Title: Just Watch The Fireworks
Author: Davis
Rating: T
Pairings or Character: Brooke-centric, with appearances from almost everyone.
Spoilers: Seasons 1,2,&3, but not much, really.
Summary: For almost as long as she can remember, Brooke Davis has loved fireworks. One-shot. Slight BrookeLucas, Brooke-centric.
Author's Note: This is an entry for the 'Lighting up the Night Challenge' on another board, and basically, we just had to write something to do with fireworks. Also, I decided I would do this challenge in spirit of the fourth of July (only uh, not really in spirit of. Hehe.) I wrote it at like two in the morning, so if it sucks, I'm really sorry. I don't know what I think of it yet, but hopefully you'll enjoy it and review. I'm going away for the next five days, so I guess (hopefully) this is my gift to all of you before I go. Hehe. Please review and enjoy.
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Just Watch The Fireworks
For almost as long as she can remember, Brooke Davis has loved fireworks. She loves the loud sounds they make as they explode in the sky or on the ground, and she loves the looks on peoples' faces as they watch the magic unfold. But mostly, she loves their pure, utter beauty. The fact that simple fire and sparks of multi-colors can entertain and captivate her in a way nothing else can.
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She remembers being five, on her first real fourth of July.
She remembers watching her father pull out a lighter, and set something aflame. Her eyes widen in interest, and being the pure child she is, she watches as the sky lights up with purple, green and blue.
Her hands fly to her face, and she feels as if the world is about to end when they finally stop. Tears threaten to spill from her eyes, as she realizes that she took the utter beauty for granted.
It is only moments later when her father lights up another that she re-gains her composure and is once more captivated in the simple delight that is fireworks.
-
The following year, her father allows her to help light the fireworks, and she's never felt more responsible in her life.
She picks up the debris after each and every one has faded out, and when her seventeen year old uncle that she's always thought is the most attractive man she's ever seen suggests lightly that they light sparklers and stick them in the grass, she complies eagerly.
The older men stand back and smoke cigars as she helps her uncle and his friends work. When her mother takes one look at her busy daughter, she can't stop herself from bursting into laughter. And upon hearing her mother's laugh, Brooke turns to look at her, and laughs as well, until her fingers wrap around an entire sparkler and are burned badly, scarred lightly for the rest of her days.
Her young mother dips her fingers in ice, and stays with her until she longs to be outside once more.
-
When she is eight, Brooke spends her first fourth of July away from home. Away from her own parents, who no longer seem to be interested in the little girl. Instead, she stays with Larry and Peyton Sawyer.
Upon arriving, Peyton tells her to grab a sweater, and the two head outside to adventure the world around them. They come across a bridge, and camp out underneath it.
Peyton pulls out a pad of paper, and Brooke eagerly agrees to help her draw pictures. She draws princesses and princes, and when she looks over at Peyton's, she sees traffic lights and cars, and Anna Sawyer. And she realizes her drawings are nothing but little-kid drawings next to Peyton's adult ones.
She hugs her best friend, and the two watch fireworks from underneath the bridge. They smile, giggle, and jump when they're supposed to, and at some point, Brooke sees a blonde woman with curly hair staring at them from her car seemingly far away.
But she never tells Peyton, because her friend is paranoid enough as it is, and after all, it is the fourth of July.
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She is ten the first time she sees fireworks that don't happen on the fourth of July; at Nathan Scott's eleventh birthday party.
It is a barbeque, and Nathan's father, Dan, allows them to light up little ones - under his supervision of course.
She pulls her hair carefully into a pony-tail, and watches in awe as the children around her run around waving all sorts of little fireworks.
Brooke grins as she watches Nathan's father light up larger ones. Most children jump, and some even cower away, but she - in her new sports bra and shiny blue eye shadow - waits patiently and excitedly for the next one to go off.
And later that day, as she is looking for the bathroom and contemplating how cool Nathan's father is for allowing him to have fireworks on his birthday, she almost runs into the two in Nathan's bedroom.
"We need to wrap this up soon." Nathan's father checks his watch, and shakes his head.
Nathan frowns. "But da-ad. I'm having a lot of fun with all my friends!"
"I don't care, Nathan. You're going to practice today. You know the rules."
"But it's my birthday.." The boy trails off helplessly, and his father grabs his arm violently.
