confided in her of their own free will, and the only reason why she had found out about them was through her travels. Shouldn't that mean that it wasn't her place to tell anyone, including Peyton, about them?
Well, except for Mouth, of course. He was in for a wild ride when he would get his signal back.
She managed to keep her mouth shut that day, mainly because Peyton was too busy making phone calls to find an artist for Tric's reopening. She had more than a month left to find someone, but she was still worried. Karen trusted her completely on this, and she didn't want to disappoint. Tric had stayed closed for months, so she needed that first night to be perfect.
On the morning of Thanksgiving, Brooke woke up next to Peyton. She turned her head to the right; her friend was still sound asleep. She looked to her left and knew what had woken her up: her phone was vibrating. She grabbed it, left the bedroom as quietly as she could and answered.
It was her mother, wishing her a happy Thanksgiving. She asked her where she was, and didn't sound surprised when Brooke told her that she had stayed at Peyton's the night before. Brooke asked to speak to her father, but Victoria said that he was still sleeping.
Peyton woke up soon after that, and they got ready to go to Nathan's. As usual, Brooke was the one needing more time; she had been staring at the mirror for the past ten minutes, wondering whether she should tie up her hair.
"Why?" Peyton said when Brooke asked her opinion. "Are you trying to impress someone?"
She laughed when Brooke sent a pillow flying across the room, missing her friend's head by an inch.
Brooke eventually decided to let her hair loose and they finally left in Peyton's car. As her friend was driving, Brooke was carefully holding a bottle of wine in one hand, and going through her collection of records with the other.
"Hey, can I borrow this one?" she asked, waving a disc at Peyton.
Peyton threw a quick glance at her. "Again with Norah Jones? Why the sudden interest?"
"No reason. So, can I take it?"
"Suit yourself. Is that your phone?"
Brooke hadn't even noticed that it was ringing. She picked it up and saw that it was her father calling her. "Hey Dad, happy Thanksgiving."
"Happy Thanksgiving honey," he said on the other end. "Are you at Nathan's right now?"
"Almost there."
"Do you think you could go by the house? I forgot to take a file with me, and I really need it today."
"Oh, er" ─she looked at Peyton, who gave her a quizzical look─ "sure, we can stop by the house." Peyton gave her a thumbs up and made a quick U-turn. "What do you need?"
He explained to her that he needed her to send him a picture of a yellow file that was in his desk. He told her where she would find it but she barely listened at that part; she was too busy wondering why her father would want to work so badly when he was spending five days at a ski resort. Who would want to do that? He had always been a workaholic, but this was just too much, even for him.
Ten minutes later, when they had reached her house and gone in her father's office, she wished she had listened more carefully to his instructions. They were already late for lunch and his father had files all over his desk. While Peyton was looking at the books that Ted had displayed on his shelves, Brooke sat at the desk and opened the drawers one by one.
Come on, how hard would it be to find?
She started by the top drawer; there were dozens of files in there, but none of them were the right color. The second one didn't have it either, but she did notice something intriguing. There was a thick file, titled "Lawyers".
Lawyers, plural. She understood that his father, through his job, could need the counseling of a lawyer, but several of them? Was he in some kind of trouble? It wasn't any of her business, she knew that, but she still took the file in her lap and opened it.
At first, it was all just lawyer mumbo-jumbo. She had to flip through several pages before she came to understand what she was reading. When she saw her mother's name appearing several times, and a list of their respective and common assets, Brooke figured it out.
"Did you find it?" Peyton asked her. When she didn't get an answer, she walked around the desk and stood next to her. "Brooke? Hey, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
She didn't want to say it.
Part of her was actually relieved that neither of her parents were suffering from a deadly disease, or that her father wasn't facing jail time. But mostly, she felt so utterly dumb for not thinking of something so simple: divorce.
Brooke handed the file over to Peyton, "See for yourself."
Peyton went through the same papers that she had read, and came to the same conclusion. She looked up from the file and said, "Brooke, I'm so sorry."
She didn't remember feeling so sad before. Maybe when her nana had passed away, but she had only been a child then.
Her parents' marriage had failed, and for some reason, she felt responsible for that. Or at least, responsible for not helping them. She wasn't blind; she had known for a while that they were having issues, but even when things had gotten really bad, her parents had always found out a way to reconciliation. Which was probably why she hadn't even thought of the possibility of a divorce before.
