Chapter Forty-Five
I don't actually remember what reviewer it was that suggested I write this scene, but I didn't think of it, so here's to them.
The people of Tree Hill change, and their lives change drastically, but Tree Hill in itself never does and never will. Mom or Daddy always double-take when they see the river court, because it's exactly the same as it was seventeen years ago. Tree Hill High hasn't had renovations in twenty years. The cheers Jenny led every week were the same cheers that had been around for twenty years. Sawyer, Jenny, Lauren, Tess and I were still Hill Kids. The ones that lived by the river, which could get to the court on foot, were still the River Rats.
"You know, I think I've done most of my growing up right here?" I said. It was still early September, still as hot as midsummer. Sawyer and I were lying on the concrete of the River Court, not touching but for our laced together hands.
"I know what you mean. So much has happened here," he agreed.
"Remember we used to sail little boats in the river?" I asked.
"That tree, over there, is the first one I ever climbed," he said, indicating a tall, leafy tree.
"I climbed it before you," I boasted. He laughed.
"Callie Jagielski, you are an amazing woman," he said.
"I'm a girl," I defended proudly.
"Oh yeah?" he laughed again, and I laughed along with him.
"Remember when we were here, before the whole mess started? And Lucas showed up?" I asked.
"I'd just lifted you up so you could slam dunk. My own uncle and I didn't even recognize him. I wonder why he left?"
"A secret love," I said confidently.
"Yeah, like your mom," he said.
"Your face!" I shot back.
"No, I actually meant Peyton. He was in love with her," he reminded me.
"Yeah. Freaky to think he could have been my dad," I said.
"Jenny wouldn't be your sister," he said.
"You'd be my cousin," I said, wrinkling my nose.
"Would that have kept us apart?" he said, laughing.
"Most definitely. Not much else could," I said.
"Well, fear of commitment couldn't," he said.
"Objective mothers couldn't."
"Could other women?" he asked, breaking the mood of the moment. I rolled to prop myself on my elbow. My blonde hair tumbled down over my shoulder and rested on the concrete. He fingered one of the locks.
"After we had broken up, I went farther than I meant to with a girl in Maine," he said. I jerked away from him, and his hand fell from my hair.
"What? What happened to the pining? The everlasting love?" I demanded.
"It was three months! I thought I'd lost you!" he defended, reaching for me.
"You had lost me!"
"I'm sorry Cal, really I am, but you made out with Jesse the day we did it in Maine," he reminded me.
"That meant nothing!" I said, shocked he'd never known.
"Yeah, well, neither did this."
"It was sex! Mine was just kissing! Sex has to mean something!" I said, standing up. He stood up as well, and towered over me. He took my shoulders.
"Callie, I love you. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone. I'm starting to think you're the only one I've ever loved, because I've managed it for years now. But after you gave up on me, I didn't know what to do. I felt like my life was empty. Even before you broke up with me, before we'd started going out, we'd always had each other. Every day of our entire lives, except for that first week. Which must have been some pretty tough week," he said, pushing a strand of hair away from my eye. I slapped his hand away.
"I'm going to go. We'll talk later," I said coldly, hoping to keep the tears that had welled up after his speech out of my voice.
He let me go, and I walked calmly to my car and drove home.
An unfamiliar sports car was parked in the driveway, in front of Daddy's car and Mom's.
Looking at the door to the house, I saw Jenny and Mom and Daddy walk up and approach the car. As her eyes caught sight of it, I saw them widen, and saw her shriek and clap her hands together, hopping up and down. I got out of the car we'd previously shared and walked over to join them.
"They bought you this?" I asked, trying to get excitement into my voice. She nodded excitedly, and flung her arms around the pair of them. The car was beautiful-bright red with a beautiful leather interior.
"Yes! When did you guys buy it?" she asked curiously. She still hadn't moved back in.
"April, officially. You like?" asked Mom.
"I love it. Thank you so much. Mom." She said. Mom nodded and handed her a car key on a chain.
"So now Jenny can take this to school and Callie will keep the old one. Speaking of which, it's time to go," he said regretfully. He and Jenny were driving together to Brown, and he planned to take the train back.
We loaded everything into a previously rented trailer. As we all gathered by the driver's side door, Jenny and I burst into tears and fell into each other's arms. This set of Mom, and then Lauren in turn. Jenny hugged the both of them before turning on Daddy.
"I love you. And I'm sorry," she said.
"It doesn't matter anymore. And here," he said, handing her a white envelope. She hugged him again as she pulled out a check and her eyes widened at the amount.
Lauren, Mom and I gathered on the middle of the street and waved as Jenny departed. I loved my big sister. Without her I'd never have been born. Mom and Daddy might never have gotten married. Haley might have never gone back to Nathan without Mom to take her. In which case Sawyer never would have been born.
Jenny was beautiful and talented. She'd do well at college, but I knew I couldn't possibly do well without her.
The rest of us moped around the house for the rest of the day. We'd lived without Jenny for months but having her gone, and Daddy gone with her, made it much less bearable. We made dinner for each other at six and ate it silently, and prepared for a long, Jenny free evening.
"Shit, I have to go!" said Mom suddenly, shooting up from her chair.
"Where?" asked Lauren lazily.
"Tric! It's all ages night and I should have been down there twenty minutes ago to supervise. Coming?" she asked, running around in search of her purse.
"Uh n…" I cut off Lauren.
"Yeah, we're coming," I said, kicking her ankle under the table. She shot me an odd look.
"What?" she said, as soon as Mom had left the room.
"She's lonely. We should. And we can subtly press for answers," I said.
"Oh, the pregnancy. How did it go with Brooke?" she asked. I thought back to the day before, in which I'd gone to visit Brooke with the guise of wanting to know successful methods of birth control. I was fairly sure she hadn't suspected that I had been trying to figure out whether or not she was pregnant.
