Lucas and Haley were walking along the river with their arms linked and were talking about past memories.
"I thought we weren't going to mention that ever again" Luke said, his cheeks getting red. He was clearly embarrassed by the fact that Haley still remembered the time when he'd come to school one day in his pajamas thinking it was pajama day when it was actually just a regular school day. "And how can you still remember that?"
"How could I not remember that?" Haley said and started laughing again. "Hey Lucas, what's wrong?" but Lucas gave no reply.
"Who is she and what did she do?" Haley sighed and looked expectantly at Lucas who just looked at her with a sad expression on his face matching the gloomy atmosphere around them. "You're thinking about it right?" After the school shooting the students had come to the habit of calling that day 'it', so that it wouldn't be as painful to talk about.
"I just" Lucas let out a long sigh before continuing. "I can't even bare the thought that I'll be going to a party and enjoying myself, and Keith and Jimmy are gone. I feel like I would be betraying them"
"Keith would have wanted you to be strong about this and he probably would want you to miss him, but I'm positive that he wouldn't have wanted you to miss out on account of him. He would have wanted you to get past it as soon as possible. He wouldn't want you to carry this around" Lucas turned to her quickly with an angry expression lurking on his face.
"You didn't know him like I knew him" he snapped before walking off into the distance, leaving Haley dumb-struck and confused.
"Haley?" Nathan stuck his head inside the apartment door, formerly belonging to him, to find Haley sitting in the yellow sofa, hugging a pillow and her eyes glittering with tears. "Hey, what's wrong?" He walked over to her and put a comforting hand around her shoulders. She pulled up her legs and placed them across his thighs and he started to stroke her legs.
"Luke and I had a fight" Haley said between to continuous sniffs. "Well…it was more like he was fighting with me" Nathan wiped a tear off her cheek before giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead and pulling her closer to him.
"You wanna talk about it?" He whispered, stroking her hair gently.
"He kinda just snapped at me" she brought her hands up to her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I said that Keith wouldn't have wanted him to be too sad and that he would have wanted him to not suffer on a count of him, and he said that I didn't know Keith like he knew him" Haley let out a few more sniffs before burying her face in Nathan's chest and crying uncontrollably.
"Hey. He doesn't have the right to treat you that way, but I think he's just going through a tough time" he rocked her gently from side to side as he spoke to her with a soft and kind voice. "I'm sure he didn't mean it. He needs you right now Hales. He needs all of us"
Lucas was lying on his bed, Kings of Convenience playing on his MP3 at the loudest volume and thoughts running in and out of his mind. Mostly he was thinking of Keith, but ever time he did he would try to push it out of his mind by staring intensively at a spot on his wall. His eyes would start to wonder to where he had a picture of him and Haley by the river court and that led to the conversation he'd had with her a few hours before and that just led straight back to Keith.
"Lucas?" Haley called out from outside the door to Lucas room. "Come on Luke just open the door! It's freezing out here, the rain is pouring down and I'm going to catch pneumonia!" Lucas woke from his sleep like state when he heard mumbles from the door. He walked over and opened the door trying to think of who could possibly want to go outside in this kind of weather.
"Haley?" Lucas looked slightly surprised when Haley, soaking from head to toe, almost ran into his room. He turned to face her and he noticed that her eyes were puffy. "What's wrong?"
"You're seriously asking me that?" she was pained by the fact that he didn't seem know how much he'd hurt her.
"Well I just" Lucas started but had a loss for words. "You know"
"Luke" Haley walked over to him and grabbed his hand. "You need me. I know that. So please don't snap at me like that, and please don't make us fight, because you need someone to help you get through this, because face it, you can't do it on your own" she smiled at him and he couldn't help smiling back at her.
"I'm so sorry Hales" he paused for a while as he went over to his bed and lay down. "I didn't know what I was doing. You have no idea how bad I felt afterwards. I even thought of going back to you and apologizing"
"Why didn't you?" Haley looked at him with her puppy dog eyes.
"I was scared" Lucas said softly.
"Luke, you have every right to be scared" she walked over to his bed and lay down beside him. "And I want to help you not be scared anymore. I want to help you" Lucas grabbed her hand and let out a long sigh. They lay there for hours and were only interrupted when Haley's phone rang. It was Nathan.
"Hey I'm so sorry it's just that I –" but Haley was interrupted by Nathan who went over to kiss her.
"Doesn't matter" He mumbled pulling her into his arms. "How come you're so wet?" He finally asked, looking a bit confused.
"If you haven't noticed, it's pouring down rain outside" she said with a playful tone in her voice. She walked over to the linen closet and took out a dry towel. She started to dry her hair with it when Nathan came over to her and took it out of her hands.
"I wanna show you something" he whispered in her ear before grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.
"What are you doing?" She yelled pulling strands of hair from her face. It was still raining outside and they were making their way to Nathan's car.
"Just get in" He opened the door for her and she quickly slid inside. He closed the door before running over to the other side and sliding into the driver's seat.
"Lucas?" Brooke yelled as she saw a dark figure moving towards her. "Lucas come on this is not funny" The figure moved closer and closer and she could feel her heart starting to beat faster and faster. She could hear the steps coming closer but she couldn't move, her legs were as glued to the ground.
"Nathan?" She called out. "Is that you?" But there was no reply which made Brooke feel even more anxious than she already was. Finally the dark figure stepped into the light coming from a street light and she could see who it was.
"Keller?" She let out a sigh of relief. "What are you doing here?" The tone of her voice told him that she was annoyed.
"Brooke" He put down his guitar case and walked closer to her, but she took a few steps back so that he could never get close enough to see the anger on her face. "I came to pay my respects"
"Yeah sure like that's what you want" Brooke tried furiously to give signs that she wanted him to leave, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Well" Chris continued. He walked over to the street lamp and leaned against the pole, taking out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one. "Actually I came back for you"
"Keller, I am not in the mood for this right now" Brooke started to walk away but was pulled back by a hand that had grabber her upper arm. "Let me go"
"You come with me Brooke" he whispered in her ear before pulling her violently out of the light and into a black Mercedes.