Chapter 11
Hey everybody, well it's a pretty shitty day where i am, all rain and clouds. So i figured i'd at least make someone happy by posting another chapter. Enjoy
We arrive in Charlotte a few hours later, my song still unfinished – but so close. Peyton pulls into a small quaint house on the corner of some random street. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention. We get out of the car and follow Peyton up the drive way.
"Rachel's car" she nods towards the same black Denali she had in high school. It really is a nice car. We head up to the house, all 4 of us and Peyton knocks on the door. Within seconds we see a couple, not that much older than us answer the door.
"hi Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs" Peyton says nicely. "I don't know if you remember me but I'm-"
"-Peyton" the woman says with a small smile. "of course we remember you. We didn't know everyone was coming into town to see Alex" she says as she looks passed Peyton to see Brooke.
"yeah, uh, we were just wondering if we could talk to Rachel?"
"sure, of course, come on in" the husband says. They stand out of the way as all four of us enter their house. Peyton and Brooke follow Mrs. Jacob's guidance up the stairs as Lucas and I remain on the main floor with Mr. Jacobs. God, I hope Brooke, Rachel and Peyton don't all start yelling at each other. I grab his hand and he holds mine in his as he knows just as well as I do, this moment could determine a lot.
"can I get either of you two a drink or a snack?" he asks awkwardly.
"no thank you" we both reply softly. We all take a seat in the living room and it's like everything got that much more awkward.
"… so you two are friends of Rachel's?" he asks, in hopes of creating a flowing conversation.
"sort of…" Lucas replies.
"are you friends with Peyton and Brooke then?" how do we answer that.
"sort of" I reply this time. Technically we're all more than friends.
"do you at least know them? Or are you just a couple of hitchhikers making your way down to Vegas to get married" wait, he thinks we're a couple? Lucas and I quickly detach hands and spread apart a little.
"oh, no we're not a couple" Lucas says pointing to us. "no, I'm Peyton's boyfriend" he clarifies.
"and I'm Brooke's… I'm with Brooke" I finally say. Note to self, have conversation about Brooke about where we stand in our relationship.
"oh" he nods, though he probably doesn't understand. After a few more awkward minutes we finally see Mrs. Jacobs come down the stairs with a little boy, probably Alex, holding her hand. Aw he looks so cute. He's just a little guy with brown-red-ish hair. He looks a lot like Rachel.
"um, Rachel and her friends started discussing some… things, that weren't exactly appropriate for Alex's ears" she says awkwardly. It just seems this whole day is full of awkwardness.
I look over at Lucas and he looks over at me. "we'll go talk to them" we say together and get up from the couch. We walk out of the small room and up the stairs. It's kind of hard to get lost in a house this small. Actually, I think my apartment is bigger than this whole place. Luke and I walk up the stairs and follow the increasingly loud bickering. We walk to the end of the hall and find ourselves in a child's room with three very angry girls.
"how many times do we have to tell you? We're sorry!" Rachel yells at Brooke.
"well, sorry's just not good enough!" she yells back.
"hey!" I yell catching everyone's attention. "you guys have to stop yelling, this isn't even your home" I tell them and they all turn back to each other.
"what ever. Come on Haley, we're leaving" Brooke says stealing Rachel's keys from her back pocket and running down the stairs pulling me behind.
"hey, give me my keys back!" we hear Rachel yell and she runs behind us.
"come on Hales, haul ass!" Brooke tells me as we run out the door and straight to Rachel's Denali. I doubt this is legal.
"Brooke, stop! Maybe we should stay and talk this out" I say just as Rachel, Peyton and Lucas all come bursting out of the house too.
"either get in, or get left behind" she says angrily through clenched teeth. And I don't know why I did it, but I got into that car with her. I know what Brooke is doing is wrong on so many levels, but I can't just turn my back on her like that. The last thing I need is for her to be angry at me again.
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We've been driving for a couple of hours now, we should be home soon, I'm sure Peyton, Rachel and Lucas are all in a car somewhere a few miles behind us. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea. I mean, this all means that they can get together in a room and talk it out. Or yell it out, which ever one works best. But it's right about now I realize something. I forgot my bag at the Jacobs' house. My bag along with all my important stuff in it, and my song book.
"Brooke, give me your phone" I say quickly.
"why?"
"just do it" oh, have I mentioned we haven't said two words to each other since we got in the car? Well we haven't. She reaches behind her seat and hands me her purse. I search through it and find what I'm looking for. Immediately I turn it on and start looking for Luke's number. As soon as I see his name I hit dial.
"Brooke?" he answers the phone. Caller i.d.
"it's Haley, did you happen to pick up my-"
"-bag? Yeah we did" I can finally let out a sigh of relief knowing my bag is safe. "oh and we're fine too, thanks for asking" he says sarcastically.
"sorry, what happened after we left?"
"nothing really, we just packed up and left soon after you. Rachel's with us"
"okay, well we'll meet back at your place, kay?"
