A/n: I usually don't say anything about review because everyone is entitled to their opinion. I understand not everyone likes Brucas or Jeyton. Jeyton has always been a favorite of mine—even more so than Brucas. I always enjoyed Peyton and Lucas as friends, but when they got together I was like okay cool. I still watched One Tree Hill and I still enjoyed it. The thing is that I write for fun which I have mentioned multiple times. The whole point of Fanfiction is to write fandoms in a new way that might not fit the show. So I ask that you only review with what pertains to my story. Constructive criticism please. Going back and forth about Peyton and Lucas and Brooke really upsets me because this is where I go to relieve tension—not see so much hate that isn't even regarding my story. I understand everyone has different opinions but please don't take it out on each other on my story. It makes me not want to even write it anymore. These reviews have nothing to do with what I have written and it really bums me out. And definitely not what I want to start my 2017 with.
I am sorry if that is coming across rude because that is the last thing I would ever want. I am just writing a story about fictional characters in a universe where none of the events of the show happened. I pretty much am just using the names. If you do not like Brucas or Jeyton, that is okay. Please just don't hate on each other because of the ships we like. It is just fiction.
But this a Brucas story. That isn't going to change so please don't read it if you don't enjoy it.
I have never deleted reviews before because I think deleting bad reviews is just not ethically right, but the reviews that have literally nothing to do with my story will be deleted. For that I am sorry, but I really don't see the point for fighting over it.
But on other reviews! I am trying to add Nathan more into it. This started out as a one shot with really short moments so I am going back and trying to lengthen them.
Thank you for the feed back.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 4: Middle of a Memory- Junior year
"I have a question."
Lucas glances as his twin brother as he continues to dribble the ball.
"Yeah?"
He goes for a free throw, both knowing they needed to be in tip top shape for their game that Friday.
"Whats going on with you and Brooke?" Nathan asks as he snatches the ball as it bounces on the asphalt.
"Nothing, man."
"You sure about that?" Lucas shakes his head as his brother not sure where the line of questioning was coming from.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Nathan lets the ball drop beside him as he turns to his brother. "You two have been doing this weird back and forth all year. You haven't dated anyone in months and don't think I don't hear her sneak out of Peyton's room every time she comes over."
"You sure you don't hear Haley?" Lucas teases his brother who rolls his eyes.
"Not the point."
Lucas goes to make some snide remark about it is just Brooke and he didn't like her, but he couldn't find it in himself so bring her down to make himself feel better. He did enjoy her company and in a very odd way, he had gotten close to her than anyone else he knew. He felt it easy to talk to her and she never made him feel bad for the things he did that he knew were wrong.
"What is the point?"
"The point is that I think even you don't realize you like her, but I think you do. The thing is I can't see why you wouldn't want to." Nathan points out.
Lucas stays silent. Maybe he did like her a little more than he ever thought he would, but he was seventeen. He wasn't looking for some serious relationship like Nathan and Peyton had both found themselves in. He would be going off to college in less than six months—why would he tie himself down?
Besides, Brooke could do a hell of a lot better than him.
"She could do a lot better than me."
"I wont disagree with that." Nathan grinned tossing the ball a little too roughly to his brother. "The secret is to make sure she never realizes it."
"You spend way too much time with Haley."
Nathan laughed as they continued to play and Lucas' mind runs rampant with thoughts of a brunette who had slammed into his life so unexpectedly that he felt like he couldn't breathe.
It was like she was a bucket of ice water that soaked him right when he was in the middle of falling asleep and now with everything in him, he can't go back to sleep the same way.
That night Haley drags Brooke to a party with her. Haley always wanted to get Brooke to go out and have some fun, but she always found a reason to stay in. On this particular night, Haley mentioned it in front of Brooke's mom so that she had no way to get out of it. She stood awkwardly in the kitchen as Haley looked around for Nathan. Brooke said hello to people she used to go to school with, but for the most part, she nursed her solo cup and sipped slowly.
She had gone through quite the wild stage earlier that year. She had started dating a boy that was into the party ways and she wanted to fit in—she wanted to be cool. So she went to the parties and she became the best as beer pong. She became someone that people liked to be around. Except herself. She didn't like the person she had become. The person who came home early in the morning hung over. The person who had pieces of time missing from her memory. A girl who could easily get in trouble and put more stress on her parents.
