"You know what I love about stars," Brooke whispered the question to Nathan. They were on the roof of the hotel on the opposite end of where the master suite's hot tub was located. Despite Charlotte's bright lights the stars were still startlingly clear.

"What," he asked.

She smiled, "they make you remember that there's more than you think there is."

Nathan was still holding her hand. He hadn't let go since she had first took his hand in the hallway earlier in the night. She knew that she was standing in as a lifeline and she also knew that there was nowhere else on the face of the planet where she wanted to be.

"I can't wait to get the fuck out of Tree Hill and away from Dan," Nathan told her.

His voice sounded so sad, so desolate, "where do you want to go to college?"

"I've thought of Notre Dame and Purdue, they're both good basketball teams and I think I could be beneficial to their teams," he replied, "and I just really want to get out of Carolina. Away from anything that reminds me of Tree Hill."

Brooke took a deep breath, she felt his pain so piercingly. Sometimes it hurt to breathe when she saw his eyes full of pain, "if you want to get out then you will. I'll help you. We could leave tomorrow."

Nathan laughed and pulled her to him, "I want to get away and I will but I won't run. I'm not a coward."

"I know you're not," she agreed as she nuzzled herself into his side.

"You're my best friend, Brooke," he told her quietly.

She smiled gently, "I want to take you somewhere."

"Now," he asked with a quizzical laugh.

"No, not now, but maybe next weekend or whenever we can," she replied.

"Where?"

She sat up and grinned down at him, "it's a surprise."

"Okay," he sat up to and nodded his head in agreement. He trusted her, with everything, he'd follow her wherever she wanted to go.

XOXOXOXO

Haley was just getting in from being at the party all night when she saw Nathan leaving Brooke's room and sneaking back across the hall into his solitary room. Everyone else had a roommate but not surprisingly no one had opted to be Nathan's.

"Well, well, well, Nathan Scott," Haley taunted, "leaving Brooke's room a bit late aren't you?"

He turned and faced Haley. As usually she was surprised by how good looking he was. But despite his good looks every time she saw him all she could think about was the time she had tried to seduce him. She had been in pain, she had been looking for anything she could grasp onto to make the situation she had found herself in better.

"We just got in I wanted to make sure her room wasn't rigged," he replied.

Haley had an inner wince. She knew that somewhere along the lines she had become someone that she didn't recognize anymore. Someone who took far too much pride in hurting people.

"So is she your girlfriend," Haley wondered as she took a few lazy steps toward him.

Nathan shook his head, "no, we're just friends."

"Snuggling with her on the bus, spending most nights at her apartment, leaving her room in a pair of basketball shorts," Haley looked him up and down, "doesn't seem like a platonic type of relationship."

"What does it matter to you?"

"It doesn't. I'm just curious as to when you plan on telling her all of your dirty little secrets," she told him.

"What dirty little secrets," Nathan wondered.

"Does she know that Daddy dearest beats you," Haley asked.

Nathan's face paled, "how did you know?"

"Beside the classic yellowing around your ribs? I saw you two at the River court a few weeks back. Daddy punched you pretty hard, how's that shoulder anyway?"

Instinctively his put his hand on his left shoulder remembering the piercing pain that had just begun to go away. He wanted to deny Haley, to tell she was a liar and that she was obviously grasping at straws but she wasn't and they both knew it.

"And you all think I'm the one with the perfect life," Nathan murmured with a sardonic smile.

Haley was taken aback by his manner. He was beginning to take their hits with a smile, she didn't know if that meant anything or every thing. Brooke had said that at some point the bullied realized that they have power and then strike back at the bully.

"A few hits for a couple grand in allowance," Haley shrugged, "I'd take it."

Nathan laughed then, "no, you wouldn't. You would be stupid to."

She watched him go into his room knowing he'd find the bed full of jelly and peanut butter but she didn't say anything. What worried her was that she wanted to warn him. She had never been beaten but she had been in foster care for long enough in her life to see abuse at its harshest. It could kill a person inside, she thought and then she headed to her room with a reserved sigh, just like bullying could.

XOXOXOXO

Brooke woke up so comfortable that she didn't want to move. She took a deep breath in contentment and realized then that she was lying on top of Nathan. She looked down and saw that her head had been on his chest and the rest of her was literally on him using him as a complete body pillow. Oddly enough the first thought that struck her was how much bigger Nathan was from her. With her head on his chest her toes only reached his shins…hairy shins. She sighed and laid her head back down on his chest. He was still asleep, his chest moving rhythmically with his deep breaths.

"Morning," he startled her just as she was about to fall asleep again.

Brooke looked up and then at Nathan's face. He hadn't opened his eyes yet but he was grinning, "good morning, sunshine."

"You've fulfilled all of my Brooke Davis fantasies," he told her with a chuckle.

She buried her head back on his chest, "I swear I don't usually use people as human pillows."

"I'm sure," he told her with mock severity. His arms, which had been loosely around her, tightened and then he flipped her so she was back on the bed.

He looked into her eyes and suddenly left the bed. Brooke sat up completely startled, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I have to catch a shower before the game, it's the big one today," he reminded her.

She nodded and watched him practically run into the bathroom. She grinned before shrugging her shoulders, she wasn't sure that she'd ever understand men.

In the bathroom Nathan stood under the hot water stroking his dick furiously. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept him from taking Brooke wherever he found her. Sometimes it was the only thing that reminded him that his friendship with her wasn't worth what sleeping with her would cost him. Before she had come he had been fine standing on his own but now that she was in his life he couldn't lose her. He could take the insults and the cruel 'jokes' but he wouldn't survive losing her. She was truly all he had.

