A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 27: A Multitude of Journeys
Nathan grabbed his backpack and quietly shut the door to his bedroom behind him. Brooke was in the throws of a massive hangover, the emotional trauma in conjunction with the booze and drugs left her barely conscious and unwilling to go to school.
Hoping to sneak out of the house before Dan noticed him, Nate quietly grabbed a banana from the kitchen counter and headed for the back door.
A voice stopped him in mid step. "Aren't you forgetting your gym bag?" Dan asked, cup of coffee in one hand and Nate's blue Raven's bag in the other. Dan dropped his bag by the kitchen island and motioned Nathan to the other chair. "Leaving early this morning, aren't you?" he asked, knowing full well why Nathan was sneaking out of the house early.
Knowing he'd been caught, Nathan reluctantly sat down and took the plate of food that his dad offered. "Okay, so you want to know why Brooke's upstairs?" he asked, finding no reason to try to lie his way out of it. Ever since his dad had been hanging around Karen, he'd suddenly rediscovered parenting 101 skills that Nathan thought were long buried with his mom.
Dan leaned back in his chair and looked at his son expectantly. "You know, I think I'm pretty cool as far as parents go. I don't micromanage. I don't follow you around making sure that you aren't drinking. I don't get into your love life," he said, listing off each of the ways he was a great parent. "But I can't ignore you sleeping with a girl under my nose," he stated, trying to take a firm stance with his son for once.
Nathan's eyes widened at his dad's words. "I wasn't sleeping with Brooke," he exclaimed. "She had a bad night at home and she came over here to sleep," Nate argued, wanting his father to understand why Brooke had to get away from her house.
Dan played with his coffee cup a moment before looking up at his son. "That's what guest rooms are for, Nathan. You were in bed with the girl. What am I supposed to think?" he asked, trying to draw the distinction for his son.
"She was scared, Dad. I don't mean upset or mad, she was afraid to be in her house. I found her on the floor of her room and she could barely form a sentence. Was I supposed to leave her alone to fend for her herself?" Nathan asked, slamming his hand against the green marble counter out of frustration.
Dan considered his words, knowing that something was definitely wrong in the Davis house. "I think you are right that something's wrong with Brooke. She's not been herself for a long time. But son that does not mean it's okay to have females sleep in your bed. If she fell asleep in your room, you should have taken the guest room," Dan explained, wondering when his son had formed the idea that he could make up his own rules.
Seeing that his son fully understood his anger, Dan relented a bit, realizing that he'd badgered the boy enough already. "Have you seen any bruises on Brooke? Maybe a black eye or some marks on her arms?" he asked, sincerely worried about his son's friend. Dan had always felt a bit protective of the girl, as she'd spent more time in his house than her own the past few years. He could tell that something wasn't right with the girl, but had marked it down to her parent's divorce and the general trauma of adolescence.
He shook his head. "Brooke wears too many sleeveless outfits to hide bruises. I've not seen anything suspicious."
Dan considered a less pleasant notion. "Could Lucas be part of this?" he asked, knowing that he was a new factor in Brooke's life. He didn't want to think that his oldest son was capable of violence but if Brooke was terrified, there had to be some sort of human influence.
Nathan's eyes grew big at Dan's insinuation. "You honestly think Lucas is smacking Brooke around?" he asked, genuinely shocked that Dan thought so little of his own son.
"It's the first rule of any investigation. You suspect the people closest to the victim. In Brooke's case, that would leave her family and Lucas." Dan wasn't one to dwell on the facts too much. Either Lucas was involved or he wasn't. Lucas had a ferocious temper that Dan had experienced first hand. And Dan really didn't know the boy well enough to rule him out of the situation.
"I don't really like the guy, but he's not into violence," Nate firmly stated, knowing that Lucas wasn't hurting his best friend. He looked up at Dan. "If you could see them at lunch together…he feeds her Oreos and makes sure she eats real food instead of just diet coke. He carries her pom poms to practice for her. This isn't a guy whose going to rough her up," Nate empathically stated.
