I don't own One Tree Hill or any of the Characters or Flashbacks, just my plot.
Anna awoke to the blinding sun slicing through the windshield, making a direct path to her eyes. She smiled at the memories of last night. To think that she'd met someone as great and unique as Jake made her shiver with anticipation, because she knew this was one of the stories she would tell her daughters in years to come. Glancing over at him, she laughed softly at his rumpled appearance. He was almost more attractive than usual, but she saw something different in his face that she hadn't recognized before. There was this field of longing about him, and he looking as if he was about to sigh. She felt tears of happiness well up in her eyes as he reached for her, and smiled in his slumber when his arm looped around her waist. Sometimes life was so fast and scary and confusing, but he gave her a sense of security and peacefulness she felt with no one else. For one moment, she felt as if a longing she'd unknowingly carried all her life had been fulfilled. Unluckily for her, the moment ended.
Lucas and Jake met, running towards each other. Lucas stormed towards the first car he saw, and one of his closest friends jogged after him, hoping the man didn't do anything he would live to regret. As soon as he spotted the car, he noticed Anna crying in the front seat and Jake sleeping soundly. He couldn't believe the son of such a great guy turned out so badly. He approached from the back of the car, and came around to Jake's side, pulling the door open with such a vicious rage the whole car shook. "Get up you jerk! Stay away from my daughter. If I EVER hear of you coming near her again, you will regret it!" "Dad, what's going on?" Anna asked in confusion. "Don't cover for him, honey. I saw you crying. I know what he did to you. He will live to regret it, too. "Dad, we didn't do anything. We just sat in the car all night, watching the stars until we fell asleep." She only felt the slightest prick of guilt over what she knew wasn't the whole truth, but only a tiny part of a lie had she included, and only for the good of everyone concerned.
Jake had woken up by that point and held up his hands, saying "Sir, I'd never do anything to disrespect your daughter. Please don't be mad. I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding. We fell asleep when we got back here, and I didn't wake up until, well, now. Try to understand..." "I'll understand what I feel like understanding, and what I understand is that there's something going on here, and I really don't have any idea what it is. All I know is that one minute my daughter meets you, and the next thing I know she might as well be sleeping with you!" "How dare you accuse me of something like that when you casually slept with mom on and off all through your high school years and then left without even saying goodbye to her?" The young woman was screaming, and the tremors running through her body held all the rage, passion, and hurt that had been locked up inside for so long. "I never got a chance to know my own father, because he happened to be too much of a coward to make things right with the people he hurt. You wanna know something? I wish I HAD slept with Jake, because we are ready and at least then you would have half a reason to be mad at us. You're just too blinded by everything though. I wish I never came here, because you're still running, but this time you're running to me, and I guess that an angry you is worse than no you at all. Mom was right. People do always leave, and when they don't, they end up screwing your life up." Anna stormed off, not bother to look back. She slipped off her high heels and grabbed them, then ran as fast as she could right to Jenny's house. After banging on the door, Brooke opened up, and Anna slipped past her into Jenny's room. "Oh my gosh! I didn't think that THAT date would end up like this," Jenny said, shaking her head. "It wasn't Jake. It was my dad. I really loved last night, and thank you for helping to making it happen," She said quietly. "I'm here to give you the dress back, and to ask you to let your brother know that even if it doesn't seem like it, I'll always love him." The petite raven-haired beauty's features registered shock, than she smiled and said, "As for the dress you can keep it, and as for the guy, why don't you just tell him yourself?" "You would let me keep this?" "Of course! The only night I wore it some creep tried to seduce me, and you have much better memories with it I think." "I can't tell Jake that I love him, because I'm leaving. I have to leave, because no one here likes me, and my dad wishes I hadn't ever come. My mom is just going to get hurt by my dad, and then she'll pull away from me too. I can't risk losing her." Then, before Jenny could respond, Anna slipped away with that graceful, tragic, sadness that seemed to follow her everywhere she went.
Alyssa sat looking at an old picture of Anna and her holding hands. They had been five at the time, and Alyssa's dad had taken them both fishing for the first time in their young lives. While she had only managed to catch a boot, Anna had gotten a huge bite, and Alyssa's dad had to pull it in for the small waif. There was something about Anna's smile, the way she carried herself, even, that held something completely foreign to her mother. Maybe it's just her father in her, Alyssa thought, remembering the strange similarities between the two. She'd been a real jerk that day. I mean, she had planned on leaving without Anna, but only when Anna was ready to deal with things on her own. She didn't even know what was going on down there, because her best friend since preschool hadn't bothered to call. She didn't blame her though. I mean, who walks out on someone like that? Alyssa looked at herself in the mirror, thinking back to when she'd started in on her goth/punk faze. Anna had been there for her all along, never cracking a joke about it or making her feel weird, just being the same old best friend she'd always been. That's when it started.
The newly confident blond walked down the street. It had been hard to find a shade of dye that matched her original hair color, but she'd found it and was glad she wouldn't have to worry when her roots started showing. She was clothed in a soft, cream-colored spaghetti strap top and a faded cut-off jean mini-skirt, and the only make-up on her face was light blue and a touch of soft pink lip gloss, the same colors Anna had told her made her look "Superfabulous" when they raided their mom's make-up bags when they were ten. Her brown sandals were slightly high-heeled, and she had a soft radiance she hadn't carried with her for awhile. Somehow a field of innocence, rightfully there, was replacing her sarcastic expressions. She walked up to Karen's Café, and then entered in with a breeze.
