Down the street at James house, Haley, who didn't feel like being in her apartment right then, was grabbing a bottle of water from her fridge when she heard the door open and two pairs of shoes coming down the hall. "Hey Guys" she said without turning around, knowing exactly who it was.
"Hales, I'm Sorry" Chloe began "I thought they knew"
"It's fine Chlo…It makes sense for you to think I would have told them…I should have, especially Luke"
"Yeah Hales, he didn't look to happy about it" Hayden said, wrapping her up into a hug "Neither did Nathan, especially whenever I touched you" at this Haley laugh and Hayden winked "But seriously, I'm sorry we're causing so much drama already" he said with a small smile.
"Bright side? She's got to be used to it by now, I mean, living with Brooke Davis?" Chloe spat out.
"What's your deal with Brooke?" Haley said a little annoying with her old friend "what she ever do to you?"
"Jeez Hales, nice to know where your loyalties are" Chloe replied "and not what she did to me, what she did to you, don't you remember ho much of a bitch she was to you? And now she's like trying to battle me over who's your best friend" Chloe finished, looking at Hayden for support but the contents of Haley's empty fridge seemed to have captured his attention.
"Don't come at me with that loyalty crap, you know you're my best friends, but you cant come back in after two years and insult the people that I care about, a lot's changed since you've been gone." Haley stated, a little hurt by Chloe's comment.
"I'm Sorry Hales" Chloe finally said, walking over to cuddle into Haley "I guess I just expected everything to be the same, ya know? I get that it came be, but it just sucked to have to hear that from Brooke" the red head said with a smile, kissing Haley's cheek then sitting down with her brother.
"I know Chlo…and thanks for not immediately biting her head off" Haley said with a grin, knowing how over protective they both got of her.
"If Nathan says one wrong word to me, he's done. Just fair warning" Hayden said to Haley, in all seriousness. "No one hurts my Haley and gets away with it" Haley smiled, ruffling his shaggy hair as she walked by.
"Come'n you two, lets get ready for tonight, we'll go to Tric, Peyton always has awesome bands playing there, and yes, there's a bar" Haley added with a wink, not mentioning that Karen was usually tended bar so they weren't going to get anywhere with their fake ID's or flirting.
Meanwhile, back at the café, Brooke was still steaming over Chloe's arrival, Hayden's presence always seemed to be overshadowed by his boisterous little sister.
"Who does she think she is? Coming in here and attacking me like that, like she knows what me and Hales relationship is like, or Peyton and Hales for that matter."
"Brooke, calm down. Why are you getting so worked up over this? Its noting to do with you now, but when Clover was close to Hales, you weren't exactly the nicest person to her, I guess its just hard for her to understand how Haley could forgive, much less be good friends with, someone who used to make her cry" Lucas said, trying to make her feel better, instead gaining a hurt look from Brooke. "what?" he asked wanting to know what he did to upset his "girlfriend".
"I used to make her cry?" Brooke asked
"You weren't exactly the nice to here" Peyton reminded her
"I know, but everything I said just seemed to roll off her, like it never bothered her" Brooke said in her defense.
"You know Hales, she's a private kind of girl" Lucas said shrugging.
"Speaking of…What was that Chloe girl talking about?" Nathan asked, getting a nod from Peyton who seemed really interested and rather worried about the whole thing.
"I don't know man, Haley never said a word to me about it, maybe it was during her parents divorce? She just didn't want to be around it?" Lucas suggested, thinking out loud.
"Haley's parents are divorced?" Nathan asked, shocked that he didn't know even this.
"Yeah, Mr. James isn't really her dad, he's her step dad, but Hales calls him dad and doesn't really mention it because he's been really good to her" Lucas said, racking his brain, trying to remember anything of Haley's real dad. "She was either here or we were at the Harris's…so I don't even think I ever met her real dad"
"Interesting." Peyton and Brooke mumbled at the same time, both knowing that neither were going to be happy until they knew what had happened and why Haley never told them.
"Obviously its nothing she didn't want us to know" Nathan shot at the two girls "If she wants you to know, she'll tell you."
"Jeez Nate, calm down, we were just worried is all.." Peyton said, holding her hands up in mock surrender
"No you weren't, you were just angry that she didn't think to tell you in the first place." Nathan said over his shoulder as he stood up and walked out of the café. The three remaining just looked back and forth to each other before Peyton finally spoke up.
"Why does everything think I don't care about Haley?"
"Well P. Sawyer" Brooke began, "you haven't exactly been the nicest to her lately."
"Ya know, no one seems to get the fact that when she left, she didn't just leave Nathan." Peyton said to the two before following the recent trend and exiting the café.
"Lately I have no idea what's going on in her head." Brooke admitted, looking at her boy toy "But I'm pretty sure Tree Hill just got a lot more interesting."
"I guess you could say that" Lucas responded, suddenly not sure of what the return of his old friends could do.
"Lucas" she said with a sigh "Lets go out tonight."
"Sure Brooke, Where?"
"Peyton's working at Tric so I figured we could visit her?" she said hopefully.
"Tric it is" Lucas said before exiting the café with Brooke.
It was all Karen could do to just shake her head after watching the whole scene unfold.