CHAPTER NINE

After the fall

Brooke didn't know how long she had been unconscious. When her eyes flickered open, she didn't even know where she was. After a few seconds of utter ─and frankly, frightening─ confusion, she realized that she was in her car and that her head was resting on the airbag.

It took every bit of strength she had to resist the urge to close her eyes. She was drowsy, but deep down she knew that now was not the time to take a nap. It became much easier to stay awake and focused when she remembered she had just smashed her car into a pole.

She slowly lifted her head and squinted at the window, trying to distinguish something, anything, through the darkness and the pouring rain; no one seemed to be around. Her right hand swiftly reached for the car keys and yanked them out. She was aching all over, but it didn't matter: she had to get out of this car. She groaned as she leaned back on her seat and stared at the front; the windshield was intact, and it looked like most of the impact had been on the right-side of the hood. She unbuckled her seatbelt, only to be overwhelmed by a surge of panic: her left arm wasn't responding.

Her eyes lowered to her lap and she saw with relief that she could move her hand and forearm, though only if she kept her elbow pressed against her waist. She tried to lift her shoulder and furrowed her brow when it didn't move an inch. Ignoring the tremors in her right hand, she traced a finger along her left collarbone, and where she should have felt the smooth curve of her shoulder, she fell on an unusual and solid round-shaped bump. That did not look good.

She needed to get out of this car and now that her left arm had been rendered useless, she knew she could not do it on her own. She scanned the road around her, praying for some miracle, but quickly decided that it was pointless to do so: no one in their right mind would go out in this weather. No one but her, of course.

Wait a minute, her cellphone! She turned to the passenger seat and instantly regretted moving so fast when it triggered a shooting pain in her shoulder. She let out a cry and grasped her left shoulder, closing her eyes for a minute and waiting for the pain to fade; when it did, she went back to searching her phone, this time moving more cautiously.

Her handbag wasn't there. She blinked in confusion at the empty passenger seat, then looked down at its feet and saw that it had, during the crash, rolled down there and poured out its content, including her phone. She stared at it helplessly: it was too far, she couldn't get it while keeping her left arm in check. Her eyes then landed on her scarf, which was also on the floor, but within easy reach. She shifted on her seat, her leg bumping against the handbrake, and after slowly leaning forward, managed to snatch the precious item.

It seemed to take forever, but using her mouth and her right hand, she eventually managed to tie a knot in her scarf. She put the makeshift sling around her neck and carefully slid her left arm in it; she sighed in relief once it was secured there. She still had to move slowly, but at least now she could bend over and grab her phone.

She stiffened when she saw her screensaver: it was a picture she had taken with Lucas a few hours earlier, at his parents' wedding reception. Then, and only then, did she recall why she had been idiotically driving back to her house in this weather, even though her mother had specifically told her not to. They all had been celebrating their college results at Peyton's, when Nathan had told her that─

No, she couldn't afford to think about that. She ignored the lump appearing in her throat, the tears welling up in her eyes, and dialed 911.

The ambulance quickly got to her. Brooke watched as two paramedics climbed out of it and hurried toward her car. They didn't seem to be bothered by the rain hitting them head-on and took the time to introduce themselves and explain to her what they were about to do. Soon enough, they had equipped her with a rigid neck brace and helped her get on a stretcher─ she tried to tell them that she was fine, and that she could walk, but they wouldn't hear any of it. The younger one, who was probably in his thirties, stayed with her in the back of the ambulance when his senior was collecting Brooke's belongings: he came back with her bag and handed it to her.

While the ambulance was making its way to the hospital, her eyes travelled from one paramedic to the other; the youngest was sitting near the doors whereas the oldest was standing next to her. They had both gotten drenched in the few minutes they had spent outside.

"I'm sorry," she said hoarsely.

They raised their eyebrows in surprise, and it was the oldest who spoke first. "What for?" She took a meaningful look at the towel he had been using to wipe his face. "Oh, that? That's nothing at all."

"What were you doing out here anyway?" the youngest asked her, pressing his elbows on the end of the stretcher.

She clenched her fists, and her voice turned into a murmur. "I had to get away."

"Get away from what?"

This damn neck brace prevented her from turning her face away from them. She managed to avoid their inquisitive looks by gazing down at her lap and bit her lower lip. The tears were coming up again.

She didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to think about any of it.

They seemed to catch up on that and changed the subject. During the twenty-minute ride to the hospital, they told her about the other people they had picked up that night. They made it sound like she hadn't been the only one recklessly wandering the streets of Tree Hill and for a while, Brooke thought that they were just trying to cheer her up. However, when they rolled her stretcher into the ER, she realized that they hadn't been lying: the room was full of people with broken limbs and head injuries, separated from each other by curtains. Nurses and doctors were running around, trying to tend to everyone. Brooke thanked the paramedics one last time before they hurried out to their next caller.

She was led to her own bed by a nurse and was asked to wait there until a doctor would see her. It took about half an hour, during which Brooke stayed put, staring at the wall in front of her, trying to ignore her phone that kept buzzing in her handbag. She had an idea on who might be calling her, and she did not want to pick up. Instead, she focused on the moans of the man lying behind the curtain to her right; he was complaining about the ineffective pain medication he had received for his broken leg.

Wait, what about her shoulder? It hadn't hurt once since she had immobilized it. Did that mean that it was fine? But then what was that huge bump she had felt? And why couldn't she move it?

The intern she saw that night told her that she had most likely dislocated her shoulder. The young woman, probably in her early twenties, looked like she was ten years older than that. It surely had to do with the shadows under her eyes, her unkempt hair and her haggard appearance. She examined Brooke's shoulder and neck, and after she was done, picked up the cup of coffee that she had left on the nearest tray. While sipping her drink, she asked Brooke for the whereabouts of her accident, and eventually advised her to call someone: her car was down and, in her condition, she wouldn't be able to go home on her own. She then explained to Brooke that she was sending her to get an X-ray of her neck and shoulder and that she would see her with the results.

Brooke waited for another thirty minutes before she was rolled down the corridor to get her X-rays. The clock facing her had just reached 1 am and from the sound of it, the storm was starting to calm down. She sighed: as exhausted as that intern looked, she was right about Brooke's inability to leave this place on her own. She took out her phone, ignored the missed calls flashing on the screen and called her mother.

