Author's Note: Sorry that it's been so long, but I'm here now and that all that matters. Yes, I'm aware that I say that before every update, and I'm sorry. I usually update this one the least, just because I get the least reviews compared to my other stories, even though I find that this one is probably the easy to write because it's in first person. Well, maybe second easy to write, because I have to make it intense and angsty. I think I'm Broken, Please Fix Me is easiest to write because there's hardly any plot to it, it's just Brooke and Haley running away and living in New York – my kind of story. Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter, even though it's in a new person's POV. I love and adore Taylor so I hope I can make you love and adore her as well. Don't forget to review and of course, enjoy the chapter.
….OTH….
Taylor's POV
Good old Haley, that's what I always thought of her as. She was always my baby sister, the one person in the family that I was actually older than. I pretty much looked at her as someone I could boss around. At least at first I did. I used to hate the way that Viv or Quinn would pick on me and boss me around, making fun of me because I wasn't as smart as them. Well, I was prettier and I made sure that they knew that. That shut them up real quickly. Virgins. But Haley and I– we were different. Sure, she was always super smart and at the head of the class, but she never gave me flack for not being more like her. She understood, probably better than anyone, that I just wasn't like the rest of them, that I was different, and I think she loved me more because of that. Our parents were never home, and by the time Haley was a teenager, most if not all, of our siblings had moved out, so that meant that I practically raised her, along with Karen, of course. That's the best part, the part that I love to rub in Viv and Quinn's faces, is the fact that she is the best of the entire James clan, she's got the looks, the brains and the adorable personality. And I had a part in making that. Then that asshole Nathan Scott had to ruin it all. He had to rip everything from my sister, my sister, and make her feel like she's nothing but worthless, dirty scum. But I'm going to fix this. I don't care how long it takes, I'll drop out of school if I have to, but I am going to fix my little Haley-bub, no matter what the cost. I love her more than anything, she's my baby, and I sure as hell am not going to let some horny prick take her away from me.
….OTH….
"You're going to be okay, baby," I whisper to her as I start to tear up as well. I hardly ever cry, but every time I see her crying, I can't help but. "I'm here now, I'll protect. Nobody's ever going to hurt you again. I promise."
"Yeah," she snorts, bitter laughter bubbling over in her voice. All that pain, just the raw emotion in her voice sends a shiver down my spin. I have never heard her sound so defeated before. "Right."
"I'm sorry," I tell her, pulling her closer to me, making sure that there was as little space between us as possible. I can't remember the last time that we did this, just cuddled together. I think the last time was the night before I left. Boy was that the biggest mistake of my life. "I should never have left you alone here."
"It's not your fault," she tells me in a tired voice. My guess, she's had to tell a few people that over the past couple of days. I didn't know Peyton or Brooke, but from what I can tell, I am almost positive that they blamed themselves for everything that happened as well.
"Of course you're going to say that," I tell her, laughing a little bit at my words, I felt like I was teasing her. "You just don't want me to feel bad."
"Look," she began, pushing herself away from me a little. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that she was sick of being comforted. I can't remember the last time she didn't want me to hug her, ever since she was little, me and Karen were the only ones that could ever get her to calm down. "I'm kind of tired of saying this over and over again. It's no ones fault but my own, okay."
"Are you completely insane?" She can't possible believe that she's to blame for this, does she? What the hell have those two supposed best friends been doing all of this time? "I'm not completely filled in on what went down, but I can promise you that this was in no way your fault."
"You don't know that," she argues. I can tell that there's something up with her, she kind of has this smirk on her face, but she's trying to hide it. It's not really a evil smirk or anything, more of an 'I know something you don't know' kind of thing. "I should never have let it go that far."
"You had no way of knowing," I assure her. I'm not sure how someone could possibly believe that this was in anyway her fault. Last time I checked, Haley James was the smartest person in the world. What the hell happened when I was gone? There's that damn smirk again. "What?"
"Works every time," she giggles and it's like music to my ears. I don't think I've ever heard something more beautiful. For a moment, I almost forget what's going on and why I came all the way back here.
