Thank you all for reading and for those who left me lovely reviews : )
Heh. Note to self: Don't type up chapters while watching Scrubs. Just in case some of your sentences are half complete when you post the chapter and have to go back and edit.
Despite Dan's advice, Lucas had been avoiding Nathan for three days. On his way to meet Brooke, he walked past Dan's home office when a hand reached out and pulled him inside.
"Nate, what the hell?"
"You're not leaving until we talk this through." Nathan said, locking the door and standing in front of it.
"You're not serious."
"I'm dead serious, Luke. It's been three days since we've really talked."
"Look, its just not that easy for me-"
"You know what Lucas? I don't give a damn if it's uncomfortable for you, because it's just as embarrassing for me, considering the fact that it was my own stupid mistake that caused all this."
"Yeah, it was."
"Listen to me, Lucas. I'm sorry that I said all that stuff to you. It wasn't fair and you didn't deserve it."
Lucas was speechless for a moment.
"You honestly think that's what I'm mad about."
"What-"
"I couldn't care less about the stupid crap you said to me once we started screaming at each other. It's the same petty crap you used to say to me all the time last year. I don't give a damn about that. I just let those things go."
"Then why-"
"You can't honestly be that stupid Nate. I'm pissed because I found you in the streets, contemplating whether or not you should get a nice baggie of pills to forget your problems with!"
"That was a mistake, but I didn't-"
"But you could've Nathan! You could've made the decision to go down that road again, and I would have to watch as you went back to rehab and throw away your entire future again."
"Oh, great its all about you again." Nathan said, starting to get really pissed off.
"This isn't even about me. Forget I mentioned my reaction to this. How about your mom, who cried for days because she saw you making the exact same mistakes that she did. Exactly the same. Or maybe Dad? And how he started to question his parenting because his son went off to rehab? This is the kind of stuff that Andy was planning to use to prove in court that Dad wasn't a fit parent! Did you think about any of that? No, because you were too selfish and too stupid to think about anybody else, you only thought about yourself! So yes, Nathan it would've sucked for me to see you do this again, but you don't seem to realize how many other people besides me you'd be hurting."
"Well, none of that matters, because I already told you I'm not doing that again."
"It does matter, Nathan. Look, I know you were a bit weirded out by Haley going out with Eric. But you told her you wanted to move on, and now you did with Theresa, so you should just-"
"You know what? Wherever you were going, just go. I don't know why I bothered trying to apologize to you. You just have to do one of your self righteous rants every time I do."
"Ouch Nathan. Does this mean we're not brothers anymore?"
"Just go." Nathan said angrily.
"Fine." Lucas snapped, opening the door and leaving Nathan alone.
"Are we alone?" Nathan asked Theresa as they sat down in her living room.
"Yeah…"
"Okay." Nathan said, picking up a pillow and screaming into it.
"That was attractive." Theresa said, grinning.
"You think so?" Nathan said, laughing for the first time that day.
"I take it you and Lucas still haven't made up."
"No, and I think we made it worse this morning."
"What happened in the first place?"
"It's a whole crazy thing, we just started off arguing about one thing, but somehow that led us to bringing up a whole bunch of old or repressed issues."
"I'm so sorry Nathan. I know how close you two are."
"Yeah…I just want us to be that way again."
"I swear I'm going to punch him again soon." Lucas fumed as he walked into Brooke's apartment.
"Hi baby, how are you?" Brooke said sarcastically.
"I'm sorry. He just freaking cornered me on my way over here, and when I try to make sense of what happens, he gets all mad again and tells me to go away! I swear, I don't understand him anymore. I really don't. I don't know what happened."
"Listen…let's go back to your mom's. We can spend the day together."
"I swear, I have never been this happy for it to be a week at my mom's."
"Lucas!"
"No, it's not like that. I just don't usually look forward to spending time at one house over the other."
"I know this sucks for you."
"Yeah. But forget about it. We have to find out my mom's wedding plans."
"Oh my gosh, I love weddings!" Brooke said, getting up and laughing.
"Yes, yes I know." Lucas teased.
"Shut up you know you're excited."
"I am," Lucas said, smiling and grabbing her hand as they left, "I really am."
"Okay so Haley, Brooke, you're going to be standing right here." Karen said, pointing out the locations in the church.
