Tree Hill, North Carolina. A small town right next to a river. Everybody knew everyone else's business here. The whole town was probably 30 miles all together, but it was big enough. You could walk anywhere in Tree Hill. If it was the super cozy café of the huge high school that homed the state champion basketball team. People that leave Tree Hill almost always come back and now it was Haley and Brooke's turn.
The two best friends spent the rest of the day packing and preparing for the trip home. One of the last boxes Haley pulled out of her closet was one she hadn't seen in almost 2 years. It was labeled 'Naley: Always and Forever' and boy did it bring back memories. Haley was looking through the contents of the box when Brooke walked in.
"Haley, do you have anymore masking tape?" she asked, not noticing that her friend was crying or what was scattered on the floor around her. Brooke finally noticed when she heard sniffling in the background.
"Honey, why are you..." Brooke started to ask, but she caught herself.
"Oh. I thought you got rid of all of that stuff after the article and when Chris purposed." she knew that everything in that box brought up a lot of emotions in Haley.
"I lied. I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. This stuff is from a huge part of my life, so I hid it. This is the first time I have looked at this stuff in 2 years. Do you remember the plan that we had? If he hadn't screwed up I could be happy now instead of crying on the floor." Haley said while breaking down into tears.
"Yeah that might be the case, but think of all the great things that have happened to you. None of those things could have happened it you guys followed through with your plan. Maybe you guys weren't meant to be. Now get some rest, we have to get up early tomorrow morning to get on the road." Brooke said, trying to get Haley's mind off of what she was thinking about.
Your right. Fresh start in an old place. I'm glad that we are going home. I think we'll be happy there. And I can leave all these bad things behind". the hopeful girl said.
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Haley packed up the contents of her room into boxes, but she still couldn't get herself to throw out the box from her past. It was almost 2 in the morning by the time she got to sleep and her and Brooke had to be up at to pack the car and get on the road.
Morning came a lot earlier than Haley had expected. Since Brooke hadn't gotten up yet, Haley decided to drive to Starbucks to get coffee for the two of them. After picking up their drinks, she started to return back to their apartment. On the way Haley decided that she had one place she had to stop at before returning to Tree Hill. She had one loose end to tie up before starting over.
Haley pulled up to the other complex at about 6:30. She took a deep breath before getting out of the car and heading towards apartment number 34. She slowly lifted her left on the solid black door, half praying that no one would answer.
After a couple of minutes of knocking someone finally answered the door.
"Hello...Oh, Haley. What are you doing here?" asked the tall man with lengthy blonde hair.
"I came to say goodbye. Brooke and I are moving today and I had to say a few things to you before we left." Haley said. 'I will not breakdown. He can't make me cry.' She thought to herself.
"Say goodbye? What do you mean? We are getting married today." Questioned the very confused man.
"No, Chris we aren't getting married. I know that you are cheating on me. I saw you and Rachel together. So Brooke and I are going back to Tree Hill. I need fresh start in a place where I can be around family and friends. You know, seeing you with Rachel made me realize a lot of things. We-" Haley said while trying not to cry.
"Hales. What can I do to fix this? I love you and I want to be with you." Chris pleaded with her.
"There is nothing you can do. What's done is done. If you loved me you wouldn't have cheated. If we got married we wouldn't be happy. I love you Chris, but I'm not in love with you. At least I haven't been in a while. The truth is that there is this guy that I was with junior and senior year of high school and I loved him. I still love him. I gave him my heart, and I never really got it back. So even if you hadn't have cheated on me, I still wouldn't have been able to marry you. It wouldn't be fair to you or to me." she was actually shocked that she just told him all of that. Haley hadn't even told Brooke that stuff.
"What happened to the guy, the one that has your heart? If you don't mind me asking." Chris wondered. If he had a girl like Haley's heart he would never want to lose her.
"Life happened. Now I'm sorry, but I have to go before Brooke notices that I am gone. We have to be on the road by 7:30." Haley said as she headed towards the door.
"Hales. You're making the biggest mistake of your life. If you walk out that door, you better not think that you have a chance with me again!" Chris yelled to Haley as she walked out the door and his life.
"It's not my fault that we're breaking up. You cheated. This is your fault. Don't blame me!" Haley yelled from down the hall as she stormed out of the building.
As soon as Haley reached her car she broke down into tears. She couldn't believe that she told Chris all of that. And what he said about this being all of her fault.
'Yeah right.' she thought. 'He was the one that didn't stay faithful. I mean I could try to understand if I didn't know the woman, but one of my best friends? She knows all of the pain that I've been through. Why would she do this to me?'
After crying for a few minutes, Haley collected herself and headed towards her apartment. By the time she arrived the movers were already there and were packing her and Brooke's belongings into a truck to head back to their real home.