Back To The Start (One Tree Hill)

Chapter 6

Brooke's POV

Haley's house

Three weeks later

I felt stupid, as I stood with smeared mascara from hours of crying my heart out in front of Haley's door, desperately pressing the bell. It was Lydia, Haley's mother, who opened the door. I really had to look terrible, because the dismay about my look was clearly visible on her face.

"Brooke, Sweetheart, what happened?" She asked concerned.

"Is... is Haley here?" I sniffled and wiped my nose. I couldn't and didn't want to talk with Haley's mother about my problem.

"She's in her room. Just go to her."

Gratefully, I looked at her and then hurried up to Haley's room. I knocked briefly and then opened the door before she could say 'come in'. She seemed as shocked by my appearance as her mother had been, because she jumped up from her homework and pulled me into her arms.

"What happened, Brooke? You look awful!"

I carefully freed myself from her arms and dropped the backpack I was carrying on the floor. "Can I use your bathroom?" I asked, starting to rummage in my backpack.

"Of course. You don't have to ask. You can just..."

I looked up as she stopped in mid-sentence and looked at me in horror. And then I glanced at the object in my hand that I had just pulled out.

"A pregnancy test?!" Haley gasped horrified. "Haven't you used contraceptive?"

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "We... we were in the water, Hales," I stuttered. "I didn't know that you could get pregnant there at all."

"I can understand why you might not have a condom with you, but I thought you were taking the pill?"

I sighed and ran a hand through my long hair. "I have... actually. But at that time I was taking a pill break because I didn't have a boyfriend and found it unnecessary to prevent," I tried to justify my carelessness.

"Oh, Brooke!"

She didn't have to look at me so reproachfully. I knew very well that I screwed up. As beautiful as the moment had been with Julian, I didn't need any memory of it; in the form of a living, screaming bundle!

"Did he contact you?"

"Who?" I asked unnecessarily, because my thoughts were just somewhere else.

"Julian. Who else could I mean?"

I shook my head. That was the worst part. We had seen each other for the last time three weeks ago and since then silence has prevailed. I had tried to call him, but the message had gone straight to the mailbox. It seemed as if he had left everything behind with his move to LA. And not only that. He apparently had forgotten everything; Me, us, our shared moment of intimacy and closeness. I took the pregnancy test and tore open the packaging. "Okay, let's get it over and done with," I said firmly, picking up the test stick and disappearing into the bathroom.

"Brooke? Is everything alright? You've been in there for almost 20 minutes now. Does it take so long to get a test result?"

I sat on the floor next to the bathtub and held the test in my hands that had told me the result 10 minutes earlier. But I wasn't ready to share this news with Haley yet.

"Brooke! I'll kick the door in if you don't come out right now!"

I looked at the bathroom clock and couldn't believe that 15 minutes had passed. And if I would sit here for three hours, the result would be the same. I wiped the tears from my face, scrambled up, and pushed the latch back. "Here." I handed the test stick to Haley and then went to her bed and sat down on it.