CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Until the end

For the first time in many years, Brooke couldn't tell what was going on in Nathan's head. She could usually read her childhood friend like an open book, yet in the past twenty-four hours, she had been unable to do so.

The night before, after she had told him everything about her travels ─ with a little help from Mouth and Haley ─ Nathan had not said a word. He had not moved either, and for what had seemed like forever, had kept staring into the ocean without uttering a single word. And then he had gotten on his feet, mumbled some indecipherable words, and dashed off. When the rest of their friends noticed his absence, Haley told them that he had gone home to lie down due to a headache, which probably wasn't too far from the truth. Later that night, she had texted Brooke to tell her that Nathan was asleep in their bed; and when Brooke had asked back whether they should worry about him, she had reminded her how he had reacted to the news of her pregnancy.

Haley was right: Nathan's coping mechanism usually involved silence and flight. But at the beach, he had looked as if he had reached a level of shock unknown to him before, which, considering what he had just learned, was to be expected. Brooke couldn't possibly be mad at him for reacting that way, but she also couldn't help thinking that now really wasn't a good time to have an unpredictable Nathan on her hands.

The next morning, when she had spotted him in homeroom, sitting on his own, Brooke had known right away that he hadn't slept a wink. That day, Nathan stayed quiet, only answering to his friends through mumbles and grunts. Peyton and Lucas asked her if she knew why he was being so silent, and Brooke, like Haley had before her, told them that she had no clue. She did feel relieved that they hadn't caught up on the fact that all day long, Nathan had been unable to meet Peyton's eyes, and Brooke knew why ─ he was probably afraid to cry if he did so.

When their last period ended, Brooke went straight to Mouth's attic. They waited together for a couple of minutes until Haley came in, with Nathan following close behind her and keeping his head down to avoid the wooden beams.

As Nathan started reading the board, his face gradually took a strange shade of grey. It probably was even more shocking to him to see, with his own eyes, everything that Brooke had written and how it all connected in time ─ well, not everything, since Mouth had suggested not to let him read about the travel from August 2028, when Brooke had talked to Future Nathan. While his present-self was busy studying the drawn timeline, the rest of them sat at the coffee table and at first, all they could do was to silently stare at each other, taking regular bites of the lemon pie Mrs. McFadden had baked for them. When Nathan mumbled something, their heads simultaneously looked up, and after a moment of confusion, they realized that he was only talking to himself. He did so several times, his back turned to them, and stood in front of the board for a long time ─ how long exactly, Brooke couldn't tell, but enough time had gone by for Haley to doze off.

Brooke tried to focus on her homework, but doing so proved to be impossible: her eyes kept shifting back to Nathan every time he made a random noise or comment. And there was a lot to comment about: on Lily, or his future team, or Jamie, his brother and, of course, Peyton.

Nathan had been pacing back and forth for five long minutes now, when his feet came to a halt and he suddenly sat with them, landing on the floor with a loud thud that woke up Haley. She blinked at him with sleepy eyes, and for a fleeting moment, Brooke noticed his lips twitching and his eyes gazing at her endearingly. It didn't last long though, for he immediately turned to Brooke with a grave look on his face and stared at her, his mouth turned into a frown.

His words ─ the first audible ones since he had left the beach ─ took her by surprise: "Have you seen a doctor?"

Brooke fought the urge to roll her eyes at him. "You still think I'm crazy?" She had thought that after the rundown she had given him at the beach, his suspicions of her suffering from a mental condition would be completely gone. "I'm not making this up, I swear."

"No," Nathan answered, furrowing his brow, "I get that…" His tone shifted to surprise when he added: "I really do. But…" His voice trailed off, and he briefly looked over his shoulder, back to the white board. Brooke shared a confused look with Haley and Mouth. "This can't be normal, right?" he asked, turning back to her.

"I did see a doctor," she reminded him with a sigh. "I told you yesterday, back in September, when this all started, I saw─"

"Yeah, right, your dad's old college friend," Nathan nodded. "Did you tell him about your travels?"

"Well… Not exactly. I mean, I told him about my fainting and how I had weird dreams, because back then that's what I thought was happening to me." Back then, Dr Merrick had told her that her weird, extremely realistic dreams about Lucas were probably a product of her brain's unconscious work. "I can't exactly go back to see him and tell him that I am in fact travelling in the future."

Nathan stayed silent, but his face was clearly telling her that he wasn't convinced. "She's right," Haley said, making him turn his head to her. "Either they believe her and they'll dissect her brain, or they don't and she gets admitted to a psych ward."

"Sounds terrific," Brooke said with a chuckle. When she saw that Nathan's frown was still not going away, she added: "Look, I went through many exams that day." His eyes shifted to her. "They said I was fine." Surely, if there was anything wrong with her, they would have found out about it that day.

"But…" Nathan crossed his arms against his chest. "Then why do you make it sound like it gets worse for you every time you travel?"

Why was he focusing on that detail, when he had just read about much more horrible news? Although, he was right, her travels had gradually gone from being very unsettling to almost painful. The last times it had happened, she had felt as if her head had been about to explode.

Mouth's voice startled them all ─ so far, he had silently listened to them. "We didn't really focus on that," he said with a guilt-ridden face that surprised Brooke. "I mean, we did at first, and then… I guess we just stopped thinking about it."

"Yeah, but only because we knew we didn't have to!" Brooke retorted. "Haley said it didn't matter how I could travel."

Nathan sent Haley a puzzled look. "You did?"

"Not me," she answered, shaking her head, "my future-self."

Nathan blinked in confusion, then seemed to understand what had happened. "Oh… I get it." He turned to Brooke, "It was when you met them, I mean their future…whatever, in that restaurant?" Brooke gave him a nod. "What did Ha─ What did she tell you exactly?"

Why was he was obsessing over that? Why did that matter so much to him when he had just found out about what could happen to Peyton? She was about to brush it off, but when she saw his frown still plastered on his face, she decided to give it a thought: what had she been told exactly?

"I, erm, I asked Future Haley and Future Mouth if we ever found out how I could travel, and Future Haley said that…" Brooke paused, trying to recall what her exact words had been. "She said, um…" ─she lifted her hands to make air quotes ─ "Yes, but what mattered more was."

"Was what?" Nathan asked when she fell silent.

Brooke shrugged. "She didn't say. Future Mouth didn't let her finish her sentence." She sent a brief look to Mouth, "So we figured out that what she meant was that what mattered more was why, and not how." Clearly, with everything they had come to know since then, they had been right.

To their surprise, Nathan's frown deepened even more, as if this piece of information made it all the more confusing to him. "So," he said, his voice slowing down as he was taking in what Brooke had just said, "she never said that it didn't matter."

Brooke was about to answer, but she stayed silent when she realized that he was right. "Maybe," she admitted, trying not to sound too annoyed, "but who cares about that? Peyton could die, so shouldn't you focus on how we can save her, instead of how I can go into the future?"

Nathan's face suddenly darkened. "I am focused on that," he snapped at her. Brooke felt a pang of remorse when she realized what her words could imply, and immediately sent him an apologetic look. Thankfully, he seemed to know that she hadn't meant to say that he wasn't worrying enough on Peyton's fate: all trace of anger faded from his voice when he spoke again. "It's just that… I just found out that one of my best friends could die very soon, so I really don't want to lose the other one too," he murmured, his eyes shifting to the table.

How could she be so blind? He wasn't confused at all, he was anguished. "Nate…" she croaked, unable to find the words to reassure him.

"Maybe we should have focused on that," Haley said in a soft voice, making them all look at her, "but we do know that Brooke is fine in the future, so in the meantime, nothing bad can happen to her." Nathan's shoulders relaxed at her words. "Whatever's making her travel is not hurting her."

He nodded thoughtfully then turned to Brooke, "Alright," he said with a sigh, "so you'll be fine." His relief was short-lived, and when his eyes darkened, Brooke knew what he was thinking about. "But Peyton… I just, I can't believe she could die in a week," he murmured, his voice shaking on the last words. "I mean…" He clenched his fists and stared down at them. "She's always been with us." He was about to add something, but the words didn't seem to come out of him, or of either of them; his silence and despair engulfed them all. Brooke shared a look with Mouth, sitting across from her, and knew right away that they were thinking the same: nothing they could say could make him feel any better. Eventually, Nathan cleared his throat, "And, um, there's someone else too, right?"

Haley blanched. "Yeah, but we don't know who it is."

"It has to be someone Peyton will run into at Prom," Mouth added with a frown.

Brooke held back a sigh. There were a hundred different people who could fit that description.

"What about Keith?" Nathan asked with a puzzled look. "How is he connected to all this?"

"We don't know," Mouth answered when the girls stayed silent. "But we think we should keep him away from Peyton during Prom."

Nathan nodded, and to their surprise, gave them a faint smile. "That's gonna be easy." When they all sent him quizzical looks, he explained: "Keith will be on call that night, so he won't be anywhere near school." Finally, Brooke thought with relief, some good news… Or, to the least, something they wouldn't have to worry about. "What about Peyton? What's the plan?"

Brooke's eyes scanned her childhood friend's face; it looked like his initial shock was finally starting to fade away.

"I'm taking her to Prom," Mouth told him, "so we can keep an eye on her at all times."

"But we still need to find a way to shut it down," Haley said with a sigh. When she saw that Brooke was about to say something, she quickly added: "Without burning down the gym."

"How about flooding it then?" Brooke retorted, making the boys chuckle.

Haley opened her mouth, but then stayed silent for a moment, as if she was actually considering that option. And why wouldn't she? After all, it wouldn't put anyone else in danger… but they could still end up in a court and somehow, Brooke knew that no judge in their sane mind would take 'we wanted to change the future and save our friend's life' as an acceptable excuse. But what other choice did they have, now that they only had nine days left until Prom? Clearly, the answer was not about to magically appear in front of─

"Can't we just turn off the power?" Nathan's words took them all by surprise. "I mean, um… If there's a power cut, then there's no light."

