Part 37

"Bevin for the last time," Peyton said harshly, only just managing not to show how angry and frustrated she was becoming with the group of people seated on the gym bleachers in front of her. "No, it's not that kind of party… it isn't even a party to begin with!"

"But we can still bring our own drinks right?" Bevin asked hopefully, glancing from Peyton to Skills who she offered a wide grin to.

Peyton took a deep breath into her lungs, and just accepted the inevitable. "Sure Bevin." She said with a fake grin.

"Yeah!" The other cheerleader cried, but then something else occurred to her that made her frown. "Well shouldn't we start the party later then, I mean you guys don't have a pool so what will we all do if everyone gets there at three?"

Skills covered his eyes and silently prayed for his girlfriend, hoping she'd make it through the next few minutes unharmed.

Peyton on the other hand had just about enough of the stupid questions. She had no idea who had said it was a party to begin with and if she wasn't so aware that Rachel had already left town she'd be singling her out for blame.

"Look! This isn't a party okay? It's just a bunch of friends coming over for a little while to say 'hello' to Brooke, maybe watch a film or something. There won't be any alcohol, no loud music, and no one but you guys coming… got it?" Peyton asked firmly, eyeing every single person in front of her. The last thing Brooke needed was half the school turning up thinking there was some big end of year party kicking off at their apartment tomorrow.

Bevin pouted.

Peyton sighed as finally everyone seemed to get the idea. "Yes?" She asked as she watched Mouth slowly raise his hand into the air.

"Is this really such a good idea? Don't get me wrong I really want to see Brooke, but won't it be kind of awkward, I mean it's not like I'm going to have a clue what to say to her." He asked.

Peyton had to agree with him, she thought it probably would be weird to begin with, but after they got over that initial shock maybe it wouldn't be so bad. In total there was only going to be the rivercourt guys, some of the cheerleaders and a few of the guys from the basketball team coming over. And they all didn't have to show up at the same time which would help even more.

"Don't worry so much about it Mouth, okay? It's not like Brooke has any idea what to tell all of you, we'll all just play it by ear and see how it goes." She explained which seemed to relax a few of the others as well.

Taking another look around Peyton decided that there wasn't anything else she could say to them. They had already been told to let Brooke take the lead on how she interacted with them, and she'd stressed that it wouldn't be a good idea to touch Brooke straight away, that they should give her as much space as she needed. And under no circumstances were they to go anywhere in the apartment other than the front area. That way if it was too much for Brooke at any point she could just go into her room without worrying that anyone else would be there.

That was the one thing Peyton had insisted on, Brooke needed to have a safe place during this whole thing so she wouldn't feel under to much pressure with their friends there.

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"And you thought that was a good thing to do?" Brooke asked sceptically as she walked around the fountain with Nathan beside her. As a glimmer caught her eye she looked down at the array of coins that been tossed into the water recently.

A smile crossed her lips as she watched as a young boy, around five years old, was lifted by his father so he could drop a coin into the dark water, and as he was set back down his mother congratulating him with a hug at his success.

Brooke wondered if his coin carried a wish, and if it did, what a child that young would wish for. Did he wish for a brother or sister, or a puppy, or a best friend to play with? Maybe he already had all of those things and simply had no reason to wish for anything else. He seemed happy enough as the young family move off towards the food court.

Brooke stopped and looked back down into the water. There were hundreds of coins, all holding hopes for a better future. Another one couldn't hurt, right?

"No… but…" Nathan began to explain, but was puzzled as to why Brooke had suddenly stopped walking beside him.

"But what?" Brooke asked, while she checked her pockets, she had her house keys and cell phone, but no money. She turned and held out her hand to Nathan, "Can I have a dollar?"

Nathan blinked, but quickly recovered and dug into his jeans pocket. "Sure, here."

"Thanks, Nate." Closing her hand around the coin Brooke closed her eyes for a second, there were so many things she could wish for but only one thing her heart really needed.

Nathan watched on silently as his friend reached out with a closed fist and dropped the coin into the deep fountain with a splosh. He was a little concerned about what Brooke was doing but was reassured with the smile on her face, and decided that the idea wasn't that bad. Fishing out another coin he tossed it in along with a wish for a happy and health family.