Victoria was infuriated. When she picked up, Brooke mainly heard anxiety in her mother's voice, but it soon gave way to anger. Her mother then proceeded to yell at her for what seemed like an hour ─although it must have only lasted a couple of minutes─ so much so that at some point, her words stopped making any sense. When she finally allowed Brooke to get a word in, she insisted that she was fine, that only her shoulder was hurt, and she should be discharged in about an hour. Before hanging up, Victoria told her that she would get there as soon as possible.

Once she was back from the X-ray, the intern came back to remove her neck brace.

"Nothing broken there," the young doctor told her with a faint smile. "Or on your shoulder." She noticed Brooke's confused look and added, "That means we can now safely put it back in place."

Brooke frowned slightly. "Is that gonna hurt?"

"We're gonna make sure it doesn't."

"Who's we?"

Her answer came in the shape of a male nurse who was dragging what looked like an oxygen bottle behind him. The intern gave him a sharp nod, and he started fiddling with a tube, connecting it to a mask. "We're gonna put you under Nitronox."

That did not sound good. "Do I have to?" she asked, keeping a wary eye on the mask.

"Don't worry, it's not gonna hurt you," the nurse told her with a reassuring smile. "It's supposed to do the opposite."

"You might feel weird at first," the intern chimed in, "but if you keep taking deep breaths into the mask, it will work just fine. You won't feel any pain while I take care of your shoulder."

She tried not to fidget while the nurse was securing the mask around her head, or when he turned the adjuster on top of the bottle. A sound that reminded her of a pressure cooker came from the bottle, through the mask, and suddenly Brooke felt a rush of gas coming to her face.

She took small, cautious breaths at first, and when she heard the doctor's voice urging her to keep inhaling, she closed her eyes and obeyed.

Now she understood what the doctor had meant by 'feeling weird'. Brooke felt a heat starting from her chest and spreading to her whole body, and a light-headedness overcoming her… almost like she was fainting. She recalled the time when she had passed out in Lucas' bedroom; that was eerily similar to what she was feeling right now. Lucas, huh. For some reason, she knew the thought of him should have made her emotional, but it didn't. Instead, a giggle slipped past her lips.

The nurse spoke with a hint of amusement in her voice: "I think it's working."

It really was; Brooke was both aware and unaware of it. It was a strange experience, as if she had been lifted from her body: she could hear the noises surrounding her, she could sense the things happening to her, but it seemed like it was all taking place from a distance. She was just an observant whose weights ─the ones she had been ramming inside her─ were one by one coming to the surface. She should have been bothered by that, but she wasn't: it was in fact making her feel much, much lighter. Away with the whisperings, the secrets, the travels, the doubts. Away they went.

But that only lasted for about five minutes. The mask was then taken off from her face, and after a minute or two of confusion, during which the gas was slowing getting out of her system, she remembered what had just happened. She looked down to see that the bump had disappeared and from the satisfied expression on the intern's face, she knew that she had been successful.

"Thank you," Brooke told her with a grateful look.

The intern brushed it aside with a vague hand movement, then took something that had been lying on the bed next to Brooke's feet. "Did you call someone?"

"Yeah, my mother is coming. What is that?" she asked, gesturing at the sheet the doctor was now holding in her hands.

She unfolded it and Brooke realized that it wasn't a sheet. "It's a sling."

"B─ But my shoulder's back in place, right?" She started moving it to prove her point, but stopped abruptly when a sharp pain appeared in her shoulder. "I can't move it?"

"Not for another three weeks, no. The tissues in your shoulder need to heal before you can use it again." Three weeks? She couldn't move her left arm for three weeks? "Then you can remove the sling and start physical therapy."

"So how long before I can use my arm like before?"

"Six to eight weeks." She noticed Brooke's sullen face and added, "Don't worry, it will fly by."

Somehow, she doubted that.

Victoria arrived right after the sling had been secured around her shoulder and the doctor had left to check on another patient. Brooke saw her from afar, walking through the ER doors and frantically scanning the room. She waved at her mother and caught her attention; a look of relief crossed Victoria's face as she rushed toward her. She hugged her, then quickly took a step back to glance at her from head to toe, briefly pausing on the sling.

"I cannot believe you! In the middle of a storm?!" Victoria cried, apparently still mad at her daughter. Her eyes darkened as she kept staring at Brooke. "Do you know how lucky you are that things didn't get uglier?"

Brooke averted her eyes. "I'm sorry," she muttered with a guilt-ridden voice. "I know it was stupid, but…" Her voice trailed off and she recalled something Skills had said weeks before, about Lucas being heartbroken. Now she knew why. She clenched her fists, digging her nails into her skin, trying to focus on that pain rather than on… everything else. It didn't work, and once again, her eyes welled with tears.

"What's wrong?" her mother asked, alarmed by her reaction. "Is it your shoulder?"

It was everything but her shoulder. "Yeah," she croaked, nonetheless.

She didn't want to talk about it now. She didn't even want to think about it. Her mother seemed to see through her lie; she let out a quiet sigh and relaxed her shoulders before cradling Brooke's hair. "How about I get your discharge papers and then we can go home?" Victoria asked in a soft voice.

Brooke wiped her tears and sniffed. "Sounds good."

The rain had stopped now. The rush of adrenaline from the accident had completely disappeared, leaving Brooke with nothing but exhaustion. She dozed off during the ride home; Victoria helped her out of the car and led her to her bed. Brooke remembered asking something about her car, and Victoria telling her to go to sleep already and not to worry, she would take care of it.

Thanks to the pain medication she had been given, Brooke slept for six straight hours. She didn't even wake up when, despite the pillows that her mother had carefully arranged around her, she rolled on her left shoulder. When she did surface however, the pain was almost unbearable.

She groaned and with much struggle rolled on her back; every muscle she moved seemed to be sore. She eventually managed to sit up and looked around her, mechanically rubbing her shoulder. She glanced at her phone sitting on her nightstand; it was blinking, silently signaling her of missed calls and texts, but she decided to ignore it. Instead, she dragged herself out of bed, using her right hand to keep her shoulder in place ─which was pointless really, since the sling was still perfectly securing it─ and slowly walked down the stairs.

Her mother had left a note on the fridge; Brooke stopped in front of it to read the first lines.

