Haley's POV-
We walked into the recording studio that had been built off of Peyton's office. I sat down looking over a few tracks that our newest artist had just recorded. Almost ten years ago I had become Peyton's partner in label; I loved it so much that many times I thought about leaving teaching to do it full time. I looked up, my daydream being interrupted as I heard the keys, from together to make a beautiful melody, Celeste sat at the piano, her eyes closed as her fingers ran all over the piano, I felt my breath get caught in my throat as I watched her play the cords from memory. Just as I was about to go into the room and find out where this talent came from Peyton walked into the room.
"So did ya find us new act?" She asked as she came into the room breathless.
"No, that is Celeste." I said watching the dots connect I her head.
"Whoa! No way! She looks exactly like him!" Peyton said as she stared on in amazement.
"Yeah you're telling me." I said as we both stood and watched her as she started to sing along with the song, her voice filling the room, it was soft yet powerful and strong yet full of insecurities.
"She can sing?!" Peyton said as she went through the door, causing Celeste to almost jump off the bench.
"Uh sorry, this place is very cool." Celeste said standing up.
"Don't apologize, I'm Peyton, I own this record label." Peyton said as they shook hands.
"And she's a close friend of mine." I said stepping up.
"Yeah, so you're great. How long have you been playing?" Peyton asked.
"Uh my whole life, but only in my room when no one was around which for me was all the time." Celeste said as Peyton looked at her shocked.
"No, a voice like that should be shared with the world!" Peyton said as Celeste blushed a little. "Well go back to playing, I just came to get a few papers and then I'm gone." Peyton said as we walked back into the little room as I followed.
"She is great, ok well I should leave Brooke would have a cow if she found out I met her first." Peyton said as I laughed and hugged her before she left. As she walked out of the room, leaving me and Celeste alone again. She moved back to the piano, her fingers magnetically ran up and down the keys, I sat down listening to the music fill the room, watching as she poured her heart and soul into the simple keys and chords of the song.
"So are there any lyrics to this song?" I asked as Celeste as she looked up at me, with certain sadness in her eyes.
"Uh yeah there not really perfected yet just some stuff I wrote down the night my mom died." She said as she started to play the song over again.
Get so caught up everyday
Trying to keep it all together
While the time just slips away
I know nothing last forever
Imagine there was no tomorrow
Imagine I couldn't see your face
There be no limit to my sorrow
So all I can say
I wanna tell you something, give you something, show with so many ways,
Cause it would all mean nothing if I don't say something before it all blows away
She sang gracefully it was obvious that the words weren't memorized but they were coming from her heart.
"What if you tried a D on that second to last line, that way when you're voice will go up with the so many ways and it'll give it a little more contrast." I said as she soaked in the suggestion.
"Yea that makes some sense." She said as she tried out that line of the song in that key, when she played I saw a part of her come out.
"That sounds great." I said as Celeste jumped in her seat at Nathan's voice that came into the room, as it filled me with butterflies and utter glee.
"Hey." I said as we stood awkwardly, we weren't fighting but we weren't the couple we used to be either.
"Hey, Peyton saw us at the rivercourt and said I should come down and listen to this, plus the boys are getting hungry." Nathan said as he fiddled with his car keys.
"Ok, well I guess we should head home, Brooke and Lucas are coming over for dinner, and we can get pizza or something." I said as my mind slowly came back to reality, spending this time with Celeste had taken me to a far off world, I'm sure she felt it too. We all walked out of the studio, and back to our cars, just as I shut the door on my car, starting the ignition Celeste smiled brightly at me.
"This was fun Haley, thanks a lot for doing this with me." I smiled back it was rare that one of the boys would thank me so gratefully, after an afternoon with me.
"No problem, I had a blast too." I said as we followed Nathan's SUV, all the way to our house.
"So who are Brooke and Lucas?" She asked.
"Oh, Lucas is Nathan's brother and Brooke is his wife, I'm sure you'll love them both." I said as we pulled up into the house.
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"Come on tutor mom, Peyton already got to meet her! I'm dying here!" Brooke said as she anxiously sat on the couch. "She said that she is the walking clone of Nathan! Oh having a teenage girl around! I should have brought some clothes over!" Brooke sat ranting as I just watched in amusement.
"Okay first off we have a teenage girl around does Lily, ring a bell? And second her mom was a famous model she had more clothes than I have ever had in my entire life."
"Really what was her name?"
"Um Grace Reeve I think."
"Shut up! No way!" Brooke said in a way only Brooke Davis could.
"Yeah why do you know her?" I asked now intrigued to what Brooke knew about her.
"Oh yeah she was a good friend, that's why I went up to the city, for her funeral, she was such a beautiful woman, so gorgeous, but she was wild." Brooke said lowering her voice a little. "She partied so much; I remember hearing about her husband taking Celeste to California because she drank so much." Brooke said letting me in on this little secret on Celeste's life. Just as I was going to ask more questions, Celeste came walking into the room.
"Hey- Brooke!" Celeste said as she walked into the room suddenly her cheeks turned a deep red.
"Hey Celeste, small world huh?" Brooke said as the two hugged. It was like there was a secret code between the two of the them because with in seconds they had said so much between them.
"Um, Haley I'm gonna go and find the boys." Celeste said as she walked through the living room leaving Brooke and I alone once again.
"So you know her?" I asked not knowing what to feel. Brooke could read my face and sat back down getting ready to explain. "Did you know about Nathan being her dad?"
"No Haley, I always thought she resembled someone I knew but I wouldn't have teamed the two of them up." Brooke said as she sighed in defeat. "Grace was a train wreck waiting to happen, she was a great model, but like I said she was wild, she wasn't a good mom at all."
"What do you mean?" I asked getting the feeling like Celeste was just getting used to this whole parent thing.
"Celeste had been taken away from her for years, it was an on going thing when she was younger she would go and stay with extended family and then come back for a few months then Grace would get really bad again and off she would go. Since she didn't put a father on her birth certificate, the state couldn't send her to Nathan."
"Well how did they find out about Nathan now?" I asked this whole thing was starting to unveil.
"It was in her will, and her stepdad and Grace were in the middle of a divorce so she couldn't go with him." Brooke said as she quieted her voice again. It made my heartstrings hurt, here was a girl that was so perfect in many ways it had taken me a matter of days to fall in love with her and she had been through hell her entire life.
"Well I'm glad she came here." I said as I saw Celeste standing at the foot of the door smiling as she listened in on our conversation.
A/n- The song lyrics are from Alicia Keys, song:Tell you something, it's an amazing song and you should listen to it!
