A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 80
Tree Hill Country Club
Brooke leaned in toward the large gilt mirror on the wall of the Ladies lounge. She methodically straightened out her dress, smoothing the layers of her tulle skirt. She wished it was as easy to smooth over her life as it was to straighten her dress. Haley came out of a stall and saw her friend standing there in resplendent glory. "I can't believe they are having a formal wedding and rehearsal dinner, " Brooke complained, turning to look at her friend.
"I think Dan just wanted Karen to have a real wedding experience," she revealed, watched as Brooke expertly reapplied her lipstick.
Turning away from the mirror to face her friend, Brooke cattily replied "then maybe he should have married her before knocking her up. . . twice."
Haley slowly exhaled. "Brooke, I know Karen's been hard on you," before Brooke interrupted her. "Haley, she's been a stone cold bitch, which I expect from mothers, but she's too pregnant for a church wedding." She didn't expect Haley to fully understand Tree Hill's conservative snobby values. You might get away with being a pregnant bride in Hollywood but it simply wasn't done in Tree Hill.
Haley leaned against the vanity, knowing that Brooke was speaking the truth. "I have to admit Nate is really upset about the wedding."
All things considered, Nathan had been extremely accepting of all the changes Dan and Karen had thrown at him. He wasn't thrilled that Lucas and Karen were in his house, but he'd been fairly accepting of the changes and even the impending baby.
"Whether Nathan or Lucas approve, they are having a church wedding and they are celebrating with their friends tonight," Haley firmly retorted, knowing she'd repeated this to Lucas endlessly already. Brooke remained uncharacteristically silent, checking her hair one last time in the well light lounge's mirrors. She looked down at her dress and marveled at the contrast between her and the elegant looking friend next to her.
Haley wore one of Brooke's many cast off formals, one that was now too big for Brooke to wear. When her friend confided that she didn't have anything dressy enough to wear to a formal event, Brooke asked her housekeeper to raid her closet.
"I can't believe you gave me a dress that you've never worn," Haley replied, opting to ignore the slight Karen bashing that had taken place. Haley felt like that was her purpose at this point in time, stopping Luke from ripping his parents apart, Karen complaining about Brooke... it took up a lot of time to be the peacemaker for the Scott family.
Brooke shrugged her shoulders, taking in how good Haley looked in her dress. "You should always wear that shade of green. It really brings your eyes out," Brooke revealed. It was a couture piece she'd picked up the last time she was in Paris. She'd never had a chance to wear it before that night...and now the dress might be a size 6 but Brooke was more of a size 4.
Haley joined her at the mirror, and stared at her dark haired friend. "That dress is amazing on you," she stated. Few people could have pulled off the ballet styled tulle dress, but the lavender color verging on grey was very edgy for both Tree Hill and Brooke. "You look like a movie star." It never failed to amaze Haley how Brooke's hair was immune to natural disasters and humidity. Brooke had insisted on professional hair and makeup and brought Haley along as a method of female bonding Brooke style. Even after a professional blow out and make-up, Haley still felt out of place in this environment. She could only imagine how Lucas was feeling, surrounded by family he hated and people who spent his entire life looking down at him.
Brooke fussed with her hair a moment, realizing that this was probably her last formal event, her last chance to look like a movie star. She'd taken the opportunity to buy a new dress, compliments of her daddy's charge card. It amazed her how easy it was to fool people, when you had on expensive clothes and a fake smile. Everyone thought she was so put together when she felt like a heaving, quivering mess most of the time.
She smiled at Haley as she tucked a few errant strands of hair into her low messy bun. "I'm kind of like an impressionist painting, Haley. I'm pretty as a picture until you get too close and realize I'm a hot mess of a blurred brush strokes." Kind of like her life. She spent most of her days plotting out the future. The present just seemed to slink by when she wasn't paying attention.
Dan and Karen were celebrating their impending nuptials with a formal dinner at the country club. There over 200 guests to toast the happy couple. Brooke didn't want to be there. Lucas was practically dragged there by Nathan and Haley. But she had a role to play. Docile, non-corrupting girlfriend of calm, not angry son. Another facade Brooke Davis took on as her own. She could do anything if it meant moving toward their ultimate goal. Even spend an evening with Karen Roe.
"You are too hard on yourself, Brooke. You look amazing. You ARE amazing," Haley gently reminded her. Most people who had experienced what Brooke had the past year wouldn't leave the house.