I went out to take care of your car. Your pain medication is on the table ─she looked over her shoulder and saw that there was indeed a glass of water and two tablets waiting for her, along with the house keys─ take them WITH FOOD. Don't drink any coffee. Call me if there's anything. Lucas came by to see you but since you were sleeping, I told him to come back later. You can go out if you want, but please tell me where you go and PLEASE BE CAREFUL.

Brooke's eyes lingered on the last three words that Victoria had not only written in capital letters, but also underlined several times. She then went back to the part about Lucas coming over and felt a pang. She frowned, confused by the strange mix of emotions that overcame her when she remembered Lucas' face─ the one he had made when she had asked him if he had been with Peyton. She did not understand everything that had happened, and not just on the previous night, and she could not even figure out how she was feeling right now... There was anger, definitely, but also confusion, and… something else. All she knew was that she felt uncomfortable thinking about all this, and that she did not want to face Lucas right now.

After a quick breakfast, Brooke swallowed her medication and got ready to leave the house. Quick was an overstatement though, since even the most basic tasks took time: pouring a glass of milk, putting toothpaste on her brush, showering without moving her shoulder… She had never realized so far how important her left arm was. Getting dressed was the hardest part, but once she figured out how to put on her shirt ─left sleeve, neck, right sleeve─ she put her sling back and was about to leave the house when the landline rang.

"Brooke?!" her father shouted from the phone. "Why aren't you picking up your cell phone?"

"Hey Dad," she answered hesitantly. "Sorry, I didn't notice that─"

"What happened to you?" he cut her off, his voice getting even more tense. "Your mother called earlier to tell me you had an accident?!"

"Um, yeah, but it's nothing bad I─"

"Nothing bad? Nothing bad?" he repeated, as if he couldn't believe his ears. "She said you dislocated your shoulder!"

Brooke held back a sigh. "I know, but I swear it's really not that bad," she said, hoping her father would buy her lie.

He seemed like he did when he moved on and asked: "So what happened then?"

"Didn't Mom tell you? I crashed into a pole."

"No, I mean what happened before that? Why were you even driving?"

"I─ I don't want to talk about it," she answered, lowering her voice.

"That's what your mother said, but… Brooke, come on, why were you─"

"Dad," she cut him off, "I'm sorry, okay? I know it was stupid to drive in that weather and I won't do it again." When he stayed silent, she added in one breath: "I have to go now, I'll talk to you later."

It was a sunny Sunday morning; Brooke couldn't even ride a bike now, so she decided to walk. She made sure her mind wouldn't wander to unpleasant places by plugging her earphones and listening to random music. It took her about thirty minutes to get to destination; she pondered on turning away once she was facing the familiar front door, but eventually knocked on it.

"Brooke?" Mrs McFadden was surprised to see her, but still managed to sound delighted. "What are you…" Her voice trailed off and her eyes locked on the sling. "What happened to you?" she asked alarmingly.

"I, er, I had a car accident. But I'm fine." Mouth's mother didn't look too convinced by that. "Is Mouth home?" she asked, looking over her shoulder.

Mrs McFadden slowly shook her head, still staring at her injured shoulder. "No." She looked up at Brooke and added, "He's at the River Court." Of course he was there, Brooke should have thought about it. But there was no way she could go there, not if that meant running into─ "You could wait for him here," Mouth's mother suggested, interrupting her train of thoughts. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Brooke fought the urge to hug her; it would only increase her concern if she did that. "Thanks," she simply said.

She waited for Mouth in his bedroom, on the window sill, her left side leaning against several cushions. She glanced at her handbag sitting on her lap, secured it between her knees and opened it to take out her phone. The LED was still blinking at a regular pace; she sighed and decided to check on those missed calls and texts. Or at least, on some of them.

She froze, once again, when she saw her screensaver showing Lucas kissing her cheek, as she was grinning from ear to ear. The lump was crawling back in her throat. She swiftly tapped on her phone until she was one tap away from deleting that picture. Her finger didn't move though; she frowned at herself, realizing that she didn't want to get rid of it. Whatever, she thought while she went on to read her texts, she would deal with that later.

She had a dozen of missed calls from Nathan, Haley, Mouth and the two people she didn't want to face right now. Almost as many texts, but they were mostly from Haley. Brooke hesitated before reading them, but then recalled her friend's genuinely confused and surprised face when Nathan had spilled the beans.

11:32 Where are you?

11:41 Are you ok?

00:08 Call me when you can.

00:08 Or at least text.

00:09 We just want to know you're fine.

07:26 Are you ok? Did you get home safely?

08:51 Nathan told me about the accident, are you ok?

How did Nathan know about her accident? Had her mother told him? But when would she have done that?

Brooke put these questions aside and sent Haley a quick reply, telling her that she didn't have to worry, she was fine, and she would talk to her at school. She then texted her mother to tell her where she was. She threw her phone on the bed and stretched out her legs. The pain medication had kicked in, and not only was it effective on her shoulder, it was also making her sleepy.

She jolted awake when she heard a door slam shut. She blinked and turned around to see that Mouth's bedroom door was still closed. She then heard rushed footsteps approaching the room until there was a soft knock on the door. After a short moment, it opened and Mouth was walking to her, staring at her in disbelief.

"You don't have to knock on your own door, you know," she told him with an amused chuckle.

She folded her knees so that he could sit next to her. He did, but just as his mother had before him, he kept his eyes stuck on her sling. "Er, yeah, I guess I don't have to. So, um… What are you doing here?" he asked tentatively.

"Sorry, I should have called first, but I needed a place to…" She hesitated before adding: "To hide."

"No, that's okay," he said hurriedly. "You're always welcome here." He briefly glanced back at her sling. "What happened after you left?"

"I, er… I crashed into a pole," she admitted sheepishly. "I don't know why I even thought I could drive in that weather."

"Did you break your shoulder?"

"No, it just got dislocated."

Mouth winced at that. "Doesn't that hurt like hell?"

"Not really, no. I secured it with my scarf and then they put it back in the hospital."

"What did your mother say?"

"She was mad," Brooke said with a sigh. "But not as mad as I thought she'd be."

"It was an accident," Mouth told her with a shrug. "Accidents happen."

"Yeah, but that only happened because I was dumb enough to─" She fell silent and blinked at him.

"What is it?" he asked, puzzled by her reaction.

"Accidents happen," Brooke repeated in a murmur, her brain working fast. "Isn't that what Future Lucas said that day? You know, when I travelled during Thanksgiving?"

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You think that's what he was talking about?"

"Well, what else could he talk about?"

