Ahem. So I was another chapter off with the Brucas part. The good news is that I'm posting all these chapters faster so you'll get to that chapter at the same time as if I'd not been confused and mislead you. But you've got some other stuff here to read. It's not all about Brucas. I hope. I just noticed the reader traffic and I'm amazed at all the people from all the countries who are reading this story. Spasiba to all the Russians reading. And to everyone else whose language I don't know.
A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 21
The Café was filled with activity as the First Annual Scott Hell Feast began. Lucas stood off to one side staring sullenly at a wall as Karen walked by, carrying the first of many dishes to the table. She set the roast chicken entrée in the center of the table and looked over at her son, who was staring at the food as if it were poisoned.
"Lucas, go back to the freezer and get more ice," she instructed, giving him the patented 'mom death glare' when he hesitated. She focused on the cluster of chairs, filled with school packs and purses, before looking over where her ex stood. "Dan, why don't you move all of those backpacks and put some extra chairs around the table?" She nodded encouragingly to Dan, who stood looking vaguely out of sorts, for a moment before going in back to help Haley and Nathan with the veggies.
Dan looked around the empty room, realizing that he'd not really had any kind of organized dinners since Deb died. Most of his and Nate's recent holiday meals were either held at his friends' houses or buffets at the fancy hotel downtown. He moved toward the chairs closest to him and began moving various backpacks and purses off to the floor. Hearing the unmistakable sloshing sound of liquid, he looked down and saw Luke's tattered backpack. He surreptitiously glanced around a moment, and then unzipped the backpack. Frowning, Dan pulled out the bottle of Stoli just long enough to see that the bottle was nearly empty. Shaking his head, he shoved the bottle back into the frayed backpack and gently dropped it onto the ground with the others.
Shoving the last chair under the center table, Dan's eyes inevitably traveled back to where the illicit bottle of booze hid. His brow furled, wondering if he was the cause of his oldest son's forays into drinking. 'It was a Monday night, for god's sake', he thought. If it were a full bottle on a Thursday night, maybe Dan could have understood. He knew that Nate often stocked up late in the week for weekend parties. But to have an empty bottle on a Monday screamed "problems" even to a parent as dense as Dan. He knew that it wasn't unusual for kids to drink but it seemed like Lucas was hitting the bottle pretty hard lately. His shoulders fell a moment, realizing that he didn't know his own son well enough to know if the boy was behaving strangely or not. All Dan knew was that Luke had gotten drunk at the beach house during an after game party and that he was now in possession of a near empty bottle of vodka.
Hearing a noise, Dan diverted his attention away from the backpack and turned toward the door, smiling as Karen slowly placed a huge dish on the center of the table. There was no need to run to Karen with the information about her son's drinking habits. Things were stressful right now, he reasoned. Kids often went through phases and Lucas was obviously going through a serious one. Dan knew that he was largely responsible for the boy's anxiety, but he could surreptitiously watch his oldest son and see if the situation worsened. "Smells great," he said, covering his prior worried expression.
Karen evaluated his words, knowing that he was concerned about something. She dropped her pot holder on the table and raised her eyebrows. "What now?" It had been a trying night and all she needed was to hear that her son had been caught climbing through a window to escape their dinner. Dan nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to worry her over something that might be an isolated incident. After all, teenagers tended to drink. He'd done the same in high school and turned out just fine. "I was thinking about a meeting I have tomorrow, just making mental notes about it." It was a subtle lie, but a lie nonetheless.
They were interrupted as Nathan and Haley walked into the room, carrying the rest of the food. Lucas eventually sauntered in, dropping a tray of drinks less than gingerly on the table, complete with requested ice. Karen gave him a slight smile, trying to encourage her son to loosen up and drop the omnipresent chip on his shoulder. Lucas ignored her, opting to sit dejectedly in one of the chairs at the table, ignoring everyone else around him. Karen's smile faltered, knowing that while Lucas had always been reserved, the Café was one of the few places that he could be himself. That apparently was no longer true, she realized.
Lucas stared sullenly as Haley and Nathan sat down together on the opposite side of the table. His stomach rolled at the sight of his former best friend, knowing that she was too naïve to realize that she was falling for his half-brother and missing the point that he was more than likely using her to get at Luke. Haley met his eyes and smiled at him, trying to encourage any conversation that she could. She wasn't surprised when Luke ignored her and stared at a spot on the table in front of her. The situation grew worse as Karen sat at the head of the table, leaving Dan to take the only available seat: right next to Lucas.
Dan hesitantly sat next to his oldest son, looking over the table at Nathan for encouragement. He gave his father a weak smile which faltered as Lucas slid his chair as far away from Dan's as possible. Karen frowned at his behavior for a moment, before breaking off her conversation with Haley to address him. Dan beat her to the punch. "We forgot the rolls, Lucas why don't you come with me and help me get them?" Dan asked, making sure his voice indicated that it wasn't so much a request as a demand. Lucas rolled his eyes and glanced over at his mother, who nodded gently toward the kitchen door that Dan held open for him.
