Hey! here's chapter five, and while im thinking about it, I have to say thank you, for all the amazing reviews...I really appreciate it, you really have no idea lol. ANYWAYS... Chapter 5... things I think will be a little more complicated. The girls try to bury their feelings for one in another. Who's being true about their feelings... you tell me after you read...

Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or and of the quotes/song lyrics used in my fanfiction...

ENJOY!

Chapter Five: Safe Place To Hide

And when you've got no where to turn
And you're all alone
Your walls are a breaking
Yet there's no escaping and
I, I'd fly through the night
To get back to your side
To be your safe place to hideTo be your safe place to hide

"Mom? Im home!" Brooke shouted with a sigh, praying that things today wouldn't be like they were very other day. She thought like this everyday, she always had this small hint of hope in her for one peaceful night... but it never happened.

"DEREK! I SWEAR! IM SICK OF THIS!" She heard her mom calling from the kitchen. It was never her mom's fault, and she knew that, her mom's husband was terrible and treated both her and her mom like dirt and now it wasn't unusual to come home and see her mother crying in the kitchen, though if she came home and she wasn't, that would be unusual.

"Me too." Brooke sighed as she painfully made her way pass the kitchen door. There was nothing she could do for her mom, she had tried so many times, but Derek, who was just a guy that her mom married not that long ago, and has tortured them since.

As she passed the kitchen door she saw her mother's fragile image shaking in the kitchen chair next to the shiny metallic table. Her hair was dangling in her face, covering her face but Brooke would still see the tear drops on the table. Her mom's bruised arms curved up where her hands cupped her face. Behind her mom she could see Derek, standing with his arm's out and fist clenched ready to swing.

Brooke bursted in through the door and grabbed Derek's arm. At first Derek looked at her shocked, neither of them had ever tried to stand up to him before and for a second he felt a little intimidated, but only for a second. Soon, the sting of pain that Brooke had just saved her mother from, grasped onto her eye and made it's way once more to her lip. Her mother jumped from the chair and started to cry, but was pushed back to the cupboard and blocked from running to her daughter's side.

"You think you can just rush in here and take over do you?" Derek yelled into Brooke's face, causing forbidden tears to gush out of her eyes and stroll down her shaking, yet strong jaw line.

"You think you can just rush into our lives a take over... do you?" Brooke spat out, trying to struggle from his tight grip on her arm.

"Don't you talk back to me little girl..." He whispered harshly.

"Im not a little girl... and this isn't your family.. Its time for you to leave..." Brooke stared over at her mother who she could see was already given a pretty bad going over, and was now to weak to object to Brooke's words like she usually did.

"It's time for you to get this straight Brookey... this house? This life you have and every little pair of designer shoes you guys have? All the great things that has made you the richest girls in town... I gave them to you, and without me, you'd be nothing. This is my life, and Im not going anywhere." This time he sent the pain through her spinal cord and sent her to her knees in quiet sobs as he disappeared from the room.

"He's right Brooke... we'd have nothing without him..." Her mom whispered as she weakly pressed her back against the cupboard and hell to the floor, knees pressed against her chest.

Brooke got up and ran out of the room, out of the house and out of that life, it was way too much for her.

"Hey!" Haley smiled as she fell on the sofa in the book store next to Lucas. Lucas smiled at her as he laid his book in his lap. "Agh! Just starting that one?" Haley said as she screwed up her nose at the book.

"Yea! You've read it?" Lucas asked as he shift himself closer to her.

"Yea, and trust me I wont do it again. The book is filled with the typical struggle for the man to find his own self identity in a world trying to change him into something he isn't. Which wouldn't be half bad if first of all, it wasn't done ten thousand other times, and second of all, it didn't involve him realizing that he was in love with his best friend all along." Haley spat out, as if she were angry at the theory.

"What's so bad about that?" Lucas questioned, a little hopeful that she'd say that she'd never do such a thing and that there was no way she was in love with Nathan. But he also knew that wasn't happening.

"What's so bad about it? In the end, and I don't mean to ruin it for you. But his best friend happened to feel the exact same way as him, and they stayed together, and that does not happen in real life. In real life? One person is left hanging onto the smallest flanker of hope while the other walks around like she doesn't exist and leaves her stranded and hopeless and wishing for things to be back to normal while also feeling desperately broken!" Haley choked out in one breath.

Lucas looked at her and could see how much Nathan had hurt her. "Im sorry Hales." Lucas pouted as he leaned in and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"For what? You didn't do anything, as a matter of a fact, you've been great!" Haley smiled.