She then recalled the sandals and the shorts in her father's suitcase. That was why they had been almost relieved when she had told them that she would stay here for the holidays; they had probably gone on separate ways.
She remembered what her father had asked her to do and went on to the third drawer. There it was, that damn yellow file. She took the pictures just as she had been asked and sent them to her father.
After putting the divorce file back to its place, she got up and muttered that they should get going, they were already late.
"Brooke, wait," Peyton said, grabbing her hand. She hugged her tightly, then took a step back, scrutinizing her face. "Are you sure you want to go? I don't think they would mind if we─"
"They invited us, Peyton," she said with a resigned shrug. "I'll be fine, I just… I wish I had known sooner."
"Why?"
"I could have done something. Changed their minds, maybe."
"Brooke come on, they didn't even tell you themselves. There's no way you could know."
Except that there was.
She had a way to know about things that were going to happen, and yet nothing, no one had warned her about this.
She kept pondering about this on their way to Nathan's house. She couldn't blame Future Haley or Future Mouth, she had only seen a glimpse of them. And Jamie was just a kid. But Future Lucas? The guy who was supposed to be living with her? Who acted like he was so in love with her? That guy had stayed completely silent over this matter. Yes, she hadn't asked him about her parents, but he acted like he knew her very well. And if he did know her so well, he should have known how she felt right now, and he should have at least tipped her off.
In the ten minutes it took to reach Nathan's house, her heartbreak turned into resentment. It probably showed on her face, because Peyton's sideway glances quickly went from worry to bafflement.
When she parked her car in Nathan's alleyway, Peyton turned to her with a slight frown. "You're sure you want to go? You look─"
Brooke swiftly opened the car door, "We're going."
Peyton rang the bell and was probably going to wait until someone opened the door for them, but Brooke just didn't feel like waiting in the cold. She pressed her finger on the bell, crushing it with anger several times, until they heard Nathan shout from inside the house that he was coming.
He opened the door five seconds later, and looked confused to see them. "Brooke? Why are you assaulting my doorbell?"
"It's freaking freezing out here," she said in a stern voice. She shoved the wine bottle in his chest. "That's for you."
As she walked past him, he had a nervous laugh and said, "Wow, happy Thanksgiving to you too, Brooke."
She went straight to the kitchen, but still heard him ask Peyton in a lower voice what had happened to her.
When she opened the kitchen door, six smiling faces greeted her. That seemed to remind her that she was a guest here, that these people hadn't been forced to invite her, and that wearing a sullen face the whole day wouldn't be the right way to thank them.
She greeted Karen, Keith, Deb ─who for the first time in ages managed to look her in the eye─ and Haley. She fought the urge to punch Lucas in the face and managed to give him a small nod to acknowledge his presence. And then Haley introduced her to the only unknown face of the room: her sister Taylor.
Taylor was, in many ways, alike Haley. They had the same hair and eye color, the same height, and even their laughs sounded the same. So physically, yes, they looked like sisters. But in many other ways, they were completely different. Haley's facial features were much softer, they added warmth to her smile; however, when Taylor smiled, she looked like she was plotting something. And she seemed much more outgoing than Haley. She could see that just by the way she kept clinging on to Lucas' arm.
"It's like she'll fall if she walks on her own, huh," Haley whispered in Brooke's ear when they all moved to the dining room.
They both slowed down, so that they wouldn't be overheard. "When did you get here?"
"Half an hour before you." Haley rolled her eyes. "She was so happy to be the center of attention."
"How's it going at home?"
"Not that bad, but mostly because she's always out somewhere. Jeez, look at her! Can't she keep her hands to herself!"
There was a surge of jealousy in her voice that confused Brooke, until she saw that Taylor had moved on to another victim: she was now all over Nathan. She turned to Haley and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll handle that."
The table was magnificent; Karen and Deb had really outdone themselves. Every course was so mouthwatering that Brooke almost forgot about her resentment towards Lucas. Deb sat at the end of the table; Karen took the seat on her left and Nathan the one on her right. Noticing from the corner of her eye that Taylor was about to sit next to him, Brooke shoved Haley to that spot and sat next to her. After being startled for a second, Haley gave her a knowing smile.
"May I take this spot?"
Brooke turned to her right and chuckled. "Sure, you can," she told Keith, who sat next to her.
Peyton sat next to Karen, then Lucas went to her left, and finally, Taylor sat down on Lucas' left side.
