A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 42
Brook held up a very white formal dress and slowly spun around, allowing Nathan to take in the full horror that was her debutant dress. Her mother refused to buy the sheath dress Brooke selected, picking out a ruffled, full skirted number for her daughter instead.
Nathan shifted uneasily on her sleek, black bed. "Uh…it's very…bridal," he neutrally commented from his position on her bed. He wasn't sure about most things related to fashion but the dress certainly wasn't Brooke's style. The silence grew as heavy as his friend's expression of gloom. "Ah, it's also very white," he added, not wanting his friend to think he didn't care or wasn't trying.
Hurling the fluffy white dress to the floor, Brooke grabbed her diet coke and carefully sat down next to Nate on the stark, black bed. "It's hideous. I look like I got trapped in an industrial vat of marshmallow fluff," Brooke decried, horrified that she was supposed to wear that in public. "That skirt is so full, Lucas could sneak in under it and no one would know."
Nathan looked over at her in sympathy. "Is your mom still demanding that Lucas not go to the dance with you?" he asked, knowing it was a sore subject with his best friend. While Nathan wasn't exactly happy to be going to the cotillion, it was expected of him, the same as playing basketball. It was hard for people like Haley and Lucas to understand the conventions of tradition that governed his and Brooke's lives. There were just some things that were expected. Dan was a very important member of the club and his son was supposed to participate, no matter how much he'd rather stay home and watch a movie with Haley.
Sighing, Brooke leaned her head against his strong shoulder. "My mom is such insufferable bitch," she said, knowing that wasn't news to Nathan. He'd watched Katherine Davis destroy her daughter's life for years. "She's convinced that my life will be ruined if anyone in town sees me with Lucas. It's like fucking feudalism is alive and kicking in Tree Hill." Brooke didn't care if her boyfriend was poor, he treated her better than any of country club set she'd every date.
"It's bad enough she's picked my dress out, but now she's picking my date as well." Staring at the offending white gown on the floor, Brooke's anger increased exponentially. She wasn't sure who would be taking her to the dance. Generally, a father escorted his daughter to the dance and then turned her over to her date. So far, Brooke was batting 0 for 2 since her father wasn't coming and Lucas had been banned from the country club by her mother.
Nathan rubbed her shoulder, knowing that he couldn't take the pain of her family life away from her. He'd watched for years as her parents neglected her emotionally. Now her mother seemed hell bent on making her physically sick, as well. "You can leave soon, Brooke. You can go to college and get away from your mother and Trey. You can create a new life, free from her control."
She slowly exhaled, knowing that his words offered a better future, but little solace for the present. "How many years have we been counting down, Nate? How long have we waited to get free from our parents?" she asked, knowing that they'd wasted half their short lives living for a distant future.
He considered her words. Nate had been looking forward to going away to school for as long as he could remember. Anything was better than living with the shrine to sadness that his home had become. Between his father's grief and demanding basketball coaching, Nate was looking forward to any bit of freedom he could hold on to.
"You just have to hang in there, Brooke."
Restlessly, she shoved off the bed and paced around the spacious room, her bare feet making little sound on the black and white marble floor. She absently picked up Luke's hoodie from the far side of the bed and folded it up against her body for comfort. Even away from Lucas, the garment smelled like its owner.
Nate's eyebrows rose in surprise. It wasn't every day that Brooke let a guy leave artifacts in her room. "Is he moving in now or what?" Nate asked, his voice touched with scorn at the idea of his best friend with his half brother.
Brooke shook her head at the tone in his voice. "He just spent last night here. He saw something with Karen and Dan that really upset him," she revealed, noting the look of shock on her friend's face. "I'm not sure what happened, he wouldn't tell me. I just got a call around midnight asking if I could pick him up at that pool hall across town."
A frown crossed Nate's face. "What the hell was he doing on that side of town that late at night?" he incredulously asked. While he didn't have much respect for his brother, he didn't think he was a moron. The pool hall was one of the few trouble spots that idyllic Tree Hill had.
