A/N: Hello everyone! I'm glad that the previous chapter was a bit more enjoyable than the one before. As I said, Brucas will definitely come together but the two of them do have obstacles in between them to over come. Though that's not to say there won't be Brucas scenes along the way to coupledom. There will be :)
Personally I like a good Baley friendship too and as for Peyton and Nathan's behavior... well, they have their issues but I'll do my best to write their redemption into the story. Just be prepared for them to get a little worse before they get better. And lastly, thanks for the reviews! It helps me to see if anything I'm writing is coming across the wrong way and let's me know you're enjoying other parts. Plus, they make me happy so thank you for that!!
Chapter 4 - Rinse
She'd do anything to sparkle in his eyes
She would suffer, she would fight and compromise
She's been wishing up the stars that shine so bright
For answers to questions that will haunt her tonight
"Oh my god, he's naked!" Haley screeched as the two girls approached his sleeping form. Flustered, she quickly whipped around and screwed her eyes up tightly, hoping and praying to forget everything she had just seen. All the while beside her, Brooke had no qualms about glancing down at the newest basketball player, sans clothes.
"I did say he would be," Brooke reminded after a moment of open appreciation. "You know…guys who look like him should just walk around naked all day, every day. I think it would make the world a happier place, don't you? What?" she asked after catching sight of the exasperated look Haley sported. "It's just a compliment," she defended, taking in the muscles covering his lean form.
His chest was wide, his arms strong. Powerful legs led up to a trim waist and abs like Brooke had never seen before.
"Does he work out every day or something?" she asked with a hint of a smile on her lips. Then just as quickly she wiped at her mouth, afraid she may have drooled.
Yet despite her teasing words, Haley would have been surprised to find out that Brooke tried not to peek at the area between his legs. The impressive organ that was currently as asleep as Lucas, himself was.
"Can we just get on with this?" Haley groaned, frustrated and more than a little flustered by the brief sight she'd seen.
Growing up together, Lucas had been like another brother to Haley. The last thing she could have wanted was to see him naked and especially in the condition he was in. "Fine, fine. Why don't you grab the blanket I put in the trunk?" Brooke instructed and looked around for some sign of his clothes. Not that she actually expected for Nathan to leave any behind. It was only the vague possibility that Tim or one of the other players had been the one to gather them up that had her peering around just in case.
"Here." Thrusting the blanket at Brooke, Haley waited until the dark haired girl had set it down on Lucas. "Well?"
"All the good parts are covered," Brooke sighed as Haley turned around. It was a no brainer that they'd both have to try and lift him since he was dead weight and sound asleep. "You grab one side and I'll grab the other." But when Brooke walked around his body to grasp his arms, Haley's voice called out for her to stop. "What now?" Brooke asked as she began to get a little frustrated with the other girl's obvious reluctance.
"What if the blanket slips?"
"It's just a dick, tutorgirl. You've already seen it once tonight and it's not like I'm asking you to climb on top of it!"
Though she was grateful for the assistance, Brooke couldn't help the impatient lilt to her raspy voice as she glanced down at her watch. They didn't have much time if they wanted to get away without a trace before Nathan and the others showed up. And even less time left until she was due back at the party to make another quick appearance.
Otherwise it'll have all been for nothing.
"Well sorry if we don't all walk around looking at people's… parts!" Haley spat back, incensed further when Brooke merely rolled her eyes.
"Whatever," she muttered, realizing that her reputation was stuck on tight as far as Haley was concerned. The tutor girl probably thought she was just another brainless bimbo who smiled to get out of class and screwed a different guy each night. "Just grab his arms and I'll take his legs," she offered, albeit harshly.
Together but slowly, the girls struggled to carry his weight to Brooke's car.
"Urg!" they groaned a few minutes later after finally hefting Lucas into the backseat. Next came the car's top which hid the teenage boy from view as Brooke and Haley quickly scurried into their seats. "Come on. We gotta book it if I'm gonna make it back to the party in time," Brooke coached and glanced in the review mirror, missing the look of frustration that had taken over Haley's features.
