Author's Note: Okay, so I've had this done for like two weeks now, and I kinda just forgot to post it, so after a gentle reminder from Sandy, I figured I might as well update now. Nothing much to say about this chapter. I don't think I like it that much, but I just want to get this story into the good part, so I'mnot too worried about it. Hope you guys like this chapter, please review!
--OTH--
"Who's the ho?"
Haley had to suppress a laugh at the comment. She knew she could count on Brooke to make awkward moments less so. She could tell by the look on Taylor's face that she wasn't amused by the comment, nor did she seem to like Brooke. Haley wasn't surprised though; she knew that if they ever did meet that they wouldn't get along. They're too alike, same perky personality, same overactive sex drive, and the same desire to cause as much trouble as humanly possible. Not to mention that they both had some kind of sick obsession with trying to get Haley to come over to the dark side with them, while still being insanely overprotective of her. She had hoped that the two would never have to cross paths, mostly because it spelt doom for her, but given the lovely way that Brooke had decided to start their beautiful relationship, it was going to be even worse than she thought it would be.
"You don't know your own name?" Taylor asked in an amused tone, smirking at the brunette girl that she already hated. "Well, you're a cheerleader, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, huh?"
"Okay," Haley stated calmly, sending Brooke a warning look before she could say anything. Brooke knew better than to ignore that kind of look and decided to just glare at the blonde instead. "Let's not get into a bitch contest before you even know each other's names."
"Fine," both Brooke and Taylor mumbled at the same time, much to Peyton's amusement. There weren't many people that were willing to match Brooke jab for jab in the bitch department, but she could tell already that this girl was going to be different. It looked like Brooke might have finally met her match. This was going to be entertaining.
"Thank you," Haley told them; rolling her eyes when she noticed they were both sporting the same pout at her request. She wondered if they realized they were exactly the same or not, and if that just made them hate the other even more.
"Well, what are you waiting for, Haley-bub?" Taylor asked, closing the notebook she had been reading and tossing it onto the bed beside her. "Aren't you going to introduce me to the cheer squad?"
"Taylor," Haley bit out, glaring at her sister, knowing that she was going to have a ball teasing her about being a cheerleader. "This is Peyton and this is Brooke, they're my best friends."
"What happened to Lucas and Skills?" Taylor asked, forgetting about her hate for Brooke for the moment. Last time she had checked, which really wasn't that long ago, her baby sister and the boys were attached at the hip. "Did you ditch them for the Mean Girls?"
"Two of my best friends," Haley corrected her, realizing her mistake. She just realized how many best friends she had. There was Lucas, Skills, Peyton and Brooke. That was a lot, considering most girls only had one or two. "I'm still best friends with the guys."
"Oh, good," Taylor smiled, glad to know that everything hadn't changed completely since she had left. She couldn't imagine Haley not being friends with Lucas and Skills, it just wouldn't seem right, considering how close the three of them used to be. "Cause last time I was home, they were looking pretty hot. I know you've always had a thing for Skills, so maybe I'll just go for Lukie."
Haley and Peyton both reached out and grabbed a hold of Brooke's arms before she could lunge at Taylor for her comment. Taylor watched in confusion for a moment before it dawned on her.
"Oh, are you and Scotty going out?" Taylor questioned innocently. Brooke glared at her best friends for a moment, telling them that they needed to let go, which they did. "Aw, are you his little girlfriend?"
"Ex-girlfriend," Brooke gritted out, ignoring the slight pain that shot to her heart at the words. She hated thinking of herself as Luke's ex-girlfriend. She didn't think she would ever have to refer to herself as that again. Taylor let out a laugh at the way she was acting.
"Then he's free for the taking, honey," she teased, hoping to get another rise out of the brunette. She didn't know who she was, but she knew that she didn't want her baby sister hanging out with her. Taylor James didn't like cheerleaders, didn't like them when she went to high school, and she certainly didn't like them hanging around her little sister.
"Tay," Haley warned, knowing that Brooke didn't have the best self control in the world. Taylor looked at her sister, giving her a 'come on' look, before rolling her eyes when she realized that she wasn't kidding around.