"Stop complaining. When I was your age, I practiced every day for five hours straight, and I never once complained. I expect the same from you."
And Dan Scott - formerly Brooke's opinion of the coolest dad ever - storms out of the room. He walks right past her and doesn't even notice her, and Brooke takes another peak inside the bedroom.
She watches as Nathan rubs his arm, and tears well up in his eyes. He attempts to hold them back, and when his eyes travel towards the doorway and land on Brooke, he swallows hard.
She offers a smile, and walks away - her own silent promise never to tell anyone of what she saw that day.
-
When she is fourteen, Brooke goes to a party at Bevin's house, accompanied by Peyton and her new boyfriend, Nathan. She has recently grown into her 34B bras, and her form seems to take an hourglass shape in her new short skirt that doesn't leave much to the imagination.
She saunters in, and can't help but enjoy the attention she gets from sophomores, juniors, and even a couple seniors.
She watches from inside as all the boys set off fireworks outside, and Tim Smith complains of the scorched grass in his lawn. And Peyton and Nathan make out straight through the entire thing.
And she smiles as a junior walks up to her and places an arm on her shoulder, and offers her something that he says will make the fireworks more exciting.
And though she doesn't quite believe it possible to be more excited, she is naïve and this boy is very cute, so she takes what he gives her, and giggles as the fireworks seem to grow more colorful, and even more so when he takes her into a bedroom and removes the last of her innocence once and for all.
-
During her junior year of high school, Brooke meets Lucas Scott.
And that sets off an entirely different type of firework altogether inside of her.
When he tells her he cares about her, she instantly falls in love and decides she'll spend the rest of her days loving him.
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When he breaks her heart, she cries and cries for days, until she feels she can cry no longer.
And when she finds out it's Peyton who has helped him break her heart, she sits on her roof and watches the fireworks from some local Tree Hill event, and she wishes that it was them exploding with each poof of color.
But then decides that she doesn't, because that way, they would be together anyway, and she would have lost again.
-
During her famed summer spent in California, Brooke spends the fourth of July on the beach with a bunch of people she doesn't know.
All these people, they love her. They think she's interesting and beautiful and funny. But she cares about none of them, and ends of spending most of her summer thinking of the beautiful thing that is Lucas Scott.
And she sinks deep into the sand and watches as fireworks explode into the night, and she basks in the only familiarity she'll ever know while she's here.
-
She is so sure Lucas is in love with Peyton when she storms out into the rain, nearly blinded by both the pouring water and excruciating fury.
She doesn't stop when he yells after her, and only after he admits his true and only love for her does she finally cave and hug him closely.
They kiss for minutes in the rain, and when they finally start walking back to her and Haley's apartment, lightning begins to shoot through the sky.
And in lightning's own way, it is a firework. And she can't help but watch in awe, like a child during its first fourth of July.
-
At the reception at Nathan and Haley's second wedding, Deb Scott reveals that she's hired someone to let off fireworks for the happy couple's union.
Some are mildly annoyed that the fireworks aren't entirely visible, since they explode during the day time, but Brooke thinks they are still beautiful. Mostly because Nathan and Haley spend the entire time the fireworks go off staring into each other's eyes, completely oblivious to the world around them.
And the words 'Naley4ever' fly across the sky, and Brooke knows then at that moment that they are true.
Despite all the issues to come.
-
On the car ride with Lucas, a month following his eighteenth birthday, and the day before hers, the two get into an argument over Peyton.
He tells her it is time that she forgive her former best friend, and she tells him to stay out of it.
By the end of the argument, he is driving sullenly, and she has crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly and is staring out the window.
She is moments away from apologizing and telling him that she loves him, and she'll forgive Peyton if it's what he truly wants, when the tire explodes, and they go careening off the road.
She wakes to Lucas sobbing. His head is caked with blood and he is trying to get her out of the car, but her seatbelt won't budge.
She can't find the words to speak, but if she could, she would say, "I love you. I'm sorry. I'll forgive anyone you want me to, and I'll do absolutely everything for you, my love."
And as she sits in her seat, suddenly completely aware of the ache in her stomach and her massive headache, she watches the sparks from the car become a multi-colored mess of fire and beauty that manages to captivate and entertain her like nothing else can.
Her death becomes a firework all in its own.
Fin.