"Good, I guess. I don't think it's her. We'll check Haley next," I said. Haley would be harder to quiz. She knew me better than Brooke did, she'd be able to pick up my motive.
Lauren and I ran upstairs to change. I slipped out of my sweat pants into a pair of form fitting blue jeans that sat low on my hips and a pink, lace edged tank top that revealed a small amount of tanned, toned flesh and the hoop on my belly button.
My little sister rolled her eyes when she saw me. She was wearing a skirt that was almost at her knees and a pink t-shirt with very short sleeves.
"Oh, who's this for?" she asked, playfully fingering my lacy shoulder strap. I stuck my tongue out at her and ran downstairs to meet mom.
Tric was empty and the staff were still setting up when we arrived with Mom. Lauren and I greeted all of them before settling down on one of the couches around the room, an action that had become a routine in our long years of being club owner daughters.
All at once, as it always was, teenagers began to flow into Tric. We were quickly joined by half the varsity cheerleaders along with Jason Winters, John Fenning and Eli Hutchings.
I took to the dance floor with John and Lauren as a fast song came on. We danced in a circle, turning away from the boys, leering at me or leering my sister, who tried to join us.
John subtly directed my attention to the edge of the dance floor. Sawyer Scott was staring at me, dancing with my ex. His gaze devoured me whole and exposed my soul to the dancing crowd. I turned away from him.
"We got in a fight," I explained to him. I could practically see Lauren's ears perk up though she was several feet away, dancing with a blond guy.
"About?"
"Oh, he told me about some skank he slept with during summer break," I said bitterly.
"Told you about it?" John asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, told me it happened," I said, blushing.
"Were you broken up by then?"
"Yeah, but it's besides the point. We've been back together for almost a week now, and he says he wanted it the entire time like I did and he just didn't get around to telling me," I explained.
"While it's not the greatest thing he could have possibly done, he was trying to prevent you from running again, and figured it was the only was possible. And as much as it sucks, it was his right."
"So? He's supposed to be in love with me!" I countered.
"Callie, he is! Everyone in Tree Hill knows that!" he said passionately.
"Everyone?"
"Everyone. You guys are like royalty around here," he said.
"Well of course," I said, faux arrogantly, twirling a curl around my finger. I tried to ignore the way his eyes fastened to it.
"Callie!" called Mom. I turned around to see her weaving her way through the dancers.
"What is it?" I asked. Lauren joined us.
"My band just backed out. I have hundreds of teenagers here, all of which came to hear live music and now all they get is a DJ," she said anxiously.
"Is Haley here?" I asked.
"No. She wouldn't do it anyway, she thinks it'll give her bad karma. Lauren?" she asked, appealing for a suggestion.
"Callie can do it," she said confidently.
"What? No!" I said.
"No, you can. Please Cal. I need you," begged Mom.
"I can't sing on a stage all by myself!" I complained.
"Then sing with someone else!" suggested Mom brightly.
"Like Sawyer!" suggested Lauren.
"Lauren!" I yelled.
"What's wrong with that?" asked Mom curiously.
"We got in a fight. Laure!" I said, trying to grab my sister's arm as she wove her way through the crowd toward Sawyer. I saw her reach him, saw them converse for a moment before he shrugged and nodded.
"Callie, why are you fighting with Sawyer?" asked Mom as she lead me, reluctantly, to the stage.
"During the summer, he… you know, I don't want to talk about it," I said shortly, realizing that if I told her it might make her question whether or not Sawyer and I were doing it.
"Fine. What do you guys want to sing?" she asked, as we reached the stage and Sawyer and Lauren joined us.
"When the Stars go Blue," he said, answering before I had the chance to. Mom immediately took on a look of surprise.
"Good thing your Dad isn't here. Okay, whenever you're ready," said Mom. Sawyer jumped onto the stage and gave me his hand to help me up.
"Lauren, announce us," I hissed. She obligingly got onto the stage and spoke into the microphone.
"Tree Hill, I give you one of our best couples to sing you one of our native songs! Everyone this is Sawyer Scott and Callie Jagielski!" she said. As she got off the stage, the music came on and I waited, counting in my head to begin.
I sang the first four lines easily. I loved the song, and it had been in my car stereo for as long as I'd had the car. Especially since last May, the passionate, beautiful lyrics had meant everything to me.
"Dancing out on seven streets,
Dancing through the underground,
Dancing little marionettes
Are you happy now?
Where do you go when you're lonely?" he sang.
Sawyer Brian Scott didn't look like a boy who would have a voice like that. He was big and muscular and reeked of masculinity.
My voice met his as we began to sing the chorus and our eyes met. I love you, he mouthed. Without even stopping to think about it, I mouthed it back before continuing on with the song.
The crowd burst into cheers as we finished and Sawyer took my hand to get me off the stage again. He pulled me to one of the dark corners of the room.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"I just needed time. We weren't broken up," I said.
"Apparently an afternoon of 'time' is too much," he said. I laughed, hoping the eyes of my mother and the rest of Tree Hill weren't on my back.
"Most definitely. Summer vacation's almost over," I said sadly. What I'd once thought of as the worst summer break I'd ever experienced had turned out to be that changed my life.
"We have another two weeks. It's weird how we're starting to late this year," he said.
"Yeah. Rumour has it that the principal postponed it because he's in rehab," I said.
"Mr. Preston isn't interesting enough to be a druggie. Come here," he said, taking me in his arms and pulling me close to close the distance of several inches between us.
I leaned up on my tiptoes to kiss him. Uncaring of the crowd, of everyone we knew, he kissed me back and I let myself sink back into happiness.
