The Unkindness

Disclaimer: See Author's bio

A/N: Thank you cRaZyGuRl093 for reviewing! Yup there will be drama; it is tree hill. :) Here's the next chapter, everyone. Kind of shorter, but it relays pretty important info. Enjoy!!

Chapter 6: Aches Like Teen Spirit

"So…are you going to tell me why I found you soaked to the bone like a stranded lost puppy?" curly haired Seth Cohen asked his best friend. After Ryan Atwood stormed into his home, refusing to comment on the events of the night, Seth looked out the window to see Brooke sobbing on the wet ground, inches away from her red front door. As the night wore on, Seth had felt the worry wrinkle on his forehead deepen with every passing minute – especially since Ryan locked himself inside his pool house and Brooke willingly locked herself out of her own home. Despite his weak muscles, he was able to somewhat support Brooke into her home and get her into some dry clothes.

Dressed in sweats, the Jewish gamer was now attempting to get comfortable on the floor of Brooke Davis' large living room. The two each had their own sleeping bags next to each other and both were staring up above at the large glass skylight. The rain had begun to cease and with a squint of his eye, Seth could almost make out the constellation of Casseopoeia. "Brooke? Are you listening? Puppy? Lost? Soaked?" he asked once more trying to get his best friend's attention.

"Do we have to talk about it now, Seth?" Brooke complained as she continued to stare at the night sky above her. She was ashamed of what had just gone down a half hour ago and her heart wasn't up to reliving the moment.

"Well, seeing as I am one of your closest confidants, I'm a little worried as to why you willing exposed yourself to the possibility of contracting pneumonia," Seth voiced with concern.

"Fine, but you're only getting the short version for now. I'm not really in a story mood," Brooke sighed.

"I'll take whatever version you can give me," Seth agreed.

"I told Ryan," Brooke revealed. Her trite answer was received with confusing silence and a lone cricket chirping in the remnants of the rain. She started to count backwards from five, Seth could never stay silent for long. And when she reached one, he did indeed break the silence.

"Interesting. Just, um, what, pray tell, did you - " Seth started to ask, but as soon as Brooke turned to face him, the redness and seriousness of her eyes gave him his answer. She had told him about Peyton. "Oh. Well, that's good, right. I mean, you've been wanting to - " and again Seth was cut short with one stoic face expression and raised eyebrow from Brooke.

"No, what was I thinking; of course it wasn't good," Seth sighed. "What did he say?" he asked cautiously. He did not like where this was heading.

"I got a pity hug and then no more than thirty seconds later he had the nerve to insinuate that there was something wrong with me and that I've been acting crazy. So I banished him and said he wasn't family," Brooke paraphrased in one breath.

"You banished him?" Seth asked, a bit confused.

"I told him to get off my property. It's the same thing," Brooke rationalized. As she continued to stare through her skylight, she could feel the stare of her best friend beating down on her. By his few seconds of silence, she could tell that he was concerned, worried and surprised at the whole ordeal.

"Wow, Brooke," Seth exhaled, "I mean, maybe he was a little out of line to accuse you of some of that stuff. But…You told him he wasn't family? I thought we discussed in detail about the whole 'think before you speak' thing."

Seth knew that whenever Brooke would become offended or feel betrayed, she could be incredibly vicious. Hell, she could be a bitch. But to her four best friends, she usually took a breath and she would be able to take it down a couple notches to the weather girl from Mean Girls. But tonight she went all out Regina George on poor Ryan. So now it wasn't just Lucas in the so called dog house.

Seth realized that he really needed to talk to his parents about all of the drama that was erupting. After eight years of friendship, Seth usually knew how to deal with the mini Brooke-lems (Brooke problems) and the occasional crises. But he had no idea how to pull Brooke out of her dilemma pool this time. Something was still eating at her inside, otherwise she wouldn't be distancing herself away from her friends.

"I know. I can't help it sometimes," Brooke mumbled about her inability to think before speaking. She hated it whenever she hurt her friends. But what was she supposed to do when they hurt her? Just sit there and take it all in? "Damn it, Seth. Why can't your stupid super people comic books be real so we could travel back in time before all of this crazy shit happened?" Brooke huffed.

This wasn't how they were supposed to start their junior year of high school. They were finally going to be considered upperclassmen. And she was going to propel their little group to the top, even if they didn't want the attention. Even though Seth, Haley, Lucas, and Ryan didn't necessarily like or understood the concept of social order, Brooke knew what being at the top of the chain meant. It wasn't just about perks, attention, or being treated like royalty. It was about having the power to change the school – like let other organizations be given some of the benefits and funding that the Cletes always received. But Brooke couldn't help or change the school without her core, her foundation, her best friends. And she had turned two of them away already.

"Well," Seth interrupted her thoughts, "Even in the world of comics, despite what a certain tv show has shown you, time travel usually isn't as readily available, nor is it as easily attainable; although, maybe, if you pulled a - "

"Setttthhhh," Brooke whined, hoping to prevent him from rambling on about his beloved past time.

"Sorry," Seth apologized. "I know this is a tender best friends moment, but you just intimated at possibly being interested in the fantastic world of comic books. I couldn't be more ecstatic right now," Seth tried to ease the depressing mood in the air. Brooke, however, was not amused. With a sigh, Seth accepted defeat in trying to cheer is friend up.

"Ok ecstatic gone, back to melodramatic Ryan-esque broodiness," Seth grumbled in his best Ryan impression. "So," he continued, as he decided he should try to get more answers from Brooke, "If we could make like Marty McFly and time travel, what specific date did you have in mind?"

"I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count," Brooke answered.

