I'm back…It's been years but I'm finally back and motivated to finish this story!
Thanks to dianehermans for encouraging me to pursue this story!
Disclaimer: I only own this story
Chapter 9 - "We need to talk..."
"Hi, my name is Lily Scott and I would like to talk about my brother, Lucas". Brooke looked at her with an interrogative, not sure why this young woman used such a serious tone. When Lily understood that Brooke had no idea of what she was implying, Lily added "Lucas Scott" and she immediately notice the change of behavior. Brooke seemed tense now.
"Hum...did he send you ?" asked Brooke calmly, she was trying to hide as good as she could the struggle that was happening in her head right now. She did not know if she had to be upset fwith Lucas for insisting like this when she clearly told him he should stay away from her or happy to see that he cared enough to send his sister to talk to her and get her back. But it did not really matter, what mattered was that she had to stay away from him because he was not good enough for her and that he eventually would drag her down.
"He didn't" replied Lily. Brooke was even more confused now. Lily did not know her, they never met and if Lucas might have said something about her to Lily, Brooke had not even heard of her before, so she was not ready to share whatever had to be shared about her and Lucas with this stranger. And Lily sensed it, she saw that Brooke was reluctant to talk to her but she needed to try, she owed it to her brother. "Look, I know it might seem weird for you to talk about your relationship with Lucas when you don't even know me but..."
"We were not in a relationship" interrupted Brooke. And she was not wrong, nothing really happened between them and nothing was going to, so why pretend the contrary.
"I know, but you were planning on starting relationship or at least Lucas was". Lucas did not explicitly told his sister that he wanted to start a relationship with Brooke, the only word relationship repulsed him but she saw it by the way he was talking about her and acting, there was something, she did not what yet but Lily had a feeling that he was falling for her and after what he had been trough she wanted to help find love again even if it meant go personally to Brooke's office to convince her to give him another chance. "I can tell that he likes you, he really does and I'm sure that deep down you feel the same way for him too".
Lily was right, despite what she was trying to tell herself, she was falling for him. She knew that she was not supposed to, because he was not the right guy for her and that he would eventually heart her, and this is the reason why despite the growing feelings she had for him she could not admit it.
"You're wrong" lied Brooke "Between Lucas and I, whatever it was...it's over" but she was not really convincing.
"Is it really what you want ?" she knew that deep down Brooke had feelings for a brother, she could see it because of how torn up she seemed. "Look, I know Nathan and Lucas don't get along but it doesn't have to interfere with what you and Lucas are trying to build"
"Nathan is my best friend..."
"I know, and I understand that, but do you really want to lose the chance to find the love of your life because of your best friend ?"
Brooke thought that considering Lucas as the potential love of her life was a little excessive, but despite all this Lily was not entirely wrong. Brooke never really had a lot of chance with men. She was attractive, successful which enabled her to meet a lot of men, men who would often play with her and leave her heartbroken. It had not convinced her to stop looking for love though, she was just more cautious now and after all the things she discovered on Lucas, she needed to be even more cautious with him.
"I mean, this is crazy right!" said Brooke abruptly poking in her salad. She had explained all the situation to Hayley during their brief lunch break and was becoming more and more upset by IT. "Who does she think she is ?! Acting like she knows me...like she knows how I feel...I mean, this is insane!"Hayley had not said a word to Brooke and took time to study her behavior and process the situation and one thing was obvious: she was in denial.
"Did you consider the fact, that she might actually be right ?" answered Hayley calmly.
"Wh...What ?!" replied Brooke obviously surprised that her best friend would side with a complete stranger instead of her. "I don't have feelings for Lucas" added Brooke firmly, but Hayley was not convinced.
"Maybe you don't think you do..." pursued Hayley "But trust me from the way you've been acting out since we started this lunch...thirty minutes ago" she said looking at her watch "You're clearly feeling something for him. It might not be love but there's something and you need to figure it out, with him".
Brooke did not even bother denying it, Hayley would not have believe it anyway, she knew her way to well, sometimes Brooke even thought she knew her better than she did herself. Maybe she was right, maybe she had feelings for him. For the past few hours, she's been obsessing over her conversation with Lily, so there was definitely something but she was convinced that she should not be doing something about it.
"I promised Nathan..." simply replied Brooke. Nathan had opened up to her and gave her convincing reasons to stay away from Lucas, so this is what she was suppose to do, stay away.