"What are you talking about, Hay?"
"You had no way of knowing either," she points out and it takes me a moment to understand what she's saying. Oh, that sneaky little… I knew she was the smartest person alive. "I don't play fair, I know, but I'm just so sick of hearing people blame themselves for what happened. It was Nathan's fault, and no one else's."
"Well," I smirked, impressed at her sister's dirty little trick. "It's good to know that you haven't gone completely brain dead while I was gone. For a second there I though cheerleader 1 and 2 had turned you into an airhead."
"Like I would ever let that happen," Haley teased me. God, it's so good to see her smile. I haven't seen her beautiful face in what felt like forever. We talked to each other a few times over the phone, sent a couple e-mails, but we pretty much lost touch over the past year, I think she was mad at me for leaving her alone here. I can't blame her. "Are you kidding? How could I with Taylor 'I hate everything and everyone related to cheerleading' James."
"I wasn't that bad," I protest. She looks at me, telling me that I'm not fooling anyone. Okay, so I was that bad. "Whatever, I was that bad, but that didn't seem to you do you much good. You seem to be pretty cozy with two downstairs."
"Brooke and Peyton aren't like the other cheerleaders…"
"Her name's Peyton?" I laugh. I can't help myself, that name is just too funny. Is she a football player? She glares at me and I quickly try to stifle another laugh. "I'm sorry, but come on, Hay, that's a funny name. Candy, Mandy, Sissy, now those are your average cheerleading names."
"Well, Peyton's not your average cheerleader," she protest. I'm about to make another smart-ass comment when I see the look in her eyes. These two must be something special if Haley is taking this much of a liking to them. My sister has never been one to have girlfriends, she always hated them, always hanging out with the guys at the Rivercourt. If she was defending them like this, they must be special. Maybe I'll just have to give them a chance.
"I guess she isn't," I agree. She smiles at me, thanking me for not giving her any more flack for hanging out with the cheer patrol and snuggles up to me again. I know I shouldn't bring this up, we're doing just great like this, but we can't just pretend that this never happened. "I'm really glad that you're okay. Do you have any idea how scared I was when Karen called me?"
"Tay, please," she begs me. I can hear how tired she is. I can't imagine how sick she must be of talking about this. I can't drop this; I need her to know how bad I feel about this whole situation.
"I couldn't believe it," I continue as if she hadn't said anything. She shifts silently, closing her eyes and burying her head in my shoulder. I feel like were ten and seven again. That was so long ago. "I had just gotta in from class…"
"Dee, any messages?" I ask as I drop my bag on the floor by the door and venture further into my apartment. God, this place is a mess, we really need to clean it up. "Dee?"
"One minute," she calls out to me from inside her bedroom. I laugh, shaking my head and go into the kitchen to grab something to eat. I don't think I've ever been so hungry. That damn professor really needs to learn when to shut the hell up.
"Apple or chocolate bar?" I ask myself, eyeing my choices. Damn, as much as I'd love to eat the yummy looking chocolate bar, I know that I'll regret it in the morning. Sighing, I grab the apple and bitterly bite into it. Damn, health class.
"Hey, Taylor," Dee greets me with a smile when she finally emerges from the bedroom. She's wearing her usually Saturday night get up, standard clubbing clothes. She looks hot. "What's up?"
"Just got in from class," I inform her, smiling as she hikes up her shirt even more than it already is. "Anybody call for me?"
"Um, yeah," she says, trying to remember who had called. I wouldn't say that she was an airhead, she got good grades, but she was kind of a flake when it came to roommate duties. She starts look around the kitchen, for a not I'm assuming. "I wrote it down somewhere. Where the hell did I put it?"
"Wow, color me shocked," I teased, watching her search the room. I lean against the counter, sucking on a piece of my surprising refreshing apple. This could take a while. "Denise Latoya Michaels actually wrote down a message?"
"Haha," she growls, getting frustrated that she couldn't find it. "You're a regular stand up. How could it be that we've been best friends for two years now and I didn't know that?"