"Who are you, again?" Peyton asked, speaking for the first time since they entered the room. She could tell that Haley was at a lost as to what to do with the two of them, and she figured she could help her friend out by taking charge of the situation. "All I caught was Taylor."
"Right. James," she smirked. "Taylor James." She just nodded at them, deciding that it was too much energy to get up to shake their hands, not that she wanted to anyway.
"James?" Peyton and Brooke asked at the same time. They both looked at their best friend and then back at the hot bitchy blonde sitting on the bed. There was no way; they were so completely different.
"Yep," she smiled brightly at them, knowing exactly what they were thinking. It was the same thing that everyone else thought when they first met her. Haley was the perfect angel of them family, she was the complete screw up. "I'm the proud big sister of that brat."
"Aw," Haley gushed sarcastically, holding a hand to her heart. "The love in this room is really overwhelming." Taylor scoffed at her, more than used to her sister's overdramatic attitude.
"Oh, shut up, Hay," she laughed, surprised at just how much she missed saying those words, how much she missed Haley. "You know my love for you really is overwhelming."
"I can barely breathe," she deadpanned, not being able to hold the smirk back when she saw the goofy grin on her big sister's face. This always happened; no matter how much she wanted to be angry with Taylor, she could never stay mad at her for very long.
"Well," Peyton began, smiling at the two sisters bantering back and forth. She could never imagine Haley as a little sister before, she was always so mature, but just seeing her with Taylor for a couple of minutes, it was clear that Haley could easily be an annoying little sister. "We'll just leave the two of you alone to catch up."
"But we were gonna celebrate…" Brooke began to protest, not liking the idea of her Haley time being lost because the prodigal sister decided to return out of nowhere.
"Come on, Brookie," Peyton cut her off, grabbing her arm and dragging her towards the door. Haley could tell that Brooke was not a happy camper at all. She wasn't sure if she was sad that they weren't going to be hanging out together like planned or just pissed that she lost to Taylor.
"I'll call you later tonight, Tigger," Haley promised her, hoping it would make Brooke feel a little better.
"You better, Tutor Girl," Brooke threatened, sending her one last wave before she was pulled completely out of Haley room, making sure to pull the door shut behind her, leaving the sisters alone in the room.
"You could have been nicer, you know?" Haley scolded her, the minute she heard the front door close. Taylor rolled her eyes once again, used to getting yelled at by Haley for her behavior. "She's my best friend."
"Yeah right," Taylor scoffed, dismissing her comment with a wave of her hand. "Like I'm supposed to believe that you suddenly became BFFs with the head cheerleaders over night?"
"We've been best friends for almost two years now," Haley corrected her. It wasn't until just then that she realized how long it had been since she had seen her big sister. She had tried calling her a few times, but Taylor roommate had always told her that she wasn't available. "Both Brooke and Peyton are amazing friends."
"Cheerleaders aren't good friends."
"They're more than just cheerleaders," Haley stated, getting tired of Taylor referring to them as cheerleaders, as if that was the only thing that defined them, which was not the case. "And I'm a cheerleader now too, I'll have you know."
"I can see that," Taylor laughed, shaking her head at Haley's uniform. "Why did you decide to convert to the devil's side anyway?"
"You're such a drama queen," Haley mumbled, walking over to the bed and flopping down beside Taylor on it, staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah know, maybe if you ever stopped by for a visit or even just called, you'd know that I'm best friends with Brooke and Peyton, or that me and Nathan broke up."
"God, I'm sorry, Hay," Taylor apologized, patting Haley's hand in what she hoped was a comforting manor. After a moment, Haley's last comment finally registered with her. "Wait, you and Hot Scott broke up?"
"Yeah," Haley nodded, trying to play it off like it was no big deal. She immediately regretted mentioning the break up to her big sister, but it was more to make a point, and it was too late to take it back now. "A couple of weeks ago."
"Why did you guys break up?" Taylor questioned, pushing herself up into a sitting position, looking down at her baby sister, expecting her to do the same. Haley decided that she's rather stay lying down, not wanting to have to face her sister when she tells her the whole embarrassing ideal. "I thought for sure I was gonna be on Maid of Honor duty before you graduated."
