Chapter Twenty Seven

Crash Into You

Brooke smiled happily at her friends as they sang her "Happy Birthday". Closing her eyes, she made a wish before she blew out the candles. There were claps and cheers as Karen began to cut the cake and pass out pieces to her guests. Lily went over to the guest of honor and told her that she had a present for her. Brooke picked her up and set her on her lap before she opened the card and gift.

Lucas smiled to himself as he watched the happy scene unfold before him. Haley had gone all out to make sure her best friend's seventeenth birthday was perfect. She had arranged with Karen to have the party at the café with all of their friends. Nathan, Mouth, Millie, Alex, Skills, Bevin, Jake and Peyton were all there. So was Rachel. She had returned to Tree Hill for Brooke's birthday.

Victoria had also been invited, but she had declined the invitation by making up the excuse of catching up with work. Brooke knew the real reason she didn't want to attend: she still felt guilty for causing all the trouble in the first place and didn't deserve to be part of her daughter's life anymore. Brooke was grateful she was willing to try and be there since her father continued to focus on his fiancée and the upcoming baby. At the same time, she wasn't sad that her parents weren't there to help celebrate her birthday. She had her friends with her and they were her family.

Lucas snapped out of his thoughts as he heard his name being called. "Did you want a scoop of ice cream with your cake?" his mother asked. Lucas nodded as Nathan gave him a curious look. With his twin telepathy, he could tell something was bothering his brother and made a mental note to ask him about it after the party was over.

After the party was over and most of the guests had gone home, Keith and Karen offered to stay behind and clean up the mess. The Scott brothers took Haley home first before dropping off Brooke and an exhausted Lily at their house. Nathan then drove them to the River Court so they could talk in private. He knew they wouldn't be disturbed.

"Okay, what's bothering you?" Nathan asked once they had arrived and began to play a little one on one. "Is it Brooke?" It was a good guess, but Lucas shook his head. Nathan looked at him hard. "What is it then?"

There was a long silence before Lucas finally spoke. "I can't stop thinking about the night when we confronted Ian at the factory and almost had that car accident when we were driving home."

Nathan raised his eyebrows. "Car accident? The guy tried to run us off the road. And then you insisted on helping him once he crashed his car into a tree. And then we found out who the driver was and that made it even worse. It was Damien West. Do you remember who that was? He used to be my friend until we moved here. In fact, nothing has been right since we have moved here."

Lucas couldn't believe what his brother was saying. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Nathan gave his brother a hard look. "Have you not been paying attention? From the moment we have arrived here, we've had targets on our backs and Brooke and Haley blamed themselves for the events when it's not their faults. It's ours because we moved here. If we had stayed in Charlotte, then none of this would have happened."

"That's not true," Lucas protested. "Ian would have gone after Brooke whether we were there or not. He might have done it slower if he hadn't discovered his competition: me. We just don't know and we shouldn't go around blaming ourselves." Nathan didn't want to listen to him. "If we had stayed in Charlotte, you never would have met Haley."

"Exactly. I wouldn't have put her through all this stress and worry about whether something might happen to her or me," Nathan replied. "It's hurting her and it's hard for me to see the pain she is going through because of us. I know we don't have to worry about Dan or Cooper anymore, but it doesn't seem like we can ever get back to normal. I'm tired of trying to be happy here when I'm really not."

"What are you saying?" Lucas asked him. "Do you want to move back to Charlotte?"

Nathan didn't answer at first. He didn't want to say it, but he had to tell him the truth. "Admit it, Luke. Everything was better in Charlotte. At least it was for me." He could tell his brother wasn't happy with his answer. He couldn't blame him, but he couldn't take it anymore. "I'm going to tell Mom and Dad I want to move back to Charlotte."

From the tone of his voice, Lucas could tell that his brother was serious – dead serious about moving back to Charlotte. How could this be? How could he not have seen it before? Had he really been that blind where he couldn't see how unhappy his brother was? The brothers used to tell each other everything, but Lucas had to admit they had grown apart since the whole incident with Lindsey.

Nathan saw his brother was just speechless. "Look, I'm sorry I caught you off guard. I should have told you sooner, but I didn't think this would go on this long."

"What about us?" Lucas asked. "How can I play basketball without my best friend? And what about Haley? Did you tell her about you wanting to leave?"

Nathan let out a heavy sigh. "No, I was debating on who to tell first. Obviously, I chose the wrong person. Here, I thought you would be understanding and agree with me. But I guess you don't want to get some closure with Lindsey." Lucas opened his mouth to respond, but Nathan was faster. "You should have told Lindsey off when you had to go to dinner with her at the auction instead of being nice to her."

Lucas let out a frustrated groan. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"I will drop it when you finally deal with it," Nathan exclaimed. "Mom and Dad might not let you move on with Brooke if you show you're still stuck on Lindsey." Nathan didn't let his brother interrupt him. "I know you can't date Brooke, but you want to go out with her. It's just hard to do that when Lindsey won't leave you alone. Do you want a repeat of what Brooke went through?"

"Lindsey would never do that," Lucas defended. Nathan gave him a look. He was missing the point and he knew it. Lucas let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, you're right. But I still don't want you to move to Charlotte. Are you sure this has nothing to do with you feeling guilty about Damien? Because I know I am. That's why I've been out of it lately. I feel like we should tell someone what we did."