Brushing back the tears that were starting to form, Brooke reached out and grabbed Haley's hand. "I want you to know that your support the past few months has meant a lot to me, " she quietly began, trying to avoid being overly emotional. "I don't know what I would have done without you. "
Haley's brow creased at Brooke's words. "I just listened, Brooke. Any decent human being would have responded with empathy," she explained, sad that it was beyond Brooke's life experience to understand that. People in her world simply did not care or didn't take the time to dig deeper to see what was under that fake cheer smile.
Sighing, Brooke leaned back against the mirror, not caring if the tulle was crushed beneath her slight frame. "My mom didn't listen. Karen was too busy judging me to even ask me if I had a good day. Dan's about the only adult in my life who ever asked me if I was okay. Until Anna, " she concluded. She didn't know what she'd done to deserve a guardian angel like Anna, but she was grateful regardless.
Haley shifted uneasily, as she always did when she was caught between Karen and Brooke. She felt like she was constantly treading water, trying to get them to co-exist if only for Lucas' sake. "I don't want to defend Karen, but this has been an unusual year for her. The baby and the problems with Luke have made her a bit irrational," she neutrally stated. Brooke was almost always disgustingly cheerful but Karen pushed buttons in Brooke that few in Tree Hill knew existed.
Staring off into space, Brooke mumbled something that sounded appropriate and moved toward the lounge's door. She couldn't make Karen like her, but she could dazzle the country club. Even when her world was falling apart and crashing around her, she always smiled brilliantly.
Nathan and Lucas had taken refuge in the overstuff chairs outside the ladies' lounge. Lucas shifted uncomfortable, before pulling off his tie and opening a few buttons of his shirt. He'd told Dan to stuff the tuxedo he wanted his son to wear for the event. The wedding rehearsal might be black tie, but Lucas was anything but. He mentally counted down the days until the Christmas Eve wedding event. So few days but so many tedious events building up to it.
He looked over at Nate who was checking out the basketball scores from the division on his phone. "Seriously? We have the scandal of the year going on in the next room and you are looking at box scores?"
Nathan rolled his eyes at Lucas' histrionics. "Dude, we fought that battle and lost. Unless you kidnap one of them, the wedding is going forward. I might as well keep up with my team while it marches on." Nathan was a good North Carolinian and firmly felt nothing should stand between him and the Tarheels. Unless it was his wedding and then only if the wedding was not during the Sweet Sixteen.
Lucas' eyes perked up at those words. "We could lock them in the wine cellar so they miss the wedding..." he mused, before he was cut off by Haley. "No kidnappings, no phoned in bomb threats. This wedding is going forward," she firmly decided, as she watched elegantly dressed adults pour into the main room. Brooke perched herself on the edge of the chair Lucas was hiding in, realizing both he and Nathan were mortified by this wedding. "There was a perfectly good courthouse that they could have gotten hitched at."
Nathan put away his iPhone at Haley's urging and then stood up and stretched, knowing that they couldn't hide through dinner service. "Let's get this over with," he said, before grabbing Haley's hand and escorting her toward the event.
Sighing, Lucas wished he'd not thrown the cell phone Dan had insisted he carry in his closet. At least some ESPN could make this night bearable. Brooke gave his shoulder a squeeze of reassurance. "Only a few more days," she whispered, as they walked toward where Dan and Karen stood greeting their guests. They just needed to tread water.
She turned toward the door as she heard her name called out. Anna and Keith headed over from the main entrance of the venue. "I thought our baby sitter was never going to show up," Anna explained, leaning over to hug Brooke. She looked over at Lucas and nodded at his appearance. "Nice hipster vibe, Lucas."
Brooke took in Anna's sleek but conservative black dress. "Very Jackie," she noted, knowing how hard Anna had worked to lose her baby weight while working and carrying for everyone around her. It was nice to see a woman who did something other than shop and complain, traits that Brooke's mother excelled at.
Luke shrugged his shoulders at his aunt and uncle. "I was going for causally insolent," he remarked, a slight sign that his personality hadn't been totally beaten out of him. Keith grabbed his shoulder in support, sad that he couldn't do more to help his nephew.
Keith could read the tension that rolled off Luke in waves. "Maybe things will get better after the wedding," he suggested, knowing even as he spoke the words they were meaningless.
Brooke smiled at Uncle Keith's words, appreciating how he and Anna had run interference for both of them with their parents. "I KNOW things are going to get better and a resolution is right around the corner," she firmly stated.
As the younger couple walked off, Anna's eyes narrowed in concern. She knew Brooke well enough to know that she wasn't speaking bland platitudes. She turned to Keith and softly murmured, "those two are up to something."
