The days following the Luke fiasco were especially tense. Sarah and Lewis had almost strangled Mia when they found out that she had invited Luke here in his drunken state.

"He could have killed himself— or worse, killed some other innocent person on the road! What were you thinking Mia? Oh that's right! You were drinking too and weren't thinking at all." Lewis had yelled, his tone of authority making him sound more like a principal than a father. Mia blubbered some sad little response, her face buried in her hands.

As poor as the consequences of Mia's decision to text Luke had been, it wasn't entirely her fault. She didn't know that he had been drinking and she still didn't know about his beef with Brooks. To her, Luke was just a guy with a soft interior but a tough shell, and she seemed to be convinced that she could be the one to crack him.

"The boy has a terrible reputation Mia," Lewis continued, steam practically coming out of his ears. "I would know better than anybody! What were you going to do once he got here? Sneak him up into your room and guilt Jazmin and Savannah into keeping it a secret for you?" His tone was appalled as he held out his hand expectantly, and Mia wiped her nose as she looked at him in confusion.

He sighed. "Phone. Now."

I felt a twang of sympathy for my friend as she handed over her cell phone begrudgingly, too tired to argue. In a strange way, Mia was being punished for choosing to see the good in someone. Maybe she would change her mind about him when Brooks and I told her the truth.

Sarah and Lewis had called Luke's parents as soon as we had all been ushered inside, who told them to shove him in a cab because neither were going to drive all the way to the lake in the middle of the night. So that's exactly what they had done, making sure to tell the driver to lock all of the doors and call the cops if Luke so much as uttered a word in his drunken state. His demented car still sat out on the garden bed days later, shards of glass littering the ground.

For now though, most of the drama had finally died down. Mia was on her absolute best behaviour, aware that she was walking on ice so thin that it could crack and drown her any second. Dallas was stoic, still pissed that Mia had invited Luke in the first place and Brooks... well I couldn't tell what Brooks was feeling. He was more guarded than ever.

Jaz was the only one who seemed like her usual self, having somehow slept through the worst of the ordeal. Whilst all of us were still marinating in the prior days' events and it was evident in our shadowed eyes and tired stances, Jazmin looked bright as sunshine. Must be nice.

"Dad and I are going to the mall to do some last minute Christmas shopping before Christmas Eve tomorrow." Sarah informed us, pulling on her thick red coat and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "If anyone needs anything just send me a message."

I could almost feel Mia's burning desire to point out that she couldn't message anyone because of her lack of a phone, but somehow she resisted. Smart girl.

"There's meant to be a cold snap tonight so if you could all collect some kindling for the fire before we get back we would appreciate it." Sarah continued, running a hand through her hair with a sigh.

I nodded even though Sarah was no longer looking at us, too busy searching through her bag for something.

"Savannah." Brooks called me, beckoning towards the front door. "Come with me?"

Jazmin's gaze immediately snapped towards me, but I pretended not to see her as I nodded at Brooks. He held the door open for me and I trudged out into the cold air. It was 9am and a mere 35 degrees, so I yanked my beanie down to cover my ears. Brooks grabbed a small woven basket from the porch and tugged me gently in the direction of the densest trees, bending down to snag a couple of small sticks and twigs on the way.

We walked in silence for a few moments as we collected kindling, my fingers freezing through my gloves and making it difficult not to drop anything.

"We really should tell Mia about Luke soon." I said after a little while longer of silence.

Brooks nodded in agreement, snapping a long stick in half and chucking both ends in the basket. "Yeah I know. I'll do it as soon as we get back."

"Can I ask you something?"

Brooks raised his eyebrow in response but didn't say anything. I cleared my throat. "Why didn't you tell Mia in the first place that Luke was just trying to use her to piss you off?"

He pursed his lips thoughtfully and stopped breaking sticks, turning towards me instead. "I knew she would never believe me. She has this ridiculous idea in her head that Luke just needs to be given a chance, or something. She thinks that because he acts differently towards her that that's who he really is. She romanticizes the whole thing, and she knows I don't like him. Anything I tell her she'd just think is a lie. And secondly..." Brooks hesitated, lowering his gaze. "What I told you the other day— there was kind of... there was kind of more to it."

