Leaving Town
Coming Home
Nathan felt bad. He had said some things to Haley he didn't mean, and was trying to talk to her to fix them, but he couldn't find her anywhere at the party. He figured he had missed her and thought he could talk to her the next morning, work things out.
He walked up to his door, ran into the box, then looked down at it. It had his name on it, so he assumed it was for him. He sat down next to it and ripped the tape away and looked inside. The first thing he saw inside was the note on top. He tossed it aside, he wasn't much of a reader.
All the stuff in the box looked familiar. He started digging his hand through the box, messing up Haley's order, obviously looking to see if something was there. He felt a raindrop and decided it would be best to take everything inside.
He put the lid back on the box, picked up the note he had disregarded earlier and walked inside and up to his room. He put it down on the floor and crawled into his bed, since he was there, the box could wait.
Yeah, it could wait, it waited for months, mostly because he forgot it sat there, behind his door, getting squished every time the door was slammed open, out of sight, out of mind. He was mad, he walked around thinking Haley had skipped town, not even bothering with a good bye to him, well, more hurt than mad, he couldn't believe it.
Peyton slammed open the door to his room carrying a big brown cardboard box, "I swear, you must be a pile of worthless crap, since you can't manage to pack anything of your own, except that box there," she said referring to the box Haley left. She dropped the box she had and picked up that one, and opened it, "And you didn't even do that right, its jumbled random things, way to go Nathan, are you listening, could you put down the controller for two seconds, NBA live can wait."
He looked at her, "I didn't do that, somebody left it on my step months ago, I just kept forgetting to go through it, and no, I can't put down the controller, what part of NBA LIVE do you not get?"
She shook her head and sighed, "The part where I'm about it rip it out of the socket, now get your lazy ass up and out of the bed before I leave you here and not take you and all your crap to THCC." She started pulling things out of the box, "Was it packed like this?" she said, pulling out a ball of stuff.
He looked at it, "No, I don't think so, I went through it, sort of, but it started to rain, and I was tired, so I left it." He kept playing his game. He didn't really feel like leaving his bed, let alone his room, or his house, to go off to college, he wasn't one for learning.
She started pulling things apart, sorting them into different piles among his other things, then picked up the envelope, which was a little crumpled now, "Nathan, you want this?" she said, showing him the letter, practically waving it in his face.
He looked at it, not really paying attention, "Yeah, just put it with the rest of my mail, I'll read it later." He eyes stayed fixated on the screen, his fingers moving around the controller without having to look what he was doing, he had everything memorized.
Peyton looked around the room, "What other mail?" she said, looking for the place to stick the letter, also noticing the disgusting state of his room. It was really bad, and she had just now noticed the odor coming from the room, "And do you have any air freshener? This room is making me nauseas. It reeks, have you heard of cleaning?"
He continued with the game, "Under the door, they find it funny to slip it under there, so all over the floor under the door," he chucked to himself and smiled, shaking his head at his parent's attempts to make him do something.
Peyton now noticed the pile of mail on the floor, "You know what, I'm going to need more than boxes, I need air freshener, garbage bags, and when I come back, I need your lazy ass up, or I'm ripping out the Play Station, got it?"
By the time Peyton got back, nothing had changed in the room ,except now Nathan had a beer and a sandwich, which meant sometime he had gotten up, or Peyton hoped. She didn't exactly want to ask. She dropped the things she had on the floor and ripped the power strip from the wall, and practically everything in the room went out, the TV, the Play Station, the lamp, the CD player, "Now that I have your attention," she said, and took the controller from his hand, "You are on garbage duty, get a garbage bag and put all trash in it, this includes food, drinks, anything with mold, almost all of the crap under your bed, then, get a laundry basket, or in your case, two or three, and make all the dirty clothes burying this room go in them," she started spraying the room with some air freshener, it smelled like flowers and a summer day, then opened the window and pulled back the curtain, "You will not get the Play Station back until you have done what you are told."
He looked at her, "Now you're my mother? Or my prison warden, jeez, and now you make my room smell girly, thanks Peyt, really, thanks."
She handed him the garbage bag, "You are supposed to report to your dorm in four hours, and if you'd like to go there with nothing but the clothes and filth on your back, be my guest, but I guarantee nobody's going to want to hang around with you."
He grumbled, but got up to help anyways, "You are like a slave driver my friend," he picked up a plate of something off the floor, "Mmm, smells good, want a bite," and he held it to her face.
"Nathan, put it in the bag, and move on, please, besides, the fate of your Play Station depends on it," she smiled.
He actually completed his task, and they had him packed by the time it was time for them to leave. They were both attending PGCC this year, with Brooke and Lucas. Lucas was going there because of the money situation, and couldn't afford a better college, and Nathan and Brooke because of grades. Peyton went along because she didn't want to go to some other city without anyone she knew, plus, they all needed to look out for Nathan right now, he wasn't really doing the best, and needed them to help him get back on his feet.