"What can I say, I hide it well," I reply. She's staring at me and I narrow my eyes at her. "What?" She doesn't say anything, just stalks towards me.
"I only wrote it down because the lady insisted that I did," she tells me as she pushes me out of the way and rips the sticky note off the counter that I had been leaning on. "She said it was extremely important and that I was to tell you to call her back as soon as you got the message." Without another word, she sticks the note on my stomach and walks into the living room.
"Extremely important?" I mumble to myself, my eyes following Dee as she searches for her purse in the living room. What the hell could possibly be so important? What lady? Oh right, the note. "Duh." I peel the not off my shirt, bringing it into view and reading it.
Karen Roe
555 – 0541
Call home ASAP.
"Karen?" I whisper. Why would Karen be calling me? Oh, God. Suddenly, I feel like I'm about to hurl. If Karen's calling me, that can only be about one thing. Haley. I glance up to see that Dee was still searching for her purse. "Hey, um, when did Karen call?"
"I don't know," she answers back, not even bothering to look at me. Either I'm hiding it really well, or she just doesn't notice the fear in my voice. She stops for a moment, standing up straight to look at me, her hand scratching the top of her head. "I think it was around … God, I don't know, maybe three hours ago."
"Did she sound upset?" She lets out a frustrated sigh. I'm not sure if it's because of my questioning or because she still can't find her purse.
"God, Tay, I don't know," she says, emphasizing each word as if I couldn't understand her before. "The extend of my knowledge on the subject is on that sticky note, okay?"
"Jeez, pop a Midol," I tell her as she gives me the finger. This isn't fun anymore. I roll my eyes, grabbing her purse, which was sitting on the chair beside me, and throw it at her. She catches it with ease; she was on the high school baseball team, and glares when she realizes that I knew where it was the entire time. "You don't need the phone, right?"
"Nah, go ahead," she waves me off, plopping down on the couch and searching through the purse. I turn my back to her, leaning against the island in the kitchen and dial the number on the page. I can feel my stomach clenching as I listen to the ringing on the other end of the phone. I've never been a very perceptive person, but I know that whatever Karen has to say to be, is not going to be something I want to hear.
"Hello?" Wow. I know that I haven't spoken to Karen in forever, but as far as I can remember, she never sounded so depressed. That just made me feel even worse.
"Karen?" I ask, wanting to make sure it was her. I had never really been that close to the woman that Haley considered a mother, so I don't exactly know her voice really well. "Is that you? It's Taylor James."
"Oh, Taylor," she sighs. She sounds pretty relieved to hear from me. Things must really be bad. Maybe Haley is having some kind of rebellious streak; it does run in the family after all. Though, mine can't exactly be considered a streak, since it's been about seven years. "I'm so glad to finally hear back from you."
"Yeah, I just got in," I tell her. "My roommate told me that there was some kind of emergency or something, you said it was urgent." Is she crying? If I'm completely quiet than I swear I can hear her sobbing. This is so not good. Nothing better be wrong with Haley, not my Haley-bub. "What's going on?"
"Oh, God, Taylor," she cries. Definitely starting to get worried now. Woman, please just tell me what the hell is wrong with my baby sister! "It's Haley, something happened. I think you should come home."
"Haley?" I whisper as if I didn't already know it was going to be something bad about her. I closed my eyes, my breath catching in my throat. "Karen, tell me what happened to her."
"I think you should just…"
"Tell me!" I scream. I can hear Denise jump behind me, but I don't' turn around. I can hear Karen's sobs get louder at my outburst. I understand that she loves Haley, and that she's upset over whatever the hell happened to her, but I'm her big sister, damn it, and I want to know what happened to her.
"Tay?" Denise asks in a shaky voice. I don't blame her, I'd be concerned about me to. I turned around a little to acknowledge her and I can see her slowly approaching, her purse forgotten on the couch. I'm not sure how much she's heard, but she knows all about Haley, she's seen pictures and heard stories, so if she heard me whisper her name earlier, she's definitely going to be worried.
