Forgive & Forget (Chapter seven)
/So when I moved back to Tree Hill, I slowly started to realize how much I missed it there. At the beginning, I was homesick, yeah, but mainly for my family not school. There was no way in a million years I'd ever regret leaving Tree Hill High when I did. I was miserable there, but not anymore. When I walked into that building, I look at it in a new light as well as almost everything else. Like my past couldn't upset me because I had grown up so much. And in a way, I was right. The girls who gave me snotty looks or people who pointed at me when they thought I wasn't looking saying, "There goes the girl who fell apart after Nathan dumped her for Peyton," didn't really bother me. Sure I hated being the subject of gossip because they usually forgot that Nathan had cheated on me with Peyton and then dumped me. That's why I had been so upset. But was I on the verge of another bout with depression? Hardly. But was I ready to forgive and forget? Not a chance in hell. Just because I had moved passed it doesn't mean it still didn't make me angry every time I saw Nathan or Peyton. Even if they had broken up./
Haley James walked into the school on Monday morning in late March. She headed towards the tutoring centre and sighed when she saw Peyton sitting at one of the tables. Haley's first instinct was to tell her to finally put the bimbo in her place and she would have if it weren't for the sad look on Peyton's face. So Haley decided to just go about her business and leave Peyton alone. She was perfectly content with not speaking to her and let her wallow in whatever qualified as problems in her life because in all honesty, Haley knew she didn't know Peyton that well.
She brushed past Peyton on her way to the desk that Haley usually worked at since she had set the tutoring centre up again. Apparently, the teachers had trouble keeping it afloat without her there. None of the other tutors were as dedicated as she had been so when she had left, so did they. Haley thought it had more to do with the teachers' own laziness but, hey, that was just her opinion. And that's when Peyton opened her mouth and asked a question that almost made Haley laugh. "Haley, can I talk to you for a minute?" Peyton asked. Haley turned around and looked at her in surprise.
"Does it have something to do with courses?" Haley asked. Peyton looked at her in confusion and Haley gestured to the sign on the door, labelling this room the tutoring centre and Peyton smirked and shook her head.
"No, I'm doing fine in all of my classes. I've never had trouble. I'm pretty smart," Peyton said. Haley nodded.
"Well, then, what are you doing here?" Haley asked.
"I think we need to talk," Peyton said.
"Really?" Haley asked. "What on earth could we possibly talk about?" Peyton looked at her sympathetically and then said the one name that could infuriate Haley more than anything.
"Nathan," she replied. Though her blood was boiling, Haley kept her cool as she looked at Peyton expectantly. "We broke up."
"I heard," she said. Peyton looked at her in surprise.
"Well, we have," Peyton said.
"So?" Haley asked, shrugging.
"I thought you'd want to know. Or that you should know," Peyton said. Haley laughed.
"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard," Haley said.
"What?" Peyton asked.
"Well, why on earth would I want to know? And why do you think I should?" Haley asked.
"I don't know. I guess, considering the way Nathan and I started…" Peyton said. Haley stiffened. She turned around and glared at Peyton. Her eyes were burning with molten anger.
"You thought what? That I would want to know that the pain you caused me was really all for nothing since your relationship with Nathan didn't last?" Haley asked.
"I didn't mean it like that," Peyton said.
"Or did you come here to twist the knife that stuck in my back in grade nine? Maybe you thought that because you dumped Nathan and he didn't dump you, you're still one up on me or something," Haley asked.
"Ok, obviously, coming here was a big mistake," Peyton said.
"Gee, you think?" Haley shot back.
"Look, Haley, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to open up old wounds. I just thought you might want to know that Nathan's free now and I don't care if you get with him," Peyton said. Haley burst out laughing.
"You know for someone who claims to be smart, you act pretty stupid," Haley said.
"I don't get why you're being like this," Peyton said.
"Look, if you think that you owe me some sort of an apology, you're wrong. I'm fine now. If you and Nathan have broken up, I couldn't care less," Haley said. Peyton looked at her in surprise. "For instance, if either one of you are happy, I don't care. Even if you're not, I still don't care because you two threw away whatever good thoughts I had of you when you decided to date each other behind my back. And it's got nothing to do with the fact that my heart was broken by my boyfriend. It's got to do with the fact that I was betrayed by two people I thought I could trust. Do you get it now?" Peyton nodded and left.
