A/N- Okay guys, here it is...the LAST CHAPTER! I'll leave a note at the bottom, so I'll let you read and enjoy...

Just The Gardener

Chapter 10- Just The Gardener

Well it's a big big city and the lights are all out
But it's much as I can do you know, to figure you out
And I must confess, my heart's in broken pieces
And my heads a mess

"But I don't want to." Brooke mumbled, the sunlight further warming her already hot skin. "I like it just the two of us."

"It'll be the two of us back in Tree Hill." Lucas tried to reason, brushing Brooke's hair away from his neck.

"But it won't because everyone else will be there. We'll have to keep sneaking around and…"

"Hey." He stopped her, tracing circles across her cheek as she looked at him, doing her best pouting face that almost worked. Almost.

"Besides, we don't have to sneak around."

"But then everyone will find out."

"So?"

She sat up then, slightly worried about his care-free attitude. Either he didn't know what it meant for her, or he just didn't care.

"What's so bad with everyone finding out?"

"I just…"

"You're making this, us, a problem Brooke."

She shook her head as if trying to tell herself that Lucas was wrong. "People are going to talk."

"People always talk!" Lucas said, getting a little more irate. He knew all about people's opinions back in Tree Hill-he'd experienced them full hand. "Never mind."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Brooke asked, throwing back the sheets as she climbed out of bed, covering her body with the comforter.

"It wasn't supposed to mean anything."

"Then why say it?" She shot back, making her way to the bathroom as Lucas could do nothing but watch her.

"Are we actually fighting about this."

"No." Brooke shook her head. "I'm just letting you know what it's going to be like for me when we go back."

"It's all about you!" Lucas exploded. "What about me? I won't have a job to go back to. I took a risk Brooke, for you! And now you're ashamed of that."

"I'm not." She said softly, holding the sheets a little tighter around her frame.

"Well it seems like it."

----

The drive was silent, Brooke silently hating Lucas in her head (or at least, telling herself that she did) and Lucas trying to ignore his own desire to stay where ever the hell they were right now.

Had Brooke not had to return to school, or organise the social events she did, Lucas might have considered staying. Perhaps if he'd had some money, and they could have afforded the gas to get to the next city, they might have kept running. Had he actually told Brooke that he loved her back, he would have let her stay.

But thinking that he might love a girl who seemed so vulnerable, so broken, Lucas couldn't take that chance. He wasn't going to be responsible for destroying someone's life. He'd been labelled that before. He wasn't doing it again.

"Are you going to speak to me?" Lucas asked, half-joking, half-serious. But when Brooke shrugged, he guessed that her answer was no.

"I just don't want to go back." She mumbled, not sure about who she was talking to.

"But why? You've lived in Tree Hill forever, it can't be that bad."

"You try living there for seventeen years." She replied bitterly. "Then tell me that it's not so bad."

"Are you pissed at me?" He tried to figured out.

"No."

"So that's a yes then." Lucas tried to smile, but when he reached out for her hand, Brooke flinched. "Tell me Brooke."

She sighed, and hid her hands inside of her pockets, drawing her knees to her chest as Lucas continued to drive along the highway, noting the signs for the city.

"You can't just come along and save me, and then make me go back to it all Lucas."

"I'm not making you go back to that kind of a life Brooke, you don't have to live like you did before."

"But you don't get it!" Her voice was raised now, salty tears pricking in her hazel eyes. "I can't avoid it Lucas."

----

It was Brooke's parents that were first to pass comment on her absence (though it never usually happened like that. Normally, they failed to notice that she'd even gone) and as they ushered their daughter inside, Brooke managed to turn her head to look at Lucas, who mouthed 'I'm sorry.'

None of the words that he'd said to her had been 'I love you' and Brooke figured that her feelings were the reason they had left the motel. After shouting from her father, and indication of embarrassment from her mother, Brooke was finally left alone in her room to cry, and to take a swig from that bottle she kept in her bedside drawer.

Feelings weren't something she'd expressed before, and it was now that Brooke realised why. Loving someone you couldn't have was harder for her than having nobody at all. It was much simpler that way.

"Where?" She barked into her cell at Nathan, whose invite to a party was everything Brooke needed right now.

"I'll be there."

It didn't take her long to get ready. Her bikini was already on underneath her hoody, and as she quickly removed her jeans, changing into another almost identical pair, Brooke caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her appearance was anything but sexy, her hair ruffled and unkempt. But that didn't matter tonight.

"You're hooking up with your gardener aren't you?" Bevin asked Brooke almost as soon as she walked through Nathan's door.

"Don't be stupid." Brooke waved it away, adding her fake giggle for good measure. Good thing there was plenty to drink tonight.

"I'm not." Bevin replied seriously. "I saw you in his truck. That was the guy who set up your bonfire."

"Bevin I'm not…"

"People are talking Brooke." She hissed. "You're going to have to think of something if you wanna get rid of the rumours."

She left her stood there, returning to the small gathering of cheerleaders residing by the guys from the basketball team who seemed to be playing some sort of drinking game. Brooke guessed it was 'I never' the ever-popular party entertainment for Tree Hill.