Dan looked around the assortment of Tree Hill's finest denizens, knowing that his pre-wedding party was the social event of the year. Even if the booster moms were gathered in the corner gossiping about him and Karen at that very moment. He didn't care. He was giving his future bride the party of the year. A party she deserved for so many reasons.
His eyes narrowed as he watched his sons' and their dates enter the room. Nathan was with the program, looking elegant in his tux, while Lucas looked like he'd just left reform school. The boy might have been wearing the suit he'd bought him for Keith's wedding, but he'd ditched the tie and any sense of formality that went with it.
Karen leaned over and nudged him. "You are staring," she whispered, realizing that sitting at the head table made his actions very visible. Dan smiled down at her, always happy whenever he was with her. "I just saw the boys come in," he said, leaving out the part about Luke's disrespectful clothing. He watched as the two couples sat at the table with his parents and brother. He'd asked Roy to watch Lucas and make sure that he wasn't sneaking booze from the open bar.
His eyes drifted over to Haley. It was nice to know the girl owned a dress. He'd begun to wonder if she owned anything else but jeans. As always, it was hard to miss Brooke. She sat resplendent, like a queen over her court. Despite her lovely dress, all Dan could see was how frail her arms looked in the strapless gown she wore.
Karen followed his gaze and immediately frowned. "She looks like she's about to dance the Nutcracker in that dress." Karen had promised Dan that she'd be nicer to Brooke but it was hard to let the past go. She'd not caught Lucas drinking lately but the wilderness school had warned them that behavior would often improve once the parents had made the decision to send their kids off. Like the kids could pick up on the resolution of their parents. But Karen couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right with Luke's attitude. He was a little too compliant. And right beside him was always Brooke. She was nothing less than serene, always having the right answer or behavior. She made Karen nervous. And maybe, just maybe, Karen could also admit that the girl was so effortless elegant that she made Karen feel downright dowdy, especially in her current condition.
Dan ignored Karen's snarky comments. "She makes ballet dancers look fat. Look at how thin her arms are," he pointed out, drawing attention to her frail body. He thought that living with Keith and Anna would have put some pounds on the girl. But now Dan was beginning to think he needed to find Brooke some medical attention.
Brooke picked that moment to stare at the head table, locking eyes with Dan. She smiled placidly at him, before raising her glass to salute the happy couple.
Lucas sat rigidly in his chair, fighting off the migraine that was threatening to overtake him. He had listened to his grandfather ramble on all night about the history of Tree Hill, the legacy of the Scott family basketball tradition and anything else that crossed his mind. The only good point of his rambling was that it allowed Lucas to avoid speaking at all, which was his forte.
Haley kept Roy's ramblings going, adding an occasional 'You don't say' and 'really, there used to be a train station where the mall now stands?" every time there was a pause in the conversation.
Brooke merely smiled at May and looked around the room to see who was wearing what. She basically didn't know what to do with grandparents in a good year. She liked Roy and May. She'd probably spent more time with Nathan's grandparents than with her own. Of course, they died when she was young, but that was just details.
Lucas jumped at the slight touch on his arm. He looked over and saw May staring at him with that grandmotherly stare she had. "How are you doing, Luke?"
Not wanting to start a fight or engage, he merely shrugged his shoulders. "I'm here, unfortunately." May nodded in sympathy. "It's always hard when change comes around, but you could view this as a new beginning, a fresh start," she optimistically suggested. Sensing that the table had turned their attention to him, Lucas noncommittally shrugged at her. "I'm leaving home soon, so it's not much of an issue."
Nathan stared at him in confusion. "College isn't exactly around the corner, Luke," he reminded his ill tempered "older" brother.
Lucas felt Brooke's super spiky heel in his shins, indicating that she too had picked up on his slip. He smiled at the group. "A couple of days, a couple of years. It's all relative." May patted his hand, trying to form a bond with her truculent grandson, while shooting Roy a warning sign to leave the boy alone. She'd refused to make the trip to Tree Hill unless Roy promised that he wouldn't antagonize Luke, Keith or Dan.
They were interrupted by Keith, who stood up to address the crowd. "It's time to toast the happy couple," he exclaimed, as the wait staff passed out desserts, signally an end to the evening. "Would anyone like to start?" Various people threw out congratulations and best wishes. Roy finally stood up. "I think Lucas would like to make a toast," he bellowed, drawing uncomfortable attention to group, who noticed the look of contempt emanating from Luke. Brooke leaned over and whispered something as Lucas stood up and held a crystal glass in the general direction of his parents. He wanted to trash them, trash this miserable city, but he heeded Brooke's suggestion for restraint.
