CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tryin' to keep it together
The knot in Brooke's throat had slightly loosened up, just enough for her to take a sip of the water Lucas had brought for her. When the first gulp stayed in her stomach, she drank the rest of it and put down the empty glass on her nightstand. She sighed and rested her head on her knees, bringing them to her chest.
She had finally managed to calm down, at least partially. Although she still felt restless, her sobs had died down, and she could try to put on a front. Or so she thought. The look on Lucas' face as he was putting on his t-shirt said quite the opposite. Now fully clothed, he sat on the edge of her bed and brushed her cheek with his thumb. She looked up at him; his brow was furrowed, and his eyes were still full of worry.
"I'm staying," he said, his voice low.
She lifted her head and gently removed his hand from her face. She kept holding onto it as she answered, "You can't. It's─"
"Screw that," he snapped, gripping her hand. "I don't give a damn about your stupid movie night rules, I'm not…" He fell quiet when he saw her startle at one of his rare outbursts. He let out a long sigh; his shoulders slouched and his eyes softened almost instantly. "I'm sorry," he murmured, his thumb drawing circles in her palm, "I'm just worried."
She gave him a faint smile. "But I'm feeling better now. You can go."
"Brooke, you pass out again, then you wake up crying for half an hour and I'm supposed to just leave you alone?" he asked, his voice hardening with each word.
"Nate and─" she paused, the next words getting stuck in her throat, "and Peyton will be here soon. I'm not gonna be alone. I'm okay, really," she added when he gave her a skeptical look. "I just had a─ a nightmare," she stuttered.
"A nightmare," he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "You were out for like three minutes. How do you get a nightmare in that amount of time?"
She averted her eyes. "Okay, maybe not a nightmare, but it was like… Like something flashed in my mind." That wasn't too far from the truth. She glanced back at him. "But I'm fine now, I swear," she said, squeezing his arm.
He clearly didn't believe her, and rightfully so. She was not fine. How could she be? She had just found out that Peyton was─
She had trouble saying the words, even silently to herself.
How could it be that no one in the future had told her about this? She had met Lucas repeatedly, not to mention Nathan, Haley, and Mouth… Yet not one of them had warned her about Peyton's future. They all loved her, she knew they did, but somehow, they had all kept silent about her…
Her death.
She knew she couldn't blame them, though. She couldn't, purely and simply because she had been the one telling them to keep it a secret. Well, not her, but her future-self. She had been the one pulling the strings. What kind of a twisted, terrible person was she going to become in the future? How could she end up doing something like that?
She bit her trembling lip and looked down, hiding her face in her knees. Lucas moved closer to her, kissing the top of her head. "Talk to me, Pretty girl. What's wrong?" he asked, stroking her hair.
The tears were back, running down her cheeks and landing on her legs. "I'm an awful friend," she mumbled.
"What was that?" he asked softly. "Can't hear you."
She sniffed, wiped her cheeks and straightened her back to meet his eyes. "I'm an awful friend," she repeated, her voice cracking.
It was a wonder that he hadn't grown tired of her odd, unexplained and now lunatic behavior; and yet when he heard that, he couldn't help but chuckle with amusement. "That's not true." He leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose, his arms circling her waist and pulling her to his chest. "That's not true at all," he whispered in her ear.
She closed her eyes, her head slowly moving with his breathing. Maybe he was right. Maybe she wasn't that horrible.
But then why had her future-self decided not to tell her about Peyton? Why would she keep herself in the dark for months, on such an important subject? Didn't she want to save her? Or had she given up on the idea of saving her? Or was it simply impossible to─
No, she thought, silently berating herself; she couldn't go there. Not now, not ever.
After spending another five minutes in her boyfriend's comforting arms, she lifted her head and thanked him with a soft kiss. They were interrupted by the bell ringing from downstairs. He pulled back and silently scanned her face for a moment. "Alright, that's my cue." He stood up and walked toward the door, only to look back at her in surprise when she didn't move from the bed. "Unless you want me to stay?" he asked, bemused.
The bell rang again. She slowly shook her head. "It's not that, but…" She got up and tilted her head. "I didn't think I could convince you to leave."
"Yeah, well, you're right," he admitted with a shrug, "you're not gonna be alone and─"
Nathan's loud voice came from the hallway, startling them. "Brooke, if you or my brother are naked, get dressed cause we're coming in!"
They stared at each other for a moment and Brooke couldn't help but chuckle. Lucas rolled his eyes and finished his sentence. "And I know I'm leaving you in good hands."
He waited until she was dressed and walked down the stairs, Brooke following close behind. She was still on the top steps when she froze, seeing Peyton standing behind Nathan and kicking her shoes off.
"There you are," Nathan told them with a smirk. He held out a pack of beers. "I got your fav─"
She ran down the rest of the steps, startling Lucas when she brushed past him, ignored Nathan and jumped straight into her best friend's arms. Her very much alive friend. She shut her eyes tightly, remembering the memory box from the future. She didn't understand why her future-self had acted the way she had, but it didn't matter because now she knew, and there was no way she was letting anything happen to the girl in her arms.
"Er, Brooke?" Peyton asked tentatively, patting her back. "What's up?"
"I just missed you," she muttered, strengthening her hold.
"You literally saw me two hours ago," her friend said with a chuckle. She freed herself from Brooke's grip and grabbed her shoulders. The amusement in her eyes vanished as she scanned her face and frowned. "Have you been crying?"
"No," Brooke said, her eyes shifting to the side as she stepped back and hit the front door.
"Your eyes are red," Nathan noted, walking toward her. "What happened?"
When she stayed silent, both of her friends spun around to stare at Lucas, who hadn't moved an inch and was still standing in the the middle of the stairs.
"Why are you glaring at me like that?" Lucas asked defensively. "I didn't─ Brooke, could you say something before they rip my eyes out?"
"Nothing happened," Brooke said, grabbing her friends' arms. They turned to her, sharing the same dubious look.
"Nothing happened," Peyton repeated, squinting, "but you're obviously upset and you've been crying."
"It's, um…" They were never going to let this go, and she couldn't possibly tell them the truth. She cleared her throat, "Don't worry about it, I'm fine now. Go get yourself a drink, I'll be there in a sec."
"But─" Nathan started.
"Now!" she yelled, pushing them in the opposite direction.
They shared a look and Peyton eventually shrugged before heading to the kitchen. "See ya, Luke," she told him with a wave. Nathan raised his arm and bumped fists with him before following Peyton.
Lucas walked down to the landing and bent to pick up his shoes. "I'm definitely leaving you in good hands," he muttered while putting them on.
She chuckled and took his jacket from the rack. "I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked, remembering that she had to go pick up her car from Keith's.
He swung it around his arm and gave her a nod. "Is 7.30 am still okay with you?"
For some reason, he had insisted that she should come get her car as early as possible, and had even volunteered to pick her up on his way to work. "Sure," she said, tiptoeing to peck his lips.
She opened the door, but felt his hand lingering on the small of her back. He still looked distraught from what had just happened. "Just call me if you need anything." She nodded in agreement. His eyebrows twitched, and his hand tensed. "I mean it. Anything at all."
If only that could work, Brooke thought sadly. But he couldn't help her right now, no one could… No, actually, that wasn't true. She wasn't alone in this, she had Mouth and Haley by her side; surely, the three of them together could do it, change the─
"Brooke?" Lucas called, waving his hand in front of her face.
She blinked at him, pulled away from her thoughts. "Sorry, I mean, sure, I'll call you."
He kissed her one last time before leaving her house.
When she walked into the kitchen, her friends were bickering on what kind of chips to get. Nathan wanted to open the barbecue flavored ones, while Peyton was advocating the salt and vinegar ones. For a moment, she stood in the threshold, staring at them and envying their carelessness.
"Just get a bit of both," she eventually said, grabbing the beers that Nathan had brought over.
They followed her to the living room and took their seats while Brooke was getting the movie ready. From the corner of her eye, she watched Peyton snuggle into the armchair. She grabbed the remote and came to sit on the couch, next to Nathan.
She had picked one of her favorites: a movie called About a boy. She had absolutely loved it the first time she had watched it, many years ago, and she had regularly watched it since.
That night, however, she did not focus on the movie; she was too busy thinking of her latest travel and what it implied. Brooke gave Peyton an umpteenth sidelong glance─ she was laughing at something the main character had just said.
She did not get it. She simply could not get how Peyton could die anytime soon. It did not make any sense to Brooke. She was young, she was ─as far as she knew─ healthy, and she had her whole life in front of her… Or, rather, she was supposed to have it.
Shouldn't she tell her something? Didn't Peyton have the right to know this kind of crucial information? But then what would happen? How would one react to learning of their impending death? No, actually, the question was: how would Peyton react? And what was going to happen to her anyway? She didn't have any detail, all she knew was that it was going to happen. She didn't even know when, nor how. She didn't know anything at all.
She startled when her phone buzzed. Mouth had just replied to a text she had sent right after the movie had started; he could host a meeting at his house tomorrow morning. Shortly after, Haley texted back saying she could come too. The knot in her throat loosened up some more; the idea that she wasn't alone in this was comforting.
She frowned, a dreadful thought crossing her mind: what if they didn't agree to help her? She had a hunch that they would, no matter what, but she couldn't help thinking of all these times Mouth had told her that they couldn't jeopardize their entire futures, that they had to be careful…
She shook her head: no, no way, Mouth would definitely want to help Peyton. She knew him, after all, and he was─
She gasped when her face got knocked by a cushion. Peyton snorted, taking a handful of chips. Brooke grabbed the flying weapon and turned to her right; Nathan wasn't impressed by her scowl and easily caught the cushion with one hand when she threw it back to him. "Stop texting Luke and get in the movie already. It's actually pretty good so far."
"That's not what I'm─" She fell silent and sighed. "Fine, I'll stop," she said as she put down her phone on the coffee table.
She couldn't follow the movie though; she kept thinking back to all her travels, wondering if there hadn't been clues, something, anything that could help her to─
"Are you serious?" Peyton cried, rolling her eyes, when they heard another phone buzzing.
"Not mine," Brooke said defensively.
They both turned to Nathan who gave them a sheepish look and took out his phone from his back pocket. He frowned at the screen and turned it silent before sliding it back in his pants. After a few minutes, it started buzzing again. When it happened for the third time, Peyton groaned and told him to either answer that or turn it off. Nathan decided to go for the latter option.
"Who is it?" Peyton asked him, bemused.
"No one important," he grumbled, turning back to the TV.
During the rest of the movie, Peyton tried to get him to talk, in vain; she turned several times to Brooke, puzzled by her lack of reaction─ usually, Brooke would have been more than willing to help her grill Nathan. But that night, their host stayed eerily quiet, as she was too busy thinking of what seemed like more important matters. Peyton, and even Nathan, pointed it out to her, but she shrugged it off and told them to just enjoy the movie.
She barely got any sleep that night; she kept having nightmares of Peyton dying horrible deaths. She would wake up in panic, gasping for air, sweating, her stomach churning, and after five seconds would understand that it had all been just a dream. She would twist and turn in her bed, then go back to sleep, and her mind would show her another way Peyton could die. This tiring, depressing cycle happened three, possibly four times that night.
She was exhausted when she woke up that morning. She took a long shower, enjoying the effect of the warm, almost burning hot water on her skin and muscles. She sighed and bumped her head against the shower wall; she wished she could stay there forever. But she couldn't, so she stepped out of the shower and paused at the sink. With a swift hand movement, she wiped off the steam on the mirror and examined her reflection: her skin was so pale it looked translucent, and her eyes were red and puffy, with dark rings that could probably hold a candle to those her mother had worn for weeks before the divorce. She sighed and pinched her cheeks before splashing her face with cold water, hoping that it would bring some color to her face. She quickly brushed her hair and tied it up in a ponytail. There, she looked a bit better now.
It turned out not to be enough, because from the look her mother sent her when she came in the kitchen, she clearly wasn't fooling anyone.
"Morning," Brooke mumbled, putting her handbag on the table. She avoided her mother's quizzical look and walked to the island to pour herself a glass of orange juice.
