A Season in Purgatory

Chapter 9

Monday Morning

The warning bell rang out, causing a frenzied, last minute activity at the lockers that lined the hallway. Brooke lethargically pushed some books around her locker, less interested in finding her biology textbook than in avoiding the crowd of cheerleaders that surrounded her. Giving up on finding a few moments of peace, she pasted on her fakest cheer smile and began walking toward her classroom.

Lucas watched the approaching herd amble down the hallway and quickly found Brooke, the brightest girl in a group of pretty faces. Their eyes met for only a moment but she gave him a shy smile before breaking their gaze and moving on with the herd. Lucas' smile faded as he watched her walk off, noticing for the first time the dark circles under her very pretty eyes. Frowning, he grabbed his calc book and headed off for class, wondering what dreams were keeping Brooke Davis awake at night.

Meandering into her bio class, Brooke selected her usual seat near the back of the classroom, silently lamenting that she only shared 2 classes with Lucas. Of course, Lucas was smart and had most of his classes with the nerdy students. Ignoring the mindless chatter and endless gossip of the cheer herd surrounding her, she slumped down in her chair, pulling her uncharacteristically big shirt over her torso. Brooke absently rubbed her stomach, as her mind flashbacked to a few hours earlier, when she'd woken up and found her stepfather sitting on her bed. The memory of it caused her stomach to churn, flooding her with disgust that threatened to overwhelm her. Trey had a perfectly good reason for being in his stepdaughter's bedroom. He was taking her mother on a mini vacation and wanted to make sure she had enough money for the next few days. Brooke was never able to pinpoint what exactly it was about the man that creeped her out. She hated the way he always found some reason to touch her, the way his clammy hand felt sliding over her exposed skin. And the fact that his hands lingered a bit too long or his hugs were a bit too tight just added to her uncomfortable feelings. It was getting to the point where she couldn't fall asleep at night any more, fearing that he'd find another way to force the feeble lock on her bed room door open. She sighed, saddened that she couldn't feel safe in her own home. The night of the wedding flashed in her mind, of J.J.'s hands sliding her dress off her trembling body and Brooke realized that she hadn't been safe in her home for a long time.

"Brooke, we're waiting," a voice harped, breaking her reverie. Brooke looked up, startled that she was the intense focus of the cheer herd's attention. "What?" She asked, trying not to look completely lame.

One of the other cheerleaders spoke up. "Hello? We were all at the party Friday night, B. We're waiting impatiently to know what Lucas Scott scored on the Brooke Davis sex-o-meter." The girls giggled at their own cleverness, while Brooke shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

Brooke's face dropped, even as she prepared her response. "A lady never tells," she demurely replied side stepping the question. She felt an uncharacteristic protectiveness regarding Broody's private life. They'd shared something special that night on the dock, something that she jealously guarded.

A cacophony of cackles rose from the herd. "Since when did you fancy yourself a lady? We just want to know if Lucas is any good," Theresa prodded, knowing that most of the squad wanted to sample the delights of the other Scott boy.

Hearing her words, Brooke's smile faltered. She was spared a retort as their teacher finally made his way into the room. She ignored the curious stares of the girls around her, and busied herself with pulling out her notebook and finding her ink pen. Once class was underway, she found her attention wandering from the fascinating discussion of the mudpuppy's skeletal structure. Her mind kept repeating the words "Brooke Davis sex o meter". Her stepfather only saw the truth her friends stated a few moments earlier: she was the town slut and deserved whatever she got.

Lucas griped his brown paper lunch bag, his eyes squinting as he searched the quad for Haley. Good days or bad, they'd eaten lunch together every school day for eight years. He'd avoided Haley for the majority of the weekend, not wanting to argue about his actions at the beach house. Frowning, he realized this was one of the longest periods of time he'd ever gone without talking to his best friend. Lucas just didn't see the problem with him drinking a bit when she was obviously doing more than drinking with his archenemy. He realized he was going to have to sit down and talk their problems out, and there was no better time than during their usual lunch meeting.

