Chapter 5: I Wish I Could, Don't You Wish You Could?

11 PM

Tim's Living Room

Haley and Nathan sat in a half comfortable, half awkward silence.
"Did Brooke leave with Rachel already?" asked Nathan, looking for something to talk about.
"Um….no she shouldn't have. Rachel left early with Cooper. I do wonder where she is though. It's not like her to disappear from the party," replied Haley becoming concerned.
"Well she did say that she needed to go to the bathroom."
"That was almost half an hour ago. Maybe we should go check on her, you know make sure she's not passed out or anything," suggested Haley.
"Alright, yeah."
Haley and Nathan were making their way to the bathroom when Peyton called out to Haley.
"Haley! Wait up! Haley!"
"Peyton," sighed Haley, "I'm kinda in the middle of something, can't you wait a while?"
"Just…come on it'll only take a little I promise."
"You haven't exactly given me any reasons to listen to you, Peyton. And you haven't been a good friend either, which is funny because I started out as your friend before becoming Brooke's. Why should I listen to you?"
"Haley," Nathan cut in, not wanting to stand and listen to Haley and Peyton bicker, "I'll go find…..um I'll go find the jacket, you just stay and talk to Peyton."
"Well…if you're sure you can ensure the…um really expensive jacket is safe," said Haley.
"You know I can," replied Nathan.

As Nathan was approaching the stairs to the second floor, he bumped into Lucas.
"Hey man, you just go to the bathroom?"asked Nathan deciding to stay civil so that he could get answers.
"Yeah, why?"
"You seen Brooke? She said that she needed to go to the bathroom like twenty minutes ago."
"Oh…um yeah actually. We kinda exchanged a few…..loud words about how I shouldn't be concerned with how many drinks she had. Then she stormed off towards the beach. I think she might've taken some vodka….."
"What? You were hounding her about drinking too much and then you let an already drunk Brooke out to the beach were there's open water with bottles of vodka?" hollered Nathan.
"Dude, I see where I was wrong, but I was just going to get Peyton as backup to-"
Nathan didn't wait to hear the rest of Lucas' sentence as he pushed him aside and ran quickly towards the beach.

:):)

The Beach

"Brooke!Brooke!" called out Nathan.
He thought that Lucas still loved Brooke, but now he was seriously reconsidering his thoughts. Especially since he let a drunken Brooke out by the ocean. He ran along the beach searching for her.

After a few minutes he finally saw something on the other side of the pier.
"Brooke! Brooke did you drink both bottles?"
"N…na….Nate….h-h-hey," slurred Brooke barely able to say a word.
"I'll take that as a yes," sighed Nathan, "Come on I'll take you home."
"I….no..mom….a-an-daddd….hooomee," Brooke managed to say.
"Alright, then I'll take you to my house. Dan is out of the country and Deb's trying rehab for a while."
"Yea."
Nathan picked up Brooke and grabbed her purse.
"Luke…"Brooke suddenly said.
"What? He left you here, why are you asking for him?" asked Nathan. Before he could get his answer though, Brooke fell asleep.

:):)

Nathan's House

Just as Nathan was carrying Brook in, she woke up.
"Nate…I can walk myself. I'm like not even that drunk. You go back and hang with Haley," said Brooke.
"Haley and I got our stuff solved, actually."
"Really? Yay!" Brooke exclaimed as she clapped her hands.
"But that's not the real problem….why'd you let Peyton and Luke get to you?"
"They didn't."
"Brooke…..come on you can tell me, we're like best friends."

After a long pause, Nathan thought that Brooke had fallen asleep.
"Well alright then."
"I still love him," blurted Brooke quietly.
"…Well…..that's bad and good I guess…..You finally admitted that you still have feelings, but he's with Peyton. There's not much you can do…"
"I could always pull a Peyton," scoffed Brooke.
"You wouldn't….would you?"
"I….but don't you ever wish that you could just run away?"
"Sometimes, yeah….but things are fine here now so-"
"Yet you still wish that sometimes."
"Don't Brooke. You don't know what you're saying, you're drunk!"
"I don't care. I don't plan on staying here and watching Luke and Peyton live their stupid happy lives."
"Brooke….."
"I'll leave tomorrow. Tell Hales if you want but no one else. I trust you Nate," said Brooke as she walked down the familiar hallways to the guest bedroom.

:):)

Haley's Car

"Peyton I really have to go now!" said Haley as she got in her car.
"Haley, just think about it, Chris is willing to start recording tomorrow! Just….stop by at least. It's legit too! Karen's helping me start up Tric!" called out Peyton.
Just then, Haley's phone rang.
"Thank god," muttered Haley as she waved to Peyton and drove off, "Hello?"
"Hey Haley, it's me Nathan. I know we're not dating or anything so it's probably not good to call you this late but we're friends, so I thought-"
"What's wrong Nathan?" asked Haley becoming worried.
"Well I found Brooke and she was totally wasted, so I brought her to my house- Deb and Dan are gone- and she was saying how she wished that she could run away and then before I could tell what was happening, she was telling me that she was running away tomorrow!"
"Well she was drunk….maybe she'll forget by the morning."
"I know, I told her she was just drunk and didn't know what she was talking about but-"
"Look, I'll come over and we can make sure she doesn't run away. I'll call Rachel too."
"Alright sure...and Haley…thanks," said Nathan as he hung up.

