Black Hole
Breathe.
Focus.
It was all Nathan could do to control himself. In all the time he had known Nikki, put up with her games and drama and scheming, he had never known her to sink so low. The thought had never even entered his mind. The entire drive to Charleston had been spent mulling over the events of the past week and with each memory he was more and more angry. He though that if he were at a better place in his life; a more mature age, the whole fiasco wouldn't be that big of a deal. Caleb was after all; his only family remaining and now he was slipping though is fingers. However, it wasn't fair to him and it sure as hell wasn't fair to Caleb. Nikki had put them all in an impossible situation.
Clutching the necessary papers in his hand, he marched up to the sprawling beach front mansion swarming with chaos. People were running around everywhere holding flowers and shouting orders. He stopped in the middle of the driveway glancing around in all directions trying to get a feel for the place. He could just imagine the giant weave of lies Nikki spun in order to get to this point in her life. There was no evidence of any one in her previous life being present and he hoped that worked out to his advantage. Taking his hands out of his borrowed pants suit, he ventured towards the back of the house where he was sure he could slip in undetected and find the not so blushing bride to be.
It wasn't hard to find her, even with the many numerous rooms lined up and down the long hallway. An enormous 'Bridal Suite' sign adorned the double doors at the end of the hall and he barged in without knocking, without caring, and prayed that she was alone. He quickly shut the door and locked it behind him as he watched her remain unfazed, clasping on her wedding veil. She was standing in front of a tri-fold mirror, smoothing out her simple white flowing dress and slipping on a pair of earrings. She knew he was there and she knew why he was there but she refused to let it faze her. Her future was literally minutes away, and her past was not going stand in her way.
"So what did you have to do for Shelly in order for her to spill the beans?" Nikki questions with a quirk of her eyebrow, staring at Nathan's reflection in the mirror. "Did you do that thing with your tongue? I know that just drives the girls wild."
"You almost look like a real person in that dress." Nathan ignored her antagonizing, choosing to go for his own. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets, leaning his body against a dresser closest to the door. "A person who cares. Funny how looks can be deceiving."
"So you like my dress?" she smiled coyly, turning around to face him picking up the edges of the short dress. She ran her hands over her bare shoulder and down the sides of the dress for dramatic effect. "It was completely custom made to fit every curve of my body."
"Like I give a shit Nikki!" Nathan exploded motioning with his hands. "What the hell are you doing? Are you forgetting about something…someone?"
"Where is he?" she deadpanned, her playful smirk quickly disappearing. Her eyes widened in shock and the color drained from her face as realization dawned on her. "You didn't bring him here did you?"
"Why? Afraid your insta-rich existence is in jeopardy?" Nathan challenge, smirking in Nikki direction. "In fact, I think the two are bonding right now."
"That's impossible." Nikki dismissed rushing to the balcony off the bedroom. Nathan watched with a somewhat amused, but mostly dark expression as he watched her panic at the thought of her fiancé knowing about her infant. He audible heard her sigh in relief as she saw her future husband with no tangible evidence of her past.
"Scared Nikki?" Nathan taunted, pushing himself off the dresser and walking towards the middle of the room. "It's kinda like how I felt when his fever spiked at 104 the other night. Or when I realized that you were never coming back. When I stood in your empty bedroom. When I realized that I, at seventeen Nikki might have to take care of an infant!"
"Like it was so much better for me!" She hissed, rushing back into the confines of the walled room. "I'm only 22 years old Nathan! I was alone, I've been alone all this time. I couldn't do it anymore!"
"And so I was obviously the best choice for your replacement! God Nikki!"
"You're his only family!"
"Only family?" Nathan scoffed giving her an incredulous look. "What about you're sister huh? Or are you just too busy wanting to spite her that you don't give a damn?"
"Jules is not my sister." Nikki growled, her fists clenching at her sides. "She my father's bastard child. Nothing more to me, or to Caleb."
"Oh so you remember his name!" Nathan mocked, shaking his head in disgust.
"Don't judge me, don't you dare."
"What, Andy, doesn't want any children around taking up his child bride's time?" Nathan spat taking a seat back away from Nikki. "Or he can't stand the fact that you're so damaged? Are you just afraid that he'll know that deep down you're nothing more than a whore?"
"Fuck you!" Nikki whispered fiercely. "You don't know anything about it! You don't know anything about him!"
"You're sick, you know that?" he asked lowly, more to himself than to her. "Andy's that great that you'll give up you're child, his child, for another man? Caleb's the only part of him that you have."
"He's gone." Nikki responded, getting her emotions together. "Open your goddamn eyes Nathan! Cooper is gone! He's dead!"