Feeling a slight touch at his back, Lucas turned and saw Brooke, diet coke in hand, wearing a look of disdain on her pretty face. "If you've lost tutor girl, you can find her sitting in my lunch spot with Nathan," she revealed directing his attention to where the couple sat under the large oak tree in the center of the quad.

Lucas unconsciously mashed the brown bag in his hand, hurt that he'd been abandoned once again in favor of Nathan. As he looked at them, Haley let out an uncharacteristic giggle, nearly doubled over in laughter from something Nathan said. Lucas' frown grew, wondering when the last time she'd giggled like a silly girl. Not wanting to witness any more of demeaning behavior, Lucas turned away only to see the same look of disgust on Brooke's face. "It's like a freaking Doris Day movie," she snarked, nodding in the direction of Biff and Buffy.

He leaned forward and hesitantly brushed a strand of dark auburn hair off her check, gently tucking it behind her ear, gaining a smile from her for his actions. "Forget them," he said, refusing to dwell on his fight with Haley from the weekend and the uneasy silence between them. "Would you like to eat lunch with me?" he asked, liking the way her smile warmed up his own dark mood.

She hooked her arm through his, allowing him to escort her over to a remote part of the quad, a place where he tended to go when he wanted some alone time or a quiet place to read a book. Brooke waited as he spread his jacket on the ground for her and then gingerly sat down; making sure she her short skirt didn't ride up in the process. Lucas pulled his lunch out of the bag, pausing when he noticed that Brooke only had her diet coke. "Did you forget your lunch?" he asked, motioning to her obvious lack of food.

"I usually don't bring my lunch," she answered, watching as Lucas organized several sandwiches and ziplock bags on the ground in front of him. She didn't want to admit that her stomach hurt so badly that eating was almost always an exercise in futility. She was lucky if she could keep the blandest of food down every couple of days. She'd never been a big eater, but the past couple of months had completely destroyed her appetite.

He looked over at her and frowned, holding his huge sandwich only inches from his mouth. "You aren't one of those diet girls, are you?" he asked, before tearing into the sandwich with great intensity. She giggled at him before leaning over to wipe a stray tomato seed off the corner of his mouth. She thought a moment and then spoke. "I'm not dieting…I'm just perpetually not hungry."

"Have you always skipped lunch?" he asked, wondering how girls could starve themselves and still make it through the school day. He moved one of his sandwiches over in front of her, pausing a moment before adding his bag of Oreos.

Brooke smiled at this sweet gesture, forgoing a protest about him giving away part of his lunch. "Lucas, I can't possible eat an entire sandwich and all those cookies."

He opened the bag and pulled out one of the dark cookies. "But these aren't just any cookie, these are filled with all sorts of good stuff, like chocolate and white goo," Lucas explained, fumbling over the exact words.

Brooke died laughing at his words, before smirking at him with a sinful smile. "Oh, I love white goo," she said, her tone both mocking and sensual. Something deep inside him twitched, sending his brain all sorts of images of what he'd like to do with her. Those feelings intensified as he watched her lick the center of the cookie.

She finished off her cookie and smiled at a long forgotten memory. Lucas studied her face, curious as to what thoughts lightened her mood. She caught his questioning gaze and explained. "When I was in elementary school, my parents tended to forget about lunches. They never left me money to buy my lunch and they rarely remembered to send something from home," she explained, doing her best to avoid the look of pity already creeping in his eyes. "Anyway, Nathan always gave me half of his lunch so that I'd have something to eat."

Lucas remained quiet, knowing that while Nathan had never willing shared anything with him, it was good that he could be generous with his friends. "How long did that last?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "It's still going on. My parents wouldn't know what a grocery store was if you dropped it on their beamer. After a few years, Dan wondered why Nate always came home from school starving. When Dan found out that Nate was giving me half his lunch, he just started throwing in two of everything, so we both could eat." She looked over at where her best friend sat, sharing his chips with Haley. "In all these years, we've never let date-mates get in our lunch time, but I guess that's changed."