Dan dropped his cup into the sink, and moving restlessly around the kitchen. "Then that leaves her mother and stepfather." Nathan slowly exhaled, not wanting to encroach on the topic of Katherine Brookes Davis. "I don't know, Dad. But something has to be done. She can't take much more of this." He could tell from sleeping next to her last night that she'd lost weight recently. Her bone thin frame had bumped into him several times during the restless night.
Grabbing his briefcase and a muffin from the tray on the counter, Dan headed for the door. "I'll do my best to check out the stepfather," he said, pulling the door open to the garage. "Until then Nate, try to keep members of the opposite sex out of your bed. Consider it a new ground rule." He raised his eyes at Nathan before shutting the door and making his way to his Escalade.
Nate leaned back against the door and sighed. This was not going to be an easy day.
Lucas shuffled over to where Brooke's locker stood, empty and unattended. He'd made excuses to stop by between every class period and he'd yet to see Brooke all day. A vague sense of panic was building inside him. But given that he'd been kicked out of her house just hours before, Lucas wasn't sure if she was mad at him for being crude to her mother or if even he had the right to be mad at her for her mother's caustic remarks.
Nate looked over his shoulder and saw Lucas loitering about Brooke's locker, looking morose and lost. Finding a tiny shred of sympathy for his big brother, Nate walked over and dropped a hesitant hand on Luke's shoulder. Lucas pulled back immediately, suspicion written all over his face. Nathan instinctively jerked his hand away, hurt that Lucas had completely rebuffed his kind gesture.
Nathan took a step back from the brooding boy in front of him. "I wanted to let you know that if you are looking for Brooke, she didn't come to school today." Lucas didn't deserve this information, Nate thought, but Brooke needed all the support she could get. And if that meant telling the loser in front of him about the situation last night, then that was something he could suck up and do.
Lucas distractedly chewed on his cuticle for a moment, torn between his worry about Brooke and his hatred for looking weak in front of Nathan. His concern finally trumped his dislike of his younger brother. "Is she out sick?" he uncertainly asked, not sure if Brooke was as affected by her parents' rant as much as he was. God knows that Lucas hadn't slept a wink the night before, rehashing the utter disdain on Katherine's face as she examined him like he was trash at the curbside.
Leaning against her locker, Nate shifted his backpack from his shoulder to the floor in front of them. "She spent the night with me," he said offhandedly, not thinking about the context of his words.
Luke's shoulders tensed up. "She WHAT?" he asked, his tone dripping with anger. He knew that Brooke was probably upset with him, but he couldn't understand her running off to Nathan.
People in the hallway were starting to stare. "Calm down, dude," Nathan said, looking around to make sure no teachers were around. "She had a major breakdown last night and needed to get out of her house. She crashed in my room after taking some pills and downing some booze."
Luke leaned back against a locker, relieved that she'd had some place to go even if it was with his worst enemy. "Brooke got into it with her mother last night when I brought her home from the library," he confided, realizing that Nate now knew that he'd lied to his mother about his school project to get out of the dinner the night before. None of that mattered if Brooke was in trouble, he rationalized. And popping pills with alcohol certainly implied things were worse at her house than at his.
Nathan considered his words. "Yeah, her mom's a first class bitch," Nathan agreed, knowing that the woman had caused his friend constant pain for most of her life. Katherine was not a woman that could be appeased and Brooke seemed to annoy her mother more than normal lately. "What was her mom ranting about this time?"
His older brother's expression soured at the question. "Mostly it was about me. Apparently I live on the wrong side of town to date be dating her daughter. And then they started arguing about some stupid dance Brooke wanted me to take her to."
"The Cotillion?" Nate asked, knowing that he was already roped into going, as was his dad. "God, that thing is going to be a nightmare. Stressed out girls in white dresses, overbearing mothers chasing them around all night, it's going to be worse than our wedding day," Nate confided, trying to show Lucas that being excluded was a good thing in this case.
"Well, I won't be there because I'm apparently too poor to date Katherine's daughter." Lucas dropped his backpack and absently kicked at the worn out strap that dangled near his foot.