:):)

Nathan's House

Ten minutes later, Haley and Rachel arrived at Nathan's house.

"Are you sure he's not just drunk as well and fabricating stories?" questioned Rachel, slightly down about the fact that Brooke had confided in Nathan instead of her, even if Rachel wasn't there and she was drunk.
"I'm sure Rachel," Haley paused, "I wasn't aware that you knew what 'fabricating' meant" smirked Haley.
"Ha-ha, come on let's go," smiled Rachel surprised that Haley could be funny.

When they reached the door, Nathan opened it with a worried look on his face, something uncommon for him.
"Woah Nate! You are freaking R-I-C-H!" exclaimed Rachel as she stepped into the Scott household. "
You passed," Rachel gestured to their surrounding, "a future of this up Haley?"
Haley blushed and rolled her eyes, "Glad to see that when Brooke is threatening to run away, and extremely drunk, you still manage to care about how much money Nathan has."
Rachel ignored Haley and turned to Nathan.
"I still don't think she said she'd run away, but take us to her," said Rachel.
"I promised you she did," replied Nathan as he led Rachel and Haley to the guest bedroom.
"Brookie, I'm totally sorry for leavin' you, but you don't have to be such a drama queen and tell Nathan that you're gonna be ru-" Rachel stopped as she entered the now-empty room.
"Jesus Rachel! Tell us when you're gonna stop!" exclaimed Haley as she ran into Rachel.
"She's gone! She's not here!" shouted Rachel.
"What? What are you talking about? Nathan, we told you to keep an eye on her!" Haley shouted.
"I did! I have no idea how the hell she got out!

:):)

Somewhere Outside

4 AM

Brooke stumbled as she avoided the boulder at the intersection. Nathan had thought she was out cold when he went to answer the door, but she was really just pretending. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew that it was getting cold, for it was winter, and she didn't have a coat. All Brooke wanted to do was just lay down and go to sleep. She noticed that she just happened to arrive at Lucas' front door. She didn't come on purpose. Really she didn't, and wouldn't go inside….but it was so cold and she was tired, so she found herself walking up to his door and knocking.

:):)

Lucas' House

Lucas couldn't fall asleep, which was odd because it was 4 in the morning, and even though he'd gone to Tim's party, he'd usually be asleep, but today he couldn't fall asleep. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't fall asleep either. Just then he heard a knock on his door. Peyton should've been the first person he thought of, but he couldn't help but think of Brooke. He didn't know why. After all, he'd been really mean to her at Tim's, so when he opened the door he was surprised to see exactly who he thought of. Brooke.
"Brooke?" asked Lucas, confused as to why she would be here, but at the same time happy.
"It's cold," stated Brooke.
"And you have no jacket. Why aren't you at Nathan's? Did something happen?"
"He called Rach and Haley. When he went to let them in, I sneaked out."
"Brooke…come inside, but I need to let them know you're ok."
"Please don't…I'm so tired and cold. I don't want to go back there. Can't I just stay here?"
"I….." Lucas paused, he wanted her to stay, really he did, but he knew that Peyton wouldn't be happy if she found out… "Yeah come one," answered Lucas, deciding that a petty fight with Peyton would be worth keeping Brooke safe from the cold.
"Thanks," said Brooke as she gave him a smile and climbed into his bed.

Lucas was about to lay a comforter on the ground for himself, but Brooke spoke up.
"You don't have to sleep on the floor. This is your bed, not mine."
"Are you sure? I mean are you ok with that?"
"Of course. It wouldn't be fair of me to take up the bed."

:):)

Lucas' House

10 AM

Peyton sighed as she pulled up to Lucas' house. She had called Haley twice and texted her. Peyton really needed to sign someone to Tric's opening night, and Haley wouldn't answer Peyton. On top of all of the Tric problems, Luke had been acting weird last night, so she'd decided to come surprise him. It was a good thing that Karen and Keith were away for the weekend. That way Peyton could cheer Lucas up with something like s-, Peyton's mouth dropped open, as she opened Lucas' door and all previous thoughts were forgotten.
"Brooke?"

A/N: I suck at updating. Sorry Happy Late Thanksgiving! here take a piece of pie as a peace offering for no updates for...what? a month+ or -? anyway, ~gives pumpkin pie~...and if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving...happy saturday! Unless it's sunday or friday where you live. Also the chapter names probably are stupid. I just got bored of seeing Chapter 1...Chapter 2...chapter...etc. so yeah. Oh and I'd like to know if there's anyone actually reading this story so...i wouldn't normally ask... but ...review? Plus I'd like to know if i totally suck too.