Chapter Thirty-Nine
This chapter is dedicated to Nathen'sraven. She's a big help with this story and we always swap plot lines. And a lot of the stuff here on out she helped me out with. Especially the whole "who's pregnant?" thing. The plot with that, which starts soon, is my writing but completely her influence.
"I'm not going," I insisted for the third time.
"Where else are you going to go?" asked Mom, rolling her eyes.
"I'll stay with one of my friends!"
"They're all away right now! And you can't stay with the Scotts because they're who we're going to visit, Brooke's dealing with her divorce and really can't afford a distraction, Karen and Keith are going to the Dominican," recited Daddy.
"Then I'll stay here! I'm seventeen," I reminded them.
"What's so bad about it, anyway? You can't stay here, so why not go to Maine and tan on the beach for a week?" challenged Mom.
"You know why," I snarled.
"So you're going to hide from him? Sawyer Scott has been your best friend your entire life. Haley has been one of my best friends since I was sixteen, and I practically grew up with her husband," said Mom.
"So?"
"So if we want to go visit them, it's not just about you and Sawyer and your breakup," finished Mom. I winced.
"Okay, so you go. I'll stay," I said.
"You're not staying by yourself for a week. One measly week in a huge beach house-how bad could it be?" asked Daddy. I rolled my eyes in response.
An hour later I was resentfully packing my suitcase.
I threw three t-shirts in. Four camisoles, a blue halter and a tube top. Three skirts and four pairs of shorts. Two of my best jeans.
Along with the two skimpy string bikinis, I forced myself to pack a more modest black one. I selected my two best cotton sundresses, found four pairs of sandals, and headed to my pajamas drawer.
It was neatly divided into two sections-flannel, warm, practical things, and the silky nighties I spent too much money for at the lingerie store at the mall. I ran my hand across them-lingerie was one of my guiltiest pleasures. I carefully picked three out three of them and added them to my growing pile of clothing.
Lauren giggled as I met her in the hall, lugging my suitcase behind me. She was toting a small bag, about a third the size of my own. I wrinkled my nose resentfully at her-she was 5"7 and dwarfed me by several inches.
Daddy loaded my suitcase into the back of the taxi we'd hired to take us to the airport. Mom squeezed my hand as I passed her, but I shook her off. They'd never been so low as to make me go on a holiday I didn't want to go on. And I knew, that despite what they said about wanting to spend some summer time with their best friends, they had an ulterior motive-to get Sawyer and me back together.
I stared out the window of the plane. Summer was almost over. The most tedious summer of my life was drawing to a close. Soon school would start again, and I'd be pushed towards Sawyer Scott daily for a year until we departed for hopefully opposite ends of the country. I'd just spend sixty days lounging around by the pool and watching reruns on the WB. I should have gone to cheerleading camp.
We rented a car once we reached Maine and drove to the small, seaside town of Summerside.
The Scotts poured out of the house as we pulled up. Haley and Nathan ran out, hand in hand, closely followed by Nathan's mother, Deb. Tess ran to greet Lauren and the two shrieked and hugged as Lauren jumped out. Sawyer followed slowly.
I strived to keep my stare off of him. He wasn't wearing a shirt. He wasn't wearing shoes. He had a perfect tan. He looked good. He looked much better.
He shook hands with Daddy and accepted Mom's hug before he got to me. I stared into his dark blue eyes and smiled slightly.
He enveloped me in a hug and pulled me close to him. Catching my breath, I inhaled the scent of him as the familiar feel of his arms around me came back to me. I felt him kiss my hair, imagined him smelling it. An almost forgotten feeling rose inside my breast.
Haley led the four of us into the house, chatting animatedly. She led Mom and Daddy to a vast first floor bedroom, Lauren to the one opposite Tess'.
She, Sawyer, and I ascended the worn wooden steps to the third floor. Sawyer disappeared into one of the two doors. I glanced around the hallway-it was short, only the two doors, and there was a wide window with a window seat at one end. I looked questioningly at Aunt Haley as she gestured toward the other door.
Hesitantly I opened it and walked in. A large bed occupied much of one wall. Two glass doors to a balcony with a seafront view were opposite me. A bureau and small sitting area completed the large beautiful room.
"You planned this, didn't you?" I said accusingly.
"You know that I love you, right?" she asked. I nodded slowly. Haley had been around my entire life.
"And I like the people I love to be happy," she finished.
"I don't need your son to be happy," I said, rudely. To my relief, she smiled again.
"It's not a bad thing," she said.
"A little bit."
"Do you love him?" she asked, sitting down beside me on the bed.
"I don't know," I whispered.
"Do you want to be with him?"
It was time, finally, to admit.
"Yes."
"He
wants you to Cal. He's been moping around for the entire summer,
even the time we was at camp, most likely. He's never had to live
without you in his life," she said.
"How do you understand?" I questioned.
"Can I tell you a story?" she asked, after a pause. I nodded slowly.
"I was best friends with Lucas my entire life. I didn't need anyone else, neither did he. We were like siblings. Then in junior year, he was in the basketball team and he started kind of being one of the popular kids. You see, Nathan Scott didn't know I existed. I thought the world would be a better place if he hadn't existed. Anyway, Nathan got really jealous of Lucas, who he thought was trying to ruin his life. So Nathan did all these things to try and hurt Lucas, which didn't really work. So eventually he thought of a different tactic," explained Aunt Haley.
"What was it?" I asked, holding my breath.
"To make me fall for him and then hurt me," she admitted.
"Nathan did that?" I asked, stunned.
"Yep. Then he ended up falling for me for real, and we fell madly in love and got married in the middle of our Junior year," she said.
"So why are you telling me this?"
"After Nathan and I had been married for only a few months, we drifted apart a little. My music started to mean a lot more to me, and he started to worry that he wasn't enough for me. I met this guy, Chris, and I kissed him a couple times because I was so confused about Nathan. Then I went away on tour for a year. But when I was gone, Brooke kept me informed of Nathan and the town while everyone else stopped speaking to me, even your Mom. She told me how miserable Nathan was. And I was miserable too, even though I was living out my dream. So Peyton and Brooke came to see me because Peyton was freaking out, and I went home with them, and Nathan and I got back together and the both of us basically lived happily ever after," she finished. I absorbed her story.
"Why was Mom freaking out?" I asked eventually.
"Well, because Jake asked her to marry him," she said slowly.
"A bad thing?"
"She was eighteen," explained Haley.
"I'm never going to get married young," I said definitively.
"Don't be so sure. It's in your blood, kid," she joked.
"Funny. So basically I have to go back to Sawyer so we can live happily ever after? What if I want to live happily ever after with someone else?" I asked defiantly.
"Do you?"
"No, of course not," I said, sighing and flopping backward onto the bed.
Author's note: Okay, start reviewing again! Pleeease. Here's a spoiler for you-
Callie considers going back to Sawyer, but changes her mind when she finds out what he's been occupying himself with. Or who he's been occupying himself with.
