Blind Leading The Blind

Author's note: Okay…I didn't quite make it till Christmas but I am updating now. Hope you all had some fantastic and peaceful holidays with your families and friends. If you want to be generous and give me a belated present please review.

I know I promised you some BL interaction…I'm sorry but I like to tease :-)

P.S. If I don't update again I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill. Sadly the TV-series is belonging to Mark Schwahn

Chapter 5: Paper Boats

Sit on a train, reading a book
Same damn planet every time I look
Try to relax and slow my heartbeat
Only works when I'm dead asleep
Been thinking and drinking all over the town
Must be gearing up for some kind of melt-down

Los Angeles, September 2011

"So Luke, please remind me again why I'm driving you to the airport?? You have not written anything since I can't tell when, the publisher is bugging me 24/7 to kick your ass to the curb and you don't even bother to call me in weeks!" Lindsey exclaims gesticulating wildly with her right hand while navigating the car with her other free hand.

Lucas just shrugs. He contemplates to tell her what made him call her all of a sudden and ask for this favor but in the end he comes to the conclusion to stay silent. Lindsey is a bit nosey, not in a bothersome way. But he knows if he starts to explain to her why his life is so messed up right now she would not stop to ask more questions. So he stoically proceeds to stare out of the window trying to ignore her penetrating glances.

It is a day in late September. The sun is already shining high above the indigo blue sky. There is not a single cloud visible and the first surfers are already scattered across the beach waiting for the pearly white waves to hit the shore.

The air is humid and somewhat stale. There is no indication of any kind of gust.

His white shirt is stuck to his body only leaving the sleeves dangling down his arms. Every now and then the slipstream springs up and sends cold chills down his spine.

As he stares out of the window he remembers all of the times he spent at home in Tree Hill at the beach. How he walked slowly by the shore listening to his favorite song or sat on a blanket reading a book. He wonders how the past year and half he never bothered to go to the beach. He has an apartment nearby and actually lives in L.A. But somehow Peyton never liked the beach that much and he did not have enough spare time to bathe in the sun.

A little smile creeps over his face as he lets his mind trail off into a certain memory from the past.

"Aren't you afraid to swim alone?"

Somebody nudges him and Lucas flinches a little. He starts to drum nervously with his fingers on the car dashboard while biting his lower lip.

"Luke, we are almost at the airport. Time to wake up sleepy head" Lindsey shouts trying to hold back her giggles.

"Yeah, it's about time." he groans loudly running his hand through his already messed up hair.

"Don't be so grumpy Luke. You are going home to Tree Hill. I bet your friends and family will be delighted to see you again." Lindsey says while giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

As he does not have the urge to carry on a conversation with Lindsey Lucas just nods his head in agreement.

Lindsey is used to this kind of answers and therefore straight ahead pulls into the parking lot.

Lucas immediately opens the door and proceeds to open the trunk to get his luggage.

Then he quickly lights up a cigarette and greedily takes a drag.

He inhales the smoke and wipes the sweat off of his face with his sleeve.

Lindsey steps out of the car and can't hold back her laughter anymore.

"You are really something else Lucas Scott. Didn't your mother teach you any good manners? Usually a gentleman opens the door for the girl." she sneers.

With the cigarette in the corner of his mouth he can't offer her a big smile but manages it to shoot her a sheepish grin.

She really got used to his behavior in the past year and half. At first she did not like him at all as they met in a meeting with the publisher of his book. Sure he was obviously good looking and charming but it seemed as if he was a bit too bigheaded. She often got into these big fights with him over the details of his book. He definitely knew how to push her buttons with his cocky attitude and self-absorbed comments. But she knew how to fight back and unnerve him to death. Not until she read his book completely Lindsey learned how to read Lucas's mind and decipher his personality. With every page she turned over it began to dawn on her how much of a troubled man he was. Sometimes he surprised her when late at night he started to spill some secrets from his past. But as suddenly as he started to open up he quickly build up this invisible wall around him again. She often was astonished to see that not even his girlfriend Peyton could heal his wounds. So he more and more he started to isolate himself from all of them.

As Lucas stubs out the cigarette the blonde haired girl shifts her weight from one foot to the other.

"Thanks for picking me up and driving my lazy ass to the airport Linds." he says in an appreciative voice.

The girl smiles knowingly and embraces him into a friendly hug. Then he gives her a quick kiss on the cheek and draws his sunglasses up.

Lindsey turns on her heels and walks back to her car.

Lucas gaze trails off to the airport in front of him as he lights up another cigarette.

He slowly takes a deep drag and exhales the smoke with a noisy sigh.

New York, September 2011

The fashion show isn't scheduled for another two weeks but Brooke is already working full time to organize every little detail to its perfection. She has to pick out the models for the show, put on the finishing touches on the dresses and send out tons of invitations to the press, celebrities and business partners. But this is still not all of it. While doing all these things Victoria, Brooke's mother is constantly supervising her.

"Brooke, don't you think this skirt should be at least covering the girl's ass?" Victoria points out with a disgusted smirk on her face.

Brooke rolls her eyes trying to ignore her mother's comments. She proceeds to instruct the model on how to walk down the runway without delivering too much insight while wearing the skirt.

As the young girl walks down the runway and accidentally trips Victoria shrieks.

"Brooke, this girl can't even walk straight on. Do you really want to let somebody like this represent your clothing line?"

Brooke goes up to the model and offers her a hand to help her stand up. The girl blushes and stares onto the ground afraid of another fit of rage.

