A/N: This is my first fanfic. The flashback is in Italics and I will try to make sure that all jumps forward and back in time are labelled.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise belongs to Mark Schwahn and whoever else owns One Tree Hill

Everyone makes mistakes. That was pretty much Tree Hill's motto. At that moment a lot of people were looking back on their mistakes as Tree Hill High had its burning boat ceremony. However, the people who had made the most irreversible mistakes were not that year's seniors or the juniors or even the sophomores or freshmen. They were the graduating class from nearly seven years previously. Some of them had reached their dreams and watched them fall down, some had failed abysmally and some had torn themselves down as they went along. At the end of the day they all had one thing in common. They were alone.

Two Years Earlier

The young woman watched the road as she drove. She wasn't going anywhere in particular, just away. Three years ago she had made the worst mistake of her life and she was fairly certain she had had a chance to change it but hadn't. Yet somehow this time it didn't feel wrong. That punched feeling she had had in her gut? Gone. The feeling that she would never feel happy again? Gone. That urge to turn around and beg him to take her back? Never returned.

Eventually she saw the sign for Savannah and signalled to turn. So that was where she was headed? She smiled at the irony. Her heart had finally healed so she was headed back to the place where it had opened to let him in in the first place. Her phone beeped- another text. She ignored it.

"You couldn't have her so you called me, huh? After years of silence you want to be friends again, you get mad at me for being jealous of your fiancé, invite me to your wedding, let me sit and watch you say 'I do' and now she's left you want to marry me?"

Her words floated back into her head. She felt a little twinge of guilt at her harsh tone but nothing more. Somehow she found herself parked outside a house on a seemingly random street in Savannah a short while later. She looked up and saw the name on the door. Jagielski.

As she watched the house she saw a familiar young man through the window. It was the middle of the night so he should be asleep; his daughter certainly was. The woman wanted to shout out to him to tell him she had returned but then she saw another woman walk into the room. She sat down next to him and put her arm around him. It was so sickeningly obvious.

Outside in the car the young woman realised her mistake. The first refused proposal had been a scared head talking; the second was a wounded pride. Jake had been right to let this new woman into his life; their someday- the day when he was no longer in her heart would never come.

Peyton Sawyer had just done the unthinkable. She had been given an opportunity at a do-over and she had made her worst mistake a second time. The poor young blonde whacked her fist on her steering wheel and bawled. Her phone beeped. New message from: Lucas.


She was right. She knew she was right. If Nathan could have the nannies flirting with him and swimming naked in the pool and not tell her then that was proof. He was no longer the person she married. she was jealous and not for the first time since she had married him. That was the bottom of the matter and everyone knew it except, evidently, Haley herself.

Present Day, Two Years Later

The petit brunette sighed as she settled into her sofa. She switched on her ancient TV. She hadn't had the strength to go through the agonising trouble of a divorce so she did the cowardly thing and fled, taking Jamie with her. The flat and all the furniture were shabby. The TV flickered to life. Haley saw the reporter and felt the familiar twinge of recognition that she felt whenever she saw someone from her hometown.

"I'm Marvin McFadden. Today in sports..."

Haley automatically tuned out. She wasn't interested in the sports news. However, it wasn't long before a certain name snapped her back to attention.

"...and Nathan Scott, former Charlotte Bobcat, is once more transferring. Today he signed a deal with the Atlanta Hawks for unknown reasons. Nathan is, in fact, here with me now."

The camera panned out to show Nathan and Haley caught her breath sharply. He looked good. Mind you, she mused, was it really surprising? When something was troubling Nathan, he worked out.

Just as Nathan's agent walked into the shot Haley's sister and flatmate walked into the room.

"Who's he?" she asked interestedly.

"Clayton Evans, Nathan Scott's agent," Haley said soberly. Quinn's face immediately filled with concern as she realised what Haley was watching.

"Oh, honey, don't watch this," Quinn said. Haley shushed her as she tried to listen.

"Nate here has expressed an interest in Atlanta because he believes his wife and son may be living there," Clay was saying. "Family is very important to us at the agency and me in particular..."

"He knows I'm here!" Haley panicked.

"Whoa! Relax, buddy. It's just a guess. He won't find you if you don't want him to." Quinn soothed.

Mouth was now talking to Nathan.

"So, Nathan, your missing family is very important to you?"

"Yes, of course, Mou... Marvin. What with what happened to my brother, my wife and son are the most important things in my world. In high school, basketball was at a constant battle with them for my affections and I came very close to making the wrong decision. I have since realised that basketball is nothing to my family and never will be. I would just like to say, like I did at the press conference way back then, Haley, if you're watching: I love you, I'm sorry and I want us to face whatever life throws at us together. It's been two years and I miss you."

Haley stared, stunned, all the way through the speech. She had been right, hadn't she? Nathan wasn't the man she loved anymore?


Brooke Davis. It could've been the world's most revered name. Little girls would 'want to be like Brooke someday'. However, with just two difficult decisions, she threw everything away.

Present Day

"Another one," the drunken woman ordered.

"Brooke..." the barman began to caution.

"Who is the customer?" Brooke cut in.

"You are," the barman sighed, as if he went through this routine every night, which he did. "Just don't blame me when you wake up tomorrow with a hangover."

Brooke giggled as he poured her another drink.

"I love you, Owen," she sniggered.

A redhead settled herself on the bar stool next to Brooke, fell off and climbed back up again.

"The usual, Owen," she said dazedly.

"Are you high, Rachel?" Brooke asked in a childish voice.

"I can't remember," Rachel giggled. "Let's party!"

Owen Morello sighed sadly. He could remember the smart, clever Brooke Davis who had potential. Now she was a drunk with a junkie for a best friend, spending all her time and the very little money she had on alcohol.

*Two Years Previously*

"Brooke, we're going to have to let her go," Victoria said brusquely.

"No!" the young and feisty woman replied.

"What was that?" her mother asked, taken aback.

"No, I'm not going to let Rachel go. She's my friend and she needs C/B. I'm not going to desert her when she needs it the most!"

"Well then the press will destroy your company," the older woman said. "If you change your mind, call me tomorrow morning. If not, I will not be associated with a label that hires junkies. It's your choice."

The limo screeched to a halt and Victoria climbed out. Brooke was left weighing up the huge decision that she had to make. With Victoria's thinly veiled threat in mind she didn't know which way to go.

Later that evening, Brooke received a phone call.

"Hi, it's Peyton. What happened to us, you know? I miss who I used to be. I wanna have a home again, you know. I miss that. And I miss you. I guess I miss all of it."

"Mmm. I hear you, honey," Brooke said, "but I can't come back to Tree Hill, not right now. Rachel needs my help here in New York. You'll be okay, won't you?"

With that decision Peyton and Brooke's relationship had become distanced. Brooke wasn't there for Peyton throughout the whole Lucas and Lindsey fiasco because she had bigger problems of her own. Victoria, true to her word, had left the company and without her but with the added problems of the press surrounding Rachel the company had crashed and burned. Eventually Brooke's millions dwindled down to nothing at all and she was heavily in debt, addicted to alcohol and miles away from any real friends.