Peyton and Haley didn't know that side of her. She never told them about the night she got too drunk and woke up the next morning in her boyfriend's bed and no recollection of the night before. Her first time came and went in a non spectacular fashion. She remembered leaving with a soreness between her legs and she had never been so heartbroken and humiliated.
Felix wasn't a bad guy—far from it. He was a good boyfriend and never did anything she didn't want to do. She would never let anyone think differently of him. She just realized she didn't like the life she had found herself in and so she pulled away. She distanced herself from him and they realized they were better off friends.
So she stopped going to parties and she stayed in and up late playing cards with her mom while they drank coffee with a dollop of chocolate chip ice cream on top. She woke up feeling refreshed, her grades got better, and she liked the girl she had become.
So when they asked her to go out, she always gave an excuse. The reasons were usually awful and she was sure they knew she was lying but they never looked into it. They knew if she didn't want to do something there was no point in pushing it.
"I must say, I am shocked to see you here." Nathan smiled as he took a seat at the table with her.
"Your girlfriend is looking for you."
Nathan looked around before waving her off. "She'll find me eventually. I'm sure she is just talking to someone about doing well in school."
Brooke laughed at his comment knowing he might be right. It is very Tutorgirl-esque to pull one of her tutorees to the side to discuss their grades. Especially if she has had a few drinks.
"But seriously, I thought you were done with parties."
Nathan and Brooke had never been overly close. Of course they were closer than she and Lucas were up until a year ago, but not quite as close as her and Peyton. They could always talk easy with each other about the silliest topics. He was very much like Benji—minus the gay part.
They held secrets for each other that they would never share with anyone else. Nathan knew her at her worse, and she knew him at his. They found each other at rock bottom and quietly became a support system for the other.
He somehow wound up at party she attended last year during a rough patch between him and Haley. She wasn't ready to date him, he was too pompous and egotistical to understand why. He did a few things he wasn't proud of and he hopped from girl to girl trying to mend his broken heart. He was the only person to see Brooke as a party girl and she was the only one to see him make so many wrong decisions that he never wanted to speak of.
"Haley begged me. I ran out of reasons not to come." She shrugged and took a large gulp of her drink. At his worrisome look, she added, "It's apple juice."
Nathan nodded, holding up his own cup. "Water."
"Well aren't we a pair?"
They sat a few moments in a comfortable silence, "You still like him, don't you?"
It was rather embarrassing when Nathan seemed to be the only one that caught on to the crush she harbored for Lucas. Maybe it was because he was Lucas' twin or maybe because he had always been the outside voice of reason, never too close to the drama.
"Nate," She held a warning tone, not in the mood to hash her feelings out.
The first time he realized, he asked the exact same way. They were at her parents' lake house, Nathan and Brooke were sitting on the docks while Lucas, Peyton, and Haley were tubing. She must have been staring when he outright asked if she liked him. She stuttered a response and he told her he wouldn't tell anyone.
He never did— not even Haley.
"Look, I get it is different now. He is around more, you two are friends."
She snorted into her cup as a response.
"You are. What is with you two and denial?"
She raises an eyebrow. "Did he say something?"
"No, but I see the way you two act with each other."
Brooke sighs. Her fingers rubs the rim of the cup that is stained by her lip stain. Her other hand pushes her loose hair behind her ear and she tears her eyes from the cup and to her just-as-sober-as-her friend.
"In what world does that work out for me?" She nudges her chin in the direction to the living room where Lucas is laughing and being the life of the party.
"Well, B. I am not positive but just maybe—the same world where Haley James takes a chance on me." He rests a hand over hers and gives a reassuring squeeze.
"You two are closer than either realize." He adds. He stands then, giving her a kiss on the top of her head. "Now, I think it is time to save Hales from someone trying to get her to do a keg stand."
Brooke laughed though she felt slightly down.
"You're giving me false hope." She says to his back. He doesn't stop his trek out the door as he responds.
"It isn't false yet."
Lucas finds her not too long after Nathan has departed. He's giving her a big, lazy grin that she knows is alcohol induced but she can't help but respond with her own. He is pulling her on the "dance floor" which is just the couch pushed out of the way and the lights set to be dim. She tells herself to tell him no, but she just can't find the words.
