Brooke stood in front of the two story brown stone home, fidgeting with nervousness. She shifted the lemon meringue pie from one hand to the next and straightened her skirt. She had called Haley to see if she could bring anything to the cookout, to which Haley replied she should just bring herself. Haley had picked up on Brooke's nervousness and quickly allayed the woman's fears about seeing everyone again.
"We all missed you Brooke and no one faults you for staying away. We didn't exactly do the greatest job of keeping in touch either you know."
Brooke was grateful for Haley's welcoming and positive attitude about the whole thing, but she was really just worried about one person...well two. After the beach she couldn't get the image of Lucas or Peyton out of her mind. She was worried that Peyton had gotten the wrong idea about her silence and staring and she was also worried that she couldn't get the image of Lucas coming out of that water out of her mind.
She wasn't here to wreck anything. She was just trying to find herself again and get over Chase. Certainly, fantasizing about your ex boyfriend who is now happily married to your ex best friend meant she was on the road to recovery…or something.
She sighed. It was another beautiful day in Tree Hill. The neighborhood was alive with children riding bicycles, chasing the ice cream man, playing ball, and enjoying their youth. Brooke missed those days of innocence when the biggest problem she had was what color skirt to wear outside so little Kevin down the street would notice her. Most of the time being an adult just sucked.
She sighed again, her finger hovering over the buzzer. She could smell the charcoal from the grill and it reminded her that all she'd had for breakfast was a cup of low fat yogurt with cranberries.
"Okay, you can do this," she sighed. "You can do this Davis, just press the buzzer."
"Brooke?" Brooke spun around at the familiar male call and grinned.
"Well if it isn't Mouth MacFadden," she smirked, setting down her pie to give the taller man a hug. "God look at you, big radio personality!"
"Look at you!" Mouth cried back, giving her a bear hug. "Where the heck have you been?"
"New York. You know, my fashion line."
"Yeah I hear that's going well for you. So what brings you back home?"
"Um….I Just needed to do a little soul searching," Brooke replied vaguely.
"Good enough for me. You nervous? I can tell you've been standing here for awhile."
"Ten minutes give or take," Brooke shrugged, picking up her pie. "And I am nervous."
"Well, you can come in with me then," Mouth said, grabbing her hand.
"Won't your girlfriend get mad?"
"She would if she existed," Mouth shrugged, with a smile. They began to walk around the house and Brooke looked around.
"Where are we going?"
"Everyone is going to be in the backyard," he replied. The noise decibel increased greatly as they walked closer and Brooke hesitated a bit. Feeling Brooke's hesitation, Mouth stopped and looked back at her. "You ready for this, Davis?"
Brooke took a deep breath. "Give me a minute Mouth. I just can't really wrap my mind around all the time that's passed. I don't even know these people anymore you know?"
"Yeah. It's funny." Mouth said leading her to a bench pushed up against the side of the house. "You go out into the world after high school and you think they've prepared you for what's out there, but they haven't. You're forced to leave the only home you've ever known with nothing but the reassurance that you can always come home again. But…that's not always true is it."
"I remember thinking leaving Tree Hill would be the hardest thing I'd ever have to do. Who would have thought coming home would turn out to be so hard. I go out and make a name for myself but everyone here seems to have forgotten about me."
"Brooke, we didn't forget you."
"Maybe you didn't forget, but it's sad to know your home has not only stayed standing without you, but flourished without you. Mouth this place is my home…because of you and Skills and Haley, Nathan, Lucas, Peyton and Bevin….These people made Tree Hill home for me. And the people who made it home have become strangers and it's my fault."
"It's not completely your fault Brooke. We've all been busy trying to carve lives for ourselves out there. Being an adult is a twenty four hour career."
"Tell me about it. That career cost me my boyfriend. Before I could even blink he was gone and I realized I was missing something important in my life. Something I thought I could never find here in Tree Hill."
Mouth looked at her, questioningly. "What?"
"Love." She shrugged. "A sense of contentment."
"Well what makes you think you can find that here?"
