"Gosh, are you still here?"
"What?" Chris shrugged. "Is that anyway to talk to your friend? I'm just hanging out. Besides, you young lady seriously need to go grocery shopping."
Haley rolled her eyes as she snatched a bag of Tortilla chips from his grip.
"I wouldn't need to go shopping if you weren't always over here eating me out of house and home."
"You know you love me."
"What I love are my new black sandals which are all of a sudden MIA? Have you seen them?"
"Nope."
"Chris, come on. Help. I'm having lunch with Jessica Harp and I don't want to be late."
"Relax, James. They're over by the hall closet. And I can't leave yet. My manager called and said they are showing an interview with me on one of those music channels. I just can't figure out which one."
"Well, if you hurry along, oh let's say, like now, then you might be able to catch it. You know at your apartment."
"Nah. I might miss the first part. Haley, come on. This won't take long. And it's just Jessica. She won't care if you're a few measly minutes late."
Haley sighed. In all the years one thing had not changed…Chris Keller's stubbornness.
"Fine. Ten minutes but that's it. I mean it, Chris. I really have to go."
"Okay, okay", he said as he relaxed on the leather sofa and flipped through the channels.
Haley rummaged through her handbag while Chris searched for his interview.
"Dude, you seriously need to invest in TiVo…"
And then she heard it. Flipping from Fuse to MTV to VH1, somehow Chris had skimmed upon ESPN. On Sports Center, Haley heard a voice she would recognize anywhere.
"Next…"
"Change it back!" she practically yelled.
Chris sighed and followed her instructions grudgingly.
"Nathan Scott, the talented young rookie out of Duke has a bright future in the NBA although it remains to be seen if his enormous talents will keep him with the Bobcats. There have been talks of a trade and everyone is interested from Seattle to New York…"
New York! Haley's heart skipped a beat.
"…It was a devastating loss for Charlotte in the last few seconds of the championship but what an amazing season for the young Scott. This talented young man certainly has nothing to be ashamed of. We look forward to seeing where the day will take him in his sophomore season. Until then, Scott plans to spend his time off readying himself for the end of summer wedding he has planned with his long time college girlfriend."
Haley felt her knees buckle. Wedding? What wedding? No one had informed her of any wedding. But then again, who would? Her ties to Tree Hill weren't exactly strong. She hadn't spoken to Peyton in over six months and as much as she had hoped, an out of the blue catch up phone call from Lucas was highly unlikely. Of course she would find out about Nathan's wedding like the rest of the world…on television.
"You okay?"
"What? Oh yeah. Fine", she shrugged with a nervous, fake smile.
Chris shook his head. He saw right past the façade. Haley was visibly bothered. There was still a connection to a man she had been married to so briefly so many years ago. Even though it hurt Chris' ego that Haley had never wanted him, he was secretly glad the marriage to Nathan hadn't worked out. He was nothing more than an arrogant jock with no respect for Haley's talent. She was just another trophy in the Scott showcase. Chris was glad the annulment had gone through.
"You still miss him, don't you?"
"Who?" Haley asked casually, adding the back hook to her earring.
"Nathan", Chris rolled his eyes.
"I don't think about it. It was a long time ago. Nathan and I are done and we have been for a while now. I'm glad he's getting married. I hope he'll be very happy."
It was funny how the brain could manipulate the mouth into saying one thing when the heart was feeling something totally different. Of course she missed him. Of course she still thought of him. She didn't want to but it couldn't be helped. And how could she not?
Nathan Scott was her first kiss, her first love, her first lover, her first husband. He was the first man to see her naked or tell her she was pretty. They had been best friends. They were each other's family. She had loved him enough to marry him.
When Haley closed her eyes and thought hard enough, she could see herself on that beach. She could smell the air and hear the waves. She could feel the nerves bunching up inside. Nathan had looked so handsome in his suit. She could hear his words so plain and so loud it was as if he were standing next to her in the loft.
"Someday, this beach might wash away…the oceans may dry…the sun could dim but on that day, I'll still be loving you. Always and forever. I promise you Haley."
As far as she knew, the beaches were still in tact. The ocean was far from drying up. The sun was shining brighter than ever. After all that happened. After all the years. After what she had done, Haley wondered if a small part of him was still loving her.
"I Haley, take you Nathan to have and to hold, from this day forward…"
She had and held him for exactly 251 nights…
"In sickness and in health…"
Like any typical man, he was such a helpless baby when he got sick. Haley had to do everything for him. He'd gotten the flu just a few months into the marriage. The memory was still fresh and oh so sweet of spoon feeding him homemade chicken broth.
"For richer or poorer…"
They never made it to the "richer" part. How could they? They were just a couple of high school juniors trying to keep a marriage afloat with two minimum wage jobs and a whole lot of love. But the "poorer" was definitely there. Ramen noodles was the entrée of choice via price and convenience. If not for the mercy of Karen and the café, that might have gone hungry a couple of nights. There were times when it was barely enough to pay the rent and bills. It was during those times Haley would break out her old and battered guitar, the one desperately in need of tuning and she would strum and sing to him.
Even though we ain't got money
I'm so in love with ya honey
Everything will bring a chain of love
In the mornin' when I rise
Bring a tear of joy to my eyes
And tell me everything's gonna be all right
And he would look at her and smile. And everything was right with the world.
"For better or worse…"
Better was the good times. And there were plenty. For the most part, it was great. Those short months were some of the happiest of Haley's life. Worse was Dan and Deb. They hated her. Like scavengers, they waited with drooling anticipation for the marriage to dissolve and like vultures, they would be there in the end to pick up the broken pieces. They bet on Nathan and Haley's failure. And they had failed.
"I promise, that I will love and cherish you…"
And she had. More than anything.
"And will deny all those that would come between us…"
She hadn't. That had been Haley's only mistake. She wanted the music so bad but it had come in the form of Chris. She had made that vow to never let anyone come between them. Chris Keller had. She could have stopped it but her wanting and love and need for the music was way too powerful. Even more powerful than she was.
"I make this promise for eternity…"
Eternity. 252 days, 251 nights, 9 hours, 36 minutes, 20 seconds. That was their eternity. Six months later, he had served her with annulment papers.
"I promise that I will keep forever…"
That part was true…at least for her. The promise would always live on in a special place in her heart.
"Till death do us part…"
She swore nothing but death could keep her from him but she had been wrong. It was a force perhaps greater than death.
"Dude, where's your bottled water?"
His voice snapped her back into reality. For a moment she forgot about their friendship, his mentoring and all that he had done for her. For a split second, her brown eyes flashed with anger and all she saw was a reason, a cause, a motive. She saw the man who had ruined her marriage. She saw why she had lost Nathan in the first place. She saw why Nathan was preparing to marry someone else.
"Chris, you have to leave."
"Haley, I was just…
"No, dude, I'm serious. Now. Right now."
"Alright", he said, looking a little more than hurt. "It's cool. I guess I'll see you later."
She nodded and closed the door behind him. It would take a minute but she would be alright. The pain and memories would soon pass like a night's sailing ship. Nathan Scott would once again retreat to that hidden place deep within her being and she could go back to her life. She could go back to being Haley James.