Chapter 12- Leaving To A New Town
"So what hotel are we staying at here, the Hilton, the Marriott?" Nathan asked, looking around their new surroundings.
"Actually, none of the above," she replied, looking at her watch.
"Holiday Inn? Best Western?"
"Nope."
"Umm… a little local inn, a B&B?"
"Still wrong," she said, as a car pulled up, "And that would be our ride."
"What happened to the limos?"
"Not here," she said, opening the door to the backseat and climbing in. Nathan got in the front, realizing it was a car, and Haley wasn't scooting over. "Okay, Nate, that is Jennifer, one of my best friends, well in New York City," Haley motioned to the driver.
"Hi, Jennifer," he said politely, looking at her, then straining his neck back to look at Haley, "Who's that?" he asked, pointing to the girl next to her.
"Libby," she answered simply.
Nathan looked to the woman he was sitting next to, "She yours?"
"No, seriously, I am happy with my figure, for now at least, I'm young, Oh My Gosh, Haley, you didn't tell him, you promised me you would."
"I was going to…"
"Tell me what?" Nathan asked, looking confused.
"Not here, Jenn, later, I promise."
"Fine, but if you don't tell him by sundown, I will, and it sure as hell won't come out as nice from me as it would you."
"I'll tell him," Haley said, defeated, "Jenn, could we go for ice cream first?" Haley asked.
"Already ahead of you," she laughed, it's funny how the mood just changed so quickly, and Nathan was still lost back in their last argument.
"Libster, what kind do you want?"
"Green!" she shouted excitedly.
"Libby, Green is not a flavor, it's a color."
Nathan laughed, "Green is so a flavor, and a darned good one at that, Hales, where have you been?"
"Well, I guess I was never taught green was a flavor. I always thought it was a color, a color you get when you mix yellow and blue."
"We're here," Jenn announced, pulling into a rather empty parking lot, of an old fashioned ice cream shop, it looked like something right from the fifties.
Haley held Libby's hand as the walked inside, and the girl skipped along beside her. Nathan finally got a good look at her, she looked oddly familiar, like someone he had seen before, but he couldn't put his finger on who. They sat at the counter on swivel stools, Libby kept spinning round and round, grabbing onto the counter to keep going.
Haley fought the urge to yell at her in public, she wasn't really doing anything wrong, but it was still kind of annoying, but remembered how she used to love spinning around on the tall stools at Karen's Café when she was younger and spent most of her time there. No one ever yelled at her to stop, but it was distracting, seeing her go round and round out of the corner of her eye, and she worried that she would fall. The waitress stood behind the counter, watching Libby and smiling, "Cute kid, so what can I get you folks?"
"Green!" Libby shouted smiling.
"Green what?" the waitress asked, playing along.
"Ouch Cream, Green Ouch Cream."
"Green Ouch Cream… hmmm… want clouds on it?"
"Ya!" she smiled, knowing just what the lady meant.
"And what about raindrops?"
"Yes, please."
"And a little girl like you probably likes a brown river running down it too, right?"
"Yup."
"Okay, coming up, anyone else?"
"I'll have the same as shorty over there," Nathan said, he knew good and well what the lady meant too, "Only add a red beach ball on top."
"Can do."
"Um, I'll just have a banana split, with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, cherries, with the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream, and nuts, oh, and nuts."
"Yes ma'am, and for you miss," the waitress asked Jenn.
"Soft-serve vanilla in a cone."
"Plain Jane over here, huh, okay, be back shortly."
Haley turned to Nathan, "What is Green Ouch Cream, with clouds and raindrops and a brown river and a red beach ball?"
"Mint ice cream, with whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate syrup and a cherry."
"How do you know that?"
"Common sense, Libby sure has a good taste in ice cream."
"That just sounds odd."
"But good, miss traditional banana split."
"Banana splits are foods of the gods."
"And macaroni and cheese, and Lucky Charms, and hot chocolate…"
"Okay, the gods like a lot of foods."
"If you say so."
"I like mac an cheese," Libby added her two cents, "An Lucky charmses, and hot cocoa, and naner splits."
"We all know you do, Libs."
"I didn't," Nathan said, adding in.
"Right, forgot, Jenn, why are you so quiet?"
"Don't have much to say I guess, I don't know, I don't want to say something wrong, um," she picked her cell phone off the counter, "It's work, I have to go, um, I'll take your bags and drop them off, you can walk from here right?"
"Oh yeah, go, and thanks so much."
She was grabbing her things as the waitress came back with her ice cream, and she took it to go.
"Nice friend," Nathan said, after she left.
"Yea, she is, so um," Haley took a bit of her ice cream, "I kind of need to tell you something. There was this night on a tour in 2009, spring, it was cold, and rainy, it was our stop in Chicago. One of the best nights I remember on that tour. It was my 'Like It Never Happened' tour."
"And…"
"You remember that one?"
"Yea, I went to it in Chicago, it was the closest one to Tree Hill, first time I saw you since our fall out. We talked afterwards, got a little drunk, okay a lot drunk, hated each other, at first, then made out, and I remember leaving real early the next morning."
"We slept together."
"Yeah, I do remember that, we were drunk as, um, well, we were really drunk," Nathan said, remembering, and noticing Libby sitting there.
"Libbyismydaughter," she said, really fast, and incomprehensible.
"What?"
"Libby is my daughter."
