The apartment was lonely without Brooke, but Rachel had no trouble occupying the empty silence. Each night, a different guy. Chad, David, Scott, Andrew... Sometimes there were two in one day. Rachel was in the apartment with... what was his name? Jon? Jack? Whatever his name was enjoying her time greatly.

"You're the most gorgeous girl I've ever met Rachel..." Whats-his-face said into her hair as Rachel undressed him.

"Yeah... I get that a lot." Rachel mumbled.

"Mmm..." Rachel reached for whats-his-face's pants and undid his belt... He slowly moved his hand up her skirt.

"This is okay with you right?" W-H-F (whats-his-face) asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Rachel paused.

"Well most girls aren't this easy to be around... or this beautiful... or this fun for that matter..." W-H-F unhooked her bra.

"Well I'm not most girls, Jack." she took a stab at his name.

"It's Jon." the guy stated, not caring at the slip-up. "Do you have a condom?" he asked in a rush. He was already excited and clearly this was not a romantic-full-night event for either Rachel or Jon.

"Yeah," she reached over him to the night stand. She opened the drawer and pulled out another condom, her third one in two days.

She looked down at Jon who was basically drooling at the sight of her.

"Let's just do this..." Rachel said suddenly out of the mood.

"Don't worry, I will not take long..." Jon said ready to burst in more than one way.

They had sex, and after, Jon got dressed quickly. "Can I get your number?" he asked.

"Why even bother? We both know you're not gonna call." Rachel stated plainly.

He left and Rachel laid in her bed for a few hours thinking over the person she was. She felt so empty. Everyone of her friends or aquantinces had had someone close to them, who wasn't just using them for the sex. But the closest thing Rachel could think of having was Cooper, and he definetly did not count.

She got up and got her cell phone. She called Nate.

"Hello?" he answered. It was 10PM.

"Hi Nathan, what's up stud?" she said sexily into the phone. Shit, tone down the sexy, she thought to herself.

"What's up Rachel? How's life without the Brookie Monster?" Nathan laughed. Everyone missed Brooke, but no one as much as Rachel, except for maybe Lucas who had become a shut-in since she left.

"I miss her," Rachel said honestly. "I was wondering, do you maybe wanna hang out tomorrow and talk? We can get food, my treat."

"I'd love to Rachel, I'll call you in the morning and tell you when I'm picking you up."

"Okay, thanks Nate."

Click

Nathan knew Haley wouldn't be thrilled about him hanging out with Rachel, but Nathan knew underneath the bitchy, slut-esque exterior, Rachel's intentions were good. And she needed a friend now, considering Lucas was no where to be found. Haley would get it.

-------------------------------------

"Brooke, where are you staying in California?" Brett asked in between kisses.

"Beverly Hills," she kissed him hard, "you?"

"Same, we should hang out. You seem like," another kiss, "an amazing girl."

Brooke pulled back, stunned. "Wait, this isn't just a random one time thing?"

"I don't want it to be..." Brett said confused. What girl wanted a one time thing?

"Well at the end of the flight I guess I could give you my number..." Brooke said slowly. She was gone from Tree Hill for approximately 2 hours and she was already with another guy. Another guy who wanted to get to know her and hang out with her.

"That would be perfect." Brett continued kissing her (he was a good kisser but Lucas was so much better), but didn't make a move to take off her clothing. Being Brooke Davis, naturally she reached for his shirt and took it off slowly. She wanted to have sex with Brett. Real, spur of the moment, non-Lucas sex.

"You wanna do this?" Brett said into her ear as she pulled down his pants.

"Of course I do." He reached for her shirt and unbuttoned it...

There was a knock on the door. Brett quickly made a "shh" signal to Brooke and very sternly shouted, "it's gonna be awhile."

"Hmph! Rude!" said a muffled voice outside.

Brooke giggled as she pulled Brett in closer to her. He pushed her up against the little wall space in the bathroom and kissed her hard and passionately. She had sex in a lot of weird places, but never in a plane. But there was a first time for everything right? And not all her firsts had to be Lucas.

Brett kissed her and touched her in all the right places, and for a few minutes at a time, she'd forget Lucas. But then he'd tell her how beautiful she was or how lucky he was to have met her, and Lucas would come to mind. How could she be doing this? It didn't feel wrong, but it didn't feel right, or natural either. She didn't feel forced, but she missed Lucas.

But, Rule #1 to her trip: it doesn't always have to be Lucas.

-----------------------------------------

Dear Brooke,

Since you won't let me get in touch with you, I'm going to do exactly what you did last summer: write you a letter a day. So here's number one. I am so sorry for having you leave on such a bad note, but as you said, maybe we do need our time to realize how much we really need each other. I know that in the end we'll end up together. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." I am amazed at the person you are, who you've become, Brooke Davis. Your past may be rocky and you may not be proud of some of the things you've done, but we all have our skeletons. You are one of the few people I've ever known to find such a strength in yourself to almost completely rebuild your character from when we first met. You're still that girl, but you have gained so much more since then. No matter what obstacles come your way, or our way (hopefully I'll be standing next to you on the way to your future), you will be able to handle them because you have that kind of power inside of you. You are a truly special person Brooke, and I want you to know the infinite amount of respect and love I have for you. More letters to come. Missing you.

Love, Lucas

Lucas sealed the envelope, addressed it to "Brooke 'Pretty Girl' Davis" and placed it in an empty cardboard box. By the end of the summer, that very box would be filled with 82 letters to give to Brooke when she got home.

Ever since Brooke left, Lucas hadn't left his room much. Karen and Peyton saw how depressed Lucas was and tried convincing him in anyway to get out of the house, but he'd rarely budge. Even when Skills and Fergie came by, he didn't feel like playing basketball.

"So, care to tell me what this fight consisted of? It's clearly eating you alive." Peyton said sitting in the desk chair.

"I told her I might not be here when she gets back..." Lucas said sadly.

"Well, maybe you need a change. Maybe if you see someone else, you'll realize what you have to do to keep Brooke around. Come here. I wanna try something..." Peyton said sneakily. She convinced herself quickly in her head that what she was doing was for Brooke and Lucas' benefit, but was it really? Who cared? Brooke was away for the summer.

Lucas stood up and walked over to the chair and kneeled in front of Peyton. Peyton pulled him in and kissed him. He thought about resisting at first, but kissing someone other than Brooke felt different and exciting.

Peyton pulled back. "So, how did that feel?"

"It felt... Good. Unpredictable." Lucas said honestly.

"Good, we can do it more often. We're both lonely, you can make your mistakes on me, I can have someone to hang out with all summer. And the second Brooke gets back, we're done, we pretend this never happened."

"I don't know Peyton..."

"What can go wrong? Do you wanna spend the next two months sitting alone in your room when you can kiss and hangout with me instead... We can be like, friends with benefits."

"With sex?"

"Depends, do you want to?"

"We'll see where this goes.. For now, we can just hang out..." Lucas started. He couldn't believe what he was saying. "And... maybe kiss?"

"That's a boy." Peyton said happily. I'm doing this for Brooke she thought to herself repeatidly. Maybe if she said it enough, it'd become true.