Thank you for all the reviews. You guys rock. I will be updating my other stories this weekend, for those wondering. Keep the reviews coming. Thanks again!!!
Karen pulled up in front of her Café, unsure of what to do or where to go. She had no one to talk to, Lucas and Keith were both gone. She was all alone.
Raking back errant strands of dark hair from her face, she opened the door of her café. Haley's wan face looked at her from behind the counter. "I heard about Nathan's father, how is he?" words softly spoken in the emptiness of the wide room.
"He's going to pull through. Where is Nathan?" Karen looked around for her Haley's husband. Just thinking those two words was a tongue-twister. Haley was young enough to be where Karen had been seventeen years ago and she was married. Karen envied her the experience she'd never had happen to herself. Young and in love…. in so many ways, Nathan and Haley reminded her of herself and Dan.
"Be careful." Karen said to Haley from across the room.
"I will, Nathan and I love each other." Her ring reaffirmed her vow.
Turning her back to attend to the coffeepot, she missed the fleeting look of pain cross Karen's face.
Lost in memories of past pain, Karen remembered how their love had burned like a candle, its flame forever alight. Nothing ever dampening its fight. Until Dan's calling had turned his loving eye from her and their baby to his future to a greed that had lit up his eyes.
Overnight he'd become a different person. Backed by his father and Whitey, he'd gone from a loving and devoted boyfriend to another person making excuses not be with her and finally at the end of the summer leaving her.
Her mind wandered back to that painful day in question……..
"Karen I can't do this anymore…..I want to go to college and have a future. I'm too young to be saddled down with a baby. Can't you understand that, I need -" was cut off by Karen's hand slapping his face.
Her delicate features contorted in anger. "Your future, what about the future of our baby? Don't you care about us, don't you love us?" the last words dripping with accusation.
"I-" lost for words, Dan looked out at the lake. His stance was that of a young man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, unsure of what to do. Which direction to turn in.
"I need to go to college and at least have a shot at the future that I've looked forward to for all of my life." Dan's face conveyed his anguish at having to leave her.
"Why don't you just admit that you don't want to be with me and our baby. You don't want us. You never did. Go to college and have your stupid future. But mark my words, I will hate you forever and never forgive you for abandoning me and our child. I rue the day I met you Dan Scott." Karen turned and ran away.
Tears streaming down her cheek. Her steps wide and insecure. She fell against the basketball pole, slumped in pain. Her eyes blinded by overwhelming emotion. She screamed, her cry that of a wounded animal.
No one heard her. She was all alone.
Drifting back from the present, Karen wondered at the person she'd been then and the person she was now.
Looking out the window at the street as people passed by, she pondered the question. Why would I want to put myself through that again?
Updates soon, I promise. Let me know what you think on my POV of the Dan/Karen breakup from so long ago.