"And no music," Haley mused, her eyes growing wide and darting between Brooke and Mouth. Her lips stretched into a smile ─ the first genuine one of that evening. "He's right!" she cried. "No one will stay if we do that."

It did sound like a safe and effective plan. "So how exactly do we do that?" Mouth asked, scratching his chin. "Is there an electric panel somewhere? There has to be, right?"

They all turned to Nathan, who knew the gym like the back of his hand, and struggled to hide their disappointment when all he did was shrug. But then he frowned, and added in a slow, thoughtful voice: "Wait, I think I know where it could be… It's gotta be in that room, the one facing the equipment room. It's the only one I've never been into."

Brooke knew what he was talking about, she could even picture that door in her head, but… "Isn't that room locked?"

He sighed. " Yeah… Whitey has a key, but I don't know how we could get it from him without raising suspicion."

Brooke, on the other hand, didn't see why that was a problem. "Can't we just sneak into his office? And then─"

"No," he cut her off. "It's always on him."

Now that he was mentioning it, Brooke realized that she had never seen the coach without his bunch of keys hanging from his belt. But surely, there had to be a way to get it from him… During the next minutes, Brooke was so busy discussing with the boys about a plan to distract Whitey and snatch his keys, that she didn't notice that Haley was staying eerily quiet, until her friend cleared her throat and got their attention.

"Actually," Haley said hesitantly, her eyes looking down at her lap, "there's another way." She glanced up at them with a resolute look on her face. "There's a locker at school where they keep a spare key for every room, including the gym. Sometimes I have to use a different room for my tutoring," she explained when Brooke raised an eyebrow at her, "so Turner gave me access to them."

"But isn't there like a hundred of different keys there?" Mouth asked her.

"They're all labeled. I can take it tomorrow night, no one will notice it's gone during the weekend… Then we can make a spare key, and I'll put it back in place Monday morning, before school starts."

If someone had told Brooke a few months before that Haley, their year's valedictorian and most honorable student, would ever suggest stealing from their school, she definitely would have laughed it off. But then again, she also probably wouldn't have believed it if she had been told that Haley would become such a close, trustworthy friend. She reached for Haley's hand, the one that had been absent-mindedly rubbing her belly for a while, and squeezed it. Haley turned to her and gave her a faint smile.

While her friends were busy detailing how exactly they were going to proceed ─ until what time Haley should stay at school the next day, where to go to make a duplicate, when they should scout around for the electric panel ─ Brooke leaned back against a cushion and watched their faces: they all looked, and sounded, much more enthusiast than they had an hour before. She understood why, since they had been stuck in a dead-end for weeks, and now they finally had a plan that could work. She too wanted to be hopeful, but she couldn't help thinking that they were missing out on something, though she couldn't tell what exactly… It was a gut feeling, something she couldn't explain. Maybe it was just the pressure of having to save her best friend's life that made it impossible for her to relax even for a little bit. Brooke tried to muffle that feeling ─ after all, they had no other choice but to succeed.

Mouth's voice interrupted her thoughts. He was talking to Nathan, who was eating the last slice of pie. "You do understand that once we save her, everything in the future can change, and probably will, right?"

Nathan swallowed a mouthful and raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the future Brooke's been seeing happens after Peyton dies. If─" ─Mouth shook his head and corrected himself─ "When we save her, that future won't exist anymore. So, everything she's seen, her life, our lives, they'll all be different."

Nathan stayed silent for a second, probably taking in what that could mean. "Sure, whatever," he said with a shrug, "I'm in."

When she went home that day, Brooke believed that Nathan was going to act differently now that everything was down on the table, but she couldn't have been more wrong. For a reason she couldn't grasp, on the next morning, he looked even more sullen and again, barely said a word. While their homeroom teacher was speaking, she texted Haley, asking her what was up with her boyfriend, and quickly got a reply: No idea. He's been like that since breakfast.

And then, not even a minute later: He was fine last night.

What did that mean? What had happened between the time he had gone to bed, and the time he had woken up, for him to be gloomy once again? Obviously, she hadn't expected him to be in a merry mood, but she had thought that after everything they had talked about, he would do his best to conceal his worries from their friends.

"Seriously," Lucas whispered next to her, "what the hell is wrong with him?"

Brooke gazed up from her salad and followed his eyes. He was staring at his brother, who was sitting at the other end of the table, next to Haley, and frowning at his own plate.

"I asked him this morning, but he basically ignored me," Peyton, who was sitting across from Brooke, chimed in. "Did he say anything to you?"

Brooke tried her best not to look at either of them in the eye. "N─ No, not really," she stammered.

"You think it's about Dan?" Lucas wondered aloud, his voice filled with concern. "Is he still bothering him?"

"Maybe we need to do something about it," Peyton mused.

"Wh─ No, it's not Dan!" Brooke blurted. Now was not the time to have her best friend associated with Dan. What was it again that Keith had said about him… Right, that he had always had 'outbursts'.

Lucas tilted his head and sent her a puzzled look. "How do you know that?"

"Well, um…" she mumbled, nervously glancing down at her plate. "Just a hunch."

Peyton raised an eyebrow. "A hunch?" she repeated with a snort.

"Yeah," Brooke answered with a shrug. "It's not about Dan."

"Fine, then what?" she asked back. Anxiety started to spread on her face as she asked: "You think it's Haley? Or the baby?"

Although Brooke wasn't looking directly at him, she could feel Lucas tensing up next to her. "No, no, Haley's fine," she quickly replied, "I know that for sure."

"So… You know for sure that it's not Haley, and it's not Dan, but he didn't tell you what's wrong with him?" Peyton asked skeptically.

Brooke didn't like lying to them, or in this case, hiding things from them, but she had no other choice for now. She couldn't possibly tell Peyton what was wrong with Nathan, and as for Lucas… Well, telling him about Nathan's behavior meant telling him about everything else, and she still wasn't ready to do that. Not yet. "No, he didn't."

Her best friend squinted at her, "I call bullshit."

Brooke sighed and gazed back at her. "I'm not lying. He didn't tell me what's wrong with him." Which really was the truth. When Peyton snorted, she added, "Look, whatever it is that's bothering him, he doesn't want to talk about it, so drop it, alright?"

For a moment there, Peyton looked like she was about to listen to her, but instead shook her head and replied: "No way."

"Why?" Brooke cried, rolling her eyes. Even Peyton, as hard-headed as she was, knew when to leave people alone when they weren't in the mood to talk. "You know he'll come to us on his own, when he's ready, that's how he works. It might take weeks, but he always comes around."

"But I─" Peyton stumbled over her words, then paused, furrowed her brow, and threw a sidelong glance to the other end of the table. "I just want to make sure that he's fine."

Brooke leaned over the table to take a better look at Nathan, who hadn't moved an inch since he had sat down at their table. She still couldn't read his face, but she could tell from Peyton's that she wasn't about to let go. Brooke held back a sigh, pecked Lucas' cheek and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Peyton asked her, startled.

"I'm gonna have a little chat with our friend."

She walked around the table and quickly reached Nathan's side. Haley looked up at her and sent her a quizzical look, but instead of answering her, Brooke caught Nathan's arm, startling him.

"We need to talk," she told him, pulling on his arm. He didn't budge though; instead, he blinked at her confusedly. "Now," she added in a firm tone.

This time, when she yanked on his arm, the rest of his body followed. When they were away from their friends' table, Nathan grumbled something to her. She turned her head to him, wondering what he had said, and he repeated his words, this time more intelligibly: "You can let go of my arm now."

Her fingers immediately released their grip. "Sorry."

Nathan's eyes were locked on a spot above her left shoulder; she could understand why he was acting that way around Peyton, but why was he avoiding eye contact with her too? "What do you want to talk about?" he asked, his voice tense.

Brooke scanned their surroundings: there were still a few students seated at the picnic tables, too many ears that could spy on them. "Not here," she whispered. "Let's go somewhere else."

They walked around the school grounds, Nathan's feet dragging behind her, and stopped in front of the gym doors; at this hour of the day, no one was there. Brooke sat on the low wall surrounding the gym and for a moment, silently watched her friend pace back and forth in front of her, his hands hidden in his pockets, his head hanging low.

"Nathan." He froze and finally looked at her; Brooke was confused to see an angry expression on his face. "Wh─ What's going on? You were okay last night after we left the attic, so why─"

"I can't believe you didn't tell me," Nathan told her with an accusing stare. "You knew I was gonna be a father and you didn't tell me?!"

Oh, that. With everything that had happened since then, finding out about Nathan's paternity had become a detail in Brooke's story, but from his point of view, it most certainly wasn't. "Nate, I─"

"Honestly, it didn't hit me at first. I mean after the beach, all I could think about was Peyton, and your travels… But now that we have a plan for her," ─he shrugged─ "I don't know, I guess my brain was available to think about all the other stuff you told me about."

"Let me guess," she said dryly, "you didn't sleep much last night?"

"No," he answered with a hint of a smile, "and now I know why you and Haley haven't been sleeping for a while." His lips quickly turned back to a thin line, and his forehead creased. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She sighed and gave him an apologetic face. "I couldn't."

"Come on, you know you can tell me anything─"

"No, you don't understand," she said, shaking her head, "I really couldn't. We talked about it with Mouth, and trust me, we really were conflicted about this, but… We decided not to influence your decision. I mean, now that you know everything, do you regret it?"

He looked surprised by her question. "No," he answered in a heartbeat. "Absolutely not," he added, his voice and traits softening. His shoulders relaxed and he slouched down next to her. "But I mean, come on, a little heads up would have been nice."

"Yeah," she admitted, "but it also could have changed everything."

"Okay, then how about when you found out about Peyton? You spent weeks being stressed out and I asked you what was up─"

"No, you didn't," she said, recalling his words. "You said you were here if I needed you."

"Then why didn't you tell me? You didn't think that I had the right to know about her? She's my friend too!"

"Nate, it wasn't against you," she pleaded, grasping his shoulder. "It's not that we didn't want to tell you specifically, it's that we didn't want to tell anyone! We figured that the more people know about this, the bigger the risk that someone spills the beans." Nathan shot her a skeptical look. "Come on, I had to tackle you to make sure you wouldn't go straight to Peyton."