"Hi, Ms.Sawyer!" She said cheerily as she spotted the youthful older copy of her best friend. Dismay graced Peyton's features when she turned around. "Well if it isn't our little Alyssa," she sighed with a smile. "I always knew you'd come around eventually. If you're looking for Anna, she's at Karen's place packing up everything. We're heading back home in a little bit." "What happened?" Alyssa said in shock. She knew things never had a fairy-tale ending, but still, nothing like this was to be expected. "Well, Anna and her dad got into an argument about Jake, and then she ended up deciding to leave Tree Hill." "You mean, you're seriously just going to let her run away like that?" The words tumbled out of Alyssa's mouth before she realized how hypocritical they sounded. Peyton leaned in. "You did the right thing, sweetie. She needed to face this on her own, and for awhile she and her dad seemed to be getting a lot closer. Believe it or not, things were even getting better between me and Luke, but I don't know how this is going to work if she doesn't want to see him." I really did make a mess of things, Alyssa thought to herself as she tried to clear her head. "Who's Jake, and where can I find her?" She finally asked. "Well, I'll let her explain Jake to you, and you could most likely find her at the River Court right now. She said she was planning on saying goodbye to it." Equipped with a set of simple directions, Alyssa sped off in the car wondering why she came up with such a stupid idea to bring Anna here in the first place.
Haley sat in her car looking up at the window. She and Luke always used to play games in his room when they were little, and as they got older she would go there to get him or to borrow his jacket if they were going somewhere and she'd forgotten hers. What she wanted more than anything was just to go up there and talk his daughter out of leaving. Even after one visit, she'd seen so much of both of her parents in her, and Haley had grown attached to the girl, almost as if she had known her niece or half-niece or whatever she was called, all her life. She finally got out of the car and made her way to the front door. She knocked softly, and when Anna opened the door, she smiled slightly. "Would you like to come in? I mean, if you were hoping to talk to Karen or da--, I mean, Mr. Scott, neither of them are home." "Actually, I was hoping I could talk to you for awhile," Haley said hesitantly. Anna gained Peyton's famous hard expression. "If you're trying to talk me out of leaving..." "No, nothing like that. It's just that I never really got a chance to talk to you and get to know you, and even if you and your dad never talk again, I'd like to keep in contact with you. I mean, I am technically your aunt. Nathan, your uncle, is really interested in meeting you again too." Anna gave an embarrassed Lucas-smile and motioned to the couch. "I was just finishing some double-fudge cookies. Karen says that any grandkid of hers is going to carry that recipe to their grave with them." Haley laughed and said, "They smell just like Karen's, and look like them too. It appears you have a hidden talent in the culinary field." "Yeah, mom always said that I could make a meaner ravioli than anyone else." The two sat and talked for over two hours, laughing and joking, bonding and smiling.
"This is kind of awkward since I'm leaving and all, but I was just wondering... what's my dad like? There's so much I don't know about him, and mom never really told me much. Since you've been his best friend for so long, I though that I should ask you. If that's okay, I mean." "I don't mind. You have to understand, you're dad's always been a great guy. We grew up together, and he was pretty much the best guy in my life. I idolized him. He's really gentle and sensitive, you know. He probes deep and tries to understand people. Then, when he joined the basketball team, all of the drama, and all of the stuff, both good and bad, he'd missed out on his whole life kind of hit him all at once. He didn't know what to do with it, so he messed up a lot. Lucas did run away, but he came back. Only two days after your mom left, too. I promised to keep it a secret, but for a few weeks after your mom left your dad went of looking for her. He said her needed to make things right. He drove around, back and forth, until he didn't know what to do with himself. Finally, your dad decided there was nothing left to do but come back to Tree Hill without her, and spend the rest of his life with his friends and his mom. That's basically what ended up happening, too. He cleaned up his act, and he became the guy that I always knew him to be, that Peyton knew him to be, again. By that time, though, the scars ran too deep for him to ever completely return to the way he was." The whole conversation had drained Haley, but it had also filled her up. When the two finally parted, they shared a huge hug and many tears, both going their separate ways, knowing they wouldn't see each other for a long, long time... maybe never.
Jake couldn't believe all the crap that was going on. Why was she running away? He knew the reason, but he still couldn't believe it. He would go back and change everything if he could. What was the point of meeting her and falling in love with her if they wouldn't even have the chance to go out, like normal people? Jenny's words echoed through his head... "She loves you, you know. She told me to tell you that. Sometimes people just have to let go though, because of how much they love you. Maybe someday things will be different, but not right now. Just be thankful that you even had that short time with her, and nothing REALLY bad happened." For some reason, that didn't make things much better. So what if nothing happened? He still felt like she had run away from HIM, rejected HIM, and told HIM that he wasn't worth her effort. It hurt, too. No wounds could cut deeper than the ones thrown by a misdirected spear, his dad had told once when he was little, and it was the truth. Even if she hadn't meant to hurt him, she had. If he could just see her one more time, hold her one more time, and even play one-on-one with her one more time he thought with a smile, everything would be easier. At that moment, he saw a stranger run towards the River Court. She was beautiful, but all he could think about was Anna. She ran up to him and said in an out of breath voice "Do you know where Anna Sawyer is?" He bolted up and said "She's leaving Tree Hill. That's all I know. Who are you, anyways?" "I'm her best friend, and I'm here to try to screw her head on straight, the job that always seems to be left to me. Now get off your butt and let's get to Karen's house!" With that, she hopped into her car. He didn't have any idea what else to do, so he got in and fastened his seat belt, hoping she wasn't as bad at driving as she was with introductions.
Sorry that was so short and that I haven't updated in so long! I may not be updating in awhile, but I'll try to get one up by next Wednesday AT THE LATEST. Thanks! OnTheOutsideLookingIn