And with that one statement, Brooke finally made Seth speechless. He knew what event she had in mind. He just wondered if she realized that that specific day couldn't have been prevented by her or any superhero for that matter. He thought her stresses about that day were dealt with. He thought she had finally accepted what had been thrown at her at the end of last school year. That's why she went away to her aunt's in California for the summer, wasn't it? That's why she refused Seth to go with her, right? Because the only way she could heal was to be away from everything she knew. Or so she claimed. But, obviously, it didn't work. Now he really needed to ask for adult over thirty interference on this one. He just hoped Brooke would accept it.

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flashback

June – 3 months ago; two weeks before the end of sophomore year

Haley James had just finished writing a long and drawn out paragraph in Lucas' yearbook when Brooke and Seth were called to the principal's office. Believing it had everything to do with class council, the group, especially Brooke, thought nothing of it.

The news was first told to Seth, a tactic Principal Turner thought was important, believing that Brooke would need someone to lean on. And then Brooke heard the news: her mother had been in an accident and was now in a coma.

Twenty minutes later, Seth didn't know how to get his best friend out of the girl's bathroom. He watched as Brooke just sat on the tiled floor in silence, staring into nothingness. He remained silent as well, not having any clue as to what he should say. Near death situations was a first on their list of best friend stuff. Every few minutes, Haley would peek in to see if there was any change. And every time, she would release a big sigh and go back to keeping watch outside, making sure nobody would come in. Seth, meanwhile, kept trying to contact his mother, figuring she was the one person that could help Brooke at the moment. But her office line, as well as her cell, continued to give him the busy signal.

Brooke couldn't understand any of it. Brooke's parents had never really been your typical parents; they never bothered with sit down dinners, bedtime stories, PTA meetings, time outs, groundings, or awkward talks about the birds and the bees. As a result, the relationship Brooke had with her parents was merely as acquaintances. She saw them more as business moguls who provided her with a ridiculously large allowance, a roof over her head, and the occasional "Good job on that 'C,' here's $500."

In the fifth grade (after the "Peyton is your sister" revelation) she found out that her parents were the way they were because of an affair her father had before she was born. She confronted her parents, and it resulted in a horrible family scream match and her father leaving the house. She hadn't seen her father since – unless you counted the monthly checks she received in the mail. They never divorced because each knew that it was far more complicated to go through the divorce process than just ignore each other.

Up until several moths ago, Brooke had never been close to her mother. She was mostly upset that her mother would screw her over because of mistakes her father made. Then one random August day before sophomore year started, her mother asked her if she wanted to go on a mother daughter shopping spree. It took Brooke a good few weeks to start letting her previously absent mother in. And during all those weeks, her best friend Seth watched over her and was at her side at the drop of a hat, whenever she called and was having doubts.

She had no idea what brought on this sudden care and compassion from her mother, but Seth made sure she didn't push it away. The first few steps to opening up were tough for both mother and daughter, but each gave what they could. By New Year's, Brooke and her mother were on good speaking terms. True they weren't close like Haley was with her mother, but Brooke would take anything she could get. She needed family in her life. And as a result, Brooke's cheerful demeanor became even more cheery and hyper, rubbing off on everyone around her.

Until today.

Brooke didn't want to go home or to the hospital; she didn't want to face the reality of it all just yet. One reason was because she knew she wouldn't know how to cope, the other was because she didn't want to see her father. Going to a friend's house was out of the question. She didn't want to be subject to their parents' constant condolences and "we're here for you" offerings. All she wanted at the moment was to go somewhere quiet where she could sit for a couple hours and do nothing more than just exist.

Was that such a request? No sighs, no tears, no words, no shoulders to lean on. Just let her be and exist.

And that's when Peyton Sawyer entered the bathroom, despite the attempted blocking from Ryan, Lucas, Haley and Seth. "Hey," Peyton started with a low voice, getting no reply from Brooke.

"When did Seth leave?" Brooke thought, paying no attention to the curly blonde standing a few feet away.

Peyton unconsciously started picking at her cuticles, nervous as to what she was about to do. "Turner told me what happened. I guess he thinks for some reason I could help," she hesitated, wondering if Brooke was even paying attention to her, "I know what you're going through...so I guess…"

Peyton watched as Brooke stared quizzically at her, as if to silently say, 'Where the hell do you get off caring about me?''

"Nobody should have to deal with the loss or even the possibility of losing a mother," Peyton began to explain. "So, what I'm trying to say is - " there was a long silence as Brooke watched Peyton form the words that must have been hard for her to say, "If you ever want to talk, I can lend an ear." With those last words, Peyton Sawyer left the bathroom and told Brooke's entourage not to go in for a few minutes.

Brooke was stunned at the blonde's words, mostly because Peyton was actually acting like a sister towards her. Brooke wondered if her efforts all those years ago were starting to pay off. If there was one thing Brooke knew she wanted, it was a family – something she never received, until recently. But even that was taken away from her. Although she considered the Cohens her surrogate family, Brooke always wanted a blood relative to be close to and she saw that in Peyton, even before seeing that in her mother.

But Peyton's walls were a bitch to try and take down, and Brooke wouldn't discover why until later. Unfortunately for Brooke, Peyton's reasons for hiding and closing herself to others were incredibly justifiable. And one of those reasons would soon break Brooke's heart just as much as it did Peyton's.

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A/N: Hope you liked this chapter and the Seth/Brooke friendship. I like to think that it's because of Seth that Brooke isn't as shallow as she was in the first season of OTH. And because of Brooke, Seth isn't as clueless to some things as he was in the first season of OC. Coming up is Nathan and Peyton. It's been a long while since we've seen them - I can't wait! :)