Nathan's jaw clenched shut, pain searing though him at her words. Of course he knew his brother was dead. He was only a few years younger than Cooper but felt as close to him as if they were twins. His death had literally torn their family apart. It left him with no one, it left him broken, and it haunted him everyday. He tore his gaze from the floor back up to Nikki who was heaving from her tantrum. Before he could even think to do otherwise she was kissing him feverishly, her hands exploring his entire body.
"God." Nikki moaned into his neck as she pushed him up against the dresser tugging at his shirt buttons. Nathan knew it was wrong, knew he shouldn't be caving in her to ministrations but he didn't want to. Regardless of how angry he was at her, he knew he could get lost in her touch and forget all the bad going on. "Nathan."
Turning her around, he picked her up and shoved her forcefully top of the dresser. Within minutes, his shirt was unbutton, her hands discovering the muscles underneath. They then went to the buckle of his pants which were undone masterfully in a matter of seconds and shoved down to his ankles by the toes of her feet. She grinned as she helped him shimmy out of his underwear and guided his hands to underneath her dress. He hesitated, but only for a moment. Swiftly he ripped the panties right off her body shoving his length deep inside of her.
Not once did he think about her as a person. She was an object, a simple occupation of his time. Something to do in order to keep his mind off things. Never once, not in the entire time that he was pounding inside of her, not when she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist did he care that she was in her wedding dress. That the veil on her head was thrashing around his head. That he could feel her huge engagement ring and her perfectly manicure fingers digging into his back. He felt numb and that's the way he wanted to keep it. Thinking about it lead to feelings and in the long run of things, feelings clouded the judgment.
She didn't seem to mind; she knew how he worked. It wasn't like she was in the marriage for love or lust; it was all about the security. So getting him out of her system one last time didn't seem harmful to her. In fact, everything seemed relatively harmless and she was sure that it was one of her many faults. Once he was done, after she had screamed out his brother's name, he tore himself from her grasp, quickly pulling up his undergarments and pants, zipping them up. They both knew they used one another; her for pretend that her love was still alive and him just so he could feel insensitive from everything around him.
"You look more like him every day." She panted, slipping off the dresser and straightening her dress. She gulped, fixing the veil on top of her head. "So does Caleb. Every day."
He fished the folded up papers out of his back pocket and handed them over to her. "Sign these."
"What are they?" she asked taking them from his hands and looking them over. "Adoption papers? You can't be serious."
"Sign them or I go downstairs right now and tell your fiancé everything." Nathan vowed, daring Nikki to contest him. "I don't care if I never see you again; truthfully it'll be too soon if I never do. You will sign those papers and we will forget about each other entirely."
"You took him to my sister's." She gritted out, her eyes scanning over the words on the paper. "I bet she just loved that."
"She loved that she finally got to meet the infant promised to her." Nathan spoke as he buttoned up his shirt. "And I promised that I would make sure that he would stay with her; with someone who deserves him and who will love him and take care of him."
"And your word is supposed to be gold now?"
"No, not always." He conceded, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "We do so much wrong; both of us. I can admit that. I'm far from perfect and while I don't agree what you're doing to Caleb, you can fix it. I did my part now can you just do right by your kid? You may not deserve the marriage you're about to get and I may not deserve a lot of the good that comes in my life but Caleb; Nikki, he does."
She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment feeling as if he was growing up before her very eyes. Letting out a deep breathe she set the papers on the dresser, signing each paper quickly before she changed her mind. Giving them one final glance over she folded them back up and handed them over to Nathan. She watched as he looked over each page carefully before he too folded them up, sticking them back in his pocket.
"We have some serious issues; you and I." she said after a few minutes of silence.
"Yeah. You did the right thing." He patted his back pocket. "Everything else we're trying to fix those aren't we?"
She chuckled bitterly. "Somehow I don't think was we just did was fixing that."
"Well, it's over and done with now." He said simply, no guilt running through his veins. He waltzed past her opening up the double doors once more only to be greeted with the sight of what he assumed to be Nikki's fiancé. He smirked giving her one final glance over his shoulder. "And so are we Nikki. So are we."
X-x-X
It was more than apparent.
God simply hated her.
She had to fight the urge to slap her forehead and pull out chunks of her own hair. Most days she loved her mother, truly she did, but on days like today she would like nothing short whacking her over the head with a very large and very heavy cast iron pan. Her mother was a lunatic, she deduced, only after watching the older lady rant and rave and pull out her own hair for the past two hours. Wincing, she quickly got up and caught the few glasses her mother had knocked over with her big hips.
Unfortunately, they were hereditary.
