A/N: Hello everyone! I can't say it enough times that I'm really glad you're all enjoying the story. Personally I'm not too happy with chapter but some things had to be done in order for certain character story lines to progress. So if you hate it, I hope you won't hold it against me ;)
Chapter 18 - Where Does the Good Go?
What do you do with the leftover you
How do you know, when to let go
Where does the good go
Where does the good go
Lucas explained to Brooke that he needed to talk a few things over with Haley. He assured his girlfriend that he wasn't angry for the secret the two girls kept but he wanted to get everything out in the open with his best friend. The last thing Lucas wanted was any more secrets between them all. Especially since he was beginning to see how holding them in could slowly break a person.
He could see it happening with Brooke.
Lucas knew and understood that some truths had yet to surface and he accepted it. But in regards to his friendship with Haley, he didn't want her to ever feel like she needed to lie to him.
"Okay… shouldn't I have been the one you dropped off first so you could go back to Brooke's and make out or something equally barf worthy?" Haley asked with a hint of teasing to her voice after Lucas returned from walking Brooke to her door. There, the couple had shared a sweet kiss that they kept PG-13 since Haley was probably watching from where she sat inside the car. Most likely making gagging noises to amuse herself as she waited.
"I just wanted to talk, Hales." Glancing between his best friend and the road, Lucas noted the confused expression she wore. "It's kind of important."
"Look, if this is some sort of late reaction to Nathan inviting me to the party… nothing happened between us," Haley declared, mistaking his pensiveness for something else entirely. "We barely even talked for a couple minutes. That's it," she defended, all the while uncertain as to why she felt so guilty for blowing Nathan off when he came over and made an effort to be nice.
"Well I'm glad to hear it but that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about," Lucas said honestly. "I know what you and Brooke did for me that night I went to Tim's first party. But I'm not mad that you didn't tell me the whole truth about what happened. Brooke made it perfectly clear that keeping it a secret was all her idea," he explained as he pulled to a stop in front of a charming green two story home.
"Lucas, I'm sorry," Haley immediately said, shaking her head remorsefully. "And you're right… it was Brooke's idea but I can't let her take all the blame for it. I made a choice to hold back some of the truth. I just… I don't know," she shrugged while Lucas patiently listened. "I listened to her talk about the way things worked and the stupid games they all played." Even weeks later, the thought of such a cruel process made her skin crawl. "I just didn't want things to get any worse for you and Brooke seemed to really know what she was talking about."
In the end, Haley wasn't sorry for the choice she made.
Granted, she had felt guilt over it for days after the incident but that slowly began to fade away as she started to realize just how bad things could get for Lucas. That combined with the fact that Brooke clearly cared about him.
Though she kept it hidden from everyone else, Brooke allowed Haley to see just how much she wanted to protect him. Sometimes it was subtle. A gesture as simple as leading Lucas away so that he'd be out of Nathan's path. Other times it was just talking to him in the middle of the hallway, something that wouldn't have been acceptable if anyone else had done it. At least not until he had completely gotten through his hazing because until then he wouldn't technically be one of them.
Or so Brooke explained earlier that day during their makeover.
"She cares a lot about you, Luke."
No one else knew about the arguments she repeatedly got into with Nathan over Lucas. And on the night of the party, Haley didn't understand exactly what Brooke risked by getting Lucas out of the woods before the others found him. She didn't understand most of what went on in their crazy inner circle when Brooke first attempted to explain it all.
But she understood it now and she couldn't let Brooke take the fall for something they had both agreed on.
"I know she does," he quietly replied. "I care a lot about her too."
"So are we okay?"
Nodding, Lucas gave her a small smile. "Yeah… we're okay. Just no more secrets. Whatever it is… you can always tell me, Hales."
"I know," she smiled back and gave him a brief hug. "Call me tomorrow, okay? Maybe we can do some best friend stuff like… I don't know, claiming weird items from the lost and found or something," Haley suggested with a grin. It had been a while since the two of them went off on their own to do something childish and fun.
"You got a deal," Lucas agreed and said his goodnight. Like the gentleman he was, he waited until Haley was safely inside the house before driving off.
Everything would be okay.
-----
Before Brooke and Lucas showed up for school on Monday morning, almost the entire student body already knew that they were dating. Brooke credited Bevin and Ashley for spreading the word. Both cheerleaders were fond of gossip, whether it was hearing about it or spreading it. And as it turned out, their hobby of choice actually came in handy as it saved the couple from the monotony of having to tell anyone who asked throughout the day that yes, they were dating.
"So the queen bee is actually dating the illegitimate brother of her supposed good friend," Peyton said dryly once she heard the news. "I can only imagine what Nathan's going to say when he sees you." She seemed almost amused and Brooke couldn't help but sigh, wondering again how things got so screwed up between her and Peyton.
Brooke asked herself at least a dozen times since their last falling out if it could have been prevented. She wondered if maybe she wasn't understanding or sympathetic enough. But in the end she realized that no matter how big of an effort she made, it wouldn't matter if Peyton wasn't willing to do the same.
"He knows," Brooke stated simply.
One of the last things she wanted to do was get into an argument with the blonde cheerleader over her new relationship with Lucas. Unfortunately if Peyton's latest mood swings were any indication, Brooke knew their conversation wouldn't be a pretty one. "He was the first person I told after it happened. He's fine with it," she shrugged.
But the moment the words left her mouth, Brooke realized that she shouldn't have said anything at all.
