"You seriously haven't told her yet?"
"I don't want to lose her, Rose!"
"You should have thought about that when you kissed Peyton!" Rose said, an idea resurfacing in her head. She headed towards Lucas' door. She opened it.
"Where are you going?" Lucas asked.
"To take a load off your shoulders," she snapped, slamming the door as she left.
The wind was blowing quite harshly that day, as if it reflected Rose's mood. She, with difficulty, pulled her door shut. She drove to Peyton and Brooke's house.
She sat out in the driveway for a good bit, contemplating whether or not she should do this.
She sighed. On one hand, Brooke needed to know. She trusted Rose, even on a higher level than she trusted Peyton. To not tell her that her best friend and boyfriend had betrayed her yet again would be betraying her, too.
On the other hand, Lucas was her brother. They had a family tie that would become frayed if she told Booke about what he'd done. Then again, if Rose had a boyfriend whose sister knew that he had cheated on her with her best friend, she would expect the sister to tell her. She opened her car door, pushing against the wind. Blood wasn't thicker than water in this case.
She hesitated before knocking on the door.
Brooke opened the door and smiled when she saw Rose, but then she saw Rose's expression and her smile faltered a bit. "Hey, Rose. What's wrong?"
"Where's Peyton?"
"She didn't tell me," Brooke said.
"You and I need to talk."
...
Lucas dialed Peyton's number.
"Hello?" A male voice answered.
"Who is this?"
"Name's Benton, who the hell's this?"
Lucas chuckled lightly. "Nevermind." He hung up.
He figured Peyton was over that business of being in love with him, then, if she was sleeping with a guy named Benton. In fact, he would have been okay with Rose telling Brooke everything if he hadn't also been guilty and known that Brooke would most definitely break it off for good this time.
It occurred to Lucas that maybe, even though she wasn't raised by him, Rose was the most like Dan. Everything had to go her way, and she did whatever she felt was necessary to make it so, even to the point of breaking a couple up. She didn't seem to care who her actions affected, just like Dan.
If Lucas was right about that, he was in for more than he originally thought.
...
Brooke stood there, her jaw dropped. She'd been like that since Rose had told her about Lucas and Peyton, which was-Rose checked the time-exactly six, no, seven minutes ago.
Rose waved her hand in front of Brooke's face to make sure she hadn't somehow locked up. Brooke's eyes followed Rose's hand and then she closed her mouth, her expression now one of anger. At whom, Rose wasn't sure.
"Who told you that?" Brooke asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"I already told you. Peyton."
"Wow, so she tells my boyfriend she loves him, she kisses him, and then she has the audacity to tell his sister!"
"Yes, I was surprised, too," Rose nodded.
"They are so dead," Brooke growlec. "I swear, when I see that bitch again, I'll wrap my hands around her scrawny little throat and-"
"Hey, let's not get murderous here, Davis," Rose said, holding back a chuckle. "There are other ways we can teach them a lesson."
"How?" Brooke said.
"Well, the silent treatment and ignoring them will work better than the confrontation that's brewing in your mind," Rose said knowingly. "Lucas'll get the hint, so will Peyton. You leave the confrontation to me."
"So, you want me to be cold to them?"
"Well, I mean, them betraying you was kind of cold, too, Brooke. It's not like you'd be doing anything wrong." Rose thought for a moment and sighed. Her plan sucked. Then, it was as if a lightning bulb appeared over her head.
"Actually..." she started, smiling deviously.
...
The next day at school, Peyton opened her locker to a bunch of papers falling out that said, "SLUT", "BOYFRIEND STEALER", "BITCH" and other names. Peyton had an idea who did it and stalked up to Rose.
"What the hell, Rose?" she asked angrily, waving some of the paper in the girl's face.
"You like the confetti?" Rose smirked.
"Listen, I don't know how they did it at your little New York prep school, but you won't get away with this here," Peyton said, throwing the papers at Rose before storming off.
Rose still smirked, looking around, but her smirk fell when she saw Jake's disappointed expression. She looked down, slightly ashamed.
Brooke walked up to her, and Rose plastered a less sincere smirk on her face. "Phase one is complete," she smiled.
"We're gonna get them good, aren't we?" Brooke asked mischievously.
"Yeah," Rose said half-heartedly, but Brooke didn't catch it.
...
"I must say, I expected more of you," Jake said later during a break.
"I'm sorry, it's just...I wanna get a point across to Peyton and Lucas," Rose said, her head resting on the "heels" of her hands. "Brooke didn't deserve what they did, and they don't deserve to get away with that."
"So, you're taking it into your hands instead of letting the three of them handle it?"
"Look how well that turned out last time," she sighed.
"While you may have a point, Rose," Jake said, "I think that Peyton was just scared that she'd die when she did that."
"Lucas wasn't dying."
"Maybe he felt bad," Jake reasoned.
Rose sighed deeply. "You're doing an extremely good job of making me feel bad."
"That's not what I mean to do," Jake said apologetically. "I just hope you've thought about these things before you dig yourself into a hole you can't escape."
"Okay," Rose said. "Are we still on for tomorrow night, despite my immaturity."
"Of course," Jake said.
The bell for the next class rang.