"But─ Yeah, fine, so I didn't react well," he admitted, rolling his eyes, "but… I just don't get it. This thing has been going on for months, and I don't just mean the Peyton stuff, but you didn't tell any of us."

By us, Brooke knew who he meant. "Honestly?" she said tentatively. "I… It was all very confusing at first. And then we figured out, with Mouth, that telling anyone could change the whole future, and back then we didn't want it to change. I mean…" She sighed and turned to him. "At first, I was just trying to figure out my relationship with Luke, and that was when I thought he was into Peyton, so I couldn't tell her. And I couldn't tell you either since, you know─"

"We're brothers." Brooke nodded and was relieved to see that he didn't look angry anymore. "So… How did that work exactly?" he asked after a moment of hesitation.

She tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, you found out about your future with Luke before you got together, right?" She nodded. "So, did you fall for him in the future, or…"

"I, um, I don't know," she answered with a shrug. "I think I fell for both of them at the same time." Nathan's complete and utter confusion made her chuckle. "I know it's weird, but since they're the same person, I don't think it matters that much… I know Future Lucas doesn't mind."

"And you haven't told him yet?" Nathan asked. "You think he won't believe you?"

"He will."

He raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that for─ Oh, right, the future… So, we know he'll believe you, and we also know he won't react like I did, because he's, er─"

"Less hot-headed?" she suggested with a crooked grin.

Nathan chuckled. "Yeah, let's put it that way. So how come he still doesn't know?"

Brooke instinctively moved back. "I…" Her eyes shifted to her hands, avoiding Nathan's inquisitive stare. "I just don't want to tell him yet."

"Why not? He could help us, and we have to try everything we c─"

"You think I don't know that?" she retorted, startling him with her sharp tone. "But what would it change to tell him? There's already the four of us, Mouth is escorting her, we know how to shut down Prom, so what's Lucas gonna do in all this?"

"Er, I don't know," he replied tentatively, "but maybe─"

"You can't tell him, alright?" She sighed and sent Nathan a pleading look. "I really need him not to know for now."

Nathan was about to reply, but instead stayed silent and gave her a nod. He clearly didn't understand her reaction, but he was still respecting it, and for that, Brooke couldn't have thanked him enough.

When they realized that it was time to go to their respective classrooms, Nathan jumped on his feet, his face not looking as upset as it had earlier ─ but not entirely back to his usual laidback expression either ─ and he walked a few steps before turning around and noticing that Brooke hadn't moved from her spot.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

She slowly got up and walked to up to him. "Do you, um…" She paused, hesitating. "Do you think we should tell her?"

Nathan knew instantly who she was talking about. "Sawyer?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Actually, I thought about that too, last night."

Part of her didn't want to hear his opinion, terrified that he wouldn't agree with her. "And?" she asked nonetheless.

"And, it's Sawyer. The minute we tell her, she'll say something like it's her fate and we shouldn't go against it, right?"

Since he was repeating, almost word for word, what she had told Mouth and Haley weeks before, Brooke felt like she should have been relieved, but somehow, she was not ─ or, at least, not entirely.

The first part of their plan to ruin Prom, which was also the simplest one, went off without a hitch; that evening, Haley texted her about successfully stealing the key. And again, this still didn't allow her to relax, not even a little; maybe it had to do with the fact that this was the last weekend before Prom.

Brooke was ambivalent about how to spend it; part of her wanted to spend all her time with Peyton… but another part was painfully aware of the gloomy thoughts and feelings that always threatened to overwhelm her whenever she was around her best friend. She had managed to keep them down so far, but she wasn't sure she could hold on much longer ─ well, she had to, at least for the next seven days. The only silver lining she could make out of all this was that her nightmares had finally stopped, but only because she was barely sleeping anymore: most of her recent nights had been spent staring at her ceiling and working on Haley's Prom dress.

In the end, she did spend a lot of time with Peyton; they all went to Tric on Saturday evening, then spent the next day at the beach. Brooke did her best to act normal, and it seemed like it worked, at least on Peyton, who was thankfully too busy improving her surfing skills to pay attention to her weird mood. Brooke did notice that Lucas kept watching her from the corner of his eye, but he was kind enough not to comment neither on her odd behavior, nor on her dark rings.

"Brooke, are you listening?"

Brooke's head shot up and turned to her father; earlier, she had carefully placed her phone on the coffee table, so that she could talk to him and keep her hands free. "Sure."

"Aren't you done already?" Ted asked her.

She glanced down at the white dress lying on her knees. "Almost, yeah. I'm just removing a few sequins because Haley won't─ Whatever," she summed up when she saw that her father wasn't interested in the details, "I'm almost done." Brooke shifted on her knees and leaned back on the couch. "So, what were you saying?" she asked, her eyes focusing on the dress.

With a brief look at her phone, she saw that her father's tanned face lit up. "That I'm glad I'll you soon."

"Oh, okay," she answered absent-mindedly, wondering if she would completely ruin the dress if she took out another─ Brooke startled when her mother, sitting on the other end of the couch and out of Ted's field of vision, cleared her throat. She threw a quick, puzzled look at Victoria, and gazed back at her father. "I mean, yeah," she added with more spirit, "I can't wait too."

Brooke didn't mean to be so cold toward her father, but she simply couldn't project herself into anything past Prom for now. "And of course, you can both stay here," Ted said enthusiastically.

"Both?" she repeated, cocking her head to the side.

"Isn't Peyton coming over in the summer?" Brooke felt a sudden pang, one that blocked the words in her throat. "Brooke?" her father called, his face approaching the screen. He was squinting, trying to see her more clearly. "Honey are you okay? You look pale and─"

"Y─ Yeah," she stuttered, clearing her throat nervously, "it's just my camera." She grabbed her phone and forced a smile. "I have to go now, or I'll never finish this dress. Talk to you later?"

Once she ended their videocall, Brooke went back to her work, but quickly stopped when she felt her mother staring at her. "He's right," Victoria told her with a frown, "you do look pale." She closed the book she had been reading and turned to face her daughter. "Even through a camera he can tell you're exhausted."

"I'm not─ It's nothing, Mom, I'm okay," Brooke mumbled, her eyes shifting to the dress. "It's just, um, Prom, and school… All of it."

Brooke didn't look up from the dress, but she could tell from her mother's silence that she wasn't believing her. "Well, we're not the only ones worried about you." What did that mean? Could it be that Lucas had told her that─ "Peyton is worried too."

Brooke blinked at her mother. Had she heard that right? "What?" she asked, dumbstruck.

"Yes, well…" Victoria seemed to ponder on whether to keep talking. "She asked me not to tell you, but she's been asking some things about you."

"W─ What things?"

"She asked if you were tired lately…" Her mother paused, trying to recall what Peyton had told her. "She thinks you've lost some weight, which is definitely true," Victoria noted, her eyes travelling from Brooke's feet to her head.

"But why didn't you─ When was that?" Brooke asked in disbelief.

"Around two weeks ago, I think." That didn't make any sense… In the past two weeks, Peyton hadn't mentioned her weight or her tired looks, not once. "But then last week, when she came by for dinner, um, when was it again? Tuesday, I think. Anyway," Victoria said, shaking her head, "she asked more specific questions."

"What kind of questions?"

"If you complained about anything, like headache, or nausea… It was like she had a list of symptoms she wanted to check out."

Brooke spent the entire night trying to figure out where these questions had come from, and why Peyton hadn't asked them directly to her. Why would she go to her mother? Sure, they knew each other really well, and she trusted Victoria like a parent… But still, something was off.

It was Mouth who, on the next evening, while they were waiting in the tutoring center, came up with the beginning of an answer.

"Wasn't she like that too, right before she found out about Ellie's cancer?" Brooke and Haley both looked up from their homework. "I mean, I wasn't that close to her back then… But I remember you saying that she kept saying stuff like Ellie was too pale, and thinner than usual."

"You're right," Brooke murmured thoughtfully. "She was obsessing over her health, and then Ellie told her that she really was sick."

"She probably has a déjà-vu with your weight loss," Haley mused.

Brooke raised an eyebrow. "She thinks I have cancer?"

"That, or any sickness," Mouth said with a shrug.

Brooke sighed, slowly shaking her head in dismay: now was not the time to have Peyton worry about her. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed that there wasn't any light coming from the doorframe. "Do you think the coast is clear?"

Haley checked her wristwatch. "It's almost seven now… I don't think there's anyone left here."

They shared a knowing look and quickly put their books away. Brooke took out the flashlight she had slipped in her bag that morning and, with a swift nod, signaled her friends to follow her.

The corridors were eerily quiet; Brooke led the way, her eyes gradually getting used to the darkness, until they reached the double doors leading directly to the gym. They were open, allowing them to walk into the empty court.

"This is so weird," Haley whispered behind her. "I feel like a delinquent."

"I told you Brooke was bad influence," Mouth said, making them chuckle.

Brooke snickered at that. "Nate's much worse than me." Which reminded her that she had to text him once their mission was done, as he had asked her earlier, right before he had left for his shift at Keith's shop.

After they crossed the court, they turned right and walked to the end of the corridor, passing by Whitey's office, and stopped in front of the door that they had been looking for. "That's it, right?" Brooke asked, turning to her partners in crime and grasping the handle.

"Has to be," Haley whispered with a shrug. She took out the key from her pocket and inserted it.

The handle gave a soft click, and after a moment of fleeting hesitation, they rushed inside. Mouth closed the door behind them and turned on the light.

"Don't!" Haley hissed, jumping on the switch. The room was plunged back into darkness. Mouth sent Haley a puzzled look. "What if someone comes in and sees the light?"

"Who's gonna be here at this hour?" Brooke asked back.

"I don't know, but I'd rather not take the risk," Haley retorted.

"Fine, fine," she murmured, moving the flashlight around them. They were surrounded by panels and machines that Brooke couldn't identify.

"This," Mouth said, pointing at a grey-colored panel on the left wall. "This is it, right?"