"I mean lets face it, Mouth. Tree Hill isn't unlike a TV soap opera. Nothing runs smoothly around here ever, but all of a sudden I come back and it's like freakin Mayberry or something."
"Trust me Brooke, Tree Hill has not lost its penchant for drama, but that's every town. I'm sure there's a whole new generation of teenagers getting their hearts broken at Tree Hill high and their parents I'm sure are getting themselves into a fair share of trouble themselves."
Brooke raised a brow. "Not the Scotts though."
"Yeah I think they've filled their quota for drama in this town by the end of high school. I think they deserve to have their biggest worry be pulling off the annual Scott family reunion or which plant William got into this week."
"What?"
"William is a plant killer. Peyton started gardening two years ago and since William could walk he managed to turn over all the potted plants in their house. She and Karen won't let him near the outside garden and all the inside plants are out of his reach now."
Brooke sighed sadly. "I should have known that. I should know about her new hobbies and her children. God, I can't believe Peyton Sawyer is a mother."
"Yeah, it's pretty nuts. It seems like yesterday we were all sitting on the river court, watching Luke and Nathan play ball."
Brooke scrunched her brows and turned to Mouth. "Being a grown up sucks!"
"Hell yeah. I'll cheers to you on that later." He regarded his old friend and crush seriously and said with certainty, "But it's also really great Brooke. It can be if you make it. I think one of the worst things about being an adult is making decisions. It can be hard and scary, but ultimately if you shake that fear off and decide to make your life certain way, you can. You can find that happiness Brooke. Nathan and Lucas made that decision and their lives are really good now."
"Yeah, seems that way. Were you at their wedding?"
"Who Lucas and Peyton's? No. They uh-they got married spur of the moment at city hall. The only other people who were there was Karen, Lily, Larry, Haley, Nathan, and James. But they did have an impromptu party afterwards."
"They got married at City Hall?" Brooke cried in disbelief. Well…was she, was Peyton pregnant? Is that why they got married?"
"No. They found out they were pregnant with Anna eight months after the wedding. No, they'd been living together since the end of college. From what Luke tells me, they just woke up one morning, looked at each other and decided to do it. That was that."
"Oh," Brooke replied. Finding the disappointment she felt curious and slightly alarming. Mouth looked at her, curiously.
"Do you mind if I ask what happened with you two? I mean we all sort of figured something happened between you two, but she never said and we never asked."
"Wait she didn't tell anyone? Including Lucas?"
"Yeah he doesn't know either and Peyton tells him everything. So what happened?"
Brooke regarded Mouth. He had always been a good friend and someone she could share things with, without any fear of judgment. She decided to tell him. "Um…I told her that I was still in love with Luke." At the look he gave her she gave a wry smile. "I know crazy huh?"
"Woah. I mean when? When did that happen?"
"I don't know if you know this but Lucas came to LA about a month after we left."
"No wait I do remember that. He uh-used my credit card to book the flight. I don't think he even packed a suitcase."
"He didn't."
"To this day he says it's the craziest most liberating thing he's ever done. So what happened when he got there?"
"He told Peyton he was in love with her and that he'd love her forever. I don't know, it just-I was in love with him for a good two years, Mouth. That's a long time for me and it was a lot on my heart." Brooke paused, suddenly overcome with emotion.
"When he came into our apartment, soaking wet, and proclaiming his love for my best friend I didn't think, why didn't he ever do stuff like that for me. I just thought I wish he was mine. He was my first love and maybe that feeling never goes away or maybe I'm just fucking pathetic. I don't know. Anyway, he stayed a week and it was excruciating. I kept it in for a week after he left before I blurted it out to Peyton in the middle of dinner. I think at first she thought I was kidding, because she'd done the exact same thing to me, but then she saw I wasn't kidding." Brooke sighed and shook her head, reliving that night she and Peyton's relationship shattered once again. "I wish she would have slapped me or yelled, but she just stared at me for a long time before going up to her room. We never talked about it. Peyton had always been private about her relationship with Lucas, but now she never even uttered his name around me. Whenever he called she'd take the phone into the other room."
She looked at Mouth and shrugged. "After we got back I stayed with Chase and we moved to New York City. Peyton and I went through the motions, but it just wasn't going to work out. Not with Lucas between us again."
