Brooke woke up to the sound of someone's loud footsteps going up her stairs. Or perhaps no one was stomping, it was just her hangover that was pounding into her and latching itself on to her head. She grumbled and tucked her chestnut head underneath her pillow, trying to go back to sleep. It wasn't until she felt another person's fingers playing with a few strands of her hair that she was forced to accept that someone was in her room. Brooke opened her eyes, and then immediately shut them after seeing who had walked in.

"Good morning, drunk ass"
"Good? Tell that to my headache"

Rachel laughed, and sat down comfortably on her bed. "Yeah, that'll happen after pounding tequila like you did last night."

Tequila. The taste still lingered on Brooke's chapped lips and the smell still drenched her pores. She tried to sit up but immediately regretted it after feeling her forehead close in on her brain. She laid back down.

"I tried to get you to slow down, and you pushed me away. Next thing I know, I'm coming out of the hot tub and you're M.I.A. Care to explain why you left the bash so early?"

Brooke rolled over and looked at the ceiling. Her night was fuzzy to say the least, and she didn't remember leaving Rachel's. She remembered Jose Cuervo, dancing, and Lucas with Peyton.

"I don't really remember most of my night"

"Good, cause I didn't want to hear about your night anyways". The redhead laughed and laid down next to her friend. Turning to her, she scrutinized Brooke's face. Rachel could tell that she was holding something in, so she went with her gut and asked her a question. "Leaving didn't have anything to do with seeing Lucas in my basement with that anorexic bitch, did it?"

Brooke gulped, tried to scoff and remain expressionless. Though she had no recollection of leaving, she remembered the feeling in the pit of her stomach when she saw the two people who used to be the most important people in her life talking to each other in a corner, completely ignoring Brooke's presence. It was the same feeling she got every time she let her mind wander back to the day she saw them kiss on the webcam. Her friendship with her lifelong best friend, and her relationship with the boy who took her heart were destroyed by one glance at her computer screen. Thinking about it brought back her tears of shame for being so ignorant, and the crushing weight of all her insecurities. Brooke avoided eye contact with Rachel when she told her that she didn't even see them.

"Ah, that's a good thing considering Peyton's outfit. It was even worse than yours."

Brooke forced a smile and nodded. Her bond with Rachel had begun a little bit before her friendship with Peyton had shattered. They had started out as rivals; both battling for head cheerleader and for Lucas, and later realized the two had a lot in common. After Brooke lost her firm grip on happiness, Rachel was there to try to pick up the pieces.

"N-n-n-now Diva is a female version of a hustler, of a of a hustler, of a of a hustler"

Beyonce's voice rang through Brooke's giant bedroom as Rachel picked up her phone. After reading the text and responding, she gave Brooke a quizzical look.

"So you have no idea how you got home last night?"

Brooke shook her head and questioned her friend on why she was asking.

"Skillz just texted me and asked if I knew if you were okay or not. Apparently you had some weird thing go down with Robert Drought, and Nathan took you home."

Blurred images immediately flooded Brooke's head: Nathan playing beer pong in the living room; Peyton and Lucas talking in the corner of the basement; A slightly older man smiling as Brooke chugged some sort of rum; Nathan's concerned face looking down at Brooke as he told her he'd spend the night. What had happened to her last night?

"Wow. I haven't woken up this disorientated in a while. I probably just embarrassed myself and Nathan took me home on his way back."

Brooke tried to sound nonchalant in her feeble explanation. Inside, her mind was whirling as she took in her new memories of the previous night. Had she had sex with some random college drop out? Had she tried to seduce Nathan, her old friend, ex-boyfriend's brother, and ex-best friend's former flame?

Brooke stretched and reexamined the soreness of her body and taste in her mouth. Brooke's life before Lucas had been filled with one night stands and drunken hook-ups, so she was accustomed to waking up and not knowing what happened the night before. Her body had managed to learn how to tell whether or not the previous night's events included a romp or two. Fortunately, Brooke could tell that the stiffness in her back was probably from a rough stumble down the stairs, and the only taste in her mouth that remained was tequila and the vanilla-flavored rum.

Rachel watched as Brooke's face squinted in thought. She knew full well that regardless of how drunk Brooke had gotten, her friend's heart would not allow her to have jumped into any kind of sexual debacle. She knew the same conclusion applied to Nathan, and realized that it was probably no coincidence that the only person willing to take home a drunken mess of a girl early on a Friday night was someone who was just as broken inside as Brooke Davis.

~~*~~

Nathan's hard and calloused hands gripped his steering wheel as he made his way back to his apartment from the gas station. As a familiar Lil Wayne song came on the radio, memories from Rachel's party came stampeding into the forefront of his mind. Winning was always a great thing in a Scott's life, but being undefeated in beer pong usually meant being a little bit more sober than the rest.

If he had drank a little bit more, Nathan felt he might have woken up in a happier mood, despite having a menacing hangover like the rest of Tree Hill's upperclassmen. Maybe a few more shots would have allowed him to fuck Tracy with no holding back. Maybe a few more cups of cheap beer would have enabled him to become the obnoxious and pompous Nathan Scott people still remembered. Maybe a few more Jager-bombs would have gotten that stupid duet out of his head. But with alcohol consumption at an all-time low, Nathan had spent the night feeling as though all the liquor in the world couldn't take away the aching pain he carried with him every day.

Nathan shook his head in defeat. Instead, he had spent the night like had had spent every damn day since Haley's tour; faking. The only part of the night that he had allowed his forceful emotions to show was when he had been with Brooke. True rage from every pore in his body had come racing out as he punched the scumbag who had tried to take advantage of his drunken friend. Honest concern had shown through as he drove her home, and real vulnerability leaked onto the sheets of the bed he shared with Brooke Davis as he digested the thought of how lonely they both were.

