How it Ended

How you say I'm sorry

( Brooke POV )

“Well, well, well. Look what the cat finally dragged in.” I turn from my drink, something minty, and turn in time to see the one and only Sky, my best friend and sister, standing next to my stool with her hands on her hips.

From the girl I use to know back then, punk and all rock, here stood a girl totally different. Sure, she still had her piercings, lip and nose, and her black hair had grown out, but she grew up.

Matured.

She wasn’t the same girl who went to Star with me all those years ago and I could tell that from just looking at her.

Smiling, I hop from my chair and wrap my arms around her neck. I hear her sweet laugh as she wraps her arms around my neck too and brings me close.

“I missed you.” I say, pulling back and giving her yet another smile. Seriously, I just could not smile when it came to Sky.

Shaking her head, she pulls out a stool next to me and flops on it with the grace of a fat dog. “You don’t even want to know how much I missed you. When I heard you were coming back, I almost shit myself. My Brooke back in Orange county?! My God.”

I hear someone clear their throat behind me and I see Heather leaning against the counter, giving me a look. She twirls her drink with a black straw and I roll my eyes and point at her with my thumb.

“Sky, this is Heather. The girl who helped me along the way when you couldn’t be there.”

Sky looks over me and takes Heathers hand. In the middle of the hand shaking, I notice something glitter on Sky’s left hand.

Was that a .... ring?!

“Holy shit.” I state, grabbing Sky’s hand and disconnecting it from Heathers. I look down at the hunk of diamond and my mouth goes dry. Heather looks over my shoulder, see’s the ring, and whistles through her teeth.

“Holy shit is right. That piece of rock must of cost a lot. And I thought your ring was big Brooke.” Damn her to hell.

Sky’s eyes go from her ring to my face. She looks me over and raises an eyebrow. To be honest, I wanted to keep the whole ‘Engagement’ thing under wraps. I was only going to be here for the summer and I would be going back to my life, leaving this place forever again.

Its not that I didn’t want Sky to know, quite the opposite. There was only one person I wanted to keep the ring a secret from and he just so happened to live in the area.

Sky takes the hand that was holding hers and flips it over. When the light catches onto my ring, Sky takes in a deep breath. Letting it out slowly, she meets my eyes again.

“So, it really wasn’t meant to be forever, huh?” I know she’s talking about Tucker. I don’t want to talk about Tucker. I wish his name would stop scorching my mind and making my heart jump to my throat.

“Sometimes you have to learn to let go.” I whisper, for me or her, I don’t know.

Sky lightly drops my hand and realizes that I didn’t want to talk about Him at the moment. Redirecting her thoughts, she turns to heather.

“So, how did you and my bestfriend meet?” Heather laughs, sitting her drink on the counter. She wraps her arm around my shoulders and gives me a little squeeze.

“It’s a long story. But, since you know Brooke so well, you can figure it started with her raising hell.”

Sky rolls her eyes and sends me a secret smile. “Trust me. Brooke and trouble go hand and hand.” I see something move out of the corner of my eye and a tall guy with dark orange hair walks to the stool. When he sees Sky, he smiles, and I look him up and down.

I know I have seen him before.

Who the hell was he.

Sky reaches back and threads her hands through his. He leans toward her and she leans back. She turns to Heather and me with a radiant smile. “Brook you already know Nick. Heather, this is Nick, my fiance’.”

Fianc .... Nick?

Oh my god, Sky and Nick were still an item? Well, more than an item. I can’t believe after all these years they were still together and were ready to make it official. Heather starts to talk to Nick and I look down at my ring and twist it.

What if I would have came back? Would me and tucker be like Sky and Nick?

 Would I be smiling at Tucker the way Sky is smiling at Nick? Would Tucker even have took that extra step like Ben did and ask me to marry him?

I know I loved Tucker. Loved being the key word. It happened fast, it was something wild, sexy, and hot, but I have to admit to myself that he was just a summer fling. He probably moved on and was dating someone new, hot, and totally worth it.

Damnit.

Why didn’t he write back ?!

I feel something touch my shoulder and I am soon face to face with Sky. She looks down at my ring and back up. “So, who is your lucky guy?!” Before I can answer, Nick kisses Sky on her temple and sends her a quick smile.

