"Haley James! Where have you been? I asked you to get here at 8:00 this morning and it is now 8:45. Normally, you would be here 30 minutes early and waking me up. Now we don't have as much time to get ready to go shopping." Brooke was clearly upset; luckily I knew that if I told her all about meeting Nathan, she would forgive me. Well, that and giving her the donuts I bought.
"Sorry Brooke, I was on my way to get the donuts and I got a little distracted."
"That's okay Hales. I see you got me some cake donuts with sprinkles, so you are officially forgiven. Wait a second, did you say 'distracted'? As in I met someone 'distracted' or I picked up the newspaper and saw an interesting article 'distracted'?"
"Well, actually, I met this new guy named Nathan. I may have only met him due to my clumsiness, seeing as I walked right into him, but that is beside the point. He seemed around our age, I really hope that I'll get to see him again." As I talked about this, I couldn't help but worry that I'd never get to see that face again.
"Who is this guy that has you so worried Hales?" Peyton asked as she walked into the room.
"Oh, P. Sawyer, Tutor girl here has a crush on this new guy, and apparently he was 'distracting' her this morning. That is why she is late. Now that you are here she can tell us the whole story as we get ready and eat donuts!" Brooke quickly explained before I got the chance to get any words out.
So, for the next hour or so, we went over every detail of my morning until Brooke was convinced that I didn't leave anything out. Then, we went on to spend about four hours at the mall until we all found the perfect outfits for tonight's dinner party. Finally, we were headed back to Brooke's to get ready.
It was almost 5:00 and that was when we were expected, so we just had to put the finishing touches on our outfits, then we would head over.
"Ok girls, we look perfect, time to party!" Brooke yelled as she led the way to her car.
Ten minutes later we were there and while I was happy for Quinn, I couldn't help the sadness that came over me as I thought about the fact that I would probably be the only one there without a date.
"Haley-Bub, you look amazing, aren't you going to come over here and see your big sister. Oh and bring those awesome friends of yours with you!" I heard Quinn yell from across the room. With that Brooke, Peyton, and I rushed over to her, the whole time telling her how happy we were for her and talking about her wedding plans.
"Seriously, Quinn, I am so happy for you. Clay is an amazing guy and you two deserve to be happy together. I know that you have an amazing life ahead of you, and I can't wait to witness it." I said, after a ten minute conversation about cake and frosting.
"Thanks Hales, and he is pretty amazing isn't he? In fact, I think I'm going to go find my amazing fiancée right now. See you later."
Lucas and Jake hadn't arrived yet, so Brooke, Peyton, and I decided to go hang out in the tree house in my back yard that we used to basically live in. Sitting up above the party, we watched our parents discussing things that probably had to do with the engagement and the wedding, but we seemed so far away that all we could do was remember being little girls, playing in the tree house.
"Hales, remember the time you and Lucas had that water balloon fight and you almost fell out of the tree. We were all so scared and you just couldn't stop laughing. Even in some of the worst moments, you found something that was funny and showed it to the rest of us." Peyton said while pretty much acting out the memory without the actual falling, causing me and Brooke to laugh.
"Haha, yeah. That was a good day. We were such losers weren't we?"
"Speaking of losers," Brooke started as we all headed out of the tree to greet the two approaching figures. Immediately Brooke and Peyton greeted their boyfriends, leaving me the fifth wheel in the group.
"Hey boyfriend, how was your day?" Brooke asked Lucas. It wasn't common that they went a majority of the day without seeing each other, because we all have the same friends.
"Oh, it was interesting. Last night, something surprising happened, turning my family upside down. I guess I have a brother."Lucas explained.
Jake was the first of us to break out of his shocked mode. "What? Man, when did that happen, how did that happen?"
"Well you guys know the whole story about my dad and how he left my mom when he found out she was pregnant. I guess a few months later in college, he got this other girl pregnant too. I know, crazy huh? Well, that's not all. Dan's dying so he wanted to come meet the son that he abandoned and apologize to my mom. So I've been hanging out with my brother all day, he's actually pretty cool and they moved here so you'll probably be seeing a lot of him." Lucas explained.
All of us were pretty shocked, but before we could say anything we heard someone calling from across the yard.
"Hey Luke, your mom and Keith told me that I could find you out here. Is it cool if I hang out with you guys?" Nathan asked as he approached.
"Sure man. Everybody, this is Nathan, my brother. Nate, this is my girlfriend Brooke, Jake, Peyton, and"
"Haley James." Nathan finished for him while waving, then shaking everyone's hands.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Lucas asked.
"We met this morning while I was running." Nathan answered barely taking his eyes off of Haley.
"Wait, tutor girl, this is the guy you met this morning?" Brooke asked, while I nodded in response. "Oh, I definitely approve." Brooke smiled as I tried to hide my blushing. It was then that I noticed Nathan in his button up shirt and nice black pants that made him look even more gorgeous than when I first saw him. I finally looked up to his face and found him staring at me too. It seemed like forever that our eyes were locked until Peyton cleared her throat, pulling us out of our little world only to notice everyone else staring at us too.
"Well, I guess we should go inside and get ready to eat. It's probably about that time anyway." I said, trying to clear my head and take the attention off of us for a little bit at least.