She did her best not to look at him during the meal. Even as they were passing plates, she avoided his gaze. Not only was she pissed about her parents, he also seemed to very much enjoy Taylor's company. She kept telling stories about her bartending days as if she had been around the world.
Thankfully, Keith was a nice distraction. He told her about his college days, and how he had dropped out quite early to help Karen with her surprise pregnancy. When he broached that subject, Brooke glanced at Karen and saw that she was drinking wine; so, she wasn't pregnant yet. To think that two of the women in this room would soon be expecting…
Keith went on to tell her about how he had opened up his shop and struggled at first to get customers; how, in the first months, he would only get two or three clients a day and thus spent most of his time playing cards with himself. Karen had tried to help him get more clients by baking pies: every new customer would get a free slice. However, that strategy failed miserably, and they'd usually end up eating the pies themselves in the evening.
After they were done with the dessert, Karen and Deb went to the kitchen to get coffee. By then, it had become almost impossible for Brooke not to share looks with Lucas and thus, from time to time, feel the bitterness rise again. She knew she shouldn't be mad at him, that he wasn't responsible for his future decisions, not yet. But she couldn't help it; it was in his eyes. He looked at her the same way Future Lucas did.
She left the table to help Karen and Deb, but when she opened the door, stopped in its threshold. They both had their backs turned to her and seemed to have a serious discussion.
"What, you mean depression?" Karen asked.
"No… I don't know, maybe," Deb answered with a sigh. "But that'd make me feel happy, does that make me a bad person?"
"He wasn't really a great husband to you."
Deb sounded unsure of herself. "Or a great father to Nathan. And let's not even get started on Lucas. He doesn't deserve our attention. Right?"
Brooke silently turned on her heels and leaned back on the kitchen door.
Was that going to happen to her father too? Would he be alienated by his family?
No, her father wasn't Dan Scott. He may not have always been there for his family, he never acted as a jerk. Or maybe he had, but Brooke had been kept in the dark about that too, and that was why her mother wanted a divorce.
She went back to the dining room; Peyton and Lucas were now standing at the other end of the room, next to the fireplace. They seemed to be deep in conversation. Taylor had moved to the vacant seat left by Peyton and was trying to convince Nathan to come see her someday at work. Brooke did her best not to roll her eyes and sat where Deb had been.
"Where's Keith?" she asked, looking around the room for him.
"Upstairs. He got a phone call," Nathan said. "So, are you gonna tell me what's up with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're not acting like yourself. You're trying really hard to, but I feel cheated. You know, like we got a cheap copy of the usual Brooke."
She let out a sigh. "That obvious, huh?"
Taylor leaned over her side, "Did Lucas cheat on you or something?"
Brooke sent her a death stare. "We're not dating."
"Okay, but you're still mad at him, aren't you?"
Damn, she was perceptive. Or maybe Brooke was an open book. She stole a quick glance at Lucas, then slightly shook her head and said, "Doesn't matter."
Nathan leaned back on his chair. "You didn't give me an answer, Brooke."
She looked back at him, and said, "My parents are getting a divorce."
His face fell. "For real? When did they tell you?"
"They didn't," she said, lowering her gaze to the empty plate in front of her. "I found out on my own."
"Oh Brooke, I'm so sorry," Haley said in a soft voice.
"Why would you be sorry?" Taylor asked, making them all stare at her as if she was insane. "What? Come on, this sounds like pretty good news to me."
Haley was fuming, "You can be so insensitive sometimes, Tay."
"Stop being so dramatic," her sister replied, rolling her eyes. "It's a freaking divorce, everyone gets one nowadays. And it's not like you're a kid anymore. Aren't you going to college next year?"
"Yeah," Brooke replied, surprised. "But─"
"So what difference is it gonna make to you? You won't be living with them anymore anyway. And for Christmas you'll get two separate gifts, doesn't sound like a hardship to me." Taylor frowned. "What I don't get is why does that make you mad at Lucas? No way" ─her eyes widened in shock as she pointed at Brooke's forehead─ "don't tell me he got you this bruise!"
"No!" Brooke and Haley shouted in unison.
Brooke frowned when she heard something on her right, the sound of boiling water. She knew she was about to travel again when the tingle appeared in her hands.
She had to stay calm. While Nathan was telling Taylor how Brooke had saved a cat from her rooftop, she looked around them; Peyton and Lucas were still in deep conversation and Karen and Deb hadn't come back from the kitchen. She needed to go upstairs, where no one would find her.