They walked closer to it, and when she noticed the numerous electrocution hazard signs plastered around it, Brooke figured that he was right. "Doesn't look like the one I have at home."

"This one has so many switches," Haley said anxiously. "How do we know which one to use?"

They jumped up when they heard a loud clatter coming from the corridor. "Shit," Brooke whispered. "Was that─" She was interrupted by a different sound, one that she could clearly identify: the clink of keys meeting a lock. Her heart stopped for a moment, and started beating again when she realized that someone was indeed opening a door, but not the one leading to them.

Mouth seemed to relax too, but Haley's panic, on the other hand, reached a new level. "What should we do?" she asked in a high-pitched voice.

"We didn't come here for nothing," Brooke stated, taking out her phone. "Haley, can you─" she stopped, noticing her friend's trembling hands. She turned to Mouth and hold out the flashlight, "Take that, point it to the panel so I can take pictures."

She did as quickly as she could, trying her best not to end up with blurry pictures. When she was sure that they had enough, she motioned to the door and slightly opened it. She peeked into the dark corridor and saw a stream of light coming from a glazed door, several feet from them.

Brooke closed the door and turned to her friends. "I think it's Whitey."

"What?" Haley asked, her eyes growing wide with fear. "Are you sure?"

"I didn't see him, but there's someone in his office. Don't worry, he won't know we're here."

"How? We have to walk by his office to get out of here!"

"Maybe we can just spend the night here?" Mouth suggested. Haley's anxiety was clearly starting to rub off on him.

"No, we're leaving," Brooke replied firmly. "His door is closed, alright? And the blind is down. So we're gonna quietly leave this room, lock the door, walk down that corridor and right before we reach his office, we'll just crouch and crawl out of here, right under his nose!"

And that was almost exactly what they did: less than a minute later, Brooke was leading the way, down on her knees, when she suddenly froze, startling her friends who were behind her.

Whitey's door wasn't closed; it was slightly ajar, and she could hear the coach's voice coming out of it: "Weird? What do you mean, weird?"

Just when she was wondering who Whitey could be talking to, another familiar voice replied: "Just… Weird."

"What are you waiting for?" Haley whispered behind her. "Go!"

But instead of doing that, Brooke sat down. She tried not to laugh at Haley's baffled face and whispered back: "It's Keith."

Haley's mouth fell open, and soon enough, the three of them were sitting on the floor, trying to get their ears as close to the door as possible.

"This morning, she barely said a word," Keith went on. "And we were supposed to have lunch together, but she canceled at the last minute."

"What did you do to make your wife mad at you?" Whitey asked in a mocking tone.

"But that's the thing, we didn't get into a fight, and…" Keith paused, then added: "She doesn't look angry, it's more like she's worried. Worried and confused."

"Confused about what?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Keith grumbled. Brooke heard the familiar sound of a beer can being opened. "I don't think it's about Luke, otherwise she would have talked to me already."

"Maybe she's having second thoughts about your wedding," Whitey suggested playfully.

Keith chuckled at that. "Yeah, and maybe she regrets not staying with Dan─"

There was a moment of silence, and then Whitey said, his tone suddenly more serious: "You think it's Dan?"

"I… I don't know," Keith murmured pensively. "Could be, but I don't see why she wouldn't talk to me about it. You know he called her a gold-digger?"

Brooke turned to her friends, who were as astounded as she was. "A what?" Whitey asked, dumbfounded. "Wh─ How could she─ I mean that would make her the worst gold-digger in the world!"

Keith laughed. "I know, right? He said she was after the Scott family's inheritance, that she tried getting it through him first and when she failed, went after me."

Was that when Dan had been lurking by the Café, and Karen had─ "What did she say to that?"

"She slapped him and told him to get a life."

Whitey roared with laughter. "Nice one." He cleared his throat, and added in a sterner voice: "So do you think that's what's bothering her?"

Keith gave it a thought. "No, if it was about Dan, she'd tell me right away… It has to be something else."

"Hey, about Dan, um… Has he been coming over to your shop lately?"

Keith sighed. "Susan has seen his car a couple of times, but that's it."

"Maybe you should do something about him."

"Like what?" Keith asked with a chuckle. "Ask our parents to ground him?"

"No, I mean something like a restraining order."

Keith had a coughing fit, as if his beer had gown down the wrong way. "Against my brother?" he asked in a strangled voice.

"Why not? He's acting more and more unhinged, and─"

"Come on, we both know Dan, he's all talk. He'll calm down eventually, and when he does, I'll go talk to him."

Whitey sighed. "Fine, your call," he grumbled, clearly unpleased by Keith's answer. "Still doesn't tell us what's wrong with Karen─"

Brooke startled when Haley whispered in her ear: "Brooke, we have to go." She turned to her friend, and noticed that somehow, she looked even more anguished than before. She hesitated for a second, a part of her wanting to hear the rest of this conversation, but instead gave a quick nod and got back on her knees.

When they left the building, they hurried to Brooke's car and swiftly climbed inside.

"So, I guess Karen's pregnant," Mouth said after they had left the school's parking lot.

Brooke sent him a brief look through the rearview mirror. "She has to be, right? Lily's only a few months younger than Jamie, so─ Hales?" she asked, gazing at her friend. Haley was sitting on her right, with both hands clutching her belly and her eyes closed in a pained expression. "Hey, are you okay?"

Haley opened her eyes and turned to her with a faint smile. "Yeah, I'm good. Just a little tired."

Since when had she looked so pale? "You should have gone home," Brooke murmured with a frown. "We could have done this wi─"

Haley grasped her hand that was holding the driving stick. "I'm fine, Brooke, I swear. Can I see the pictures?"

"Er, sure," she replied, nodding to her bag resting at Haley's feet.

While Haley was looking at the pictures, Brooke tried to study her face; she didn't look like she was in pain anymore… Had it just been her imagination? She glanced at Mouth, and from his expression, she could tell that he had seen it too. "They're a little dark," Haley murmured, staring at Brooke's phone. "I can barely read what's written there."

"What?" Brooke asked, panic rising in her voice. "Even with the flashlight, and─ Shit, if we can't see what's on there, we're screwed!"

Mouth leaned forward, his arm resting on Haley's headrest. "Let me see that," he said, taking the phone in his hands. He squinted at it for a second then said, "I can work on that."

Both girls turned to him with hopeful eyes. "Really?" Haley asked him.

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle. "It's gonna take time some time, though…"

"How long?" Brooke asked, glancing back at the road.

"Er, well, I have to ask a friend for the software, then learn how to use it and get everything printed… Should be done by tomorrow night." He then made a face and added: "Sorry, I can't get it faster but─"

"No, it'll be fine," Brooke reassured him with a smile. "It still leaves us a couple of days before Prom."

As per his calculations, Mouth worked on the photos for the entire afternoon, and texted them right before midnight to tell them that they were now clear and printed. They all decided to meet on Wednesday morning, before school would start, in one of Haley's tutoring rooms. Brooke arrived last; her mother had badgered her, more than usual, to finish her breakfast. Brooke had initially told her that she would do that on her way to school, but after seeing her mother's stern look, she had reluctantly eaten her pancakes.

Nathan, Haley and Mouth were all standing over a round table, staring at the pictures that they had put together so that it seemed like they were looking at a real-size replica of the panel.

"That's a lot of switches," Nathan murmured, his arms crossed against his chest.

Haley turned to him. "Do you know how to shut this down?"

He shook his head. "No, I've never had to deal with this at home. Dan would usually call an electrician whenever we had a problem. But there's several red switches here," he said, pointing at the bottom left picture, "and the rest of them are green, so it has to be one of those, right?"

"I tried googling it," Mouth said with a sigh, "but it's all technical gibberish."

"You know who's really good with this kind of stuff?" Nathan asked.

Three pairs of eyes landed on Brooke, who took a step back and frowned at them. "I don't know who you're talking about."

"He's right," Haley chimed in, "if we could tell Lu─"

"No, we're not telling him," she said sharply. "I'm sure we can find another way─"

"How?" Nathan retorted, rolling his eyes. "You think you can turn into an electrical expert in less than forty-eight hours?"

Brooke was about to retort something, but stayed silent, annoyed by the fact that he was right. "I can't," she admitted, avoiding their puzzled looks. "Not now."

"But he─" Nathan stopped talking when Haley nudged his side. He gazed down at her, and when she shook her head at him, looked back at Brooke and sighed. "Fine, we'll find another way."

Mouth cleared his throat, his eyes still glued to the pictures. "Maybe we can tell him without giving him any detail?"

"What do you mean?" Haley asked him, her head tilted.

"Well, just show him the pictures and ask how to turn off the power."

Haley gave him a dubious look. "But he'll definitely ask questions, especially if we all come at him with─ Oh," she murmured, her face lighting up. She shared a knowing look with Mouth, then turned to Brooke. "That could actually work."

"How?" Brooke asked, raising her eyebrows. "If we show him this, then he'll─"

Haley shook her head and interrupted her: "Not we."

"Just you," Mouth explained when Brooke didn't get where they were going with this. "He knows something's up, right? But so far, he hasn't asked any questions, because you asked him not to, right?"

"Er, right," Brooke admitted with a nod.

"He won't ask anything if it comes from you," Haley assured her.

"Are you sure about that?" Lucas had been extremely indulgent so far, but this might take his patience to its limits.

"Certain."

As much as she wanted to believe her ─ or rather, them, since apparently her three friends all agreed on this ─ Brooke couldn't help but think that this wasn't going to work. But there were only a few days left before Prom, and not a lot of people she could ask help from. Her plan B would have been Keith, and she was pretty sure that if she had asked him to, he wouldn't have said a word to neither Karen nor Lucas, but she couldn't take the risk to have him associated to Prom, not even from afar.

Worst case scenario, Lucas got fed up with her unwillingness to tell him the whole story, and she would then end up revealing everything; but she would rather do that when she felt ready.

The day seemed to stretch on forever, until school finally ended, and she went to the Café with Peyton. After a little more than an hour, her friend left, stating that she had to call her father ─ the thought that Peyton had been doing that a lot lately crossed Brooke's mind, but she quickly put it aside.