Lucas missed her last sentence, focusing instead on the image of his worthless father making sure his son's friend had something to eat, when he never cared if his other son went without. "I guess it's nice that Dan cared whether you went without food, cause it's damn certain he didn't care if I was hungry," he muttered, dropping his uneaten sandwich. Dan was one topic that could kill Luke's normally voracious appetite.

"He really messes with your mind, doesn't he?" she hesitantly asked, knowing that if Lucas was like Nathan, he didn't want to talk about Dan. Lucas looked at her in surprise. She motioned to his shoulders. "Anytime someone mentions Dan or Nathan, your shoulders tense up and you go all Quasimodo hunchback on me."

Lucas stared at her a moment before breaking out into laughter. "Has anyone ever told you that you have a way with words, Brooke?" She smiled at him and reached out and grasped his hand. "I've been told I'm good at a lot of things, but nothing that involved words," she sultrily replied. Brooke moved a bit closer to him, knowing that even on a bad day she had the ability to seduce any guy she wanted. Even when she was at her worst, being near a guy always made her feel less lonely.

Sighing, Luke tried to block out the distant noise of the lunch crowd and the stress that threatened to overwhelm him at times. "Well, I hate the man. I can't think of anyone I'd rather not be related to than Dan Scott. I just don't know why I couldn't have had a normal father," he gently remarked, his voice growing softer with the accumulations of years of anger and hurt. Looking up, he saw a similar pain her hazel eyes. "What about your dad?"

Her head jerked up in fear, wondering what he'd heard. "What about my dad?" she snapped, fearing that someone had seen or heard something about Trey. Lucas' eyes narrowed in confusion. "I just thought that he moved away or something, after the divorce." The Davis family was as old as Tree Hill itself. Anything they did or said was gossip worthy news, and most of the town seemed fascinated by the turmoil that had rocked the family estate the past year.

Brooke forced herself to relax. He was asking about her daddy, not Trey. She took a deep breath, trying to stop her heart from pounding. "My daddy is in Charleston with his 'ho," she candidly admitted, knowing that everyone in town already knew he left her mom for some college girl. Well, that was a bit harsh, she realized. No sane person would willingly stay chained to her mom. Lucas raised an eyebrow at her word choice.

"Oh no, she's a 'ho, trust me. She knew daddy was married and that he had a daughter her age, and she went after him anyway. But he's happier now, so I guess I'm happy for him," she softly admitted, sad that she'd lost the only family member she kind of liked.

Lucas continued holding her hand, encouraging her to talk about it. "Do you miss him?" he asked, not sure if he'd even know what it was like to have a father to miss.

"Yeah, I miss him. He's a hard guy to get to know, cause he's always working and reading financial reports. But he always made sure I was home at night. And he'd make sure I had a new winter coat every year, and that I went to the dentist for regular appointments," she added, pointing out all the things her mother was oblivious to. "I guess it was just nice to have a parent around that occasionally noticed me."

Lucas nodded at her words, knowing that his life would have been unbearable without his mother around. And he'd always had Uncle Keith to go to with guy things that he couldn't share with his mother. "Could you go visit him or maybe stay with him part of the year?" he asked. He knew that her father ran the family corporation, which was a conglomeration of textile mills and factories that dotted across the entire Carolina piedmont. The Davis family was old money in a town where such distinctions mattered. While the Dan Scotts of the area had a lot of influence with new comers to the town, the Davis family and their ilk would always look down on new moneyed people like his own estranged father.