Brooke gives her an encouraging pat on the shoulder and then lets her take a short break.

Victoria folds her arms in front of her chest and shoots Brooke an ice cold glare.

"Brooke when will you ever learn it. This is the fashion business. There is no room for pity or any excuses. If you don't teach this girl how to work the runway she will embarrass you out there. This show has to be flawless. Everybody expects perfection from you" she scolds.

Brooke's bottom lip trembles as she has almost reached her boiling point. She knows that this is a good opportunity to vent all of her anger and frustration. But she feels too drained and empty to pick up another fight with her mother. It simply doesn't make any sense to argue with her. Therefore she just lets out a silent sigh.

All of a sudden Brooke's cell phone rings and gives her a notice of an incoming text message.

"Hey slut. I picked up your dress and brought it over to your apartment for the party. Your mum told me that your date will show up at 8pm sharp.

P.S. Don't drink too much and screw over any strangers. You know this is my specialty."

Brooke shakes her head in disbelief and wrinkles her nose.

Fantastic…another party she has to attend and that her mother forgot to actually tell her about.

--------

It is long past midnight as Brooke opens the door to her apartment.

She hangs up her jacket on the coat rack and slips out of her heels.

Slowly she walks to the living room and slumps down on the comfortable sofa with the huge cushions.

Only the moonlight illuminates the room and casts some distorted shadows over Brooke.

She stretches her legs and tries to a yawn. As she is about to close her eyes for a second Brooke spots the blinking red light of the answering machine.

She rubs her temples with her fingertips and walks to the answering machine.

"You got three new messages" the mechanical voice says as Brooke pushes the button.

"Brooke. It's your mom. Don't forget your meeting with the journalist from Glamour magazine tomorrow at noon."

……

"Hello Miss Davis. This is Adam Jones speaking. As promised we will tomorrow afternoon deliver the carpet you purchased last week. Miss Gattina told us she will be at your place to let us in. I hope this is okay with you."

…..

Brooke groans and walks back to the living room. With a sad expression on her face she stares out of the window and watches the cars on the street drive by. Although it is pretty late some people are still strolling down the sidewalks enjoying one of the last warm nights of the summer.

"Brooke? If this is still your phone number please call me back! Something happened and I don't want to talk about it here. It is important. Please call me back!"

Tree Hill, September 2011

As Lucas leaves the airport no one is there to greet him and drive him to Tree Hill.

So he takes a cab to get to the town. Driving by the sign which welcomes the visitors to Tree Hill Lucas feels his heart sting. He never imagined it that he would come back home under the given circumstances. Sure he graduated from college and started to live his dream by publishing his first book but he always figured this would be his home eventually. Somehow along the way everything kind of went wrong.

After he got his degree at UNC several companies approached him to sign a contract. But he decided to move to Los Angeles to live together with Peyton. Their relationship status during these years could be described more or less like an on and off thing. He struggled to publish his book and then suffered from some strenuous writer's block. She started an internship at some record label trying move up to the top of the food chain. Often he contemplated to leave L.A. behind him and head back to Tree Hill. But as Peyton launched her own company Lucas was bound to stay put.

Now as he was driving through the town in the cab it hit him pretty hard how much he actually missed Tree Hill. The past three years he didn't visit his mum and Lilly for the holidays. Nathan and Haley along with his godson James were just a blur in his mind, every now and then awoken by a greeting card or pictures from family festivities.

The driver motions to Lucas that he reached the desired location. Lucas grabs his bags and hands the man some cash. As he opens the door of the car the sunlight blends his sight so that he has to put a hand over his eyes to take a look at his surroundings.

It surprises him how little has changed. The house is still looking like he left it the other day to move to UNC. Sure the fence is painted in another color now but other than that everything still looks exactly the same. Nervously he searches for the keys in the pocket of his jeans and proceeds to open the door to his room.

He sneaks a little peek into the room and chuckles lightly. It looks very different now that his little sister is living here. The walls are all painted pink and the posters of his basketball idols are replaced with some of the hip teen bands. The place where his desk with the large bookshelves was looks now more like a dressing table.

Then something odd catches Lucas's attention. He moves closer to the table to get a better look at the collage.

It consists of a bunch of pictures from Lilly's previous birthday bashes and family gatherings.There is one with James and her where the little boy smears ice cream all over her face and both of them have huge grins all over their faces. Then there is a picture with his mother who has Lilly propped on her lap opening some birthday presents.

Lucas catches his breath as he spots another picture with a familiar looking brunette holding hands with his sister showing her a beautiful flower in the garden.

And then all of a sudden he realizes why he hasn't come back to Tree Hill all these years.

This was the place where he was ever truly happy...

Author's note:

Lynn – Wow I don't know what to say to you anymore. Your reviews really left me totally speechless. I didn't even know that you are reading my story so you can imagine how surprised I was. It is quite scary how much you actually can picture my story and the scenes. It is like you are reading my mind. Don't want to praise you anymore here hun…but I love you so much…

P.S. Watch out for a PM from me anytime soon…

Toddntan – I'm really glad that you are reviewing again. There will be some more drama in the upcoming chapter…

Whitney – I'm relieved that you are getting a feel for the story because up until now I haven't given away that much…every now and then I'm going to bring back some memories of both Brooke and Lucas to give you an insight on what happened the past years. P.S. What you said makes sense :-)

Chey – Yeah I like Whitey too…somehow I feel that he will not be used that much in season 5…so I had to use his character in this story for some important character development + drama….There is definitely much more BL interaction ahead...