Here's the third chapter. Thank you so much for all the reviews, really, I love them. Also, thank you for saying that the dialogue was witty. That is one of the best compliments I could ever recieve. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Chapter 3: Flirting, Banter and Nicknames
Yesterday, Haley had woken up Nathan really early in the morning. Today, she does the same. That's why Nathan is on his way to Brooke's house. Haley made some soup for Brooke which Nathan now has to give to her since Haley has work.
After ten minutes of walking, Nathan finally reaches Brooke's house. As he walks up to her doorstep, he sees that Lucas' car is still parked outside. Meaning Lucas either spent the night at Brooke's or is checking up on her early in the morning. He figures it's probably the latter, but why Lucas couldn't have just called Brooke is beyond him.
He reaches for the doorknob and finds that it's unlocked. He makes a mental note to remind Brooke about keeping her door locked at night. He looks for Lucas in the living room, figuring that that's where he'd be. "Lucas?" he calls out softly not wanting to wake up the most likely sleeping Brooke in her room. But there was no avail other than the ruffling sound from upstairs.
He walks up the stairs and follows the ruffling sounds that seem to be coming out from the bedroom. Taking a few steps forward, he stands in front of her bedroom door which is slightly ajar and he fears that if he opens it more he'll see his brother and friend going at it. But that would be ridiculous, that isn't why Lucas is in Brooke's place. He opens the door, slowly and quietly as to not wake Brooke up.
The opened door reveals Lucas taking care of Brooke who is asleep. She looks so peaceful, and him a mess. Now both Lucas and Brooke have red noses and bags under their eyes. Lucas' hair is ruffled and it's probably because he's combed his hair with his hands so many times. Only now does Nathan finally realize that Lucas stayed the night at Brooke's and took care of her.
Lucas is wiping Brooke's arm with a damp cloth to keep her temperature up. It's obvious to Nathan that he had tried everything to make Brooke feel better. There are three boxes of tissues, one on the foot of the bed, another on Brooke's bedside table and the last one in front of Lucas.
Then Lucas reaches for something, it's Brooke's hair. Nathan sees him brushing it lightly with his fingers then he looks at her, and oddly enough he smiles. Brooke's hair was shuffled in all places, just like his is, her nose is red, and the rim of her eyes are too, but nonetheless, Lucas smiles at this. And he doesn't think he's seen that smile in Lucas in a long time. It's a smile with so much faith and hope; perhaps he hasn't seen it in Luke since high school.
He almost doesn't want to speak up and break Lucas' trance, but being him, he does anyway. "You up for some soup?" he says whispering, but it's loud enough the make Lucas jump from where he is.
"Shit, Nathan, you could have woken Brooke up!" Lucas half whispers and half shouts although both he and Nathan know that Brooke sleeps like a rock.
"Sorry dude, Haley made some soup for Brooke and I'm here as Haley's messenger."
"Oh, uh…put it in the kitchen, I'll be right there." Nathan does what Lucas told him and heads for the kitchen.
Lucas stands up from where he was seated on the bed; he looks down at Brooke then sits on the bed again. He just sits there, looking at her and he doesn't even know why, but he's been doing that lately. Before getting up again to head to the kitchen he kisses Brooke's forehead. "Good morning," he says silently to the sleeping girl and he feels the urge to add 'Pretty Girl', but he doesn't. And he's glad he didn't because just moments after Brooke slowly wakes up.
Brooke adjusts her eyes to the bright light of the sun rays through her window. She sees Lucas beside her and she wonders if he stayed the night, "Did you stay here last night?" she says voicing her thoughts.
Lucas didn't even think about that, if he had been intruding by sleeping at Brooke's house. "Yeah…I hope you don't mind," he says questioningly.
"Thank you," she says sincerely and smiles.
He reciprocates this by smiling at her too. "We should go downstairs, Nathan has some soup that Haley made." He brings out his hand to help her sit up.
She looks up at Lucas, and notices that he now looks a lot like her in terms of his red nose and puffy eyes. "I told you you'd get sick!"
"And I told you I wouldn't mind," he tells her as they make their way to the kitchen.
"Well, you should, the 'red nose' look doesn't really suit you," she smirks.
"Well that's true, only the Brooke Davis can pull off that look," they've already reached the kitchen but they continue with the banter, Nathan's presence oblivious to the both of them.
"Aww, don't feel too bad Prince Charming, the puffy eyes look good on you," she laughs.
As Nathan watches Lucas and Brooke's playful banter he is reminded of a married couple, except they aren't. They are Lucas and Brooke, one left at the alter, and one left at the airport, but both looking for happiness. And he thinks that maybe that the happiness they are both looking for is in each other.
Finally, Nathan makes his presence known, "I don't know what you guys are talking about, but you both look pretty awful to me."
"Good morning Nate!" Brooke says enthusiastically.
"I see you're feeling much better"
"And you can thank your big brother for that"
Nathan turns his head from Brooke to Lucas, he is about to speak, but Lucas beats him to it.