She absently played with a fallen leaf, twirling it about the grass. "I thought about it. I mean, I'd hate to give up cheering and all my friends, but I'm not really happy living with my mom since she got remarried," she finally admitted, hating to add to the gossip that surrounded her family. "Besides, when I hinted to daddy that I'd like to stay with him a while, his 'ho objected, because they are newlyweds and they need "alone time" or something," Brooke muttered, still angry that her daddy hadn't read the desperation in her voice. She'd called him the night after her mom got married, the night that J.J. had…and he'd completely ignored her subtle hints.

She shrugged, opting to dazzle Lucas with her smile and not the misery that was her life. "It doesn't matter. In a few more years, I'll be free. I'll go to the college of my choice, join the best sorority on campus, and do something important with my life. Tree Hill is just a distant memory waiting to happen," she stated, confident that she'd soon be free of her mom and sleaze of a stepfather.

Lucas considered her words and smiled back. "That makes two of us. I'm going to get a great job, move the hell away from this town, and go some place where the words bastard and illegitimate don't matter."

Brooke spontaneously reached out and hugged him, not caring who saw them or what they thought. Lucas hesitated only a second before wrapping his arms around her tiny waist and pulling her into his broad shoulder. The smell of her floral perfume infiltrated his senses, clouding his judgment and urging him to rethink his stance on public displays of affection. She slightly pulled back, still in his arms but now able to see his face. "Thank you," she whispered, a small smile hovering on her face.

Lucas frowned at her in confusion. "For what?"

"For listening to me, for making me feel important," she replied. She noticed people staring and she reluctantly pulled away from him, settling back onto his jacket. Lucas smiled at her as she stole the rest of his Oreos, feeling a lightness he'd not felt in months.

Dan sat at the counter of Karen's Café and aimlessly twirled a spoon around, watching it as it meander around in careless, imperfect circles. He silently observed Karen as she moved around her business, completely in her environment. She'd always been the organized nester of their group when they were in high school. Now her natural talents and hospitality were evident as she conversed with various customers asking an older man about his new granddaughter and a former teacher about her husband's health. Dan was an unqualified success, but he'd probably be even more successful if he possessed a fraction of Karen's ability to genuinely relate to customers.

He caught himself staring at her in admiration and quickly turned around to face the counter. People were already whispering, stunned to see Dan Scott in Karen's Café. 'Nothing in this town stays private', he fumed, tired of being judged for events that he'd created while still a kid. He fought the urge to yell, "I knocked her up 16 years ago and left her" to the couple directly behind him, who'd been giving him nasty stares since he walked into the building.

The past was no one's business but his and Karen's and if they wanted to talk, the rest of town could shove it, he reasoned.

Karen suddenly appeared in front of him, refilling his empty coffee cup. "All you need is more caffeine," she joked, motioning toward his nervously tapping foot. He sheepishly stopped moving his foot, knowing that Karen had always been able to read him like an open book.

"Okay, so I'm nervous. I can admit that I'm concerned about this," he voiced, wondering how she could look so relaxed. Their plan was deceptively simple, but both Karen and Dan knew that their sons could be totally unpredictable.

Karen caught a rare moment of vulnerability in his eyes and felt something in her heart soften towards her ex. They'd talked late into the night when he'd come to her house, and every conversation they had was less awkward than the one before. While they were still finding their way through this newfound truce, they were very clear on the ultimate goal, peace between their sons. After consulting with Whitey, their plan was set to go off within minutes. "Now all we have to do is wait for the fall out." Dan nodded at her words, and stared anxiously at the door.

AN: Replies are always wanted and appreciated. Per some of the emails I got regarding the story, the focus is mainly on Brucas, however, I always write stories that show multiple layers of relationships. For me, most of the issues that Lucas has involve Dan and the decisions that his parents made in the past. This story will always have secondary plot lines in relations to Brooke and Luke's relationship. The story isn't so much about their romance but rather how the dysfunction of their families affects that relationship. On the Peyton issue, I never attempt to write her well. I don't like the character and short of putting her in a shirt with a giant scarlet A on it, I consider that a job well done. Thanks!