Lucas felt as if he had just been punched. The word rang in the air, echoing back to him. Husband. Brooke was married. And here they were, the happy couple standing before him. Brooke looking at him as if she had just shot his puppy and David staring at him blissfully ignorant.
"Your husband," Lucas repeated in disbelief.
"David, nice to meet you man," the dark headed man extended a hand which Lucas shook reluctantly.
"Hey David I'm going to go outside for a little bit. Catch up some.
"Yeah sure, but don't be too long," David said with a grin. Brooke gave a false smile in return. David pecked her once on the cheek and then retreated into the depths of the house. Without a word, Brooke stepped onto the porch and closed the door gently behind her. Equally silent, Lucas followed her down the front walk to the set of chairs in the front lawn. Brooke sat down, rubbing her arms despite the fact that she wasn't the least bit cold. It gave her something to do. Lucas gave her a look and then followed suite by sitting down beside her.
"So you're married," Lucas said stupidly stating the obvious.
"Yeah." Brooke avoided eye contact.
"All this time I've been thinking that maybe there's still a hope for you and me and you've been married." Lucas gave a false laugh. "So are you going to tell me the story or am I going to have to pry it out of Rachel later?"
"How much do you want to know?"
"Everything."
"Everything?"
"Brooke I care about you and even though there's no hope for us, I want to know what's been going on with you. Everything." Brooke exhaled sharply and leaned back.
"OK well let's see when I first came to LA things were rough. My parents had sent me off with a check that they thought would be paying my college tuition which I proceeded to blow on fabrics and needles. I peddled a few dresses out on the streets, barely scraping by. Sometimes I'd only eat Raman for weeks."
"Why didn't you call Peyton? Or Haley? Or me?" Lucas seemed hurt that she hadn't thought of him.
"Because I had ended that part of my life. And I couldn't really admit to myself that I needed help. Besides things are so much better if you have to struggle to get them. So I took a few of my designs to a couple of stores and surprisingly they liked them. So I got my stuff in a couple stores and pretty soon I had enough money to buy myself a nice apartment and eat decent meals consistently. And then my clothes began to sell out and the stores bought more and more, yet I realized that I was being robbed the money that I had to pay for the 'privilege' of selling in the stores. So I scraped together some cash and opened my own store. The store made me tons of money and then one thing led to another and pretty soon I had my clothing line, my own store, my own magazine, and a multimillion dollar company." Brooke stopped.
"That's not everything," Lucas told her. "David," he explained.
"David. Well that's kind of a funny story actually. After I bought this house I felt so empty and I was a little scared. You know no one around that I really felt close to. I was walking past a pet store one day when this little bundle of fur barreled into my legs. A million wet puppy kisses to my face later and I had this little bundle of joy at home with me. He went nameless for a few days until I went to a psychic that told me that someone named David would change my life. Later that night I found myself smiling for the first time since I'd left Tree Hill. And I realized that this little dog had changed my life, so I named him David. Well it was less than a week later when David the human came into my life. I was walking David my dog and he ran into this dark haired boy. After an apology for my dog and a laugh about the identical names, David the human invited me out to dinner. We had dinner and one thing led to another and here we are."
"Married,' Lucas repeated.
"Yeah married." Silence fell between the two, neither looked at the other. "Lucas do you think that… do you think that we could still be friends." A hollow laugh.
"The words that every guy likes to hear. Well those and the love of his life telling him that she's married." Brooke looked hurt. It hurt Lucas to know that he had caused that pain, so he immediately tried to alleviate the hurt. "I'd like that, us being friends." This made Brooke smile. She reached out and took Lucas's hand.
"Friends."
"Well you ought to get back to David," Lucas told her as he stood up.
"Yeah. We should get together sometime Lucas, I'd like to know how things have been for you." Lucas smiled and leaned in to hug her. Brooke took a step back.
"Brooke we agreed to be friends. Friends hug." With a smile, Brooke stepped into his embrace. Immediately she felt the tingles all over just as she had in high school. But those tingles should be gone, or at least only there when she was hugging David. Her husband. The love of her life. Or at least she hoped he was. Brooke stepped back and forced a smile. Lucas took Brooke's hand and squeezed it a bit. "I'm the guy for you Brooke Davis. Someday I'll make you see that. I know you think you're happy now, but I know that's not a hundred percent true." Brooke grimaced, even now Lucas could still read her mind. "I'm going to go talk to Rachel." Lucas began to walk away but Brooke pulled herself out of the daze caused by his announcement to call after him. She couldn't leave it awkward.
