Hello all, thank you for the reviews! Keep em coming!
This chapters a bit more of a filler chapter and building up friendships etc, dont let it lose your interest! Keep feeding back good or bad! :)
Face down, pillow covered in last nights mascara, a bottle of wine three quarters empty, and a smashed photoframe decorating the floor.
Thats how Brooke Davis woke up this morning.
She raised her head from the pillow, in disbelief. Had she been that drunk? She tried to recall. The last thing she remembered was speaking to Julian, and then walking away from Julian..she sat in the living room. Then she remembered
"Brooke?" Haley had asked, coming and sitting next to her on the sofa
"I saw Julian leave.." she started, and Brooke nodded, sadly
"He chose Alex"
"did he choose or did you make him?"
"is that relevant?"
"kinda"
"i asked him to choose and he said he had to choose her. Hales look I dont want to talk about this and this is your party, so get your hot ass back out there and go and mingle with all the furry faced "alternative" manager dudes, i'll be fine"
"Brooke-"
"Hales, im not the same girl as high school Brooke. She usually just slept with a boy. I just want to sleep. Honestly. Im fine" she said, and Haley sighed. She knew by the sadness in those amber eyes that it was all a lie, but once Brooke's barrier was up, it was up.
"Call me if you need me. And remember. Your Brooke Davis" she said, with a small smile, and she raised her glass. Brooke nodded and smiled a little. She closed her eyes and heard someone else sit down next to her, and raised her head once more
"Clay?" she asked, watching the agent pour himself a whisky
"You fancy hitting one of those rich people parties we both despise so much?" he asked, with a small dimpled smile
"why would I do that?" she asked, looking into Clays eyes, searching for some sort of clarity, an answer. Unfortunately, Clay didnt have one
"well when your sad its two ways. Drown in tears or drown in wine. I know which ones more fun, do you?" he said, a boyish grin spreading across his features
"you have a point"
"im an agent, I always have a point. The right point" he said cockily
"case closed ,I'm sold you got a cab?"
"called one ten minutes ago"
"how did you know I would come?"
"i had an idea you treated your sadness the same way I treated mine"
"why, are you sad?"
Clay thought for a second, then lied. This was his fresh start, he didn't want anyone to know. he was nobodies charity case or source of sympathy. he shook off his own feelings
"nope, but those parties have hot women" and Brooke cackled, Clay grinned at her and for a minute both of them smiled at eachother. Clay took her hand and they walked towards the cab, both of them having certain dull aches in their hearts that they wanted gone
Clay sat on his balcony. He hadnt had a hangover this bad apart from Nathans last birthday. Even water wasnt curing this one.
He heard a knock on the door
"its open" Clay said, softly
"oh man, sunglasses? It must be bad" Nathan said, a small smile playing across his features
"anything useful to add to the discussion?"
"nope, Haley wanted to work on music, jamies at Chucks, and im kinda bored"
"oh, im the back-up?" he shook his head, raising his eyebrows
"Clay-" Nathan started
"just kidding. It is amazingly easy to wind you up. Can I interest you in some water?"
"some of us can handle their licqour"
"that hurts. Kinda true though- there is one person that will be feeling a lot worse this morning though"
There was a knock at Brookes door. Then two. Then three. She mentally asked them to go away, she mentally shouted at them to go away. Or at least text her instead of knocking, her sore head already felt like a beating drum, let alone someone trying to beat down the door.
And what if it was Julian. She really didnt fancy speaking to him after last night. Or even worse, Alex..
She decided to take a chance and open it. She shut her eyes
"Damn B Davis, were you waiting for a booty call?" sounded a familiar voice, a voice that was meant to live hours away, on the other side of the state
the only voice that she felt like listening too right now. her eyes flicked open
"P Sawyer!" she yelled, forgetting the hangover for two seconds and flinging herself onto her best friend for a hug
"now there was the reaction I was waiting for, hows my favourite girl doing?!" Peyton grinned, returning Brookes hug and taking in her hungover appearance
"kinda like crap" Brooke said, a small smile appearing "but enough of that, hows my favourite niece?"
"oh Sawyer brooke scott is great" she replied, earnestly, showing Brooke a picture
"Aww that is precious..why are you in one tree hill when you could be with her?!"
"a little birdie told me you were struggling through all the big stuff on your own. Classic brooke davis, bascially"
"We dont all have podcasts and hidden webcams" brooke teased, and peyton laughed
"oh now I know it must be big, you only get bitchy when your reallllly struggling"
"i do not"
"i beg to differ"
"ha ha" brooke offered, her eyes bulging out like a carcicuture. Peyton laughed again
"where have you even been? I didnt know the nightlife around tree hill was so"
"teenage?" offered Brooke, slipping some shades on and pulling Peyton inside
"kinda" Peyton laughed back
"I was at this party at Haleys, and then me and Clay went to TRIC"
"hold up, who is Clay..I thought your current partner went by the name of Julian? Kinda tall, kinda skinny, brown hair that doesnt behave?"
"Clay is Nathans agent and a good friend of Naley. And hes not my partner. Either is julian at the moment. Im just Brooke Davis, without the boy again" she responded, pursing her lips together
"i dont like this conversation anymore" she said, leaning her head on her shoulder
"oh honey, what happened?" Peyton asked, a geunine concern in her tone
"Have you heard about Alex Dupree"
"as in the beautiful disaster you hired for your campaign?"
"poetic and nicer then my termionlogy, but yes"
"he didnt-"
"no, he didnt. He might aswell of, but he didnt have a physical affair or anything"
"so what did she do? And what did he do?"