"Are you coming back here after you get your car?" Victoria asked her. She was staring at her from above the newspaper she had been reading.
"No," Brooke said as she took a sip of her drink. Her mother sent her a quizzical look. "I'm meeting Haley and Mouth."
"This early?"
Her eyes shifted down to the island. "Yeah, we have a, um, project we're working on." She quickly drank her glass. "I probably won't sleep here tonight."
Victoria couldn't have looked less surprised by this news. She went back to reading her article and asked, "Lucas?"
That had been the initial plan, yes, but now things were different. She had to keep an eye on Peyton. "No, I think I'll stay at Peyton's. It's been a while since I spent the night there."
"And you don't have a lot of time left, too."
Brooke spat out her drink, startling Victoria; after a long coughing fit, she put down her glass, her hands shaking, and stared at her mother. "W─ What do you mean?" she stammered with her eyes wide open.
"Well, because she'll be leaving for L.A. in less than three months, and then you'll go to New York. Are you okay?" she asked, motioning to get up. She froze when the bell rang. "Don't move, I'll get it."
Brooke watched as her mother left, clenching her neck. Tears were pricking her eyes, and it wasn't only because she had almost choked. She gripped the island with both hands, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She had to keep her composure.
"Brooke, Lucas is here!" she heard her mother call from the hallway.
She sighed and quickly cleaned the island before reaching for her handbag and heading out. Lucas was standing on the porch, chatting with her mother.
"Are you sure you don't want to something to eat?" she heard Victoria say as she approached them.
"Thanks, but I'm full." He gave her a smile and turned to Brooke, who was putting on her shoes. "Hey you." He paused and blinked at her, probably noticing her tired face.
"Hi," she croaked, zipping up her coat.
Her mother walked back into the house and turned to her. "Brooke, did you take the─"
"Yeah, it's in my bag," she cut her off. "Bye Mom," she said, kissing her cheek.
Before she could climb into his car, Lucas startled her, grabbing and gently twisting her wrist to make her face him. He leaned down and caught her lips, his hands sliding up to her face. Her hands clenched his hoodie and she pulled him closer, before taking a few steps back and bumping into his car. She moaned when he deepened their kiss, and for a moment there, she actually did forget about what had been tormenting her. All she could think about was the touch of his lips, and his warm breath tickling her skin, and his hands brushing her neck. She even felt a wave of disappointment when he eventually pulled back to stare at her.
"W─ What was that for?" she asked, struggling to catch her breath.
He was panting too. "Just…" He paused, his hands tightening their hold on her waist before relaxing. "Just giving you a glimpse of what you missed out on last night," he murmured with a crooked grin.
She brushed his hair with her fingers, trying to read his face. She knew there was more to it; he was still worried about her. The high she had just felt faded away quickly as the image of the memory box flashed through her mind. The pictures, the tickets, the bracelet. "We should go," she whispered against his shoulder. "You're gonna be late for work."
He agreed, although reluctantly, and they got in the car. He had been driving for a few minutes when she stifled a yawn.
"Short night?" he asked with a sidelong glance in her direction.
"Mmh," she mumbled, her head resting against the window.
"How was the movie?"
"Okay," she answered absent-mindedly. She blinked and noticed his puzzled look. "I mean, good. Great." She cleared her throat nervously. "How was your night?"
She listened quietly while he told her about his dinner with his parents, and how, even though they were trying to hide it, they were worried that he still hadn't heard from the extra scholarship he had applied for.
Brooke pressed her lips into a thin line, struggling to keep silent the fact that it didn't matter that much because she knew that with or without his scholarships, he would end up in New York. Or that she knew that he would get his book published─ but his future self had insisted that she could not tell him anything about that.
There were only a few cars on the parking lot when they reached the shop. Brooke started walking toward the entrance, but Lucas put a hand on her waist and steered her in the opposite direction.
"Let's go through the back."
She was puzzled by his reaction but followed him nonetheless. "Why?" she asked, intrigued.
His gaze shifted and he shrugged. "No reason." He threw her a quick glance and sighed at her doubtful expression. "I just don't want you to run into Susan. Or any of the guys."
"Why not?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Why wouldn't he─ her lips stretched into a smile when she recalled the day she had met the receptionist. "Why not, Lukie?" she asked mockingly.
He froze and stared at her in horror. She giggled when he groaned and ruffled his hair. "I can't believe she called me that in front of you." He sighed and resumed walking. "If she sees you with me, I'll never hear the end of it. And it's not just her, I mean she's already told the other guys that I─" He fell silent when they reached the workshop and cleared his throat. "You know what, never mind."
Was that why he had insisted she should come this early? To avoid running into anyone? She tilted her head at him, her interest now piqued. "What did she tell them?"
The doors to the workshop were wide open; a worker was already here, at the far end of the room, but she couldn't see his head since it was deep inside a car hood. Her car was parked at the front, to her left, and looked brand new. She turned to Lucas and smiled when she saw his embarrassed face.
"Come on, pumpkin," she said, pinching his cheek and mimicking the receptionist's nasal voice, "no need to be shy with me."
He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "I'm not─", his eyes darted to a spot above her shoulder and he broke into a grin, "Hey Keith! Look who's here to get her car." He lowered his voice and kissed her cheek hurriedly. "See you tonight."
Before she could retort anything, he pushed her in the direction of Keith's office; his uncle was leaning against the doorframe, drinking a cup of coffee. She walked up to him and when Keith motioned her to come in, she turned around to see that Lucas had fled toward his coworker.
"Let's see…" Keith murmured as he walked around his desk and opened the filing cabinet to his right. She sat down and waited until he found what he was looking for. "There it is." He took out an envelope and handed it to Brooke. "All your paperwork."
"Thanks." She opened her handbag and rummaged through it until her fingers landed on the check her mother had filled the day before. "And there you go," she said, placing it on the desk.
While he was entering the check number on his computer, Brooke's eyes lingered on the wedding band he was wearing. It reminded her of the one she had seen around her own finger, during her talk with Future Nathan.
Now she understood what he had meant by not wasting any time, and why he had sounded so unusually sad when it had been time for her to go.
"Brooke?"
She startled and raised her head. "Sorry, what?"
"I asked how your mother's doing?"
"Oh, er, great," she said with a faint smile.
"Lucas told me she applied for college, that's…"
She could hear Keith's voice, but his words didn't reach her. Instead, a grim thought seeped into her mind.
What about her mother? She had never seen her during her travels… What if something had happened to her too? If they had all hidden the truth about Peyton, then didn't that mean that they could do it about pretty much anyone?
No, wait, she had seen a picture of her. Future Lucas had talked about her, and Jamie too, when she had seen the wedding dress.
She was losing track of everything, and she couldn't afford to do that, not now.
"Brooke?" Keith said, dragging her from her thoughts.
She gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, I'm, er…"
"Out of it," he said with amusement when she left her words hanging. "I can see that."
He walked her to her car and gave her a few final instructions before handing over the keys. She climbed into her seat and lowered the window.
"Just don't forget to tell me about that right beam, if it flickers or─"
"Yeah, sure," she cut him off impatiently. She really needed to go to Mouth's now. "Thanks again, Keith."
During the drive, she kept wondering how she could break this kind of news to her friends. She wasn't sure she could even say the words out lout… It felt unspeakable to her. But they had to talk about it, and they had to figure out a way to change it.
As usual, Mrs McFadden opened the door; this time, however, she was wearing a pink bathrobe and matching slippers.
"Brooke?" she said in disbelief. "What are you─"
"I'm guessing Mouth didn't tell you I'd stop by?"
"No, I mean I would have─ Oh, but I haven't prepared anything and─"
"Mom!" Mouth's loud voice came from the house, startling them both. His mother spun around and in doing so, pulled the door wide open, allowing Brooke to see her friend bending over the railing upstairs. "Brooke and Haley are…" His voice trailed off and he blinked, staring down at Brooke. "Er, coming today," he said apologetically.
While Mouth's mother was busy admonishing her son for letting her be unpresentable in front of a guest, Brooke took off her shoes and coat.
"Nah, you look great, Mrs M." Brooke chimed in. "That pink is really trendy."
Mouth chuckled when he saw his mother's fluster, and with a hand wave he invited Brooke to come upstairs.
The attic had gradually changed since they had decided to turn it into their lair. There was now an old wooden coffee table at the center of the room, surrounded by several fluffy cushions that looked like they had come straight from the 70's, and string lights hung over the beams. As soon as she was facing the board retracing all her travels, Brooke's light heartedness vanished.
Mouth eyed her warily. "What's wrong?" he asked, taking a seat around the table.
She turned to him. "I, er… We should wait for Haley," she murmured, crossing her arms. She really didn't think she could go over this twice. Mouth looked intrigued, but nodded in agreement.
Her eyes darted to the board. She knew the answer was here somewhere, it had to be. Unless… What if she hadn't written everything down? What if she had omitted something that had seemed trivial to her back then, but was in fact of utmost importance? There was no way she had properly remembered every single detail from her travels, including things related to Peyton.
They both turned when they heard noise coming from the trap door; Haley climbed up the ladder and walked to them, hunched forward, until she reached Mouth's side and sat next to him, one knee drawn up.
Brooke slowly sat across from them, avoiding their quizzical looks. She noticed her hands were shaking and gripped her jeans to make it stop.
Haley broke the heavy silence. "What happened, Brooke?"
She looked up at them and frowned. "Well, erm," she said with a squeaky voice, "I travelled last night."
They both shared a look and turned back to her. "Where's the entry?"
"I… I didn't write it." It had completely escaped her mind. "But, um," she croaked, "I know why Peyton isn't in my future." They stayed silent, anxiously staring at her while she was fumbling for words. "Actually, she, um…" Her chest tightened, blocking the air in her lungs. "She's not in any future." Tears blurred her eyes; they shifted away from her friends while she swiftly wiped her cheeks.
It was Haley who reacted first. She gasped, startling Mouth, and her eyes opened wide in shock. "No!" she cried. "No, no, no, she can't…" her voice cracked.
Mouth blinked at them in confusion; his eyes darted from Brooke to Haley, and he put two and two together. The blood drained from his face and his mouth fell open, though he didn't seem to be able to form a proper sentence. His shoulders slumped and his head hung, propped on a hand that was gripping his hair.
For a while, not a sound could be heard in the room, except for Brooke's sniffing and Haley's muffled sobs.
"I─ It didn't even cross my mind that she could…" Mouth murmured, distraught. "That she could die." They all shuddered at his words. "But…" He glanced up at the board standing behind Brooke. "It kinda makes sense. How…" The words seemed stuck in his throat. "How did you find out?"
Brooke gazed down at her fists. "I went to 2023, it was, um… It was around the time we moved to the Brooklyn apartment. It was full of moving boxes and most of them weren't open." She closed her eyes, recalling how it had gone. "Lucas was sleeping so I walked around the place and I found a box different from the others. It was small and… I don't know, I─ I just opened it. It was all Peyton's stuff." She paused, choking up. "Her drawings, her pictures, some, er, concert tickets and then I saw her mother's bracelet. And I realized that there could only be one reason for me to have all this stuff. And Lucas confirmed that she really was…" She sniffed and once again used her sleeve to wipe off her tears. "That she was gone." She drew a long breath and glanced over her shoulder, toward the board that Mouth was staring at. "Mouth," she said, catching his attention. Haley looked up too, and they both were startled by her sullen voice. "I know you think it's dangerous to try and tamper with all this but─"
"Screw that," Mouth said firmly, shaking his head. "We have to save her."
She felt so relieved and grateful to hear him say that that her lips curled up in a faint smile. "I was hoping you'd say that," she said quietly. She turned to Haley, whose eyes were red, and who looked like she had lost her voice; before she could ask her anything, Haley gave her a firm nod.
"But just to be clear," Mouth murmured with a slight frown, "this could change everything. The whole future."
"Butterfly effect," Brooke said hoarsely.
Mouth shifted on his knees. "Exactly. Do we all agree to take that risk?"