She shrugged her shoulders in response. "Nate, he kind of lives on that side of town. Besides, he didn't say much, just that he was sick of Dan hanging around the Café so much," she hedged, not wanting to tell Nate the entire truth. Lucas had not totally filled her in, but she guessed he'd seen his parents together and stormed off. "We spent the rest of the night drinking vodka and avoiding his mother's cell calls."
Nathan listened to her words, uneasy at the amount of time his father was spending with Luke's mother. He'd grown accustomed to their Monday night dinners but after seeing them embrace at Keith's wedding, Nathan had a sinking feeling that his father was finally moving on. Though he'd encouraged his dad to date for years, the idea that he'd replace his mother with Karen was unsettling. He looked over at her in disdain. "You've got to stop drinking so much, Brooke. I think Luke's issues are dragging you down."
Snorting, she looked over at him in surprise. "As if I didn't drink like a fish before I met him," she muttered, knowing that she had a tendency to blot out her pain with booze. If it made her and Broody feel better, what was the harm? She'd just felt totally overwhelmed lately, with her stepfather stalking her and her stepbrother leaving her obscene messages on her cell. If some alcohol helped calm her down, what was wrong with that?
Nathan shook his head, knowing that she'd do whatever she wanted to do despite his concerns. "Just be careful, Brooke. The last thing you want is to get pregnant or pass out and hurt yourself."
She shrugged her shoulders at his words. "There are worse things in life, Nate," she cryptically replied, knowing that bad things could happen in your own bedroom.
Moving back toward the offending gown, Brooke nudged it disinterestedly with her toe. "What are you going to do about that," Nathan asked, looking for a distraction from his family dysfunction and her melancholy.
Looking up at him, she gave him an evil grin, the old Brooke fighting through the layers of despair that fought to over take her on a daily basis. "I have a plan for it, for all of it," she cryptically replied, knowing that she would never go down or give in without a fight.
Luke ambled into the garage, relieved to be out of the afternoon light and into the relative tranquility of the building. His head was pounding, an unfortunate after affect of the booze he'd consumed the night before. Hearing the indelible sound of a wrench hitting concrete, he leaned over to see Keith looking up at him from underneath a Buick.
"Afternoon, Sunshine," Keith's voice boomed, reverberating between Luke's already sensitive ears. He watched silently as Keith moved out from underneath the car, wiped his hands off and reached behind the counter, tossing him a bottle of Advil. "Seems like you could use a few of these," he added, the telltale signs of a hangover clearly written on his nephew's face.
Lucas swallowed a handful of the pills, praying to god that his head would stop pounding at some point in time. He'd suffered through most of school, having shown up two hours late. Lucas wasn't stupid; he knew he'd have to cut back on the drinking before it affected his game and his grades. He frowned a moment at that thought, knowing that his grades were already beginning to slide. "Thanks, Keith," he muttered. He just wanted to get to work and get this day over with.
Keith silently watched his nephew for a moment. "You might want to give your mom a call. Your disappearing act last night caused a lot of panic for your family," he casually mentioned. Keith's heart went out to the boy. He knew that Lucas was having trouble adjusting to Dan's presence in his life, but he was more concerned about Karen's seeming ignorance about the anguish it was causing her son. But the fact that Lucas was blatantly drinking and staying out all night were not good signs.
Lucas played with the bottle of pills a few minutes before tossing it back on the counter and turning to face his uncle. "I think she had her hands full last night. I'm surprised she knew I was missing," he said, irritation filling each word.
A quizzical look crossed the older man's face, prompting Lucas to clarify things. "Last night I went to the Café after work and saw my mother hugging the devil spawn himself," he explained, seeing the shocked expression on his brother's face at his words. "I mean, isn't that why you broke up with mom?"