Brooke opened her eyes in time to see the last of the ripples fade from the surface, but her coin was down there, and so was her wish. She'd never been one to do things half-heartedly, she was an all or nothing kinda girl.

And that coin holds one hell of a wish!

Feeling a little lighter Brooke turned back to Nathan and threaded her arm through his and moved them forward again. Not that they were actually going anywhere, they were just making circuits around the water fountain, but it made Brooke feel better than sitting stationary to be stared at by people walking by.

"So, you were saying?" She asked him, still wanting to know why he had just gone along with Lucas without talking it through with either Peyton or Haley first. Haley had been such a good influence on Nathan that she didn't understand why something that important hadn't been discussed beforehand. Nathan wasn't the stupid impulsive angry teenager he once been anymore; being married had taught him that he had other people to consider.

Lucas on the other hand…

"Well, it wasn't really my idea… but, yeah I…" Nathan started to explain but trailed off as he became aware of a guy approaching them. Instinct took over as he recognised the device held in the guys hand and he quickly placed himself in front of Brooke and directed an outstretched arm towards the reporter. "She's not answering anything so just get lost!"

Brooke had no idea what was going on as she was pulled behind her friend. It wasn't until she looked around Nathan's shoulder and saw a guy in his early twenties standing there, holding out a Dictaphone, that she understood. She felt herself begin to panic, she'd never even thought about reporters finding her at the mall, all she'd been worried about was if she'd last more than five seconds around strangers.

She tightened her grip on Nathan's arm and began to back up, glad when Nathan matched her movements even though he remained facing forward.

"I just have a few questions…" The reporter said in a soft tone.

"Tough, no one is saying anything to you so why don't you just leave us alone?" Nathan said, cutting him off angrily. He wasn't going to let Brooke go through that if he had anything to say about it.

"Look I'm just trying to do my job Mr Scott. The readers have a right to know what really happened." The man continued as he pulled a small note pad out from his jacket pocket.

"I don't give a shit about whatever your readers want to know!"

The reporter didn't seem bothered by Nathan's attitude at all, in fact it he seemed to enjoy it. "Did your father, the Mayor, help you sweep this under the carpet? Or didn't you think point shaving and gambling on the outcome of your games was a problem? Or did you just think that no one would find out?" He asked in quick succession, moving closer to the pair in front of him. He'd been chasing this story from the start, and there was no way he was going to let some punk kid get away with a rap on the knuckles just because his family had money. He knew a cover-up when he saw one.

Brooke's retreat had halted the moment Nathan had stopped and she realised that the reporter wasn't there because of what she had just gone through, but instead he was here because of Nate. Because of something he had done, something she had no idea of.

Nathan felt like the wind had been knocked out of him, his mouth hung open and he was sure all the colour had drained from his face. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't even form a coherent thought never mind the ability to speak.

Undeterred, the reporter sensed he was about to get his story and went in for the kill with his next few questions, knowing these would more than likely cause a reaction from his subject.

"Did your father cover up the death of a local criminal, known as Dante, the night your team won the state championship? A night that saw very large amounts of money placed on Pontiac to win even though the Raven's were the hot favourites? Were you supposed to throw that game Mr Scott? Was that the reason your wife was hospitalised that night? What really happened Mr Scott?"

Brooke had moved from behind Nathan shocked at what she was hearing, Nathan wouldn't have been involved in anything like the reporter was suggesting. There was no way he'd have anything to do with criminals, or betting scams, he'd never put his basketball career in danger like that.

But as she saw the guilt in her friends face she knew it had to be true. Everything the reporter was accusing him of… or at least the vast majority of it… was true. She started backing away again, this time from Nathan.

Haley almost died that night… she could have lost her son… all for what? To win a bet? For money?

Brooke felt the start of tears falling as her eyes locked with Nathan's as her head shook slowly from side to side. She couldn't believe Nathan, someone she'd know her whole life, could be capable of this.

"Brooke?" Nathan call out to his friend, unable to think of anything he could say to her. It was all true. He had come so close to losing everything he loved that night, the memories of Haley lying unmoving in the middle of that road would haunt him forever.

