If she was the only one in the room she would have broke down there in the club, but she maintained herself and sang her heart out onto her sleeve. After the set was over she went over to talk to Gavin, "Nothing you can say will hurt me."
"Well thank you for informing me, I can go on with my life now that I have been informed. Anything else you need to tell me? Your favorite color? TV show?"
"No that pretty much covers it," she was surprised that Peyton was dating this guy, he was a complete asshole. He had no respect for anyone; she actually known him longer then Peyton, her older sister Taylor had dated him once. Gavin did not treat Taylor right and even someone as boy crazy as Taylor was able to admit that he was not a good guy and left him in her dust. Nevertheless, Haley and Peyton were not exactly the best of friends right now, so even if Haley tried to tell her that, there was no way that she was going to believe her.
After Gavin had listened to Haley, he went to find Peyton. He found her in the back room with a couple of his friends, and there was a line of coke on the table ready and waiting for Peyton to inhale. "Let me take that one babe," he said basically pushing Peyton out the way onto the ground.
She composed herself, "Thanks a lot, Gavin that was my line."
"You can wait your turn, I just had to duke it out with little Miss Singer."
"What happened now?" she asked as she watched him snort her cocaine.
"She informed me that nothing I could say would hurt her, like I care," he said as he wiped his nose.
Peyton once dated Nathan and they had become even better friends after Haley left him with a broken heart. Ever since then she had thrown Haley and her friendship out the window. Peyton believed that Haley deserved to hurt as much as Nathan hurt, so she was adding on to Haley's broken heart. "Well I can help you out if you ever need it; she deserves a lot of pain."
"Oh I can give her a lot of pain babe; you can even call me the king of pain."
"Well King of Pain, share the wealth," she told him as she moved him out of the way so she could get the next line and inhale.
It was getting very close to show time and Peyton and Gavin were no where to be found. Peyton needed to introduce Haley and Gavin was needed to perform. Haley took it upon herself to find the duo. Technically she was not allowed in the back room, but she was in dire need of finding Gavin so she barged in. What she found was not what she expected to find and she did not know if she was more shocked or concerned, or both. Peyton was about to inhale her sixth line of cocaine, she was gone after three, but no one was stopping her. Gavin was basically egging her on. However this stopped when he saw who was in front of him and he was not happy to see Haley. He got up from where he was seated next to Peyton and approached Haley. She could swear that she saw evil in his eyes as he was fast approaching. And before Haley had a chance to even speak Gavin's hand was around her neck and she was struggling to breathe while trying to bat Gavin's hand away, "I swear if you tell anyone what you have seen, you and that pretty boy will never have another chance to get back together, you understand me?"
Haley barely heard the words that were coming out of Gavin's mouth she was just concerned with getting his hand away from her neck, she just nodded hoping that would be enough to get him off of her.
But before he did so he looked back at Peyton, she would be too out of it to ever remember this, so he took advantage of that and turned back towards Haley and kissed her will all his might. With the kiss he released his grip on Haley, and asked her again, "You realize what is going to happen if you tell anyone, right?"
The second that Gavin's hand released from her neck hers immediately went to it to rub it as she attempted to catch her breath; she just nodded at his question because she could not speak. But that was not enough for Gavin, he wanted a response from her, he grabbed her chin and asked her again.
Haley looked into his eyes and was sure that the evil she had imagined was no longer her imagination; Gavin's eyes were filled with pure evil. She got out a whisper, "Yes, you bastard."
He was not too pleased with her after that response but could not do anymore as her heard a male voice call her name.
So that whoever was calling her name could not see what was going on in the back room she rushed out of there, but not before catching another glimpse of Peyton, she was so close to gone but there was nothing that she could do. Haley was running so fast out of the there that she ran into Lucas, who had been calling her name. If Lucas wasn't there to grab her Haley would have fallen to the ground.
Since she did not make eye contact with him or speak, he was worried, "Haley did something happen?"
She shook her head, looked at Lucas briefly and then rushed away from him, leaving him completely confused.
There was no way that Haley could perform that night, she had to find Karen and tell her, and she just hoped Karen wouldn't ask her any questions. Haley was still catching her breath as she gathered her things. Karen actually came to her when she saw this, "Hey, kid, what is going on here?"
"Something came up, I cannot perform tonight, I am sorry," Haley spoke in barely a whisper as she looked into Karen's eyes briefly as she sporadically collected her things.
