PEYTON
The world is silent now. With Brooke gone, it's like all the hope I had is gone too, or at least the hope I had that Brooke and I might've been friends again. For the past twelve years, I've been holding out hope that Brooke and I would see each other again and that she would finally forgive me. But that can never happen now…because Brooke, the best friend I ever had, is dead. And now the last memory I have of her is of our last conversation, which was not a very positive one.
I left Nathan and Haley's wedding reception shortly after they left for their honeymoon. I went upstairs to my bedroom and I stopped and stared when I saw Brooke standing at the end of the bed, packing a suitcase…
"Brooke…" I said, ready to cry again. "Don't go…please."
"I don't want to, but I have to." Brooke replied as she put more clothing into her suitcase.
I went over to her to try and stop her.
"Stop okay…look, what do I have to do to fix this? Brooke, I'll do anything. You're my best friend…I don't want you to go."
"You're best friend?" She stopped and finally looked at me. "I'm finding that really hard to believe right now, being that you've fallen for my boyfriend…again."
"I'm sorry, Brooke." I said, starting to cry again. "I'm not going to act on my feelings, I told you that. I didn't want to fall for him again, but I couldn't help it. You can't help who you love, you can't choose."
"Yeah…tell me about it," Brooke said quietly, her eyes glistened. She turned away from me and began zipping her suitcase. "You know, you asked me earlier today if I love Lucas and I have your answer…"
Brooke looked back at me again and stared me straight in the eyes as she finished, "But you don't deserve to hear it."
"Brooke…" I wanted her to understand that I cared more about her friendship than I did my feelings for Lucas. I wanted her to forgive me, but she wouldn't.
"No." She interrupted me. "I want you to understand something. As far as I'm concerned, this friendship is over. And if we never speak again for the rest of our lives, that'll be just fine."
She picked up her suitcase and walked to the door. I turned and watched. Brooke stopped and turned around in the doorway and said, "I gave you a second chance, Peyton…and you blew it."
And then I watched as my best friend walked out of my life. I never saw her again. After she left my house, I thought she'd go to stay with Lucas, but Lucas came by later looking for her. And when no one could find her anywhere, we knew she'd left Tree Hill. And we both had hoped that she would return, but she never did.
But even after she was gone, I still believed in our friendship. I still believed that someday she would forgive me and that she would come back. I held on to those beliefs for a long time, especially for the following weeks and months after I found out I was pregnant with Jake's baby. Believing that she would come back and that she would forgive me was what was what got me through the toughest times in my life. But she never came back. I never saw her or heard from her again…and now I never will.