“I’ll let you girls have your moment. It was nice seeing you again Brooke. Heather,” He nodded to us both and then dispersed through the crowd, disappearing from our little group.

Heather, watching Nick go, takes a deep draw of her drink and hops off her stool.

“Turns out B, I’m on Nick with this one. I will let you two have your thing.” When she starts to walk away, I catch her hand stopping her.

“Thank you.” I mouth and she rolls her eyes and shakes my hand away.

“No problem, you know I love you. Now, you see that little blondie over there?” She points to some guy next to a group playing darts. “He’s all mine.” I watch as Heather, the lioness she is, stalks her prey.

Shaking my head, I turn back to Sky.

Sky looks from Heather and wraps her hand around a glass of water. I realized it must of came from Nick. “She cares for you as a friend. I remember when we use to be that close.” She looks at the water dripping down the side of the glass and I put my hand on her shoulder.

Meeting my eyes, I point down to my wrist. Sky follows the motion and her eyes widen at the brown bracelet.

“You kiddin’?” I say, pulling on the brown leather a little. “You will always be my first and forever bestfriend. Without you, I doubt I would have made it out of Star alive.”

“You’re right,” She says, wrinkling her nose a little. “Ginanna would have had your ass on a platter and served you raw.”

“Please,” I say, dropping my wrist and turning up my nose. “I could have handled her then and still will. I might be older, but I’m not a freaking grandmother. I still have that badassness in me. It’s just hidden a little.”

Sky shakes her head and I end up laughing. She soon joins in and it feels like I haven’t left at all. Sobering up, Sky takes a sip of water.

“So,” She says, tucking a piece of black hair behind her ear. “What’s with your mystery finance?! He as good as he better be?”

Smiling, I lean on one hand and look at my ring again.

” Ben and I met during a party. He was there to keep his friend from going too far and I was there, to well, keep Heather from sleeping with the wrong dude. We kind of sort of ran into each other in front of the bathroom when Heather tried hitting on his friend, who was too drunk to make a coherent word. We sort of just ... clicked.” I twine my hands together to prove the clicking and Sky smiles.

“I can tell you love him by the way you say his name. So, how does it feel finding love again?!”

Taken aback, I look at the guy behind the bar. “Good. Bad. I don’t know. I did love him, didn’t ?” Sky knows who I am talking about without even bothering to say a name.

“Yes,” She says, and when I turn back to look at her she shakes her head. “And damn did he love you. I still don’t know how the hell it happened or what went through your minds, but what you two had was the real deal.”

“Did he move on?!” I let the question I needed to know go out in one big rush. I brace myself for the answer and Sky lets out a sad little puff of air.

“Honestly? He’s one hot mess. Emphasis on the hot. Turns out years did him good, actually better than good. He gets around, from what I heard, but other than a few words passed here and there, he keeps to himself.”

She looks at me and her mouth turns down a little at the side.

“When you left Brooke ... you hurt him. You left that boys heart broken and shattered on your front porch and you didn’t even stay to pick up the pieces. As much as I love you, you need to also take responsibility for what you did to him. If I was him, I wouldn’t be able to look at you without hate tearing at my soul. But, that’s my opinion and you don’t know how long I have been wanting to tell you that.”

Looking away, I start to trace random shapes into the counters wood. I didn’t deserve to love again. I should have been rotting in hell for what I put Tucker through, and honestly, Sky was right.

I left him here, without so much as a word, and never gave him an explanation.

I did though, give him something. Those two letters I wrote, tear streaked and sloppy, was the only thing I gave him and when he never gave anything back, I knew I could never fix what I shattered.

He was broken.

I was broken.

It was one big old mess.

“I don’t even know how to say I’m sorry.”

“How bout you start with buying me a drink.” I knew that voice from anywhere. That was the voice that haunted my dreams and made my life better. Heart picking up, I turn around and there he stands.

My God was Sky right.

Still tall, tan, messy and hot, Tucker leaned against a pillar with his arms crossed over his chest. His mouth was in a straight line and his face didn’t show any emotion. His hair, still messy, falls a little across his forehead.

Goosebumps pop up all over my skin.

“Brooke.” He says, his voice hard and I stare into his eyes, those eyes that I use to fall into, and say the only thing that I could say.

“ Hello Tucker.”