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A/N: This is my first fic, reviews would be greatly appreciated. Co-authored with ms.marie!
Disclaimer: don't own one tree hill or anything you recognize! Don't own the songs for the titles either.
Tim could feel an unfamiliar feeling of fear clench his heart as he stormed out the door. He threw open the door to his car and got in. He hesitated a moment before starting the engine. He knew he shouldn't leaver her like this, but he couldn't find the strength to go back in that house. He knew he wasn't capable of comforting her when he had yet to even wrap his mind around this. It wasn't possible. There was no way that the strongest person he knew was dying of cancer.
As he gunned the engine and took off, his tires screeching as he turned the corner, he still had no clue where he was going. He knew he could always go to Theresa, but she would want to talk about it, and right now he really didn't feel like talking. He could go to Nathan, but he knew if he told Nathan he would be upset too. His mom was like a second mother to Nathan. And Tim really didn't want to deal with somebody else's feelings tonight either, so Nathan's was out of the question. The only person he really wanted to talk to right now was Haley, and she was miles away. Plus, this really didn't seem like a phone sort of a conversation. What Tim really needed right now was a nice cold beer. With this in mind, he pulled into the nearest bar.
The overwhelming stench of cigarettes and booze filled his nose as he walked in the door of the dimly lit bar. His eyes swept over the room, taking in the various couples sitting at tables throughout the room, some younger girls in scantily clad outfits dancing on their makeshift dance floor, his eyes lingered on the pool tables near the back, his fingers almost itching to play a game, and finally settled on his destination, the bar. He slid into a leather stool situated at the bar.
"Can I help ya sugah?" The bartender asked with her very apparent southern accent.
"Yeah, give me a beer and keep 'em coming," Tim spoke, his voice devoid of emotion.
"Sure thing, hun," the bartender replied, setting his bottle of beer in front of him, not even bothering to ask for an I.D.
"Cheers," Tim muttered to himself as he took a long drag of the burning alcohol.
"So, ya wanna talk about it?" The southern bartender asked after observing Tim for a few minutes.
"Talk about what?" Tim asked, looking down at the oak wood bar and making designs with the condensation his beer bottle left behind.
"Oh, I don't know. How about why you're underage and drinking in a bar, sulking, and apparently mad at the world? Do you wanna talk about that?" The bartender countered smugly.
Tim looked up as the bartender paused. She was an attractive woman, probably in her mid twenties. On a normal night, Tim would have already hit on her, probably using one of his lame pick up lines, but tonight was not a normal night. And tonight, Tim didn't want to deal with this woman and her questions.
"Whatever," Tim muttered as he picked up his beer and hopped down from the stool. He noticed a crowd forming around the pool tables and he found his feet carrying him in that direction.
"Ya know, Stud, you can't run away from your problems. They'll catch up to you eventually!" The bartender called out to his retreating form.
Tim pretended to ignore her as eh weaved his way through the throng of drunken men surrounding the pool table. When Tim finally got a look at what the crowd was all cheering about he was slightly confused. So some guy was getting his ass handed to him at pool. Why was that so exciting?
"What's going on?" Tim asked the tipsy man standing beside him.
"If Billy sinks that eight ball it'll be his twelfth victory of the night," the tipsy man slurred. The crowd broke into a cheer as Billy, at least that's what the drunken man called him, sunk the eight ball in the corner pocket.
With a defeated sigh, Billy's challenger chucked his pool cue on the table and reached in his pocket to pull out one hundred dollars, which he reluctantly handed over to Billy. Billy's buddies congratulated him as Billy scanned the crowd, looking for his next challenger.
"So, who wants to give it a try?" Billy's voice boomed over the crowd as he continued to high five his buddies.
Tim took a large gulp of his beer before turning to the drunken man beside him.
"Looks like I'm lucky number thirteen."
"But thirteen's unlucky," the confused man told him.
"I know," Tim said with a smirk as he picked up the abandoned cue from the table.
"No way," Billy muttered as Tim sank the eight ball into the corner pocket. Silence settled over the crowd as the astonishment sunk in.
"I think you owe me some money, pal," Tim drawled while casually leaning on his pool cue with his hand outstretched for the pay up.
"No way, you cheated!" Billy cried, outraged as the crowd watched the verbal sparring match go back and forth, like a ping-pong match.
"No, but now I think you owe me some money," Tim said, a little more forcefully this time.
"And what if I refuse to pay you, kid?" Billy taunted as he stepped closer. Tim's smirk quickly turned into a more serious expression as he saw Billy's grin and mocking face. Tim had been looking for a reason to punch someone all night, and this guy just provided him with the perfect excuse.
"Then I'd just have to do this," Tim threatened as he threw a right hook at the man's susceptible jaw. The man held his jaw for a moment before glaring at Tim.
"You shouldn't have done that boy," Billy threatened menacingly. The crowd separated as he lunged at Tim. He tackled him and sent him crashing to the ground. Tim hit the ground with a bang, with Billy currently straddled on top of him. He then proceeded to smash Tim's face with his fists.
"Hey! Break it up!" The bartended from earlier shouted as she ran over with a rifle in her hands. "Both of you get out of here!"
As she said that, she called over tow security guys. They dragged Billy and Tim to the door and kicked them out into the parking lot. Billy immediately left, but Tim sat against the wall for a moment to regain his composure.
"You might want to get that checked out sugah," the bartender suggested, indicating the bloody mess of what used to be his face.
"I'll keep that in mind," Tim muttered as he pulled himself up from the wall with a groan. He slid into the driver's seat of his car and sped out of the parking lot. He decided to pull into the nearest convenience store. After that incident he was feeling entirely too sober.