"First, you aren't going to be Maid of Honor at my wedding," Haley informed her, smiling despite herself at the offended look on Taylor's face. "Second, as scary as it seems now, I think I thought that too."
"Then why'd you guys break up?" Taylor didn't know why, but she had a certain feeling in the pit of her stomach, telling her that the story Haley had to tell was not going to be a happy one.
"When you find out that your boyfriend got one of your good friends pregnant, it kinda puts a damper on the relationship," Haley told her, closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the look of pity on the blonde's face.
"He got someone pregnant?" Taylor questioned unbelievingly. She didn't know what she expected to be the reason that the two of them spilt up, but she certainly didn't expect something so daytime. Haley nodded. "While you two were together, right? You guys weren't like on a break or anything?"
"Not even a little," Haley told her, feeling her fist curl into a ball on her side. She hated that she let it all get to her like this still. She took a deep breath and wasn't even a little surprised to see the sympatric look Taylor was sending down on her. She hated getting that look from anyone, but it sucked even more coming from her big sister. "Apparently it had been going on since forever. Peyton just happened to catch him that one time, and everything just started spiraling out of control."
"Wow, Hay," Taylor breathed, moving down the bed a little so when she laid down, her head would be level with Haley's. "I don't know what to say, which is amazing for me, as you know."
"Yeah," Haley sighed, turning her head to look at her sister as she continued. "I think the worst part is that he didn't even tell me. I had to find out from some doctor that called to tell him he was father."
"Didn't you say that Peyton chick saw him?" Taylor asked, and got a nod from the other girl. She thought about calling the cheerleader out on not telling her, looking for any reason to prove that they were not good friends, but she didn't. She forced herself to think about it for a moment, and realized that she probably would have done the same thing, if she were put in that horrible position.
"Yeah, she and Brooke knew for most of the summer," Haley admitted, not sure what Taylor was going to use the information for. She had made it clear that she didn't like Haley's 'new' best friends, and she knew perfectly well how Taylor worked. "But don't put this on them, they just didn't want to hurt me. They're good friends. Better than I could ever ask for."
"I wasn't going to say anything," Taylor semi lied. Trying to convince the doubtful girl by throwing a smile her way. "Just tell me this; did they kick his ass? Or at least threaten to?"
"Not so much, really," Haley answered with a slight laugh. She could see the overprotective glint in Taylor's eyes and as much as she hated it sometimes, it still made her feel more loved knowing that someone in her family not only cared about her, but to that extant. "Not that I know of, anyway."
"Good," Taylor nodded, before winking at Haley. "Cause I want first honors of kicking the bastard's ass! Nobody hurts my Haley-bub and gets away with it." Haley laughed at her, assuming she was only kidding. "I'm serious, you know? Next time I see that shit again, I'm beating him to death." They both shared a little laugh before failing into silence.
"I'm glad you're back, Tay," Haley confessed, knitting her eyebrows together, refusing to guess why she was back all of a sudden. She couldn't deal with a drop in like that, not this year. She knew her sister had reasons for being there, ones that she was obviously not ready to talk about, and she respected her choice to do that. She wasn't going to harass her; she'd have to wait until she was ready to tell her the whole truth.
"Me too, Haley Bear," Taylor smiled, blowing her a kiss and regaining her hold on Haley's hand. "Me too. "
--OTH--
"Why won't you let me pay?" Taylor asked her little sister as they walked down the nearly deserted street in the direction of Karen's Café. After spending the rest of the afternoon and some of the evening catching up on all of the stuff they had missed in each other's lives. It was quite a lot considering they hadn't seen each other for almost two years.
"Because I work there," Haley told her with an eye roll. "Employee discount, hello. Besides, if I didn't insist on paying, Karen would give it to me for free, so there's no point in making you use that hard earned money on little old me."
"Jeez, Hay," Taylor laughed, bumping her hip with the smaller girl's. "I was just offering to be nice. You didn't have to make a whole list."
"Shut up," Haley replied, slapping the blonde playfully on her shoulder. Haley couldn't help the happy feeling wash over her and it made her feel kind of guilty. She felt bad that she could feel so happy about something while her best friends were all suffering. Obviously she was still upset over everything that happened with Nathan, but after just spending a few hours with Taylor she was feeling better. She just wished that Peyton and Brooke and Lucas and Jake had some way of finding a little happiness somewhere else.
