Happy new year everyone! Here's the first update of 2012. I really like this chapter, but I know it's not how a lot of you wanted to play out. I ultimately decided to write it the way I did because it was better for the story I want to tell and I feel it was truer to how Haley would handle things. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave it there. As always let me know what you think and leave suggestions for what you want to see in the next chapter, I always consider them!
Chapter 7
Haley let go of the door knob as her arm went limp from the shock of seeing Chris standing in front of her. "Wha-what are you doing here?"
Chris shrugged and searched her eyes to gauge what she might be thinking. "I haven't heard from you. I thought it might be good for us to talk."
"How did you find me?" she asked, choosing to ignore his statement.
The musician couldn't help but smile softly at the girl. "We've known each other a long time, Hales. I learned quite awhile ago that whenever something happens the first person you run to Brooke."
He was right. It was pretty easy for someone who had known Haley for over two and a half years to guess where she would be. The former couple stood in an awkward silence for a few moments after Chris' smile faded. Hearing footsteps behind her, Haley glanced over her shoulder and saw a very pissed off, threatening looking Brooke Davis. She heard Chris utter an expletive but chose to ignore it; she was going to have to focus solely on Brooke in order to diffuse the situation to come.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing here?" she exclaimed ferociously.
Chris put his hands in the air calmly in an attempt to get Brooke to remain calm. "Look Brooke, I know how much you probably want to kill me, but I came to see Haley. We need to talk about everything and that doesn't involve you. I'd appreciate it I you gave us the privacy we need."
Brooke scoffed. "Like hell I'm going anywhere. In fact, the only person going somewhere is you. You're leaving right now before I call security to drag you out of here."
Haley put her hands on Brooke's shoulder to halt her advancing friend. She was positive that if she didn't put a physical barrier between her and Chris that there would be some form of a one sided altercation. "Calm down, Brooke. I think Chris might actually be right, we need to talk."
Brooke looked absolutely flabbergasted. She usually wasn't one to be taken by surprise, but her best friend giving her ass wipe of an ex-boyfriend the time of day caught her completely off guard. "Are you an idiot, Hales? Or have you forgotten what he did to you?"
"I haven't forgotten," she shook her head. "We'll have to talk to each other sooner or later though and I'd rather do it now than farther down the line when it'd tear open old wounds."
Brooke glared at Chris one last time before turning and storming back down the hall. "I'll be in my room, you have fifteen minutes."
Haley rolled her eyes. She loved Brooke to pieces but sometime the brunette was a little too overprotective. She cocked her head in the direction of the den. "Come on."
She walked down the hallway quickly with Chris trailing directly behind her. When they entered the room, Haley paused the movie she and Brooke had been watching and took a seat cross legged on the couch. Chris assumed a seat in the chair across from her and folded his hands in his lap.
"Well you came here to talk, so talk," Haley said impatiently.
"I came here to apologize," he corrected and locked gazes with her vacant one. "I'm sorry, Haley. I love you and probably always will. You were the first girl I've ever loved and I'll never forget the time we spent together. I know it's a long shot, but is there any way you can forgive me and we can start over?"
Haley shook her head in disbelief. Did he actually just ask that of her? "I can't do that, Chris."
He nodded understandingly. "I didn't really expect that you would. I couldn't help but try though, you mean too much to me to not."
She tried to remain stoic. Haley was refusing to let herself become emotional in front of the man that broke her heart. It seemed she was losing that promise to herself already though. "Why did you do it then?" she asked desperately.
"I'm honestly not sure anymore. We weren't getting along and I was searching for something that could reignite the spark in me that came to life whenever you were around."
"So you cheat on me?"
Chris looked sadly at her. He didn't have an explanation worthy of telling her. "I'm sorry," he told her softly.
Saying sorry wasn't going to cut it for Haley this time. There was a nagging need inside her to know more. "How long?"
"Huh?" Chris asked startled. Haley had been silent for a few minutes and he thought for sure he wasn't going to get any more out of her.
"How long were you cheating on me?" she clarified stonily.