Petulantly throwing his napkin in his chair, Lucas stomped off toward the kitchen, leaving a pall in his wake. He walked past Dan and grabbed a basket of rolls, inanely wondering why his mother had made so much food in the first place. She knew that Lucas wasn't going to be able to eat around the gruesome twosome, but lately his mother didn't seem to be doing much thinking at all.
"You should be careful not to eat a lot," Dan suggested, blocking Luke's retreat back to the dining room with his large frame. Lucas sneered up at him and brought a hand up to his heart in mock consideration. "It's so touching that you care what I eat," he replied, trying to figure a way around the large figure blocking his exit from hell.
Dan smiled at his words, always up for a challenge to his authority. "Normally, I'd want you to eat a lot, so you could gain some weight and not be such an easy target on the court," he said, referring to the battles Luke had with opposing teams under the basket. The boy was so lanky that Dan wondered how he managed to hold his own at times. "But in this case I'm referring to the fact that wolfing down a lot of food on a stomach full of booze isn't a smart idea," he said, loving the look of surprise on his oldest son's face.
Luke's eyes darted around the room, confused at how Dan knew about his blood alcohol content. Maybe Dan had seen them in Brooke's car while they were killing the bottle, he thought, before realizing that Dan had been at the Café long before he had met up with Brooke. He finally met Dan's cold blue eyes, deciding to bluff his way out of the situation. "I don't know what you are talking about," Lucas replied.
Dan rolled his eyes at Luke's protestations, seeing the unease written all over the kid's face. "You're buzzing pretty hard for a school day, don't you think? I'd say that you've probably consumed a good amount of booze, by the looks of things, probably vodka." He watched the gears in the kid's mind churn, wondering how Dan could possibly know down to the type of alcohol he'd consumed. He smiled, liking the confusion he saw there. If they were going to have any luck working on Lucas, Dan would need to be one step ahead of him. And since the boy's expression clearly showed that he thought Dan was on some kind of psychic vibe, that could only help their cause.
Lucas stood there, staring at him in silence, not even bothering to refute Dan's accusation. He stood there, reveling in the boy's unhinged reaction. "I know you've been drinking. I'm just trying to warn you that shoving a lot of food down is a great way to get sick." He reached out and gently touched Luke's shoulder, trying to let him know that he was just trying to help. Sorta.
Shrugging off Dan's hand, Lucas slipped between the man and the door, heading toward freedom. He paused for a moment and turned back toward Dan. "Oh trust me, I know what's making my stomach sick, and it's not the vodka," he replied, giving Dan a pointed look before moving toward the door.
Dinner had been a mangled mass of strained conversation and uncomfortable silence.
Luke tried to block out the sound of Haley's voice discussing how well Nate had done on his algebra test, focusing instead on moving his food around his plate. He'd done the same thing when he was five and wanted to make it look like he was eating more than he really was in order to go outside and play. It also didn't help that his stomach was pitching back and forth, making him vaguely seasick.
Karen looked from her son to his plate and back over at Dan in concern. Lucas had barely eaten five mouthfuls of food the entire night. She'd never had too many problems getting him to eat and inevitably his lack of appetite invariably signaled some kind of problem. She reluctantly turned her attention back to Haley. "So how many athletes are you tutoring this semester, Haley?"
Haley set her water glass down on the table, mentally adding up her students. "I was working with 8 but one of them got off academic probation, so I'm down to seven students," she proudly declared, loving her ability to help her fellow students do better in class. "However, Nate remains my biggest success story!" she added, laying a supportive hand on Nathan's well muscled arm. Luke coughed, making the sound vary just enough from the retching sound her words and actions provoked in him.
Dan sneaked a glance at the boy, not sure if Luke was being rude of if the alcohol in his stomach was finally rebelling. Haley could feel Lucas' eyes boring a hole in her hand, even she jerked away from touching Nathan. Nathan's eyes instantly hardened toward his brother, knowing that Haley was only reacting that way to avoid his scathing glare.
Unusually quiet, Dan finally broke his silence. Dan had tried to say as little as possible, never knowing what might set Lucas off in a tizzy. "Nathan's grades have drastically improved since Haley started working with him," he added, not really sure if there was any value in his words, but wanting Haley to know he'd seen the academic improvement in his son's recent test scores.
Glancing down at his still full plate, Lucas avoiding saying that at least all the time Haley and Nathan had spent together had been worth it on some level. He bit back his comments since he knew that they would just piss Karen off. He was so close to getting ungrounded that he wanted to avoid any more conflict for the night. All Luke needed was Dan and Nate getting him regrounded before he got ungrounded. He shifted uneasily in his chair, realizing that his stomach was definitely not agreeing with the quickly consumed vodka. For once he was glad that he'd actually listened to something Dan Scott had said, because if he'd cleared his plate he'd definitely be throwing up by now.