Lucas came to sit with her shortly after that, since there were only a few clients left, and took out the book he had been reading this week. He was about halfway through it, and didn't look like he was about to put it down, so maybe she should not─

"Brooke, is there something you wanna ask me?"

She startled, wondering how he could know that without looking up from his book. "Er, actually, yeah."

He smiled and gazed up at her. "I could tell."

"How, um, how's your reading going?" Brooke struggled not to slap the back of her own head.

Lucas cocked his head to the side, watching her with a puzzled expression. "It's going great."

"Good," she mumbled, looking down at her hands─ her suddenly very sweaty hands. What if he did want more details, and she still couldn't give them to him? How would he take it then? Would he feel betrayed? Would he stop trusting her? "Actually, that's not what I wanted to ask."

Lucas chuckled, his eyes smiling at her. "What's up with you? Nathan's kind of back to normal, and now you're starting to─"

"I need your help with something," she blurted, meeting his gaze. "But, um, I can't go into detail."

"I see," he said, his lips twitching. He closed his book and leaned closer to her. "What kind of help?"

Brooke's nervousness suddenly vanished, and she felt like an idiot for being worried in the first place, when she knew that he would do anything to help her, just like she would too for him. "So, um, there's this electrical panel in ─ somewhere, doesn't matter where, and I need to know how it works."

"Okay," he said slowly, furrowing his brow. "Can you take me there?"

"Oh, no need to," she said with a grin, before ducking below the table to lift her backpack. She quickly glanced around them, making sure that no one was watching them, and took out the pictures, spreading them on the table before them. The ten pieces of paper now looked exactly like their gym's electrical panel.

"This is… big," Lucas said, his eyebrows raised. "This isn't in a house, it's in a building, right?"

"I, um, can't answer that," she replied sheepishly. "Do you have to know where it is to know how it works?"

He gave it a thought, then answered: "No. What's wrong with it, is it not working?"

"No, no, it's working just fine. Actually, I want it not to work."

Lucas blinked twice, then slowly looked up from the pictures. "You want what?"

"I want it not to─"

"Yeah, okay, I thought I didn't hear you right, but I did," he said with a chuckle. "Why do you want to turn off─" He paused, probably noticing her guilty face. "I see, no questions allowed, huh?" She nodded. "Okay, so…" he murmured, turning back to the pictures. His fingers grazed the paper, until it landed on what looked like a huge block on the top of the panel. "This is the main switch. See how it looks like a triple switch? If you turn this off, you'll turn off all the power to, um, wherever this is."

Brooke leaned forward, squinting at the part he was pointing to. "What about these red ones then?" she asked, motioning to the ones Nathan had referred to.

"No, that will only turn off the power in some parts of the building you're talking about. If you want a complete blackout," he said, his finger tapping on the triple-sized switch, "you need to go for this one."

Brooke's gaze shifted to his face. "That's it? I just turn this one off?"

"Yeah," he answered with a shrug. "But, um, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.

"Well," he said, lowering his voice, "if you want a short, reparable blackout, then that's the way to go. But if you do just that, then anyone can come right after you've turned it off and just switch it back on."

"What?" she cried, startling him. "No, that's not what I want!"

"Yeah, I figured," he chuckled. "How long do you need this, um, accident to last?"

"Several hours."

Lucas raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I see," he murmured, gazing back at the panel. "Then this won't do. You need to cut off the wires." He pointed to the four corners of the panel, "See there, you have several screws. Once you take them off, you can remove the whole cover plate, and you'll get access to all the wires. Let's see, um…" He took out his phone, quickly typed something and then showed it to her. It was a random picture of what the panel should look like without its cover. "That's when you turn off the main switch," he said, pointing to it. "And you have to do that before cutting any wire," he added, his tone suddenly very serious.

"Let me guess, otherwise I could turn into fried chicken?"

"That's one way to put it," he said with a chuckle. "So, you switch this off, and then you start cutting all these small wires. But you absolutely can't touch the big black ones" ─ he pointed to his phone─ "linked to the main switch, alright? All the other wires, you can cut safely, but not these, you can't touch them, ever."

"Why not?"

"Because even when the power if out, there's still electricity going through those." When she remained silent, he added: "You'd turn into fried chicken."

"Oh," she murmured, watching the picture on his phone. "Alright, so, take out the cover plate, turn off the main switch, then cut every wire except for the big black ones. Did I get it right?"

"You're a fast learner," he replied with a crooked grin.

"But how do I know what kind of screwdriver and scissors I need to─" She turned to Lucas, who was now laughing loudly. "What?" she asked, nudging him.

"Not scissors, Brooke," he said, shaking his head, "they're called pliers." He smiled at her then took a closer look at the pictures. "I think I've got what you need."

She gasped. "Really?"

"How soon do you need them?"

"Very soon," she murmured sheepishly.

Her reaction seemed to amuse him. "Alright, I'll get them for tomorrow then."

She smiled at him, slid her hands around his face and gave him a soft kiss. "Thanks Luke… I mean it."

"Anytime, Pretty girl," he whispered, kissing her hair. She felt a heat quickly spread on her cheeks, making him grin, and gazed down at her lap. "So, um… Have you been planning a bank robbery this whole time? Cause, you know I'd follow you anywhere, so if you're about to become a runaway, I'd rather know it now so I can pack my things." She laughed, slowly shaking her head. His arm went around her waist and brought her closer to him. "Hey," he said in a more solemn voice, putting a finger under her chin to make her look up at him, "you know I'm here if─"

"I know," she said with a faint smile. She kissed him again and said, "I really do, but I'm okay for now. And if you ever need someone to help you bury a dead body, you can come to me anytime."

He laughed. "Noted."

Brooke cocked her head to the side, looking over his shoulder, through the bay window; it was dark outside, but wasn't that ─ "Hey, is that ─" She froze, realizing that it wasn't too late to shut up.

"Mmh?" he asked absent-mindedly, his fingers playing with her hair.

"N─ Never mind," she stammered nervously, grabbing the photos and putting them away in her bag. "So, um, how's your writing going? You haven't told me when I'll be able to read your next chapter."

His face suddenly fell, and he gave her a weak shrug. "Yeah, I don't know, I haven't really felt like writing lately."

She cupped his cheek, brushing it with her thumb. "Why not?" She glanced over his shoulder, wondering if she was having a hallucination or not. She could swear that it really looked like ─

"I think it's that stuff with Dan, you know, everything that I wrote in the last one?" She nodded and squeezed his hand. "I'm gonna tell my parents. I mean, maybe not tonight," he added with a frown, "but soon. What do you think?"

She watched his conflicted expression, wishing that she could make it go away. "I think it's a good idea. You can practice with me if you want, I'm sure I can make a great Keith impression."

Lucas laughed at that. "Sounds like a good plan," he said, kissing the tip of her nose. He looked away from her an instant, noticing a couple standing at the counter, and told her that he would be right back. While he was busy talking to his clients, Brooke quietly got up from her table and, pretending to stretch her legs, walked over to the bay window and squinted at it. She sighed in relief when she saw that there was no blue Chevrolet parked outside; apparently, her imagination really had fooled her.

Time really was a peculiar thing; at night, when Brooke could do nothing but torture herself over the events to come, it seemed to crawl endlessly, but during the day, when she could spend it with Peyton, it was slipping through her fingers. And soon enough, Friday night, the last one before Prom, was there.

Lucas had asked her if she wanted to have dinner with his parents, but she had politely declined, explaining that she had already planned to have a girls' night with Peyton. There was nothing special about this night: they had dinner with Victoria ─during which Brooke didn't say much, she let Peyton do all the talking─ then watched a movie that was completely forgettable, and eventually went to bed after speaking for hours about every topic they could think of: Peyton's work, her drawings, her father, Nathan and Haley's future life, Brooke's relationship with Lucas, their finals coming up, and of course, Prom.

When she woke up, Brooke immediately rolled in her bed to pat an empty spot next to her. She slowly sat up and noticed a handwritten note from Peyton, waiting on her nightstand, informing her that she had gone to the Post this morning and that she would see her at lunch. Still in a daze from the few hours of sleep she had managed to cherry-pick at the end of the night ─ maybe sleeping next to Peyton had helped ─ Brooke got on her feet and clenched her fist, crumpling the piece of paper, before throwing it in her wastebasket. And then she opened her eyes wide, now fully awake, and rushed to the basket, kneeling next to it, and getting the paper back from its bottom. She put it on her knee and smoothed it out, before contemplating what she was doing, and once again threw it away. She didn't need to keep it as a memento, because she wouldn't need any memento at all.

After a quick shower, Brooke took Haley's dress and carefully climbed down the stairs. Victoria's head poked through the kitchen doorframe and when she saw her daughter struggling with the dress, hurried to her side to take it from her hands.

"Do you know when Peyton left?" Brooke asked, sitting on the lowest step to put her sandals on.

"About half an hour ago," Victoria's eyes were locked on the dress she was holding. "What happens if it doesn't fit?"

Brooke scoffed. "It will." Her mother sent her a knowing look. "And if it doesn't, I'll still have several hours to work on it." She paused with hesitation. "Did Peyton mention something about me?"

Her mother shook her head. "Not this time, no."

After they had both carefully laid down the dress in her car's backseat, Brooke left for Nathan's house. She knew she wouldn't run into him that morning, since Lucas had texted her earlier to tell her that he was going to the River Court with his brother and their friends ─ maybe she would stop by on her way to Peyton's house ─ but she had expected to see Deb. Haley told her that Deb was working the whole day at the Café, so it was just the two of them this morning, which was good news, since it meant that they were free to speak about anything.

"Did you get any sleep?" Brooke asked her as she was following Haley in the stairs.

"No. Not one bit," she replied with a sigh, reaching the second floor. "Nathan couldn't either, we kept waking each other up." Haley paused, then turned around to face Brooke, who had just reached the last step. "This is gonna work, right?" she asked, her voice quavering.