"I know you did, but you owe it to you to figure everything out, it would help you to move on if it is really what you want".
After her conversation with Lily and Hayley, Brooke's mind was completely devoted to Lucas and their "relationship". She had not been able to get him out of her head and was still hesitating on whether she should talk to him or not. She was not sure of what she was feeling for him or even if she did have feelings for him, but he became kind of an obsession and she needed a closure, she needed to figure everything out to be able to move on. Thus, despite one side of her mind begging her not to go see him, she did it anyway. She carefully got closer to the door raising her hand to knock on the door but stopped for a moment. Her heart was beating so fast that she felt like she was going to faint or have an heart-attack, or both.
"I should not do this" Brooke told herself before turning back to head back to her car, but stopped again. She took a deep breath went back to the door and attempted to knock on the door, but stopped again. She could not do this...not today anyway. Unfortunately, the universe thought otherwise.
"Brooke ?" asked Lucas when he saw the young brunette heading to her car in hurry.
Brooke stopped dead in her track and turned her head slowly to face the young man who called her.
"Hey..." she managed to say hardly
"Hey" replied Lucas smiling at her "Do you want to come in ?"
Brooke could not say much so she simply nodded and followed him to his house. It was a huge house, with very minimal ornament. It was really sober and white, really white. Brooke could not help but look around her when she got into the house. It was clean, which surprised her, she did not thought a womanizer would have time to clean his house, but again she just figured he had a maid, a really efficient maid. "Do you want something to drink ?" nicely offered Lucas interrupted Brooke in her silly thoughts.
"Water...please..." answered Brooke inaudibly. Lucas was actually amused by the situation, Brooke seemed embarrassed and he thought it was cute.
"I'm sorry for barging in like that" said Brooke after taking a long sip. "I...I wasn't sure I should come" she pursued.
"Well, I'm glad you did" replied Lucas genuinely happy to see her here. Last time they talked it did not end up well, so he was happy to have a chance to redeem himself. "Look..." he started, he did not know what he was going to tell her exactly, but it was now or never and he was not going to waste his time on awkward silence, but Brooke interrupted him.
"I saw your sister" she calmly said, looking at him intensely to see if he knew about it or not, but it seemed like he did not because he was clearly dumfounded.
"Wh...what ?" he thought that Brooke was mistaken, she had never seen Lily and Lily had never seen her either so she was wrong, she must be wrong because otherwise it would not be good, it would clearly compromise his relationship with Brooke and even though he was not sure he wanted to be in a relationship at the moment, he knew that he had feelings for Brooke and that he wanted to explore them with her, see where it would go even if it eventually meant to be in a serious relationship.
"Her name was Lily...Scott. She's a small brunette and...she has your eyes"
Lucas did not say a word. It was without a doubt his sister. And from the way Brooke was looking at him right now, it was not good...at all.
"I did not know she went to see you, I have nothing to do with whatever she did or said..." said Lucas trying to fix what could be fixed. He was convinced that the fact that his sister went to talk to her was not going to serve his purpose.
"I believe you..." simply replied Brooke, she could see from his reaction that he had nothing to do with it, but either way, she had to tell him what was on her mind. She needed it. "But I still have things to tell you..."
"Okay..." said Lucas taking a deep breath "But hear me first...please". He knew that if he did not say what he had in mind now he would not be able to do it again. He did not know what he was going to tell her, he had not plan for that but he knew it was now or never.
"I...I am not really good at opening myself and sharing my feelings and to be honest I don't know if I have feelings for you..." Brooke was intrigued at first but soon starting to realize that maybe after thinking about their conversation he realized that he did not want to be with her anymore. And what surprised Brooke even more was that she was disappointed, she should be happy because it gave her a way out, it gave her way to finally move on but there was a hidden feeling that told her the opposite. "I don't mean that I don't have feeling for you" pursued Lucas realizing that what he just said might be misinterpreted "I just don't know what are these feelings but what I do know is that I like you and I would like us to try" he then took a deep breath and pursued "I know that Nathan told you horrible things about me and that they were probably justified but I am different know or at least I am trying to be...and if you would give me just one more chance maybe I could prove it to you"
Brooke was simply dumfounded, she passed from thinking it was completely over between them to the hope of building something really and meaningful with him. She was lost and did not know what to do. Staying away from him was the safest and wisest thing to do without no doubt, but it seemed so honest and genuine when he opened himself to her that maybe he deserved for her to try.