"So the two of you really broke up?" Brooke asked.
"Brooke, it's been over four weeks. Of course we did," Peyton said.
"Then, why hasn't Nathan been seen with anyone else?" Brooke asked.
"Maybe he doesn't want to be with someone right now," Peyton said, shrugging. She didn't really care but she knew she had to talk about it since she was Nathan's ex-girlfriend.
"Or maybe he's not over you," Brooke said.
"Or he wants someone else," Peyton said. Brooke looked at her in confusion. "The one that got away," she added. Brooke still looked at her in confusion. "Never mind."
"What about you, Peyton? Any one new on your radar?" Brooke asked.
"Well, now that you mention it, I do happen to have a date," Peyton replied. Brooke looked at her in shock.
"That was quick," Lucas commented. Peyton ignored him.
"Who?" Brooke asked excitedly.
"I don't know if I should tell you," Peyton said. Brooke looked at her in offence.
"Why?" Brooke asked.
"Maybe she doesn't want the whole world to know," Haley replied, sitting down at the table. Though they had had their fare share of confrontations, Peyton and Haley had decided to bury the hatchet and attempt to become friends. So far it was working.
"I can keep a secret, Peyton. Please tell me," Brooke whined.
"Why do you want to know?" Peyton asked.
"I want to support my best friend," Brooke replied.
"You don't need to know who she's dating to support her," Haley pointed out.
"Butt out, tutor girl," Brooke snapped which sent Haley into a fit of hysterics.
"Well, I already know who it is," Haley said. Peyton smirked as Brooke turned around and looked at Haley.
"You told her before you told me?" Brooke asked. Peyton shook her head.
"Peyton didn't tell me. He did," Haley said. Peyton looked at her in surprise.
"He did?" she asked. Haley nodded.
"Jake tells me everything," Haley said.
"So you know he has a daughter?" Peyton asked.
"Of course. Whenever we hung out, Jenny was with her. Jake and I used to work at a diner in Athens and the owner, like Karen, let him bring Jenny in and he did. She would be lying in the crib some of the time, and when he went on deliveries, yours truly would watch the little darling," Haley said, smirking at the memories.
"Have you and he ever…?" Peyton asked, but stopped because she thought she might be taking this friendship thing too far, but Haley just stared at her in confusion.
"What?" she asked. Brooke leaned over and smirked at Haley.
"I think she's asking if you and Jake were ever more than just the best of pals that you are now," Brooke said. Peyton's cheeks reddened in embarrassment. Haley scoffed.
"That's a good one," she said as she went into yet another fit of hysterics. Jake came over and looked at Haley in confusion.
"Ok. What started this one?" he asked, shaking his head in amusement at Haley. Haley finally calmed down and looked to Peyton who's face was turning more crimson by the second.
"Oh, it was nothing. I was just telling one of my klutz things and Peyton said that she never met anyone who was such as big as a klutz as I was. So I preceded to prove that what I told her was barely skimming the surface," Haley said.
"What did you tell her?" Jake asked.
"I told her about the time that I went ice skating on a lake. I neglected to realize that the ice was thin and breaking so I fell through the ice," Haley said. Jake burst out laughing.
"I remember that! Didn't you have to go the ER?" he asked. Haley nodded.
"I got pneumonia," Haley said. Peyton started laughing at her.
"Oh, my God, Haley!" Lucas exclaimed. Haley shrugged.
"It was fun. I got a ride in the ambulance and my parents actually came home from Paris to see little old me," she said. Jake sighed. He knew that there was a lot of strain with Haley and her parents nowadays since even after her father's heart attack, they still insisted on going on their trips and so once again, Haley was left alone at home.
