"Ugh!" Brooke groaned out loud.
She looked around and was surrounded by mess. Working at Deb's was the first time she had ever been in the back of a restaurant, particularly the kitchen and it had turned out to be quite the experience and a disgusting one at that. Rolling her eyes and whimpering, she walked over to the dishwasher and began loading it. Hidden in a back corner of the room, Haley watched her with folded arms and renewed interest. The pretty, petite auburn haired girl could hardly believe her eyes as she watched the brunette load the washer…and keep loading it. There were dishes on top of dishes on top of dishes. Who in their right mind would do something like that? It was only common sense to see it was overloaded. Haley was dumbfounded and when she opened her mouth it was too late. The poor washer groaned, creaked and grunted, there was a loud thud and then silence only broken by the unmistakable trickle of soapy water flooding the floor.
Brooke looked down in utter horror.
"Oh shit!"
She reached for the first thing she saw which was a roll of paper towels. Pulling them off sheets at a time she feebly attempted to soak up the water but instead made only a bigger mess. Snapping back into reality, Haley stepped in. Pushing Brooke aside, she turned off the water valve and began feverishly mopping up the flood. Brooke watched in awe and in a few minutes, the only remnant left was a yellow cautionary "wet floor" sign.
"Well", she shrugged. "Aren't you a regular little Miss Fix It?"
It was meant to be a lighthearted joke but Haley wasn't laughing. She shot the other girl an icy glare.
"Whatever", she said, tossing her a dishtowel.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
Haley rolled her eyes. For weeks she had been watching the "dumb rich girl act" but all of a sudden she was convinced that maybe it wasn't an act.
"For starters you're going to help me unload this thing."
"Is it broken?" Brooke asked meekly.
"The jury is still out on that one but I'd say it's pretty likely."
Brooke sighed. She felt bad. The last thing she wanted was to break something else. Her lack of working girl experience and handiness had resulted in several glasses and plates taking their final rest in dish heaven but breaking the dishwasher was another deal completely. She could only imagine what it would cost and she knew Deb didn't exactly have extra funds laying around for such large, unexpected expenses. In another life it would be no big deal. She could shrug, open her purse and wallet and pick from a slew of credit cards to pay for the damages or hell even a new washer altogether. But there was no more purse, no more wallet and unfortunately no more credit cards,
"Um, I feel really, really bad. Poor Deb. Look, I'm sorry. Do you think it could be fixed?"
Haley saw the worry and sincerity on her face and she instantly softened. Everyone was still trying to get a feel for the new girl Deb had so welcomed into their lives. She had worn many faces…sometimes shallow or snobbish or clueless but she had tried her best to be nice to everyone and fit in and judging by the look on her face, she seemed genuinely upset that she had done something that would hurt Deb.
"It's okay", Haley finally said. "Um, I'm sure Skills can fix it."
"The bouncer?"
"Yeah. He's pretty handy. I'll have him take a look at it. If not…if not, then maybe Lucas can do something."
Just speaking his name, saying the "L" word made her cringe.
"Lucas?" Brooke frowned. "You mean the tall, blonde guy with the attitude?"
Haley smiled in spite of herself.
"Uh, yeah. That would be the one. I take it, you've met?"
Brooke rolled her eyes, throwing the towel over her shoulder.
"Have we ever? Oh God, that guy is a world class jerk if I've ever met one. His attitude totally sucks and he sucks and he has such a smart mouth. And talk about having the last word all the time."
"Sounds like you've pegged the right guy", Haley mused, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Um, how do you know him? I mean, how did you guys meet?"
Knowing her husband's reputation with the ladies Haley was almost afraid to pose the question but curiosity was starting to get the best of her.
"Oh we live together."
"Excuse me?" Haley turned, her voice rising several octaves.
"Not like that", Brooke smiled. "Oh God no! Trust me! He's staying at Deb's for a while, unfortunately and I'm renting out the room in her basement so I have had the regrettable opportunity to meet his acquaintance on several occasions."
"Oh", Haley simply stated.