"And Broody here will be my escort?" Brooke said, smiling and linking her arm through Lucas.
"Actually, no. I was hoping…he'd be my escort." Karen said.
"Really?" Lucas asked, smiling.
"Of course."
"I'd be happy to, Mom."
"I'm so glad." Karen said.
"That's so cute." Haley said.
"So Haley, is your new boyfriend coming?" Brooke asked as Karen and Andy walked away.
"I'm not sure, I mean we're taking things slow. It might seem weird, inviting him to a wedding when we've only gone out a few times."
"Well you never know about weddings, it helped to spark a little something-something between me and Lucas." Brooke said, wrapping her arm around Lucas tighter.
Lucas hugged her close and kissed the top of her head.
"Karen? What color dresses are we wearing?" Brooke asked.
"I haven't decided yet."
"Mom, the wedding is coming up soon." Lucas said.
"Yeah, what if you can't get the ones you want?" Brooke asked.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Andy said, joining the group.
"So Andy, who's your best man?" Lucas asked.
"My best friend Tom is flying in. I haven't seen him in ages, I can't wait."
"That's great." Brooke said.
"And Karen, who is your maid of honor?" Haley asked.
"I was thinking about asking Deb."
"Really?" Lucas asked.
"Yeah…we've gotten to be good friends. She's helped me out so much over the past year or so."
"I think that sounds great." Lucas nodded.
"Oh, I am so excited!" Brooke exclaimed, grabbing Lucas' hand and leading him towards the front of the church.
"Oh boy." Haley laughed.
Nathan grabbed his keys and headed out the door as Lucas came inside.
"I thought you were at your mom's." Nathan said quickly.
"Just needed to grab some stuff for school."
"Oh."
"Yeah." Lucas said, turning and heading upstairs.
Nathan sighed and started to head outside, but he realized that in his brother's hurry to get his stuff, he had blocked Nathan in the driveway.
Lucas quickly grabbed the textbook and binder he needed for school and dropped a novel into his backpack along with it. Then he put his hands on the window and leaned against it, staring out.
After a few minutes of silence, Nathan came up and tentatively knocked on the door.
"What?" Lucas asked, not turning around.
"Um, you need to move your car so I can pull out."
"Fine." Lucas sighed, grabbing his heads and brushing past Nathan.
"Look, Lucas, this morning sucked. The other day sucked. Can't we please just talk about it?" Nathan asked, chasing after him.
"We tried that. Apparently it doesn't work anymore for us." Lucas snapped.
"I don't know what to do either. We both just need to chill out before we try this out again."
"Whatever."
"Why are you being like this? I just want to make this right."
Lucas sighed.
"The other day…was just humiliating."
"Why?" Nathan asked, not expecting to hear that.
"Because now you know that all this crap from the past still bothers me, you know how stressed out I've been, and I was just worried about you, Nathan."
"You think I was going to use any of that stuff against you? I just wish you had told me that you felt that way sooner."
"I didn't want there to be any problems between us."
"Well now there is a huge problem between us."
"There are a lot of them."
"But still, we need to talk about this."
"Yeah…it would be easier if I didn't have the picture of punching you in the face in my mind."
"I'm fine, Lucas. It was just a little swollen."
"That's not really what I meant."
"I know." Nathan sighed.
"I'll move my car. You have a date, don't you?"
"Dammit. Yeah, and now I'm probably late."
"Other priorities now." Lucas said quietly.
"Yeah…"
"Look, we'll talk later. Call me sometime this week, maybe it would be easier over the phone."
"You think?"
"Maybe."
"Hey Lucas?"
"Yeah?"
"You didn't really mean it this morning, the whole 'not brothers' crack. I mean I know you were making fun of what I said last June, but still."
"It was stupid. I didn't mean it."
"You know, back then…I didn't really mean it either."
"I know, Nate." Lucas said, giving his brother a small smile.
See? It's a start. They (and by they, I mean I) will make sense of it all very soon. Don't worry, the brotherly love is comin' back. How I love the brotherly love.
Please read and review!
Hmm upcoming chapter(s)…upcoming stuff and also, some things to ponder…
-What will Nathan do when Haley and Eric get a little more serious?
-Karen, Andy and Lucas making final wedding arrangements and working on becoming more of a family
-Hee…what will Dan think about that?
-A lovely "guys weekend"
You know, stuff like that : )