Disclaimer: I own nothing, but my own characters!
Charity enjoyed spending the week at Lauren's house. She only wished the guilt over kissing Tyler would lessen. It was almost painful to be in the same room as Lauren. Luckily Lauren had been hanging out at Tyler's house quite a bit, so Charity hadn't seem too much of her. Lauren's mom, Peyton, was actually really cool. Peyton had even given her some art lessons.
She was glad that they were leaving for Raleigh today, though. The sooner they got to cheer camp, the happier Charity would be. She had always had so much fun at camp. She was kind of worried about seeing her old squad there, and especially Chloe Stevens. Chloe had come unglued when she'd learned about Charity's stealing Zach's car and totaling it. Luckily, it was close to the end of the school year when it happened. Charity hadn't gone back to school, she'd been in the hospital until after the school year ended. Then they had moved to Tree Hill, so this would really be the first time that Charity would see Chloe since the accident. Just the thought of seeing Chloe made her nervous. She was glad that Lauren would be there with her.
"You aren't packed yet?" Lauren asked incredulously, coming into the room. Charity had been spacing out when she should have been packing.
"Oh, I guess I should get with it, huh?" She asked, setting up on the bed and beginning to fold her clothes.
"So, I just got off the phone and Tyler, Logan and Kyle are going to drive down next weekend. How cool is that?" Lauren asked excitedly as she began stuffing Charity's clothes into her bag. If Charity was totally honest, she was less than thrilled about spending the weekend with Tyler, but she couldn't tell Lauren that.
"Great!" Charity replied with fake enthusiasm. Lauren gave her a look, before continuing with the packing.
"Yeah. So, have you talked to Derek yet?" Lauren asked slowly. Charity groaned softly. Lauren knew that she hadn't. Lauren had been trying to get Charity to talk about Derek all week, and it was really getting old.
"Nope." Charity replied curtly. She didn't want to talk about Derek, she didn't even want to think about him, and she really wished Lauren would quit bringing him up.
"I think Tyler said something about Derek coming to Raleigh." Lauren mumbled, her voice barely above a whisper.
"What!? Why?" Charity screamed, jumping off the bed. A blush was rising in Lauren's cheeks. Charity felt bad for yelling at her, she was only the messenger, after all, but how could Tyler do this to her?
"I don't know, I guess he and Tyler had been planning a summer road trip and I'm sure Tyler meant well, but I guess he invited him to come to Raleigh." Lauren explained, shrugging her shoulders. Charity shook her head in amazement. She failed to see exactly how Tyler meant well, by bringing her cheating dog of an ex-boyfriend to see her at cheer camp.
"Where's the phone?" She asked coldly. She was going to give Tyler a piece of her mind. Lauren tossed her the phone and left the room, so that she could speak to Tyler privately.
Charity was shaking so badly she nearly dropped the phone when she tried to dial Tyler's number. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this angry, except for the night she broke up with Derek.
"Hello?" Tyler answered. She could hear voices in the background.
"Tyler, please tell me why you think bringing Derek to Raleigh is a good idea?" She asked softly. Her voice was so cold it was giving her chills. Tyler got really quiet on the other end of the line.
"Um, well, I, we, we were supposed to take a road trip this summer and I just thought we might as well use the trip to Raleigh as our road trip." Tyler said, fumbling over his words.
"You never thought that I might not want to see him? That maybe I'd rather throw myself in front of a moving bus, than see him?" She asked, her voice raising with each syllable until she was yelling into the phone.
"Charity, come on, you don't mean that. I know that things aren't cool between you guys right now. I just thought that-" Tyler began.
"No, see that's the problem, Tyler. You didn't think!" Charity cut in, rudely.
"I have enough stress right now! I'm trying to get over Derek, deal with seeing Chloe and probably Zach, and keeping our secret from Lauren, I don't need anything else!" Charity yelled. She hung up the phone and whirled around to see Lauren standing in the doorway.
"Who are Chloe and Zach, and what secret?" Lauren asked icily, her eyes flashing in anger.