"she, she needs saving Peyton. And julian wants to save her"
"and the problem is?"
"i cant be screwed over like that again"
Peytons brows furrowed together. She knew the again was referring to her and her love for Lucas, which worked out great for her, but not so much for her brunette bombshell of a best friend, who held onto the insecurity from that situation
"hes not Luke"
"how did we get so deep within about ten minutes? , we need a cocktail, how long you in town for? And before you answer that, if you even thought about booking a hotel, cancel it now because your skinny ass is staying in my guest room" Brooke grinned, walking away, chugging a bottle of water down
Peyton leaned her head backstory
"about a week? Luke is working on a new script and he insisted the only place he could concreate was on his mothers boat, with Sawyer, so I told him I was gonna come and see my favourite girl for a week and work her through her problems"
"Peyt, I appreciate the thought but I dont need saving, or help"
"I know you dont, but to be honest I could use the company. Nobody is a patch on my Brooke Davis in the new town"
"well, consider this your hotel for the week. Now, for cocktails, here or TRIC?"
"were you not dieing of a hangover not so long ago?"
"well if its between getting drunk or talking about my feelings, I picked my deck of cards"
"you sure did". Peyton sighed. Getting feelings out of Brooke was like getting blood out of a stone, and it felt even worse knowing that this was partially caused by her and her husband.
"So best takeaway to cure a stomach problem" Clay mused
"a hangover"
"stomach problem, thank you nathan"
"wimp"
"you know, on your birthday when you claimed you had a headache the day after, I totally let that ride instead of calling it what it was"
"a headache"
"a badass hangover"
"whatever"
"aha!" clay was trimphuant. He knew that had been a hangover.
"i always go with Pizza"
"good choice. I could totally get you a pizza commerical"
"Fast food and sport. Yup. Sold"
"Nathan Scott, face of the meat feast"
"Clay Evans, face of the doughball"
"oh Nathan, youve become so much funnier since you met me" clay grinned, serenely. Nathan chuckled
"you wish"
"i know"
"so how did you get so drunk last night, I mean I know me and Haley had some punch but-"
"me and Davis may of gone to TRIC"
"Davis? Oh god as in Brooke? Oh Clay you didnt"
"before you start facepalming, it was totally innocent, she needed cheering up, and it was nice to make another friend around here. No offence dude but your kind of boring. And married"
"so Brooke is your new wingman" nathans brow raised
"i think the correct term is wingwoman. Or wingperson"
"Clay" Nathan whined
"what is the big deal, so I took her out to drown her sorrows to save her turning your living room into another pool area, she had fun, I had fun. Platonic fun. Kapeche?"
"Ok"
"not everyone needs to seal their friendship with a sextape"
"dude! How did you even find out about that"
"the way that mouth got his nickname. And also after a couple of beers" he grinned
"so you went through your wifes friendship group, and your lecturing me" he chuckled "good game Nate"
Nathan chuckled, and looked at his phone
"speaking of my wifes friends, Haley wants you to come out for a dinner with us and Brooke"
"oh , im allowed now? Shall I order a leash, or maybe even an alarm, incase I get too close and smell her or something?" Clay asked, his eyes pretending to be wide and inquistive
"yeah, funny man. Tomorrow night at the little italian near clothes over bros"
"sounds perfect. Now. As much as I enjoy all this chatter, I would kind of enjoy playing the new gears of war game more"
"Kapeche" Nathan mimicked, and they both laughed, picking up the controllers, and for the next hour or so, reverting back to their younger selfs.
"Chase Adams" Peyton said, grinning and sitting down
"Bar manager" he said, proudly, and smiled "hows it going Peyton?" he asked
"good thanks. You got a drink for a best friends reunion?" Peyton asked, giving him what passed as a jokey wink
"i think I can rustle up something" Chase said, returning the wink, and moving to the back of the bar
"if you dont work this thing out with Julian, he is very cute" peyton joked
"he makes terrible drinks though" Brooke ran her hand through her hair "my man needs to make a good cocktail"
"very fair"
Brooke looked at her phone
"oh, Haleys organised me a dinner. She really does think im depressed, doesnt she?" Brooke asked
"well when you lock yourself up and dont talk to anyone-"
"i dont talk because I dont want to, not because im some sort of deluded loner"
"whats so bad about a dinner"
"nothing really"
"so your just bitching about nothing really?"
"the way you used to in high school"
"ha ha ha ha" Peyton laughed softly, pulling a face
"so, who is this Clay guy?"
"I told you, Nates agent"
"Is he cute?"
"He is"
"Brooke! I can see where this is going"
"Do inform me"
"you dont wanna work out your problems with Julian so your jumping to this guy"
"i go out with him one night as friends and what, were married?"
"its what you do"
"it is not!"
"when you broke up with Luke instead of dealing with your feelings, you started sleeping with a teacher"
"that is so out of context! Rachel did that and I so didnt know he was a teacher"
"Deal with this Julian thing"
"Can we just have a night where we laugh and talk about Rachels fat ass and bitch about cheerleaders and not talk about all the crap in our lives? Ill tell you about Julian ill tell Julian about Julian but now I just want some time with my best friend, and I want to hear about her new life. Can we?"
"go on then" Peyton smiled, softly, taking Brookes hand and giving it a small squeeze. Indicating that if she needed to talk, she was there. Brooke returned the gesture and then the drinks came over, and for now, the second night in a row, it was time to do what she did best. Bury her feelings and party.