"So," Taylor begin, an all too familiar glint in her eyes as she spoke. "Do you think that hottie best friend of yours will be there?" Haley had to fight the urge to scowl at her sister. She knew exactly what Taylor was thinking and she knew that it would only case pain and heartache. She also knew that Taylor wouldn't care who she hurt in the process, so if Haley was going to stop this disaster from happening, she was going to have to nip it in the bud.
"Sorry, Tay," Haley spoke, her voice dripping with irritation at the older girl's inconsiderate thoughts. "I don't think Brookie swings that way."
"Like I would wanna get with that if I were gay," Taylor scoffed, smirking and winking at a random guy that walked by them. Haley suppressed an eye roll at her actions. "You know I was talking about Hot Lucas."
"He's three years younger than you, Taylor," Haley warned her. "The whole Ashton and Demi thing is so last year." Taylor waved her hand as if the age difference didn't mean a thing to her, and Haley suspected that it didn't. "He's also one of my best friends and the ex-boyfriend of one of my other best friends."
"The key word being ex, Haley-bub," Taylor sing song, as she played with the strap of her purse and picking up her pace slightly.
"Taylor," Haley called after her, moving faster to catch up with her big sister. "I know I didn't tell you the circumstances of their break up, but just trust me when I say that it's complicated."
"What break up isn't?"
"Just leave him alone," Haley warned her, tugging on the blonde's arm and bringing her to a halt to face her. Taylor opened her mouth to say something and Haley quickly continued. "I'm serious, Taylor. Their relationship is really complicated right now, but they're on kind of a break. The kind of break where they agreed not to see other people."
"How very Ross and Rachel of them," Taylor quipped, already bored with this conversation. She immediately stopped her sigh when she saw the glare Haley was sending her way. "Fine. I'll leave Hot Lucas alone. For now."
"You're unbelievable," Haley huffed, turning on her heel and continuing on her way to the Café. Taylor stood there for a moment longer before chasing after her little sister.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She finally caught up with the shorter brunette and easily fell in step with her once again.
"It means that you always have to mess things up," Haley snapped at her. She continued on for a few more feet before coming to a halt again, causing the blonde to do the same as she looked at Haley in surprise. "You've only been her for half a day and you're already planning out how you can ruin Brooke's life."
"Hay, come on…"
"No," Haley stopped her, refusing to let Taylor sweet talk her way out of this one. She loved her sister, she did, but she was not going to let her hurt Brooke. "I know that you don't like Brooke for whatever reason that is beyond me, and that's fine, you don't have to like her, but you are not going to break her heart. I don't care if you think Lucas is hot or not, you're not going to go after him. There are hundreds of other perfectly fine guys that you can have, just leave Lucas alone."
Taylor thought about arguing with her sister, but she could tell that Haley was serious about this. She knew how much Haley cared about her friends, and whether she liked it or not, Brooke was apparently one of Haley's best friends. Taylor didn't give a crap if she hurt Brooke, but she knew that hurting Brooke would hurt Haley, and she would never want to do that.
"Okay," she said with a small smile, hoping Haley would forgive her. She hated when Haley was mad at her. "I promise to leave Lucas alone. But I'm not doing this for Brooke, it's all for you."
"Thank you," Haley told her, still not breaking her resolve face just yet. She found it hard to keep her straight face when Taylor was giving her such a goofy grin in apology.
"Oh, come on, my little Haley-bub," Taylor tried, nudging her shoulder in hopes of breaking the ice. After a moment Haley finally gave in and grinned at her, rolling her eyes at herself for a change and looping her arm through her sister's as they continued on down the street.
"Hi, kiddo," Karen greeted when they entered the Café. "Hi, Taylor." The sisters grinned at the older woman as finally realized what she had just said and did a double take at the blonde standing in front of her. "Taylor!"
"Hey, Karen!" They two of them embraced, not believing that it had been so long since the last time that they had seen each other. After a moment, Karen pulled back, holding Taylor at arms length and looking her over. "Do I look good, or what?"