Haley picked up the entirety of her belongings and tried to rush past Karen. Karen would not allow Haley's passing and grabbed onto to her arm to prevent her from passing. As she did this Karen caused Haley's things to crash to the ground causing a commotion in which everyone turned to view. Karen looked into Haley's eyes and was concerned about the girl that she loved as a daughter, "What happened Haley?"
"Nothing, I just…I just…I just don't feel good, I am sorry, I have got to go," this time she rushed past Karen leaving all her belonging scattered on the floor of Tric.
Lucas went over to his mom, "Do you know what happened? Because I am very confused to what is happening with my best friend. Once second I do not know where she is, the next she is rushing past me on the verge of tears."
"I do not know Lucas, she canceled for tonight though, and that is not like her."
"Brooke said that she has a broken heart."
"I could have told you that Lucas, but I do not think that is why she rushed out of here."
"Then why did she, Ma?"
"I cannot tell you that either Luke. But give Haley some space I think that is what she might need right now, time alone to think."
"Is that healthy?"
"It is never healthy to have a broken heart Lucas, but that is not something that is going to mend quickly. It will though, and in time we will have our old Haley back, but until then I am afraid I do not know what to tell you Luke."
"It is okay, you do not always have to have the right answer. Who does anyway? Okay, well I am going to go tell Brooke what happened. What are you going to do about tonight?"
"I do not know yet, I need to talk to Peyton, but I have no idea where she is so that is going to be a problem."
As if Peyton heard Karen speak of needing her she emerged from the back, but there was no way that she would have the answer she needed. "Peyton, are you okay?" Karen asked walking towards her.
Peyton batted Karen's arm away, "I...I…I have never been better…." she started to laugh uncontrollably until she fell to the ground; nevertheless this did not cause her to stop.
Lucas looked from Peyton to his mom; neither really knew what to do. Even Karen had given hope on helping Peyton, she was not the same girl that used to come to her when she was sad or needed advice, or just needed to know she was not alone. Karen knew that Peyton was on a destructive path but with all her might she could not help her out. Lucas bent down and gripped Peyton's arm and brought her to her feet.
Gavin saw that the two were rather close and ran over and there and pulled Lucas off of Peyton, "Leave her alone, man."
"I am not hurting her, I was helping her up," Lucas told him, he saw that Gavin's eyes looked glazed. Then he looked at Peyton and noticed her was the same but even worse. "She is in no shape to be hanging around here, take her home."
Gavin was supporting Peyton now, "Well you see this," he showed Lucas his guitar, "it is a little thing called a guitar, and I am playing tonight for what's her name. So now would not be the greatest time for me to take her home."
"Well what's her name, oh yeah her name is Haley, Haley just ran out of here, there is going to be no performance tonight," Karen informed Gavin. "And since Peyton is in no shape to do anything right now, I think it would be best if you both left now."
"What happens if we are not ready to leave," he said actually approaching Karen.
"Whoa man," Lucas said coming in between the two, "we do not want a problem here. My mom just thinks that Peyton has seen better days and she thought that you cared enough about her to take her home and get some rest. That is all that she was trying to say, there is no problem here."
"Oh yes there is," Gavin said uncontrollably angry, with his anger, he released his grip on Peyton and she fell to the ground, she was completely out.
Brooke saw what had happened and rushed over to Peyton, but Gavin shoved Brooke back causing her to fall into a table. Lucas quickly went to Brooke's aid, he bent down and looked into Brooke's eyes and did not see fear, but he did see sadness and that was not any better. He extended his hand for her to grab, she accepted, and thanked him.
Karen carefully watched Gavin and her son with Brooke, "Gavin, I really think it will be best for everyone if you just leave, we do not want to start any trouble with you."
Gavin looked to person to person, then he grabbed Peyton from the ground roughly, and kicked a table over and then left, but not with out shouting at Karen, "I better still get paid tonight, it is not my fault that little misses no talent ran out."
There was nothing that Brooke, Karen, or Lucas could do as they watched Gavin literally drag Peyton out of Tric. None of them knew how to react either to what had just happened in front of their own eyes. Each gained composure, and then Karen turned to Brooke, "Are you okay, sweetheart?"
"Yeah, I am fine Karen. Don't worry about me; I am more concerned about Peyton. Do you think that she is going to be okay?"