But worse than that image was the knowledge that he had caused it, she had saved him that night by pushing him out of Dante's path, and he would spend the rest of his life making up for his mistake.

He blinked his own tears from his eyes as he watched Brooke move further away from him. It wasn't until she turned and ran that he was snapped from his thoughts and brought back to the present.

"Damn it!"

You're supposed to be looking after Brooke you idiot, move it and get after her or Brooke will be the least of your worries!

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Peyton sighed as she opened up Brooke's locker, as well as having promised to speak to their friends, she'd also agreed to pick up some of their textbooks so Brooke would be able to try to get some studying done over the weekend.

She was slightly sceptical about what good it would do now, she was pretty confident she'd graduate, she just did know why Brooke would put herself through this. She'd tried to talk to the principal, but he'd been in meetings over the exam schedule all morning and couldn't spare the time. His assistant had told her to come back on Monday.

Yeah that'll work, I'll talk to him about Brooke not sitting the exams ten minutes before the first one's supposed to start!

Peyton scoffed to herself as she pulled out another book and dropped it into the open bag at her feet. God she hated this place now, as much as she ignored it, everyone was watching her as they passed. No doubt the gossip mill had been running non-stop ever since prom, but she was sure more than a few people turned and went in the opposite direction the moment they spotted her.

Maybe they think I'm going to just start throwing punches around again.

That brought a smile to her face. Maybe that was why she'd not really had anyone bother her since she'd been in the school, it was second break so it wasn't like there was no other kids around, they just didn't seem to be where she was in any great numbers.

"Hey, so it's all set for tomorrow then?" Came a happy voice that not only confused Peyton enough that she frowned at the speaker, but it also caused her smile to disappear as if it had never been there in the first place.

What the fuck is he talking ab…

"So, I know Lucas said three but you don't think she'd mind if I got there a bit earlier do you?" Chase asked with a grin. He was finally going to get to see Brooke again.

Who?

It took a second but then Peyton realised he was taking about arriving early to see Brooke tomorrow. She had no idea anyone had spoken to Chase since prom, her frown deepened as she remembered that he had dumped her best friend with only a few hours to go until prom. She remembered the fight in her front yard with Brooke and how upset she had been at the time, that must have been very shortly after Chase had broken up with her. Brooke had been lashing out at her, accusing her of having everything she'd ever wanted while Brooke had lost it all.

Did Chase really think Brooke wanted to see him, after what he had done?

Chase shifted nervously as Peyton just continued to stare at him, he could see her jaw was set, and pissing her off was the last thing he wanted. Maybe this is a bad time.

"So… three o'clock will work fine. Should I bring anything?" He asked.

Still nothing from the blonde.

Then the bell rang loudly in the hallway.

"Right, I'll just… see you tomorrow, bye Peyton."

Peyton watched him head off down before she turn back to the locker and slammed the door closed as hard as she could.

"Hey, what did the locker ever do to you?"

Peyton snapped back around.

"Woah, hey sorry." Lucas said with his hands up in front of him. "I thought you saw me walking over."

She hadn't, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with Lucas right now. Closing her bag over she pulled the strap over her head and started walking. Maybe if she kept walking something would start making sense to her, because so far all she had was a headache that she was sure would only get worse.

"I wanted to apologise for last night, I was totally out of line and I'm sorry Peyton." He said softly to her as he eyed her sadly.

Peyton stopped. "Did you tell Chase to come see Brooke tomorrow?"

Lucas' eyebrows shot up, that wasn't really what he'd thought she'd want to talk about. But if she was willing to overlook last night, he was more than happy to as well, it hadn't been one of his best ideas granted, he just missed her.

"Uh, yeah. I mean we all did, Nathan and Haley thought it'd be good for Brooke, he cares about her a lot. He won't hurt her again, he knows he made a mistake, and I'm sure once Brooke feeling a bit better they'll get back together." He explained. Although he'd stretched the truth a little, he knew that was what Chase was hoping for, it would just take Brooke some time before she was ready for that again.

"And in the meantime I'm sure she'd be glad to have another friend around that she could trust." He continued as he guided Peyton towards their next class.

