Disclaimer: I own nothing One Tree Hill related.
Author's note: It's been a while since I updated. I'm sorry for taking so long but I've been studying hard for my final exams. Hope you guys haven't forgotten everything but just in case I will write a little recap from the last chapter.
P.S. I love reading your reviews so thanks for them:)
Previously on You want to make a memory: Brooke held a press conference at Clothes over bros' to deny the false rumours going around about the breakup of her and Lucas. Brooke handled herself well and Milly noticed Lucas in the back of the room. After the conference Milly told Brooke about Lucas being in the room and Brooke decided to call Rachel to help her get the stuff she needed from her apartment...
Chapter VIII: Where do we go from here
Brooke was in a taxi heading down 6th avenue to pick up Rachel, she had agreed to be her buffer and Brooke was extremely grateful.
"Hiiii!" Rachel almost yelled as she got in the taxi.
"You're chipper" Brooke said smiling at her, then she gave the taxi-driver the next address.
"Well of course I am. Finally I can give that whoring ex-boyfriend of yours a piece of my mind" Rachel exclaimed.
Brooke sighed. "Look Rach, I really appreciate you being here for me but I really don't want to get into it with Lucas and that means you have to behave yourself."
"Oh come on..can't I just throw him a few insults? You gotta give me that at least" Rachel begged.
Brooke laughed a little and then agreed to let Rachel have a few jabs at Lucas.
"We're here" Rachel said looking out the cab window.
Brooke handed the driver a wad of cash and then the two girls stepped out of the cab and on to the curb.
"Wow nice fur coat" Brooke said to Rachel, she hadn't noticed it in all the haste.
"Thanks. It's a gift from this guy I used to date" Rachel smirked.
"Of course it is" Brooke said in a cynical tone. "Well we should get up there."
Rachel nodded and the girls headed inside. Once they had made it up to the 15th floor Brooke had second thoughts. "I don't know if I should be doing this, I mean cathing him off guard like this" she half-whispered. She didn't want Lucas to hear her.
"You have got to be frickin' kidding me? It's like two more steps and we're in there, are you really gonna chicken out now???" Rachel whispered back heatedly.
"This is why I brought you" Brooke smiled at Rachel and then gave her a quick hug.
Rachel was a bit surprised but hugged her back: "Okay now lets get in there!"
Brooke was all set to go but then a thought entered her mind, she grabbed Rachel's arm: "Rachel wait."
"What now???" Rachel said very annoyed, she wasn't the most patient person in the world.
"What if she's in there?" Brooke murmured.
"Who?" Rachel said without thinking and then quickly realized: "Oh her…well I say it's time you faced her. I mean how bad can it be? There's no way she's hotter then you or more successful."
Brooke looked down at the carpeted floors. "She has Lucas."
"So?" Rachel said.
"So she wins, no matter what she looks like or how successful she is…she wins" Brooke said still looking down.
Rachel placed her index finger under Brooke's chin and lifted her face up to meet hers. "Let's get one thing straight. Having Lucas is not winning. This man-stealing-slut is not better then you in any way, you got that?" she said looking firmly into Brooke's eyes.
Brooke nodded nervously. Then Rachel let go of her chin and grabbed her arm. They faced the door to the apartment together as Brooke rang the buzzer. No answer. She knocked but there was still no answer. Then Brooke got out her key and opened the door, it seemed like Lucas wasn't home. She walked over to his desk, it was covered in papers and junk from his office. There was also a big blue picture frame on his desk which had a photo of Brooke and Lily in it. She picked it up, why was this still here? Julianne would not approve of this she scoffed. She put it back on the desk face down.
"Look what we have here! The slut's slutty panties!" Rachel said holding up a a pair of red hotpants.
Brooke turned around and her eyes widened. "Those are mine!" She said as she grabbed them from Rachel's hand.
Rachel snickered a little and then made her way over to the bathroom: "I gotta pee" she said before closing the door.
"Fine" Brooke muttered under her breath. She began gathering her stuff into a cardboard box but then she felt something nudging up against her foot, it was Brucas. She knelt down to give him a hug and call him a good boy. He seemed happy to see her.
"Brooke? Is that you?" a drowsy voice behind her said.
She turned around. There he was, standing in the doorway to the bedroom. Lucas Scott. The man she thought she'd spend the rest of her life with, the only man that had ever been in her heart, her soul, her spirit.