"yeah, okay. How's Brooke?" he asks. I look over at the driver of the car and sees she's focused on the road intently, that's how she's been for the passed 2 hours.
"hopefully, remoresful"
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We pull into the Luke and Peyton's driveway, minus Luke and Peyton. Brooke finally puts the car in park and takes the keys out of the ignition, but neither of us gets out of the car.
"what are you doing Brooke?" I ask softly.
"nothing"
"no, I mean, what are you doing? You go as far as stealing Rachel's car to avoid her, only to come back to Peyton's place where you know she's going to come back too?"
"guess I didn't really think it through too well"
"what's it going to take for you to solve everything? Do you need the help of Taylor? Because I could totally make a call"
"things don't need fixing, they've been fixed"
"I don't think I would call cutting off your friends, fixing things…"
"I would…"
"Brooke, can you honestly say that since you've ended the elites you feel better?"
"yes…" she states softly. "because I got something that I've always wanted."
"what?" no friends?
"you" she says craning her head to look at me with a smile, probably expecting a smile back. But I don't give her that satisfaction. I keep a straight face. Actually, if anything it's more of a disappointed look. As soon as she sees my expression she turns forward again.
"please Brooke… change something. I can't stand to see you or Rachel, or Peyton like this"
"it's not that easy, Hales" she says in all seriousness. "how do you forgive someone that put you through so much pain? How do you learn to trust again? How do you just erase everything that's happened and get on with your life?" she asks hypothetically.
"I don't know, but I do know it's possible"
"how?" she asks, like she knows there is no answer good enough.
"…because you were able to do it for me"
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Brooke and I have been sitting on Peyton's couch for almost 20 minutes now and finally in walk three familiar faces. Lucas, Rachel and Peyton. Brooke and I both stand up in anticipation of their arrival and it's like everything goes silent. Lucas and I look at each other and give the signal to get lost. I look at Brooke who also catches it and I can tell by the look in her eyes she's scared. But she's strong, and I know she'll be just fine. I give her hand a little squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. I walk out of the room with Lucas, leaving Peyton, Rachel and Brooke all alone.
Hopefully they won't kill each other.
Before they talking can even start Lucas and I head outside for a walk. Going no where in particular. But thankfully he remembered to bring my bag back and hands it to me,
"do you think it was safe to leave them alone like that?" I ask Luke.
"probably not, but there's nothing all that valuable in the living room anyways" he says with a smirk.
"so when's Nate coming home?"
"shouldn't be too long now" he says looking down at his watch. "in the mean time I was thinking that maybe we could… get some coffee?" he says hinting towards something. And I think I know what it is. Can you say surprise visit number 2?
We walk down a few familiar streets and straight to Karen's Café. It feels good to be home. The ring of the bell above the door goes up and there's Karen serving a customer by topping of their coffee cup.
"now, what's a girl got to do to get a decent cup of coffee around here?" I ask out loud and I see Karen's head turn in my direction, and immediately drop the pot of coffee. Oops. Karen looks down at the mess she made, but then looking back up at me to see if her eyes are playing a trick on her.
"Haley!" she says lovingly as she forgets the mess for a second and comes over to give me a hug. I wrap my arms around her as she wraps hers around mine. Man, have I missed her. I see Luke walk passed us and head for the mess.
"Oh Karen, I've missed you so much" I say.
"me too. How have you been? I heard you might be signing with a new label?" oh yes, everyone follows the tabloids, don't they.
"yeah, just some boring business stuff going on. But now that my tour's done I thought I'd come home for a few days"
"good. This town could use some brightening up" she says with her bright smile. "now come on, I want to hear everything about how you've been. I haven't seen you since last Christmas" she says leading me to the counter where Lucas is just finishing cleaning up the glass. We take a seat at the counter and let Lucas take over for a while.
"so what are you doing home?"
"like I said, my tour's over and I just wanted to come home"
"okay… so what are you really doing home?" she knows me so well.
"… it's kind of a long story"
"Well I've got time"
"… I'm back with Brooke" I start and I immediately see her face light up.
"no!" she says disbelievingly.
"yeah" I nod. "but Brooke and her friends had a small falling out and we just came back to try and solve things"
"Brooke, Rachel and Peyton are having problems?"
"kind of…"
"but they're the elites. They've always been friends" she says teasingly. She never took the elites as serious as everyone else. But she did take their friendship serious. Everyone knew they were had the strongest relationship.
"yeah, well they're just having a few problems right now… but I think they're working it out. If not I've got a plan"
"well if anyone can settle things with the elites, it's you" yeah, let's just hope I won't have to. Now, enough of this depressing conversation.
"so did you hear Nathan's coming into town?" I ask excitedly.
"I did, in fact. And we're all coming over to my place for dinner. Why don't you and everybody join us? We'll make a whole night of it"
"well I know Brooke and I would love to, but I think we need to settle things first"
"alright, well when you figure things out give me a call"
"alright, sounds good. Thanks Karen. You're always looking out for us"
"some one has to" she says pushing my hair behind my ears like I'm a little kid. Karen was and will always be like a mother to us.