"But… Didn't he say that when you were yelling at him? You were angry with him, and that's when he said that to you. So why would he refer to this accident─"

"Because I am angry with him," she said with a frown, averting her gaze.

"Brooke…" he said with a sigh. "I guess you haven't talked to Luke or Peyton, huh?" She shook her head, staring at his desk. "Lucas didn't show up this morning at─"

"I don't care," she cut him off, her voice hardening with each word. "I don't want to talk about him."

"But last night he was─"

She looked back at him with pleading eyes. "Mouth, please," she said, her voice quavering.

That was enough for him to immediately drop that subject. He gave her an encouraging smile and pointed at the door with his thumb. "Are you hungry? My mom said she cooked enough for you too."

"I'm always starving when it comes to your mother's food," she answered, making him chuckle.

For the rest of the day, Mouth carefully avoided talking about last night's events. After lunch, they hung out in his room, watching several episodes of a random show they picked on Netflix. It turned out to be terrible, but at least it did manage to lift her spirits, though it only lasted for a short amount of time, until she went back home.

Her mother was busy in the kitchen chopping some meat; Brooke hesitated but eventually went to see her before heading to her bedroom.

"How did you come home?" Victoria asked her when she came to sit at the island.

"I walked." She noticed her mother's disapproving look and added, "Mouth doesn't have a car."

Victoria's traits softened at that. She went back to chopping her meat and asked: "How is he?"

"He's fine."

"And how are you?" she asked, staring at the cutting board. "Brooke?" she called, looking up at her when she got no answer.

Brooke frowned and averted her eyes. "My shoulder's fine," she mumbled.

Victoria looked like she wanted to ask something else, but instead just said: "Good."

She didn't know what it was, but something in her mother's relief made her burst into tears. What the hell was wrong with her? She was angry, she knew she was, but why was she feeling so down at the same time? What had happened between Lucas and Peyton had taken place, as Nathan had put it, a while ago, so why was it making her feel so depressed? No, she had to stop thinking about that.

Her mother dropped her knife and cupped her cheek, making her look up at her. She was scanning her face, probably trying to figure out what was wrong with her daughter. "What happened? Do you want to stay at Peyton's tonight?"

Brooke frowned and wiped her tears. "No," she said in a firm voice, clenching her fists.

"Oh," Victoria murmured, startled by her answer. "Well, um, Lucas came by again this afternoon" ─she frowned when she saw Brooke's eyes welling up again─ "but I'm guessing he's not gonna be of any help either, huh?"

"Nope," she croaked, shaking her head. She cleared her throat and said, "It's okay, I'll get over it. So, um, what happened to my car?"

Victoria's shoulders relaxed and she went back to her task. "Keith says that he can─"

Her head shot up, startling her mother. "Keith?"

"He's the only one who could tow it today," her mother said matter-of-factly. "It'll take him a couple of weeks, maybe more, but he'll get it fixed."

That explained how Nathan had known about the accident: Keith must have told Lucas, who in turn had told his brother and Haley. She wasn't fond of the idea of Lucas' uncle taking care of her car, but at least when they would see her the next day, she wouldn't have to explain herself about the sling and she could keep ignoring them.

She didn't get much sleep that night, despite the pain medication she took before going to bed. After tossing and turning for a couple of hours, she asked her mother, who had been reading in bed, if she could take another tablet, just this once. Naturally, her mother flat out refused.

Mouth came to pick her up the next morning; she tried climbing at the back of his bicycle, but after only three seconds of him pedaling, during which she dangerously swayed left and right, they decided it would be safer to continue on foot. It was a good thing, though, as they arrived later than usual, and by the time they entered their school, the corridors were almost empty. They hurried to their respective lockers; Mouth helped her by carrying her bag and walked her to her classroom.

"You're gonna be okay?" he asked her after she had swung her backpack on her right shoulder.

"Yeah, I can manage with one arm," she answered, trying her best to sound cheerful. She knew she had failed when she saw his dubious look. "I'll be fine. Thanks for everything," she told him with a side hug before entering her classroom.

It seemed like she was the last one to arrive: the room was packed with her classmates. As soon as she set foot in it, almost everyone took a double take on her and stared at her, or more precisely at her sling. Three people in particular looked at her more intensely than the others.

It took her brain less than a second to notice that Peyton was sitting on the front row, away from Nathan who had taken a seat at the back of the room. Lucas was leaning against the desk closest to his brother and was talking to him.

She turned her head away from them and swiftly walked to the empty seat at the far end of the room, away from them. She knew they were still staring at her, but she did her best to look unfazed and wedged her backpack with her knees to open it with ease.

Thankfully, since Nathan and Peyton knew her well, they didn't budge from their chairs and didn't approach her. But after a quick glance at them that she couldn't help, she saw that Lucas was still staring at her. When he caught her looking at him, he jumped on his feet and started moving toward her.

Shit. She didn't want to talk to him. Not here, not now.

"Don't," she heard Nathan say, but his brother didn't listen to him.

Before Lucas could reach her side, their teacher walked into the room and told them to get to their seats. Brooke sighed in relief and kept her eyes on their teacher for the rest of the period. As soon as it ended, she jolted from her chair and rushed out; she managed to avoid speaking to anyone for the rest of the morning, dashing away at the end of each period and avoiding looking at them.

When lunch time came, she went to the girls' room and waited there for the corridors to empty themselves. She felt stupid and cowardly, but… She really didn't want to face any of them. After waiting for fifteen minutes, she stuck out her head and scanned the hallway; when she saw that it was empty, she decided it was safe to come out.

She realized that she had been wrong when she saw Nathan standing by her locker. She pondered on running away, but she really needed to switch her books. She held back a sigh and walked to her locker, stubbornly staring at anything but her childhood friend who looked unsure of what to do now that she was actually approaching him.

"I brought you lunch," he told her in a hopeful tone.

She was about to open her locker and glanced at him reluctantly: he was holding out two brown paper bags in his hand. She frowned and turned away from him, focusing on getting her books out of her backpack without dropping them all. Nathan saw her struggling and reached out his free hand to help her, but stopped when she glowered at him and said, "I don't need your help."

He sighed and leaned against the nearest locker. "Brooke, I get that you're pissed but─"

"What are you still doing here then?"

"I swear I thought you knew," he said with another sigh.