Chris sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Hales, you don't-" he started to object answering her question.
"How long, Chris? The least you could do is be honest with me."
"Once or twice a week for almost two months," he confessed ashamedly.
Haley inhaled shakily. She was quickly losing control of her emotions. She stood up abruptly and began pacing back and forth across the small room. After a few seconds she halted and whirred around to face Chris again. "How could you?" she shouted, her voice cracking.
"I don't know, Hales. I just, I don't know," he said hopelessly.
"Well that's great, Chris. You don't know. You fuck another girl God knows how many times and you can't even explain why?" Haley exploded. "I loved you so much and you betrayed me. What am I supposed to do with that? You can't seriously expect me to be able to forgive and forget."
Chris shrugged in defeat. He knew he had no right to fight back at Haley when he was the reason she was hurting so much. "Maybe it's for the best if we just go our separate ways. You probably want nothing to do with me now and I don't want to hurt you anymore than I already have by trying to remain friends."
Haley sniffled and wiped haphazardly at the slow tears rolling down her cheeks. "You should probably go," she said, indirectly agreeing to his previous statement.
"Yeah…" he said quietly and walked across the room so he was standing in front of her. He towered over her by several inches but he leaned down easily and planted a gently kiss on her forehead. "I love you, Haley," he said one last time before exiting the silent apartment, closing the door behind him.
Haley stood still in the middle of the den. The tears were coming down faster and she raised a hand to touch where Chris' lips connected to her skin. "I love you too," she whispered almost inaudibly. She didn't have another second to think about their conversation by herself as Brooke padded into the room looking worried.
"Are you okay?" she asked instantly and wrapped her arms around the girl's shaking form.
Haley didn't want to chance speaking in case it opened the flood gates even more so she shook her head. Brooke gritted her teeth angrily and rubbed her friend's back comfortingly for a second before pulling away. "I'll be right back," she told the blonde and marched angrily out the front door of the apartment.
Chris had only made it about halfway to the elevators and the furious woman quickly caught up with him. "Hey!"
"Brooke? What are you doing?" Chris asked confused. Shouldn't she be with Haley trying to console the heartbroken girl? He winced at the picture of Haley curled up on the floor sobbing, but pushed it out of his mind in order to focus on what the girl in front of him was saying.
"Haley may be too good of a person to do this, but I'm not," she stated and slapped him hard across the cheek without warning.
Chris cupped his reddening flesh and gazed soberly at Brooke. "I deserved that.
Brooke's eyes widened in surprise. She wasn't expecting him to just take her attack on him. She knew Chris to be the kind of guy that would defend what he did until he was blue in the face, not admit that he did something horrible and deserved to be held accountable and punished. Despite her shock though, Brooke couldn't help but continue what she started. "You're damn right you deserved it. You broke her heart, Chris. Do you have any idea how much damage you've done to my best friend?"
"I know, Brooke. You don't have to tell me that."
"I think I do. She's cried herself to sleep the past two nights. She thinks I haven't been awake but I am, and I listen to her for hours as she cries into her pillow. You were such a huge part of her life and threw it all away for some stupid whore! Haley thought you were the one. She believed that you two were going to get married and have your happily ever after. How is she supposed to move on with her life now that that's gone?"
Chris really did not want to hear all this. He felt bad enough as it is about what he did; he definitely did not need to be told in more detail about how he broke an amazing woman's heart. "Please stop," he pleaded brokenly and locked eyes with Brooke.
She saw that his eyes were clouding over with a glossy sheen and decided she had said enough. "I don't care what you guys just said to each other, if you even think about coming near Haley again I'll make sure you wish you never cheated on her."
"Trust me, I already do wish that," he promised and walked into the elevator that opened moments earlier.
The doors closed behind him and Brooke started back to her apartment. She replayed Chris' last words to her and she found herself believing what he said. The look on his face and the tone of his voice made it easy to see that he wasn't lying to her.
When she made it back inside she saw that Haley was no longer in her previous spot. She walked into the kitchen next and saw her blonde best friend pulling each of the drawers out and dumping their contents on the table. Brooke wasn't surprised to see her doing this; it was a medial task that Haley often did when something was plaguing her.