"Yeah it's me, I'm just getting some stuff. I rang the buzzer and knocked but there was no answer..." she said pointing towards the door.
Lucas ran a hand through his hair: "I was asleep, sorry" he said in a groggy voice.
"It's fine…" Brooke said before continuing with the box.
Lucas walked over to the kitchen and started to make some coffee. When the coffee maker was switched on he turned to Brooke and watched her gather her stuff. It killed him inside, not being able to tell her the truth, but this was for the best.
"So I heard about your press conference, I'm sorry you had to resort to that" he said while folding his arms.
"Don't be. I didn't do it for you, I did it for the good of the company" she said not looking away from the box of stuff.
"I know, but it must have been hard for you" he said.
"I know you were there. Milly saw you" Brooke said turning to him.
"Yeah I was there, I just wanted to be there for you in case things got ugly. I didn't want you to have to stick up for me by yourself but you handled it so well that I didn't feel the need to say anything" he said before turning to the coffee maker and pouring himself a cup.
"Stick up for me? I told you, this wasn't about you!" Brooke was getting a little angry. She put her hands on her hips for emphasis.
"I know" he simply said taking a sip of his coffee.
Brooke was frustrated. Why was he even talking to her? She decided to hurry up packing up her stuff so she could get out of there. At the very same moment Rachel came out of the bathroom.
"Hey cheater. Where's your whore?" she said taking a stand next to Brooke.
Lucas became very uncomfortable. "She's not here" he said.
"Oh that's too bad…I would have loved to have met her" Rachel said sarcastically.
Lucas rolled his eyes. "Fine let's hear it Rachel. Call me all the names you want, call Julianne all the names you want. It doesn't matter to me" he said.
Rachel walked up to him. "You're lucky Brooke is here because I would doing a lot more then just namecalling if she wasn't" she murmured looking sternly into his eyes.
Lucas didn't say anything. He walked around Rachel to face Brooke. "Can I talk to you. Alone?" he said to her.
Brooke was about to say something when Rachel cut her off : "No way! There's just no way I'm leaving you alone with him!" She yelled.
Brooke looked down and thought for a minute. She really didn't owe him anything and she certainly didn't want to hear his apologies or rationalizations. But maybe it wasn't about that. She decided to let him have his say, at least this once. She looked up at them and Rachel was practically foaming at the mouth. "Rachel could you please wait outside for me?" she said.
"No! No! I'm not leaving you alone with him!" She yelled.
"Please Rachel. I need to do this" she pleaded.
Rachel seemed to calm down a little. "Fine…I'll be right outside the door so all you have to do is yell and I'll be back in here" she said.
"I know. Thanks" Brooke smiled at her.
Rachel left the apartment reluctantly but she had faith in Brooke. However Lucas was the only person that could tear down all her walls and she was afraid that he might do just that.
Brooke turned away from Lucas and took a few steps. "I've missed you so much" she whispered to the floor.
"I've missed you too.." he said.
Brooke turned to look at him with an icy glare. "No. You don't get to say that! You left me for someone else!" she shouted.
Lucas looked away from her stare, his gut instinct was to scream back NO! But he couldn't do that. He had to keep lying to her, for her sake.
Flashback to a couple of weeks earlier…
Brooke was sitting in their apartment waiting for him. It was their anniversary. He was two hours late, he didn't want to be. It took everything in him to do this to the woman he loved, but he had to protect her. He walked in to find Brooke sitting in the dining room. She looked furious but beautiful none the less, she was wearing a gorgeus silk dress, when she saw him she stood up.
"Where have you been?! I told you to be here at eight o'clock!" she shouted.
"I'm sorry. I completely forgot about this" he lied.
"You forgot?! You forgot about our anniversary?!" Brooke yelled. Tears were forming in her eyes.
Lucas felt the pain in his heart, when she said those words it felt like a knife had pierced through it. "Yeah I had to stay in this meeting…" he simply stated. He walked over to his desk and put his briefcase down next to it. He looked at the big blue picture frame his mother had given him. It had a picture of Brooke and Lily in it, they looked so beautiful, so cheery. He had taken this picture a few months ago, Brooke and Lucas had gone to Central Park with Lily for the day. They were all so happy, it was before all this started.