She said she was going to the bathroom and fought the urge to run upstairs. When she left the room, she noticed from the corner of her eye that Lucas was staring at her. She slowly climbed up the stairs; her ears were ringing and the sound kept going louder with each step she made. She managed to get on the landing and made her way to the nearest bathroom. She was about to lock the door behind her when someone knocked on it.
"Brooke?" Lucas called as his head stuck out from the door gap. She took a few steps back, which allowed him to come in. He left the door ajar and then turned to her, looking hesitant. "Can we talk?" he asked.
She shook her head and immediately regretted it as the ringing resonated even louder after that. "Not now."
"Yeah, Peyton said you'd say that," he said, scratching his head. "Look, I don't know why─"
"Not now," she repeated in a murmur.
She suddenly felt as if she hadn't slept in days and fought hard to keep her eyes open. She managed to do that long enough to hear Lucas ask her what was wrong, but found herself unable to answer him.
When she opened her eyes, she was sitting on the floor, her back leaned on some kind of wooden furniture. She knew right away it wasn't Nathan's bathroom floor; she had never seen these black and white tiles before. She could hear water boiling somewhere over her. She got to her feet and turned around: water was indeed boiling in a pan. Her first reflex was to turn off the stove, and then she started observing the room around her.
She was in a small, but functional kitchen. The furniture looked old but still looked nice, as they had all been painted in a cerulean shade. No pictures on the fridge this time. Someone, and Brooke guessed that it was herself, had been cutting vegetables. There was a can of tomato sauce open and ready to be used, and a handful of spaghetti waiting right next to it.
"Why did you turn it off?"
She turned to the door on her right; Lucas was in the doorway. He looked about the same age as the last time she had seen him, in 2022. He seemed to have just gotten out of the shower, as he was only wearing a towel around his waist, and his hair looked damp. His face showed a slight annoyance, which quickly disappeared when he saw her own face.
"What's wrong?" he asked with a worried look, walking up to her. "What happened?"
All the anger that had been piling up in her that afternoon came flooding when she saw him. Her jaw tightened; she clenched her fists and repeatedly punched him on the chest. "You. Freaking. Lying. Bastard!" she shouted with each punch, making him take a step back at each hit.
"Brooke!" he said, completely at a loss. "What the─"
"Shut up!" she yelled, pushing him through the doorway. He stumbled, gained balance again and this time managed to grab both of her arms. She tried to free them, but he was just too strong for her. "How could you not tell me!"
His grip tightened around her wrists when she tried to wiggle away. "Brooke, I─"
"I said shut up! How could you do that! How could you not tell me something so freaking important!"
"Just calm down a─"
Her voice got even louder, which she didn't even think was possible. "No, I won't calm down! Why the hell would I be able to come here if it's not to know stuff like that?!"
"I couldn't," he said with a pleading voice. "I really couldn't, and there's nothing you could have done Brooke, accidents just happen."
All the tension in her body seemed to drop in an instant; he noticed it and let go of her wrists. She frowned, and for the first time since she had arrived here, asked in a low voice, "Accidents? What are you talking about?"
The weirdest thing was that so far, he hadn't looked frightened by her, just mostly confused at first and then somehow gloomy. But now, he looked absolutely terrified. "What are you talking about?" he asked back.
She crossed her arms against her chest and squinted her eyes at him. "My parents' divorce."
"Oh. Oh right. Erm, look, can I just go and wear something? And then we can talk."
She stayed silent for a moment, then muttered, "Alright."
He dashed out; she looked around her and saw that they were now in a small and cozy living room.
She thought about what she had just said, about why she would be able to travel. Future Haley had told her that it didn't really matter how it happened, but rather… Why. That was what she had meant to say, Brooke knew it for sure. More than how, it mattered why. Why would she be able to travel in time if it weren't to avoid such events from happening?
Lucas came back after a few seconds; he was wearing flip flops, salmon colored shorts and a white T-shirt that he had obviously worn in a hurry since it was inside out. "Just take a seat," he told her, pointing at the table at the other end of the room. "I'll be right back."
It was a small dining table for two, put against a window. She stared at it but decided to observe her surroundings first.