Brooke's decision was made in a heartbeat; in her mind, Peyton's life was worth any kind of sacrifice. She reached out her arm and placed her right hand at the center of the table. Without a word, Haley leaned over the table and put her hand on Brooke's, squeezing it as both girls shared a look. She was immediately followed by Mouth, whose hand covered theirs.
"Let's do this," he muttered in a determined tone.
The problem was that they didn't know how or when it would happen; all that they knew for sure was written on the board that the three of them stared at silently. After a moment, Haley murmured something.
"Sorry, what?" Brooke said, turning to her.
Her friend had been standing in front of the board, reading the entries over and over again. Haley spun around to face them, her hands on her hips. "We need to gather more information," she said with a sigh, before sitting down next to Brooke.
"And we don't have much time either," Mouth added gloomily. "We know you'll stop travelling after graduation."
Brooke took out her phone and checked her calendar. "That's in ten weeks," she said. "But…" She paused hesitantly. "What if I don't travel anymore? Maybe that was it and─"
"No," Haley said, shaking her head firmly.
"We don't know that for sure," Brooke retorted.
"We do," she said, pointing at an entry that had been pinned on the top right-hand corner of the board. "Jamie said in 2027 that the last time he saw you, you were extremely upset, but the last time for you was in 2026 in Karen's house and it doesn't fit what he told you, which means─"
"That I'll travel at least one more time," Brooke said with hope. "And when I do…"
"You'll have to get as much information as you can."
She nodded, but quickly frowned again. "Okay, but what if that travel happens too late, I mean after Peyton…" She struggled to say it. "After she dies."
"Then we'll have to figure it out with what we already have," Mouth said confidently. "What's the oldest picture of Peyton you remember seeing in your travels?" He frowned, realizing what he just said. "I mean not the oldest," he corrected, shaking his head, "but the one where she looked the oldest."
Brooke thought about it for a moment. "It's… It was the day I found out my parents were divorcing. In that smaller apartment, there was a picture from high school but I─" It finally dawned on her: she gasped and snatched her phone from the table. After scrolling down the screen, she tapped on a picture that had been taken about a week ago, in Peyton's kitchen. "It's… It's this one," she said, her voice shaking.
Mouth shared a worried look with Haley and took the phone from her hands. He studied the picture intensely before showing it to Haley. "Are you sure it's this one?"
"Positive."
They all knew what it meant: that it could happen at any moment now. This very day, or the next one, or─
"Didn't Nathan said something about everyone being sad around that time you travelled and saw your wedding dress?" Haley asked, glancing at the board.
"He, er…" She closed her eyes, trying to recall his exact words. "He said he felt down around that time of the year, and then Lucas said we all did."
"That's when he talked about Keith, too. About him feeling guilty of something," Haley mused pensively.
"Do you think that's what they were talking about?" Mouth asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"I think so, yeah. I mean," Haley replied with a puzzled frown, "I don't see how Keith could have anything to do with what will happen to Peyton, but…" She fell quiet, and looked over her shoulder, contemplating the drawn timeline. "I also don't see what else could depress us all every year."
Haley was right; it all made sense now. "That travel was in May," Brooke said, staring at the picture on her phone. It hadn't been taken at a special time; they had just spent an afternoon together, baking cookies─ Peyton even had some cookie dough on her cheek.
"May," Mouth repeated, "so that gives us─"
"Two weeks," Brooke said, ripping her eyes from the screen. Actually, not even that: they had thirteen days before the first of May. She had already circled that date on her calendar a while ago: it was the day of the state championship, but now she had another, much more important reason to keep it in mind.
"Until then, we need to keep an eye on her," Haley murmured. "Maybe there's something we haven't noticed, and… And we should also keep an eye on Keith too, just in case."
They both nodded at her suggestion. "What about that accident Future Lucas slipped about?" Mouth asked them, his head propped on a hand. "Maybe that's─"
"I thought he was talking about my accident," Brooke said, pointing at her shoulder.
Mouth gave it a thought and said, "We don't know that for sure."
"Maybe she's sick," Haley said in a low voice. "Didn't her mother die from cancer?"
"Breast cancer, yeah," Brooke answered. "But Ellie looked sick, and Peyton doesn't, she looks…"
"Healthy."
Brooke nodded. "And I'm sure she would tell me if there was something."
She frowned, recalling what Peyton had told her about Ellie's death, and the things she had done in the following months. She couldn't be using drugs again, could she?
No, that didn't make any sense; it had obviously taken her a lot to admit to ever using, and she had looked shameful enough for Brooke to know that it was all in the past.
"I have to travel again," she muttered, clenching her fists. "But when I do, how do I find out more? There's no way I can ask Future Lucas."
Haley tilted her head. "Are you mad at him?"
She could tell that they were both trying to read her face. "No," she admitted with a sigh, "I was, but I can't be, right? I'm the one who's been telling him not to say anything." She looked down at her hands, suddenly filled with self-loathing.
"Brooke…" Haley sent her a worried look and put an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure there's a reason for that," she said in a comforting voice.
She sighed and put her head on her friend's shoulder. "I don't know what it could be," she admitted.
Their silence was eloquent: they didn't know either. Haley's hand tightened her grip, and they stayed in that position for a while. Mouth quietly got on his feet and walked around the table to examine the timeline. He came back after a few minutes to sit on Brooke's right and put something on the table.
Both girls straightened their backs and looked at what he had brought. It was the drawings he had made months ago on Karen's Café napkins, about the two ways time could work.
"We still haven't figured this out," Mouth said, making the girls turn to him. "If it works this way," he said, pointing at the sketch with parallel lines, "then we're good, but if it's this one…" His voice trailed off as his finger lingered on the second drawing, the one with the circle.
They all stared silently at the drawing, taking in what it could mean if time did work as a loop. Mouth saw how depressing that thought was: he took away the napkins and mumbled something about taking care of that later.
When she left Mouth's house, they were all still shaken up, but somehow Brooke felt a little better about this whole situation, or rather, more confident on her ability to change the future, because she knew she wasn't alone in this.
It was hard to keep up appearances, especially since she was having lunch with Peyton. She was supposed to face her, talk to her, eat with her, and all the while not let it show on her face that all she wanted to do was to either hug her and tell her how she couldn't afford to lose her, or crawl into her bed and cry herself to sleep.
Peyton put down her fork, making her flinch. She had been lost in her thoughts for the past five minutes, obsessing over what Haley had said about a possible illness. "Okay, seriously, you're scaring me," Peyton said, leaning over the table to scrutinize Brooke's face. "You barely touched your food."
She gazed down at her plate and noticed that her best friend was right. "Sorry about that, I, er, I'm not hungry."
Peyton crossed her arms. "I can see that. What's wrong? You've been weird since last night."
"It's nothing," she murmured, playing with her food. She frowned and glanced up. "Did you, um, go see a doctor recently? You know, for a check-up or something?"
Her friend blinked in confusion. "No, why would I do that? Wait a minute…" She eyed her suspiciously. "Is there something wrong with you? Are you─"
"No, no, I'm fine," she said, waving her hands dismissively. "Don't mind me, I think I'm just tired."
Peyton glanced at the clock and turned to her. "I have to leave now or I'll be late, but if you want me to stay─"
"I'm fine, I swear," she said with a forced smile. "Go to the Post, I'll clean up. But, um, do you mind if I stay here? I'd like to take a nap and─"
Peyton cut her off with a chuckle. "Do you even have to ask?"
She felt bad about lying to her friend, but drastic times called for drastic measures. As soon as Peyton left the house, she jumped on her feet, quickly cleaned up the kitchen as promised, and went to Peyton's bedroom.
She needed to find answers, and she knew that if Peyton really was hiding something, this was the place where she could find them. She put her guilt aside and went to her desk, opening the drawers one by one to look into them. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary there, it was filled with her art supplies and papers regarding Tric. She moved on to her walk-in closet and swiftly moved the hangers to see if anything was hidden there. She opened the round boxes sitting on the top shelves, only to find old pictures, drawings and mixtapes.
She didn't find anything that afternoon, which was frustrating, because she would have rather found a clue, but was also somewhat of a relief: at least she didn't find any medical file or drugs lying around the house.
That was what she told Haley and Mouth when she saw them again that night at Tric. She waited until she was alone with them: they were sitting at the bar, sipping on their drinks. She turned to her left to face them.
"I know what you're gonna say, I shouldn't have snooped around but─"
"Are you kidding?" Mouth cut her off with a snort. "You should have called us, we would have covered more ground."
Haley seemed to agree with him. "So, you didn't find anything?"
"No," she said with a sigh, "nothing at all." Her eyes travelled to the far-end of the room, where Peyton was standing, her headset on, one hand on a laptop, the other on the turntables. She had a huge grin plastered on her lips. Brooke's heart wrenched. "She's having a great time," she whispered, her voice shaking.
They followed her gaze and shared a worried look. "Brooke," Mouth said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I know, I'm sorry, I just─"
"Don't be," Haley said softly. She reached out for her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Why don't you go home for now, huh?"
"I can't, I have to─"
"We're watching her," Mouth told her with a determined voice.
"For now, yeah. And then what happens when she goes home? Who's gonna─"
Mouth slowly shook his head. "We can't possibly watch her 24/7. And anyway, we know that if something happens, it will be around May, not now." In thirteen days, Brooke thought gloomily.
"He's right," Haley added, "go home, get some sleep."
She hesitated but eventually gave in; they were right, if she stayed, she would end up falling asleep on the counter. She made her way to the turntables and gestured Peyton to take off her headset. After she told her she was going home, she suggested that she could come over tomorrow and spend the day with her. Peyton smiled and gladly accepted her offer.
She scanned the room until she found Lucas, who was talking with some Ravens. She struggled to walk over to him and when she reached him, tugged on his sleeve. He turned around and beamed when he saw her.
"There you are," he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek.
She grasped his shirt and slightly pulled back. "Sorry Luke, but I think I'm gonna─" She paused and blinked in confusion when he put on his jacket. "What are you doing?"
He tilted his head. "We're leaving, right?"
"But you should stay," she said, shaking her head. "You don't have to come just because─"
"And how are you leaving? Didn't you get here with Peyton? Cause it doesn't look like she's leaving any time soon."
"I─ I know," she stammered, "but I'll just get a cab or something."
He laughed as though she had just cracked a joke. "Come on, let's go," he said, placing a hand on the small of her back.
She must have really looked exhausted, because when they left the building, he told her that he had been waiting for her to want to go home for more than an hour. While he was driving, his right hand lingered on her nape, massaging it. After less than a minute, her eyelids became heavy, and she dozed throughout the ride.
She remembered waking up when he opened her car door, and climbing out of with his help. Despite her comatose state, she had taken her shoes off, slipped into his bed, and soon enough was sleeping like a log.
But of course, after a few hours, her mind had decided to remind her of the past and future events, and just like the previous night, she woke up abruptly, panting and crying from the nightmare she had just had.
This time, she could tell that Peyton had died falling from… Actually, no, she couldn't tell anymore, it was already becoming blurry. She brought her knees to her chest and clasped a hand against her tightly pressed lips, trying to muffle her sobs. She closed her eyes, repeating to herself that it had just been a nightmare, nothing else, just a nightmare─
Lucas shuffled to her right and after a few seconds, she heard him groan and shift on the bed.
"Brooke?" he called in a half-asleep voice.
She stiffened and quickly wiped her tears with the back of her sleeve. "Sorry," she mumbled in a faint voice, "go back to sleep."
He didn't, though; instead, she heard him sit up. She blinked when he turned on the rabbit lamp and she tried hiding her face from him, but he didn't let her: he cupped her face and turned it towards him. Despite the dimness, he could tell that she had been crying.
"Brooke," he whispered in panic, "what─"
"I'm okay," she said, faking a smile. "I just had another nightmare. You can go back to sleep."
He didn't move an inch and for some reason kept staring at her lap. She followed his gaze to her sleeves: they were wet with her tears. His eyes moved to her face and he sighed, kissing her hair. "Another one, huh," he said softly. "Do you want to talk about it? Maybe it could help."