After years of knowing him and growing up with him, Brooke could tell with a single glance that he wasn't lying. She also remembered how confused he had looked at Peyton's, and admitted to herself, though a bit reluctantly, that he really had thought she had been in the know all along.

His eyebrow twitched when he saw her shoulders relaxing; she turned to him and nodded at her backpack. "Can you help me with this?"

He smiled in relief. "Sure."

When Brooke told him that they should find a quiet place, he answered that he knew where to go and took out a key from his jeans' front pocket. She followed him to the tutoring center; Haley had assured him that it was empty during lunch, so they wouldn't be bothered by anyone. After sitting down at a table, Nathan handed her one of the two brown bags he had been carrying.

"Why do you have two lunches?" she asked, puzzled.

He shrugged. "I figured I could corner you at lunch, so I asked my mom to make one for you too." His eyes landed on her shoulder for a brief moment, and he took a bite from his sandwich. "How are you doing?"

"It doesn't hurt," she said when she caught him glancing yet again at her shoulder.

"I'm happy your shoulder's fine, but that's not really what I meant."

She averted her eyes and focused on her sandwich. "I don't know what you're talking about," she mumbled in between bites.

She looked up at him when he snorted. "Yeah, right," he said, ignoring her scowl. "Look, just to make things clear, I found out about them a year and a half ago." Brooke frowned and looked down at her hands, wondering if she really wanted to hear all that. Part of her wanted to, but another part just wanted to cover her ears. Nathan seemed to pick up on her hesitation, and when she didn't tell him to shut up, he kept going: "And when they ended their" ─he paused for a second, looking unsure of the word to pick─ "their thing, Peyton made me promise not to talk about it again. Ever. So I didn't, not even with you, but I swear I thought you knew about all this. I mean you guys tell each other everything!"

"Apparently not everything," Brooke murmured bitterly. She frowned, recalling what he had just said to her, and what Lucas had told her right before she had driven away in the storm. "What do you mean by 'ended their thing'?" she asked with air quotes, her curiosity getting the better of her. "When they broke up?"

"They didn't really break up…" Nathan said hesitantly. "They, um, they weren't going out. They were just…" his voice trailed off as he gave her a cautious look. He looked scared of her reaction.

She clenched her jaw. "Just having sex?"

He frowned slightly. "Yeah. It went on for a month, and then Luke told me about it, so I went to talk to Peyton."

"What did you say to her?" she asked when he stayed silent.

"That she had to stop using my brother."

A year and a half ago: that was the summer after Peyton's biological mother, Ellie, had died. Brooke had spent the entire month of July with her, helping her to cope with her loss. And then she had left for a month; her parents had taken her to Spain for the rest of their summer vacation. But even from there, she had kept in touch with her best friend, and had repeatedly sent her emails asking her how she had been doing. Peyton had told her, over and over again, that she was fine. Brooke frowned with anger, realizing now after all this time what, or rather who, had made her feel fine.

"She was using him?" she repeated, puzzled. Nathan avoided her inquisitive gaze and kept chewing his food. "What do you mean, using him?"

He swallowed his bite. "Well, um, maybe you should ask them about this, I mean I don't even─"

"Nate," she said, her voice hardening enough to make him look up at her.

He sighed and sounded reluctant as he said: "You know, they kept, um… They kept seeing each other, and back then Luke was into her, but she wasn't. So, when he told me about their thing, I figured she was just leading him on, and I told her she had to stop doing that."

Brooke remembered how Nathan had asked her, right before Tric's reopening, if she was serious about his brother. Now she understood why he had felt the need to make sure of that. He didn't want Lucas to be disappointed, once again. Heartbroken, as Skills had put it.

The lump was back in her throat.

"See, it's not that bad," Nathan said tentatively, dragging her from her thoughts.

"Not that bad?" she repeated, squinting at him.

"Yeah, I mean…" He looked like he was wondering whether it was too late to shut up now. "They weren't dating."

"No, they were just having sex every day," she retorted, her voice breaking on the last words.

"Brooke, come on," he said when he saw her eyes welling up, "that was more than a year ago!"

Her voice hardened. "Yeah, exactly. Peyton had a year and a half to tell me, Lucas had months, but instead, they went behind my back and decided they wouldn't say anything."

"Wait, what?" Nathan asked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I heard them talk during your party. You know," ─she added when he still looked like he had no idea what she was talking about─ "the one for my end of presidency." He nodded, so she went on: "Peyton made him promise not to tell me something… I'm pretty sure that's what she was talking about. I was drunk then, so it was all fuzzy until you started talking about them."

"Maybe she just didn't want to─"

"I don't want to know," Brooke said sharply. "But…" she added, her voice softening. "Why isn't she talking to you? This morning, it looked like she was ignoring you."

He knew she was just changing subjects but didn't point it out. "Yeah, she is," he said with a sigh. "After you left, Luke came back and said he'd go after you, but he was too drunk to go and even if he wasn't" ─he glanced at her shoulder─ "it wouldn't have been safe. So, we decided to wait until the storm calmed down. Luke asked me why I told you about him and Peyton, and I told him what I just said to you. He took it well, but Peyton didn't."

"What did she say?"

"That I should have kept my mouth shut." Brooke's anger went up a notch. So, she really had been planning on keeping her in the dark indefinitely? "And that Lucas should have stopped you."

"But I didn't let him─" she stopped speaking abruptly, wondering why she was coming to his defense. "And then what happened?"

"She went to her bedroom. Haley tried talking to her but…" His mouth turned into a frown. "Anyway, we waited for, er, two hours I think, and then we all left." That must have been one awkward end of a party... Which only happened because she had decided to run off. "So, erm… When are you gonna talk to them?"

"Never," she answered with a frown.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Brooke, you can't avoid them forever."

"Watch me."

"Seriously, you can't. We've got practice today, remember?"

Her heart sank; she had completely forgotten about her cheerleading practice, which would take place in the school gym, near the Ravens. She would have to face both Peyton and Lucas at the same time.

Nathan saw how depress that made her and tried taking her mind off things by telling her of the offer he had received from Keith. He had been job hunting for several weeks now, ever since he had found out about Haley's pregnancy; after all, their respective parents ─apart from Dan, who apparently still didn't know that he was about to be a grandfather─ had told them that they would help them financially, but still, they both would have rather managed on their own as much as they could. He explained how, during the wedding reception, Nathan had asked Keith if he knew someone who would hire him, and his uncle had told him that he would gladly do so himself. He was about to start this very day, after his basketball practice.

