Looking up through an open window the image of a young man was visible perched atop the window sill. On top of his six foot height was a stylish mess of tawny coloured hair. Beneath his medium sized forehead and shaped tawny eyebrows lay two of the most beautifully blue eyes a person could become mesmerised by. The rest of his perfectly carved face was relaxed as his sapphire eyes studied the words of John Steinbeck that his long fingers grasped; eager for the story to unfold.
The male was brought from his absorbed state by the presence of his younger brother of three months and the words of him asking the young blonde to 'get his ass into the car, they needed to go.'
The brothers both shared a father but lived with blonde's mother and their uncle as their father and the younger brother's mother had died tragically in an arson attack upon their father's car dealership.
Neither spoke about their father in particular as he was not a person to be remembered with fond memories. However it was hard to escape their father's appearance as the younger brother, Nathan, resembled him so. His messy dark hair atop his six foot four height. His dark brown eyes the same colour as his hair, and his awe striking ability to play the brother's beloved sport, basketball, all screamed the name Dan Scott but inside the father and son's differed greatly. Nathan had managed to return to the correct path when life as Dan's son had forced him to stray. The blonde, Lucas, shared nothing with his father except for the heart condition HCM, besides that Lucas prided himself in being the opposite of the terrible man he had been created by.
Lucas reluctantly rose from his position to follow his sibling out of his bedroom, along the cream decorated hall and down red carpet clad stairs before finally exiting their white and royal blue painted wooden house.
Assuming their respective seats in the back of the deep, dark green, SUV caused Lucas' mother Karen and the siblings' Uncle Keith spin their dark brown hair covered heads and in Keith's case face, to meet the young men whom had joined their company.
Karen and Keith had long been in love with one another, no one could explain the emotions and connections between the two, with words or images a song often could though, When A Man Loves A Woman by Bryan Adams was the song of the moment in their relationship. They had raised Lucas as if Keith had been the Scott brother to father Lucas instead of the terrible excuse for a man who had. In many ways Keith was the father of Lucas, he had done everything a man ought to do to raise a son except for participate in his conception. Due to the pair's ability as parents and their love for raising children encouraged them to immediately take care of Nathan when his parent's died. This also made Karen's current pregnancy, now in its seventh month, a particularly unsurprising joy.
"Everybody ready?" where the words that left Karen's perfectly full, bow-shaped mouth formed before allowing it to grow into a smile that reach her deep brown eyes.
"To go to the unknown town of Tree Hill all across state leaving our friend for three weeks; can't wait (!)" Nathan replied, not unkindly but extremely sarcastically.
"Friends, Nathan? Or girlfriends?" Karen joked with the younger man. Keith smiled at their interaction before placing the car into drive, with his weathered hands upon the steering wheel, beginning their journey. The journey promised to be long as it would take them from Sterling in Virginia down state into neighbouring North Carolina and eventually Tree Hill.
Lucas had decided not to participate as he knew too much well knowledgeable involvement would only earn him an ass kicking from his younger yet larger brother. Instead, he filled his ears with the music of Billy Squire and his eyes and hands once again with the words of John Steinbeck.
"Karen, I've told you Haley was too complicated, I mean yeah she was cute and stuff but I don't know," Nathan continued the conversation.
"Whatever you say Nate, but trust me I know Haley and I know you, the two of you will end up married with a kid before anybody can say graduation," Keith interjected.
"Oh please, I have my priorities right, college before marriage and kids." Karen distinctly breathed a deep sigh of relief at this as she muttered, 'Good to know.'
"Anyway, I'm kind of hoping the three weeks apart will be good for us so long as my dork of a brother here, doesn't rabbit on day after day about how happy he is for his 'best friend and his brother, together always and forever'," Nathan joked with an oblivious Lucas.
"I customer once told me that the way to get over someone was to get under someone else," Karen said simply enough before realising what she had said and began attempting to retract her 'advice' and correct her mistake. Keith could do nothing but laugh whereas Nathan's usually quite pale face turned a bright red flushed colour as he exclaimed, 'Karen, please don't ever say that again.'
"I am so sorry Nathan, I thought it was much deeper than that," Karen said with her hand firmly placed over her mouth as though pushing back the words she had so naïvely uttered.
Upon the third finger of Karen's hand lay two exquisitely cut, perfectly fitting rings. The lower was a simple plain yellow gold band that Keith had placed on her before God and their combined worlds he did this accompanied by the words, "I do" on Saturday October 28th. The upper ring was incrusted with three perfectly cut circular diamonds with the centre slightly larger than the two outer ones. Keith had placed this ring upon her finger on Tuesday July 18th with the words, "Karen Roe, I love you, I always have and I always will, be my wife for eternity for you will be the keeper of my heart for that long."
Every time these memories flew welcomingly into either Keith or Karen's minds, the exact same smile that was not too large but could still reach their eyes, would fall upon their faces. Each time the conversation throughout the incredibly long journey reached an end these particular would smiles would appear upon the two older lovers' faces.