"The great writer F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about passionate couples who overcame many obstacles to achieve lasting happiness. In honor of our happy couple, I'll toast with his famous quote," he paused, smirking at the panicked look on his parent's faces. He drew out the moment for a few seconds, letting them anticipate his final words before concluding. "They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered. Cheers." The room erupted into echoes of cheers and applause as Lucas remained standing, glass raised, looking at his parents with an enigmatic stare.
Luke finally sat down and leaned over and kissed Brooke on the forehead. "Nicely played," she murmured, before placing a gentle kiss on his lips.
Nathan looked over at Haley as the tables broke up, heading home from the long evening. He frowned for a moment. "While I was happy he didn't tell them to drop dead, that was a strange quote for a wedding," he expressed, never the student of literature. Haley sighed, and turned toward her boyfriend. "It was elegantly spoken, as long as you don't know much about Fitzgerald," she finally replied, watching as Brooke and Lucas made their way over to Anna and Keith. She turned back to Nathan. "Fitzgerald's books all deal with doomed couples. I'm hard pressed to remember a single couple who doesn't end up dead or broken up or otherwise not happily ever after," she explained, knowing that Nathan tended to read Sports Illustrated during Lit class. "Let's just say that at best it was Lucas being the literature junkie quoting a book. At worst, he was being extremely passive aggressive."
Nathan shrugged, knowing that most people in the room had no idea what it meant. He couldn't control his brother any more than he could control his father. He sighed and moved Haley toward the door.
Dan and Karen sat back in their chairs, still trying to interpret what had just happened. "I'm going to beat your father to death when we get home," Karen hissed, not pleased he'd put her son on the spot. Dan leaned closer to her and asked, "what the hell was that quote about?" He was fairly well read for a jock but he left the heavy intellectual lifting to Karen.
Her eyes narrowed at her son's words. "He's basically using literature to say we've fallen so deep in love that we've lost common sense." Dan considered her words and smiled at his bride to be. "I'll take that," he decided, placing a kiss on her pert nose. "I am in crazy in love with you and everyone else, including Lucas needs to get over it." He stood up and helped her from her chair. Just a few more days and everything would calm down.
Brooke emerged from the small bathroom connected to her room at Anna's house and found the gang comfortable spread around the modest bedroom. Formal dresses were gone, hair was in pony tails, suits and tuxes were removed in favor of jeans and t-shirts. Brooke stood out in her black and pink silk pajamas. She flopped down on her bed next to Haley, who had raided Anna's kitchen and grabbed all the snacks she could find. While Dan and Karen and Keith and Anna had gone back to Dan's house for coffee and conversation with the grandparents, the kids had opted to hang out together.
Nathan flipped through Brooke's TV, disgusted at the lack of sports channels. "Keith needs to get a better cable package," he moaned. Lucas actually laughed at his words. "I've spent my entire life without cable, I think you can last a few hours."
Haley smiled at the good natured banter between the boys, hoping that these two brothers could find a way forward and a relationship on their own terms. She'd seen glimpses of it, when both Lucas and Nathan had let their guard down and were being honest with each other. She watched as the boys attacked a plate of cookies and discussed the lack of defense in the Tarheel's game.
She glanced over at Brooke, who was nestled in a pile of pillows at the head of the bed. She tapped on the girl's leg to get her attention, but in a non-startling manner. Brooke hated it when people touched her unexpectedly. "Hey girlie, do you have a nail file?" she asked, holding up a jagged nail. Brooke sighed, knowing that was one short term manicure she'd treated Haley to. "Sure, grab one from my nightstand," she replied, motioning to her bedside. Haley opened the drawer and gasped, gaining the attention of the guys. She held up a wad of Ben Franklins and looked questioningly at Brooke. "Did you knock over a bank today?" she asked.
Lucas sucked in a shaky breath, amazed that Brooke had left her money out in the open like that. Brooke took in the concerned looks of her friends and smiled. "You found me out, Tutor Girl. I've sold all my worldly goods to feed poor people in Appalachia," she revealed, while making a heart gesture with her hands. Haley and Nathan took in words before breaking out in laughter, the idea of a charitable Brooke Davis making them smile. Haley tossed the money back in the night stand and grabbed the nail file. "You are too funny, Tigger," she said, not noticing the looks Brooke and Lucas gave each other.