They finished eating lunch and went back to their respective classrooms. Brooke spent the next two periods wishing she could stop time and never reach her cheerleading practice. It was useless of course, and soon enough, she found herself dragging her feet toward the gym.

Most of the cheerleaders were already getting changed when she walked into the dressing room. They all swarmed around her and asked her a hundred questions, mainly on how she had gotten hurt and how she was planning on cheering with only one arm. Brooke told them that although she couldn't use her arm for now, she could still use her voice and give them instructions. As for the reason for her dislocated shoulder, Brooke stayed evasive and said that she had had a car accident. She struggled to get changed, but less than she had the day before, which hopefully meant that she was getting the hang of it.

She closed her locker and startled when she turned around to see that everyone was staring at the door on their left, where Peyton was standing still, gaping at her.

"W─ What are you doing here?" Peyton asked her with a worried voice.

The cheerleaders' heads swung back and forth from Peyton to Brooke, as if they were watching a tennis game. Brooke tightly clenched her fists, her nails digging into her skin. "Practice starts in five," she muttered sharply before leaving the room.

She could do it. She really could do it, she was sure of it. She would spend an hour in the gym with Peyton on one side and Lucas on the other, and then she would finally go home. She would probably draw some sketches, do her homework, and then Haley would stop by after her evening shift, as she had told her earlier through a text. She only had to grin and bear it for an hour; how hard could that be?

Extremely hard, as it turned out. She managed to tune out Peyton for about half an hour, refusing to even look at her, while still giving out instructions to the squad; Lucas, however, happened to be much more difficult to ignore, mainly because of Whitey's voice travelling all the way to their end of the court. Even though she had carefully kept her back turned to the Ravens, she knew they had been working on their speed, slaloming through cones to get from one hoop to the other. She also knew that one of them hadn't been focused enough on his practice, because Whitey kept yelling at him to stop daydreaming.

The coach's whistle blew, startling even the cheerleaders. "Lucas!" he shouted one more time, his voice ringing loudly in the gym. "What the hell are you looking at?! Get back on Earth!"

She did it instinctively; even though she had been doing her utmost not to look at them, Brooke ─and the rest of the squad, including Peyton─ turned around to watch what was happening. Whitey's face was red, his whistle was still in his mouth, and he was shouting at the Ravens to get ready for three-pointers. They all formed a queue and, one by one, ran to the hoop, ready to throw the ball that their coach was shoving at them. Lucas and Nathan were lagging; it seemed like Nathan was saying something to his brother, and after patting his back, jogged to the end of the queue. Lucas was heading over there too, but he took a quick glance over his shoulder in the opposite direction. He froze when he saw her looking at him; she knew she should have already turned away from him, but her feet refused to move. She couldn't look away, or maybe she didn't want to.

Yes, that was it: part of her didn't want to ignore him, but instead simply wanted to feel his arms around her. What was wrong with her? Why would she want that, when she was supposed to be mad at him?

Supposed to: maybe these were the key words.

Even from this distance, she could tell that he looked miserable. And now, she knew that the facade she had been struggling to keep up was crumbling, because the lump was back in her throat, blocking the air in her lungs, and the tears were threatening to show up.

She swiftly turned her head to the squad and stared at Peyton, who was cautiously watching her. She frowned and after her eyes travelled from Peyton to Lucas a couple of times, something snapped in her.

Who was she kidding? She couldn't do this.

Brooke turned to her squad and said: "I quit."

The girls all looked at each other with the same dumbfounded expression; she ignored them and walked off the court. She stopped briefly at her locker to take out her backpack, didn't bother to get changed, and left the gym through the back doors. She had almost reached the end of the parking lot when she heard someone shouting her name.

Of course Peyton had decided to follow her. Brooke frowned and sped up, not looking over her shoulder even once.

"Hey, Brooke, wait!" she heard Peyton say behind her. Her voice had gotten nearer, and she could hear her running after her. "What do you mean, you quit?!" Peyton asked with annoyance in her voice. How could she even feel entitled to be annoyed right now? "You can't do that."

Actually, she could. She wouldn't be able to cheer for a while, so no one could make her attend cheerleading anymore. And there was no way she would spend two hours a week stuck between the two people she could not even stand looking at right now. She was done.

Peyton had managed to catch up with her and was now walking beside her. It didn't matter though, because she would keep on ignoring her.

"How long are you gonna ignore me?" she asked, seemingly reading her mind. When Brooke stayed silent, she scoffed and added: "So you're just gonna walk away? Seriously, how long are you gonna keep this up?" Her voice took a mocking tone. "When are you gonna grow up and stop running away from your problems?" Brooke frowned but kept marching off. She knew what Peyton was doing: she was just trying to get a reaction out of her, by any means necessary. But she wasn't going to give in. "So that was your plan today? After walking away in the storm, you walk away from your squad? Dramatic enough, Brooke? What's next, you'll─"

Brooke's legs froze so suddenly that Peyton didn't notice it until she had walked a few steps ahead of her. She turned around to face her, and Brooke saw that she had been right: there was not a hint of annoyance or anger on Peyton's face, only worry and sadness. "Brooke," she said, her voice softening immediately, "I swear to you, I'm not into Lucas and I─"

"I know that," she said scornfully.

Peyton blinked at her in confusion. "W─ What?"

"I know you're not into him." She wasn't stupid, she knew that for a fact. She knew Peyton wasn't, and had never been into him. Lucas, however…

"Then why are you mad at me?" Peyton asked her, looking genuinely lost.

"Why?" Brooke repeated with a scowl. "Because you lied to me, that's why!"

"I… I didn't," Peyton said sheepishly. "Not really. I just didn't─"

"Tell me the truth, yeah, big difference. Nathan knew, but you didn't tell me?" she asked, unwillingly letting her disappointment and pain show through her voice.

Peyton sighed and looked down at the ground for a brief moment. She looked up at her and said, "That's because─"

"I don't care," Brooke cut her off, shaking her head at her. "I don't want to know."

"But─"

"I mean it, I don't want to hear your lame excuse. Just… Just leave me alone."

Peyton was too stunned to talk back or even move; Brooke used that chance to shake her off. When she reached her house, she was still wiping the angry tears that kept showing up no matter how hard she tried to suppress them.