"It is hard to say about Peyton, I know that something was off tonight."
"Yeah she was high, Ma."
"What? Are you sure Luke?" Karen asked not wanting to admit that that was off with Peyton that night, she knew that she had a run in with it the previous year but she thought it was a one time mistake.
"Yes, I am positive, her eyes were glazed, and there is nothing else that explains the way she was acting."
"Gavin too?"
"His eyes were glazed as well, but he was not as bad as Peyton."
"He sure was angry though, I have never seen anyone react that way before."
Brooke could not get the sight of her former best friend being dragged out of the club and she was not being able to do anything to stop her pain, "How did she get here?"
"What do mean, to Tric?"
"No, not to Tric. How did she get to this point in her life that she has to turn to drugs to feel anything?"
"She was hurting, the people she cared about the most lied to her."
"But there are so many other places that she could have turned. She is getting hurt worse now. Even though the ones she trusted lied to her, they loved her. Look at the only person she trusts now, I doubt he even knows how to spell love, let alone show it."
"As much as you do not want to hear this Brooke, we are going to have to let Peyton make her own mistake. She will soon come to realize that the path she is taking will only have a terrible ending and turn off of it. Peyton is a smart girl; we just have to believe that she will make the decision before it is too late."
"I know she is a smart girl, but when she is high on drugs, rather then life, I am afraid that she is living in a distorted world, and it might be too hard to realize the mistake that she is making."
"I am not going to give up on her, Brooke. I will make sure that she doesn't get hurt," Lucas told her, "but I do not want you to get too involved, especially when Gavin is involved, he is trouble, and I do not want you to get hurt."
"Thanks Luke," she embraced him, "and I mean it, not just because we had something going on once. Just because you are a good guy, and you care about the ones you love, I respect that."
"Well as much as I like the sound of that, I am not doing a very good job at taking care of them. Look at Haley, she has a broken heart, as does Nathan, Keith is gone, I messed up with him, and then Peyton is so far gone that she has to avert to drugs. I should be doing a better job."
"But Lucas, it is not a job in which you must accomplish alone, or at all for that matter, no one is asking that you do so."
"I know that Ma, I just feel like it is the least that I can do sometimes."
"Speaking of Haley, where is she at?" Brooke said looking around.
"Didn't you see what happened?"
"No, is she okay? What happened?"
"She rushed out of here; she said that something happened and that she couldn't perform tonight. I don't know what happened. I mean one minute she was set and ready looking for Gavin so they could go on, the next she came running out hysterical. I really have no idea what could have caused this in her. Did she say something to either of you?"
"I know that she has been battling a broken heart and that she broke down earlier, but after that she was fine. I do not think that she would back out of a show for no reason. Something must have happened. I think I am going to head back to the apartment and see if she is okay."
"I am going to come with you," Lucas told her.
"Luke, I think that it might be best if you just let Brooke go right now, she was very upset, I wouldn't want you to overwhelm her right now."
"But I am her best friend Ma; I can be there for her."
"Lucas I know that, and she knows that, but just let Brooke go for right now, she lives with Haley, she has to go home. She will call you if Haley needs you, okay?"
"I swear I will call you first thing I know anything, Luke."
Luke hesitantly agreed, "Okay, first thing, promise."
"Lucas, I promise," with that Brooke gathered her things and headed back the apartment that she shared with Haley since they end of the summer.
Brooke arrived at her apartment and noticed that all the lights were out, it was still early so she knew that there was no way that Haley could possibly be sleeping. Brooke walked into the bedroom that she shared with Haley and noticed that Haley was in fact in bed back against the world. She did not know whether to attempt to talk to her or to just let her be, but she heard a sniffle and realized that Haley had to be awake. She got into Haley's bed and ran her hand through Haley's hair reassuring her that she was there for her, and when she felt that she gained her trust she asked her, "What happened tonight Haley?"
All Haley could do was shake her head, there was no way that so was going to tell Brooke what happened, she did not want to relive it any further anyways. But it was not going away as easily as she thought or wished it would, she could not get the image of Gavin's hand around her neck. She never felt so scared in her entire life, and she was the youngest child, so that said a lot. But not only that, she could not get the image of Peyton out of her head. Did Peyton's life really elevate to drugs? However, she knew Gavin way to well, he hurt Taylor, and as much as Haley hated to admit it, Taylor was the strongest person that she knew.
