A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I thought I'd put in some cute parts w/ Brooke and Kyle. There was also some foreshadowing w/ Kyle and Brooek's different views about the whole mob business. There was also some concerning Lucas and his feelings towards Brooke, and it proves to be a problem later in the future. I've been kind of busy w/ school and stuff so im surprised I even had time ti upload a new chapter, but i did take the PSATs today, so i got out early at like 11 lol. i kind of already started on the new story after this one, so i kind of know where to go throughout the rest of the story necause i tend to get side tracked and stuff and now i can stick with one idea at a time. Enjoy and Review!!!
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Chapter Five: In a Mile You'll Be Feelin' Fine
She swore she could still hear the crickets chirping. And from what she had paid attention to during high school science, it was that crickets chirped at night, when it was dark. She was in no way supposed to be awake this early, but Kyle had insisted on getting up early in the morning so they could get to Duke in the afternoon. She hated when he was right.
Kyle sighed, "Brooke, would you mind giving me a hand?"
"But everything's so heavy," she pouted, looking around her and Rachel's room at the numerous boxes.
"Not everything. You still have your carry ons, your garbage bag of lingerie, and your make up and hair crap," Kyle said, pounting to each thing in front of Brooke's face.
"Fine, but just so you know, my make up and hair products are at least a gazillion pounds each," she said, carrying all the stuff downstairs.
He rolled his eyes and mumbled, "I'll bet," and continued to pack all of Brooke's stuff into the boxes.
"And to think that you still have to help me get my stuff into the U- Haul," Rachel said, coming out of the bathroom with her purse.
"Are you actually going to help me load your stuff?" He asked, balancing a box on his shoulder.
"Well I might, I'm not so fat that I can't carry my stuff like Brooke," Rachel smirked.
"Bitch," Brooke exclaimed, snatching her lingerie filled garbage bags and hoisting them over her shoulder.
KYle smiled and shook his head. Rachel and Brooke could say the meanest things on earth to each other, but they would be friends by the end of the day. With Brooke the house of the hour.
"I'm just thinking realistically, and we'll probably be out of here in the next two hours, and sure, it takes us five minutes to get to Nathan and Haley's, but we still have to call up everyone else and see what's going on and where they are. Then we have to stop at gas stations and load up on food and drinks. Then there are those pit stops that you girls just love calling for out of nowhere," Kyle explained.
Rachel just glared at him, becaus she knew he was right.
"So I think that I should just leave this all to my Boyfriend," Brooke declared, storming into the room and sitting on her bed also, despite it's emptiness.
"Aww, I wouldn't have it any other way," Kyle said sarcastically, bring another box downstairs.
"Gosh, I can't believe we're leaving," Brooke said, falling back onto her bed.
"You're sad about leaving this place? I mean sure, it's hella big and all, but..."
"I'm not talking about that you dumbass. I'm talking about Tree Hill in general," Brooke said. "Aren't you going to miss this place too?"
"Well, yeah," she shrugged, "But I haven't been here long enough to experience everything."
"Believe me," you've been here long enough. IMagine your year here like, every year, since you were seven," Brooke said.
I'm not even going to try to imagine that," she said as Kyle came back up the stairs.
"Please tell me you guys aren't oging to cry when we leave?" Kyle moaned, sitting on Brooke's bed. "I know that it's going to be hard, but like, seriously, you'll be a couple of hours away."
"Well I got one am definitely not going to cry," Rachel said, standing up, "but I wouldn't be so sure about your girlfriend here."
"Ugh, whatever Rachel," Brooke whined. "I'm sorry if I'm so emotional about this, I've only spent my whole life in this place."
Kyle patted her leg, "It's alright to be. But aren't you happy that you're leaving this place with everybody?"
Rachel rolled her eyes, "Well, if I hate to break it to you, but I think since we're kind of done right now, don't you think we should head out and pick up everybody else?"
"Yeah, I guess we might as well be."
-
"Hey Kyle can we stop? I have to go to the bathroom," Rachel called from the back, doing a dance in her seat.
Kyle furrowed his eyebrows, "We stopped like two hours ago, Rach."
"I know, but I drank like two Red Bulls two hours ago, please KYle?" Rachel whined.
"Fine, we'll stop at the next one," he said finally. Brooke glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Was it her, or did KYle seem like the one that wanted to get to Duke the most? it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but ever since he'd been back, he was nothing but hot and cold, even edgy.