"Wow, Brooke. I didn't realize." Mouth said leaning forward to rest his arms on his legs.
"Yeah so, I don't know how she feels about me coming here today. Haley invited me."
"I'm sure she'll be happy to see you Brooke. It has been years after all."
Brooke shook her head. "I got in a few days ago, Mouth. I'm staying at the inn, because I haven't decided if I'm staying yet. Yesterday I went to the beach and there they were. Lucas, Peyton, and their two ridiculously cute kids. Peyton saw me watching them and I couldn't even read her. It wasn't hostile, but I'm pretty sure I saw that same look on a mother bear once on Animal Planet just before she attacked."
"Come on," Mouth laughed. "I'm sure she was just surprised to see you, Brooke."
"No, I must have had jealousy painted all over my face. I watched them for awhile and they just seemed so….blissful."
"They are really happy, Brooke," Mouth said quietly. "It's not too late you know. To make things right with Peyton. Have a relationship."
Brooke glanced quickly at Mouth. "You think?"
"I know. Part of being an adult is knowing how to work things out."
"Mouth is that you?" Nathan had just come from the front of the house, holding a bag of charcoal in one hand and Anna in the other.
"What's up man. Good to see you. Did you bring beer because-oh."
He was surprised to see Brooke sitting beside him with a pie in her lap.
"Brooke!" He dropped the bag of charcoal and let Mouth take Anna from him. He smiled warmly at the smaller woman and embraced, saying. "Glad you could make it."
"Thanks. Um, I brought a pie…actually I bought a pie."
"I was about to say, Brooke Davis baking? Hell just froze over." Brooke grinned and shoved him playfully, realizing how much she had missed Nathan.
"So, who's this?" She gestured to the four year old who was currently talking Mouth's ear off. Nathan smiled.
"You couldn't tell whose she was by the black band tee she's wearing?" He teased. "Anna, come'ere. I want you to meet someone." He beckoned the little girl over.
Nathan picked her up and Brooke gasped. She was all her mother's from her big green eyes and naturally petulant pout, to her black Pink Floyd band tee shirt and jeans. Her straight tawny hair, which was all her father's was French braided into two pigtails once again.
"This is my niece and Peyton and Luke's little girl. Hey babe can you tell this lady your name?"
"Anna Elizabeth Penelope Scott," Anna recited in one breath. Brooke's mouth fell open and her eyes misted. Nathan and Mouth shared a smile.
"The uh-middle names were Peyton's idea," Nathan said.
"Who are you? I don't know you," Anna said, eying the pie Brooke had in one hand.
"Oh! Um, my name is Brooke." Anna's eyes grew wide and excited.
"Daddy and Aunt Haley were talkin bout you this morning!" She frowned and tilted her head. "But you aren't old."
"Anna," Nathan laughed.
"Daddy says she was an old friend," she explained innocently. Again Nathan laughed and Mouth and Brooke joined him.
"No baby, when you're dad said old friend he meant he knew Brooke a very long time ago."
"Oh. You knew my Mommy too?"
"Yeah, I knew your Mommy, too," Brooke replied softly.
"Oh. She's in the back yard with Daddy and Gramma, and Aunt Haley, and Grandpa, and-"
"There are a lot of people back there," Nathan cut in before the child could go down the entire guest list. "Come on. Haley is probably wondering where Anna and I are."
"I was helping Uncold Nathan get coals!" Anna cried, back to them. Smiling, Mouth took hold of Brooke's hand and looked at her.
"She's beautiful," Brooke whispered.
"And smart. Her brother is adorable too."
"They gave her my middle name," Brooke said, still shocked. Mouth grinned.
"See? You weren't ever forgotten." Brooke looked back at Mouth and returned his smile. She had missed these people. Her friends and maybe, she thought, as she watched the little girl they called Anna; maybe they missed her too.
"You ready for this, Davis?" Brooke took a deep cleansing breath and then nodded. "Yeah," she replied, a small smile forming on her lips. Maybe you can go home again, she thought. "Yeah, Mouth. Let's do this."