Confusion unfurled in my chest as I tried to work out what he was talking about.

He sighed. "I didn't break up with Demi because I was unhappy. She broke up with me."

What? If Luke's sister had broken up with Brooks and not the other way around, then why would Luke be mad at Brooks?

I didn't realize I had spoken the words aloud until Brooks shot me a look somewhere between a frown and a grimace. "She wanted to take our relationship a step further and I didn't. I was young and I wasn't ready. She was hurt that I didn't want to sleep with her so she ran to Luke and told him that I had cheated on her— amongst other things— and then broken her heart." Brooks shrugged, his face blank as paper.

I sifted through all of the information I had been given and let out a breath of cold air. I had never met this Demi chick, but she sounded terrible. I tried to imagine the roles being reversed— if any guy had reacted the way Demi had after being rejected, it would have been world war three. But heaven forbid a guy should turn down sex and suddenly the rules didn't apply. What a messed up world we lived in.

"You could've told Mia the truth, Brooks. I'm sure she would have understood." I said gently, walking towards him and plopping down onto the freezing cold ground. Brooks sat down beside me, and I was suddenly aware of how many heart to hearts we'd been having lately— maybe this was what we needed to do to heal. Just be honest with each other.

"I know, I was just embarrassed, I guess." He shot me a beautiful, wry smile. 

I exhaled with a laugh and shook my head. "That is not something to be embarrassed about Brooks, trust me. Embarrassment is when you fall over on stage at the Golden Globes and the entire world sees your ass cheeks in HD. Take it from me." I grinned, turning red even at the memory. My butt had been on the cover of every magazine in the nation the next day, with captions like 'Savannah Silvers Reveals her Golden Globes!' or 'Savannah Silvers Flashes More Than Just Her Trophy'.

Brooks chuckled, and I could tell that he was almost back to his usual self.

"If it makes you feel any better, I drank." I admitted.

"What?"

"At the bonfire the other night," I murmured, staring down at my fingernails, "playing Never Have I Ever. Jazmin asked if anyone had ever slept with someone they didn't care about. I drank."

A moment of silence passed between us, and I tried to ignore the hammering of my heart in my chest. I could feel my cheeks getting redder with every second that ticked by, anticipating a lecture or a disappointed "you should know better". Suddenly, I regretted telling him. I had been trying to make him feel better about being embarrassed over not being ready with Demi all those years ago, but maybe all I had done was make him think less of me. After Demi he'd probably fallen madly in love with someone and had no regrets at all over his first time.

When I finally looked up though, what I saw was exactly the opposite of what I expected. Brooks' expression was soft, his dark eyes swirling with something I couldn't identify.

"Hey, you don't have to be ashamed of that Savannah, if it's what you wanted." His expression was so gentle yet sincere that I didn't even for a nanosecond doubt that he was telling his truth.

I smiled sadly, a wave of gratitude and relief washing over me. "It was what I wanted, at the time. I was just so lonely and I wanted someone to care about me, and I thought that maybe if I-" I stopped short, realizing how ridiculous I sounded. What was I going to say? That I felt unloved so I slept with the first random guy who looked my way? That I had confused lust for love? I shook my head. "Anyway, he was gone without a trace by the time I woke up the next morning." I turned to Brooks with a blank expression. "First and last time I ever had sex."

Brooks' mouth twitched with a hint of a smile, and he stared at me a moment longer before shrugging a shoulder nonchalantly. "Still one more time than me." He admitted casually.

My eyebrows shot up as I tried to reign in my surprise. Not that it mattered whatsoever, but I had just assumed that it had happened for him. But there hadn't been anyone after Demi.

I smiled, hopping up from my spot on the ground and offering Brooks my hand. "Here's to doing whatever the hell you want, because no one can tell you what's right for you."

Brooks grinned that thousand kilowatt smile. "If I had a glass, I'd drink to that."