She frowned, wondering if he could be right. Maybe she could tell someone else, someone who could help. But in this situation, who would be able to do that? She would have to discuss this with Haley and Mouth first.
She shifted on his lap and dropped her head on his shoulder, nuzzling against him. Her arms circled him. "I think this will do," she whispered with her eyes closed.
She didn't know how he did it, but somehow, between the light kisses he planted in her hair, and the way his hand kept massaging her calves, he managed to soothe her. Eventually, her breathing slowed down and her whole body relaxed.
"Feeling better?" he asked, stroking her hair.
"Mmh."
"Good." In her drowsiness, she didn't notice his playful tone right away. "I was gonna tell you what Susan's been saying about you to the guys at work, but since you're feeling better, I guess I don't have to."
Her eyes snapped open and she pulled back to stare at him, making him chuckle. "You can tell me."
"Nah, I don't think so, you look like you're about to fall back to sleep."
Her sleepiness had completely vanished. She spoke, and with her excitement, her voice came off louder than intended, "But I─"
He pressed a hand on her mouth, making her shut up. "My parents are sleeping," he reminded her with a frown, though she could tell from the glint in his eyes that he wasn't annoyed one bit.
She grasped his hand and slowly removed it from her lips. "Sorry," she whispered, "I wanted to say that I still feel a little down."
"Oh yeah?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, just a little. I'm sure I would feel better if you told me what─"
His shoulders shook when he stifled a laugh. "Alright, then I guess I don't have a choice." He chuckled when he saw her eyes shining with thrill. "It's stupid, really, but they've all been teasing me about it… See, er, Susan's been asking me for a while about my love life, and she's known me since I was a baby, so I can't really throw her off. At first, I kept telling her that it wasn't her business, but she kept asking me, so I ended up talking about you, and she was kinda vexed when she realized that you've been to the shop but that she didn't see you."
She frowned, puzzled by his words. "What are you talking about, I did see her. I talked to her."
He cleared his throat nervously. "No, er, we talked about you before that. Way before that."
"You mean… When I came by in September?" she asked, bemused. When he nodded, her mouth fell open. "But that was─ Are you telling me that everyone in this town knew you were into me?"
"Pretty much, yeah," he admitted with a chuckle. "But apart from that day when I talked about you, I managed to dodge her questions. So, until she met you… what was it, two weeks ago? Until then, she only knew what I'd told her back in September. And, er, after she saw you, she repeated it to everyone at work." He sounded annoyed now.
"And?" she said, waiting for the end of the story.
He scratched his head in embarrassment. "Well, er, she told them that I wasn't kidding." He threw her a quick glance and when she looked confused, he added, "You know, when I said that you're the most charming girl in Tree Hill. And of course, she had to repeat that to everyone at the shop and now─"
She jumped on his lips, making him groan in surprise. She felt his lips stretch into a smile as he kissed her back, his arms swiftly embracing her. "Thanks," she murmured, panting, when she broke their kiss. She put her forehead on his and closed her eyes. "I really do feel better."
It didn't last long though, but it did give her a few hours of break through which she slept peacefully. Unfortunately, she had to wake up and go home, and when Peyton came by as promised that day, she became once again full of worry. She knew they had concluded that nothing would happen before May, but she still felt more comfortable knowing that Peyton was with her: that way, she knew that nothing dangerous could happen to her.
On Monday morning, she met Haley and Mouth at the tutoring center. She had texted them the day before to know if they could come before homeroom to discuss something, and they had both agreed in a heartbeat.
"I didn't travel," she told them right away when she saw their hopeful expressions. They both looked disappointed as they sat down around the table. She took a seat between them and said, "It's just that we haven't talked about telling anyone else."
Mouth stood gaping. Haley, on the other hand, wasn't surprised, but rather thoughtful. Brooke gazed down; her friend had mechanically put a hand over her stomach. She was starting to show.
"I've thought about it too," she eventually said, looking back at Brooke. "Shouldn't we at least tell Larry?"
Brooke blinked in confusion. "Her dad?"
She lowered her eyes to her stomach. "I just think that if it was Jamie instead of Peyton, I'd want to know. And Larry… He's already lost his wife, right? If he also loses his daughter─"
"Which is not happening," Brooke cut her off, her voice hardening.
"But if─"
Mouth interrupted them: "He wouldn't believe us anyway. I mean, let's be realistic, no one would." He turned to Brooke. "Now, it's not just about explaining to people that you can time-travel, which is already quite unbelievable, it's also about telling someone that one of our friends is going to die─" He noticed Brooke's frown and immediately corrected himself, "Might die."
Brooke shared a look with Haley and knew that she was thinking the same: Mouth was right.
"And if they do believe us," he continued, "it would probably take a lot of time to convince them, maybe even days─"
"Which we don't have," Brooke muttered, her eyes darkening.
"Exactly. We can't afford to waste any time."
"But what about Peyton?" Haley suggested with a frown. "If we told her, wouldn't it make it easier to─"
"No!" Brooke cried, startling them both. Her voice lowered but stayed sharp, "Absolutely not, no way."
She had thought about it during the weekend, thoroughly, and was completely against that idea. The way she saw things, it could only make matters worse. Yes, Peyton, or anyone in her shoes, would deserve to know about this, but…
"Do you think she won't believe us?" Mouth asked tentatively.
Brooke shook her head. "No, that's not why." She paused, fumbling with her words. "I know her, and I'm sure that if she does believe us, then… Then she'll accept it."
"Accept it?" Haley repeated.
"Yeah, she'll say something stupid like it's her fate or whatever, and she needs to embrace it, and everybody's bound to die sometime anyway," she rambled, crossing her arms and shaking her head at that thought. "I know that I can't be sure of that but─"
"But you do know her best," Mouth pointed out. "I mean, if you think that's how she'd react, then we can't take that risk, right?"
When she walked into her classroom, her friends were already in their seats, chatting. They looked up when she came in; she pecked Lucas on the cheek and gave her childhood friends a faint smile as she sat in front of Peyton.
"Where were you?" her blonde friend asked after poking her shoulder.
Brooke threw her a quick glance over her shoulder. "Just talking with Mouth," she answered evasively. She turned to her left and noticed that Nathan's phone was once again flickering and buzzing. He looked annoyed by it and turned it off. She leaned to his side, lowered her voice, and asked, "Who's been calling you?"
"No one important," he answered dismissively. He studied her face for a moment and murmured, "You look like crap."
She snorted. "I really hope that's not how you talk to Haley."
"Nah, I wouldn't dare to," he chuckled. "Especially now with her pregnancy hormones. But seriously, what's up with you? You've been acting weird lately."
"I, um, I'm just nervous about the championship."
He scoffed and rolled his eyes at her. "You couldn't come up with a better excuse?"
"Nope," she said, her lips twitching when she noticed his amusement.
Nathan frowned and looked behind them; Peyton and Lucas were busy chatting about a music band and weren't paying them any attention. "So, my brother really didn't do anything to upset you?"
It was her time to roll her eyes. "For the last time," she whispered, "no."
"Is it your dad then?"
"What? No, he's doing just fine. Having the time of his life in L.A."
"Then what─"
Thankfully, their teacher came in, and Nathan had to put his questioning on hold. He even forgot about it, distracted by his phone that kept regularly buzzing during the next few days.
Focusing during class became almost impossible for Brooke; firstly, because she had other matters to worry about, and secondly, because she kept dozing off, taking 5-minute naps whenever she could, or rather whenever her body forced her to, in order to get back some of the sleep that she was missing at night. Only during her physical therapy was she fully awake, because she desperately needed her shoulder back to its regular state.
She kept wondering if there was not a way to control her travels. If only there was, then all her worries would vanish… Well, not all of them, but it would definitely make her life easier.
However much seducing that idea was, she had a feeling that it was nothing but a fantasy. There had never been an ounce of control whenever she had travelled, it had always been the exact opposite: her senses would usually go wild. Things had even gotten worse over time; during her last travels, the ringing and the tingle had been so overwhelming that she sometimes hadn't been able to even utter a single word. She wondered what that could mean… Was it because her travels were soon coming to an end? She had until graduation, and then it would be over.
At least, now she finally knew why she could travel. The how, on the other hand, seemed like an impossible question to answer, and deep down, felt like it didn't really matter. It didn't matter how she could travel, but it did matter how time worked.
Before all this travelling craziness had started, Brooke had never really given it a thought, but is she had been asked about it, then she would have answered that time was linear, with a specific beginning, a middle, and an ending. But ever since her travels had started, all these notions had been shattered, since it had been pretty obvious that events from the future kept influencing her present, and vice versa.
She understood what that implied, that time may not be so linear after all, and if it weren't, then there were two main explanations to how it did work: either the parallel lines, or the loop.
So far, she hadn't made a dent into the future, simply because she hadn't had to; she recalled thinking about doing it once, months before, but changing her mind when she had realized that she hadn't wanted her future to change. Things were different now, and change was precisely what they were trying to achieve. And that could only be possible if the parallel lines theory was the right one. If time was a loop, endlessly repeating itself, then that would mean that nothing could be changed. And that would be way too cruel… Why would the universe show her all this, get her to know about Peyton's future, only for her not to be able to do a thing about it? It didn't make any sense. It would render all her efforts ─ and Haley's, and Mouth's ─ pointless. And she couldn't accept that. Every fiber of her being refused to believe that there was no use in her travelling.
Whatever shape it took, time was a slippery thing, and neither Brooke, nor her friends seemed to be able to hold onto to it. She felt like she had a timer burned into her brain, set to go off on the first of May, and constantly reminding her of the time they were losing. She could almost hear it in her mind, slowly going tick tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
She was the White Rabbit, desperately running after time; in the blink of an eye, another school week had passed, bringing no travels. They did watch Peyton like a hawk, and they all agreed on the fact that she looked healthy, and that her behavior was perfectly normal. And now, with eight days left to the due date ─ tick tock─ they still had no clue as to what could happen to Peyton.
Instead of clues, she kept having new nightmares. Most of the time, she would wake up disoriented, thinking that something awful had just happened to her best friend but unable to remember what it was. And sometimes, she could tell what her nightmare had been about.
That night was one of the latter: she woke up drenched in sweat, gasping and crying, her body jerking up from bed, and was ready to jump on her feet when she realized that she had only been dreaming.
She shifted on the bed, her legs dangling over the edge, and clutched her chest, commanding herself to calm down. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her erratic breathing, until it eventually slowed down, and her hands stopped shaking.
This time, it had been a fire. She had clearly seen Peyton trapped in her burning house. But she hadn't really seen it, right? It was all just a dream. Granted, it had been very realistic, but still, it was nothing but her mind torturing her, like it had done for a week now.
She glanced over her shoulder; at least, this time she hadn't woken Lucas up. He was sleeping peacefully, with his mouth slightly open and one arm slipped under his pillow. She sighed and turned back to stare at the door leading outside. It was stupid, she knew it was, but she had to make sure that it was really all just a dream.
She quietly got up, put on her clothes and shoes, grabbed her car keys, and as silently as possible, left his house. Nights were getting warmer now, and the cardigan she was wearing would do just fine. She hopped down the porch steps and walked to her car, parked across the street. She threw a quick glance at the sky, clear of clouds; the half-moon was shining high above her head. She didn't waste another second and climbed into her car, driving off in the night.
She kept repeating to herself that she was being crazy, and stupid, and that there was no way she could have had a prophetic dream, but… She could travel in time, so really, in her mind, anything was possible now.
After a few minutes, she took a right turn and drove into Peyton's street. Her heart was pounding in her chest, threatening to stop at any moment, when she pulled over her friend's house.
It was there, standing and unburnt. She let out a sigh of relief and slumped down on her seat, her head hitting the wheel and accidentally hitting the horn.
"Shit," she muttered, sitting straight, her body stiffening while she was on alert, waiting for a window to light up.
Fortunately, that horn blast hadn't wakened anyone, neither Peyton, nor any of her neighbors. She slammed on the gas pedal and drove down the street.