Brooke watched as the other girl's entire expression and demeanor changed,
"Um, are you okay? No offense but you don't look so hot."
"I, I'm okay. It's nothing", she tried to smile.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Um, it's just that I didn't know where he was. Lucas, I mean. I thought he was staying at his parents' place."
"He was but I guess it didn't work out."
"Figures. Living under the same roof with Dan and Karen Scott would be enough to drive anyone crazy. I'm just surprised he's with Deb, that's all. I guess I shouldn't be. Her front door is always open and she'd never turn anyone away. I'm just surprised she didn't tell me. Come to think of it, I think she did try last week but I kind of brushed her off. I said I didn't want to hear anything about Lucas Scott."
Brooke nodded. Haley seemed to be talking more to herself.
"Okaaayyyy…"
"It's no big deal."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay. It just seems that you're pretty concerned about where he's living and all. Wait, don't tell me dated that little monster", Brooke half joked.
"Worse", Haley sighed. "I married him."
Brooke laughed out loud and waited for Haley to do the same thing but when her frown didn't fade, it was painfully obvious that she wasn't joking.
"Oh God. You're not kidding, are you?"
"No", Haley shook her head.
"You were married to that guy?"
"Correction…we still are. Not for long though. I filed for divorce."
Brooke was stunned.
"Wow! Oh God! I, I don't know what to say. You don't look like each other's types. And from what I can see, you're actually nice. How did that happened?"
Haley smiled a sad smile.
"All through school Lucas was a world class jerk. He was a big basketball star. He was spoiled and cocky and arrogant. He was the most popular guy in school, the star jock and his parents had a little bit of money. Hell, his grandparents have a lot of money. Anyway an important family name goes a long way in this town and for whatever reason, the Scotts are pretty important. Lucas was the golden boy."
"And you hung out with him?"
"God no!" Haley exclaimed. "I was best friends with Nathan, Deb's son…Luke's half brother."
"Yeah. Um, Deb kind of told me that whole story. Kind of like Tree Hill's own little soap opera, huh?"
"Something like that. This town is small and everyone knows everyone else's business. It was whispered about but everyone knew that Nathan was Dan Scott's son, too."
"That must have been so hard on Deb."
"It was", Haley said truthfully. "I mean, I love Deb. She's a sweetheart. You know that yourself. But she had it hard. Money was tight and she had no family support. It's rough being a single mom and all. And living in this godforsaken town didn't help anything. People talk. People gossip. That's anywhere you go but the so called society people here really did a job on poor Deb. They can be vicious. They tried their best to run her right out of town."
"Why didn't she leave?"
"That's a good question. I probably would have booked it. I mean, it's not worth the aggravation but I guess Deb saw it differently. She didn't do anything wrong and she had as much right to be in this town as Karen or anyone else. She stood her ground and that's not always an easy thing to do. But she did. And in the end it turned out okay."
"Wow", Brooke said. "She's a pretty brave lady."
"She is. Abd she passed it on. See, Nathan was a good ball player, too but he never played for the school or any organized team. Just shot hoops with Skills and Fergie and Junk and the other guys on that beat up court down by the River. But you couldn't deny jis talent and the high school varsity coach, Whitey, saw that. So he nominated Nathan for High Flyers."
"What's High Flyers?"
"The most prestigious pre collegiate basketball camp in the country. Only the best get an invite. And schools can only nominate one player."
"Lucas wasn't good enough to go?"
"Oh he was and everyone thought he was a lock to go but Whitey had other ideas."
"How did it get settled?"
"They played for it. One on one at the River Court one night. Oh it was crazy. Like the whole town showed up. That quite possibly could be the most talked about one on one match up in the whole state ever."
"Both of them most have wanted it bad."
"They did but for different reasons. Nathan knew he had a talent and he just wanted to play. No drama, no altercations. He minded his business and just wanted to play. But for Lucas it was more. He was threatened. All his life he had been the top dog. He had been groomed for success. He thought he was the best thing since Michael Jordan and you really can't blame him for that because that was all anybody ever told him. Then here comes this new guy to steal his thunder. Someone just as talented and worse, imagine your chief rival is the bastard half brother you've heard whispered about your whole life. Lucas couldn't take it. He wanted to win but not for the sake of winning or for making it to High Flyers even."