She avoided her mother's gaze and when she asked her how her day had gone, Brooke mumbled a generic answer and told her she had homework to do. She went straight to her room and took her sketchbook and pencils from her desk. She sat on her bed, her back lying against her pillows, and started drawing. It wasn't easy at first, but once she figured out how to secure her sketchbook on her folded legs, she managed to draw an outfit. Then another one, and another one. She was still going at it when Haley knocked on her bedroom door and came in.

Her friend gave her a tired smile and walked around the bed to plump down to her right, letting out a sigh of satisfaction when her head landed on the soft pillows.

"How was your shift?" Brooke asked her, glancing up from her drawings.

"Not that bad."

She frowned at that; Haley looked really exhausted. "I thought Karen said you could take less shifts if you get too tired?"

"I'm not tired," Haley said with a casual shrug.

"Yeah, right," she scoffed, "you look like you can barely stand on your feet. Seriously, just tell her you need a break, I'm sure she'll understand."

Haley sat up. "Well, yeah, she would, but… We really need the money."

"What about Nate's job?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Haley gave another shrug, silently telling her that it wouldn't be enough. Brooke sighed and gave her a worried look. "Just say the word if it gets too hard."

Haley gave her a grateful smile. "I will." She looked down at the bed where lay several of the sketches Brooke had made so far. "Wow," she said, picking up one. "This is really good. When did you start these?"

Brooke put the unfinished one on her lap and started drawing again. "Right after I came home. I, er…" She gave Haley a sidelong glance. "I got here early."

"Yeah, I know," she said in a soft tone. Brooke looked up at her in surprise. "Lucas came by after his practice."

"I see," she mumbled, focusing on her drawing. "Does he know you're here?" she asked as offhandedly as possible.

"No, I didn't tell him. He knows that, um…" She paused and when Brooke didn't interrupt her, kept going, "He knows you talked to Nathan at lunch. And he said something about Peyton running after you when you left school? How did that go?"

"She wanted to talk," she murmured, squinting at the skirt she was sketching. It didn't look right; she took the eraser and rubbed it until the paper was blank again. "I didn't listen. I just… I don't want to hear them out. Not now. I'm still pissed at her."

Haley's eyebrow twitched. "Her?" she mused. "You mean them, right?"

"Er, yeah, sure. I'm pissed at them," she corrected, avoiding her friend's insistent gaze.

Fortunately, Haley noticed her discomfort and moved on to another subject. She stayed for about an hour, until it was time for her to go home. Victoria asked her if she wanted to have dinner with them, but Haley politely declined and said that she was already late for dinner, but she would gladly come back another night.

For the second night in a row, she struggled to get any sleep. Her mind was too busy reminding her of everything that had happened so far. Not just during the past weekend, but also in the months that had foregone.

She kept thinking about Skills saying that Lucas had been heartbroken, about Lucas and Peyton speaking in the pantry, about Nathan making sure that she wasn't going to break his brother's heart. Somehow, she knew the reason why she could travel had something to do with Peyton's absence from her future life, and if she connected that to the recent events, then…

Was she being paranoid about all this? Brooke sighed and took her phone from her nightstand; she sighed when she saw that it was almost 3 am, and she still hadn't slept a wink. She had to stop thinking about all that, but she didn't know how. There had to be something that could make her feel better, or at least just good enough to get some rest…

She had been staring at her screensaver for several minutes when an idea popped into her head. She got on her feet and blindly walked to her chest of drawers, opened the top left one and rummaged through it until her fingers fell on a familiar fabric. She took it out of the drawer and brought it to her nose; that was it, she could recognize the familiar smell.

She went back to bed and held it close against her chest, burying her head in it. She could already feel her muscles relaxing one by one. Eventually, she fell asleep.

She kept that ritual all week long; it was the only way she could get any rest. Peyton didn't try to talk to her again after her failed attempt; neither did Lucas, although she had a hunch that it was only due to Haley secretly telling him that she needed time. He still frequently glanced at her at school, even prompting their chemistry teacher to order him to 'stop goggling at the back of the room'. Ever since then, he had been constantly brooding in school, even now in literature, despite it being his favorite class.

He didn't even look like he was listening to their teacher at all, Brooke thought as she watched him from her seat, two rows behind him. He had been frowning at his table for half an hour now; not that she had been watching him this whole time, he just happened to be in her field of vision.

Whatever, she thought as she tore her eyes from him, it wasn't her problem.

"When you'll get back from spring break, we'll start our poetry cycle," Mr. Foreman said from the front of the room. He was leaning against his desk and showing them the book that they would have to study during the vacation week to come. He walked around his desk and went to the blackboard to write: 'The essential Rumi'. "Can anyone tell me who Rumi was?" Most of them looked at each other with the same lost expression on their faces; Haley's, however, lit up. "I think Haley can," their teacher said with a chuckle.

"I read a book about his life and how he started writing poetry."

"Let me guess," Mr. Foreman said with a lopsided smile. "The forty rules of love?"

She gave him a nod. "Rumi was a Persian poet, from, er, the thirteenth century, I think. Well, he wasn't just a poet," she corrected with a slight frown, "he was also a philosopher and a teacher."

"Exactly," their teacher answered with an enthusiastic nod. He turned to the rest of class and said, "Rumi is one of the few people who could write poetry that would speak to anyone's soul." He pointed above his shoulder at the board behind him. "Get that book during your vacation and read it. Not every poem," he promptly added, putting his hands up in defense, when he heard a wave of protests. "Just read a few of them, pick the ones you connect to the most and write a paper to explain why you do." Brooke couldn't help but roll her eyes, which didn't go unnoticed by their teacher's sharp eye. "You don't look too convinced, Brooke."

She cleared her throat and said, "Well, it's just that… How do you know we'll connect with something that was written centuries ago?"

"I'm sure you will," he answered with a glint in his eye. "Let's see, if I had to choose one, then it would be…"

He opened the book and quickly flipped its pages until he landed on the one that he was looking for. They all lifted their heads to listen to his reading, even Lucas, although he didn't look too interested in what they were about to hear. Mr. Foreman cleared his voice and smiled as he read the following lines.

Are you fleeing from love

because of a single humiliation?

What do you know of love

except the name?

Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,

And is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.