She frowned, her mind travelling to Mouth and Haley; they were trying to hide it from her, but she could tell that they were stressed out too, especially Haley, who always looked pensive. The problem was that everything was depending on Brooke's ability ─or rather, lack of─ to travel. She had to travel soon, or else they would all go crazy.
Instead of going straight to Lucas' house, she decided to take a detour and drove around town. With the clock hitting 3 am, the streets were empty; she rolled down her window, letting in a cool stream of air, and turned on the radio.
After about half an hour, she found herself driving back to Lucas' neighborhood. She pulled over, climbed out of her car, and froze when she saw something moving from the shadows, on the porch steps.
She squinted and was relieved when she saw Lucas lifting up his head. He was sitting on the steps, a thin blanket covering his shoulders. Her relief was short-lived, as she realized that he must have wondered where she had gone. She walked up to him with a guilt-ridden face and sat to his right. He looked cute, with his ruffled hair and his half-open eyes; he extended his right arm and put it around her shoulders, covering them with the blanket.
"I'm so sorry," she told him, biting her lip. "I really tried to be quiet and not to wake you and─"
"You didn't." He stifled a yawn and scratched his chin. "I turned around and, I don't know, I probably felt an empty spot next to me, so I woke up." He furrowed his brow and stared at her accusingly. "You could have at least left a note or something." She opened her mouth but he kept speaking. "I wake up, and you're gone, your clothes are gone, your car is gone, but all your other stuff is still here, including your phone," he said with an annoyed frown.
She mechanically patted her pockets and realized that he was right: she had left her phone behind. "I'm really sorry," she said with a sheepish face, "I, um, I just needed to─"
"It's okay," he said with a dejected face, "I know where you've been."
Her mouth fell open. "Y─ You do?" she stuttered.
"Yeah." He let out a dramatic sigh, turned to her and with a deadpan expression, said: "I know you went to see you secret lover." She giggled and bumped her forehead on his shoulder. His lips stretched into a grin. "Wait a minute, you mean I'm wrong? I can't be!"
"I'm afraid you are," she said in between chuckles. "I just drove around for a bit." She wasn't exactly lying to him, was she? "I couldn't find sleep." That was also true.
He planted a kiss on her forehead. "Do you think you can, now?" he asked in a murmur.
"I don't think so," she admitted, lowering her gaze. "Didn't work much."
"Brooke." She looked up at him, startled by the sudden seriousness of his tone. He was staring with worry. "You're not having doubts again, are you?"
"Doubts?" she repeated, puzzled. "About what?"
"Us."
She raised her eyebrows. "What? No!" Relief crossed his face. "No, not at all!"
Where did that come from? Why would he think that─ Well, it probably had to do with the fact that the last time she had driven off on a whim in the middle of the night, things hadn't gone well for them.
"You don't have to worry about that," she told him in a soft voice. "I love you, and that's pretty much the only thing I'm sure of right now." She leaned forward and kissed him. "You should go back to sleep," she said, nuzzling against his neck. "I'll find something to kill time."
"Actually, I think I can help you with that."
She lifted her head, raising an eyebrow. "Oh really?" she asked suggestively, pulling on collar of his t-shirt.
He chuckled and shook his head. "No, not that. Not with my parents sleeping next door." He grinned at her pout. "But I've got something else for you."
Her face lit up. "A new chapter?"
"Er, no, I'm not done writing it."
She tilted her head. "Still having trouble?"
"Yeah," he admitted with a frown, "it's just this scene that─ Whatever, that's not what I was talking about." He stood up and offered her a hand. "I'll show you."
She grabbed his hand and got on her feet, letting him lead her back to his bedroom. He told her to sit on the bed and she waited patiently until he came to sit next to her with his laptop. He put it in front of them and handed her an earbud, keeping the other one for himself. She put it in her ear and watched as he turned on his laptop and looked for a file on his desk.
It was a movie. And it wasn't any movie. It was her go-to movie whenever she felt down. He hadn't even pressed play that she gasped and grabbed his forearm with force, making him chuckle.
"You got me Rocky Horror?" she asked, her heart fluttering.
He chuckled and turned to her. "I bet even you secret lover wouldn't have thought of that."
She knew he was joking, but despite that, he was still gazing fondly at her. She blushed and said, "No. He doesn't hold a candle to you." Her lips twitched. "But seriously, you should go back to sleep, you've got an important game coming up soon. I don't want to have to deal with both Whitey and Nate if you're too tired to run."
He did fall asleep quickly after they started watching the movie, and even Brooke managed to doze off halfway through it. She wished she could spend all her nights next to Lucas: he seemed to have a gift for making her feel safe─ but sadly, she couldn't.
Instead, the timer kept going off in her head. Tick-tock, it went.
Tick. Tock. Another day had gone by, and still no travel; all she got was nightmares and mental torture.
Tick. Tock. Another day with Peyton pointing out that she looked exhausted, and noticing that Haley too looked tired, and even Mouth was unusually restless. They all had an excuse to give her: for Haley, it was her pregnancy; for Mouth, it was the fact that he was anxious about his college plans and was still waitlisted in Chapel Hill; and for Brooke… Well, she struggled to find an excuse that Peyton could buy, but she eventually did: she was stressed out because Lucas still hadn't received an update on his scholarships and thus didn't know yet where he'd be going in September.
Tick. Tock. Nathan kept ignoring his buzzing phone.
Tick. Tock. She got her last session of physical therapy during which her therapist told her that she could go back to cheering.
And finally, the date they had dreaded was almost there: they were one evening away from the first of May. Brooke was in the Café, sitting at a table with Mouth and Haley. Peyton was in the back; she had stopped by to discuss matters about Tric with Karen, so Brooke had decided to tag along, knowing that Haley was working that day.
Her timer would go off at midnight, and starting from tomorrow, Peyton's death could happen at any time.
"We need a schedule," Haley whispered with a frown. She glanced around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping on them. Luckily, there were only a couple of clients still lingering around, and they all were away from them. "Someone has to be with her at all times."
"Tomorrow's gonna be easy," Mouth said, crossing his arms on the table. "We've got school, then we all leave together for Fayetteville, and when the game's over we'll head to your place, right?"
Haley nodded. "I mean, unless we lose, then the party's cancelled and─"
"Not happening," Brooke cut her off. "So, we've got it covered until Saturday morning, right? Then I'll probably get lunch with her, and she'll go to the Post."
"Do you think you can go with her?" Haley asked.
She sighed. "I could try, but I don't think I can do that every time she has to go there."
Mouth took a sip of his coffee. "What about the rest of the weekend?"
"Er, I'll stick with her and sleep over, I guess."
"I can take over on Sunday," Haley suggested. "Invite her for lunch or something."
"You think you could tie her up and lock her in your house until I travel again?" Although it was only for a brief moment, Brooke managed to lighten the mood a little. "Yeah, didn't think so," she said with a fleeting smile.
"What do we do after that? On Monday, when we all go back to school… You can't possibly sleep at her place every night," Mouth noted worriedly.
"I know," she said with a sigh. "I mean, even my mom would say that's too much."
Unless… What if she found something to convince her mother to let Peyton stay with them, full time? Maybe she could lie, say that Peyton was still using drugs and that was why she had to keep an eye on her. It was a very screwed-up plan, but didn't the situation call for extreme decisions? But even if her mother took the bait, how would she convince Peyton to basically move in with her? She shook her head─ that idea was a dead-end.
"I know I'm repeating myself," Mouth said tentatively, "but we can't stay with her 24/7. But maybe we can make sure that nothing weird happens around her. And that she avoids any unpredictable situation."
"What do you mean?" Brooke asked, tilting her head.
"You know, nothing that could go off the rails, like─"
Haley cleared her throat and looked behind them; Brooke and Mouth glanced over their shoulders and saw Keith coming into the Café, carrying two brown paper bags that were covering most of his face.
"Hey kids," he said, stopping by them.
Haley motioned to get up. "Let me help you with that."
"No, no, no, don't move," he said, taking a step back. "Are you excited about tomorrow?" he asked with a wide grin.
They all nodded. "You're coming too, right?" Mouth asked him.
Keith chuckled. "I don't think Lucas would forgive us if we missed it. Karen is closing early tomorrow so that we can get there in time. Are you all riding with the school bus?"
"No," Brooke answered, "we're going with my car."
"I'll see you all tomorrow then," he said before walking around the counter and disappearing in the hallway.
"Should we say something?" Haley mused, her eyes stuck on the empty spot where Keith had been standing.
Brooke shared a confused look with Mouth. "About what?" she asked her.
Haley blinked and turned to them. "Well, that thing about Keith feeling guilty has been bothering me… I just can't see how he could have anything to do with, um, you know what. But just in case, maybe we should make sure that they don't stay too long in the same room?"
"There's no way Keith won't come tomorrow," Brooke said.
Haley sighed. "I know."
The doorbell chimed again. They all turned to the door as Nathan and Lucas were coming in; Nathan sat next to Haley, and before she could stand up, Lucas told her to stay put and that he would get some drinks himself. He came back after a minute or so with a tray full of drinks and brownies. As soon as he put it on the table, Nathan jumped on it and grabbed a brownie.
"Wow, that hungry, huh?" Brooke asked him with a laugh.
"You have no idea," he said after swallowing a bite.
"I thought Haley was the one eating for two."
He chuckled, taking another bite. "Shut up, Whitey didn't keep you after school all week."
Lucas took the seat to her right and put an arm on her shoulders. "Cut him some slack," he told his brother, "he wasn't that bad with us today. He doesn't want us to be tired tomorrow."
"I really envy you," Haley mused pensively, staring at Nathan. "When I'm stressed, I can't eat a thing."
Brooke raised a hand, "Same here." Just this morning, her mother had pointed out that she hadn't been finishing her meals lately.
Peyton came back from the back room and sat between Nathan and Lucas. "Stressed?" Nathan repeated with a smirk. "Why would I be stressed?"
Peyton retorted something that made them laugh, but Brooke didn't pay much attention; instead, she threw Lucas a sidelong glance, who caught her staring at him. "What is it?" he whispered in her ear.
"Nothing," she whispered back. "You don't look too nervous."
"Trust me, I am," he admitted with a chuckle. "I don't think I'll get any sleep tonight."
Their friends were now busy talking about the team from Durham they would have to fight tomorrow. Nathan was detailing each of their opponents' ─ the Cheetahs ─ weaknesses. "Did you get any news?" she asked Lucas, still speaking a low voice that only he could hear.
Although she had used it as an excuse to Peyton to explain her odd behavior, it was true that Lucas was still waiting to get an extra scholarship for college. "No, not yet." His face lit up and he leaned to her ear. "But I'm almost done with my chapter."
"Oh!" she said eagerly. "When can I read it?"
He chuckled and kissed her hair. "Soon."
They all fell silent when Nathan's phone started buzzing; 5 pairs of eyes stared at him, making him feel nervous.
Peyton spoke first. "Nate, I swear to god, either you take this, or I'll throw it in the river."
She was only half-joking, Brooke could tell. Haley snatched the phone from the table before Nathan could get to it.
"Nice reflexes," Nathan told her with a genuinely impressed face, "but can you give it back?"
"She's right, you know," Haley told him with a slight frown. "Maybe you should pick it up."
He opened his mouth but seemed at a loss for words. He sat back on his chair and crossed his arms against his chest. "Are you serious?"
The phone was still buzzing while Jamie's parents were silently staring at each other, waiting for the other to give in. Apparently, Haley was stronger on this point because Nathan groaned and held out his hand; with a satisfied smile, she placed the phone in it.
"I'll be right back," Nathan grumbled as he stood up.
They watched as he walked out of the Café and stood on the sidewalk, his phone glued to his ear. Even from this distance, Brooke could tell that he looked angry. And there was only one person on Earth who could make him that angry.
She shared a brief look with Peyton and knew right away that they had been thinking the same.
"Haley?" Brooke called with an innocent voice. "How long has Dan been harassing Nathan?"
Mouth blinked at them in confusion and when he saw the look on Haley's face, realized that Brooke was right. "Um, maybe we shouldn't butt in─"
Peyton cut him off and stared at Haley. "What happened?" she asked with a concerned frown.