Brooke felt a sudden pang of anguish, and despite the tears pricking her eyes, she managed to answer: "Of course." Haley's arms wrapped around her, pulling her in a tight grip that surprised her. "Hey," Brooke whispered, "come on, we can do this. Just one day left."

"I honestly don't know how you're holding on."

Brooke pulled back from their hug. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Prom is still a few hours away and I'm already panicking, and I haven't even known Peyton for that long, compared to you… I mean, if this was happening to Lucas, I don't think I would be able to─"

"You would, trust me," Brooke cut her off with a faint smile. She grabbed Haley's shoulders and gently pushed her toward the bathroom. "Now go and try your dress."

While Haley was changing her clothes, Brooke sat down in the corridor, her back resting against the wall. For what seemed like the millionth time since Wednesday, she went over their plan for tonight: Mouth would escort Peyton to Prom and stay with her, then Haley would distract the teachers with a fake labor alert, and while Nathan was standing guard, Brooke would rush to sabotage the electrical panel. Then they would all safely go to Nathan's house to spend a memorable night together, one that would end with no death whatsoever. And for the millionth time, an uneasy feeling crept into her, as if she was missing a piece of the puzzle, one that was right below her nose.

If only she could have had read the rest of that article. She closed her eyes, trying to picture it in her mind ─ wasn't that what Dr Merrick had told her months ago, that her brain could unconsciously pick up details around her that she didn't think she was paying attention to? Unfortunately, she couldn't remember anything past the title; that, she could see flashing before her eyes, with bold black letters: TRAGEDY STRIKES PROM NIGHT: TWO DEAD IN─ and that was it. She had nothing else. She sighed, knocking her head against the wall, and opened her eyes: the bathroom door was still closed.

"Haley?" she called, wondering why her friend was taking so long. Had she really gotten her measurements wrong? "Is everything okay?"

The doorknob clicked and Haley appeared, still wearing her regular clothes and holding the dress in her hands. Brooke jumped on her feet and hurried to her side. "What's wrong, did I─" She froze, finally noticing the look of sheer terror on her friend's face. "Haley?"

"I, um… I can't try this on," Haley murmured, her eyes welling up.

Brooke put a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed it. "What's wrong?"

"It's white," she answered, staring at the dress. Brooke raised an eyebrow, wondering what that could mean. She hadn't been bothered by the color when they had bought it, so why was it now becoming an issue? "And I'm bleeding."

"What?" Brooke asked, her eyes shifting to Haley's arms. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"No," Haley said, her voice breaking. She finally looked up and met Brooke's eyes. "I'm bleeding," she repeated, tears rolling down her cheeks.

For a moment, both girls were unable to speak or move, until Brooke got a hold of herself: she threw the dress on the floor and told Haley that she was taking her to the hospital. Haley didn't make a sound, but she tightly grabbed Brooke's hand, only letting go for a short moment when Brooke was driving.

They waited almost an hour in the ER; by then, Brooke's hand had become completely numb, but she didn't point it out to Haley. When a doctor was finally available, he took Haley to an empty box and asked Brooke to wait outside; she would be allowed to come in only when he was done examining Haley.

And that was when it hit her that she still hadn't called Nathan. She immediately took her phone, but he didn't pick up. Brooke left him a message, urging him to call her right back. She then remembered that he wasn't alone at the Court and called Lucas, who thankfully picked up.

Nathan arrived fifteen minutes later; he came running into the ER, wearing sportswear, his t-shirt drenched in sweat. Brooke got up just as he rushed to her side; his face was ashen and his eyes were darting from one end of the room to the other, as if he was searching for something ─ or rather, someone.

"Where is she? Is she okay?" he asked, out-of-breath.

Broke motioned to the door she had been facing. "Right here. I wasn't allowed to stay with her, the doctor's still with her, but you can probably go in." When he didn't move and instead kept staring at the door with a frightened look, Brooke put a hand on his shoulder and gently shook it. "She needs you."

Nathan turned to her and after a sharp nod, knocked on the door and went in. Brooke sat back on her seat, a lump appearing in her throat. Haley hadn't said much in the past hour, only that she was feeling a light pain and that she had stopped bleeding on their way to the hospital… Could this be considered good news?

While Brooke was waiting, Mouth's words kept ringing in her ears: what if what was happening to Haley right now ─ and by extension, to Jamie ─ was what he had been warning them about? That while they were trying to save Peyton, they could change their entire lives? So far, Brooke had thought that this referred to where they would be living in the future, or how their careers would turn out… She had never thought that Jamie's existence could be at stake; or maybe it wasn't, maybe this had also happened to the Haley she had talked to in the future, but how could she know that for sure when she couldn't travel on demand?

"Brooke!"

She looked up and when she saw Lucas running to her side, something inside of her seemed to snap: the tears she had been fighting back suddenly became overwhelming. Lucas sat next to her while mentioning something about parking the car and Nathan not waiting for him, and fell silent when she buried her head in his neck. His arms circled her and neither of them moved for a moment; Brooke tried to focus on the way he was cradling her hair, and the soothing words he was whispering to her. When she pulled back, his hands immediately cupped her face, his thumbs wiping her cheeks.

"How is she?" Lucas murmured.

She sighed and glanced at the closed door. "I don't know, but Nathan hasn't come out yet so─"

The door flung open right on cue, revealing the young doctor who had been examining Haley. "You can come in now," he told them, gesturing to the room behind him.

Haley was sitting on the bed, cross-legged, her back resting against two fluffy pillows. Nathan was standing on her left, an arm wrapped around her shoulders, and gave them a faint smile that immediately reassured Brooke; just by reading his face, she could tell that both Haley and Jamie were fine. Lucas was about to walk over to Haley, but stayed put when the doctor spoke to them.

"So, as I was saying, your ultrasound is perfectly normal, and the baby's doing just fine."

Nathan's eyes shifted from Haley to the doctor. "Why was she bleeding then?"

"Well, Haley's been experiencing contractions for a little more than a week now. This probably led to a very minor placental detachment, and when that happens, there's always some bleeding."

"But she'll be fine, right?" Nathan asked, his grip tightening around Haley. "Ja─ The baby's gonna be fine too?"

"After some rest, yes," he answered with a reassuring smile. "You need to stay on bedrest for the next three days," the doctor added to Haley in a stern voice. "You can get up to go to the bathroom, but that's it, no more than thirty minutes a day. I'll see you on Tuesday for a check-up and if your ultrasound is still okay, then you'll go back to your normal life, though I'd advise you to avoid any stressful situation." He sent a wary look to both Lucas and Brooke. "That also means that for the next three days, it would be better for you not to get too many visitors."

Stressful situation, huh? Brooke turned to Haley, who kept stubbornly staring at her lap, and remembered the look on her friend's face when they had sneaked out of school on Monday night; why hadn't she said something back then?

After the doctor left, Lucas sat on the side of the bed and let out a relieved sigh. "Jesus, Hales, you scared the crap out of me." Haley glanced up at him with teary eyes. "Hey, come on, cheer up," he said, grasping her hands, "you're both gonna be fine!"

"Yeah, but─" Haley paused then gave him a faint smile. "You're right. Could you, um, get me some food? I'm starving."

"Sure," he said, jumping to his feet.

The minute Lucas left, Haley's smile vanished; she was about so say something, but Brooke beat her to it. "Contractions?" she asked, her voice shaking with a mix of fear and anger. She clenched her fists and walked up to her friend. "For more than a week?"

"I didn't know those were contractions, I swear," Haley answered sheepishly. "I was just feeling this weird, um… it wasn't even a pain, it was more like a tightening."

"Haley…" Brooke said with a sigh, shaking her head at her. "I told you to tell me when things would get too hard for you."

Haley glanced at Nathan, probably in an attempt to get some support from him, but when she saw his frown, she turned back to Brooke. "I know, but… I don't know, I just didn't want to burden you. I mean, we have to save Peyton no matter what and─"

"No," Brooke murmured, startling them both. "That only applies to me. I have to do that, but you" ─her eyes darted between Haley and Nathan─ "you both have someone else to protect… no matter what."

Haley looked down at her belly. "I honestly thought we'd be fine," she admitted with a sigh.

Brooke sat on the bed, next to Haley's feet. "And you will be," she said firmly. "You'll just have to sit this one out."

"Brooke," Nathan said with a conflicted face, "I called my mom, but with Karen chaperoning, she can't get off work tonight, so I'll have to ─"

"Stay with Haley, I know," Brooke cut him off. "It's okay," she added when she saw her friends' anguish, "Mouth will stay with Peyton, and I can handle the power cut. We can do this."

When Brooke left for Peyton's house, she was still worried about Jamie, but she also knew that Nathan was going to look after Haley; she had to put Haley and Jamie aside for now, and focus solely on Peyton.

Her best friend had been talking over the phone to her father when she reached her house; she opened her door and motioned to the kitchen. Brooke followed her to see that the table had already been set, and that the food was ready to be served.

"Yeah, Dad, don't worry I will," Peyton said, sitting at the table. "Soon, alright? Brooke just got here, so ─ Sure. Alright, bye Dad, love you." She hung up the phone and looked up at Brooke. "How's Haley?" she asked worriedly.

"Fine," Brooke replied as she sat across from her, "but she needs a lot of rest."

"I wanted to go check on her this afternoon, but Nate said something about restricted visitors?"

"Yeah," she answered with a sigh, "doctor's orders."

"But the baby's fine, right?" Brooke nodded. "Good," Peyton said with relief. "It's too bad they'll be missing Prom though… Well, we can't go see her, but we can still call her, right?"

She half-listened as Peyton was telling her about the news she had gotten from their Prom committee, and about the music she had personally selected for the night. Brooke tried to hide the fact that she wasn't sharing her friend's excitement about the night to come ─ which was still surprising to her, she had never expected Peyton to be so thrilled about Prom ─ but she could feel her anxiety rise at a frighteningly quick pace. There were only five hours left before Prom, and although Brooke had tried to stay positive back at the hospital, she couldn't help but think that their four-man team shrinking down at the last minute couldn't be a good omen.