"Then what was left?"
"Pride. He had something to prove. And the jealousy was eating him alive inside. It's not so much that he had to win but more that Nathan had to lose. I'm sure in his mind he had a lot of doubts that maybe he wasn't good enough to beat him one on one so he tried to take the coward's way out."
"What was that?"
Haley shrugged.
"He bullied him. Gathered his little mob of fellow jock followers and they hazed him and teased him and beat him up…did whatever to make him quit."
Brooke nodded as it all began to make sense.
"Kind of just like the town tried to do with Deb."
"Exactly."
"Let me guess, Nathan didn't give up, did he?"
"Nope."
"And he won?"
A huge grin spread across Haley's face.
"He did. And it was great. Um, basketball turned out to be something neither of them pursued."
"Yeah Deb said something about Nathan living in South Carolina racing cars with her brother."
"Yeah. He's great at it too. It just sucks that it's such a dangerous sport. Anyway, Lucas tried his hand at it. He actually just came back from Charleston last month."
"Yeah but you never got around to the part about how you guys ended up together."
"Oh. After Lucas lost, surprisingly he wasn't bitter. He and Nathan got to know each other and because we all hung out, I got to know Lucas. We became friends and feelings kind of developed and stuff just happened. See with Luke, it's complicated. There is never just black and white. He is probably the most complex person I've ever met. There are so many layers to him. Like I know he loves Nathan. And for the most part they get along but deep down I think Lucas still has some jealousy. Even though he's changed a lot and he works hard to be a good person, he can't completely be that stand up guy. He has a lot of demons he wrestles with. Some of it has to do with how he was raised and some of it is just Lucas. He does try but sometimes trying just isn't good enough. I know it wasn't for me", she ended softly.
"What happened?" Brooke asked, getting so caught up in the story that she had forgotten her manner. "Oh I'm sorry. I guess that was kind of rude. It's really none of my business…"
"It's okay. This is Tree Hill and gossip travels faster than the speed of light around these parts. Anyway, Lucas isn't the marrying type, I guess. It's not all his fault. We probably rushed things. He has a restless heart and mind and uh, I guess he never found whatever it was he was looking for. And he's still searching. And uh…well, he isn't very faithful either."
"I'm sorry, Haley…"
"It's okay. Don't apologize."
"You really love him, huh?"
"I do. I always will. When you love someone and you're so close whether it's friendship or a relationship or marriage, you can't just turn that feeling on and off even if that other person is wrong or they hurt you or piss you off. You might be mad at them but you'll always love him. Just like I'll always love Lucas. And I know deep down he loves me too or at least I'd like to think so. But it just wasn't right. We weren't right for each other. It wasn't meant to be and I accept that now. It sucks and it hurts but you move on, right? Besides, I don't know if we were ever in love with each other. It's a big difference between loving someone and actually being in love with them. I never believed it before but I do now. I guess I had to find out the hard way."
Brooke, open mouthed, was intrigued. The back story itself was more than fascinating but it was nice to drift away from her own past and troubles for once.
"Oh my gosh. I don't know what to say…"
Haley smiled.
"It's okay. I probably said too much. Sorry to bore you with all the drama."
"No. It's okay. I wasn't bored."
"Well, we better get back to these dishes. May as well tackle them not before more start piling up."
"But the dishwasher is broken. What do we do until Skills or Lucas fixes it?"
Haley rolled up her sleeves and motioned towards the big sink.
"Don't worry", she winked. "We use Dawn to get the grease off and it's pretty easy on the manicure."
Brooke made a face as she looked at the dirty plates, some still covered with half eaten food. The pile was bigger than she and Haley combined and it was a disgusting, smelly mess. Sighing heavily, he pinned up her hair and rolled up her sleeves joining Haley. It was a dirty job but someone had to do it.