Peyton felt numb as she followed Lucas into a classroom and sat down at a desk, the room was half full and the teacher was facing all of them. She was pretty sure it was noisy, but she couldn't hear a single word, there was just a single thought stuck on replay in her mind at the moment. And it drowned out everything else.

Chase wants to get back together with Brooke?

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Haley found herself walking out of the store and over towards where she had left Brooke and Nathan, with only two bags hanging from her hand.

She hadn't bought everything she had been looking for but given how much she had spent she figured that was probably just as well. And just because this had been her first real chance to get some serious shopping done didn't mean she had to max out all of Nathan's cards.

There's always next time!

Grinning she finally worked her way through the growing crowd and was surprised to find Nathan alone looking around.

Frowning she stepped up to him. "Where's Brooke?" She asked causing him to spin around to face her.

"She… ah… I'm not, I…" He fumbled in explanation still glancing around.

"Mr Scott if you just answer my-"

Nathan grabbed the report by his jacket and got right into his face. "If you don't get lost right now…" He threatened before pushing the guy away from him. He wanted to hit him so badly his hand twitched, if this jerk hadn't gotten in his way when Brooke had first ran off he'd have caught up to her easily.

Fixing his jacket straight, the reporter eyed Nathan for a moment before backing away. "I'll get my story Mr Scott, with or without your cooperation."

Breathing heavily Nathan watched him leave and then raked his hands through his hair as he turned in a circle looking for Brooke. He had to find her. What he didn't understand was how she could just disappear so quickly, she shouldn't have been able to get very far, not with her bad leg.

Haley didn't know what to make of the scene that she had just witnessed, but finding out who the guy was that her husband had been arguing with could wait, because her main concern was the fact she couldn't see Brooke anywhere.

"Nathan, you do know where Brooke is right? I mean I've only been gone about twenty minutes."

"I… she was," He sighed and his shoulders slumped. He'd been looking around but just didn't know which direction Brooke had gone in, he'd lost her in the crowd from the food court. "No. I don't know where she is."

"You lost her!" Haley accused.

"I didn't… she ran off, okay? Look… we'll find her, so let's just go down…… this way," He said pointing across the food court, he knew that was the general direction she'd gone in, to start with anyway. "We'll find her Haley."

Haley felt panicked at the idea of Brooke being missing but she was also worried as to why Brooke would run off in the first place. Obviously something had happened in the time she had been gone, the answers however could wait until after they had found Brooke.

If we find her.

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Peyton sat at her desk staring off into space, not hearing anything her teacher had been saying from the moment she had sat down. Finally she was pulled from her thoughts by a vibration coming from her front pocket.

Taking her cell out she glanced at the id on the screen before quickly pressing answer and bringing the device to her ear.

"Brooke?"

On hearing a student talk the teacher turned around from where he was writing a quick summery of the work they had covered that semester on the white board at the front of the class. "Miss Sawyer if you don't put that away this second I'll have to confiscate it."

"Brooke are you okay?" Peyton repeated not making out anything over the noise coming through the cell. It almost sounded like crying.

"Miss Sawyer, I won't ask you again."

Angry, and more than a little scared, Peyton quickly got to her feet and left the room, hoping she would finally be able to hear Brooke speak.

"Brooke, honey?" Peyton tried again once in the empty hallway with one hand clamped over her other ear. "Talk to me."

Peyton turns feeling a hand on her arm to find Lucas staring back at her anxiously, both of their bags slung over his shoulder.

"What's going on Peyton?" He asked her.

Disturbed at still not having Brooke talk to her and worried about what had happened to her friend Peyton started walking towards the car park, and her car, with Lucas following closely behind.

"I don't know… but you had better call Nate and ask him what the hell is going on."

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AN- And the fun begins!!

Hey folks, hope everyone is well and still enjoying this little tale of mine.

And to those worried they'll have to wait like a year before we get to the Breyton in this fic ::coughdramaqueencough:: I promise it'll be the end of January at the latest, for the first kiss anyways, so really that's not that long.

;)

Thank you for reading, catch you next time. Oh and how cool is this, I'm off to see GDeGraw Monday! Yay for me.