"Lucas! What is the matter with you?!" Brooke continued shouting at him. "Ever since you started working for Random House you've been distant and working late all the time. What is going on?!"
Lucas walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders: "Nothing is going on. I'm just working hard alright?" he said. He knew she wouldn't believe him, but then that was the point.
Brooke shook her head in disbelief. "This isn't like you! Since you started working there you've turned into this completely different person.You're not the guy I fell in love with anymore" she said pulling away from him.
"What are you talking about Brooke? I'm still the same guy!" he yelled.
"No you're not! TheLucas Scott I know would never ever have forgotten our anniversary!" she yelled back.
Lucas lost it right there. Or so he pretended to. He took a vase from the dining table and smashed it on the wall. He roared in anger as he broke it. He looked at Brooke, she seemed frightened of him. He was making progress. To his surprise Brooke walked up to him and put her arms around him. After holding him for a minute she cupped his face with her hands, she looked him in the eye and whispered: "Please tell me what's going on with you, I know this isn't you."
He took her hands off his face and held them in his. He pondered for a moment if he should just tell her the truth, they could get trough this together he thought.Then he decided it would be too dangerous. "Brooke, I've got to tell you the truth. I'm in love with someone else."
He looked her in the eye as he said it. It was the only thing he could think of to get Brooke to leave him. He saw the pain in her eyes as they filled up with tears. She pulled her hands away from his and took a few steps backwards.
"No. I don't believe you" she said.
Lucas put his hands in the pockets of his pants. "It's the truth. I've fallen in love with another woman. I'm sorry Brooke but I want to be with her."
Brooke looked more hurt then he had ever seen her. He was dying inside having to do this to her.Tears rolled down her face but she wiped them away as fast as they came.
"Who is she?" she muttered.
"She's someone I work with. You don't know her" he said.
"What is her name?" Brooke said to him.
"Julianne" he said. "She's an editor."
"Julianne, an editor.." Brooke repeated. She took a seat, she looked dumbfounded. Lucas hoped she had believed him.
After a minute Lucas asked her if she was alright. Brooke sighed, then she stood up and walked over to him. "Am I alright? Am I alright?!" she shouted. Lucas said nothing so she began hitting him. She hit his chest over and over again and for a moment he took the punches as they came, then he grabbed a hold of her arms and pulled her into his chest, she buried her face in him and cried hysterically for what seemed like an eternity. She had bought it.
Lucas was snapped back to reality, Brooke was still yelling at him and all he could was stand there and take it.
"How can you just stand there and not say anything?! What is the matter with you? " Brooke was getting more furious by the second and Lucas' silence was only making it worse.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" he tried to say but his lips only formed the words, no words came out.
"Yeah. Apparently not enough" Brooke said while picking up the box of stuff and her purse. She made her way to the door. After opening it she turned around, Lucas was looking at her.
"I really hope that someday you'll figure out what it is that you really want. Goodbye" she said before walking out the door and closing it.
After she left, Lucas paced the floor trying to make sense of the mess he had created. The more he thought about it the more angry he became, he started pacing faster and faster until all his anger culminated in his fist hitting the wall. The punch left a little hole. He stared at it for a second and then he noticed Brucas looking at him. He gave him a little tap on the head and then headed for the bedroom.
Meanwhile in the elevator Rachel was asking Brooke about her conversation with Lucas: "What did he say?"
"Nothing" Brooke said.
"What do you mean? He didn't say anything at all?" Rachel asked.
"Sure he said something but nothing significant really. It was like talking to a wall, he just spaced out and acted all weird" Brooke said.
Rachel smiled. "Sure because I see walls acting weird all the time" she said sarcastically.
"I meant with the spacing!" Brooke said while bumping her hip against Rachel's.
Rachel couldn't stop smiling: "I know. So what are you doing tonight?"
"Nothing really. I was thinking about stopping by the office and doing some work" Brooke said.
"No way!" Rachel practically yelled: "You're coming with me and Jake to the Fall Out Boy show tonight."
"Nooo I'm not in the mood" Brooke said.
"Why not?! It'll be so much fun, you and Jake can catch up. I bet you'd like to see him" Rachel encouraged.
Brooke thought about it for a moment and then she came to the conclusion that she could do with an escape for a night. "Sure, I'll come" she said.
"Awesome! It's gonna be great!" Rachel said in a super excited tone.
