Chapter Two
There had never been much to do in Tree Hill.
Whenever Lucas had visited his parents during vacations, he had always wished he could stay in Tree Hill for longer and just relax in the sleepy old town. But now that he was into the fourth week of his visit, Lucas was getting restless and wished he had something to keep himself occupied with other than shooting hoops at the River Court or helping Keith fix up cars in the auto shop.
It would have helped if he had someone to hang out with, but that was precisely what he lacked. Lucas had seen a few people around who he remembered from his high school days but none of them were people he'd been particularly close to or felt like keeping in touch with. Both Keith and Karen tended to be busy with their workplaces during the day, which Lucas completely understood, but unfortunately it only left him with Nathan. And lately his brother wasn't exactly good company.
Despite having been in Tree Hill for almost a month now, according to Lucas' count Nathan hadn't ventured out of the house more than twice. One time Karen had needed him to pick some things up from the supermarket for lunch since Keith and Lucas had been working late at the auto shop. The other time was to take out the trash. He'd spent the entire visit sleeping till at least noon before wasting the rest of his days playing video games and lounging in front of the television.
As he finished his breakfast and cleaned up after himself, Lucas decided he was going to have to do something about Nathan. He knew Karen had had a talk with him their first week back, but clearly that hadn't done the trick and they had let him spend far too long wallowing in self-pity. He wasn't going to indulge him any longer.
Once he was done in the kitchen, Lucas made his way to Nathan's room. Since it was a weekday both his parents were already at work so Lucas didn't bother to be quiet about bursting opening the door. He found Nathan fast asleep on his stomach, with his face buried in his pillow and the covers bunched up around his waist. Lucas just strolled across the room and said loudly, "Hey, Nathan!" When Nathan merely mumbled nonsensically, Lucas continued, "Nathan? Nathan! Yo, Nate, wake up!" before he reached forward and snatched the pillow Nathan was lying on out from under his head so that his face fell nose-first to the mattress.
The action caused him to sit up abruptly and glance around the room until his eyes fell on his brother. "Lucas? What are you doing?" Nathan complained as he slowly manoeuvred himself to lie down on his back, slowly adjusting his eyes to the light.
"Good morning," Lucas said brightly.
"What time is it?" he groaned.
"Ten thirty."
"I'm going back to sleep," Nathan grumbled, turning over as he said so, but Lucas shook his head and bopped his brother on the head with his pillow. "Jesus, Luke! What the hell is your problem?"
"My problem is that you have done nothing but sit on your ass all day for, what, a whole month now!"
"Why do you care?"
"I wish I knew. But it's time you started being productive instead of a selfish ass, so come on, get dressed, we're going out," Lucas said firmly, leaving no room for argument.
Nathan rubbed his eyes, wishing they weren't having this conversation when he was still half asleep. "I am perfectly fine."
"No, you're not, and you know it. Now go get dressed so we can go out, we have to do something for Mom."
"What?"
"I said get dressed so-"
"No, I heard what you said; I meant what did Karen want us to do? Can't you just do it on your own?"
"No," Lucas lied, "it's a two man job and Dad's at work."
"Can't we do it later?" Nathan whined.
"No, it has to be finished by the time she gets home from work."
"But what is it?"
"I'll tell you in the truck. Now, get up!" Bopping his brother on the head with the pillow once more for good measure, Lucas dropped it on the bed before strolling out of the room.
Half an hour later the two boys ambled into Lucas' truck. As he put his key in the ignition Lucas smiled to himself, knowing at the very least he had managed to get Nathan out of the house. As always, he had to turn the key a few times before the truck croaked into action, but finally they set off down the road.
"Don't you think maybe you should finally trade this in for a new car?" Nathan suggested. "Or, since you love to own old things, let Uncle Keith fix you up with a new old car."
"It runs well enough," Lucas protested.
"This thing is dying. Are you really going to show up for your first day at your new job in this?"
"Of course I am."
Nathan shook his head at his brother's statement, but knew it was useless to press further. "So what is this thing we have to do for Karen then?"
"Buy her a present."
"Huh? Karen asked you if we could buy her a gift?"
"No, actually, she didn't. But, as I'm leaving at the end of the week and not coming back to Tree Hill for a while since I can't exactly ask for leave from my job anytime soon after just starting to work there, I wanted to get her something nice," Lucas explained. "Like a goodbye present, I guess."
Nathan groaned. "Then, what am I here for?"
"To help me pick out her gift."
"Bullshit. You don't need my help-"
"Well, then maybe I think you need mine," Lucas said pointedly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nathan demanded.
"What do you think?" he replied, angrily. "You haven't done anything since we got here, and you know I'm not exaggerating! You didn't even come with me to see Whitey when I asked you-"
"And it didn't matter in the end since it turned out he had gone on vacation."
Lucas rolled his eyes. "That's not the point!" He pulled to a stop at the red traffic light before looking Nathan in the eye. "College is over now Nathan and it's time we started...doing things with our lives! I'm leaving Tree Hill this weekend. I'm moving into a new apartment, I'm starting a new job. What are you going to be doing?"
