Chapter 8
Tell me how can you sleep?
How can you breathe?
I hate when you say
How you love me now
Three weeks have gone by, and Lucas and I have become closer then ever. We are constantly hanging out, where it be at my place or his hotel, almost every other night. Things have been great, and I've slowly been becoming happier and happier with each day that passes. That does not mean that I am completely "healed"; I still have my days where I just stay in bed all day sleeping and crying. Today should be a good day; Lucas is taking me out to lunch. A rare time slot for us to be going out, since I've been working six days a week to cover Haley who has just entered her last week of bed rest, none the less Quinn and Rachel decided to give me the day off and I am taking full advantage of it. Not even two seconds after I finished applying the simple eyeliner I put for my date, Lucas rang the doorbell. Quickly, I grabbed my clutch and made my way downstairs.
"Luke."
"B." He said giving me a quick kiss and leading me towards his car. The action was simple and casual yet, still gave me butterflies.
"So where are we going?" I asked after sometime driving down the road.
"It's this fish place, the Captain told me about that is really good, called The Pelican's Nest out on the pier. The bring in local catch and what not; apparently they have a really good grouper sandwich. That's ok to eat right?" Lucas asked, nervously looking at me.
"Ya, of course…that's fine with me." I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
All my life I have lived in Tree Hill, and never once have I gone to this place…I love the pier, just never been to this restaurant. We got out of the car and walked hand in hand towards the restaurant, and I started getting a sinking feeling in my stomach when I saw a girl with blonde hair and skinny legs approaching me. The most obnoxious and crazy thoughts were running through my head, and I wasn't even sure if it was her or not. As we approached the Peyton look a like, my heart sank even further when I realized that Julian was the one walking with her out of The Pelican's Nest. Despite all of the good days, I've been having nothing would have prepared me for ever running into either one of them, let alone both of them together. Not even realizing it, my hands must have been shaking because Lucas tightened his grip on me and gave me a puzzling look.
"Babe, I'm really not that hungry, maybe we could just go back to my place and watch a movie or something." Childish, I know, but it was my one final attempt to remove myself from the situation before things went down hill fast.
"But Cheery, you just said it yourself in the car that you are hungry and looking forward to eating at this place…" He was obviously confused.
"Yah, I was hungry but now I'm not anymore." I spat out, but it was too late; they saw me.
"Brooke?" My eyes darted away from Lucas and stared off in the distance, not wanting to make eye contact with either one; not knowing how my emotions would react to this whole situation.
"Hi Peyton. Julian."
"Umm, how are you? Peyton was the one to break the thick tension that was going on between the three of us.
"Good, really good actually." I figured, why not rub it there face at what they've been missing and not show them how I've been a wreck some days over their actions and loss of friendship.
"That's good to hear I guess…"Julian stepping into the conversation looking somewhat uncomfortable. "Do you think we can talk alone for a second?" Crap, here it was…the moment of truth….our first conversation since all of the drama happened; to say I was a nervous wreck, was the understatement of the year.
"Uhhh, sure…babe, you going to be ok here for a minute while I talk to him?"
"Ya, I'll be right here if you need me." Lucas was extremely confused; he didn't know who these people where, he's never heard me talk about a Julian and Peyton before. He placed a kiss on my head and let me go.
"So how have you really been? That good wasn't a convincing one." Julian asked me after we walked farther along the pier, away from the other two.
"Like I said, good. I've been working like crazy doing double shifts at the store because Haley is out."
"Making money is always a plus, how is Haley?"
"She's fantastic, her and her husband are actually expecting a baby.'
"So soon after the wedding?" I instantly regretting telling him everything while they were 'friends'; he knew so much about my life.
"Ya, it was kind of a shock in the beginning, but now they can't wait. How about you? How's your sister doing?" I used to love his sister so much, and she loved me back. I used to think that would be perfect if Julian and I ever got serious.