"Karen what happened?" I whisper, looking Denise directly in the eyes. Karen sniffles, trying to gather her strength so she can break my heart in a nice, clear voice.
"Nathan Scott," she begins and my mouth is already filled with vile. I know all about the little prick and his no good father. They used to make Luke's life a living hell. "He and Haley had been dating for a while and they were at a basketball party…"
"Did he…" I can't even bring myself to think it, let alone say it. This can't be happen, there's no possible way that I would let something like that happen to my Haley.
"He, he raped her," she finally gets out. I let out a sob and my hand finds it's way to cover my mouth. Suddenly I can't breathe and my vision is starting to get blurry. I close my eyes as my body starts to spasm as the reality hits me hard. "I'm so sorry."
"I'm on my way," I manage to get out between sobs before I hang up the phone and let it drop to the floor. I tear my eyes away from Dee and look at my hands to find that they are shaking out of control. Before I know what's going on, I see a much darker hand covering mine and it drags my attention up to Denise's worried face.
"Taylor?"
"It's Haley…" I try to tell her and she nods, already knowing that much. The words get lost in my throat and I don't think I can say them. "Her boyfriend, he ra- raped her."
"Oh God." There seems to be a lot of that going around. I can see the wheels starting to turn in her head and before I know what's going on, I feel myself being pulled towards the door. Denise grabs her keys off the hook on our way past and slams the door behind us. I finally realize what the hell is going on and I pull my arm out of her grip.
"What are you doing?" I ask, my vision of her blurred from the tears that were still falling from my eyes.
"I'm taking you to go see your sister," she tells me as if I was stupid. I'm about to protest and she glares at me, reaching forward and taking a hold of my arm again. "Look at you. You'd crash before you got there. Haley needs you, and you'll be no good to her lying dead in a ditch." She's got a point. "Now let's go."
"She sounds nice," Haley whispers, tears in her eyes as I finishing telling her the story. I quickly wipe away my own, not wanting her to feel bad for making me cry. Just thinking about the way Karen's words made me feel makes me want to hold her and never let go.
"You can meet her tomorrow," I tell her. She nods her head and sniffles. I laugh at how adorable she looks and gently brush away the fallen tears on her cheek. She smiles sadly in thanks and I bring my lips to her forehead. "She can't wait to meet you too. I've told her so much about my incredible sister that can do anything. You're practically a celebrity to her."
"Thanks for coming, Tay," she tells me in a small voice. "I can use all the help I can get, and having you here with me, I know it'll help make this so much easier."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere," I promise her, giving her a wink. I may not be known for keeping my promises, but I sure as hell am not going to break this one. I am so sick of being a completely screw up. If there's one thing that I've always wanted to be good at, it's being a sister. "I love you more than anything, Haley-bub, and we're going to get through this together, okay?"
"I love you too, Taley-bub," she replies, giggling at the old childhood nickname she would use every time I called her Haley-bub. She used to hate being called that.
"Smartass," I mumble in faux frustration. She giggles at me again and I smile, glad that I could make her happy for even the slightest of seconds. I give her a quick peck on the lips, before playfully pushing her away. "Now, sleep, okay? You need it, you look like hell."
"Geez, give a sister a break," she sighs, snuggling up in Brooke's bed. "I just got out of the hospital, you know?"
"I know." With one last kiss and hug, I tuck her in and leave the room, turning off the lights on the way out. When I get on the other side, I'm surprised to find four people standing in front of me, worried looks on their faces. "What?"
"Is she okay?" cheerleader number 1 asks me, the brunette one. I'm going to assume that she's Brooke. She looks like a Brooke and judging by Blondie's outfits, she's definitely a Peyton. I think about the question for a moment and smile slightly at them.
"I think she will be."
….OTH….
That is all for now. I was going to write another chapter from Karen's POV because someone asked for it, but I don't think that it's needed. I think that last chapter will be that last one, from Peyton's POV. So I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Don't forget to tell me what you think. Thanks.