Nathan exhaled slowly, before replying, "I don't know yet."
"Exactly," Lucas stated before turning his attention back to the road.
Nathan seemed to have no further response to give and Lucas knew it would only make him angry if he tried to continue the conversation, so he kept quiet for the time being. They continued to drive in silence until Nathan noticed they were almost at Karen's café. "What are we coming here for?"
"I thought we may as well just park the truck here and walk around town instead of having to find a place to park on the road everywhere we go. Most of the shops are around here anyway."
"What do you mean everywhere? How many places are we going to?"
"I don't know, I haven't decided what I'm going to buy her yet. But this is easier. If we get late we can give Mom a lift home too as long as we hide the shopping bag first," he explained.
Nathan just shrugged as Lucas drove into the parking lot and soon located a vacant spot near the back wall of the café. He began to reverse the car, but then paused, noticing how close the car in the spot next to it was parked. "You should probably get out now, I don't think you'll be able to open your door once it's parked," Lucas said to Nathan.
Realising he was right, Nathan got out of the truck and moved nearer to the back of the building while he waited for Lucas to finish reversing. As he leaned against the wall Nathan noticed he was standing right next to the back door and momentarily wondered what they would tell Karen if she happened to walk outside and asked them where they were headed.
Just as the thought crossed Nathan's mind the back door swung open, but instead of Karen he saw a young girl with brown hair. The short apron tied around her waist told him she was a waitress but he didn't recognise her as any of the girls that had worked there when he had been in high school. However, as she stepped out and lugged a black garbage bag with her she stopped suddenly upon seeing him, as if she had recognised him.
Nathan waited for her to say something, thinking perhaps that would jog his memory too, but instead she just pushed a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ear and headed to the large garbage bins that were on the other side of the door. She dumped the trash into the bin and stole another quick glance at him, but then wordlessly returned to the café and closed the back door behind her.
Nathan wondered what had happened just then for a few moments before he suddenly realised she must have recognised him from his picture in the paper. The week of his return to town Nathan had gone into the garage and discovered a stack of old newspapers Karen had kept aside for recycling. Among them had been an issue of the Tree Hill Gazette from early July and the cover story had been all about him; him and Dan, to be precise, and how neither Scott basketball legend had ended up doing the town proud, although the end of the article had mentioned how successful Lucas had been in getting some of his articles published.
"You ready?" Lucas called out as he locked the door of the truck, unconsciously putting a halt to his brother's self-pity.
Nathan nodded dimly and dragged his heels as he followed his brother out of the parking lot.
Ignoring Nathan's sour face, Lucas continued, smiling, "I think we should start with the book shop down the next street, but I need to get some cash out of the ATM first. It's just over the road."
Nathan almost remarked that he didn't think a book would be the best present for Karen, even if it was Lucas' favourite gift to receive, but was in no mood to argue so he simply nodded once more as they approached the cash machine. There were only a few people on the road and no one in the queue so Lucas went straight to the front while Nathan leaned against the wall on the side of the machine.
Soon Lucas was finished and as he stuffed his wallet back into his jeans pocket he asked, "Do you need to get some cash out too? When was the last time you did?" he added, making Nathan realise he hadn't since mid-June so he probably did need to.
They switched places and Nathan took his wallet out, inserting his debit card into the machine. After pressing the numbers he waited for his balance to show up on screen, a figure which completely surprised him when it finally did. He only had fifty dollars left in his account! Nathan quickly glanced into his wallet and checked how much cash he had in it, soon realising that aside from a few coins he only had a twenty dollar note, which meant all the money he had left was seventy dollars!
"Is everything okay, Nate?" Lucas' voiced chimed in, having noticed the strange expression on his brother's face.
"Yeah," he replied quickly, "everything's fine." Nathan took some of the little money he had left out of his account for Lucas' benefit as he mentally tried to figure out what had happened. He hadn't spent any money in Tree Hill apart from that one supermarket trip, which hadn't been all that expensive……Now that he thought of it, he had kind of been low on funds the last time he remembered checking when he had been at Duke, which meant – Dan.
For the past four years, at the start of every month, right on schedule, Dan had sent money into his account. The fact that the first of both July and August were long past showed Dan clearly had no intention of continuing to top up his funds now that his son had failed him. Nathan momentarily remembered he still had his credit card before groaning as he realised Daddy Dearest had been footing the bill for that too.
"You sure everything's okay?" Lucas asked.
Nathan opened his mouth to lie again, when another voice called out to them from Nathan's right.
"Well, if it isn't Lucas and Nathan Scott. Nice of you two to drop in on us lowly small town folk."
"Coach!" Lucas exclaimed walking around Nathan to run up to their former basketball coach and greet him.
Whitey chuckled. "I keep telling you every time you're in town, Lucas; I'm not your coach anymore. You can call me Whitey now."
"Sorry, Coach. I mean, Whitey," Lucas amended, even though he knew it was bound to happen again. "How are you?"
