Here is where it gets a touch AU. I'm changing it, the kiss in the studio occurred just as it did in the show. Chris is planning on leaving…and that is what I leave you with….

by the way, I figure I'll make Chris 21 years old, why not. Lets be realistic here and make a character the age they look!

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

He was packing up his stuff in a run down apartment above Main Street. It was the end of an era for Chris Keller. Six years in Tree Hill. Six years of being alone. Six years of being unknown. He'd finally gotten his chance, and he wasn't going to lose it.

A knock at the door interrupted him packing. "Coming," he shouted from the bedroom, replying to the quiet knock at the door. He heard shuffling feet as he reached for the knob, and then a quiet sniffle. He paused. He instantly knew who it was. "Haley," he whispered to himself. His hands started visibly shaking, he reached for the doorknob again, contemplating what he could say. Could he let his past interrupt him now, but was she his past? Technically it had been just hours before, but it was like he had lived through the scenario a million times in his head. He had kissed her. He had kissed her and all she did was push him away. He knew his chances were bad, but he also had a string of hope that maybe she'd at least come with him to New York. Just as all bad stories go, he was shot down yet again, maybe fate is just as fucked up as he had thought.

"Hey," she quietly said, with her trademark half smile.

"Well look who it is" he said in his cocky put-on attitude.He didn't want to shut her out, she was different. "Haley," he said, his tone changing. "I want you to come with me, please just think about it."

"Well, well, well. Someone's attitude has changed," she said in the best "Chris Keller" attitude she could put on. Truthfully, she didn't want him to leave, but she didn't want to leave Nathan either. She was torn, half of her wanting to follow her dream, and the other half wanting to give it up for Nathan. She'd test him, "Stay then," she said in a serious tone.

Chris' face was blank. He was left with a decision that he basically knew the answer to. It didn't take long however for him to realize he had posed the same question to her just seconds before, but in the reverse. Only he had nothing to leave behind, and refused to deny himself an opportunity for some fling. Especially a fling with a married girl, high school girl for that matter, even if he really did think he loved her. "You know the answer Haley," he finally replied.

"Fine," she replied. "I only came back to say thank you before you left anyway." It killed her to let him go without a fight, but she loved Nathan too much to abandon him for such a farfetched opportunity. "I'm not leaving the same way I left last time."

As she walked back down the hallway, he laid it on the line one last time, "at least leave your cell phone number Haley," he half begged leaning against the doorframe.

She turned around, staring deep into his eyes. What are his intentions, she wondered. "I don't know if that's a good idea," she replied.

He looked at her, his eyes somewhat pleading.

"Do you have a pen?" she questioned, caving in.

"Yeah, of course," he replied.

Taking the pen from his hands, she wrote her cell phone number on his hand. "I feel like such a girl," Chris laughed.

"You want the number or not?" she replied stopping five numbers in.

"Yes, sorry," he was quiet for a moment as she finished writing. "But I still feel like a girl," he added as she finished, laughing.

Haley turned around, almost forgetting to hand him back the pen. As she handed him the pen, they both held on for several seconds, until she let go and turned around walking back down the hallway. Chris went back inside, shutting the door behind him.

He leaned against the door staring around the empty apartment. He could see his suitcase in the bedroom from the living room. The apartment was basically bare, he had nothing to take with him really, and nothing to leave behind. His only past he'd planned to take with him was a notebook crammed with lyrics and failed attempts at creating the song that would bring him the fame he was looking for. Then again, he couldn't figure out why he was searching for that fame, why did he need to be accepted by the mainstream? He walked over and picked up the notebook off the worn out couch and stuffed it into a garbage bag he had systematically filled over the past two hours of packing.

Now he really was leaving the past behind.

"An hour to go he whispered," as he paced around the empty two rooms of the apartment. He was going to go crazy, trapped within the walls of that tiny apartment, waiting for his escape to the city. Once he was there he could fade in with the rest of the world, while, rather ironically, attempting to be something more. He decided to take a shower before he left, a fresh start in the literal sense.

The warm water dripped from the faucet to the tub, as not only the past was washed away, but also the number Haley had written on his hand less than an hour before. He scrubbed away in a fit of anger as the numbers quickly faded away. Everyone assumed he wanted Haley, everyone assumed he wanted to kill her relationship with Nathan on purpose. Nobody realized the turmoil that existed for him also. How did it feel to truly fall for a girl who was in love with someone else? He wanted her faint signals to be real, but at this point it seemed like moving on was the only option.

He shut the door behind him, undeniably leaving every piece of Tree Hill behind. Stepping onto that bus would be a little piece of heaven. He threw his stuff in the cab he had called a while before. He stared out the window at a perfect town, nobody seemed to have any fears. There were people at the café, drinking coffee and mindlessly talking about their uneventful lives.

"Direct to New York, boarding now," blared over the loudspeaker as he walked into station. He never turned around as he stepped onto the bus. Leaving the small town for the big city was his chance, and leaving it all behind seemed like the best way to leave.

Little did he know his six years of isolation could only give him six days of fame before his so called nonexistent past would get in the way.