This apartment was much smaller than the one she had seen in Brooklyn, but she knew right away that she had been the one to decorate it. Well, maybe not on her own, she thought after noticing the miniature basketball hoop nailed to one wall. She stared at the spot above the couch, as there were quite a few pictures framed there. One with Peyton that she didn't recognize; it looked like they were still in high school, so maybe one they would take very soon? There was a picture of her and a baby wearing a diaper and a t-shirt with the letter J embroidered on it. Jamie. She noticed a couple of pictures with Nathan and Haley, and one with Lucas and another baby who, judging from the brown hair and eyes, was most probably his little sister.
One particular picture caught her attention. She squinted at it, wondering when it had been taken. She was sitting with her parents on a bench. She didn't recognize the background, but from the color of the leaves at their feet, she figured it had been taken in fall. Brooke looked not much older than in 2019, which made her wonder when it had been taken.
"This one was taken just a few months ago."
She turned around and saw that Lucas had come back with two cups of coffee. He walked to the table and sat down. She looked back at the picture, puzzled. "But," she muttered, "they look…"
"Happy," he finished for her. "I know."
"Wait, what day is it today?" she asked, turning to him.
"February 6th, 2022."
She hesitated and eventually went to sit across from him. She noticed that the cups he had brought came from her parent's house. The green one was the one she usually used in the morning. She took it and realized that it wasn't coffee at all, it was tea, and it smelled wonderful. If she closed her eyes, she could easily pretend that she was standing in a meadow. She took a sip and looked up at Lucas, who was carefully watching her. "It's delicious."
His shoulders relaxed, as if he had gotten the signal that she wouldn't attack him again. He gave her a soft smile and said, "It's your favorite."
"Are you trying to coax me into forgiving you?"
"No, I know you will."
"Smartass," she murmured, taking another sip. He laughed at that, which made her relax some more. "But seriously, couldn't you have said something?"
"And what would that have changed?"
"I could have tried something."
"Like what? Tell your parents not to get a divorce? Come on Brooke, you know them better than anyone, do you honestly believe that you could have changed their minds?"
"I─ I don't know, maybe."
"Right, so you're telling me that there was nothing wrong with them, that they were happy together?"
She looked down at her drink, avoiding his gaze as she knew he was right. "I guess… Yeah, I guess things have been different for a while now."
"Okay, here's something you don't know yet:" ─she swiftly looked up at him─ "you were the only reason they stayed together. They hadn't been in love for years, but they still wanted you to have a home."
"So that picture is not photoshopped?"
He chuckled and shook his head. "No, definitely not. I should know, I took it."
"B─ But…" She stood up abruptly and accidently bumped her knee in the table. Lucas swiftly grabbed the two cups and made sure they wouldn't get knocked over. "I don't get it."
"Don't get what?" he asked, perplexed.
"This!" she said, gesturing at the room. "Why do I keep coming here? Why do I─" she choked up and fell silent. Her eyes were stinging with tears now.
"Brooke," he said with a soft groan. He stood up and cupped her face with his hands, making her look at him. "Come on, don't do this. Don't feel guilty about this. Your parents are grownups, and they made a grownup decision. Nothing you could have said or done would have changed that."
Yes, she could see that now, but… "I still don't understand why I'm here."
One of his hands moved to her back as he hugged her closely, the other cradling her head. She stayed immobile for a few seconds; she didn't understand why she kept breaking down like that in front of him. Why did she feel comfortable enough to be so vulnerable around him?
"You will, someday," he said in a soft, soothing voice. "In the meantime, I'll do my best to accompany you."
Maybe she was just thinking too hard about all this. Her shoulders relaxed and she hugged him back, resting her head on his shoulder. God, she thought, closing her eyes and burying her face in his neck, he smelled amazing.
He was rubbing the small of her back in a slow motion, and after a minute or two, asked, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah," she murmured in his neck. "Thanks. Your shirt is inside-out."
He chuckled. "Who cares?"
"Sorry about all the punching."
"That's okay, I think I'll survive."
She lifted her head and backed a few inches to look at him. He didn't look mad at all. He was simply relieved that she was feeling better, and it didn't matter if she had been close to strangling him just ten minutes ago. "You're a very nice person," she blurted, realizing as she said the words that it made her sound surprised.
He didn't take offense, though. Looking down at her, he gave her a wide grin and said, "Thanks, Pretty girl." Before she could ask him where that nickname came from, he took her by surprise and planted a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. He had apparently startled himself, because he immediately let her go and took a step back. "Shit, sorry, I didn't mean to, er… That was just out of habit."
He tried to take another step back but could not, since her arms were still linked around him. He looked bemused and was about to talk, but she never got to know exactly what he wanted to say.