Kyle felt Brooke hold onto his right hand. He glanced over at her and saw her warm smile, and he immediately knew that he was being way too uptight about this.
"You alright," she asked.
He nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just want to get settled and stuff you know?"
"Yeah I know. But if you're feeling upset about something, try to be mellow about it."
"I'm sorry, I'll try," he said, sending her a reassuring smile.
While Rachel ran into the store to use the restroom, Nathan and Kyle went in to look for some stuff to eat while Brooke and Haley remained in the car, Haley rocking James back and forth.
"So is Kyle alright? He seemed a little iriitated lately," Haley said.
Brooke shrugged, "You noticed it too? I don't know, it seems like he's been switching back and forth ever since he got back from basketball camp. I don't know if it's just stress or it's something else."
"I'm sure he's just stressed about college and stuff, we all are," Haley said just when Rachel got back.
"Are ya'll talking about Kyle PMSing earlier?" she asked.
Brooke rolled her eyes, "He wasn't PMSing Rachel, he was just annoyed that you can't keep your bladder under control."
"And apparently Kyle can't keep his attitude under control either. I think you should figure out what crawled up his ass and tell him to get it out."
"Yeah, if only he knew," Brooke said to herself.
-
It was 4:30 when they drove into the campus parking lot. Jake, Peyton, Jenny, Skills, Bevin, and Lucas were already unloading their stuff from the cars and had their orientation packets in their hands.
"See I told you guys we should've left earlier. If we had we would've been here and had time to look around and stuff," Kyle said as he shut the car door.
"Calm down Kyle, we still have plenty of time," Nathan said calmly. "The orientation info stuff are out for everybody all day."
"I know that Nathan, but we still have to unload all our stuff, which in truth means that me, you, and the rest of the guys unloading everybody's stuff," he said, sighing deeply. He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down, but it seemed like no matter what anybody said, all they would do is annoy and piss him off.
"Well we'll help this time," Brooke said confidentally. "I'm sure we can unpack and meet up for dinner in a couple of hours."
Haley nodded, "Yeah, let's go out and eat tonight or something. See what's good near the campus."
Kyle sighed, "Alright, let's get unloading."
Brooke walked towards Kyle while he was opening the U- Hail. She nudged him, "Are you sure you're alright."
He nodded, getting all the noxes out, "Yeah, I'm fine. I thought I told you earlier."
"I know, but it seems like you're not," Brooke said.
"Look, all I need is a nap and I'll be fine," Kyle said, balancing two boxes.
Brooke nodded warily, "Alright, if you say so."
Nathan came up behind her, "He'll be fine, just give him a little bit of space."
"But he's never been like this before Nathan, not ever. I don't know what could be wrong with him."
"I know, it's kind of weird. But I'll try to talk to him, but I'm sure it's nothing Brooke. The guy's just a little tense," he said before picking up a set of boxes and walking towards the building.
Peyton came up behind her, "So what's this I hear about Kyle being a bitch?"
Brooke glared at her. Peyton shrugged, "Well, that's what Rachel told me."
"Anyways, where's Jake and Jenny going to live? I didn't think they accepted chlidren in the dorm rooms?"
"They're not. Jake bought an apartment two blocks away from the dorms, I think it's in the same complex as Nathan and Haley," Peyton explained, "and I'm going to move in with him."
Brooke gasped, "Oh my gosh!" she ran and tackled Peyton into a hug. "Oh my gosh this is going to be so fun when you come over and hang out. And then I can come over, ahh!"
"Cool, huh? I wans't exactly planning on it, but on our drive up here I just thought I should give it a shot. If you don't try, you never know, right?"
Brooke nodded, "Exactly. Only downside is, I'm rooming with Rachel, again."
"Whatever bitch, you know you love me," Rachel said, brushing past them and getting a box.
"So if Nathan isn't living in the dorm rooms, who's Kyle's roommate?" Peyton asked as they walked up the stairs into the dorm hall.
Brooke shrugged, "I'm not sure. It's either a stranger, or Lucas."
Peyton winced, "Wow, that should be weird if he does end up sharing a dorm with Lucas."
"Yeah, can't say it's be an awesome thing though, right?" Brooke asked, walking into her and Rachel's room. Rachel was already working on her bed, fitting her sheets and comforter.
The room was an acceptable size with enough room to have your space. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable, but Brooke thought that with her and Rachel sharing the room, it would live up to their standards.
"Hmm, this looks nice," Peyton said, setting down the box.