Ignoring Luke's silent antics, Nathan desperately fumbled for some way to change the topic away from his grades. His self esteem didn't need to be reminded that Luke's grades were nearly has high as Haley's and that he'd never needed any kind of academic help. It wasn't hard to figure out which of the two brothers had inherited the geek gene, he reasoned.
The silence in the room grew, as everyone lingered over the last of their food. At a lost for anything else to say, Dan shifted in his seat and focused his attention toward Luke. "How are your grades?" he conversationally asked, though his tone was strained. Dan knew he had to get used to talking to the boy, but he didn't make it easy for him to attempt conversation.
Luke dropped his fork, the utensil clattering on the plate. "My grades are much better than Nathan's are and more than likely better than yours ever were," Luke muttered, pissed that Dan thought he could just start a casual conversation with him. Karen paused mid bite, once again amazed at the anger in Luke's voice. "Lucas…"she warned, giving her son a nasty look. "Dan, Lucas has a 3.9 GPA," she revealed, always proud of her son's academic success. Lucas was such a multi-talented young man that it was hard for her not to be proud of him.
Hesitating, Dan nodded in approval toward his oldest child. "That's great. I'm sure the college scouts will love that," he finally said, watching as Luke's eyes narrowed in disgust at his father's words.
"That's a good thing considering that without a scholarship I won't have enough money to go to college," he accusingly stated, staring Dan straight in the eye. Karen had drilled that point into him since birth, ensuring that he got competitive grades and test scores. Karen didn't want her son to miss out on the chance to go to college and do something with his life. The chance she'd given up in order to keep her baby all those years ago.
Dan slowly nodded at Luke's words as the room once again plunged into eerie silence. Karen jumped up and moved toward the kitchen. "Nate, why don't you help me get dessert," she said, anything to keep the dinner moving along. She was disappointed in Lucas, knowing that he'd done his best to ensure that Dan and Nathan never returned for another meal.
Lucas pushed away from the table, looking at the clock behind the counter. "I have to go to the library to meet my project partner," he said, immediately drawing a dubious look from his mother. The last thing Lucas wanted to do was linger over the chocolate truffle cake he'd seen in the kitchen earlier that night. What little food he'd managed to choke down was literally threatening to erupt and he didn't need Dan Scott's smug presence to encourage his urge to toss his cookies.
Karen refused to let him weasel his way out so soon, though. "What project?" she suspiciously asked, not remembering any mention of projects during her weekly homework inquiry.
Haley's gaze drifted between mother and son a moment before she jumped up and joined the conversation. "We have a biology project that's due soon," she informed Karen, failing to mention it was due in a few months. Or that Luke's "project partner" was none other than Brooke. She didn't know why she was covering for Lucas. While Haley had already started working on her project plan, she doubted that Brooke's motive for meeting this early had little to do with the project and more to do with being with Lucas.
Luke stared at her in surprise, shocked that Hales would actually help him get out of this hell of a dinner. For a moment, their eyes met in understanding, old friends who finished each other's sentences reconnecting. Karen's voice interrupted their starefest, sensing that something was off. "What's the focus of your project, Luke?" she asked, looking for any sign of deception from her boy.
Luke smiled at Dan as he killed the last swill of his second beer. "I'm doing a project on alcohol abuse called '50 ways to love your liver,'" he cheerfully informed Karen, all the while making Dan feel like the town drunk.
Karen hovered between letting him go and making him stay. She didn't want to keep him from meeting his partner, though Luke had known about this dinner long enough to plan around it. But she knew her son's schedule was packed with practices and games, and she didn't want to get him a lower grade on the project for not doing his share of the research.
She gave Luke a steely glance. "You may go, but in the future, plan around Monday nights. You aren't getting out early next time," she decided, watching silently as he grabbed his backpack and practically ran out the door.
As they finished dessert, Dan noticed that the atmosphere in the room was considerable lighter, the four of them having a nice discussion about life in general. All it had taken for the dinner to go from bad to great was his oldest son vacating the Café. They began clearing the table, interrupting Dan's reverie about the terse night spent with his estranged son. Karen watched him from across the table, before walking behind him and dropping a hand on his shoulder. "It'll get better, right?" she asked, more in the need to get comfort than to give it. Dan watched as the kids cleared the table before mumbling some vague words of comfort. He had thought that things couldn't get much worse between them, but Lucas was proving that idea wrong on a daily basis.
He finally got up and grabbed some glasses, following the happy sounds of his youngest son and his tutor into the kitchen.
So, lot's of family drama. The story really has a ton of family interactions, because the drama of both families really affects Brooke and Lucas in many ways. Thanks for reading. I've enjoyed the replies so much that I wrote a new chapter in a matter of days. That's good news! I always like to hear what you think, no matter how mean (Karen) or how effusive (Brooke) or even if you want to email me that you hate Peyton (appreciated).
Next up:
Brooke and Lucas are in the library. I promise. Pinkie swear.
Later on: A wedding, some grandparents and Luke gets to meet the parents.