While Brooke was having an internal conflict on whether she should or not, give Lucas an other chance, Haley and Nathan were waiting for her at home.
"When does she finish work again ?" asked Nathan checking the pasta on the oven. He had decided to surprise his friend and to cook them something tonight. He usually came at their place once a week to cook them something to be sure that they would be eating something healthy at least once week because as surprising as it might seem, Brooke and Haley were terrible cookS. However he had not been able to do it lately because he had very late practice. Indeed, since the coach decided to lay off Lucas a little he had more work to do.
"She's suppose to finish at seven" answered Haley before looking to her watch which indicated 8:30. "I'm going to call her" simply added Haley picking up her phone. But before she even had time to type the number, Brooke appeared.
"Hey!" said calmly Brooke, she was still lost in her mind and processing the conversation she just had with Lucas.
"Hey Brookie" said Nathan giving her a hug to greet her. "We've been waiting for you" he added before heading back to his pastas. "I'm cooking pastas"
"Thanks, it smells good" said calmly Brooke before siting on the couch where Haley was.
"Where were you ?" asked Haley concerned when she saw the way her friend was. Brooke seemed completely lost.
"At Lucas" whispered Brooke, she did not want Nathan to hear. "We talked..." pursued Brooke seeking for a reaction of her friend, bad or good but Haley did not say anything she just processed the information and then give Brooke a warm look to encourage her to tell her the rest of the story. "He asked me out..." added Brooke before taking a deep breath "And I said yes".
"Wow..." said Haley surprised "But this is great...I mean this is amazing...right ?"
Brooke was happy to see that her friend was so exciting for her unfortunately she could not completely share her excitement. "You don't think it's great ?" asked Haley noticing that her friend was not as happy as she was for her, which was disturbing since Brooke was the one who agreed to go on a date with Lucas. If she really thought it was a bad idea, why did she agree ?
"It's almost ready girls!" yelled Nathan who was still working his magic on the pasta. Brooke glanced at him nervously and then it hit Haley.
"Nathan..." she said figuring everything out and Brooke just nodded.
"I promised I would stay away from Lucas and now I'm going on a date with him...he's going to freak out!". After the way he reacted when Brooke just talked to Lucas, she knew that if she told him that she was going to spent the night with him on a date he would go mad.
"Maybe, he won't be that upset" said Haley trying to reassure her friend, but Brooke did not believe it and to be honest, Haley did not believe it either.
"Maybe I should not tell him" offered Brooke, it was just one date, it might not even lead to anything why bother her friend and take the risk to get into a fight with him for something so uncertain.
"If he figures it out and he discovers that you hide it from him it would be worst. You should tell him...tonight".
The three friends sat at the table ready to eat the amazing meal Nathan had cooked but there was a silence, a deadly silence.
"Do you like it ?" asked Nathan to Brooke who was silently eating her pasta keeping her eyes fixed on her plate.
"Yeah, I do...thanks" replied quickly Brooke raising her head to look at him just a second before staring back at her plate. Nathan looked at her weirdly and directing his attention back to Haley to give her an interrogative look. Brooke was acting weird and he was seriously hoping Haley knew why. Haley looked at him like she had no clue of what was going on and then slightly give a kick to her friend to tell her that now was the time to tell him everything. Brooke begged her with her yes not to force her to talk now but Haley did not flinched.
"If you don't do it, I will" warned Haley and seeing that her friend was not ready to say anything, she started "Nathan...Brooke has something to tell you."
Nathan stared at Brooke with an interrogative look. "I hate you!" the brunette whispered to her friend before looking back at Nathan. She took a really deep breath and started "I...I wish there was a better way to say this and I wish we would have done it after dinner" she said glaring at Haley. "But I'm going to say it like this anyway..." Nathan did not say a word, he was looking at Brooke intensively trying to figure out if what she was about to tell him was good or bad, but he could not read anything he was completely lost and worried. " I went to see Lucas today..." started Brooke reluctantly but was encouraged to pursue when she saw that Nathan was remaining calm. "We talked and he asked me out..." Nathan was looking at her interrogatively now. He thought that the only reason she went to see him was to put an end to whatever was happening between definitively but it did not look like it anymore.
"What did you say ?" asked Nathan trying to figure what was going on.
"I said yes" simply replied Brooke.
"Le seul mauvais choix est l'absence de choix"
Hope you liked it! More surprises for the next chapter so I really hope you will keep reading it...