"Hales?" Brooke spoke warily. She didn't want to spook her friend or cause her any more upset.
"Hmm?" she responded and looked up from her current task. "Oh, you're back from beating the shit out of him?"
The brunette smirked slightly. "I went pretty easy on him. Do you want to talk about it?"
"What is there to talk about? I put my trust into someone that obviously took that for granted and I ended up getting hurt. Chris and I agreed that it's best to stay away from each other from now on and that's that," Haley said eerily calm.
Brooke cocked a disbelieving brow. "Come on, Haley. We both know you aren't fine just like that. Don't keep everything bottled up inside."
Haley sighed and dropped the metal serving spoon she was holding with a clang. It echoed through the silent, tense room. "I don't want to talk about him anymore, Brooke. I'm going to deal with this my own way and I appreciate your concern, but it isn't necessary."
"Okay," Brooke conceded and walked across the room. She panted herself right next to her childhood friend and began helping her sort through all kinds if silverware. The duo worked in an efficient silence for the next little while until Haley announced she was exhausted and wanted to head to bed.
Brooke smiled at her secretively and hooked their arms together. "That reminds me; I wanted to show you something."
Haley looked at her puzzled but allowed Brooke to guide her down the hallway. They came to a doorway and Broke wasted no time in pushing the door open. "Tah dah!" she said happily and watched Haley's reaction. "I did it while you were gone today."
"Brooke, you didn't have to do all this by yourself," Haley said in awe. She looked around the fully furnished room in complete shock. While she was with her mom and Lily, Brooke had set up her new bedroom. It now held all the basic furniture she would need as well as many pictures of her friends and family. Haley's focus narrowed in on her new bed and she gasped when her eyes locked on a familiar object she hadn't seen in what felt like forever. "Mr. Waffles? Brooke, where did you find him?"
She chuckled softly and shook her head. Haley loved that stuffed bear and when she lost it last year she was beside herself with grief. "Turns out he was hiding in the back of my closet all this time. I found it when I was looking for some pictures to put in here."
"I still can't believe you did this for me. Thank you," she said sincerely and hugged her best friend tightly.
"It's nothing, Hales. Good night," she flashed her one last smile before leaving Haley to her own devices.
Haley changed into something to sleep in and collapsed onto her bed. She sighed heavily thinking about the events of her evening. Never in a million years did she expect Chris to actually show up and apologize; it just wasn't like him and this showed her how much he's grown over the past two and a half years, not including the cheating. It was an emotional conversation and if she was being honest with herself, she knew a part of her still wanted to forgive the boy she had loved since she was twenty. It's not like she would ever actually go through with that, but as she drifted off to sleep Haley wasn't sure if there would ever be a time in her life where she didn't still love Chris Keller.
"Okay, you can do this Haley," the blonde woman gave herself words of encouragement. She had been sitting in her car in the Dan Scott Motors parking lot for the past fifteen minutes trying to will herself to walk through the doors. She had decided this morning that for now she was going to try her best to avoid Nathan until she figured out what she was going to say to him. Taking a deep breath, Haley exited her car and walked into the showroom.
She peered around quickly and saw that it was practically empty. Gigi was sitting at her desk and waved excitedly over to her. Haley gave a half hearted smile back and looked away before the new girl could call her over. Haley's eyes narrowed in on Nathan's office door. It was partially open and she knew if she were to walk by it he'd see her for sure. Her office was two away from his with Lucas' the only one separating them. Haley opted to take the long way and walk all the way around the showroom to avoid being noticed by either of the men.
When she made it safely to the confines of her office Haley closed the door quietly and smiled victoriously. Maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all. She promptly took a seat at her desk and dove into her work. She had a lot to do this week in order to catch up and remain ahead and Haley had no intention of letting anything going on her life distract her.