"Mo-om" Haley whined, stomping her foot very much in resemblance to a petulant five year old. "Will you pop a pill already?"
"Gee Haley, I don't know. Will you get your ass in gear and fix something!" Lydia James retorted, rolling her eyes at her daughter.
"Well what would you like me to fix?"
"I dunno Sweetie." Lydia wiped the brow of her forehead with the back of her hand before placing both wrists on her wide hips. "This kitchen is an inferno."
"Which is why we should've done this at the café." Haley pointed out, clearly unamused by her current situation.
"Potato salad missy." Lydia commanded, turning her attention back to the food in front of her. "And for the love of the Beatles, cheer up!"
Haley cursed under her breath as she scoped out the mayonnaise and dumped it in the bowl of cooked potatoes in front of her. Every year her mother and Karen switched off hosting their annual Christmas party. Only in all the years her mother had done so, she had chosen to do it in their home as opposed to the café kitchen for whatever and totally reasonable (according to her mother and her mother alone) explanation. And every year it ended up being chaos and a nightmare that Lydia James vowed to never repeat.
Maybe in the next life.
"I came to save you." She heard Lucas whisper in her ear, kissing her temple gently. She smiled up at him gratefully before her mother completely engulfed in a hug.
"Well, well. Lucas Roe. I haven't seen you around this house in ages!" Lydia exclaimed, pulling back from Lucas and examining him from toes to the top of his head. "You're too skinny! Isn't your mother feeding you?"
"She is." Lucas chucked as Haley slipped a pink apron over his head and onto his shoulders. "I've just been busy with school and basketball, that's all."
"Well we sure have missed you!"
Lucas smirked triumphantly at Haley. "Have you missed me Hales?" he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as she laughed and turned around. He came up behind her, tickling her sides, causing her hand to slip into the potato salad. Lucas stepped back with his hands up in surrender. "Oops. I'm…"
"Oops." Haley shrugged innocently as she slopped the excess potato salad on Lucas's face.
"…sorry." Lucas mumbled, wiping off the salad and slinging it into the trash can. "That; that you will have to pay for."
"Don't you two even think about starting a food fight in my kitchen." Lydia warned pointer his mixing spoon at the two teenagers. Both nodded and as soon as Lydia turned around Lucas slapped a handful of mayonnaise on Haley's behind. Her eyes widened in shock and she reached up latching onto his nipple and twisting it hard. Lydia turned around and rolled her eyes at Lucas's whining. "Enough with the death grip Haley!"
"He started it." Haley grumbled letting go and shoving his chest lightly. Lucas came up to her a second later rubbing his sore chest and bumping her hip with his. "Did the pwor whittle wucas get an owie?"
"Shut up." He gave her a pout and she laughed, rubbing it quickly. "That's what I thought. Now, are you excited."
"About…"
"Tric."
"Oh, I'm about as excited as you are that Rachel is taking Chris." Haley grinned much to Lucas's dismay. She lowered her voice, leaning in close to him so that her mother would not hear her. "It's just another responsibility added onto my plate. So no, not really."
"It's more responsibility for me too." Lucas assured her handing her over the necessary things she needed. "I mean Mom and Dad aren't going to let me skip out on everything. I mean, I talked my way out of the café, and managed to weasel my way out helping out at the body shop every day. But just because I happen to be Lucas Roe, Tree Hill basketball God doesn't mean their going to let me off the hook so easily with this."
Even though he was her best friend, Lucas could be a bit conceited at times. Their moms had been best friends since they were eight, never letting the years break their bond. Subsequently, they married within weeks of one another and eventually gave birth to Lucas and Haley within hours of each other. So when they told people they had been best friends since the womb, there was no denying it. It felt good to be in his presence though; being around him always made Haley feel as if she were seven years old again without some much weight on her shoulders.
"You're so full of yourself." She scoffed. "I dunno though. Working at a club might be pretty awesome."
"We totally have to sneak some booze out."
"Of course." Haley agreed, giggling.
"Oh Lucas, I almost forgot." Lydia came up and squeezed in between he two friends. "I need you to mosey on down to the basement and pull up the other bunk for Haley's bed."
"What? Why?" Haley questioned before Lucas could even respond to the request. "Who's coming?"
"Well, I was talking to Anna on the phone the other day…"
"Mom no." Haley whimpered, already knowing what was happening before her mother had a chance to finish. "Mom paw-leeze!"
"Who's coming?" Lucas asked, clearly confused and out of the loop.
"My cousin." Haley gritted out, glaring at her mother. "When is she coming?"
"Haley, now I know the two of you don't get along…"
"Mom. When?"
"Well…"
"I'm here!"