"No problem little bro," Lucas smirks. He hears Nathan mutter a 'whatever' and laughs. After a while curiosity gets the best of him, and asks, "How long were you up there?" He wants to know if Nathan had seen him staring at Brooke or had seen him brushing her hair.
"Not long," Nathan lies, "The soup is in the container."
Brooke walks behind the counter opposite to where Lucas and Nathan are and reaches for the container with Haley's soup. "Eww!" she squeals at the sight of the soup.
Lucas and Nathan laugh at Brooke's reaction of the soup. Not only did she squeal but she also made a disgusted face towards it. Lucas is the first to comment. "What's with the face, Princess?"
"It's all yucky," she replies childishly.
"It's tomato soup," Nathan states.
"I know that!" Brooke says defensively.
"Well, what's wrong with tomato soup?" he asks.
Lucas laughs because he knows about Brooke's opinion on tomato soup. And in a matter of seconds Nathan will too.
"It's gross! It's like tomatoes squished together."
"It was probably blended,"
"That's gross too! Besides, you don't know, maybe they squished the tomatoes with their feet!" she reasons as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
"You are crazy!" he laughs and turns to Lucas for his opinion on the tomato soup.
"Don't look at me, I'm not the one who thinks it was squished by feet," Lucas laughs.
"If you guys so much as get a whiff of feet from your soup, don't come crying to me," she says, "but if you do, I'll be in the bathroom, I have to pee."
"Princess, we don't need to know that you have to pee," Lucas tells Brooke.
"But it would be pretty rude of me to just leave without giving you guys a reason," with that, she's off to the bathroom, leaving Lucas and Nathan still laughing at her weird antics.
Once Brooke is out of sight, Nathan turns to Lucas. "So Prince Charming, how's Princess doing?"
"She's doing much better," Lucas says, ignoring Nathan's glares at him.
"Lucas!!"
"What?" he asks innocently
"You know what! The flirting, the banter, the nicknames!!"
"What about it?"
Nathan ignores Luke and continues, "You spent the night here!"
Just then Brooke comes in and speaks up, "It's okay to be jealous, Nathan."
Nathan turns so that he is facing both Lucas and Brooke, "Just be glad Peyton didn't come home last night."
"Oh yeah, where is she anyway?" Brooke asks, hitting herself in the back of her head for not remembering about Peyton.
"She stayed over at our place since Haley and her had been working on her album," he says then turns his gaze on Lucas, "She's been calling you all day yesterday."
"Oh yeah, I left my phone in the car."
"And you didn't bother getting it?"
"She wouldn't let me get with in one foot away from her!" he says pointing towards Brooke.
"It was scary!" Brooke reasons. "Anyway boys, I'm going to go get changed for work. I'll be back."
"So you and Brooke Davis, huh?"
"Nathan!" Lucas growls.
"What? I didn't mean anything by it," this time it's Nathan who's playing innocent. Nathan then tells Lucas he has to leave and tells the same to Brooke loudly enough so she can hear him from upstairs. With that, he was out the door, leaving Lucas alone with his thoughts.
. . . . .
Nathan walks up to Haley's classroom knowing that's where she would spend her lunch time. He smiles as she sees her engaged in marking hundreds and thousands of papers.
"Stop staring at me," she says as she lifts her head up to face his husband.
"I can't help it," he smiles and takes one of the students' chair and places it beside where Haley sits. He's never seen Haley's desk before, he realizes. He looks at the three photo frames on her desk, one is of the two of them with their son, James at the beach, another is of their second wedding, and the last one is of all of them after graduation. They were so happy, no one was left at the alter, no one had their kids kidnapped, no one had regretted turning down a proposal, no one had lost a child that wasn't theirs in the first place. But everything had changed.
Haley sees Nathan staring at the pictures, "Those are the only things that keep me going through the day."
"Everything was much simpler then," although in other parts of the world, their lives would have been anything but ordinary, but to the people in Tree Hill it was pretty much simple, especially compared to now.
"Yeah, if only Lucas would just go back to Peyton."
"How are you so sure it's Peyton?" he asks Haley who is apparently surprised by his question.
"It was just always them."
"No, once it was Brooke and Lucas."
. . . . .
Lucas walks to the river court, with a basketball between his waist and arm. He was hoping to find peace and quiet and time to think in here. He always did that here. But how could he now, when Peyton's words were still painted on the pavement of the court. "I will always love you."
He doesn't know how he should respond to that, it had been a week since he saw it there, but he hadn't spoken to Peyton about it. How does one respond to that anyway? But he doesn't think about it much longer since he sees Haley walking up to where he is, sitting in the middle of the court. "What are you doing here?" he asks Haley.
Haley takes a seat beside Lucas, "Looking for you."
"How'd you know I'd be here?"
"Where else would you be?"
They both chuckle and remain silent afterwards. Haley wants to know what Lucas is thinking, if he's thinking about Peyton, Lindsay, maybe even Brooke. But Lucas is silent so she decides to break the silence, "She really loves you, you know. She painted this so that you could see that."