"She's alright, enjoying her summer off. Me on the other hand, not so good. I'm a mess…" here it comes…the part of this I was dreading the most. "I miss you, like crazy. Not talking to you these past four months has made me realize that I like you, like really really like you. "
"Like me so much, you're here with Peyton…ya, right." I had to interrupt…that was the biggest line of BS I've ever heard.
"We were just here as friends, she's back with Jake and trying to help me figure out how I could win you back."
"Wait, so now that Peyton's dating Jake again, our number one obstacle is out of the way, and you say you want me back. Wow, I'm not that stupid Julian, you just want me because you can't have her."
"No, that's not it at all…I made a mistake sleeping with her."
"You slept with her?"
"I thought you knew…"
"No."
"But that doesn't matter Brooke, I made a mistake. The whole thing with Peyton was a mistake. It just opened my eyes and made me realize that I was and still am madly in love with you." Oh god, he did not just say that. That's the one sentence I was waiting to hear for the entirety of my senior year, but not now…not after I am happy. I can't even think of what to say in response to that. The tears were coming, I felt them build up, and I was not going to give Julian the satisfaction of seeing me crying so I ran away from him and towards where Luke was standing.
"Hi, I'm Lucas by the way." He put his hand out towards Peyton, trying to lighten the mood.
"It's nice to meet you Lucas, I'm Peyton." Peyton battered her eyes, and was obviously flirting with him and that didn't go over easily with Lucas. "So you're Brooke's boyfriend?"
"The one and only. Do you work with her at the store and know Haley?" He was trying to piece the connection between her and his Cheery.
"Oh, no I don't know that bitch at all. Julian and I went to school with Brooke. We used to be best friends." He was taken back by the out and out hatred for Haley, whom from what he heard about her was a saint.
"Alright then."
"Ya…"Before she could even finish her sentence, I came running over in a panic.
"Come on Luke, Captain is probably inside and we shouldn't keep him waiting." I started pulling him towards the restaurant, not able to handle this anymore.
"It was uhhh, nice meeting you." Lucas screamed over his shoulder. He was just as confused as I was upset.
Some time past after we ditched them, and I was sure that not only did I never want that to happen again but also that I now needed to explain everything to Lucas. Not that, I was ashamed of my "secret" but it just all hurt too much to talk about and relive. There was about a 20 minute wait till we could be seated, so we went to the end of the pier and looked out into the ocean, which always had a calming affect on me. Lucas must have noticed that I started crying again, because his grip around my waist tightened and he kept kissing the side of my head.
"Luke, I'm so sorry."
"Pretty Girl, there's nothing to be sorry about. You didn't plan on running into them."
"I know, but you planned on lunch and now its ruined."
"Hey, any time with you can never be ruined." That truly brought a smile to my face. "What happened?" He asked, and I turned around to show him my already tear stained face.
"Julian and I grew up together, our families were friends. We lost touch, but during my junior year we became close again and I started having feelings for him. Summer before I started my senior year, those feelings turned to what I thought was love, the ultimate romance. Peyton and I had been friends since junior year, and with each day our friendship grew stronger. Peyton knew I 'loved' Julian, but right around my 17th birthday, she decided to tell me that she had a tiny crush on him too, but he was all mine. Naturally, the school year went on and there were fights between the three of us, but we always made up. But things became disastrous in April when I thought they were just friends with some benefits, which I now learned turned into full on friends with all benefits." Pretty soon, the sobs couldn't control themselves, and I became inaudible.
"I understand completely B." Lucas must have known what I was going to say next and tried to prevent it from happening. He just pulled me closer and held me tight.
"No, please just let me get this all out. When I found out that they were friend with benefiting and on the brink of going out, I just lost it. They utterly disregarded my feelings and out and out lied to me. I was supposed to be their best friend, how could they do that to someone they care about?"
"Shush…shush…breathe…I'm right here…and I swear to you I will never do anything like that to you as long as we are together. I am so happy right now, and I don't want to end that or jeopardize it." I didn't have to say anything, him just holding me and saying those words eventually calmed me down and made me believe that not only is he a nice guy, but also nothing like the previous one I liked.