Nathan grabbed Luke's backpack and started walking down the hall, motioning Lucas to follow him. Nate was making an effort here, he was trying to help his older brother out with his love life. Luke's brow furled a bit before he followed his brother down the hall and out to the parking lot. Walking toward Nate's SUV, their conversation turned back toward their mutual interest in Brooke. "You have to understand that in Katherine's world, there is no guy good enough to marry or date her daughter unless their last name is Kennedy. She's not just a snob, Lucas. She's an impossible snob with very high expectations that Brooke will marry into a well established, old family with a ton of money," Nate revealed, having heard Katherine's plans for the past 16 years.
"It's not that you aren't good enough," Nate said, "it's that 99 of the men out there aren't good enough to take Brooke to that dance. Luke, this dance means everything to her mother. It's a huge family tradition," he explained.
Luke considered his words, realizing that Nathan was right. It wasn't just his illegitimate status in life or that his mom owned a diner on the wrong side of town that caused Brooke's mom to hate him. It was that she had plans for Brooke that transcended Tree Hill's meager social offerings.
Nate opened his truck and motioned Luke to get in the passenger seat. "I can drive you over to her house and then get back to school before I'm marked for skipping class," Nate explained. "You just need to find her and get her to talk about what's going on. I know something is happening to her in that house but she's not talking to me." It was hard for him to ask his rival for help with his best friend, but Nate knew that Brooke trusted Lucas. And maybe she could tell him what she couldn't tell Nate. He wiped his hand over his eyes for a moment, worried about what would happen to her if she didn't confide in someone soon.
Lucas noted the action and how tired Nate looked. "She hasn't told me much, other than she doesn't like her stepfather," Luke confided, not sure how to handle having a normal conversation with the other boy. "Do you think he's hitting her or something?" His tone was uncertain as he'd never had any experience with abuse. His mother could barely tolerate spanking him as a kid and none of his friends ever had any problems like that.
Nathan's eyes avoided his brother's, as he reflected on his dad's questions about Luke's possible involvement with Brooke's situation. This was clearly not someone who was smacking his girlfriend around. Not that Nathan had seriously entertained that idea. Luke acted like a guy concerned about his girlfriend.
"I don't know Trey very well. He's got a great reputation in the business world and he's some sort of manufacturing guru, per all the stuff my dad's said about him," Nate finished, nothing Luke's reaction to the words "my dad". Some things might change but Nate wasn't willing to start referring to Dan as "their" dad any time soon.
He pulled up in front of Brooke's enormous white house and hesitated a moment before turning toward Lucas. "I realize that you probably …see more of Brooke than I do," he slowly began, hating himself for what he was about to ask. "Have you seen any bruises on her body, maybe in some of the harder to see regions?"
Luke's eyes squinted together and he turned his head to glance at Nathan in confusion. "Are you asking me if Brooke has bruises that can only be seen when she's naked?" God knows she practiced in a tiny little sports bra and dance shorts. There wasn't much of her body that the team didn't see every day in practice.
Nate turned red at his brother's question. "I…uh…I didn't mean to imply that you are seeing her in less than her practice clothes, but if you did happen to see a bruise or something, I'd like to know," he stumbled through, trying to not die of embarrassment. It was hard enough seeing Brooke date Lucas, but the idea of them having sex just grossed him out.
Luke watched the guy blush for a few minutes and then nodding. He understood what Nathan was trying to do. As he grabbed his back pack and opened the door, Nate called after him. "If you and Brooke don't get back to school soon, you won't be able to go to the game tonight. If Brooke won't come back to school, you need to so you can play tonight."
"Are you saying you'd miss me if I wasn't in the game tonight?" Lucas asked with a joking tone to his voice. Nate wrinkled his nose. "The word "miss" is too strong, but I do need some help on defense." Luke held his gaze for a moment and then turned to walk up the long path to Brooke's house.
Nate watched him go and then slowly drove off. He'd done all he could do for the day.
Thanks for reading and replying! Comments are always welcomed. I always wonder where people think this monster is going. Happy Labor Day to those in the United States. I'm off to write another chapter.