Chapter ThreeThe Desire of a Half-Empty Heart
Jes stood there staring at her mom and real father. Maria Langley knew immediately by the look on her daughters face that she had overheard her conversation. "Jes, honey, are you alright?" she asked her daughter. "Huh? What? Yeah I'm fine," Jes said still rooted to her spot. "I, I, I, I need to go study," Jes said as she ran up the stairs to her bedroom. The two parents looked at each other knowing that was not at all how they had planned to tell their daughter. "Maybe I should go after her and try and explain," Jes' father said quietly. "No, not yet, let her have some time on her own, and then the three of us will sit down and talk about it." Maria replied. Jes' father told Maria to call him if either of them needed anything and left the house. Maria sat down on the bench in the entry way and put her head in her hands. She was now going to have to do what she had dreaded for the entire 10 years she had been married, she was going to have to tell her husband who her daughters real father was.
Jes sat on her bed, her heart racing, and a feeling of disbelief coming over her. He hadn't known I was even born, that's why he never came looking for me. How could it be him though, how? Jes brought her knees up to her chest and cried for awhile. Finally, she realized what she had to do. Jes changed her clothes fixed her make-up and went downstairs. "Mom, I'm going out for a while," she said while grabbing her keys. She left before her mother even had time to answer.
Jes parked outside Karen's Cafe and looked through the window. Good, she thought, they're here. Shaking she climbed out of the car and went inside. "Hey Jes," Lucas exclaimed "We were actually just talking about calling you to come hang out, isn't that freaky?" Jes just stared at him, "uhhh...freaky, yeah." Jes put on a fake smile and joined the group at the table. "So, I think we should go to a movie tonight," Brooke said. "Brooke you promised no more movies for at least a week," Peyton teased. "Besides," Nathan added "Jes hasn't seen the town yet, she doesn't want to be stuck inside a movie theater. I think we should give Jes the Tree Hill grand tour." Everyone nodded in agreement and they were off. The group consisted of the two Scott boys, Haley, Brooke, Peyton, Jake and Jes. They walked for a while until Brooke complained about how she was ruining her shoes, and then the boys decided they needed to play a pickup game of basketball at the River Court. Jes sat and watched as the three boys played basketball and the three girls practiced some cheers. After a while the girls decided to challenge the boys to a game. Nathan noticed that Jes was just sitting by herself and he didn't want her to feel left out, so he decided to sit the game out. Nathan sat himself on the table next to Jes. "Are you having fun?" "Oh yeah it's always fun to watch girls attempt to play basketball." Nathan laughed. "Hey Nathan, do you mind if I ask you kind of a personal question? I mean you don't have to answer if you don't want to." "Sure, ask away." Jes took a deep breath "What's your dad like Nathan?" Nathan sat there not sure if he understood the question correctly. "My dad?" "Yeah," Jes said softly loooking at her hands. "I mean I just never knew my real dad, and I was wondering what it is like to have one." "Well, my dad is the nicest of people, in fact he isn't nice at all. He tries to control everyone and everything and he always seems to mess up peoples lives." "So, that's the reason you got emancipated?" "Yeah, one of the main reasons." They sat in silence for a minute "Well, at least you got to know him." "Yeah that is true, I know there has to be a good person in him somewhere, but I'm not sure where." Jes began to laugh. "What?" Nathan exclaimed. "Well it just kind of sounded like you were talking about Darth Vader." With that the both of them started laughing so hard they almost fell off the table. The group stayed at the River Court for about another hour and then went their seperate ways. Jes got in her car thinking about how much fun she had, and as she was driving home she passed the dealership where she had bought her car. Jes noticed that a light was stll on in the main office. She pulled in, parked her car, and got out. Her legs were shaking so bad that she could barely move. She opened up the door to the dealership and looked inside to the main office. She saw him sitting there looking at papers behind his desk. When Dan looked up and saw her he had a look of suprise in his eyes. He saw his only daughter standing in the entrance to his office. They just simply looked at each other for a good 30 seconds and then she whispered two words just loud enough for them to become real and for him to hear. "Hi, Dad."