Ah Hi.. as you can see this is the sequel to The Oddities of Fate - so to all those who haven't read the first story it might be an idea to read it first.. just to catch up on what has been going on. - Thanks for your time.

On to the story:

Hayley's P.O.V

Four year's later

"What time does your flight leave?"

My eyes immediately darted away from Ethan's face as I threw the last of my clothes into my suitcase. My stomach was twisting itself into knots and my throat felt dry and parched. For a strange, unexplainable reason, I found that I could not look him in the eyes as I opened my mouth to reply.

"Around five-thirty." I closed and zipped the suitcase, noticing that my hands were visibly shaking.

"Do you want me to take you to the airport? I've got the car until tomorrow," he said, his gaze still fixed upon me.

I sighed as I shook my head, flopping down onto my bed and burying my head in my hands. The humid August air hung thick in my apartment, so heavy I felt as though I were swimming in a sea of suitcases and boxes. I felt sick as I sat there, my stomach churning and the heat suffocating me, but I knew it had nothing to do with the humidity and everything to do with the fact that I was leaving for North Carolina that night and had still not broken up with Ethan, my boyfriend of more than a year.

I found myself lying on my bed, a million thoughts and memories racing through my mind. College was over and my degree in Law from NYU was safely packed away in my suitcase, along with the memories of the past four years of my life. I had been offered an opportunity to join with one my father's Law Companies, and while I had been reluctant to accept it, I had decided that I needed the money and wasn't in any position to be picky about work. The job required me to relocate to North Carolina, forcing me to let go of the life I had made for myself in New York.

When I had first accepted the job, I had imagined that saying goodbye to Ethan would be devastating, much like saying goodbye to my first love that had been four years previously. But now that the moment had arrived, I didn't feel devastated at all. In fact, a small part of me felt relieved to be free and on my own again, completely self-reliant and independent. In my own way I knew that I loved Ethan, but it wasn't the type of extraordinary love that I had found myself longing for. It seemed as though I had been on a fruitless search for the past four years, looking for something I somehow knew I'd never find.

"Hayley?" Ethan's voice floated into my ears, breaking me away from my thoughts. "Is everything all right?"

I looked at him then, a feeling of dread settling upon me as my eyes locked with his. I knew that what I was about to do would break his heart, and knowing that I was going to hurt him caused my own heart to ache.

"No, it's not," I replied, sighing. "I...I'm scared."

"Of what?" he asked, sitting beside me on the bed and putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Hurting you," I said, my eyes fixed on my hands. "I'm leaving tonight, Ethan. I'm moving away and I'm not coming back anytime soon. How do you expect this to work with the semi distance between us?"

Suddenly my mind flashed back to an eerily similar conversation that had taken place four years previously, except then I had been staring into piercing blue eyes instead of shining brown ones.

He stared at me for a moment, shifting his position on the bed. I saw the doubt swimming around in his dark eyes, doubt that he was desperately trying to hide from me. "I don't know. We'll just make it work. We can overcome the semi distance, right?"

"I want to believe that we can," I said, although I knew it wasn't entirely true. "But I know that we can't."

"What are you saying, Hayley?" His voice was quiet and laced with hurt, and his arm had suddenly abandoned its place from around my shoulders.

"I don't think that this is going to work out," I said. "I don't think that we should hold each other back."

"But I love you," he said softly, and my eyes filled with tears.

"I love you too," I replied, a tear slowly making its way down my cheek. "But what if there are better people out there for us? How will we ever know if we stay together in a relationship separated by a distance? It's not fair to either of us."

"But what if there aren't better people out there for us? What if we're it for each other?" he asked, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Then we'll find our way back to each other," I said, my hand finding his. "But right now, we're just not meant to be together."

He sat in silence for a few moments, wiping away the tears that had fallen from his dark eyes. He lifted his head and looked at me, and I knew then that he understood.

"I know that you're right," he said at last. "But I want you to know that I love you more than I've ever loved anyone. And I'm going to miss you like hell when you leave tonight."

"I'll miss you too. I'll call you when I get there, okay?" I squeezed his hand, watching as a small smile spread across his lips.

"Okay," he said, squeezing my hand back. "Bye, Hales." He stood from the bed and I followed suit; he reached out for me and hugged me tightly, placing his lips softly to mine before leaving my apartment.

My eyes were heavy as the plane soared through the endless night sky, carrying me over the country I had silently vowed never to cross again. In the rare moments when I allowed myself to recall the summer I had spent in Tree Hill as a headstrong girl of eighteen, I remembered trivial things, preferring to block out the more important events that I had experienced during those three months. The important moments were considered dangerous territory in my mind, mainly because I had spent the better part of four years convincing myself that I had moved on from Nathan. And in reality, I had. I no longer found myself missing his touch or his smile, no longer found myself wishing that I were staring into his eyes instead of someone else's. That part of my life had passed and had been packed away neatly in the back of my mind, only resurfacing in the dreams that occasionally plagued my subconscious.

That first year, however, had been hard. I had berated myself over and over again for letting Nathan slip through my fingers when I could have had him the entire time. But our separation had been mutual, and for once I hadn't been the only one that was afraid. We knew that we loved each other, but it was impossible to make the semi distance smaller. As we sat on the dock of the summerhouse that he had brought back into my life, we had promised each other that we'd always be friends. But that promise had faded as the years passed, and soon our weekly phone calls had turned into short, awkward messages relayed on birthdays and holidays. We had changed and I had accepted that; we had transformed into two different people with different interests and different priorities. But that didn't quite alleviate the hurt that still lingered when I saw his face on sport magazine covers or when I heard his voice booming of his basketball win from the television.

I checked my cell phone and realized that there was only a few minutes left before I would arrive at the airport, and would no doubt be bombarded with hugs and kisses from Peyton and Aunt Karen. My father had offered to receive me at the airport but I had declined his offer; I hadn't forgiven him yet and wasn't planing to any time soon. Some things, I knew, never changed.