"You're actually going back there? After seeing firsthand what they did to him, you're gonna return to the party and knock back a few with the guys who did this?" Haley questioned, unable to keep the anger from her voice.
"You just don't get it, do you?" Brooke asked rhetorically. "This won't stop if they find out I helped. They're gonna keep trying until they get what they want, okay?" she attempted to explain and tried to cut Haley a little slack as she considered how screwed up their social rules were. "They have to think it all played out on Lucas' terms. He has to be the one to beat them or they'll only come after him again until he steps up and makes them stop."
In their world, you either took what came your way with acceptance of how the game was played or you fought back. Most were too scared to do the latter and instead forfeited their pride to see it end.
Brooke hadn't been one of the lucky ones in a time where she hadn't deserved any of it. And in knowing how hurtful it all was, she wanted to spare Lucas the same pain because she knew he didn't deserve it either. "Just let him sleep it off for a while and I'll come back later," Brooke advised once Haley had directed her towards the Roe/Scott house. Haley had yet to say anything else, obviously mulling over the brief explanation she'd just been given.
So with the scratchy woolen blanket still settled into place, the two girls then struggled to carry Lucas up the steps to his door.
Never in the past had Haley been so glad that Lucas had his own entrance into the house. One that led straight to his bedroom rather than up front where any of his neighbors could have seen her and Brooke lugging him inside. "Brooke we can't just leave him like this. What if his mom comes home or… I don't know, what if he doesn't wake up?" Haley asked while casting a worried glance at her unconscious friend.
"He'll wake up," Brooke stated with absolute certainty. She'd seen it happen enough times to at least know that much. "Probably with a headache from hell but he'll wake up."
"Right, but Brooke that isn't the only problem. I can't just stay here," Haley added. "I have a curfew and parents… not to mention that there'd be no way of explaining this to Karen if she came home early and found him like this." Her concern for Lucas was at the forefront of her mind, but Haley was also realistic and knew that there was no way they could keep it all secret. Not without getting into a lot of trouble in the process. "I mean, I'll stay with him for as long as I can but if it gets too late, my parents will call Karen. It'll pretty much all unfold from there."
Sighing, Brooke nodded and reached for the doorknob. "Just give me an hour. It'll all be over by then."
Shutting the door behind her, Haley could only watch, wondering what it all meant.
-----
Had anyone paid attention, they would have thought that a convoy of cars heading to the outskirts of town was a bit suspicious. But then again people often tended to turn a blind eye in Tree Hill. It was an unspoken rule for as long as anyone could remember. Or at least it was where athletes and their girlfriends were concerned.
"I'm so excited," Bevin gushed as she held onto Brooke. Together, the two girls stumbled around in their high heels, following the rest of the troupe through a thick cluster of trees. "I bet he looks so hot naked," she whispered while Brooke couldn't help but silently agree. With or without clothes, Lucas Scott had a body that put all the other boys on the team to shame.
"Probably." Brooke giggled, appearing to everyone that she was just as drunk as her blonde friend.
"Let's go ladies," Nathan said as he threw both arms around their shoulders. A wide grin had turned up the corners of his lips as he anticipated the scene they'd walk in on. With any luck, Lucas would be stumbling around with dirt on his skin and a look of confusion reflecting in his eyes. One that would be replaced with complete embarrassment once he realized everyone had found him.
Nearby, Peyton watched her boyfriend interact with the two cheerleaders, feeling something strongly akin to jealousy.
She was sure that Brooke would never hit on Nathan much less sleep with him but it didn't stop her from feeling left out. Especially since the two had argued again just before the team and cheerleaders abandoned the party to drive out to the woods. "How much further?" the curly blonde asked, hoping to get her boyfriend's attention. But with a sigh, she knew it was a lost cause. He was too hyped up about the prank that he wouldn't have noticed if she had been the naked one stumbling around in the dark.