"It could be washed over by the rain in no time."
Haley ignored Lucas' stubbornness, "Maybe she painted it too so you could see that you love her."
Lucas didn't bother responding to Haley, somehow she's go it in her head that Lucas and Peyton are meant to be.
Despite Lucas' respond, or lack thereof she continues, "You never made your decision you know, about who's the girl. You've had enough time to think."
This time Lucas responds, "I'm not suppose to think, it's love, I'm suppose to act on impulse."
"Okay, and when you saw this, what did you first want to do based on your impulse?" she asks anxious to finally know what he's thinking.
He smiles as he tells her what went through his head the first time he saw Peyton's painting, "To tell Brooke how ridiculous the river court looks like now, to laugh with Brooke and to cry with her because once, this was our place."
Haley is surprised by what Lucas has just confessed. She figured he'd say that he didn't know or make another excuse, anything but this.
"This was our place," he repeats. "She used to sit there," he point to where the bench is, "and cheer for me. She sat there with Mouth and one day he told me that when she sits there all she talks about is me," he smiles at the memory. "This is my life and she's the biggest part of it, I told her that right here. And I don't know how many times I've told her that I love her right here. Or how many time I've taught her to play basketball right at this court. And the destiny shot I made for her right at this very place. This was our place, and in my heart it always will be," he finishes not realizing how much he had just said about him and Brooke.
If Haley was surprised then, she's even more surprised now. But as he looks at Lucas and the way he smiles whilst talking about Brooke and they way his eyes glisten as he remembers memories of him and her, she knows. He's in love. "Fight for her," she says suddenly.
"What?"
"I'm not going to tell you who to be with anymore Luke, but you know who and what I am talking about, and you sure as hell know why," with that, she stands up and waves goodbye to Lucas. Lucas is once again left alone with his thoughts.
Lucas truly was confused, he was just talking about Brooke and the next thing he knows, Haley is telling him to fight for "her" and that he knows who and what she's talking about and why. But that's the last thing that Lucas knows.
No, that's a lie. Lucas knows who she's talking about. She's talking about Brooke. He knows what she's talking about, it's about his love for her. And he sure as hell knows why, it's because of the way she makes him feel. He just can't admit it out loud, for fear of many things. He has fear of rejection, heartbreak, and even love. But he also has another fear, it is that Brooke will take him back, and he's afraid that if she does, she'll get stuck with him. She doesn't deserve him, she deserves so much more.
He so badly wants to be that guy that she deserves to have. He's wanted to be that guy for so long, but he messed up their relationship two too many times and he doesn't want to have to hurt him again. The last time they were together he had promised her that, and he meant what he said, but that didn't change the fact that he had kissed Peyton. But when he did, he was still so in love with her. He's still so in love with her. He just buried those feelings because he knows that he shouldn't and can't. But being with her week after week was as if each day that passes by a whole shovel full has been digging upon that hole he had buried his feelings in.
. . . . .
"This is so messed up. No, scratch that, it's beyond messed up," Haley exclaims as she enters her house.
"The students are treating you that bad?" Nathan says and greets her with a kiss on her forehead.
"No, I'm talking Peyton-loves-Lucas,-Lucas-loves-Brooke messed up!" she says as she plops herself on the couch.
Nathan follows his wife to the living room and sits beside her, "That is messed up. Wait, so Lucas admitted to loving Brooke?"
"You knew he had feelings?!" she shouts at him and hits him on his arm.
"Well, no, I was just teasing him. They were looking way too friendly over breakfast and they were flirting, but Lucas denied that. Oh, and they have nicknames!"
"Really? Like what?" she asks intrigued.
"You know, like Mr. Big…," he starts but Haley once again hits him on his arm.
"That's my best friend!!"
"Yeah, I know and that's my brother. I can't believe I said that!" he shudders.
"What am I going to do Naley?!"
Nathan and Haley look at Lucas who has just entered the room. Haley is first to speak, "Okay first: Naley?! Second: What are you going to do about what?"
"Brooke must be rubbing off on me," he says and sees the mischievous look in Nathan's eyes. "Nathan! Not like that!!"
"I know! I regret doing that! Gross!" he exclaims.
"I don't—I don't know what to do," he says as if giving up in faith, "I can't tell her I love her, I don't even know if she—."
"She loves you Luke," Haley says finishing his sentence before he does.
"—Loves me," he pauses after hearing what Haley had just said, "She what?"
"Loves you," Nathan butts in, "She loves you, that's what she said."
"She can't—she doesn't…"
"But she does Luke; she just hides it because—."
This time it's Lucas that finishes Haley's sentence, "Because that's who she is. She puts others before herself. Her heart is one of gold, so full of kindness."
Again, Haley notices the smile on Lucas' face as he utters his words. And she wants nothing more than for Lucas to be happy again. "It's not going to be easy, Lucas, but you know what to do," she advices.
"I'm going to fight for her, really fight for her."
There you have it! I hope you liked this chapter. Thank you for reading it. Reviews really inspire me to write more. ;D