Leaving Town
Swings
Her cell phone vibrated, she could hear it moving on the kitchen counter. She closed the fridge door with her foot, holding the orange juice in one hand and picked up her phone and opened it, "Hello?" she opened the orange juice with her free hand and poured it into a glass.
A voice on the other end shockingly answered her hello, "Haley James?" The voice on the under end sounded really shocked, almost disbelief.
Haley was almost afraid to answer, fear of it being some weird stalker person, she set the glass of juice in front of the little girl sitting on a stool at the counter, "Don't spill it Meredith, I don't feel like cleaning up another mess," Haley said, holding the phone away from her mouth, but the person on the other side heard, "Yes, I'm Haley James, what can I do for you?" she closed the orange juice and sat on the counter next to it.
The person on the other end sounded really excited, "Haley, its me, Brooke, we're planning a little get together, and Lucas already owes me fifty bucks cause I'm talking to you-"
"You made bets if I would answer the phone?" Haley sounded really mad.
"Haley, its not like that, you're the one who left with barely a good-bye, and it was just to me," Brooke said, loosing her cheeriness and taking on a defensive tone.
"Not true, I wrote Nathan a letter, and put it in the box with all his stuff he ever gave me, or left at the apartment, and left it for him, please tell me he did not miss a big box blocking up his doorway," Haley said, and looked at Meredith, "Meredith, take small sips, I'm going to have to give you a cup with a lid," Haley sighed, and Brooke heard her say that too.
"Haley, who's Meredith? Don't tell me, that's so cliché, Haley!"
"She's my niece, my brother's daughter, he's off fighting the war, making her mine for the time being."
"Wow, sorry, I guess I jumped to conclusions, okay, so, I'm calling not because I wanted to catch up, well I do, but this isn't the real reason for calling. I, well, we want you to come back for Whitey's funeral. He passed away yesterday. He wanted you to sing at his funeral. Haley if you don't want to, or not doing that thing anymore, it's cool, we can just work around it."
Haley looked at her watch, "When is it?" she hopped off the counter to look at the calendar on the wall, it had writing all over it of things she had planned. "Oh, what about Meredith?" Haley smiled looking at her little niece.
"Well, we'd like for you to be here tomorrow. Meredith can come, no problem with that."
"No, I mean, if I'm going to sing, who's going to watch Meredith? I already planned to bring her if I came," Haley looked at her calendar, what was written for tomorrow, then looked at Meredith.
"Well, I could, or Peyton, or Karen, I'm sure Karen would love to do it."
Haley sighed, she knew it was for a good cause, "I'll think about it, Brooke, I have to go," Haley hung up the phone. "Meredith, do you want to go to Tree Hill, where me and your daddy and your aunts and uncles grew up?"
Meredith looked at her, "Okay, if there's a swing there."
Haley smiled, "Yes, there's swings there." Now it was up to her if they were going or not.