"So, um," Brooke said, clearing her throat, "do you want to go together? I mean, tonight, since Mouth doesn't have a car─"

"No, we'll be fine, I'm picking him up." Peyton paused then snickered, "And I'm sure Lucas would rather have you all to himself."

Although her tone was light-hearted, Brooke could tell that there was no changing her mind on this. She tried changing the subject, but Peyton kept constantly going back to Prom, so much so that Brooke felt relieved to go back to her house.

She went straight to her bedroom and called Mouth, and after giving him an update on Haley, went over the plan with him. They now needed to find another distraction, something that would keep their teachers busy and give Brooke enough time to switch off the power. They didn't come up with a specific plan, but they knew that they could count on their friends even without telling them why they needed their help.

Nathan texted her several times, telling her that Haley was sleeping, and asking her to keep him posted during the evening; Brooke promised him that she would.

For years, Brooke had been looking forward to going to her Prom; she had dreamed countless times of the dress she would be wearing, the shoes she would be dancing with, the hairdo she would pick. And now that it was finally here, she only wanted one thing, and that was for this ordeal to be over already. Since she couldn't exactly go to her own Prom wearing a worn-out pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and although her heart wasn't in it, she prepared herself as any other high school girl would.

She gazed at her reflection, her eyes travelling from her feet to her face; her dress fit her perfectly, and she had just finished pulling up her hair in a loose bun when she heard the doorbell. A minute later, her mother's voice called her from downstairs. She grabbed her purse and opened it to check its content one last time: her phone, her lipstick, a small screwdriver, and a pair of pliers.

Lucas was wearing a classic black tuxedo with a matching bow tie and a white shirt. He was talking with Victoria, giving her news about Haley, when Brooke walked down the stairs; his mouth fell open as he stared at her, and for a while all he could do was blink at her, as if he had been rendered speechless. In any other situation, Brooke would have been flattered by his reaction, if not thrilled, but tonight she had no time to spare. She rushed down the stairs, pecked his cheek and told her mother ─ who looked unusually emotional ─ that they were off.

"Wait," Victoria said, grabbing her daughter's arm, "what about the pictures?"

"Pictures?" Brooke repeated, trying her best not to roll her eyes. "We don't have time for that, we're gonna be late."

"Er, no we're not," Lucas said as he checked his phone. "We still have─" His voice trailed off when he saw the way Brooke glared at him, and sent her a puzzled look. "Brooke, we still have a good ten minutes before we have to leave."

"Your father will be very disappointed if we don't take one," Victoria chimed in.

"Fine," Brooke grumbled, "let's do one quickly."

As soon as the picture had been snapped, she pecked her mother's cheek, grabbed Lucas' arm, and hurried to his car; Lucas followed her, staring at her bemusedly, and just as they were climbing into the car, mused: "I feel like I'm missing something."

"Huh?" she asked absent-mindedly, taking out her phone.

"I don't know, you're… What are you doing?"

"Texting Mouth," she murmured, her eyes glued to her phone. She wanted to know if Peyton had reached his house yet, and when they would be leaving. She briefly looked up and saw that they hadn't moved from her driveway. "Why aren't you driving?" she asked, glancing back at her screen.

"Well," he sighed, and had she been paying attention to him, she would have noticed the shift in his voice, "first I wanted to tell you that─ Brooke?"

She was about to send her text when she felt a hand graze her chin, then grasp it to turn her head to the left; Lucas' lips crashed onto hers, startling her with a passionate kiss. For a fleeting moment, she was unable to move, but soon her instincts kicked in and she kissed him back, her hands sliding on his neck.

Lucas pulled back and smiled when she groaned in disappointment. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and kissed her again, this time more softly.

"You look amazing, Brooke," he murmured, his hands grasping her waist. His lips stretched into a boyish grin when he saw her cheeks burn up. "Now we can go."

She turned to him and watched as he turned on the engine. "You're not so bad yourself, you know."

He chuckled and, after pecking her lips, released the handbrake. Although Brooke was dying to urge him to drive faster, she held her tongue ─ she knew he had already picked up on her odd behavior. Again, under any other circumstances, Brooke would have really enjoyed this ride: the weather was warm, and the sun was setting down, coloring the sky with a beautiful mix of pink and orange, with a few drops of grey. Lucas rolled down the front windows, letting in a cool breeze, and was humming light-heartedly; Brooke kept staring at her phone, waiting for Mouth's reply, until it finally arrived, two minutes later. Peyton had reached his house and was having tea with his mother, so it would take them a bit longer to get to Prom.

Relieved that Peyton was in good hands, Brooke looked up from her phone and finally noticed the tune Lucas had been humming. "I know that song," she said with a fond smile.

He paused, then sent her an amused look. "Really?"

"Yeah, it's from a singer called Norah Jones. You should really check out her other songs."

They both chuckled, and for a moment, Brooke managed to forget about her torment; it didn't last long though, not with the rabbit foot dangling from the rearview mirror and reminding her of her travels and everything that came with them.

Even with her current mindset, Brooke couldn't help but be in awe of the way their gym had been transformed. The walls and ceilings were draped in midnight-blue sheets, filled in with hundreds of stars; there was a white cloudy smoke on the floor, covering the entire gym, along with white and blue balloons; all in all, the committee had done a great job: they really were spending a night under the stars.

"It's really weird," Lucas murmured next to her.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Weird? I'd say beautiful."

He chuckled, "No I wasn't talking about that." His face fell a little. "It's weird that Haley and Nathan aren't here."

"I know," she answered with a sigh. "Did you talk to Haley again?"

"Yeah, right before I came to your house. She's really frustrated that she can't come." He looked around them and motioned to an empty table on their right. "I'll go get us some drinks, I'll be right back," he said before kissing her temple.

Brooke watched as he disappeared into the crowd, then walked to the table. From this spot, she had a clear view on the main entrance, where couples kept pouring into the gym; she squinted, trying to spot Peyton or Mouth anywhere among those people, but failed to do so.

Her phone buzzed on the table; she gazed down at it, a little absent-mindedly, and paid closer attention when she saw that Mouth had just texted her. His words made her blood freeze; after a second of sheer panic, she brought her phone to her ear, praying that he would answer.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," she muttered, her hands shaking. "Mouth?!" she cried when he did take her call, "What do you mean her car broke down?"

"I don't know what happened," Mouth answered in a whisper. Brooke frowned and plugged her other ear, trying to muffle the background noise. "I mean, her car was going just fine, and then it suddenly stopped. She's been trying to start it again, but it's not moving."

Did it really have to happen tonight, of all nights? "Where are you?"

"On the Molina bridge. I looked at the engine, but I can't─"

"Mouth?" Brooke called nervously when he fell silent. Why wasn't he saying anything? "What's going on?"

"I don't know, she's… She's calling someone," he whispered in a confused voice. "I'll keep you posted."

"No, wai─"

Too late, he had already hung up. She tried calling him again, but this time he didn't pick up. What was she supposed to do now? Although, wouldn't it solve all their problems if Peyton couldn't get to the gym at all? Maybe she would go back to her house or go straight to a garage; after all, her car was almost as precious to her as─

"Oh, Brooke, you look lovely!"

She turned to her right and saw Karen gazing down at her. "Thanks," she answered with a strained smile, her eyes constantly darting to her phone. "Have you seen Lucas? He was supposed to get us some drinks but─"

"He was talking to Skills," Karen answered with a smile. "I have to find Whitey, he's supposed to give me instructions, but I'll see you in a bit?"

Brooke nodded. "Sure." She watched as Karen made her way through the crowd, and tried once again to call Mouth. Still no answer.

Feeling lost and anxious, she texted Nathan to give him an update and ask him about what she should do. She was still waiting for his reply when Lucas came back. "There you go," he said as he sat down next to her and put two drinks on their table. "They didn't have─ What's wrong?" he asked, his tone suddenly serious.

"Nothing," she answered, avoiding his scrutinizing eyes.

"You look─" He paused when her phone buzzed. Brooke took it in her hands and read the text Mouth had just sent her.

She called Keith.

Keith. Prom. Peyton.

For the second time in a few minutes, her blood froze. She blinked at her phone, reading the text over and over again, hoping that after a while, she would stop seeing those words. She had to be hallucinating.

It couldn't be. No way, it couldn't be.

"I have to go," she muttered, clenching her phone.

Lucas tilted his head and leaned forward, bringing his face closer to hers. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I have to go," she repeated, her voice shaking. "I need your keys."

Lucas blinked at her. "My keys?" he repeated, confused. "My car keys?"

"Yes, I need to use your car, now!" she cried, startling him.

"Brooke, what's─"

Before Lucas could react, she yanked on his jacket and swiftly reached for its inner pocket. Her fingers immediately found the keys and snatched them. Not even a second later, she was striding out of the gym, shoving and shoving until she could find her way through the crowd; she could hear Lucas yell her name behind her, but she didn't look back at him, not for a second ─ time was running out, and she couldn't waste it in explanations.

Unfortunately, Lucas wasn't aware of that, and kept running after her, until he managed to grab her arm; she had just reached the entrance of the parking lot, and had still a few feet to go to get to his car.

"Brooke, what's going on?" he asked in an alarmed voice. She jerked her arm free and turned on her heels. She was short of breath and was now struggling to see correctly through her watery eyes, but none of that mattered. "Brooke, wait!" She could hear his rushed footsteps right next to her, but she couldn't stop, not when Peyton was stuck on a bridge, waiting for Keith to come, on the night where she could─ "Brooke, I said─" He grabbed her arm again, this time more tightly, forcing her to stay put, and saw that she was crying. "Brooke," he said, his voice softening, "where are you going?" She curled her fingers around the keys and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand; Lucas gently held her hand, his thumb grazing her skin in circles. "Talk to me, Brooke."

"Peyton's car broke down," she croaked.

"What? Where?"

"Molina bridge. Keith is on his way, but, um… They need someone to get here."

"Alright," Lucas said with a frown, "but why is that making you so upset?"