Rachel looked up, "Yeah, sure it looks nice right now. But wait until you see the bathroom. Brooke, we're going to have to come up with some sort of schedule or who used the bathroom first."
Brooke moaned, "Man, that's gay, and I have tons of hair products. Then there's my straightener and my curler.."
"Yeha, that's not going to happen."
-
"Hey man what's your room number?" Nathan asked, balancing two boxes.
"Umm, I think it's 330," Kyle said, right behind Nathan.
Nathan walked further down the hall, past Rachel and Brooke's room, where he saw Brooke, Peyton, and Rachel checking out the bathroom. He stopped at Room 330, two doors down, where Lucas was already settling in.
"Hey Luke," Nathan greeted, entering the room and dropping the boxes.
Lucas turned around and smiled, "Hey Nate. I'm guessing Kyle's my roommate huh?"
"Yup," Kyle answered, setting down his two boxes also. "I hope you know I snore."
Lucas laughed, "It's alright. I'll have my Ipod handy." In truth, Lucas wasn't all looking forward to having Kyle live with him. It wasn't that he didn't like Kyle, because Lucas thought that he was a cool person. But he didn't want to have to see him and Brooke being a couple and in love, something him and Brooke used to have, and now that was over.
"Alright, me and Haley have to head out and get settled into the apartment. But call us when you guys finish up and then we can check out the campus and eat or something," Nathan said.
"Okay man, see you later," Kyle said, opening one of the boxes.
"Bye," Lucas waved slightly, sitting down on the couch.
"So," Kyle said, "what classes are you going to be taking?"
"Well since I can't play basketball anymore, I decided to take Literature and writing classes," Lucas explained.
"Oh, so you want to become a writer?" Kyle asked, taking out all his stuff from the box.
Lucas nodded, "Yeah, I guess so. What are you going to be doing? I mean, other than basketball."
"The team and practes are going to take up most of my time, but I thought I'd try some business classes to see what I can do afte basketball."
"Hm, life after basketball," Lucas mused, "I never thought I'd have to think about that, but here I am."
Kyle looked up at Lucas, "Yeah I know. It sucks that you had to stop because of a disease you got from Dan."
"Tell me about it. But Brooke made me realize that it's what you do after the let down that counts more than you could've done," Lucas siad absentmindedly.
Kyle glanced over at Lucas for a second. It didn't really surprise him that Brooke would help Lucas go through a time like that, because that's the kind of person Brooke was. He was a little uneasy about it though, but he had to remind himself that Brooke was with him, not Lucas.
"Yeah, it's good to have that kind of attitude. Although I really don't think you're missing anything with basketball. It's one thing to love baskbetall and being good at it ever since you were little, but it's another when you have to be good all the time," Kyle said.
"Is it really that bad?" Lucas asked.
"It was during the conditioning camp this summer. I seriously sat down and wondered if I was going to be able to do this. And then there's all these other players that you don't even know, and they're supposed to be on your team. I guess it just takes time and all, but at this point there's not enough time, our first game is in two weeks."
Lucas chuckled, "Kind if reminds me when I first joined the Ravens team. Nathan hated the fact that I was playing with him, as a teammate, and whenever I would get picked on or something, I came so close to just handing in my jersey and walking out of there. But I didn't, because every single time I thought that, I just told myself that I loved basketball, and that's why I was doing it."
Kyle nodded slowly, "Yeah, that makes sense. If only we had a coach like Whitey, though."
"Everyone wished they had a coach like Whitey. I heard Coach K's been mute on you guys."
"He doesn't even say anything other than telling us to go somwwhere and letting us know when practice is over. It's weird because that scout that interviewed me was just so friendly and stuff, which made me more excited."
"It'll work out. I've sene you play and if you just think about how much you love the game, then there's no reason why you won't be able to keep up."
He wondered why he was even encouraging Kyle, after all the guy was playing the game he loved, and had the girl he could've had, or maybe loved?
-
After Peyton had left to go settle into the apartment with Jake and Jenny, Rachel and Brooke had settled for a comfortable silence, both fixing their sides of the room, trying to make it was bit more bearable, and from the fact that both girls were in completely deep though about the same thing.
She didn't want to sound like an annoying girlfriend, but Kyle really did have something up his ass. It could've just been stress, but even if it was that, she knew in her heart that he would never act rude to anyone. He would've covered it up and stored it away. And the more and more Brooke thought about it, the more she thought it had to do with a certain thing that she didn't know about, yet.
