Notes: Once again, thanks for all the reviews guys. Glad you're liking it so far.
Chapter
Three
August
23, 2014
Slinging her carry on bag over her should Brooke made her way into the crowded airport. Her flight had just landed and she was already nervous about being back in Tree Hill. She had never intended on coming back, but after the phone call she had received from Haley she knew that she had to, that if she didn't she wouldn't be able to live with herself. She gave the airport a quick scan before locating who she was looking for. Grinning, she pushed her way though the crowd to the other girl.
"Hello friend," she said happily.
"Brooke!" Rachel exclaimed excitedly. She threw her arms around Brooke and pulled her into a hug. The girls had started out their senior year hating each other but by graduation they had become good friends. Both girls had realized that their original opinion on the other had been wrong, discovering that they were much more similar then they had been willing to admit to before. After everything had happened between Brooke and Peyton Rachel had offered up the guest room at her house, allowing Brooke to have a place to live for the rest of the year. The two had bonded through living and cheering together and Brooke had been there for Rachel after Cooper had died, helping her new friend cope with the loss of him and the single parenthood that awaited her.
After Brooke had moved to New York for college she had been sure to keep in contact with Rachel. She had even cut a midterm when she had gotten a call from Bevin saying that Rachel was in labor. She had gotten a flight down to Tree Hill and shown up at the hospital just in time for the birth of Deena Nicole Lee.
When Brooke had moved to California she had been sure to keep in contact with Rachel, Haley, Nathan and Rachel being the only two she had steadily kept contact with over the past few years.
"How was your flight?" Rachel asked. Brooke shrugged as the girls parted from their hug.
"It was pretty good. Serious time change jet lag though," Brooke said. "And I really have to pee. Airplane bathrooms are creepy." Laughing, Rachel agreed.
"I'll go get your bags from the claim and meet you at the front door?" she suggested.
"Thanks so much Rach," Brooke responded, smiling at the red head and taking off for the bathroom.
Being in Tree Hill again was eerie. Peyton had hardly even returned to the town when she was in college, and the rare vacations that her father had been home and she had made the effort to get to Tree Hill to spend time with him she laid low.
She leaned against the baggage claim, waiting for her bag to come around on the conveyor belt. The baggage claim had always been her least favorite part of flying, she had always had a fear of her bags being lost. She knew that it could be traced back to her thirteenth summer when she and Brooke had flown out to Texas alone together for cheer camp and Brooke's bag had been accidentally been put on a flight to Vermont. Brooke had ended up having to wear Peyton's clothes for the first week and a half until her bag had made it down to Texas.
"I'm glad you're home. Even if it's under these circumstances," Larry Sawyer said from next to her, pulling his daughter out of her memories. Peyton smiled weakly at him. She loved her dad, she really did, but she couldn't help having the sinking feeling that the next few days were going to drive her back to high school all over again. Nathan and Haley were in town, she knew that much, and she had no doubt in her mind that Lucas was as well. And of course, if Haley had been notified Brooke had been notified, the two had been best friends at the end of high school and Haley wasn't the kind of girl to cut ties with a friend.
Unless said friend was Peyton, who Haley hadn't spoken to since her wedding. No one had, really, expect Rachel, Nathan and Bevin. Her former friends had all sided with Brooke, and she couldn't really blame them, and Peyton's status had gone from insanely popular to social outcast over night.
"There's my bag," Peyton said, diving over the conveyor belt to grab a large black duffel.
"Ready to get out of here?"
"You have no idea," Peyton told him. Larry wrapped his arm supportively around his daughter's shoulders and began to usher her out of the parking lot. She paused for a moment, spotting a flash of a familiar figure run past her. Peyton shook her head, too much paranoia was setting in. She just needed to get back to her father's house.
"Is it weird being back?" Haley asked, entering Nathan's old bedroom. They had arrived in Tree Hill the night before, opting to stay in a motel near the outskirts of town because of the hour. They had driven out to Deb's house that morning.
"Oh yeah," Nathan nodded. Even when the Scott family had returned to Tree Hill to spend holidays, often they joined up with Karen and Lucas, they had never stayed at Nathan's mother's house. Too many bad memories of his childhood haunted the large house. Needless to say he had never been overly eager to go back, regardless of how good his relationship with his mother had ended up becoming. The café was neutral meeting territory and the Tree Hill hotels had never been that awful.
"I promised Brooke that I was going to meet her at Karen's today," Haley announced after taking note of the time Nathan's digital clock was reading. "Do you have any plans?"
From the spot where he had thrown himself on his old bed Nathan shook his head. "Tell Brooke I said hi though." Taking her purse from the pile of baggage they had dropped on the floor she quickly leaned over and kissed Nathan before heading out of the room.
