Disclaimers: As with probably most fan fics on here, I do not own any thing from One Tree Hill.
Although disappointed that Haley didn't come with me to New York, I kinda knew it was for the best. She was married and I'm sure that her leaving would have ruined their marriage and despite all my meddling I really didn't want to be responsible for anybody's failed marriage. Another thing was Haley was still in high school and although you don't have to be the smartest person on the block to be a musician, I'm the first person to say that school is important, it may not be fun, but nonetheless important. As long as Haley kept practicing her music she would be fine.
When I got to New York things moved really fast, I was shocked how quickly I started to play larger and larger venues. About a month after I got to New York I got a call that changed my life and changed me as a musician. I found out that the Wreckers, a cool band so check them out if you haven't yet and not just cuz they gave me a chance, had heard about me and heard my music and wanted me to be their opening act. That kind of thing just doesn't happen usually. Most would probably look at me and see me as an overnight success story although I'm not. I did keep in contact with Haley, we sent emails and imed each other until one night when she told me she loved Nathan and to stop trying to contact her.
The day after I found out I was going to be opening for them I got a chance to meet with them and find out what our tour schedule would be. Of course we would be hitting all the major places but one place they were discussing playing at jumped out at me. The Wreckers' manager had mentioned that he had been persistently asked by a teenage girl to play at this club she owned. I guess she had pointed out that it would be good exposure for them and would give them a more intimate place to play for their fans. If you haven't guessed it by now, the high school I'm talking about is Peyton Sawyer, the club, TRIC, in none other than Tree Hill, North Carolina. I didn't want it to be blatant obvious that I wanted to play there, even though I really did, so I casually mentioned, in my Chris Keller way, that I knew of the place and knew of a gifted musician from there. Tree Hill ended up getting added to our list of stops along the tour, hate to break it to you Peyton, but you had some help from Chris Keller getting the Wreckers to play at Tric.
Michelle and Jessica seemed interested in this musician that I had mentioned I knew from there, so I gave them the tape of me and Haley singing a cover of Ryan Adams' "When The Stars Go Blue". To say the least they were impressed with Haley's skills. They also said she was always welcome on the tour cuz they could see she had real talent.
Fast forward a couple more weeks and all of a sudden I was riding a bus back into Tree Hill. Gotta be honest, never thought I would be coming back to this place, but I guess it's the kinda place that just sucks you back in. I was a bit nervous about coming back, hell the last time I was here I almost got my windpipes crushed by a pissed off basketball player and left a lot of other angry people in Tree Hill. Despite all that I was excited to see Haley, I know guys, she's married, trust me you don't need to remind me she reminds me enough herself.
When we got to Tree Hill I did all the sound checks I had to do and then I just tooled around on the bus, mostly to avoid a lot of pissed off people who didn't know I was back in town. Somehow, still don't know how, Peyton had not found out I was the opening act or else I knew she would have decided against us playing, although I knew that would soon change.
I eventually had to leave the bus. I quickly headed backstage, still avoiding people. Right before I walked in I heard Michelle and Jessica telling Haley how they had heard about her and Haley saying that that was impossible. They told Haley that their opening act had told them all about her and that's when I decided to make my entrance. You have never seen two people look as shocked as Haley and Peyton did when they saw me enter and reveal myself as the opening act. Haley got out of there as quickly as she could but Peyton stayed to confront me, although she realized there wasn't much she could do now that I was there. She did give me a very frosty introduction though when she introduced me, gee thanks for that Peyton.
Ok, ready for another jerk move of mine. No, I didn't skip out of playing like I did the last time. This time I play, I played "When It Comes", but I kinda dedicated to Haley. Nathan didn't like that one and if looks could kill, the look he gave me right after I made the dedication would have killed me instantly. After I played I got off the stage as quickly as possible, there was no way I was staying out there longer than I needed. When I got back to the dressing room I got visited by two people.
Nathan was the first to visit me, he told me that he had been planning on giving me a pounding, but decided against it, thank God. He said that Haley saw me as a pathetic poser so why did I even come. While that was a bit of a blow I gave him a blow of my own when I hit below the belt and questioned his trust in Haley and her love for him. Don't ever say I can't give it as well as take it. Nathan left shortly thereafter. Only to soon be replaced by my next visitor.
As I was getting ready to leave to get back on the bus, Haley came to see me. At first she claimed it was just to tell me I had played a good set but I called her on her bluff. I knew the real reason she had come to talk to me was to ask about life on the road, I could see that she was kinda questioning whether she had made the right move a couple months before when she stayed. I played on that insecurity and told her that Michelle wanted her on tour with us. I mean, isn't that what every new musician wanted to hear, that an established musician who was famous liked their voice and wanted to tour with them. I told Haley that the bus would leave in a couple hours and the choice was hers. I left to get on the bus them, not knowing if she would end up joining me, but I was sure as hell hoping she would.
Later that night as we were finishing packing up all the equipment and whatnot, she appeared, I couldn't believe it even though it was what I wanted, Haley chose her music over her husband. Although I was excited about that I knew it was probably the hardest decision she had ever made. As we were rolling out of Tree Hill, Haley just sat quietly staring out the window. Everyone gave her her space cuz everyone could see she needed it.
When she finally made a noise it has her crying, she was crying herself to sleep. I started to get up so I could go over and comfort her, but Jessica stopped me and gave me a look as though to say 'Let me handle this one.' I'm not sure if whatever Jessica whispered to her helped or if she just finally fell asleep. Jessica finally came back over to where I was sitting and softly whispered, "Girl problems, you'll never understand."