Rachel was pissed that Kyle had been snapping at her the whole ride to Duke. She understood Brooke, just becaus she was always a bitch, but Kyle was never like that, and Rachel didn't think he would ever be. It had to be something, and if Rachel knew her men, it was either one of two things, or maybe bith. But she would never tell Brooke about it, or maybe she would.
"So I think I figured out why Kyle's been a bitch lately," Rachel finally said, sitting on her bed.
Brooke quickly glanced at her, "Yeah? Because I don't think that's possible," she said.
"Actually I have two very good reasons, thank you very much."
"Oh, and what are they?" she asked, rolling her eyes.
"Well, now that you ask me," she said. "Either he's going through a little faze where it causes him to pop his shit on a regular basis, or maybe it's the fact that he hasn't had sex since me."
"Oh okay, so you tink the reaosn why Kyle's so uptight is because he's horny?" Brooke said, dropping all her stuff and staring at Rachel.
Rachel smirked, "That's exactly what I'm saying."
Brooke moaned and fell onto her bed, "Man, I was hoping this wasn't going to be an issue."
"Brooke, I could be wrong, even though I find that slim. It could also be something that's bothering him, and trust me if that's what it is, then it's got to be pretty bad."
Brooke stared up at the ceiling, comtemplating what Rachel had said. What Rachel didn't know was that she was more right than she could've thought. When she really thought about it, Brooke knew that Kyle could not have been acting weird just because he wanted to be laid, it had to be something else.
She sat back up and ran her hands through her hair, "Whatever, I'm going to try not to worry about it. If Kyle wants to talk to me about what's bothering him, then I'll be here."
Rachel nodded knowingly, "Yep, if you say so.
-
After the hang had gotten together for dinner, they found themselves seperated all around. Rachel, Bevin, and Skills had already gone to check out the nearest mall. Haley, Nathan, and James had gone back to the apartment to relax, Lucas going with them to give Kyle and Brooke alone time in their room, as much as it made his blood boil thinking of Brooke and Kyle alone together.
Brooke sat on the couch, flipping through the Duke booklet, telling of all the activites and stuff they had to offer other than their classes while Kyle was in his room, trying to do anything to avoid talking to Brooke. He would talk to her, just not about certain things that he just didn't want to discuss.
She sat the magazine down, listening to the sound of compelete silence throughout the dorm room. What was Kyle doing in his room, because of her, it sounded a whole lot of nothing. It suddenly occurred to her that he was maybe trying to ignore her. So, Brooke decided to go to his room.
"Hey babe," she said, cheerfully sitting on his bed.
He smiled at her, "Hey, you finish up that reading?"
She shrugged, "Somewhat. So, whatcha doing?"
"Just you know, unpacking still. It's like just when I think that I'm done with everything, there's another unopened box."
"Yeah, I know what you mean about that," she said, studying his face, trying to find anything that could give her a sign, but she couldn't fine one. It was just no emotion, and from her experience, that was the worst.
Kyle glanced at her from the corner of his eye, knowing what she was thinking and what she wanted to say. Whne you're in love with someone, you can feel what they feel and know what they want to say before they say it.
He sighed, "Alright, I know you want to talk to me about something."
"Well, I was hoping you wanted to talk to me about it, but lately it seems like I'm the one having to initiate it."
"Brooke, I don't know what you're talking about," he tried to say convincingly.
"Kyle, don't do that. Something is wrong with you, and you're not telling anyone what's going on, and it's really starting to worry me," she said.
"What could I possibly be doing that's making you guys worried about me??"
"Umm I don't know, maybe the fact that you're being so rude to everybody lately, not even trying to be nice. That's not like you, everyone knows that's not you, so when you do something like that we all know something's wrong, you're just not telling me."
"Brooke, yes I have been stressed about getting here on time and with everything that's going to happen in college, yes I'm a little tweaked. It's not because of anything else except me being nervous and worried about basketball and keeping my grades up."
Brooke looked at him, "You said we would never have this problem talking to each other. You promised me you would let me all the way in, remember?"
He nodded, "Yeah, I remmeber, and I meant it. And I still do, but this thing that you guys are worrying over, it's nothing. If it was something I thought was important, I would tell you."
"You promise?" she asked.
"I promise." He didn't know if she believed him or not, but he was taking what he could get. And if Brooke believed him just this one time, it saved him another day of having to explain himself, and another sleepless night of dreaming of his fear and all the while wondeirng if he should've told her.