"Brooke." Nathan greeted her with a brief nod of the head. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing." She replied. "I'm back now."

And within minutes she was grinding up against him among other girls who were looking to score with their respective guys, all holding drinks, all hot and writhing.

"You are." Nathan said hoarsely as Brooke spun round, shaking her hips across him. "Back I mean."

Brooke simply nodded, happy to let thoughts of Lucas drift away from her as she felt Nathan's hands over her body. This was what she was used to, Brooke was thankful for that. Trying to make a relationship work was new to her, it was hard, and like most people her age, she liked the easy way. And right now, the easy way to live was to kiss different guys, drink too much and not care about anything. Or anyone.

"C'mon." She tugged at Nathan's hand, trying to pull him away. "We can go to mine."

"Your parents are home." He returned, ending their dancing as Brooke tried her pout.

"That never stopped you before."

"Aren't you dating that guy?" Nathan asked. "The one you were with the other morning?"

"I…"

"You were pissed at me when I kissed Peyton." He began. "You're doing the same thing."

"That's not true." Brooke replied, shaking her head and trying to convince herself that being with Nathan wasn't cheating on Lucas. Besides, he was the one that had made her come home, so he was the one that had forced her to this.

"C'mon Nate." She tried again, kinking a perfectly-plucked eyebrow. "You know I'll make it worth your while."

----

It wasn't long before she'd lured some other guy to the edge of the room, a guy that was content to suck on her neck and tell her that she was hot, and agreeing to go back home with her.

"I've just realised." Brooke giggled, slurring as she dragged the tall dark-haired guy up her driveway. "I don't even know your name."

He didn't care. Even if she didn't know his name, this was still Brooke Davis inviting him to sleep with her. He wasn't about to pass up the opportunity.

"Does it matter?" He asked, guiding her with his hands placed half on her ass, half on her hips.

Brooke giggled again, adding a 'nope' before he pinned her up against the outside wall of her house, her bare skin grazing against the stonework.

And then she saw him, waiting by the wall of the flower border he had only just completed before they ran away.

"Lucas I…"

"Save it." He replied quickly, standing up to leave.

"What are you even doing here?" She spat, making sure that this couldn't be portrayed as her own fault.

Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but then looked at the guy with his hand still against the wall at the side of Brooke, who now looked to small, too vulnerable for him to even shout his feelings.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to him through trembling lips. "I can't do this."

Looking between Brooke and Lucas, he suddenly realised he remembered him from before.

"Aren't you the gardener?" He asked Lucas, and as he caught Brooke's expression, realised that he had guessed correctly. Smirking, he shook his head and laughed. "Brooke Davis, sleeping with her gardener."

"I'm not…" Lucas began.

"The rumours were true." He laughed again. "And you're lying for her. Dude, that is so cliché."

"Can you just go?" Brooke spat, wriggling away from his arms as she folded her own across her body that suddenly seemed to exposed.

----

"We've had too many conversations like this." Lucas said softly, taking in the sight of the girl standing before him, the one that was barely able to stand from excessive alcohol consumption.

"I know." Was all she could whisper as she stared at the floor. "I'm sorry."

"You keep saying that." Lucas replied. "And it just seems like you don't mean it."

"I do!"

"Then why do you keep doing it? Why the random guys?"

"Because I had to go back to who I was."

Lucas shook his head, laughing in frustration. "Is this all because I said we had to come back."

"No." Brooke replied quickly. "It's because it's easier like this."

"For who?"

"Both of us."

Brooke sat down on the wall in an attempt to steady herself and stop her legs from shaking.

"You're telling me it's easier for me to see you bringing random guys back to your house?"

"I meant, it was easier before…before everything happened and I fell in love with you."

Lucas stopped what he was about to say, and stared intently at Brooke, trying to work out whether she actually meant that, or whether it was just because she was drunk.

"Forget it." She said quickly, getting up while wiping at her eyes, just to stop the tears from falling. She'd fumbled for the key and almost managed to get it in the lock before she heard Lucas mumble a few almost incomprehendible words.

"What?" She asked, although she'd heard exactly what he'd said.

"I said, I'm in love with you too." Lucas repeated, rubbing the back of his neck roughly. "I just didn't realise until now."

It was a blur of naked skin, bodies entangled as Lucas captured Brooke's lips with his own, feeling her gasp and inhale sharply as he moved in her. She didn't care that her parents could walk in and catch them, and he didn't care that after admitting his feelings towards Brooke, he had everything to lose.

Everyone would know about her relationship with Lucas, that was for sure. But he loved her, and she wasn't sure she'd ever had that before. It was still new to her, and it was hard, and it was almost too complicated. But laying there as he whispered the words over her bare skin again and again, Brooke knew none of it mattered anymore.

Lucas Scott wasn't just the gardener. He was the guy she loved.

It's four in the morning, and I'm walking along
Beside the ghost of every drinker here who has ever done wrong
And it's you,
That's got me going crazy for the things you do.

Look out for my next new story which I'll be posting within the next couple days (tomorrow probably) which is a sequal to 'Play The Game.' It's entitled 'Playing For Keeps' so I suggest if you haven't read the first one, GO READ IT:P So for the last time please review

Emily-Grace xxx