"What is there to tell? All we did was confront the person who nearly got us killed and then dropped him off at the entrance of the hospital," Nathan replied. Lucas was about to respond when Nathan didn't let him interrupt him. "What else did you want us to do? Stay and check to make sure he was okay? I would have done it if he hadn't insulted us and we had to defend ourselves.

Lucas stopped him right there. "That's what I'm talking about. We shouldn't have fought him like that. I should have stopped Julian after the first punch." He let out a frustrated groan. "What the hell is wrong with me? I never used to be like this."

Nathan was glad he finally understood how he felt. "Maybe it's time for both of us to return to Charlotte."

Lucas hated to admit it, but he began to believe his brother was right. Instead of things getting better in Tree Hill, it had gotten worse for the family. "If we're going to tell Mom and Dad, we're going to have to tell them everything including what happened after the confrontation with Ian and Daunte."

Nathan nodded in agreement as they began to head back to the car. "We should tell them tonight. I hate to ruin Brooke's birthday, but I have put it off for far too long already."

When they arrived home, Brooke was there to greet them. "Lily is sound asleep in her bed. She didn't even want to read me a story because she was so tired. I think my party wore her out and she wasn't even the guest of honor."

"Thanks for looking after her," Lucas said. "My parents aren't home yet, are they?"

Brooke shook her head. "No, but they called and said they were on their way home." She noticed the awkward silence between the two brothers and sensed something was wrong. "Is everything okay?"

Lucas didn't want to tell Brooke he was thinking about moving back to Charlotte. Of course, he had to tell her sometime and it would be harder for her the longer he waited. Yet, he wanted to wait until after the brothers discussed it with their parents. Keith and Karen might not allow their sons to return to Charlotte. Lucas still wasn't sure if he wanted to move back, but it was the only way to get some closure with Lindsey.

Lucas realized Brooke was still waiting for an answer. "Everything's fine," he said, trying his best to comfort her.

Brooke could tell something was bothering him, but she didn't have a chance to ask him about it as she heard her cell phone ringing. Checking to see who it was, she excused herself when she found out it was Rachel and went to her bedroom to discuss plans for that weekend.

Lucas and Nathan waited anxiously for their parents to come home. The minutes ticked by slowly as they mentally prepared themselves for what they were going to say to them. It seemed like hours before they heard the front door open and their parents entered the foyer.

Keith and Karen were surprised to see their sons waiting for them, but weren't overly concerned. "Boys, we thought you would still be at the River Court," Keith said. "Or did Brooke's party wear you two out too?"

"Actually, we never got to play basketball," Nathan admitted. "We realized there is something we need to talk to you about and we're not sure how you will take it. And we feel that it can't wait until tomorrow." Keith and Karen exchanged concerned looks, but they were quiet as they sat down on the couch. There was silence as Nathan and Lucas debated on who would talk first. Finally, Nathan took a deep breath and spoke. "After everything that has happened to us in the last several months with Uncle Dan, Ian and Cooper, we have realized how much we're unhappy here and we want to move back to Charlotte."

Keith and Karen were speechless. Out of everything they were expecting to hear, that was not one on the list. They didn't quite understand the reason since nobody was after them now. Lucas and Nathan knew that and was ready to give them an explanation.

Lucas knew it was time for him to talk. "We didn't tell the police everything that night we confronted Ian at the factory." There was a pause before he told them what had happened after they had left Daunte and a dead Ian at the factory. "We were on our way home when we noticed someone was following us. We tried to get away from them, but the driver tried to force us off the road."

"At first, we had no idea who it was," Nathan added. "We didn't know whether it was Daunte or Cooper. I just knew we had to get away before this person killed us. He almost managed to drive us off the road, but we were able to do it to him first." Keith didn't look happy about that, but he let his son continue with the story. "When we found out who was trying to kill us, we were shocked to see Damien West. I couldn't believe it because we used be friends. I couldn't understand why he was trying to kill me. Apparently, he thought I had abandoned him for my new friends in Tree Hill and wanted revenge."

"He made it worse when he began to insulted our family," Lucas told them. "I threw the first punch. I knew I shouldn't have done it, but he made me so angry. And I think I was pissed off with everything that had happened to us that I had to take it out on someone and it just happened to be Damien."

Nathan knew it was his turn to speak again. "He wasn't the only one. I pulled Lucas off of Damien before he made another comment and I went for him. Julian was the only one who had common sense and stopped the fight for good. Damien was going to press charges until we persuaded him to look the other way."

"Do I even want to know what that means?" Keith asked his sons. There was silence between the two brothers. Neither of them were willing to explain about the bribe. "You know, I think I've heard enough. I can't tell you how disappointed we are in you two. We raised you boys to be better than this. What has happened to you two?"

Before Nathan or Lucas could answer, Karen managed to find her voice. "I think we all have changed since we moved to Tree Hill. I'm not sure if returning to Charlotte is the right solution though. But it's really late and we've all had a long day. Why don't we discuss this more in the morning?" she suggested. Lucas and Nathan could see she was overwhelmed with the information she had heard and decided that it was best not to argue. This was enough for tonight.