"Well, erm…" Haley's eyes darted between both girls. "I don't know," she said with a wary glance to Lucas.
"It's okay," he told her with a shrug, "I won't hunt him down."
Brooke leaned forward and turned to Lucas, a bemused look on her face. "What's going on exactly?"
Haley sighed. "Okay, remember when about a month ago Dan came to the shop looking for Nathan? When he heard about the baby?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So, after that, Nathan talked to him once."
"I know," Brooke recalled, "biggest mistake of his life, right?"
"Wait, what?" Peyton cried, outraged. "Dan said that about you?" she asked, turning to Haley. Her eyes then stopped on Brooke. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I thought that was it," Brooke said defensively. "So, you're saying Dan didn't drop it there?"
Lucas scoffed. Brooke gave him a quizzical look, but he simply motioned to his best friend with a sharp nod.
"Not exactly," Haley said with a sad voice. "He came by a couple of weeks ago. He picked an evening he knew Deb wouldn't be around."
That was news to her; she looked at Mouth, who seemed to be sharing her thoughts.
"He tried to apologize to you, then?" Peyton asked.
Another scoff from Lucas. "No," Haley answered. "Things got heated between them. Nathan told him that he had no right giving lessons to people, and then, um… Well, they both said lots of things, and in the end, Dan said that I was, um, baby-trapping him. And that I was only after his money."
"What?!" Peyton shouted angrily.
Brooke turned to Lucas, who remained unfazed; he had obviously heard this story before, but from the way his hand tensed around her shoulder, she had a hunch that he was only calm on the surface.
"Anyway," Haley continued, "Dan's been calling nonstop since then, this time because he really wants to apologize. He says he shouldn't have called me names and that he wants to be a part of our child's life. But Nathan doesn't believe him so he's just stopped answering his phone."
"Haley, you can't let Dan in," Peyton told her with a frown.
"That's what Nathan says, but─"
"And he's right," she insisted. "You don't know how he was when we were kids… Right Brooke?" Peyton stared at her, looking for some support. "It was always the same, he treated Nathan like crap and then he expected to be forgiven simply because he's his father."
Brooke sighed; she was right, they had seen it happen over and over again during their childhood. It was no wonder Nathan had been so relieved to hear of his parents' divorce.
Lucas' grip tightened around her shoulder. She gave his hand a squeeze, and that seemed to make him relax a bit.
The doorbell chimed as Nathan came back inside and walked to their table. Peyton kept staring at Haley and said, "And now, he's gonna treat you like crap too, and your kid. You can't let him do that."
"Yup, I agree with Sawyer," Nathan said as he sat between the two girls. Without even glancing at Peyton, he raised his hand and in perfect sync, Peyton gave him a high five. "So you all know, huh?" he asked, his eyes darting around the table.
"What did you tell him?" Brooke asked him, taking a piece of brownie.
"Same thing I told him days ago. That he can stop calling and he's out of my life now."
She caught a glimpse of Haley's face; it was furtive, but for a second, she looked uneasy. Brooke didn't say anything about it though and let Nathan talk about something else, but it did stay at the back of her mind all evening, until she went home, opened her laptop and started a group call with Haley and Mouth.
It looked like Mouth had been bothered too by their earlier conversation. "Why didn't you tell us about Dan?" he asked Haley as soon as she was connected.
Haley put on her earbuds. "Sorry, what was that?"
"He asked why you didn't say anything about Dan," Brooke repeated with a frown.
"Oh," she said, and despite the fact that she was only seeing her though a screen, Brooke could tell that her friend was embarrassed. "It's not that important."
Brooke raised her eyebrows. "Not that important? Haley, you're pregnant, and you're already stressed out enough with everything going on, you don't need Dan harassing you too! You should have told us!"
"I…" Haley paused and lowered her voice. "I figured we already had a lot on our plates, I didn't want to add to it."
"Don't be stupid, you know you can talk to us," Brooke said, rolling her eyes. "Right Mouth?"
"Er, I wouldn't put it that way but, yeah, I agree with Brooke," Mouth said with a chuckle.
Brooke waved her hands. "See!" She squinted at Haley, "Plus, you've clearly not told us everything. There's still something bothering you, right?"
Haley looked surprised. She blinked, and her lips stretched into a faint smile. "You're sharp."
"I'm gonna pretend you didn't sound surprised saying that," Brooke said, making her friends chuckle. "So what is it?"
Haley glanced over her shoulder, as if she was making sure no one was listening in on them. "It's just… I know that Dan is a terrible father, but… I don't know, I keep wondering if he shouldn't get another chance. Maybe not with Nathan, but with Jamie." She lowered her voice and said, "And I feel horrible for thinking that."
"Why?" Mouth asked.
"Because I've heard about Dan pretty much my whole life, way before I got to know Nathan. I know how he's treated Karen, and Luke, and… Lucas is my best friend, so I should have his back all the time."
"You're not betraying him," Brooke said softly.
"I just… I just think that he sounded genuine, when he tried apologizing to Nathan. He put him on speaker, so I heard the whole thing, and I kinda believe him. But then at the same time, I keep recalling what he said about me and that just makes me so mad!"
"And you haven't told Nathan all this," Mouth noted.
Brooke frowned slightly. "Or Lucas."
"I can't," Haley said in dismay. "I know they wouldn't understand." They stayed silent for a moment, until it looked like it was torturing her. "So, what do you think?"
Brooke spoke first. "Honestly?" she said with a faint smile. "I think you're way too nice for your own good."
"I don't know," Haley mused. She sighed and eventually shrugged. "I just think that anger and resentment can never lead to anything good."
That night, Haley decided to stay silent about her second thoughts to Nathan and Lucas, but she did promise Brooke and Mouth that from now on, she would share her worries with them. After all, wasn't that the whole point in having secret meetings?
If the previous nights had been difficult, this one happened to be hell for Brooke. She didn't sleep one notch, and when she arrived to school that morning and saw Mouth and Haley's faces, she knew they hadn't either. But they had to stay on guard: from now on, they had to keep an eye on Peyton, as often as possible.
Their common anguish clashed with their classmates' giddiness; actually, it wasn't just their classmates, it was the whole school, teachers and hallways included. The walls had been decorated with white and blue streamers and balloons, and stickers of the Ravens' mascot had been plastered on almost every furniture. No one really paid any attention in class that day, and no one got reprimanded for it, since the teachers were all waiting for the classes to end to hop in their cars and drive to the game.
It was frustrating ─to say the least─ to see them all so light-hearted and carefree, when in her head, Brooke kept thinking that every minute that went by without travelling was a minute wasted forever. All she wanted to do was to shout at them that there were bigger things at risk, that they had no idea what was really going on, but of course she couldn't do that. She had to sit through class, and smile back when people were wishing her good luck for tonight's game, and thank them for their support. She was head of the cheerleaders after all, and former school president; she had to put on a brave face.
The day went by fast and it was now time to leave for Fayetteville. The ride would take about an hour and a half, but they had to be there an hour early to get ready and warmed up for when the audience would arrive. The sky was clear and the sun was still shining high when they all gathered on the parking lot. Brooke listened when Whitey told her and the other cheerleaders to strictly follow the school bus and not try any alternative route. She heard Peyton stifle a laugh behind her; he was referring to an incident that had taken place about two years ago, when Brooke had followed her GPS instead of the bus and had gotten them lost.
"That happened once," she grumbled once he was far enough from them, "but he speaks about it every time!"
"That's because he knows you're a repeat offender," Peyton told her with a playful nudge.
She glared at her. "Get in my car before I decide to leave you on a random sidewalk."
Peyton laughed and linked her arms with Mouth. Brooke watched as they crossed the parking lot and entered her car. Haley was already sitting there in the back, and Nathan was talking to her, his upper body leaning inside through an open window.
"Come with me," a voice whispered in her ear, making her jump up in fright.
She spun around and scowled at Lucas. "You scared me!"
"Sorry," he said with a broad grin, "but that was easy." He looked at Whitey out of the corner of his eye and grasped her hand, dragging her with him around the school bus, away from his Coach's eyes. "So, what do you say? Come with me."
"Aren't we going to the same place?" she asked, tilting her head. "Unless you're planning on going to Vegas or something─"
He laughed and slipped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. "No, I mean, you should ride with me."
"I'm pretty sure that even if I use some heavy make-up, Whitey will see through it."
His eyes gleamed. "He won't even notice."
"It's one and a half hour," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, with Whitey, before our final game." He lowered his voice and added, "He's gonna be unsufferable."
She raised an eyebrow. "And you think he won't be if I am around?"
"Oh no, he'll be just the same. You'd be here to distract me from him."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "A distraction, huh?" she repeated dryly. "So that's what I am to you?"
He tilted his head and gave her a crooked smile. "Do I even need to answer that?"
Her eyes shifted from his intense gaze and she blushed. "No," she murmured.
But that didn't change the fact that she couldn't go with him. In fact, she wouldn't be able to spend much time with him in the coming days, because she had to stay with Peyton. And she couldn't have any… distractions. Her face fell with that depressing thought.
"Brooke?" he called, his tone more serious.
She looked up to see him scrutinizing her face. She cleared her throat. "So, erm, when are your parents getting there?" she asked with shifty eyes.
His eyebrows twitched, and she knew he had noticed her odd behavior, but he didn't comment on it and instead answered her question. "They're leaving in an hour."
"Are you nervous?"
"Yeah", he admitted with a chuckle. "I didn't sleep much, I was too excited about tonight. We could be state champions in a few hours."
"Doesn't that make you sad?"
"That we could be champions?" he asked, puzzled.
"No," she said hesitantly, "that it will be over soon."
He stayed silent for a moment, looking surprised by her words. When he spoke, his eyes were smiling at her. "A little, yeah," he admitted softly. "It's my last game, at least at this level. But who knows, maybe I won't succeed at writing, and I'll go back to sports."
She snorted. "That's not gonna happen." He tilted his head and frowned slightly, looking intrigued. "What?"
"Nothing," he shrugged, "but you sound really confident." Crap, had she said too much? "Did you go to a fortune-teller or something?" She lowered her eyes to the ground, trying to hide her fluster, and took a step back, only to bump against the rear of the bus. "Wait, you really did?"
"Of course not," she said, rolling her eyes. "I─ I just know that you're a hard-worker, that's all."
He moved closer, his right arm pressed against the bus, somewhere over her head, and his left hand gliding under her sports jacket and playing with the bottom part of her cheerleading top. "Lucas," she warned, "you have to get in the bus."
"I know," he said, lowering his voice, "I'll get there in a sec."
His fingers lifted her top and grazed her skin, sending shivers down her spine. He was just about to kiss her when a loud bang made them both startle and look to their left; Whitey was standing there, glaring at them. With the hand he had just used to slam the bus, he pointed a finger at Brooke and said, "Go to your car." He then targeted Lucas and snapped his fingers at him, "And you, get in the freaking bus! And where the hell is your brother?"
Brooke answered for him. "Probably still with Haley, she's in my─"
"Nathan!" Whitey yelled loud enough to alert the whole school. "Get in the bus, right now!"
She shared a look with Lucas then quickly followed Whitey around the bus. The old man was muttering something under his breath, and although she couldn't hear him properly, Brooke could swear she had heard the words 'horny teenagers'.
She passed Nathan, who was running the other way, and bumped fists with him before hurrying to her car. Haley and Mouth were sitting at the back and when Brooke took her seat and turned on the engine, she glanced at them, then at Peyton sitting to her right, and told them to buckle up.
This time, she strictly followed the bus: after all, they had to stay away from any unpredictable situation. After about half an hour, everyone fell quiet: Haley was doing her homework, Mouth was reading a sports magazine, and Peyton was absorbed by her phone. She looked upset.
"What are you doing?" Brooke asked her, looking back at the road.
Peyton's eyes didn't budge when she answered, "I'm trying to see if I can get tickets for a concert."
"Which one?"
"The Cure."
Ah, Peyton's favorite band. "They're still doing concerts? Aren't they from the fifties?"