He has her close, flailing her arms around making her laugh loudly. Before she knows it, the song is turning to a slow one. Brooke has been to her fair share of parties and not once has a slow song come on. It is the whole point of a party—hard and fast and sweaty bodies packed tight together moving to the music and the friction causing an insatiable need.
Not the place for slow music.
But here it was and maybe the partygoers were too drunk and the party was nearing an end and the idea of something slow was a great way to end it.
That was how dance classes always went, wasn't it? You go fast and hard and then slow your heart rate down with whimsical and slow paced.
Or maybe a certain golden couple were just scheming (they weren't subtle in their iPod changing).
But people were pulling their partners in and Lucas was no different. She allowed herself to be swept up into his arms. She allowed herself to think he was doing it because she was Brooke and not just another warm body. As they swayed, his grip on her waist tightened and she allowed herself to think it was because he didn't want to let her go. Her body felt like it was on fire and she couldn't blame it on alcohol which always made her feel fuzzy and warm like a large blanket—the one Benji got her years ago that was heated and kept her perpetually cold feet from turning into icicles— was surrounding her.
His hot breath ghosted over her temple and she chanced a look in his eyes to the dark shade of blue they had turned. He leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes closed in a dramatic tightness and she felt herself in a daze as her eyes fell shut too.
She poked her tongue to wipe her lips from the sudden dryness that took over. Her whole mouth felt like it had been stuffed with cotton and she forgot how to create saliva.
And just as he leans in, and his lips touch hers and enough pressure is applied to shock her back into reality, she smells the lingering scent of cheap beer on his breath and she loses all the butterflies that took home in her belly.
He was drunk. He wasn't thinking clearly and she wasn't about to be the next girl Lucas picks up at a party.
She was worth so much more than that.
She pulls away and untangles herself from him though her heart and her body begs her not to. It was so warm with him and for the first time, her body felt like it could settle instead of being in a constant state of going.
He's reaching for her, but she is already putting space between them as she whispers: "I got to go."
And she doesn't wait for him to respond or for Haley to come find her as she is rushing out the door and calling her mom who she knew would still be up on the small chance Brooke needed her.
She couldn't wait for the aftermath or the moment when Lucas shrugs it off and goes and finds someone new.
She refused to let herself think it was anything more than a drunken kiss. She wasn't about to give herself false hope.
She had no idea the broken look on Lucas' face when she walked away was more than just missing a chance with bedding a new girl.
Baby, it just took one look at you
For me to change my one drink order to two
Like we already knew each other
Like we been talking all night
About a minute into our first dance
We got blindsided by your friends
All in a hurry like you had to go
Didn't they know you can't leave someone
Girl, you can't leave someone
In the middle of a dance floor all alone
In the middle of an old school country song
Right when I was just about to lean on in
Why'd you have to go then?
Baby, in the middle of the glow of the neon light
It shoulda, coulda, woulda been the night of our lives
Girl, it ain't right, no
How you gonna leave me right in the middle of a memory?
We were gonna dance till they shut it down
People'd be staring while I spin you 'round
Thinking we were so in love, yeah
They wouldn't know we hadn't even hooked up
I'd get your number and I'd give you mine
And we'd be hanging out tomorrow night
But now I don't know where you are
I'm under these lights right here in the dark
In the middle of a dance floor all alone
In the middle of an old school country song
Right when I was just about to lean on in
Why'd you have to go then?
Baby, in the middle of the glow of the neon light
It shoulda, coulda, woulda been the night of our lives
Girl, it ain't right, no
How you gonna leave me right in the middle of a memory?
Yeah, it's like you walked right out in the middle of a movie
Tore the back half out of a book
And no, you'll never know, girl, what you did to me
It ain't right saying goodbye
In the middle of a dance floor all alone
In the middle of what could've been our song
Right when I was just about to lean on in
Why'd you have to go then?
Baby, in the middle of the glow of the neon light
It shoulda, coulda, woulda been the night of our lives
But, girl, it ain't right, no
How you gonna leave me right in the middle of a memory?
In the middle of a memory
In the middle of a memory