There was an akward silence in the car. Nobody said anything. Peyton was feeling guilty when seing Brooke touching her head all the time and flinching. Haley was thinking how worse it could went, Nathan was hoping to get there soon and Lucas tried to focus on the street and was very mad at Peyton. How could she hit her ex-bestfriend like this. „Shit man.", Lucas said and eight eyes looked questioned at him. „What is it?Why did the car stop?" „Well, we have no gas any more.", Lucas said looking furiously at Nathan „Don´t look at me bro. This is not my fault.", he defended himself. „Fine, the next gasstation is not that far away, I will walk there. Who comes with me?", he asked curiously and looked at all of them. „I am staying in the car. No way that I walk miles.", Brooke answered being very pale. „Are you all right?", Lucas took Brooke´s hand and squeezed it a bit and realized that she looked like death. Brooke took her hand back and nodded „Yes, I am just not in the mood of walking. It´s freezing outside." With that he smiled at her and took off his cap and put it on her head:" Well you are not wearing much. This should help a little." She smiled shyly back at him and felt very safe.
„I´ll come with you", Nathan interrupted them. „Me too.", Haley answered. Now everybody except of Brooke looked at Peyton. They could see that she didn´t like her situation. She had a mixture of all emotions. She felt guilty because she had crossed a line with Brooke, she was angry at her as well for calling her an orphan, she envied the attention Brooke got from Lucas but also felt happy for her as well. Right now she didn´t know why she decided to stay but she knew Brooke would never stay alone in the dark and soon it would be dark and she had watched Brooke flinching in pain and it was her fault. She knew Brooke would be too proud to admit it but at the moment Peyton felt that guilty, that she answered „I stay."
„I don´t know...", Haley said calmly „do you really think this is a good idea?" Haley looked at Peyton and Brooke who avoided looking back and didn´t say a word. „Don´t worry, nothing will happen.", Peyton smiled back but being a bit unsure whether her statement was true. She knew Brooke and herself too well.
Again an akward silence hit the car and the only thing one could hear was Brooke shivering in the front and starting to cough a little. Unlike Peyton, who wore as many shirts and pullover as possible Brooke looked like she was in spring. „Do you want to come and cuddle?", Peyton asked smirkly knowing that when they were little Brooke always had been the one who had nightmares and needed to cuddle. „Definitely not with you.", Brooke answered and hold her head again. „Hmmm...Does it hurt?", Peyton asked.
„What?" Brooke asked with her eyes closed. „Your head and nose", she said ashamed. Brooke lied and said: „No." Peyton rolled her eyes. She wanted to appolgize but somehow her pride avoided her to do so.
Then Brooke opened the door very slowly like she was having trouble opening it. „What are you doing?", Peyton asked curiously and a nerved Brooke looked at her. „I have to pee, ok." With that she went behind the bushes and walked a bit so noone would see her.
She had some problem walking because she felt a bit dizzy. Unfortunately it was getting darker and she lost her track „Superb B. Davis" she said to herself and tried to focus but her head was hurting like hell and then she was getting sick. All she could do was puking into the snow. „Great", she whispered.
Peyton was hearing loud music in the car and wondered where Brooke was. When she looked at her watch she realized that it had been over 15 minutes ago since Brooke left the car. She was sure that Brooke would get the flu, as usual. She remembered the days when Brooke had been sick with noone looking after her except of her friends. Brooke had definitely not been an easy sick person. Finally Peyton stepped out of the car and screamed after Brooke but noone answered her. She herself shivered with all her clothes on. It was getting colder and colder.
Brooke took all her strength and kept walking. Tears were falling down her cheek. She hated being alone, even more she hated being alone in the forest. Every sound made her shiver even more. Her head hurt and her nose as well. „Thank you Peyton", she whispered freezing. Suddenly she heard a crack under her feet. At first she thought that this would be wood but when she heard another crack she was not so sure and stopped walking. She took another slow step and the sound came again. „What the..." she screamed but in that minute something under her broke. The next sensation she got was a bunch of extremely cold water entering her lunges. The cold water hurt like hell and she didn´t have time to realize what had happened until she entered the surface again. „Argh", she screamed not being able to stay at the surface. She paddled wildly with her hands but whenever she tried to get out of the water another crust of ice broke and she was pulled under again. She didn´t even have time to cry. All she knew was, that she was fighting for her life.
Peyton stepped through the snow and was beginning to be very angry „It´s not funny Brooke. Where the hell are you?" she screamed. „Brooooke". „P...Peeee...yton", she then heard Brooke´s voice. What feared her was that she heard cracking noises and water splashing as well. Then she saw her. It was a terrible view. Brooke was struggling getting out of the water and ducked under again and again. „Argh", she heard Brooke trying to catch a breath. „Oh god, Brooke", she wanted to run to her but Brooke screamed „Don´t. You...will...break...", with that Brooke went under again. It was like something pulled her under-the current was too heavy. Unfortunately it was so strong, that she went under the not broken ice and could not get up again to breathe. „Nooooo", Peyton screamed and felt helpless realizing that Brooke had not come up again. Her tears went down like a river and then she lay down on the ground and went crawling over the ice. She knew that there was a chance that the ice under her would break, but now her complete weight was not on one spot and in fact she did not care. The problem was, that the ice was full with snow and she did not know where Brooke was. „Broooooooke!"