Keith leaned back against the old Buick he was working on, trying to reference Luke's words. "We broke up because it wasn't working out, Luke. We just couldn't get on the same page, at the same time."
Walking up to his uncle, Luke's words took on an accusatory tone. "That's not what you told her the night you dumped her. I was in the kitchen and I heard you accuse her of having feelings for Dan," he bitterly explained. "I guess that was confirmed from last night's lovefest."
Keith put a gentle hand on his nephew's shoulder. "First, I did not dump your mother. It just wasn't working out, Luke. Second, I don't know that your mother still has feelings for Dan. I was just trying to point out that she never got closure from that relationship and she's letting something that happened 16 years ago rule her life," he explained. "Third, I'm not sure what you saw last night, but you should talk to your mother and let her explain." Keith was concerned about the growing distance between Karen and her son. It was like looking at an accident in morbid curiosity.
Leaning against the work bench opposite of the car, Lucas rubbed his head in his hands to stop the pounding hangover. He just wanted to go home and get some sleep but he feared running into his mother and starting another fight. "I don't want to talk to her or him or anyone right now," Lucas petulantly declared. "I just want to get started here so that I can go home and sleep."
The sound of heels tapping across concrete drew their attention toward the front of the garage. Anna dropped her purse and school bag on the beat up counter and smiled as she moved toward them. "Hey, Lucas," she greeted him, opting to give an oil covered Keith a slight kiss instead of a hug. Lucas took in her crisp, wool clothing and noted how out of place she looked in the garage. He observed a conspiratorial look between the two and internally sighed, knowing that he was about to get hit with another two by four.
Anna smiled at her suspicious nephew. She understood that look far better than anyone else could. She'd spent her life seeing that immediately before being told that she had to move to a new foster home or that a family didn't want her any more. She spoke quickly, to help quell the discomfort she saw in his eyes. "Keith and I have some news, Luke," she slowly began, hoping that Keith would help her out.
Keith continued, encouraged by the bright smile on Anna's face. "We wanted you to be the first to know, Luke," he began.
Lucas instinctually wrapped his arms around his stomach, knowing that this couldn't be good. "Is someone dying of cancer?" he asked, his voice full of anxiety.
Anna smiled at him, again feeling closer to him by the day. "No one is dying, Lucas. But we did want you to know that we're going to have a baby," she happily replied, watching his face as he reacted to her words. Anna understood that the boy had gone through so many changes that any news was likely to upset his emotions.
Lucas took in her words and immediately stared at the ground, not sure how to react. He knew it was only a matter of time before they had a kid, seeing how Keith wanted a family. But he'd not expected it so soon after the wedding. "I guess you all have been busy," he noted, hinting at their premarital activities.
Worried, Keith moved closer to his nephew. "Are you okay with this, Luke?" he quietly asked, desperately wanting Lucas to feel the joy that he and Anna were feeling. Lucas looked up at Keith and slowly smiled.
"You're going to look funny compared to all the young parents on the first day of school," he joked, noting Keith was fast approaching forty. The tension lessened a bit and Anna took advantage of the mood change in her nephew. "Lucas, we've discussed this and we'd really like you to be the baby's god father," she ventured, wanting Lucas to play a big role in this baby's life. She wanted to give her child the extended family she'd never had.
He looked at the blonde woman in front of him and smiled. It was nearly impossible to dislike her, he realized. She had a special way of endearing herself to others, Lucas included. "I'm not really sure what a godfather does outside of the mafia, but it sounds like a gig I can handle," he finally said, causing both adults to smile. Anna moved in for a quick hug, gently squeezing his back before moving back to Keith's side. Keith smiled at his family, happy that things were finally settling down. It was going to be a great year, he thought. They just had to navigate a few rough spots.
Happy Bday to me! Thanks for the awesome replies last chapter. Maybe I should put Karen's head on a platter...it seems to be very popular. Thanks for reading and replying.