"Ah, the usual. And yourself?"
"I'm good."
"Good, I'm glad. And how've you been, Nathan?" Whitey called out to where Nathan was still standing a few feet in front of them, watching the exchange silently.
"I, uh…I'm okay," he said finally, dragging his heels as he joined them.
"I have to say I'm quite surprised to see you here. This must be your first trip in Tree Hill since you started at Duke, isn't it, Nathan?"
Nathan nodded. "Yeah…I was just always busy with…college stuff."
"I – actually we," Lucas lied, "visited your house about two weeks ago but your neighbour said you'd gone on vacation."
"Ah yes," Whitey said, looking into the distance. "I'd just gone on a short trip. I needed a little time off from things."
"That's good," Lucas said encouragingly. "You shouldn't work yourself too hard; I remember you never took vacations when we were in high school."
"Yes, well, there comes a time when you reach a certain age and it becomes necessary to change your lifestyle a bit," Whitey said wisely, if not completely truthfully. "Speaking of high school, have you boys visited the place since you've been back?"
"I did," Lucas affirmed. "It looks so different with the new building and everything."
"Yes, that new principal has been making a lot of changes around there." Whitey shook his head disapprovingly. "I'm sure he's just counting down the days until I hand in my retirement."
"You're not going to retire yet, are you though?" Nathan piped up.
"No," Whitey smiled, "I've got some life in me yet. We start basketball practice tomorrow actually."
"Tomorrow? But doesn't school only start on Monday?" Lucas queried.
"That's right. But we've got to get in shape and we've got a lot of good boys who are eager to make it onto the varsity team once we hold tryouts. They don't mind coming in before the start of semester; they don't complain like you lot used to," Whitey jabbed.
"Well…" Nathan couldn't help saying with a smile, "maybe not to your face."
Whitey stared at Nathan for a moment before he started laughing. Nathan and Lucas joined in and soon the three of them were laughing and reminiscing about the years they had been on the basketball team, particularly the first year Lucas had joined and all the mayhem that had ensued as a result, which Whitey insisted had been when he'd lost the very last of his hair.
The rest of the week passed by quickly, almost too quickly for Lucas' liking. He may have felt bored earlier in the week, but now that the time had come for him to leave home once more and start his new job, he was actually kind of nervous. He tried to tell himself that he didn't have any real reason to be; his new boss seemed like a nice guy and he had loved all of Lucas' work. And maybe his job was quite low-down the scale and the newspaper wasn't even a very reputable one, but it was still a foot in the door and he was grateful for it.
As Lucas did one final survey of his room, making sure he had everything he needed to take, he supposed that the real reason he was nervous was because he was going to be out on his own. When he had left for Duke, at least Nathan had been there with him too. And, granted, he may have let himself be influenced by some of the biggest assholes on the team, but underneath all the bullshit he had pulled, he was still Nathan and he was still there. But, he wasn't going to have Nathan as back-up anymore and, even more worryingly, Nathan wasn't going to have him. Lucas knew that with Karen and Keith Nathan was in good hands, but he was still concerned for his brother.
As Lucas closed his room door and made his way out of the house, he reflected on the final few days of his visit. Nathan had become slightly more sociable, although he was still a bit grumpy about leaving the house. They had visited Whitey at his house the day before who seemed pleased to see them again and, Lucas had noticed, Nathan had appeared to like chatting with him as well. He had invited them both to come to the next basketball practice, but unfortunately that was in two days time and Lucas couldn't stay any longer since he had to go get everything settled in his new apartment before he started work. Whitey had then told Nathan he should come anyway, on his own, and to Lucas' surprise Nathan hadn't mumbled his way out of the invitation. He would have very much liked to see Nathan at that practice, but since he wasn't going to be able to, he'd just have to call Whitey after it and see what he could find out.
As he was walking out, Lucas stopped at Nathan's room and peered in through the gap where the door had been left ajar. Karen, Keith and Nathan had all been outside when he'd come in to check his room one last time, with Keith and Nathan heaving his suitcase onto the back of the truck. By the silence in the house Lucas knew they must all still be out there so he took the opportunity of nudging the door open further and stepping into Nathan's room.
Once inside, he gave it a quick glance-over, immediately noting how most of Nathan's clothes were still inside his open suitcase, as if he'd been living out of it the past few weeks instead of unpacking. The room was full of trophies, posters and lots of other personal things that Nathan had added when he lived there in high school, but Lucas couldn't see anything new in it aside from the watch in the bedside table. He wished Nathan would just snap out of whatever the hell it was he had fallen into, but clearly it was going to take time, which was something Lucas didn't have with him anymore.
Knowing he had to go outside before any of them, especially Nathan, came in looking for him, Lucas pulled his wallet out of his jeans pocket and extracted some money from it, before placing the notes under the bedside lamp. The past few weeks had shown that Nathan wasn't going to ask for his help, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to give it to him whenever he could. He just hoped the next time he saw him, he didn't keep pushing him away.