She didn't really think things through. She simply leaned forward, placed a hand on his cheek and kissed him.
His lips were incredibly soft. He didn't move at first, almost as if he were scared, but then quickly relaxed and held her closer to him.
It was an odd first kiss. Usually, those were awkward, as both parties needed an adjustment time to know what the other one liked. Where to place their hands, how to incline their heads, when to deepen the kiss. But this didn't feel awkward at all. Lucas seemed to know exactly what she wanted and when she wanted it. That probably had to do with the fact that it wasn't his first time kissing her.
He knew about her sensitive spot behind her left ear and when he slipped his hand below her shirt and started tracing invisible lines going up and down her left hipbone, she felt her knees weaken. It really was a peculiar sensation. Never had anyone made her feel this good in such a short amount of time.
She broke their kiss when she heard him call out her name. She blinked twice and realized that he hadn't said anything to her.
"No, no, no," she mumbled, feeling suddenly helpless. She didn't want to go back just yet.
In a desperate last move, Brooke threw herself at his lips, devouring them. She didn't have much time left, and all she wanted to do was to burn this feeling in her mind. Her forcefulness didn't seem to bother him at all, judging by the soft groans she heard.
And then, after a couple of minutes, and despite the fact that she had been silently shouting at her mind not to travel again, she felt her body going limp.
When she opened her eyes, she was lying on the bathroom floor. Lucas was on her left side, knelt next to her, holding her shoulders and head with one arm, and stroking her cheek with his free hand.
"Brooke, are you okay? You really scared me."
She blinked at him, remembering that she had been passionately kissing him just a few seconds ago. Well, not him, Future Lucas. Huge difference. She felt her cheeks burning up, and stuttered, "H─ How long was I out?"
"Just a few seconds. You didn't hit your head."
She nodded and sat up. He removed his hand and moved backwards from her, not looking away from her for a second. "How do you feel?"
"Fine. Can you, erm…" She hesitated, thinking that it was a bit too much to ask. She shifted to sit cross-legged and leaned her back against the bathtub. "Can you not tell anyone about this?"
He frowned. "Brooke─"
"I really need you not to tell anyone, Luke. Please. I'm completely fine, I swear, I just get low blood pressure sometimes." He didn't look convinced, but who could blame him? Certainly not herself. "Please, I need you to trust me on this."
He looked startled, but eventually gave her a slight nod. "Fine, I won't tell anyone, but you need to tell me in exchange why you've been so pissed at me."
"What?" she asked, confused. "I'm not─"
And then she remembered that before travelling, she had been spending the entire afternoon ignoring him and avoiding his gaze.
He raised an eyebrow. "Well, now you look like you're back to normal. Why were you mad at me?"
"I… I wasn't mad at you."
He scoffed, "Yeah, right."
"No, honestly, I wasn't." She looked down at the floor, feeling embarrassed. "I was mostly just mad at myself."
"Why?"
She looked up at him. "My parents are getting a divorce, and I never noticed that they were stuck in an unhappy marriage."
"Oh," he said, looking sorry for her. And then he frowned again. "Wait, what does that have to do with me?"
"I, er, I can't say. Sorry, it's not that I don't want to, but I really can't. I can just tell you that I'm really sorry I acted like a jerk."
There was no way he would believe her anyway. Or maybe he would, since in the future he knew and accepted the fact that she was time-travelling. But somehow, it just didn't feel like the right time to tell him.
He stared at her in silence, and for a moment she thought that he wouldn't be satisfied with her answer. But eventually, he shrugged and said, "Okay."
"Okay?" she repeated, incredulous.
"I mean, as long as you're back to your normal self, I'm good."
She felt an urge to kiss him again but did her best to ignore it. "I might have something to make you forgive me."
"I don't─" he froze when he saw her taking a picture out of her back pocket. "No way, is that what I think it is?"
She handed it to him. "Nathan in a pink frilly dress, yup."
He bent over to grab it and leaned back on the opposite wall, an amazed look spreading on his face. "Wow," he said with a loud laugh, "and he's wearing make-up too?! I'm never letting this go! Wait," he added, his smile fading away for a bit, "I've got to give you back your picture now."
She nodded. "A deal is a deal. Where is it?"
"Still at the Café, I'll get it back tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Why do you need it so bad anyway?"
She hesitated, uncomfortable with the idea of lying to him again. "I need to get rid of it."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "For real?"