XOXOXOXO

"Okay, really, Nathan? That's just gross," Brooke's voice was full of disdain as she watched Nathan wade his hand through a puddle of muddy disgusting water. She really cared for the boy but she couldn't deny that his obsessions were a bit all consuming.

"Brooke, it's a 1989 rookie Michael Jordan card," Nathan reiterated as he felt a lot of things that he preferred not to think about.

"Okay I know basketball means a lot to you Nathan, and I understand, I really do, but honey you're putting your hand in a place that is nothing if it's not the most unsanitary puddle in the universe! We'll get you another card."

"I wouldn't need a new card if someone wasn't flitting it around in the middle of Charlotte," Nathan reminded her.

Brooke pouted, "well I had never seen a basketball card before. And why do they make the numbers on those things so small? You'd have to have 20/90 vision to see those little letters!"

"I think the second number gets smaller with better sight," he commented. Finally he pulled out the card it was covered in black mud and it had an odor. He shrugged and rose, "good thing I put it in plastic."

"Oh, yeah," Brooke looked at the card as he wrapped it in napkins from their Bojangles bag of leftovers, "I'm ecstatic for you."

He rolled his eyes and finally deposited the card in the bag, "let's go, little trouble maker!"
"I'm the trouble maker," she sounded affronted.

He tossed his arm carelessly around her shoulders as they approached the entrance of the hotel. They had gone out again after the game, opting out of the big dinner but not before Nathan moved all of his things into Brooke's room. He knew there would something else, there always was.

"Where were you two," Peyton's voice made the smile on Nathan's mouth drop, Brooke immediately missed it.

"None of your business," Brooke replied and although Nathan had dropped his arm she laced their fingers, leading him into the hotel.

"I stopped at both of your rooms," Peyton told them.

Brooke turned around, "if you touched my shit-"

"You'll what," Peyton anticipated her.

"Bitch, Nathan may be too nice of a guy to use the money you're always persecuting him for, but I'm not! There are ways to get back at people."

"That," Peyton stepped forward until her finger was a few inches from Brooke's face, "is the problem with you rich people! You always think because you have money that you're exempt."

"Are you serious," Brooke questioned incredulously, "how can you even look at yourself in the mirror? You spend all of your time working diligently for respect by making the people around you feel like shit. Congratulations, whatever the fuck your name is, you're a bully. No wonder I think I'm better than you. And if you don't get your finger out of my face in the next three seconds I'll rip it off of your hand!"

"Okay," Nathan lifted Brooke easily and walked through the entire of length of the lobby and into the elevator before letting her go. He fixed her hair, brushing it back from her eyes, "you okay?"

She huffed and pouted, "I could have taken her!"

Nathan tried to stifle it but within a moment he was laughing out loud. Brooke looked like a strong breeze could blow her away but there was a core of steel within her that made her one of the most fearless women he had ever met.

The elevator door opened and Nathan took her hand this time, lacing their fingers tightly, "let's go, Rocky Balboa."

But they both noticed that their room doors were wide open. Since Nathan's stuff was all in Brooke's room they went there. The entire room was a mess, clothes every where and written on the mirror at the vanity in red lipstick was the note: look at the computer, we know your secrets.

In the middle of the bed was a laptop, Brooke and Nathan cautiously approached it and finally sat down. It was a slideshow and the first picture made Nathan groan and Brooke gasp. She turned her hazel eyes to him, her bottom lip quivering, "you're father…he…he beats you?"

He had never lied to her before, "yeah, sometimes."

"Those bruises on your ribs weren't from practice were they," she asked, already piecing things together.

"No, that was a bad day," he admitted.

"Oh, Nate," she wrapped her arms around his neck, cradling his head to her breasts, "why didn't you tell me?"

Nathan took a deep breath, she smelled beautiful, and like the woman of his dreams, "it never came up."

They both noticed that the picture changed and this time it was Brooke who groaned. Nathan studied the picture and felt the very beginning twinges of jealousy. It was of a young kid, maybe fifteen, with dark curly hair, a tanned face and perfect teeth. The kid looked down at the girl in his arms with a look of complete adoration. The girl was Brooke. Albeit a younger Brooke but the same deep dimples were there and she looked just as happy.

The picture moved again and there was a clip of a newspaper article with a picture of a car that barely resembled a car because it was smashed so thoroughly. The caption read: murder much?

"Who was he?"

Brooke looked at Nathan, her eyes wet, "Alex Rivera, my…he was my boyfriend. I killed him."

"What?"

Brooke didn't say anything for a long moment before she finally murmured out her heartbreaking story, "we were stupid and had extra money to burn to do stupid shit. We got drunk at a party and I broke up with him. He was always such a sensitive guy, I knew I'd hurt his feelings but I thought I was too young to be held down in such an intense relationship. In hindsight I realize that I didn't understand what I had. He got into his car and I never saw him alive again."

Nathan cupped her cheeks, "that doesn't equate to murder, Brooke."

She looked up into his eyes and nodded, "I was a stupid girl and he paid the price for that stupidity."

"What happened after?"

"I moved around for the rest of that school year and for some of this year before I decided to settle in my grandpa's hometown. No one knew me here because my dad had made his fortune in South Carolina. It took me a little over a year to settle again and you know the rest."

Nathan nodded but the picture changing again caught his attention. It simply said: we know your secrets and as of now, so does the rest of the school. Take a peak at the school website.

Brooke seethed angrily as she realized what the note meant; her fists clenched, and said one word in a furious hiss, "Peyton!"

Peyton, who had been waiting in the hallway outside of the door, smiled and murmured more to herself than anyone else, "told you that you'd remember my name by the end of the weekend," and then left in search of her friends with a smile on her face.