Most girls swooned, some boys snickered, but Lucas reacted differently: it seemed that this poem had piqued his interest, for he didn't look so bored anymore. He seemed… thoughtful. Haley picked up on it too: she turned to her left, where he was sitting, and whispered something to him. Before he could answer, one of their classmates asked their teacher how this could be poetry if didn't have any rhymes, to which the latter explained that the rhyming had gotten lost in translation in favor of the true meaning of the poems.

Later that day, when they met for lunch, Brooke didn't ask Haley what they had talked about. She knew Haley wasn't comfortable with the current situation and didn't want to make it even more awkward for her. And anyway, she didn't care.

She had been sitting in the tutoring center with Haley and Mouth, eating lunch for around twenty minutes, when someone knocked on the door. They all shared a confused look, since they hadn't been bothered all week long; no one usually came here at this time of the day. Haley went to open the door and took a step back when she saw Lucas standing on the threshold.

"Um…" Haley's eyes landed on a panicked Brooke, who was sending her all kinds of signals so that she wouldn't let him in. "I─ I was just about to get some drinks. Mouth?"

"Coming!" he cried, bolting on his feet before Brooke could say anything.

They both ignored her glare and quickly left the room. Brooke shifted on her chair and gripped the table edge, ready to stand up and follow her traitorous friends, when she heard Lucas' pleading tone.

"Stay, please."

She held back a sigh and mechanically sat back, her hand still gripping the table. She kept looking down at her lap while he slowly walked toward her.

"Brooke," he murmured, dragging the chair that Haley had been using to get it closer to her. "I─"

"How did you know I'd be here?" she cut him off with a frown.

He paused, probably surprised that she was willing to talk to him. Which, of course, she wasn't. She just wanted to run far away from him, yet her legs wouldn't budge. "I saw you guys coming here two days ago," he explained as he sat down, "so I figured that's where you kept having lunch. I asked Hales, but she said she couldn't tell me. She also said that, erm… That I should give you some time."

She knew Haley had to have something to do with his silence. She made a mental note to thank her later. "Then what are you doing here?" she asked, still avoiding his gaze.

He slightly moved, reaching out for her hand; before he could touch her, she removed it and put it on her lap. She finally dared to look up at him and immediately noticed his hurtful expression. How was that supposed to make her feel?

"Brooke," he said tentatively, "I don't mind waiting several days, but when I heard Foreman this morning, I thought I should…" His voice trailed off and he let out a small sigh. "I know you're mad at me, and I know you want some time alone, but I miss you. I wish you could just listen to me."

She frowned with annoyance. "What about what I wish? I wish you had told me you'd been with my best friend," she said curtly. "How could you not tell me?!" He gazed down briefly, scratching his head.

How could he? How could they? Actually, that wasn't even the main point: the real question was why hadn't they told her? Why would he─ No, she did not want to go there. Peyton knew her best; she should have known that Brooke would have wanted to know this kind of information, and as for Lucas…

The same obsessive thoughts that had been bothering her for the past six days flashed again in her mind: Peyton making him promise not to say anything, Skills saying he was heartbroken, Nathan making sure she was serious about him. Peyton's absence from her─ no, their future life together.

"Why?" she asked, the words coming out of her mouth on their own. She didn't want to know, she didn't want to hear it, yet she could not stop herself from asking, "Why didn't you tell me? Because she made you promise not to? Because you…" Her voice died down; this time the words were stuck in her throat, blocked by the lump which was growing back at an alarmingly fast pace.

She realized in that moment that as much as she was angry at Peyton for keeping silent about their relationship, she wasn't feeling the same toward Lucas. She was, or at least a small part of her was, but it wasn't just that: she was in fact mainly, deeply… sad.

She bit her lower lip, struggling to fight back her tears. What was wrong with her? Why was she so depressed about all this? It had happened so long ago so why─

"Brooke," he murmured in dismay. "That was before we even started talking to each other."

"So?" she asked back, her voice quavering. "You still should have told me."

"But I never asked you the names of all the guys you've been with."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "All the guys?" she repeated, her voice hardening. "Because I'm such a slut, huh?"

His eyes grew wide. "W─ Wait, no," he quickly said, "that's not what I meant!"

Her mouth turned into a frown and she blinked, letting a couple of tears roll on her cheeks. She mechanically tried lifting her left hand to wipe her cheeks, but before she could even remember that it wouldn't move, Lucas' hands reached up and cupped her face, smoothly wiping her tears with his thumbs. His left hand dropped to his side, but the other one lingered on her face, tucking a loose hair strand behind her ear. They locked eyes for a fleeting moment, just enough for Brooke to notice his frightened look. She looked down at the floor, and before she could even think about what she was doing, put her hand above his.

"Come on," he said, sounding more confident, "you know I could never think of you like that."

She did know that, but that wasn't the problem. She gave him a nod and looked back at him. "Doesn't change the fact that you didn't tell me. And it's not the same at all. I've never been with your best friend."

"I'm glad to know you've never been with Haley," he said with a soft chuckle.

She frowned at that and swiftly removed his hand from her face, startling him. Was he seriously joking about this? "Don't," she said in a harsh tone when he shifted to move closer to her. The faint traces of humor that had appeared in his eyes vanished right away. "Just don't…" she muttered, giving him a dark look. "I─I can't do this."

He was distraught by her reaction. "I don't get it. Why won't you listen to me?"

"I… I can't say," she admitted, averting her gaze.

She didn't exactly know why, but she didn't want to. She was running again, but she couldn't care less about that: she wanted to protect herself, and right now, it seemed to be the only way to do so. She was terrified of what could happen if she were to listen to him: what if he ended up telling her that─

"Then when will you?" he asked, breaking her trail of thoughts.

"I don't know."

After a few seconds of silence, during which she kept staring at the table, pretending she couldn't feel his piercing eyes on her, he eventually gave up. "Got it," he murmured before quietly leaving the room.


That's it for now! Thank you for reading and thank you so much for the kind reviews you left. I really enjoy reading them, of course I can't tell you if your theories are right, but it's still fun to read them.

Someone did ask me in PM if I knew where I was going with this, and if I could change ideas according to the theories in your reviews: the answer is yes, I know exactly where I'm going, and no, I won't change anything even if some of you manage to guess what's gonna happen.

I hope you enjoyed this one, it's shorter than the previous ones, because it's only about a third of the story I had planned for this chapter... But I since I did say I'd upload in beginning of June, I figured I could just cut it here and post it now; I'm still working on the rest of it and should get it done in a couple of weeks.