AN: Sorry for the delay, you know how it is and what with the site giving me trouble, but anyway, updates! I hope you are liking this story, thanks to those who reviewed, and feel free to send me praise or to outright flame me for the badness that may follow. Enjoy.

-Somebody Told Me-

After last week, I honestly didn't know what to think anymore. I thought I was fine living in New York. But if I was being truthful to myself, I really did miss Tree Hill. Peyton was right, it's my home, and that is where I belong. I just don't know what to make of her letter. I must have re-read that thing a half dozen times trying to figure everything out. So she never meant that she was in love with Lucas. Then what the hell did she mean to say? It's true, part of why I left Tree Hill was because of Peyton. It felt like she tore my heart out, and then I was so angry with her, I didn't think we could make it better, so I left after graduation. This last year hasn't been easy, I really do miss all my friends, even Peyton, I miss her the most, but I was never able to bring myself back here. Yet here I stand, a week after getting her letter, and I'm back in Tree Hill.

I've come home, but I don't know if it's for good. Did Peyton really leave? I need to know, I don't know why, but I still feel like she will always be my best friend. Weird, I know, but that girl has been with me through everything, and then I lost it. Sure, she may have been the catalyst but if I think about it rationally, it was partly my fault too. I mean, I didn't really love Lucas, so my reaction to her was so over the top. But that's me, Brooke Davis, ever the drama queen. So in a way, even though she hurt me so much, I blame myself too. I still don't understand it, I blew up for reasons not really having to do with the situation, and she didn't really mean what she said. She was right, this is a huge mess.

I drove by her house on my way back into town. It looked empty, almost dead; I wonder if she really has left. So now here I stand, in front of the door of the boy I thought I loved, thought loved the girl I love, thought loved me, thought everything. I guess I was wrong. Ever since I got her letter, I have had this bad feeling. I have the overwhelming urge to see Peyton. A part of me is still mad at her, but I think more than anything, I just miss her. I feel like I lost a part of me when I told her our friendship was over. I haven't been whole since. Damn our stubbornness, maybe we would have been able to fix this sooner, if we could actually figure out what happened. So here I stand, about to see Lucas, trying to figure out what to say, trying to figure out how I lost my best friend. Standing here, about to knock on his door, seems so foreign to me, yet so natural. And yet I am nervous as hell. I wait, for what seems like a lifetime, and then the door opens.

"Hello Lucas."

"Brooke, what are you doing here?"

He wraps me up in a huge hug. I am happy to see him, but I think he's happier.

"I've missed you pretty girl."

We make meaningless small talk, and then slowly we get to the point of my visit. Actually, oddly enough, he gets to the point before I get the courage to bring it up.

"Peyton stopped by a few days ago, said she was probably leaving. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it; she was very cryptic about the whole thing. She didn't say exactly when she was going to go though, but it seemed like she meant soon, and it didn't seem like she was going to say goodbye before she took off."

"I know, I got a letter from her last week, kind of vague too, she told me to come home, that I belonged here."

"You do belong here, we all miss you. Now before I forget, when she dropped by, she told me some stuff to tell you if you did come back, which now makes more sense. So do you want to do that now, or are we going to have some more mundane conversation?"

"I'm sorry, Luke, I kind of wish I came back under better circumstances. This whole thing has been giving me this weird vibe, so for now I just want to know what the deal with her is, I guess. It's so very confusing, so just spill Broody."

"Well, she told me that if you happened to show up, that she wanted me to tell you pretty much all I knew since you've been gone, if you wanted to know. She said you might have questions, and it was okay to answer them if I knew how. She told me to tell you the story of her life since you guys had your fallout, even though I only know bits and pieces."

"I get it, she told you to tell me what I wanted to know. Why do you have to be so dramatic about things Lucas?"

"Well, I do like to annoy you sometimes. But also, I think you'll understand more once you know more. So this may take a little while, let's go take a walk or get some coffee or something. It really is good to see you Brooke."

"Coffee it is, and it's good to see you too. Maybe after we get all this out of the way, after I figure some stuff out, we can all get together, you, Hales, Nathan, and catch up?"