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After spending another couple hours with Karen, Lucas and I finally decided it was time to leave. Apparently Nathan would be home any time now. So we said our good byes and decided to walk back home. Best part about Tree Hill: you can walk anywhere.
"so, you ready to do this best friend?" I ask as we approach his house.
"I'm ready if you are" he says and he opens the front door. Immediately we hear yelling and I know this is already a bad start. Luke and I follow the loud voice into the den where we see all three girls standing up and yelling at each other incoherently. Seriously, I can't understand a word coming out of their mouths.
"hey, hey, hey!" Lucas says, but the girls continue with their incessant bickering.
"stop!" I yell loudly and quickly the girl's voices cease. I smirk at Luke, then turn back to the former elites. "have you guys gotten anything done in the last 2 hours?"
"no!" they all say at the same time.
"Peyton and Rachel are still bitches" Brooke says.
"we were protecting you!" Peyton and Rachel say at the same time. They must have said that a lot of times to say it in sync now.
"well-" Brooke starts, but I cut her off.
"-Brooke? Can I talk to you?" I ask and nod towards the door. She takes a second to glare at Rachel and Peyton and finally follows me out. We closet the door a little bit, but still enough so that Peyton and Rachel could see us if they really wanted to. "what happened? I thought you were going to try and work it out?"
"I did… but then they started talking, and I started getting angry, then they started getting angry, and before we knew it 2 hours had passed by." She explains to me.
"all I asked was for you to work things out and you can't even do that?"
"I tried Haley, I really did. But it's different than with you think. You had 5 years to take in everything. This all just happened like last week!"
"Brooke, you spent 5 years trying to get over me. Do you really want to spend another 5 trying to get over them?"
"…no"
"good, then will you go back in there and fix things?"
"but they don't want to fix things!"
"Brooke, I bet they want to fix things more than you do!" I argue with her.
"well they act like they don't care!" she says, starting to raise her voice a little bit. Alright, I guess this is where plan B comes in. I really didn't want to have to resort to this, but it looks like I'm going to have to.
"you really think they don't care about you?!"
"yes!" I glance over through the crack of the door and see Peyton and Rachel stealing looks our way. Maybe there is a way I can fix things.
"then I'm sorry"
"sorry for what?" she asks. Here we go.
"for this" I say and raise my open hand and slap her across the face. I hear a couple of gasps come from inside the room and Brooke quickly grabs her face in pain and shock. Immediately the door swings open and an angry Peyton and Rachel come running through it. Peyton immediately tackles me to the floor with Rachel right behind her. I never really expected to get thrown to the floor. A slap – maybe, tackle – no way.
"You bitch! We told you not to hurt her!" Peyton screams at me.
"Peyton, get off her!" Lucas says as he tries to pull his girlfriend off of me. Wow, Peyton is a lot stronger than I remember. All of a sudden I see Rachel jump onto Luke's back and tries to pull him away from Peyton, to help her continue fighting me. I get a hard slap across the face as Peyton continues to wrestle me to a pulp.
I look up at Brooke who's still clutching her cheek with my hand print in it. All of a sudden the front door to the house swings open and in walks Nathan in his professional looking track suit.
"big baller the hizz-ouse!" he yells like an idiot. He quickly freezes as he realizes the situation.
"Nathan, a little help?" Lucas asks as he's being choked by Rachel and I'm being attacked by Peyton. Nathan doesn't even answer. He just looks at us with a huge smile on his face like it's Christmas morning and pulls out his cell phone to take pictures. God, what a pig.
After finally getting enough photographs he tears Rachel off of Lucas, who then falls to the floor in exhaustion and then peels Peyton off of me and sets her beside Rachel. I lay down beside Luke, also in exhaustion and take in the moment. I've come to the conclusion that Peyton was a heavyweight boxing champion in a previous life, either that or she was a hobo who fought for money.
"so what did I miss?" Nathan asks casually as if nothing happened in the first place.
"we told you! We told you not to hurt her! That was the only thing you had to do!" Peyton yells accusingly at me.
"even if we aren't around all we asked was for you to take care of her. It's really not that hard! And what do you do?! You slap her, and in front of us too! Are you really that dumb?" Rachel yells at me too. I push myself up off the floor into a standing position and look at Brooke, who's just standing against the wall, taking everything in.
"do you get it now?" I ask her. "they never stop caring for you…"
I see Brooke's eyes flicker passed me to the eyes of her friends. She does her best to hold back the small tears in her eyes and gives a really small nod.
"…uh, can we get a minute?" Brooke asks, trying to control her emotions. I nod and Nathan and I walk out of the room. But then we realize Lucas is still there. We go back into the room, and each offer a hand to help him up and finally walk out of the room.
I think things are going to be better from here on out.
So another chapter down, now you know why the fight was started and everything. So yeah, now that one of the main plot points of my story is done, it means a new one is starting over the course of the next several chapters. Do I hear wedding bells in the future?