A/N; Mostly a Naley fic, but plenty of Brucus and Jeyton later. Stick with this, I think it's worth it.
CHAPTER 1 - RUNAWAY
Haley James woke with a start. A glass shattered below her and she knew she wouldn't be going back to sleep tonight. Her mothers voice became louder and she could hear the slurred angry tone of her father. They were arguing about his drinking again. Haley covered her head with her pillow and tried her best to drown out the sounds downstairs. Just a few short years ago, Haley's life was drastically different. Her parents rarely fought back then, but then again, she also had a kid brother back then. Her dad had worked as a mechanic down at Scott Motors and her mother taught English at Tree Hill High, but a tragic car accident threw their lives into turmoil and nothing had been the same since. Her father, who had been driving, was seriously injured and her little brother, killed. No one in the James family had recovered from the emotional scars that fateful day had left behind and no one more so than her dad.
The truth was, since that day, Karl James had blamed himself and without ever voicing it, Carrie, his wife, blamed him as well. In the three years since the accident happened, Karl had to give up his job due to the chronic back pain he suffered as a result and Carrie had to take on a second job to support the family and pay for the hefty medical expenses that their insurance hadn't covered. At 14, Haley was too young to contribute to the household income and their broken family struggled in many ways.
Another crash from downstairs made Haley jump out of her bed and tiptoe out to the hallway. She could hear her mother sobbing and cursing her husband.
"Look at yourself! You're pathetic! You're nothing but a crippled drunk, a complete waste of space!" Carrie hissed at her husband.
"And you're nothing but a cheap whore! You think I don't know about you and that. . .that kid from the high school?" Karl slurred. "The whole town knows, Carrie. Everyone knows that you were screwing him behind the bleachers on Sunday night. And you say I'm pathetic? Take a good look in the mirror, babe. Carrie James getting her jollies from Brad Padalecki, the 18 year old centre forward for the Tree Hill Ravens. You always did have a thing for basketball players didn't you?" Karl threw his now empty bottle across the room, shattering it against the fireplace.
"I had to get it somewhere, didn't I Karl? It's not like you've been up to the task these past few years, have you?" she screamed back.
At the top of the stairs, Haley fell to her knees and cried quietly. She thought of Brad Padalecki, the senior that she had a crush on the whole of her freshman year at Tree Hill High. Was he really sleeping with her mother? Would her mother really do that? She had practically confessed. Haley winced when heard the loud, hard slap of her fathers hand across her mothers face. He rarely let things go so far as to actually hit his wife, but already this argument was worse than their usual squabbles over money and drinking.
Haley slowly crept halfway down the stairs, unable to hold back her tears anymore.
"I hate you." Carrie whispered between gritted teeth. "I hate what you've become. You ruined my life."
Karl flinched, knowing exactly what she was talking about. He opened another beer and took a large gulp before falling heavily onto the couch. "You think I don't hate what I've become? You're no cherub either, Car." Karl sighed, his body sinking into the chair as he idly scraped the paper from the beer bottle. "Since when do you sleep with high school kids? Since when do you throw your whole life away?"
Carrie shrugged and stifled a sob. "My life ended when Aaron's did. I have you to thank for that." she looked at her husband bitterly. "I don't have anything left in me anymore."
"When are you leaving?" he asked, ignoring her grief. She shrugged again, unsurprised by his question.
"Tonight. As soon as I have a few things packed."
"What about Haley? What am I supposed to tell her?" Karl looked at her accusingly.
"I don't know. I need to get out of Tree Hill, this place is killing me and I can't take her with me."
On the stairs, Haley bit into her fist hard to silence her heavy sobbing.
"Are you leaving with the boy?" Karl looked hard at Carrie, not seeing a single trace of the woman he fell in love with and knowing that she felt the same way. Her silence answered his question.
She stood wordlessly and smoothed her clothes, wiping her mascara from under her moist eyes and began to sweep up the broken glass and straighten up the living room. She didn't want Haley to wake up in the morning and have to clean all this up.
Haley silently crept back into her room and locked the door. An hour later, she watched in calmly when her mother attempted to open the bedroom door to look at her daughter for the last time, but she made no move to unlock it. Haley had stopped crying by the time Carrie had pulled out of the driveway and out of her life.