The clerk looked oddly at his fake I.D., but sold him his beer anyway. With his precious cargo safely in the passenger seat, he took off down the street. After his encounter tonight, he kind of just felt like being alone. So he went to the place where everyone in Tree Hill goes when they want to be alone. The River Court.
He dragged himself and his new best friend to the middle of the court and plunked himself down on the hard surface. As he breathed in the ever-present smell of asphalt he realized it had been just hours ago that he was here with his friends even though it felt like days. It was hard to believe that mere hours ago he had played on this court with his friends and talked about how awesome their senior year was going to be.
"So much for that awesome senior year," Tim muttered to himself, taking a swig of his beer.
"Cheers!" He shouted out to the empty court.
It wasn't fair, Tim thought. It wasn't fair that the most amazing woman he knew had cancer.
"It's not fair," Tim sobbed as the tears threatened to fall from his eyes. He angrily threw his bottle at the pavement, watching as it shattered into a million tiny pieces.
Tim fumbled in his pocket searching for his phone. When he finally found it, he punched in the number he knew by heart.
"Hello!" A voice shouted to be heard over the loud background noise.
"Haley?" Tim slurred in his drunken state.
"Tim, is that you? Are you drunk?" Haley yelled at him.
"Hales, I need you," Tim choked out quietly as the tears once again threatened to spill.
"I'll be right there."
When Tim hung up the phone, he finally let the tears fall. As it started to rain his salty tears mixed with the raindrops on his face.
Haley stared at her silver cell phone after her brother hung up. Something was up. Sure, Tim had called her when he was drunk before, but this time something was different. Something was wrong and she needed to go help her twin. He was drunk, and she needed to get to him fast, before he did something stupid. Haley was walking towards the dorm parking lot, but paused mid-stride when she remembered that her blue Lexus was in the shop.
"Damn," she muttered, shoving her keys back into her brown purse. But this problem was not going to deter her in any way, no; she just needed to bring along one extra person back to Tree Hill with her. She turned on her heel and headed in the direction of her best friend's dorm. Jake would understand and he would be more than willing to help her. She bit her lip as she approached his door. At least, she hoped he would. Rapping a knuckle on the door she patiently waited for the musician to answer. Throwing the door open, he let the now frantic Haley in. Throwing her purse down into a chair, she started pacing the length of the room.
"Jake, I have a problem. Okay, so Tim called me from Tree Hill, my twin brother, remember?" Jake rolled his eyes at his friend, for of course he knew who Tim was, considering Haley talked about him all the time. But he let her continue without interruption. "And, well, he was drunk, where he got the booze from I don't know, and he said he needed me, but he didn't say why, and then he hung up. So of course I was going to be on my way, when I remembered that my car was in the shop, you know how the brakes were making those funny noises last week, and now I need a way to get there, because the one time my brother really needs me and actually asks for help and I would be such a horrible sister if I didn't come…" she was waving her hands in the air, babbling out her story, hoping Jake would see her dilemma.
"Whoa, Haley, slow down there, deep breath." She did as instructed. "So let me see if I get this. Something's wrong with Tim, but you don't have your car, so you need a ride down to Tree Hill?" Haley nodded her head meekly. Jake gave her a wide grin.
"I'd be happy to give you a ride, Hales." She squealed and threw her arms around the brunette.
"Oh thank you, thank you! Now, let's get going," she grabbed her purse and headed out the door, Jake closely following after grabbing his keys from the table. Hopping into his black Jeep, they sped off towards Tree Hill. They drove in silence for a while; Haley was too distracted to even attempt a conversation. But Jake's voice broke through her thoughts when he asked her a question.
"Haley, do you even know where Tim is?" Haley's face fell as she shook her head. She had no idea where her twin was.
Nathan had been upstairs, attempting to finish his math homework, but he ended up shooting hoops through the mini-basketball hoop hanging on the back of his door. He heard the doorbell ringing throughout the Scott residence, and his mother's resounding footsteps as she went to answer the door.
Deb Scott impatiently pulled open the door. Seeing a young girl standing on her doorstep, she didn't miss a beat. Rolling her eyes, she shut the door in the girl's face.
"Nate! There's a girl at the door!" The blonde cried. She knew of her son's reputation and assumed that the young teen was another one of her son's conquests.
A look of confusion passed over his face. It was nothing new for a girl to stop by at his house, but it was kind of late for a visit. And it sure wasn't one of the girls; his mom would have recognized Brooke, Peyton, Bevin, or Theresa. Rolling out of bed, he decided to check it out.
After the door slammed shut, Haley turned to Jake, not knowing what to do. He was still sitting in the car, parked in the Scott's large driveway. He just shrugged his shoulders. Sighing, Haley turned back to stare at the door, willing it to open. She hadn't wanted to come here, hell she didn't even know if he would remember her, but it was her last resort. She knew that her brother and Nathan were still best friends, she was hoping her might be able to help her find Tim. Lost in her thoughts, she almost jumped when the door finally did open, revealing a dark-haired, blue-eyed teen.
"Hey, sorry 'bout that…Haley?" Nathan asked, dumfounded when he recognized the girl on his doorstep. Haley was a little shocked; it had been a few years yet he still recognized her. Nathan took this time to study her. She was wringing her hands in nervousness, and her gorgeous brown eyes were looking everywhere but at his face. Now he was a little worried, she had been gone so long, something had to have happened to make her come back. And by the looks of it, something bad. "Hales…what's wrong?"
"Oh, Nathan. Something's wrong with Tim. He called me, drunk, and…and he said he needed me, but I have no idea where he is! And now he's not answering his phone. Nathan, I'm really worried about him. I need your help," she finally looked up at him, with pleading eyes.
"Of course I'll help," he walked out, shutting the door behind him. Trigonometry could wait; right now his best friend needed him.