"But my brother, the way he's been acting lately. He's really hurt you hasn't he?" Lucas questioned as he ducked down a little to look into her eyes deeply.

Haley just nodded as she closed her eyes, trying to push it out of her mind. "But you know Luke, I've been feeling that pain for years, and only recently has it started to go away, since I met you. Nathan has no idea how much im hurting, but you, you do, and you're here, and Im really grateful for that." Haley smiled, she was finally able to take comfort in Lucas, and she felt herself opening up to him in ways she only did, or used to, with Nathan. "I don't know what I'd do without you Luke." She whispered. Lucas leaned forward, moving his mouth close to her's. At first, her heart pounded and her mind told her to push him away once again, but her instinct were roaring for her to move on from what she thought she had with Nathan, to what she does have with Lucas.

"You'll never have to find out." He whispered into her lips before finally breaking the space between them as he met her lips and held his to her's tightly, showing her more passion than he thought his brother ever could.

Brooke sat on the beach, on the water edge, starring at her reflection in the water as it rippled in front of her. She could see the bruises on her face, and she could feel them on her arms. Her whole body was shaking and with every single shake it sent more pain through her. She always came here after times like this, where no one else was. But no other fight had ever gotten this serious. Derek pushed her and her mom around a lot, and he hit her mom too, but he had never hurt her, until now of course. Her whole body had become weak as she sat there frightened. Soon she heard foot steps behind her, and her heart stopped. Would it be Derek? Would he hit her again? She was near the water now... could he get worst? It was him, she knew it. The footsteps got closer to her and she clenched her body ready for the next shred of pain.

"Brooke?" The voice whispered with concern behind her. The voice was so familiar, and at that moment, so comforting. Nathan walked next to her, and sat by her side, starring at her as she hook next to him, her sobs getting louder.

She looked across at him, and as the moon shone in on her face, Nathan could see her bruises. "Oh, God.. Brooke, what.." Nathan started as he moved closer to her.

"Please don't ask me that!" She cried, not wanting to explain it all. Nathan understood, and then pulled her into his shoulder, stroking her hair softly as she cried. Nathan always knew that her step dad was rough on her, but he didn't know that he'd ever get this rough, but Brooke didn't even have to explain, Nathan already knew.

"He's not going to hurt you anymore, I promise." Nathan whispered as he kissed the top of her head. Brooke was Haley's best friend, and Nathan wanted to do what haley would want him to do, which was take care of her when she needed it. And now, she certainly needed it.

Nathan was soon able to calm Brooke, and she opened up to him, telling him all about her step dad, and her mom, and more besides. Nathan too, opened up to her.

"So just like that? You said you loved her?" Brooke asked in shock, completely lost in the real life romance novel that Nathan was reciting to her, about him and Haley.

"Yep..." Nathan sighed as he played with the sand beneath his fingers.

"Nathan... no offence... but maybe, if you really love her, you should show her that when all your other friends are around, because honestly, lately, you've been acting like she's nothing when they're around." Brooke scoffed.

"That's what she said...kind of." Nathan moaned as he fell back into the sand. Brooke laughed sympathetically, he really did love her, but some guys had such stupid ways of showing things! " Ah, it's too late now anyways... her and Lucas are getting pretty close, I think they've got some kind of thing."

Before Nathan could say anything else, Brooke spat out painfully, " He loves her." Nathan turned around, eyes wide.

"How do you know that?"

"I've seen the way he looks at her..." Brooke began to cry again, this time the pain that she was feeling was different then the physical pain she was in before. "It's the same way you look at her, and the same way that Luke doesn't look at me." She sniffed.

"The same way that Mouth looks at you though." Nathan smiled.

"Mouth? Yea well, he's nice but... he's not Lucas." Brooke sighed. She turned to Nathan, and had to smile, there was something different about him tonight, something that she hadn't noticed until now.

"Maybe you just need to take a deeper look." Nathan smiled as he leaned in and slightly nudged Brooke.

"Right now, Im actually just looking at what's in front of me." Brooke smiled. Nathan smiled too, and blushed.

"How does it look?" He smirked.

"It looks like a side of you that I've never seen before." Brooke bit her lip and leaned into him.

"Does it look good?" Nathan asked.

"Yea, it kinda does." Brooke smiled, before she placed her hands on Nathan's face, pulling his mouth into her's.

Okay, hope you liked it, and please review guys.. PLEASE!.. lol...

Next Chapter: The two new couples will face eachother...

Michelley P.