"Hey don't freak out too much on her for not telling you. That I was married you know. It was my news to tell." Lucas chuckled, even now Brooke could still read his mind.
"The thought hadn't even crossed my mind." Brooke watched him go, trying to deny the flutter in her stomach.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?!" Lucas roared at Rachel the moment she opened her apartment door.
"Whatever do you mean?" Rachel faked confusion. Lucas pushed past Rachel into her apartment.
"Don't play dumb with me. I just think that maybe you could have clued me in on the minute detail known as Brooke's marriage when I told you that I was going to go proclaim my love to her."
"You didn't," Rachel said with a pained expression.
"Oh yeah I did. I did, but I really wish I hadn't. I wish someone had told me that the love of my life was married before I made a fool of myself in front of her and her husband."
"David was there?"
"Well he missed the main event but I'm sure I piqued his interest." Lucas plopped down on Rachel's couch, putting his head in his hands.
"I did try to tell you many times, you just weren't interested in hearing it." Lucas looked up at Rachel with an angry expression. "Sorry." Rachel sat down beside him on the couch and put an arm around him. "Personally I think it's a good thing that you told her. The two of you have this perpetual 'will they won't they' dance going on. At least this way she knows where she stands with you."
"I just wish I knew where I stood with her."
"Don't give up on her Lucas. David may have put the ring on her finger, but you put that ache in her heart." Lucas looked up at the red head. "She told you once to fight for her and I think you should take her advice and go ahead, fight your heart out. Fight like you're freaking Jackie Chan." Lucas laughed. "What's that, a laugh? I never thought I'd see the day when Lucas Scott would smile again." Lucas sighed.
"Well I'm sure my publicist is having a fit right now. I didn't clue her in on where I was going. So I'm going to get back to it." He stood up and walked towards the door.
"Don't let another six years go by without any form of communication between us," Rachel scolded him.
"I promise." The two hugged and then Lucas exited her apartment. Rachel watched him walk down the hallway, hoping that he would heed her advice. She had barely closed the door of her apartment when there was a banging on the door. Rachel swung it open to reveal a disheveled looking Brooke. "What is my house, a halfway house for starcrossed lovers?"
"Excuse me?" Brooke asked with a knitted brow.
"Never mind. What do you want?"
"I wanted to apologize." Rachel leaned against her doorframe with her arms crossed.
"I'm listening."
"Rachel I'm sorry for everything I said to you. It's just that you kind of ambushed me with the whole Lucas thing. I wasn't ready to deal with my emotions so I just lashed out at the nearest person, namely you." Brooke stared at Rachel, pleading with her eyes.
"Fine come in," Rachel stepped out of the doorway. "But the only reason I forgive you is because I need you to entertain me."
"Well how's this for entertaining, Lucas stopped by my house today." Brooke sat down on the couch where Lucas had sat moments before.
"I know," Rachel said as she took up the same position she had with Lucas.
"You know?"
"Lucas came by."
"Lucas came by," Brooke repeated.
"Are you going to repeat everything I say because that's going to get really annoying."
"Sorry." Brooke began to wring her hands. "Rachel I'd moved on. I'd moved on and then Lucas showed up. And just like that I've started to question every decision I've ever made since I decided to leave Tree Hill. Because every one of them is a reason why we're not together now."
"So your head's telling you that you still want Lucas," Rachel surmised.
"I don't know what my head's telling me. Rachel I just wish that everything could go back to the way it used to be. Life was much less complicated in high school."
"You mean the high school where your best friend made out with your boyfriend behind your back. Where your other best friend got married to a guy she had known for less than a year. A new girl hated you for some unknown reason. A kid brought a gun to school. You got pregnant and lost the baby. And where your friend lost her own child only to adopt her twin's baby. You mean that uncomplicated life?"
"You're right, life pretty much sucked in high school."
"It still does," Rachel pointed out.
"Yeah…yeah it does." And with those words Brooke let her tears fall. Rachel pulled her best friend into her chest letting Brooke cry into her shirt. "I really don't want to choose Rach," Brooke stammered between sobs. "I don't want to have to make that decision." Rachel rubbed circles on Brooke's back, not knowing what it is that she could say.