"You look beautiful," Karen nodded with a smile, still not believing that the girl standing in front of her was really there. Granted, Karen and Taylor had never been extremely close, not as close as Haley was to the older women, but they had always talked and stuff. "When did you get in? I didn't know you were coming back."
"It was kind of a surprise deal," Taylor told her, smiling so big she thought her face was going to break. Even though she wasn't as close with Karen as her little sister was, and she knew that Karen probably didn't consider her to be a daughter like she did Haley, she still kinda thought of Karen as a mother, or at least a mother figure. She was a lot closer to her than she was with Lydia James.
"Well, I'm so glad you're back, sweetie," Karen told her, running her hand up and down her arm in a comforting way. She didn't know what had happened to Taylor, but she got the feeling that she was upset about something. Call it a mother's instinct, but she just got a vibe from the girl.
"Am I invisible or something?" Haley asked with a laugh, amused that the two were so caught up in catching up that they forgot she was still standing there. Taylor snorted at the comment, which earned her a smack to the back of her head and Karen shook her head.
"Of course not, baby," Karen laughed, bringing the smaller girl into a gentle hug. Haley stuck her tongue out at Taylor over Karen's shoulder and smirked at her victoriously. They had always fought over attention. Considering their parents hardly gave any to them when they were younger, even little bit counted to the girls.
"I saw that," Karen told her with an amused smile as she pulled back from the hug. Haley's mouth dropped open at her words. "Mothers see everything," Karen told her with a smirk. She laughed at Haley's pout and patted the girl on the head before heading over to take a customer's order.
The girls immediately started to argue the moment Karen was out of hearing range and moved over to the gang's normal booth in the corner. After Karen was done with the other tables, she took the their orders (mac and cheese for Haley and a cheese burger for Taylor) and brought them their food.
They were almost done their food when the bell above the door jingled and Haley heard her name being called. The James sisters looked up from their meal to see the Scott brothers making their way over to the table, one of them reluctantly.
"I see the prodigal daughter has finally returned," Lucas teased with a grin, leaning down and giving Taylor a big hug. He had always had the biggest crush on her when they were younger, something that Haley was well aware of, which was why she was keeping a careful eye on her sister and best friend as they hugged in greeting.
"Haley," Nathan called, bringing her out of her daze. She snapped her head up and meet his beautiful blue eyes, instantly regretting the action when a whole bunch of supposed to be buried feelings came rushing to the surface.
"H-Hey, Nate," she greeted back with what she hoped was a friendly smile.
"Do you think I could talk to you for a second?" Haley glanced over to see Lucas settling down into the booth beside Taylor, the two of them already engrossed in a conversation.
"Sure," she told him. "Let's go over there." He nodded and started over to the booth that Haley had indicated. Sending Taylor a warning glare, Haley slipped out of the booth and walked over to where Nathan was waiting for her. After she sat down across from him, she gave him a moment to start, but he didn't seem to know how. "So what's up?"
"I was thinking about what we talked this afternoon," Nathan told her, finally just deciding that he needed to start this, even if he didn't know the best way to do it.
"The cheerleading thing?" Haley asked. She knew that it was about the college part of their conversation, but for some reason she felt the need to torture Nathan about this. "I told you, I'm doing it for college…"
"That's the part that I wanted to talk about," he cut her off, trying his best to ignore the clench he felt in the pit of his stomach at the thought of Haley leaving for college early.
"Okay," she stated, waiting for him to continue. She should have known that he was going to say something; she couldn't expect to just drop a bomb like that on him and not expect some kind of talk afterward.
"Look," he began, shifting in his seat. "I know that I lost all say in your future a long time ago, but I can't just sit here and not ask you not to do this." Haley opened her mouth to interrupt him, but he held up his hand and shook his head to tell her not to say anything. "Just because I'm an ass doing mean that I don't still love you, and I hope that you know that."
"I do," Haley told him, sending him a sad smile. She knew he still loved her, just like she still loved him, but that didn't change anything. All it did was make all of this even harder.
"And you have to know how much it will kill me if you leave town," he finished, letting his eyes drift to the table underneath his hands, nervously. He knew that he was starting to sound sad, but he just couldn't shake that horrible feeling he got when Haley had told him about her plan for early admissions that afternoon. "So please, don't do this. I know that I hurt you, and it must suck to have to see me all the time, but I'll try to make this better, just please don't go because of me."