Two months later…
/So Haley and I had been doing a little dance around each other ever since she came back. When I came to the lunch table, Haley would have to conveniently leave and if I came into the tutoring centre to meet with my tutor, she would start working on something and be in and out of the room all the time, so I never got a chance to talk to her. But the thing was that I wanted to talk to her. I sensed she was going through a rough time, but I didn't know what was wrong. The truth was that I really missed her. Even if it was just chatting with her or her tutoring strategies. My new tutor was an ass. He would flip on me if I didn't understand something and my grades were dropping because of him beating my self-confidence out of me. So I was failing out of grade twelve and doomed to repeat it over. Or I would have if Haley hadn't stepped in that day/
Haley came back after missing two weeks of school. Things seemed a little different walking down the halls. It almost seemed as if the whole school knew that Haley was now without a parent for real this time. Her face crumpled at the realization. She shook her head trying to block out the memory of the phone call she had received from Scott telling her to get on a plane and come to Montreal right away. Montreal was their mother's hometown and her parents had flown there for a vacation instead of a business trip. But the plane had experienced a malfunction and crashed into the runway. No survivors including her parents. So she had gone down to Montreal to bury her parents in her mother's family's mausoleum. Some people who bothered to read the newspaper knew that her parents were now dead and she was at home alone, which wasn't really a change but now there was no chance that her parents would come to home and surprise her because they were on a "permanent vacation" as her mother had called it when she was younger. Haley had left her brother in Montreal and he promised that he and the others would deal with the estate. Haley had promised to pitch in whenever she could but they had insisted that she get back to school and so she had.
Haley walked into the tutoring centre and froze in place when she saw Nathan's tutor, Sam glaring at him. "Seriously, Scott, it seems impossible that someone could be as stupid as you," he said. Nathan looked away from him. "Did your mom help you on those equations?"
"No, I did them myself," Nathan said.
"Well, good. That means your mom's not stupid just like her son is," Sam said.
"Give me a break, Sam. I'm trying," he said.
"Not hard enough," Sam snapped. He went on to talk about all of his bad test scores and Nathan looked really embarrassed as the other students were staring at him. Haley felt her heart catch in her throat because she could tell that Sam was doing a good job of hurting Nathan. She walked over and glared down at Sam.
"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded of him. He looked at her in confusion. "You're his tutor; you're supposed to be helping him with his grades, not berating him in public because he needs a tutor."
"Haley, please, mind your own business," Sam said.
"No. Explain to me how this method is supposed to get his grades up. Seems to me that the only thing it's doing is going to get you punched in the face," Haley said.
"I work with my own style," Sam said through gritted teeth.
"Not in my tutoring centre," she said, shaking her head. She had single-handedly rebuild the tutoring centre and she was managing it. There was no staff support whatsoever. All of the hard work to keep it running was Haley's and she wasn't about to let Sam ruin all of it. Sam shrugged.
"Then, I quit. Good luck passing all of your classes now, Scott," Sam said.
"He'll do fine," Haley said. Sam chuckled at the thought. "He's been reassigned to a new tutor as of this moment."
"And who might that be?" Sam asked, doubtful that anyone could help Nathan now.
"Me," Haley said, looking at him warningly. Sam shrugged and walked away.
"Are you serious?" Nathan asked. Haley's face hardened a bit at him as she nodded. "Why would you want to tutor me after everything that I did?" Haley smirked.
"Are you expressing remorse?" she asked genuinely surprised.
"Haley, I'm not proud of what happened between us. I always regretted hurting you and driving you away," he said. "I'm sorry for what I did." She nodded.
/So I have changed but not that much. It amazes me when people like Nathan or Peyton are so surprised that I'll forgive them so easily. All I wanted was an apology the entire time/
Two hours later…
"I heard about your parents," he said softly. Haley looked at him.
"How?" she asked.
"I was looking for a job in the newspaper and came across their obituaries this morning," he said. Haley had postponed putting the notice in the paper because she wanted to wait until she was at school not for while she was away so sympathy could start growing. She wanted people to realize that she was not going to fall apart and for them to notice that, she had to be there when they found out. She knew there was flaw in that logic but she didn't care.
"Are you ok?" he asked. Haley nodded. He studied her for a minute, unconvinced. She looked up to meet his gaze and her face faltered.
"I'm holding up," she said more honestly. He reached across the table and put his hand on hers and squeezed it.
"I'm here for you," he said.