"Eighties," Peyton said with a chuckle. "They tour from time to time, and they're doing it this year. They'll be in a few weeks in Charlotte, but they're all sold out."
"Then you'll see them another time," Brooke said with a shrug.
"I don't know, they're not getting younger, so who knows, this might be their last tour ever."
"But if they're all sold out, how can you─"
"Someone always ends up selling tickets, you know, because they can't go, or they're sick… So, I'm checking if I could get one this way."
Haley's voice came from the back. "I love their music," she said, taking her eyes from her homework. "They're in my playlist for J─ the baby."
Peyton turned around to face her. "You have a playlist for your baby?" she asked, intrigued. "How does that work?"
"It's not for now, but I read something about how it can soothe the baby during the last trimester. You put a headset around your belly and the baby can hear it all."
"Then I'll get you a ticket too if I can", Peyton told her with a knowing smile. "So, who else is on your playlist?"
Haley listed the ones she had selected and Brooke stopped listening when she realized that she didn't know half of the singers they were talking about. She had to focus on the road, too: she couldn't risk having an accident, especially with Peyton sitting next to her.
Peyton's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "You're still worried, huh?" Her best friend was staring at her. Brooke's eyebrows twitched, but she tried to stay stone-faced. "I'm sure Luke will get an answer soon."
"I hope so," she murmured back.
"Come on, you have to stop looking so down all the time, everything will work out just fine."
Despite the pang of anguish she felt, she snorted. "You're only saying that to make me feel better."
"Actually, no," Peyton admitted with a laugh, "I really believe that."
"You do?" Brooke asked, raising an eyebrow. "What happened to my pessimistic best friend?"
"Realistic," she corrected with a smirk. "Which is why I know you two will be fine, because I know how persistent you can be when you want something."
If only that could be true. She caught a glimpse of Mouth and Haley through the rear-view mirror and knew that they were thinking just the same.
But what if it wasn't enough?
She put that thought aside and focused on her driving; she couldn't afford thinking that way. They had no other choice but to succeed.
The parking lot of Fayetteville's high school gymnasium was, aside from a couple of cars, empty when they arrived. As soon as they got out of the car, they met up with their fellow cheerleaders and walked over to the bus. Whitey climbed out first, and his scowl seemed to have worsened during the ride; Brooke wondered if he hadn't been drugged the day of Karen and Keith's wedding reception, for she hadn't seen his scowl once that day. He ushered them all inside and while the Ravens were already warming up around the court, the girls ─and Mouth─ stopped for a second and stood gaping at their surroundings.
This court was immense; well, she knew that it was the same regular size as in any other school, but the bleachers seemed endless. There was at least twice as many seats as in Tree Hill… no wonder the final took place here. The eastern bleachers had been decorated with their colors, whereas the western was in green and yellow. They were still empty of people, so Haley and Mouth had the privilege of picking their seats first: they went to the front row and watched them warm up.
The Durham Cheetahs arrived soon after and occupied the opposite half of the court, along with their own cheerleaders. Both teams were ignoring each other, focusing on their own work.
Brooke and her squad were sitting on the ground, stretching their legs and arms. She was bending forward, touching her left foot with her right hand, when she heard Peyton curse next to her. Her head jerked up so fast that she almost hurt her neck and she turned to her best friend, who had an anxious expression on her face.
"Peyton?"
Her friend answered with a sharp nod toward the Ravens bleachers. Brooke extended her neck to follow her gaze, and for a moment, wondered what had caught Peyton's attention. The bleachers were now half-full on each side, and Haley and Mouth hadn't moved an inch. She was about to ask her what was up when her eyes noticed a man who was taking a seat, but paused when his eyes found Haley sitting at the far-end of that same row, and instead of sitting down, slowly walked in her direction.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise, yet for some reason, Brooke was shocked to see that Dan Scott was here. Wasn't it obvious to him that Nathan didn't want him here? And why was he going to Haley's side?
Peyton shifted to her knees and kept a wary eye on Dan. When he stopped right in front of Haley, who startled when she saw him, she cursed again and threw a look in the opposite direction, toward Nathan.
Dan was saying something to Haley and he… Well, he didn't look aggressive, so at least he wasn't insulting her. But Haley was obviously uncomfortable with his presence and from the way she kept shaking her head at him, she was clearly asking him to go away.
But Dan wasn't leaving; he stayed put, and his lips kept moving.
When Peyton cursed again, Brooke followed her gaze and her heart sped up when she saw Nathan stomping towards his father. Dan, with his back turned to him, didn't see him coming; he startled when Nathan grabbed his arm and started dragging him toward the nearest exist.
"This isn't gonna go well," Brooke muttered. Wait, what about─ "Oh no," she said, her eyes growing wide when she saw that Lucas was now walking in their direction, a dark look on his face.
Dan looked like he was struggling at first, but eventually gave in and followed his son out of the gym. Before she could say anything, Peyton jumped on her feet and followed them, despite Brooke hissing her name. And Lucas was close behind but hadn't yet reached the end of the court when Whitey's voice rose, startling them all, including Peyton who had just reached the exit doors.
"Lucas, get back here!"
He turned around to face his coach. "But─"
Whitey ran to him and grasped his shoulders. He looked furious. "I don't care, you're gonna stay here before you do something stupid!"
"What about Nathan?"
"If he's not here in the next two minutes, I'll go get him," Whitey grumbled, though he clearly sounded worried and couldn't help but glance at the exit doors. When Brooke did the same, panic rose inside of her: Peyton was gone.
Brooke grunted, jumped on her feet and ran to Haley, whose face was pallid.
"Are you okay?" she asked her with a frown.
"Er, yeah," she murmured weakly, "but Peyton─"
"I know, I know, I'm going." She froze when she saw Mouth standing up. "No," she told him in a firm voice, "stay with her." She threw another glance at her pregnant friend; Brooke didn't think anything was wrong with her, she was probably this pale because Dan had startled her, but still… She wasn't taking any risk.
She sprinted across the court, shouting at her squad to keep warming up, and made her way through the doors. A continuous flow of people was coming in now, so she had to shove and push a few of them to come out on the parking lot.
She felt a huge wave of relief when she recognized Peyton's hair; she was walking toward the cars, her head moving frantically left and right, as if she was searching for something.
"I lost them," she told Brooke with a frown when she walked up to her.
"Let's just go back inside, okay?" Brooke suggested, pulling on her arm.
Unfortunately, Peyton wouldn't budge. "We have to find Nate first!"
Her friend was right, but in that exact moment, Brooke was more worried for Peyton's safety than she was about Nathan's ability to make bad decisions. She had to keep Peyton out of unpredictable situations, and this right now felt like one.
"I know, but─" Brooke froze when she saw Keith, Karen and Deb, a couple of meters ahead, walking among the crowd and heading to the entrance.
Karen saw her first and waved at her with a broad smile; she said something to Deb and Keith, who then turned in her direction, and they all parted from the crowd to greet them.
"What's wrong?" Karen asked the girls when she saw their anguished faces.
Before Brooke could say anything, Peyton beat her to it. "Dan is here, talking to Nathan."
Karen shared a worried look with Keith, then turned to Deb who was pale as a ghost. "Where?" Deb asked, her voice trembling with what sounded like fear and anger.
"Er, we don't know," Brooke answered.
This parking lot was three times the size of their high school's, finding Nathan was next to impossib─
"Hey, isn't that Dan's car?" Keith asked, pointing to a blue Chevrolet parked three rows to their left.
Brooke didn't know if he was correct, but from the way Deb started running to that car, she figured that he really was. Karen and Keith quickly ran after her, Karen begging her to slow down.
"Okay, the adults are here," Brooke said, turning to Peyton, "so let's go back inside now and─" Peyton ignored her completely and sprinted toward the car. "Are you kidding me?" she shouted at her, before groaning and chasing after her.
They really were there, behind the car: Dan was grabbing his son's shoulders, keeping him in place, while Nathan was trying to push him away.
"I swear," Nathan shouted, glaring at his father, "if you talk to her one more time─"
"Get off him!" Deb yelled, startling both father and son. Dan blinked at them in confusion, probably wondering what they were all doing here, and for a second, loosened his grip on Nathan, who immediately took the chance to step away from his grasp. Deb walked up to Dan and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Don't you ever─"
Dan seized her wrist and swiftly jerked it way, making her wince. "This isn't your business. I'm talking to my son."
Deb walked back, scowling at her ex-husband as she was massaging her wrist. "He doesn't want to talk to you!" she spat.
"And whose fault is that, huh?" Dan asked back angrily.
Brooke turned to Nathan, who was looking at his parents with a tired look on his face.
Deb was going to say something else, but Keith walked to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. He didn't say anything but motioned to Nathan, and when Deb saw her son, she seemed to remember where they were and what was about to happen. Keith then turned to his brother. "You should go," he told him with a sad voice.
Peyton walked around them all and stopped by Nathan's side. "Let's go," she told him. He didn't move, his eyes fixed on his father, his hands clenched into tight fists. "He's not worth it." That seemed to convince him: his shoulders relaxed and he gave her a nod. They started walking away from Dan, across the parking lot, but Brooke didn't move; she watched them reach the entrance then turned her attention back to Keith.
Peyton was with Nathan, which meant that nothing could happen to her, but Keith? She had to keep an eye on him, too.
"Come on," Keith told his brother, putting a hand on his shoulder, "this is not the time nor the place."
Dan pushed his brother away; Brooke noticed that Karen stiffened, but didn't move. "Not worth it?" Dan said, his voice trembling as he echoed Peyton's words. "Not worth it? Is that what you've been putting in his head?!" he yelled, his eyes darting from Deb to Keith. "This… This is all your fault!"
Keith remained calm and let out a sigh. "Just go home for now Danny, maybe if you give him some time─"
Keith didn't get to finish his sentence; before he could, Dan's fist landed on his mouth. Brooke, Karen and Deb all gasped at the same time, and although Brooke found herself rooted to the spot, Karen immediately rushed to Keith's side. He stumbled backwards but managed to keep his balance.
"Are you okay?" Karen asked Keith, examining his face.
Keith spat out some blood but gave her a nod. "Yeah," he said, wincing when she touched the corner of his lips.
They all stared silently at Dan; he glared back at them and eventually turned to Keith. "This is all your fault," he repeated, his voice getting lower.
He looked outraged and hurt, and when Brooke thought for sure that he was going to attack his brother again, he shook his head, turned his back, and climbed into his car; it screeched on the pavement as he drove away.
Deb let out a sigh and spun around to face Keith. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry about that," he said, wiping the blood from his chin. He opened his mouth wide then moved his jaw left and right. "I don't think he broke anything."
"Good," Karen said with relief. "Brooke, are you okay?"
She blinked. "Er, yeah," she said absent-mindedly, her eyes lingering on the blood that had stained the pavement. There was something about the way Dan had lashed out at Keith, even though the latter had been calm and amenable, that made her feel uneasy. He had looked angry before that moment, sure, but in the five seconds following the punch, when everybody was busy looking out for Keith, Brooke had noticed his expression, and it hadn't been just anger anymore, but rather… pure rage. She was supposed to watch Keith, yet for some reason, it was Dan's behavior that had stood out to her.
Deb put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's go."
Brooke told them that she would see them later and ran back to the gym; when she got there, her squad was still stretching on the ground, and Peyton was among them. She turned to the bleachers and saw with relief that Haley was getting some color back in her cheeks. She then paid attention to the Ravens and saw Nathan running sideways and jumping into invisible hoops; a stranger would have said that he looked serene, but Brooke knew him well enough to see that he was upset.
"Hey," Brooke said, kneeling next to Peyton. "He doesn't look great."
"I know," she replied with a worried frown. "He said he was fine, but… What happened? Did he leave?"
"Er, yeah." Maybe now was not the time to tell everyone about Dan's boxing skills.
Deb, Karen and Keith sat next to Haley and as they did, Lucas saw them and waved at them. His parents waved back at him with smiling, unreadable faces─ Keith made sure to cover his bruise with his hand. From afar, he looked like he was simply resting his chin in his hand, in a nonchalant pose.