"I'm not upset!" she retorted, once again yanking her arm away. She turned around and started marching off; only when she stopped by Lucas' car, did she realize that her left hand was now empty. She almost snapped her neck and when she looked up, Lucas was once again right by her side, his hands hidden in his pockets. "Luke, please, I need your car."

"I'll drive," he stated firmly.

Her heart stopped. "Wh─ What? No, no way, you can stay here!"

His voice and gaze hardened: "No. You're obviously upset about something, and the last time I saw you driving off in this state at night, you─"

"I'm fine!" she yelled, startling him. "I─" She fell silent, realizing that she probably sounded hysterical. She looked down for a second, closed her eyes and clenched her fists, trying to get back some composure. "You can't come," she said in a much calmer voice.

"Why not?"

"Because…" She looked up at him, and saw that he wasn't just worried about her─ he looked terrified. And that was exactly why she couldn't let him come with her. She simply couldn't take that risk, not with him. "You just can't," she answered matter-of-factly. "Please, Luke, just let me go."

To her despair, he still didn't look inclined to do that. "You said that when you stop being okay, you'll tell me what's going on." She opened her mouth, ready to answer, but realized that he was right, she really had told him that. "And you don't look okay to me right now."

"I─ I can't," she stuttered. How much time had gone by since Peyton had called Keith? How long would it take for him to reach the bridge? Even if Brooke drove as fast as she could, she would probably get there after him, and then what would happen? "Not now," she added, "I'm sorry, I really am, but not now. I promise I'll tell you everything when I'm back. All of it," she said when he looked dubious. "But right now, I need to get on that bridge, and I need you to stay here."

For a moment that seemed endless ─ but only lasted a few seconds ─ Lucas didn't move an inch, until he sighed and finally took his hand out of his pocket and held out his keys.

Brooke took them and gave Lucas a soft kiss. "Thank you," she murmured before dashing off.

She couldn't lose another second; she slammed on the gas pedal and drove away from the parking lot. When she noticed that the third traffic light that she drove by was green, she started feeling hopeful; maybe fate was on her side this time. But then her eyes fell on the rabbit foot, and she drove even faster. Nathan tried calling her, but she didn't pick up, and made a mental note to call him back as soon as she could.

It took her eleven minutes to get to the bridge, and if Brooke hadn't lived her whole life in Tree Hill, she wouldn't have known she had reached her destination: there were no lights on that bridge, and no sign either. After a last left turn, Brooke drove down the straight road leading to the bridge, and saw from afar that there was indeed a car parked down on the other side of the road. She slowed down, turned off the engine, and looked to her left. Peyton and Mouth were both standing on the opposite side of the road, leaning against Peyton's car.

"Brooke?" Peyton called, her eyebrows raised. "What are you doing here?"

Brooke crossed the road and looked around them. The sky was now clouded; she could barely distinguish anything past a few feet, and everything farther than the other end of the bridge was pitch black. Her eyes lingered on the wooden railings and then on the river below them; at night, and without the moonlight, the water looked bottomless. "I, um, I'm picking you up. Let's go," she said, her gaze shifting to Peyton.

"What?" Peyton asked in confusion. "How do you know we need a drive?"

"I told her what happened," Mouth said with a shrug. "And since Keith isn't here yet, we might as well go with her."

"But he'll be here in a moment," Peyton retorted. She opened her purse and took out her phone. "Actually, he should already be here," she murmured with a frown.

"Well, now that I am, why don't we just go, huh?" Brooke asked.

Peyton's eyes travelled from Mouth to Brooke. "No," she answered firmly. "I'm not leaving before Keith gets here."

Brooke held back a groan. "What? Why?"

Peyton raised her eyebrows, as if the answer to that was obvious. She pointed to her car and said: "What if someone steals it?"

"Who cares, it's just a car!" Brooke cried, her patience running short. "Can we go, please?"

"It's my car," Peyton retorted, her arms crossed against her chest.

Brooke shared a brief look with Mouth then turned to Peyton. "Fine," she groaned, "we're waiting for Keith." She pointed at the clouds. "Can we at least get in Luke's car? It looks like it's gonna rain."

Peyton shot her a dubious look, but after a quick glance at the sky, had no choice but to admit that Brooke was right. They crossed the road and climbed in Lucas' car, Peyton taking the passenger seat.

Not even a minute had passed when it did start to rain. Brooke sent a knowing look to Peyton, who rolled her eyes at her, and put the keys in. She didn't get to turn them: Peyton's hand appeared in a flash and snatched the keys away.

"Hey!" Brooke cried, turning to her best friend.

"We're not leaving my car alone."

"I wasn't going to drive away!" she retorted, rolling her eyes. "I was just gonna turn on the lights," she explained, squinting at the windshield, and trying to see through the rain, "I can't see anything."

Peyton eyed her warily. "Yeah, right," she said, keeping the keys with her. Her face softened and she smiled at her. "You look great, by the way."

"Thanks," Brooke answered with a sigh. "So do you." She looked over her shoulder and sent Mouth a wink. "Both of you." She turned to Peyton, who was staring at the rabbit foot. "So what's up with your car? Didn't your dad tell you to get it checked out?"

"Yeah, but I didn't do it," she answered with a shrug. When Brooke and Mouth sent her puzzled looks, she explained: "Last time I got it checked up, they told me that it wouldn't last very long."

"Gee, I wonder why they said that," Brooke deadpanned, glaring at the damn car.

"And I wonder what Keith's doing," Peyton retorted. "Maybe I should call him again," she said, taking out her phone.

Before she could dial his number, they all saw a stream of light coming in their direction.

"That's gotta be him," Brooke said, holding out the palm of her hand to get back the keys.

Peyton glanced at her hand then turned to the road and squinted at it; the lights seemed to be moving slowly, but that probably had to do with the heavy rain hitting the road. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Brooke snapped, her annoyance seeping through her voice, "so can we please go now?!"

Peyton didn't hand her the keys; instead, she kept twirling them around her finger and raised an eyebrow at her. "Why do you want to leave so badly?"

"Why? Because it's Prom, that's why!" Brooke cried, furrowing her brow.

Mouth leaned forward, his head sticking out from the backseats. "I think there's another car there," he mused, his eyes scanning the road in front of them.

With a brief glance, Brooke saw that there was only one pair of lights, and was about to tell him that, when Peyton spoke: "We've already waited this long, we might as well wait another five minutes."

"Just gimme those keys, P."

Peyton snickered. "You forgot the magic word."

"Hey," Mouth said, placing a hand on Brooke's shoulder, "isn't that another car?"

Both girls turned to the windshield once again; Brooke squinted and at first, couldn't see a thing… until she did start to distinguish something next to Keith's truck, some kind of shadow. There really was another car there, and it seemed to be driving fast, because suddenly Keith's lights were moving much faster in their direction.

"Are you sure it's a car? Why would they be driving with their lights out?" Peyton asked.

Brooke turned to her. "Gimme the keys," she repeated in a firm voice.

Peyton blinked at her. "I don't get it, why do you sound so ─" She fell silent, and after a quick glance at Mouth, frowned and spoke again: "Is it to─"

It all happened very fast. A loud, deafening noise made them jump up in fright: they all turned to see Keith's car getting rammed into its left side by what was now undeniably another car. Keith hit the brakes just in time, making them jump up for a second time ─ and this time, Peyton even dropped what she had been holding ─ and, holding their breath, they watched as his car slalomed for a few feet and stopped right on the edge of the road, before the bridge's entrance. And then they realized that the second car, the one that was driving completely blindly, was still going fast… in their direction.

"Shit," Peyton muttered, ducking under the glove compartment.

"Peyton, keys, now!" Brooke cried, her eyes darting between the car that was dangerously approaching them and her friend who was trying to find what she had just dropped.

"I can't see shit here!" Peyton shouted back, panic surging in her voice.

Brooke took out her phone and turned on its flashlight. "Hurry up," she urged, "just─" The car was now on the bridge, still driving on the wrong side of the road; it looked like it was going straight for them. Her brain was working fast: if they got out of the car now, things might get even more dangerous for them, because the driver could easily drive them over, but if they stayed in, then ─

"He can't see us," Mouth said, his voice quavering. "Brooke he doesn't─" He didn't finish his sentence and instead jumped over Brooke's shoulder and slammed his hand on the wheel. Three horn blasts rang out just as Peyton's hand held out the keys and tossed them to Brooke, who grabbed them and swiftly put them in; just as she was about to turn on the engine, the other car finally noticed them and turned on their lights, blinding them on the spot. Brooke blinked, turned the keys, and realized in that split second that the car was now too close to them; the blue Chevrolet hit the brakes, but it was too late; it slipped on the wet road and crashed into them.

In the second that preceded the collision, Brooke didn't scream, nor did she see her life flashing before her eyes, but instead, she remembered one thing: the title she had read in the future.

TRAGEDY STRIKES PROM NIGHT

Not Prom, but Prom night. All this time, they had assumed that the danger would take place at Prom, in their school. How wrong they had been.

That was the last thought Brooke had before the impact. That, and the fact that Peyton was gripping her hand when the Chevrolet rammed into their car, shoving it against the railings, and making it plunge backwards into the dark, bottomless water.


So, I know I'm very late for this one, and to be honest I've been staring at my screen for the past fifteen minutes, wondering how much I should tell you. And then I remembered that last month was breast cancer awareness month, here in France. I was diagnosed at the beginning of July, and my treatment plan turned out to be longer than expected. I am doing fine, my doctors are very optimistic, but chemo has been a little tiring, and while writing has been a nice escape from all this, sometimes I'm just too tired to write. Anyway, the reason I'm saying all this is because I reckon most of my readers are female, so don't be the idiot that I was, if you feel a lump or anything out of the normal, don't wait thinking that it can't be anything bad when you're in your twenties, have it checked up right away.

Now that that's out of the way… I really hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and I hope my current situation hasn't affected my writing. Anyway, it's always nice and comforting to read your reviews, so thank you again so, so much for leaving them.

There's three chapters left (or rather, two plus an epilogue) and the next one should be out around January, though I can't promise when exactly.

Thanks again for reading