Chapter Four
Find Me Again

Nathan Scott leaned across an unmade bed reaching for an opened book laying on the nightstand. The right hand top corner of the page was creased keeping her place. She loved to read. Nathan closed his eyes and laid his head back on her feather pillow. He sneezed. He was allergic to feather pillows. She knew that.

He opened his eyes and glanced at the cover of the book. It was blue. He glanced at the open bedroom door and thought about Haley. Haley's favorite color was blue maybe that is why all her book covers were blue.

Terin Scott had no idea her favorite author, Haley James, was Mrs. Nathan Scott long before she was.

The book remained in his hands and he finally looked down at it. He started reading. "... I remember when everything seemed so simple and nothing seemed to matter. There were no bills, no jobs, and no one to worry about other than you. Now here I am getting older and older by the minute and the only thing I can find time to do is worry. Worrying about whether or not my bills will get paid. Worrying if I fed my dog. Worrying about whether or not love will ever find me again..."

Nathan kept reading until he heard a knock at the door. He looked up. It was Terin. "Hey Hon. Sleep well?"

He threw the book over the bed, "Oh... yeah. Perfect."

She smiled. She had these perfectly white, chiclet like teeth. "Good, I'm glad." She glanced at the door, her short blonde bob moving slowly, and then looked back at him, "Well, um," She shoved her hands deep into her cargo pants, "Ava has dance." She looked down at her watch, "So I need to get going."

"Terin I am leaving today. Can't someone else take Ava to dance? Like your mom or someone?" Nathan asked becoming frustrated with the fact that he hadn't seen his wife in so long.

"Nathan, no, they can't. Mom is not feeling well."

He walked in to his closet and threw several shirts onto the bed. "Well, ya know, Terin, I just wanted to spend sometime with you before I left..."

"Again," She butted in. "Before you left again for the fifth time this month. Nathan it is not my fault that we never get to see each other anymore... and maybe that's a good thing because anytime we spend more than five minutes together we fight." She picked up the shirts on the bed and neatly folded them.

"Well here I am." He said, throwing his arms into the air, "Here I am talk to me now." She shook her head and continued folding the shirts. Nathan grabbed hold of them and tossed them across the room. He put his hands on her cheeks, "Terin. Talk to me."

She pushed him away, walked across their master bed room, and slowly turned around. She put her hair behind her ear and twisted her wedding ring around her finger. "I want a divorce."

Nathan walked toward her, "What?"

"I want a divorce Nathan." She scooped up the shirts and put them onto the bed. She started folding them again, "I am not happy, and neither are you, and neither are Ava, or Max, or Kelley. And I just can't stand living like this anymore. I don't think I love you anymore and I don't think you love me anymore and this..." She looked up at him, "This just isn't working anymore."

He sat on the bed trying to soak in everything she had just said. "You knew when you married me that this would take work."

"I never knew that it would take as much work as it has." She paused and looked down. "Nathan I love you for the three children you have given me in the past eight years but..." She looked back up, "But I don't love you for the way you make me feel."

The shirts were folded and her work was done in the room. Terin walked out and yelled for Ava. "Avie, come on doll, you have dance today."

Nathan stood outside the door, "Come on Terin, you don't mean all that do you?"

She remained turned around, her back toward him. "Nathan please. We will talk about this when you get back, but I doubt that I will have changed my mind."

Nathan closed his eyes and Ava tugged on his pants. He quickly opened his eyes. "Daddy, have fun, okay?"

He smiled at her perfectly round nose and her ice blue eyes, "Okay baby."

Terin picked up the three year old and Nathan called to her, "Hey Terin?"

She slowly turned around, blinked at him, and kept walking down the stairs.

Right at that moment something funny happened. His heart broke. She didn't know it, but he really did still love her. Nathan knew exactly what best selling author Haley James meant by, "...Worrying about whether or not love will ever find me again..."

He walked back into the empty bedroom and finished packing his things. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and walked into the bathroom. His hands glided over his personally trained body and climbed into the shower. He had to clean up his body and his life.

Peyton Sawyer-Thomas tapped her toes to the beat inside her studio on the corner of 5th and Civic Street in downtown New Orleans. Recording group, Feeler, was laying down some tracks while Peyton listened carefully making sure no one missed a cord. She sipped on her black coffee and leaned in closely. Hearing something she didn't like she turned off the music, "Nope. Don't like it." She took one more long drink from her coffee and looked at her watch, "We are done for today." She reached for her purse and pulled out her schedule, "Damn, no we are done for the week." She looked up at the guys, "Sorry, gotta go back home."

"That blows." The lead singer, Thadeus Brown, said as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket.

Peyton pulled it out of his hand and tossed it into his glass of brandy, "Nope, not in here you don't. Go outside." She turned off the lights and started to walk out the door. "You think I want my studio to smell like an ashtray. No thanks."

"Whatever." The group said in unison. The drummer hailed a taxi and Peyton watched them disappear.

She tossed her coffee into a metal trashcan next to her studio and walked toward her apartment which was only about seven minutes away. She lived there while her husband lived smack dab in the middle of the city. On the weekends Peyton would go live with him. When she reached the apartment building she buzzed herself in and went up to her humble abode.

Black tees, black pants, blue jeans and Starbucks cups were thrown about the room. Peyton laughed and herself and walked toward her bedroom. Her answering machine blinked the number one. She pressed play.

"Hey Peyton. It's Haley. Um... this is akward. I was just making sure that you were going to Tree Hill this weekend. Um... uh, just give me a call my number is 894-332-8778. Cya."

Peyton started to pick up the phone but her attention was brought to the clock which read 3:31. Peyton's plane left at 4:00.

"Oh shit." She said running toward the door. She hit herself on the head, "Hello? Bags and ticket."

Her luggage and ticket lay on her bed along with a note. "Peyt- I knew you would forget. Here's your stuff. I will miss you and I love you. –T"

Peyton smiled to herself. Her husband, Tyler, had come into her apartment and gotten all her clothes together all by himself. She was so proud.

She grabbed her bags and ticket and headed for the door. She glanced back at her dark apartment, turned and closed the door. As she put the key into the lock she took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." She said. 

Five high school friends depart from normalcy at different times and in different frames of mind.  what will the outcome be?

a.) Rejoice

b.) Hostility

c.) Confusion

d.) All of the above