"Yeah. Just a little experiment I'm conducting with Mouth."
"Do you have another copy?"
"No, that's the only one, why?"
He shrugged. "Nothing, I just think it's too bad." He looked thoughtful for a second, then said with a smile, "You look really cute on that picture."
Her heart sped up; how in the hell could he make her so flustered in an instant?
And then she thought about her future, of what she had seen of it. Jamie telling her that she was very happy. The little girl playing hide-and-seek with them. Her friendship with Haley. The life she was going to have with Lucas.
Did it really matter whether she could change the future? Right now, she didn't want any of it to change. So why take the risk?
"Just keep it then," she said, avoiding his gaze.
"A─ Are you sure?"
"Yeah," she said with what hoped was a casual shrug. "I don't need it anymore." She looked around them, then frowned slightly as she realized something. "Hey, this is the same bathroom."
"What do you mean?"
"You know, where I helped you at Nathan's party, last year. When you gave me the idea for DWNotI."
This sounded like news to him. "I gave you that idea?"
"I never told you?" she mused. "You did yeah, you know, indirectly. I thought about it when I drove you home. But you did tell me that I should run for president."
"That I remember." He winced in embarrassment. "Didn't I call you hot too?"
She grinned, "You did, yeah, but who could blame you for that?" He gave a quiet laugh. "And you said─" she paused, hesitating. "You said you saw me. I mean, for who I was."
"I remember that too," he admitted, his voice suddenly hoarse.
She cleared her throat. "Yeah, so, anyway, thanks for the idea. It did help me win the election. That, and the speech Mouth helped me to write."
He chuckled. "Then shouldn't you also thank JFK?"
They both fell silent as her jaw dropped in surprise. "How do you know it was JFK?" she asked in a high-pitched voice.
"I, er─ I just do. It's a famous quote."
"Bullshit. You're good at lit, but no one's that good."
He avoided her stare and nervously looked at the wall behind her. "Alright so I might have helped Mouth a little."
"I don't─ How?"
"He came to me in January, said you needed help with your speech, but he didn't feel like he could help you. So, he asked for some writing tips. Brooke? Are you okay?" he asked when she stayed unusually silent.
She needed a moment to take in this information.
So, not only had he told her to run for president, given her the idea for DWNotI, he had also helped with her speech?
"I, um…" she muttered, thoughtful. She startled him when she stood up and sat right next to him. "Remember that book we studied last year? The one with the French guy who helps another guy write letters to a girl, and the girl doesn't know who's really writing to her?"
"You mean Cyrano?"
"Yeah, maybe."
"Maybe? Brooke, we studied that play for weeks."
"Whatever," she said with vague hand movement, "that's not my point right now. I'm saying you're just like him."
"Like who?"
"Cyrano. Writing letters and speeches in secret." She turned to him, remembering what Future Lucas had told her during one of her travels, about being over Peyton for a long time. "Okay, I'm gonna ask you something, and I need you to tell me the truth."
Lucas looked unsettled. "Yeah, sure."
"Back then, did you do all that because you were into Peyton? To impress her?"
"No," he answered right away.
"So you really haven't been into her lately?"
"What? No! Wait, is what you think? I let it go when we─ when she rejected me last year. And then, I…" his voice trailed off.
She leaned closer to him, her heart beating so fast that it was now resonating in her ears. "You what?"
"Well I realized that─"
They both jumped up when the bathroom door flung open. Brooke's head shot up; Keith was standing in the doorway, staring at them. "Oh, it's you guys," he mumbled, scratching his head just like Lucas usually did when he was embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, I just finished my phone call, and then I heard some noise here, and, er─"
"That's okay," Lucas said, standing up. "We were about to go downstairs anyway. Right Brooke?" he asked, his left hand reached out to her.
Without an ounce of hesitation, she grabbed his hand so that he could pull her up. "Right."
I have to stop giving deadlines away because I obviously can't keep up with them. Though Covid is kind of starting to get better here, so I might get more free time from work. We'll see. I'm gonna try my best to update this month, but I'm not making any promises.
Thank you for reading, and thank you so much for your reviews. I hate not being able to answer your questions right away, but that would just spoil the rest of the story for you, and I'm sure that's not what you'd want.
Someone did ask me how long this was gonna be. I've got enough material for about 5 other chapters, so unless I completely change my writing plan (which is very unlikely), we're around haflway through the story !