"Sure Brooke, I think we'd all like that."

"Alright, how's you're coffee?"

"Lucas, enough with the avoidance, start talking."

"Okay, well, after whatever happened between the two of you, in those like four months between then and graduation, I didn't really see her much. It was like she tried to avoid people as much as possible, never talking much, she wouldn't let anyone in. I tried to talk to her a couple of times, so did Nathan and Haley, but no one got anywhere. She was completely withdrawing. Anyway, you know you and I hung out a bit, even though we eventually ended things, but yeah so I guess you got that letter because with it being summer and all now, she figured you might not have a good enough excuse not to come home, so this was like the perfect time."

"Please, don't jump around, stay on topic here Luke, so after graduation…?"

"Right, well, you took off right after. And as far as I could tell, she fell further into her shell after that. It wasn't until about two months into last summer when I went to check on her because Haley said she saw Peyton walking down the street at like two in the morning with a dazed look and didn't respond to her. So anyway, I went to see her, and she was on her bathroom floor cutting lines of coke."

"She got back into drugs?"

"Yeah, apparently it had been going on since almost right after the fallout and had been getting increasingly worse up until that point, so it was like six months of it. I guess right around that time she hit rock bottom or something 'cause she just like flipped a switch and somehow got herself clean all on her own. It was really weird, I tried to get her to talk about, but like I said, she wasn't really talking to anyone. So then, by the next month she was clean, she was still in bad shape, and miserable as hell, but she was clean. I steadily saw more and more of her during the summer, I mean, she wasn't all friendly, but she had stopped trying to push me away so much. Anyway, I missed you, and felt like maybe Peyton still liked me, so being the idiot I obviously am, I tried to see if she might want to hook up."

"Luke, what the hell do you have in that big head of yours? Because you certainly don't have a brain."

"I'll ignore that. So I was being nice to her and stuff and then she figured out I wanted to be more than just friends, she completely flipped out on me. Went on this whole little ramble speech about how she never really liked me like that, how she would never do that to you even if you never spoke to her again, and a whole bunch of nonsense. That was actually one of like maybe three times where she actually spoke about you. I got the feeling it was a sore subject, I mean every time someone mentioned the name 'Brooke' she huddled over like she got kicked in the stomach. So anyway, she was yelling at me by the end and then she told me she was gay, which totally took me by surprise."

"Whoa, what? Peyton's gay? Wow, I never thought, I mean, Peyton's gay."

"Yeah, I know, I was shocked, but I kind of thought you would have known. But anyway, not the point. So I knew Peyton was gay then, and stopped trying to be a friend like that, and even though we didn't hang much, I still tried to be a friend to her, we all did. So, Nathan and Haley went to Duke in the fall, I took some classes closer to home to be here for my mom and the baby. I don't know if Peyton ever planned on doing anything. As far as I know she just stayed home and did who knows what, I never really saw her unless I actually went to her house. I know she worked at Tric on and off. And she was a mess most of the time, still is. It's like something's eating her up inside. She's been so depressed, but she won't talk to anyone about it, so again, I know very little."

"Continue, continue right up until like now with whatever you know."

"Okay, so I guess the next thing to start with would be when she showed up here a couple of days ago. I hadn't seen her in at least two months, and she just showed up. I don't know if she knew I was home this whole time or what, but what with it being summer now, it was a safe bet I'd be home. She came to my house, all cryptic, told me that if you showed up that I should tell you whatever I knew. She also told me that after I finished my little story to tell you to go to her house, that she had left something in her room for you. I don't know what it is. You know, come to think of it, she might actually still be in town. She saw me like two days ago, and there's been a bug going around and she looked like she might be getting it. Of course she has always kind of looked sick this past year, so I don't know. She might still be here, she might be gone already. That's all I know. I'm worried about her Brooke, but she won't let anyone in, it was like her world stopped the moment you left her."

"Huh, well, I don't exactly know how to respond, so I guess I'll make my way over to her house, see what I find. Thanks for the coffee Lucas, I'll call you later about maybe hanging out."

"Yeah, I hope you figure out whatever this whole mess is."

"Me too."