"Nathan," she said softly, placing her hand on top of his to get his attention. The action had happened without her thoughts, and the moment she realized it, she pulled her hand away, but she had gotten his attention. "You do know what early admissions is, right?" His blank stare was all the answer that she needed. She let out a soft laugh. "I'm not leaving anytime soon, I'll be here all school year. I'm just applying to colleges earlier than everyone else, and I'll know where I'm going earlier."
"Oh," he breathed, feeling his insides relax at her words. "Well that's stupid. Why would you want to do that?" She couldn't help the smile that came to her lips at his words.
"To get it out of the way," she answered with a shrug. "I don't know, I just want to know where I'm going as soon as possible. I want to have some idea of what I'm going to be doing next year before Christmas. That way I can head out there during the summer maybe, get everything set up, you know?"
"Oh." This time, his sigh didn't sound so happy. Realization began to sink in. Haley was planning her future already, at least for the next five or so years, and it didn't look like he was going to be a part of it. And that hurt just as much as the thought of her not being there for the rest of the year.
They had always talked about deciding on a college together. Nathan was going to work his hardest on schoolwork so he could have a change to get accepted to a good school if he couldn't get a scholarship, and Haley was going to help him. They had never really discussed what school they wanted to go to, but neither of them really cared, as long as they were together.
Nathan knew that he had a long way to go before Haley would even consider forgiving him, but he had complete faith that they would end up together. He knew that he had a lot to make up for, but he was willing to do anything to make everything up to Haley. He was hoping for before Christmas, but he would wait.
But that plan wasn't looking so good right now, not with Haley already getting ready to apply to colleges. She couldn't be making all of these decisions without him, not when they were things that would affect them as much as her deciding what college she wanted to go to.
He could feel her starting to slip away from him, faster than he ever thought possible. He had been under the impression that he had all the time in the world to win back Haley's heart, that he could give her space and let her come to him, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. If he wanted to get Haley back before she planned out the rest of her life without him, he was going to have to get off his ass and start making it up to her.
"Do you want to hang out sometime?" The randomness of the question caught Haley off guard and it took her a moment to process his words.
"Nathan, I told you that I'm not ready to…"
"No, no, I understand that," he assured her, sitting up straighter in his seat, all the nervousness from his voice gone as he spoke. "I know that what I did is just too big to forget about, I know that, and I completely understand where you're coming from." She looked at him strangely, not sure where he was going with all of this. "I just think it would be cool if we could be friends. Hang out."
"Friends?" she asked, the word sounding strange on her lips when she thought about it in regards to Nathan. She couldn't imagine Nathan being anything other than her soul mate.
"Yeah, friends," he repeated, his hopefulness plan in his voice. "You said that you forgave me, but you couldn't trust me, right?" Haley nodded. "Well then let me start earning your trust back. We can't expect to get passed this if we avoid each other."
"Alright," she agreed, not letting herself think about it too much. She had a bad feeling about this whole thing, but just one look at Nathan told her that she was going to do this. She really did need to have Nathan in her life, as much as she hated to admit it, having him as her friend was better than nothing. "Friends."
"Really?" She laughed at his excitement and nodded. "Awesome." He slipped out of the booth when he saw Lucas starting to stand up. "Well, we just came in here to grab something to go on our way to the Rivercourt, so I gotta get goin."
"Okay." She was amazed at how much better she felt at just having a simple conversation with Nathan without all the weirdness.
"You're working tomorrow night, right?"
"Yeah, until 11," she told him, finding it cute that he still knew her schedule. "I'm closing by myself."
"I'll pick you up then," he decided for her, not giving her a chance to argue. She smiled at his offer and nodded.
"Hey, Nate," Lucas called out to him, holding up the two bags of food that his mother had just given him and nodding his head towards the door. Nathan nodded and leaned over, giving Haley a kiss on the cheek before she could protest, not that she would have.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Hales." Without waiting for a reply, Nathan jogged over to Lucas and the two brothers headed out.
He wasn't back with Haley, he wasn't even close, but it was start.
--OTH--
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