A few hours had passed with no interruptions and Haley couldn't help but be grateful to whatever high power there was watching her for making the day go smoothly so far. She had her back to the door as she searched the cabinets for something to eat or drink. When she heard a creaking noise she jumped around and put her hand over her heart in surprise when she saw Nathan standing in the open doorway.
"Nathan!" she said in an overly high pitched voice. "You scared me!"
The raven haired man smirked and shrugged. "Sorry."
"So, what's up?" Haley said uncomfortably.
"I thought we should talk about what happened on Saturday," he said calmly.
Haley winced discretely. She was really hoping that she would be able to get away with avoiding that topic for the day. "You remember that, huh?" she tried to joke.
Nathan looked at her seriously. "Yeah. I realize we were both drunk, but it was still an incredibly stupid thing for me to let happen."
"For you to let happen?" Haley questioned in confusion.
"Even though you're the one that practically dragged me out of the ballroom," Nathan began with a smirk. "It was pretty obvious that you were in an emotional state and I shouldn't have taken advantage of you by letting things go as far as they did."
Haley was confused. Was he actually blaming what happened all on himself? She shook her head and scoffed. "Nathan, this wasn't your entire fault. I'm the one that initiated and regardless of what state I was in, I was still a willing participant. Don't blame yourself when we both made a mess of things."
"I guess," he conceded and locked eyes with her.
His intense blue orbs were boring into her chocolate ones and Haley couldn't only stand to stare into them for a few moments before she averted her gaze to the ground. It felt as though he was peering right into her soul and could read her deepest secrets and desires. It sent chills down her spine and caused goose bumps to form on her arms. "So what do we do now?"
"Well, obviously nothing can happen ever again. It was a dumb thing to do especially with the medieval rules about dating we have in place here. I think we should just carry on like we normally would if this never happened," Nathan suggested and Haley breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"That's exactly what I wanted, too."
Nathan flashed her a kind smile and turned to leave her office. "Hey Hales?" he turned back around.
"Yeah?"
"If you don't mind me asking. What was it that was hurting you when you told me to make it stop?" he asked in a concerned voice.
Haley's form went rigid and she began fiddling with her hands uncomfortable. Nathan noticed her change in demeanour and quickly spoke again. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was just wondering if you were okay."
"No, its fine," she smiled reassuringly. "It was, uh because I walked in on my boyfriend cheating on me on Friday night."
"Oh wow. I'm so sorry, Haley," he said and wasted no time in wrapping her in a warm embrace. "If you need me to kick his ass, just say the word."
Haley chuckled softly. "Thanks Nathan, I'll be sure to keep that in mind. I'm dealing with it all though. I actually talked to Chris yesterday and I think I got a bit of closure out of that. I'm still hurting but I'm trying to move on and forget about him."
"Good. He didn't deserve you if he was dumb enough to screw things up. I'm here if you ever need to talk about it."
Haley nodded gratefully. "That means a lot, Nathan."
"Don't mention it," he said and squeezed her in tighter.
"What do we have here?" Andy's voice sounded into the quiet room after a few moments of silence between the embracing duo.
Nathan and Haley immediately pulled away from each other and put a few feet between them. "Nothing. Haley and I were just talking about something," Nathan explained.
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
"It's a personal matter," Nathan gritted his teeth and took a defensive stance. It was really no secret how much he couldn't stand his boss. In fact, Andy liked to get under Nathan's skin just for his amusement quite often.
"Well from now on I'd appreciate if the both of you left your personal mattersat the door. This is a business, not a place to be talking about your problems. Got it?"
Haley nodded apologetically. "Sorry, it won't happen again."
Nathan glared at the smaller man but nodded slowly as well. "Yeah, it won't happen again, sir."
Andy smirked triumphantly at his employees and walked off. "I really hate that guy," Nathan said angrily.
Haley felt uneasy. If Andy was ticked off about her and Nathan simply hugging, what would happen if he found out about them having sex? All of a sudden she wasn't concerned about what would happen with her friendship with Nathan. The only thing she could think about was the can of worms she opened when she decided to sleep with one of her co-workers. Things at Dan Scott Motors were sure to take a turn for the dramatic.
