Words Written You Never Read
Chapter 9:
I miss you… I stare down at the computer screen and let out a frustrated sigh. I hit the backspace button repeatedly until it clears those three vulnerable words from my screen, I just wish it was that easy when it came to deleting thoughts in your brain too. "Why did you have to kiss me Lucas Scott?" She whined out loud, "Why?"
Kissing Lucas always came with complications, nothing for us has ever been easy, she huffs as she sits up and looks at her alarm clock. She's exhausted and all night long she kept tossing and turning and replaying their tumultuous history over and over again. "It never ends well," she feels the need to remind herself. The last time they kissed she had ended up in Tree Hill and by some strange twist of fate she had landed in Nathan's arms. Thinking of Nathan now makes her wince - the problem is she keeps falling for otherwise attached men. Even though Nathan and Haley had started divorce proceedings, they found there way back to each other and Lucas had always belonged with Peyton, "not anymore," she snickers - remembering that Peyton is now a happily married woman.
Lucas and Peyton, she frowns thinking back on the night before she left Tree Hill for New York. Peyton and Lucas had broken up, both of them said it was for the best since they would be living on opposite coasts for college and it was a break up for good, she should have known better. Brooke had finally worked up the courage to tell Lucas the truth about why she was leaving. They spent hours upon hours talking and when she did finally decide now was the time to tell him the secret she had been carrying all summer long he fell asleep. The next morning she awoke feeling refreshed and ready - only to find that she was alone and her bed was cold. She ran into them later that afternoon walking hand in hand, whispering to each other, kissing and giggling like any other loved up couple oblivious to the world around them.
She closes her eyes and remembers, remembers all the times she was his second choice, so it hadn't mattered that she thought Lucas knew her better than anyone, she would never be able to shake that feeling. So it didn't matter that he knew about her crazy silly happy side, or about her good heart that would do anything and everything for the people she truly cared about even to the detriment of herself. Thinking back on all of those moments of rejection throughout high school brings hot tears to her eyes. It was that heart break that made it easy for her to leave that summer and never look back. She closed the book on the girl behind the red door and arose the young headstrong fashion designer making a life for herself in New York. She said good riddance to that pesky triangle she was tangled in and started living for her dream. Like a phoenix she rose from the ashes of her old self and was reborn Brooke Davis, president and CEO of Clothes over Bros.
Then there was Nathan… The stoic Scott. The lifelong friend, the soul mate she had never expected. They had been friends for a lifetime before Lucas and Haley had entered the picture. She had to admit, Haley James had been good for Nathan. She had been able to tame him in a way Brooke had never imagined. Before most people noticed they were a couple, they eloped and the ballad of Naley began. Brooke smiles sadly as she thinks of the new pictures from instagram - and now they are having a baby. She never imagined that when she returned home to Tree Hill to think about her latest encounter with Lucas that she would fall madly in love with Nathan. He told her once that they were two halves of the same coin and in a lot of ways he was right, their friendship had flourished because no one else ever understood them. When her two best girlfriends were unreachable it was only logical to turn to her oldest and truest friend, reconnecting with Nathan had been the easy part. Their friendship flourished like no time passed at all, it was as if the last four years had never happened and they were still young and carefree - if only it could have stayed that way. Brooke shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind and the only thing she could see were his piercing blue eyes staring back at her. Returning to Tree Hill was supposed to have brought her life back into focus, instead it had complicated things further. Brooke picks up her phone and lets out a long sigh, "I need to stop running from Tree Hill, I am my happiest self when I am home, I have to go back and face them all… What else have I got to lose?"
Haley's eyes wander around the town's main street, she was still settling into her new life in just another small town several thousand miles from Tree Hill and the only person she knows is her new landlord. She thought about returning to the tour but decided that having a home to bring the baby to was a better use of her money then equipping a communal tour bus with baby stuff. She heads up the street and receives warm smiles and a few Hello's, the smell of fresh cut grass is almost intoxicating and she immediately spots all of the front yards covered in lush lawns. Along the sidewalk she passes a community garden where the flowers are almost completely in bloom, at the center of a garden is a small fountain with benches all around it. The roses, sunflowers and daisies are all so welcoming and she imagines plenty of serene afternoons basking in the hot summer sun.
She looks out for cars and crosses the street to get to her small bungalow nestled in a string of similarly painted row houses. Her modest 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit shared a fence with a succulent vegetable garden that had at least three dozen planter boxes - two of which belonged to her for as long as she liked. She pulls the keys from her purse and waves to the elderly couple sitting on their porch enjoying the sunset and a pitcher of sweet tea. As fate would have it this place was vacated by the very teacher Haley ended up replacing. She was able to secure a teaching job at the elementary school on only the third day in town. She lets herself inside and frowns at the sparse furnishings and stark walls, "it's just missing stuff," she said aloud, "and that will change shortly." She left Tree Hill in a hurry so unpacking had been minimal, her mind drifted to Nathan. She was surprised that he hadn't called yet, but chalked it up to him taking her note seriously, she knew that eventually there would be questions and additional conversations would need to be had on the matter but for right now, in this very moment she was going to just relax and enjoy her new house. Haley walks to the kitchen to pour herself a large glass ice water when she hears her cell phone begin to ring. She laughs to herself, "Now you've done it Haley Bob, you thought about him for too long," she pauses, "he can hear you." She let the phone continue to ring while she finished up in the kitchen. The ringing subsides and Haley smiles, "it's for the best Nate - I swear." Haley sat down in a mission style club chair she bought the first day she was in town, she let out a soft moan and rubbed her rounded stomach. She closes her eyes when her phone begins to chime a second time, this time she looks at the display and decides she better answer it, "Hi Chris - I was just thinking about you."