The Saturday morning sun had came in through her window and decided to send a sharp glare right into his eyes, waking him up early. He had gotten up quickly, immediately feeling uncomfortable. Her body reacted to the absence of his warmth, so he covered her with her blanket, not wanting the dehydrated girl to wake up. He shifted his gaze from the paleness of her almost elegant face.

Nathan Scott had woken up with many beautiful girls in the same bed as him. He had woken up to bras, panties, condom wrappers, and empty beer cans. But never had he woken up to intimidation. After jumping into his truck, going to the gas station, and recalling the previous night on his drive home, he sat down in his living room chair and stared blankly at the television, trying to force himself not to think-a newly formed habit of his. Nathan didn't want to admit it, but he was full of fear.

As his fingers clicked the remote, wandering from channel to channel aimlessly, he tried to ignore the fact that Brooke had learned how lonely Nathan actually was. Though she had been completely wasted, he knew that the way he had put himself out there would resurface to her eventually.

His phone vibrated on the counter. Nathan looked at his digital clock.

10:14 AM.

Brooke would be awake by now.

Apprehensively, Nathan stood up and opened the text he had just received.

"Hey Scott. I heard you drove my sloppy ass home last night. I was hoping we could meet for lunch or something, just to talk so I can thank you for last night."

Nathan read the forcefully casual message from Brooke. Without any hesitation, he texted back.

"Don't worry about last night, it wasn't a big deal. You don't have to thank me."

He waited a few minutes, and then his phone vibrated again.

"Well, could we meet at Black Canyon anyway? I'm bored and I know you probably are too. It doesn't have to be for long."

Nathan noticed the dodge of Karen's Café. Of course Brooke didn't want to take a step into a place she had once called home, and Nathan sure as hell didn't want to drink coffee that his ex-wife used to serve. He wanted to avoid seeing Brooke today, but he didn't have any other plans he had to commit to. Watching MTV was getting old, anyway. And of course, the overbearing voice in the back of his head told him, he couldn't ignore Brooke for forever.

~~*~~

"Okay, you win. 11 o'clock it is, I guess."

A weak smile formed on Brooke's face as she read Nathan's text. She knew how bored he had to be, because Nathan wasn't the kind of guy who went to get coffee. She also knew that she hadn't just imagined that his overprotective shell had come off last night, because otherwise he wouldn't have begrudgingly agreed to meet her.

Steam covered her bathroom mirror as she took off the towel on her head, and put her phone in the charger. The Tylenol had begun to kick in, and her head was feeling better, though her hands were still a bit shaky. She brushed her hair, brushed her teeth, and scavenged her closet for something to wear. She settled on her favorite pair of jeans, and a tight, blank white tee-shirt. After putting on a little make-up and chapstick, Brooke sat down in her desk and turned on her laptop.

After logging into facebook, she noticed in horror that Bevin had tagged her in twelve photos. Brooke shook her head and ignored the notification, not yet wanting to come to terms with the state she had been in the night before. Her news feed showed new status updates, including Junk's confusing new status that read, "Junk is whistles go woo woo". (*Auther's Note*: It's actually a somewhat funny youtube video about a wonderful man named Bub Rubb) She smiled and shook her head. Boys never made sense.

Then she saw it. It was like everything else on her computer was blank, and this was in bold red, size 72.

"Peyton Sawyer is movie marathon with Lucas!"

She stared at the screen and started picturing the two blonde's enjoying their Saturday. Peyton would snuggle up to Lucas as they watched film after film in her red bedroom. Knowing Peyton and her constant need to be unique and dark, she'd probably force Lucas to watch 1940's movies about dolls coming to life or something. Brooke could feel a scowl forming on her face as she realized that they would probably talk about the night at Rachels. Brooke imagined them sitting there in their superiority and gloating in the fact that their former counterpart was back to her old pathetic ways.

A shiver crept up Brooke's spine, and she felt what little confidence she had remaining drain out of her at once. Peyton and Lucas were now together, and Brooke was all alone. Brooke was the butt of their jokes now, jokes that she had never seemed to really understand the whole time the three were "friends". She pushed her mouse up to the upper right hand corner of her computer, and typed in a name in her facebook search.

Nathan's page had no status updates, and no sign of him writing on anyone's wall. Like Brooke, Nathan seemed to appear perfectly fine everyday at school, but unlike Brooke, Nathan didn't have the energy to do anything else to solidify his façade.

Just as Brooke was about to investigate further, she noticed that it was already 10:55. She was supposed to meet Nathan at 11, so she hurried downstairs and hopped in her VW Bug. Turning the car on and putting in gear, she sped down the road and made her way to Main Street.

She found a parking spot, and hopped out of her car. She noticed that Nathan's black truck was already waiting outside. Her fingers felt week as she grabbed the handle of the coffee shop's door. She saw Nathan sitting in a table in the far corner, fumbling with his keys.

Brooke didn't really know why she wanted to meet with him. Maybe it was to make sure she hadn't made a complete fool of herself after Rachel's, or maybe it was to find out if she really had imagined any kind of connection her and Nathan had the night before. Regardless of which instigated her to text him, she knew she had to try to reach out to him. She was grasping just to survive every day, and until this morning, she hadn't really thought that Nathan had been doing the same thing all along.

..

So, I first wanted to say how thankful I am for all the reviews You guys are so awesome! Please keep 'em coming! Also, sorry it took me so long to update. I'm super busy so it's hard for me to find time, but I promise I will! This chapter was kind of shorter, but I wanted to tie up some loose ends and kind of set some more groundwork. I'd LOVE advice on anything from writing techniques to where you'd like to see this story go, so feel free to say anything you want-no holding back. -CG