The tour went smoothly from then, Haley started to open up as each tour spot went on, but there were still times she needed to be alone and so we all gave it to her. You could tell that there were times she felt bad about being selfish and putting her music before her marriage.
A few weeks after we started touring Haley and I got the chance of a lifetime. Usually it's the top acts on tour, in this case the Wreckers and Gavin DeGraw, who get to be interviewed on television, but Joey, our backstage manager, arranged it so Haley and I could get interviewed by Nick Zano. Haley was so excited; she called Nathan and told him the good news and whatnot. She was so happy for this chance but something happened that made it not a good experience. Don't put all the blame on me; I'm not completely responsible this time. Right before we were to go onstage Joey told her to take off her wedding ring, she said no, Joey walked off backing off on his request but you could tell he was not happy. I tried to convince Haley that her wearing her wedding ring would not be the best thing. I tried to tell her that the music was the most important thing, but she said that Nathan was most important. I asked her why she was with me then, instead of her, she couldn't answer that. Despite that she did end up wearing her ring during the interview and she did tell Nick that her last name was Scott during the interview, so I guess points to her. I may have ruined all her work when I implied that we were dating. That was the last thing that was said in the interview, Haley wanted to correct the lie but they wouldn't let her. To say the least Haley was very mad at me, only other time was she as mad at me as she was in that moment. She even slapped me.
I guess soon after Nathan paid her a visit while we were down in Texas, thank God I didn't see him, after that last thing I surely would have been a dead man had he seen me. You could tell behind the scenes she was nearing her breaking point but she never let it show on stage, she's an amazing performer in that way.
We kept performing for a more weeks until one day Haley came to us all and said she had to leave the tour, Nathan had had an accident and they weren't sure what would happen with his condition. I felt bad for than man, cuz that really sucks, but he sure had shitty time, we only had a few more weeks left of the tour and all of a sudden Haley was leaving cuz of him.
The next day she showed up again, back on tour, I guess Nathan had told her not to come home, stupid man. I mean it was good for us, not losing Haley, but could Nathan be any more stupid?
That wasn't the end of news from Tree Hill, a couple days after Nathan's accident, Nathan's father, Dan Scott, aka The Devil, if you think I'm bad multiply what I have done by infinity and you may have 1/1000 of evilness that this man has, shows up and gives Haley annulment paper. This nearly broke Haley's heart cuz she was actually about to leave the tour again but the annulment paper caused her to stay.
Then about a week later, Haley's best friend and a hot friend of the both of their's showed up, Lucas Scott and Brooke Davis had come to visit Haley. They couldn't have walked in at a worst time, cuz Haley and I were in the middle of a tickle war so what they saw looked bad. I quickly left, you see neither of them liked me and Lucas is Nathan's brother, so yeah that would have been bad. I had interviews I had to get ready for anyways. Interviews that Haley was supposed to participate in also but she somehow wiggled out of those, no problem, more time to talk about me.
When I got back, Haley and her friends were nowhere to be found, so I just practiced. As I was practicing Brooke walked by, it looked like she had been shopping but what else would that girl do? I played her a song, what do you think of it? "Lucas and Haley aren't back yet(!) But you can come in to the Devil's lair. Drop your things… have sex with Chris Keller…whatever." Yeah she wasn't impressed either.
Haley and Lucas showed up shortly thereafter so I couldn't continue wooing Brooke. Actually I ended up talking to Lucas, don't know how that one happened. Let's just say Lucas wasn't too happy with me and pretty much blamed me for everything wrong with his brother, which I think is slightly fair but not completely, I repeated what I have been saying for a while, I'm just helping Haley, there's nothing going on between us, cuz there's not. I mean yes I like her, but I do realize kissing her, not the smartest move I ever made, marriage and love are important things and it's wrong to try and ruin that.
Anyways, Haley ended up leaving the tour shortly thereafter, we were almost done but she couldn't continue. I actually was one of the reasons she left, no she was repulsed by me, this is what happened. On our second to last tour date I decided to change things up a bit and do a cover song of the '80s song "I'm Missing You." Haley had been onstage at the time with me and the audience was getting into it and all. It was in that moment that every emotion that she had been carrying caught up with her and she realized that nothing, not all the celebrity in the world would matter without Nathan. Yes I think it was a good realization to have, although it was not a good time to have it, you see she had it in front of an audience of 3,000. Haley left that night; we all knew it was her time to leave us, although none of us wanted her to.
After the tour was done, I settled back into life as a musician in New York City, nothing glamorous, but I loved it. As I tried to write song I kept thinking about Haley and Nathan. It got to the point where I couldn't think of anything else, not sure if it was a guilty conscience or what but I decided to write a letter. No, not to Haley, to Nathan. Surprised, yeah so was I, here I was writing a letter to a man who hated my guts but to who I knew I had to write to. The letter basically said that I didn't want to cause anymore problems in his and Haley's relationship, I never really meant to and I would do anything I could do to help Haley and her music, but only if Nathan wanted me to, it was on his terms now. I expected him to just tear up the letter and never hear from him.
That is, until I got the call.
Please send me reviews, I know people are reading this but for some reason I am not getting any reviews, send them anonymously if you don't want me to know who is leaving the review but please send me a review, good or bad. Also with Thanksgiving coming up, I won't be able to post for probably another week or so, but I have like one more part to this story. But review, review, review, the sooner I get reviews the sooner I'll post the last part.