"Wait, let me get this straight," Peyton shook her head as though coming out of some sort of trance. "Nathan has this huge vendetta against his brother that practically drives him and me both crazy," she reminded. "And it didn't matter what I said to him about it. He still wouldn't cool it and you knew that." The expression on her face seemed to get angrier with each word spoken. For a moment, Brooke felt a genuine pang of remorse. "But all you had to do was click your heels together three times and suddenly all is forgiven?!" Peyton practically yelled, drawing a lot of unwanted attention.
All around them, students began to turn to watch the pair argue.
People always enjoyed a good fight but for some perverse reason, watching two best or former best friends always seemed more interesting.
"No, it wasn't as simple as that," Brooke denied in a quiet voice. "But if you want to talk about it, then fine… we'll talk. Just not here. Not with everyone staring at us, waiting to see if someone will throw the first punch or something," she shook her head at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Especially the idea that the two girls, no matter what kind of fall out they had, could ever get into a knock down, rolling around on the floor kind of fight.
That sort of thing only happened if the two friends were never really friends at all.
"Tell me the truth, Brooke. Once and for all," Peyton hissed angrily. "Were you fucking Nate the whole time we were together or is it just something you started after we broke up? Is it some kind of fun little game to you? Screw the Scott Brothers." The crowd let out a collective gasp as Peyton's venom filled words reached their ears. "Maybe that's why Nathan's okay with you and Lucas because he knows he has to share you or else you might just get bored and kick him to the curb the way he did with me."
When she looked at her, Brooke could hardly recognize the girl she had grown up alongside. Gone was her best friend. The one she stood beside at a mother's funeral. The girl she laughed and cried with. It was just gone. Erased as if it never existed and would never exist again.
Hot tears stung her eyes but Brooke refused to let them fall. She couldn't say anything.
"That's what I thought. You really are just a heartless slut."
She saw red as she continued to look at Peyton and before she could stop herself or think about the consequences, she raised her hand and slapped the blonde hard across the cheek.
"You bitch," Peyton whispered as Brooke stood still, shocked by her own actions. Cradling her cheek, she looked down at the brunette before uttering, "You'll pay for that."
Like a bull being released from its cage, Peyton lunged at Brooke and the two went down onto the floor. A crowd of spectators all flattened themselves against their lockers, giving the two girls enough room to roll around as each vied for the dominant spot on top. "Brooke! Peyton!"
Brooke's fist connected with Peyton's jaw after being slammed onto the tiles roughly.
Nathan yelled from one side of the hall but Lucas and Jake were closer on the other end. They made their way through the crowd even though they didn't want to disperse for the two ball players. Reaching the girls would mean the end of the fight and everyone wanted to see the former best friends continue until someone cried.
While Jake managed to pull a kicking and swinging Peyton off of Brooke, Lucas bent down to help her up.
Both had sore knuckles, a few scratches and bruises.
Even though Peyton had been the one on top, she seemed to have the most damage done to her. "What the hell was that?" Nathan demanded as he forced his way between the two pairs. "Brooke?" he asked, realizing that he had the best chance of getting any kind of answers from her rather than Peyton.
But no one was talking.
Lucas had turned Brooke around to face him and he gently pushed back the hair that had fallen across her face. Tears gently rolled down her cheeks and she bit her lip, desperately trying to stop them. He had his own questions but not the chance to ask them as the first bell rang. Teachers began to come up to their doorways and realizing that the fight was officially over, the group of students all began to scatter.
"Miss Davis and Miss Sawyer… my office… Now!"
Of all the teachers to bust them, it had to be Coach Whitey Durham.
-----
No one saw Brooke or Peyton for the rest of the morning. Both Lucas and Nathan were worried and curious about what had happened. Neither knew the source of the argument and considering how bad things had been between the two friends as of late, neither could guess what happened either.
But they were about to find out what kind of punishment the girls had been given.
Standing behind the food service center with a sixty year old worker in between them was Brooke and Peyton.
The girls had been given hair nets and paper aprons to wear over their clothes. Cheap plastic gloves covered their hands as they served food to incoming students. "If you laugh, Bevin I swear you're off the squad," Brooke warned when three of the cheerleaders stood, mouth open with surprise.
"Okay, but… smile!" Bevin said and snapped a picture with her cell phone.
"Bevin!"
"See ya at practice!" the blonde cheerleader called out happily as the three girls headed to the outdoor tables.
"I guess the mighty Brooke Davis doesn't have as many friends as she thought she did," Peyton muttered dryly. A dark tinge circled her eye as it slowly began to bruise. She thought it was worth it though since Brooke had a headache from hell. All noise had her cringing so Peyton made sure to drop the metal bins of food roughly onto the counter just to see Brooke squirm.
"I realize it's probably difficult for you to see out of your bad eye and all… but Bevin got both of us in that picture," Brooke informed in the same dry tone.
"Maybe we should just get something from the vending machines." Lucas suggested from the back of the cafeteria, where he and Haley stood watching the scene before them.
It was why they didn't notice Nathan had come up behind them until he finally spoke.
"Yeah, we probably shouldn't go up there," he opined. "It'd probably just embarrass them."
"So do you know what their fight was about?" Haley worked up the nerve to ask. She bit her lip uncertainly and tried not to feel disappointed when Nathan didn't so much as glance down at her. After all, she expected it considering how she blew him off at the party and then spent the first half of the school day avoiding him.
"I know about as much as guys do," Nathan shrugged. All morning long, rumors had been floating from classroom to classroom. Some said they were fighting over Lucas while others declared that they were fighting for Nathan. Then there was the rumor that Peyton was jealous because she wanted Brooke for herself.
Not to mention a half dozen other unbelievable scenarios.
"Just…" Nathan began hesitantly. "Make sure she's okay when you get the chance," he said and walked back outside.
"Come on," Haley added. The two friends followed suit and left before Brooke could see them.