The bleachers were now crowded out and the game was about to begin. The referee stood at the center of the court, with each captain at his side, and talked to them. Nathan and his opponent nodded, the referee blew his whistle and threw the ball up in the air; Nathan's hand grazed it but failed to control it, and the game started.
During the first half, the Ravens struggled to keep the ball, constantly losing it or failing to score; Nathan didn't even score once. They were running after their opponents, trying to keep it together, and failing miserably.
Things started to change right at the beginning of the second half─ whatever Whitey had told his team, it seemed to work, because they all went on to play with a fighting spirit that they had been missing so far. The Ravens' crowd, which had been dejected so far, roared with each of their actions.
Right before the end of the third period, they managed to tie again. Whitey was speaking to them, showing them sketches on his board, his arms moving frenetically, pointing at one part of the court, then at another. The crowd was so excited on both sides, that they could barely hear the commentator, but it didn't prevent both cheerleading squads from egging them on.
Brooke had both her arms up and was waving her pompoms, when she felt something on her head. It was a light pressure, almost as if she was wearing a headband, except she wasn't. She shook her head, expecting something to fall from her head, but nothing happened.
And then the tingle started.
She froze, and immediately looked at the timer above the court. Thirty seconds left before the last period would start. She had to get away, now.
Luckily, everyone in her squad, including Peyton, was too busy cheering on and facing the crowd to even pay attention to what she was doing. She took a slow step back, then another ─the tingle was now spreading fast in her limbs─ and spun around, her eyes darting quickly, looking for a way out. She couldn't take one of the exits ─she winced when hearing the loud ringing─ but there was another door to her left. She dashed behind it, covering her ears to muffle the loud, unbearable buzzing, and landed in a hallway. If it was designed like Tree Hill's gym, then going in the room to her right would lead her to…
A changing room. Bingo, she thought with relief, feeling drowsy all of a sudden. She was about to lie down on a bench when her eyes closed and her body went limp, hitting the ground with a loud thud.
Her eyes snapped open; she was sitting in what felt like a comfortable chair, and her head was resting on a desk. She slowly sat up and closed her eyes for a second, blinded by the sudden daylight coming from a bay window on her left. Her hands gripped the desk as she looked around her. She was alone, in what looked like an office. There was a computer, a couple of binders, and a few pictures sitting on top of the desk she was sitting at. Behind it, at the other end of the room, was a lounge area, with a couch, a coffee table and two armchairs. Flowers and house plants were sitting in different spots. She patted her head and removed a headset from it, carefully placing it on the desk. She turned back and saw a huge cabinet covering the entire wall.
She spun around and took a closer look at the pictures on her ─it did feel like it was hers─ desk. There was a picture of Lucas and her, looking older: she could tell because Lucas had a stubble and she had lighter hair. He was holding her close and kissing her hair, while she was smiling straight to the camera; they were posing in front of a white monument that somehow rang a bell. She had seen enough pictures of Paris to know that it was where this had been taken.
The second picture showed her with Haley, sitting on a couch, and holding a toddler in her arms─ Jamie. They didn't look much older from now, which made sense: Jamie was tiny in this one.
The third picture intrigued her. It was one of Nathan, Peyton and her, but she had never seen it before. She couldn't even recall what it represented, which could only mean one thing. She took it in her hands, studying it from up close. The three of them were sitting on what looked like a patch of grass. Brooke was on the left and was holding a helmet in her hands; her hair was unkempt, and her cheeks were red as she was smiling. Nathan was on the right, with a helmet covering his hair; he wasn't smiling, he looked terrified and was pale as a sheet. Peyton, in the middle, was sitting crossed-legged, a helmet placed in front of her; her hair was tied up in two braids ─ when was the last time she had seen braids on Peyton? 4th grade? ─ and she was laughing her heart out. They were all wearing some kind of apparatus, something that looked like a harness.
This moment hadn't happened yet, and Peyton was well and alive on this picture. Brooke opened the frame and turned the picture around, but there was no date on it. She sighed and put it back on the desk.
She sat up abruptly: she had no time to waste. She was opening each drawer one by one, rummaging through it, and checking its content, searching for her phone or anything that could be related to Peyton, when someone knocked on the door and startled her.
She turned to her right and the door opened, revealing a young brown-haired woman. She looked no older than twenty-five, and was wearing an ivy-blue suit. Black-framed glasses had slipped on her nose, but she didn't pay attention to it as she walked into the office and dropped a stack of papers on the desk. She looked down at the tablet she was holding in her left hand. "You have several messages," she said in a monotonous voice. "Laura says thank you for the skirts, she says the protypes are superb, and yes she did use that word. Andy wants you to call him back, something about the next show being too close to fashion week. That journalist from Vanity called, asking if you have a free slot to meet her, again. Your father will be in town in two weeks and asks if you're free for lunch. Lucas says that he took out your journals from the attic, as requested, but he wants to know if you need a specific one or all of them. And Haley called asking if everything was fine." The woman put her glasses back in place and looked up at her. "Brooke? Is something wrong?"
She blinked, at a loss for words. "Not really, no. I didn't, er, write anything down but─"
"Why would you do that?" the woman said, tilting her head. She pointed at the computer. "It's all in there."
Brooke glanced at the black screen. "Oh, right. I forgot," she said with a nervous laugh.
The woman was puzzled for a moment but thankfully didn't dwell on it. "How was your meeting?"
"My meeting?"
The woman pointed once again at the computer. That was why she had been wearing a headset. "It went great."
"So what did Anita say? Is she in?"
"A─Anita?" she stuttered, her eyes darting to the black screen. "You know what, I'll tell you later."
"Are you feeling okay?" the woman asked with a worried frown. "You sound… different." When Brooke stayed silent, her lips stretched into a kind smile and she said, "Don't worry, Jamie was adorable. He didn't bother me at all."
"Jamie?" Brooke asked, bemused. "Where is he?"
"He's sitting on my desk right now." She walked back to the door, stuck her head through the frame and called his name. Five seconds later, Jamie was running head first into the office, and the woman told Brooke that she would leave them alone, closing the door as she left.
Brooke's mouth fell open. This Jamie was young… very young. His contagious smile was still the same though.
"How was your meeting?" he asked her with interest.
"Great," she answered mechanically. She wondered how old he was… Four? Maybe five? Would he be able to help her about Peyton? Wasn't that too much to ask from a kid?
"Can I climb on your desk?" he asked, his eyes glinting.
"Sure," she said, bending over to pick him up and heave him on the desk. "Jamie, I'm gonna need your help," she said, placing her hands on his knees. He gripped the edge of the desk, his legs dangling in the air. "I'm having another episode."
His legs slowed down until they stopped. He looked thoughtful and asked, "Another what?"
Maybe he hadn't heard her. "Another episode."
"I don't know what that means."
"What? You do, you're the one who said that─"
No, wait, maybe that hadn't happened to him yet. Maybe he hadn't been told about her so-called episodes. She sighed and shook her head: she didn't have time for this. She had to find out more about Peyton.
She turned to the computer and turned on the screen, hoping that she could find answers there. Anything and anyone could be found on the internet, right?
Her face fell: she had to enter a password to access her computer, and she didn't have it.
"No," she muttered, "no, no, no." She fumbled with the many papers spread out on the desk, looking for a clue, anything that looked like a password. She had to find it, otherwise…
"What are you looking for?" Jamie quipped.
"My password," she murmured, opening the drawers and emptying their contents on the floor. Come on, there had to be something─
"Why don't you ask Millie?"
She froze, then jumped on her feet and stared at Jamie. "Millie? Who's that?"
"You're being weird today," he said with a laugh. "Millicent," he said, pointing at the door with his thumb.
"Millicent?" she repeated in a low voice. Alright, she could try that. "Millicent!" she shouted as loud as she could.
The woman she had seen two minutes before rushed into her office, looking alerted. "Yes?" she asked with a worried frown. "What do you─" her voice trailed off when she saw the mess Brooke had made. Papers were spread out everywhere, on and around the desk. "Er, what do you need?"
Brooke sat back on the chair and tried to keep her cool. "My password. I forgot it, could you type it in?"
Millicent blinked at her in confusion, but got a grip on herself and swiftly walked around her chair, careful to avoid stepping on the papers laid on the floor. "Of course," she said, her fingers typing on the keyboard at an impressive speed. She pressed the Enter key, the computer chimed and finally got unlocked.
"Thank you!" Brooke told her with a grin. "You, er," she cleared her throat and tried to take a more serious, boss-like voice, "you can go now."
"Alright," Millicent said with a chuckle. Before she left, she turned one more time to Brooke and said, "You scared me for a second, you know. You only call me Millicent when I'm in trouble."
Brooke let out a nervous laugh and watched as the woman ─Millie, apparently─ was once again shutting the door close. She then turned back to the computer and first checked the date: February 17th, 2025.
She clicked on an icon that looked like a browser and found herself staring at an empty search bar. A small vertical bar was flickering at a regular pace, waiting for her to type something.
Her hands moved to the keyboard and typed: peyton sawyer.
There were many results, which gave her hope: maybe she would really find out everything she wanted to. She soon became disillusioned when she realized that all these articles or web pages were about someone else; a middle-aged man, working as an engineer in Dubai, and who happened to also be named Peyton Sawyer.
Damnit, how else was she supposed to─
She yelped, feeling a sharp pain on her head. Jamie flinched next to her and when she pressed a hand against the pain, he gently lifted it up and gave her a worried look. "What's wrong?"
"N─ Nothing," she stammered with a faint smile. Now was not the time to have a child worry about her. But where did that pain come from?
She knew what was happening when the tingle appeared in her fingers.
"No," she muttered, her voice filled with despair. Tears were building up in her eyes, and now she couldn't care less if Jamie was scared by her behavior; she could not go back now, not so soon, not before she had at least─
She shook her head and focused back on the computer. Come on, she had to find something, anything. Her fingers swiftly pressed on the keyboard, this time typing: peyton sawyer tree hill death. She was bound to find something with that, wasn't she?
She flinched and closed her eyes, the buzzing suddenly blasting her eardrums. She groaned, pressed her hands against her ears, and forced herself to open her eyes.
"Aunt Brooke?" Jamie called, his voice quavering.
She ignored him and squinted at the screen: there were several results there. She clicked on the first link and it led her to an article of the Tree Hill Post.
She was feeling sleepy now. She gripped her thighs, digging her nails into her skin, hoping that the pain would keep her awake.
There were two pictures of Peyton on top of the article. One where she was bending over a table, her face screwed up in concentration while she was drawing; it must have been taken at the Post during her working hours. And the other one showed her sitting on a couch, smiling at the camera. The title, written in bold, capital letters read: TRAGEDY STRIKES ─Brooke's eyes were threatening to close, she was about to pass out at any moment─ PROM NIGHT: TWO DEAD IN─
She opened her eyes and immediately groaned in pain; she was lying on her right side, on the ground, and after much struggle, managed to sit up, her back resting against the lockers. She could hear cheering and roaring from a distance. She touched the part of her head that was hurting, somewhere above her right ear, wincing in pain as she did so, then looked at her fingers and at the spot where her head had apparently hit the floor. They were covered in her blood. But that did not matter.
It did not matter, because finally, after days spent in anguish, she had found out something about Peyton's death.
She didn't know the how, but she knew the when: prom night. The timer in her head was on again, but it was now set on a different date: May 30th.
Tick. Tock.
Okay, so I know I said I wouldn't update before the end of the month, but due to unforeseen circumstances keeping me at home -nothing serious though- i've had plenty of time to write this week. And I'm stuck at home for at least another two weeks, so you can expect an update in a couple of weeks!
I know I'm repeating myself, but thank you again for your reviews! It's always such a pleasure to have feedback, otherwise I just don't know if what I wrote is okay or not. Your theories are always interesting to read, and I've added a few clues in this chapter so that should give you enough to think about until the next update !
I really hope you've enjoyed reading this one... The ending is near, but I still got a couple of chapters left up my sleeve. Thank you again for taking your time to read this.
