Chapter 4

Hey guys, so this is more of a short chapter, but it's kind of important for a future chapter, plus it leads into the next chapter pretty good. Enjoy

(Haley's POV)

We've been sitting here for 15 minutes. Not saying a word to each other, however I do believe we're having a staring contest. But we're both losing. This is just sad. I'm about to say something when my cell phone rings.

I look down at the screen and I see it's an unknown caller. What ever. Anything to get me out of the awkward silence with her.

"hello?" I answer.

"why am I standing in your apartment, with out you here?" Peyton asks me. Maybe I shouldn't have answered it.

"I made plans" I answer calmly. I'm still mad at her for not telling me Brooke wanted to see me. "oh and stop breaking into my apartments"

"well if you were actually here, I wouldn't have had to"

"what ever, can we just do this tomorrow? I'm busy right now"

"fine, but don't be surprised if you wake up with me in your apartment tomorrow" she says and hangs up. Great, now I have to go back to my staring contest. I look up from my phone and she's still watching me silently. What do I say now?

"2 years ago, you came to Taylor's bar to see me. Why?" I ask randomly.

"because after those 2 years I realized I didn't want to feel this way anymore"

"feel what way?"

"lonely" she replies simply. "but you weren't there, and I took it as a sign"

"what about me showing up 5 years later on your door step? Do you take that as a sign too?"

"sure, but I'm still trying to figure out what it means"

"well I can tell you." I say quickly. "I've missed you so much over the years because I still love you. I'm still in love with you Brooke. That's why I'm here. 5 years is just too long"

"why do you get to make that decision? After you broke up with me, I thought missing you for 30 seconds was too long. Why do you get to decide 5 years!?"

"I didn't. 30 seconds after we broke, I missed you too. After 5 years fate brought us back together."

"what do you mean fate? You're here on business. Fate is when 2 people meet on an airplane and fall in love. Fate isn't you showing up on my door step 5 years after you left me" she says through tears in her eyes. To this day it still hurts me to see her cry.

"… well sometimes you have to make your own fate." And that's what I did.

"it doesn't work like that"

"why not?" I ask.

"it just doesn't" she replies, not actually giving me a valid answer.

"well then forget fate. I came here tonight because I wanted to"

"why all of a sudden?"

"because today, I found out you came to see me 2 years ago."

"so what?"

"that shows me that I know you still love me too" and it also tells me something about the Elites, but that'll come up sooner or later.

"how do you know I haven't changed my mind since then"

"because if you had, you would have kicked me out of your home half an hour ago" I say, and she doesn't reply with anything because she knows I'm right. She still loves me.

"Haley…" she starts, and it's a good sign that she finally said my name. "you hurt me so much in high school because you were the first person I've ever fell in love with. You were the only person. I've spent so many years missing you and I can't just give my love away to someone, especially when I don't know who they are."

"what do you mean? You know who I am. You're one of the few people who do know I am"

"no, you've changed since you've become a musician, I've followed your career around" I knew it.

"I assure you, that's not who I am. I'm still that same girl you fell in love with. I promise"

She gets up to get her purse and comes back, not actually telling me what she's doing. "do you remember our last date before… everything fell apart?"

"sure, you wanted to take me out to some fancy restaurant for lunch, like always, and your car broke down and we were so far from anyone else. It was like a 2 hour drive, but you just had to take me."

"so we took the bus home"

"and it took like twice as long to get home as it did to get there" I add in.

"we spent 4 hours riding that bus, just me and you at the back of the bus just talking about stuff. That was the last time I saw my Haley James" she says pulling out a picture of us from her wallet. It's me and her on the bus, laughing about something. "this is the Haley I know. The girl that was always herself and happy and mine. What happened to that girl?"

"she's still here, just hidden"

"yeah, she's been hidden for the passed 5 years. And I'm starting to think that she's not hidden. Just changed."

This time I take out my wallet and pull out a picture too. It's pretty tattered and torn and flimsy, but it's still in tact. "I never changed" I whisper, not showing her the picture quite yet. "I just hid, because hiding meant that I was hiding those feelings, and even when I knew I was hiding those feelings - I felt better. But inside I still know who I am, and inside I still know I'm in love with you. That much hasn't changed" I say as I drop the same picture of me and her on the table in front of her.

"… I've never stopped loving you, and I don't think I can" I say quietly as she picks up the photo and lets her thumbs play along the creases and the edges.

I look down at my watch and realize I've been here longer than I thought I would. Actually I didn't know how long I'd be here. But, I feel something tickle my cheek and I realize I'm crying. I quickly wipe away my tears with the palms of my hands, trying not to show Brooke I'm crying.

"it's getting late, I think I should go…" I say, standing up from my spot.

"wait" she says quietly, not looking up from our matching photos. "how long have you had this in your wallet?"

"5 years" I approximate. "I guess love doesn't go away"

"… I know what you mean" she whispers, still staring at the identical pictures. She slowly hands my picture back to me and I put it back in my wallet where it belongs. She gets up beside me and decides to walk me to the door.

"it was great to see you, Brooke" I comment.

"yeah…" she says. We both act like everything didn't happen, but we know things are going to be different now.

"… I-I'll see you later?" I stutter out.

"I don't know" she says and I can feel the smallest smile spread across my face, because 'I don't know' is better than a flat out 'no'. I nod as she opens the door and I step out and venture down the hall to the elevator. Not daring to turn around in fear of Brooke seeing this increasingly large smile.

I was too busy smiling that I didn't even notice that I had already walked down the hall. I didn't notice that I had pushed the button to call the elevator. I didn't notice the doors open, and I certainly didn't notice that I got into the elevator and pressed the ground floor button.

But what I did notice was a hand stop those doors from closing. What I did notice was Brooke Davis holding the doors open, and slightly out of breath.