"How much further?" Brooke repeated after hearing her friend ask the same question. Anticipation coated her words, followed by another giggle. It made Nathan smile and Peyton frown when she saw the exchange between the two. "I'm sleepy," she pouted quietly with a bit of flirtation in her voice.
"Just past those trees," Nathan said, gesturing ahead. He squeezed Bevin's shoulders and held her up when she momentarily lost her balance. "Do you remember when we had to come out here after initiation, Brooke?" he asked suddenly and this time it was the brunette that nearly tripped as she walked alongside him.
The only consolation back then had been that Nathan was getting the same treatment at the same time.
For a short while he hadn't been the ass they all knew and looked up to. He had been human and just as weirded out by it all as Brooke had been. But it hadn't lasted, at least not for him. He took the experience and from it came an overconfidence that Brooke had never seen in him before. He became someone different and expected the same from her. In fact he and the others practically willed it and eventually they began to see her in a different light. Her image changed before their eyes and she hadn't been the same since.
Yet in spite of all the arguments she and Nathan often had, at the heart of it all, they were still friends. And the bond they carried between them was one that nobody, not even Peyton understood.
She couldn't because her initiation into the inner circle had been different. Brooke ensured it and Peyton had never known.
"How could I forget?" Brooke replied. For a moment, she sounded completely sober.
"Dude, he's not here," Tim called out after making it through the trees before anyone else in the group. Hamilton and Springer stood nearby, shaking their heads in agreement.
"It's been an hour. He probably woke up," Nathan shrugged and told everyone to fan out. They'd all look until they found him because it never occurred to anyone else that Lucas might have made it home. Not that it should have. No one had ever done it before in under an hour. And as far as Nathan was concerned, there was no way his despised older brother could be an exception to the rule.
"Come on Bev… we'll go this way," Brooke guided when Nathan went off with a couple guys and their flashlights.
Alone, Peyton leaned against a tree and waited. Whether it was for them to find Lucas or for Nathan to remember she was there, Peyton wasn't sure. All she knew was that no matter how much she loved her boyfriend, it never seemed to be enough for him. She never seemed to be enough. Not when her biggest competitor for his affection was a basketball. And not when Dan Scott made sure it stayed that way.
But when twenty minutes and then thirty passed with no trace of Lucas, Nathan's good mood began to turn sour.
"Oh my god! You don't think he like… made it out? Do you?" Bevin asked as leafs crunched underfoot. Wind carried their hair into their faces and chilled their skin. None of the girls wore jackets and each of them had on a skimpy top that left little to the imagination. "What would that mean? Like would he be our new leader or something?"
"Not if Nathan has anything to say about it," Peyton muttered under her breath.
"No one makes it out, Bev. Not this soon," Brooke assured and spotted the starting four talking in the distance. Whether they were trying to remember the exact location or planning their next move, Brooke wasn't sure. All she knew was that Lucas' absence was quickly creating an anticipatory hum throughout the group. It was also making the Raven boys look like a bunch of jackasses for underestimating the new recruit.
"I'm bored," Theresa declared after another five minutes. "And cold." It was directed to no one in particular but agreed on by all the other girls. "Nate!" she whined, undeterred by the glare he shot in her direction. Even in the dark, with a little moonlight shining through the tree tops, they could all see the irritation he wore so openly. "Let's go! This is killing my buzz!"
And even after, it was another ten minutes before they all agreed to make their way back to Tim's place.
Someone was bound to find Lucas, they decided. Whether it was them or someone else, they had no doubt that he'd at least be embarrassed before the night was over.
It wasn't the original plan but it would have to be enough for now. Otherwise they'd have to admit that the new guy had gotten the best of the starting four. Or worse… that the illegitimate Scott had bested his three month younger brother in a game he hadn't even known he was playing.
Neither prospect was favorable as far as Nathan was concerned.