Nathan
woke up in Haley's hotel room bed, and looked over at the
clock.
"1:00pm" Nathan sighed, groaned, and than rolled out of
the bed. He spied his phone sitting on the chair outside the room,
and looked around for Haley. He was alone.
He flipped open his
phone, and dialed his machine.
"Hey Nathan, I had to leave early
and I didn't want to wake you…I hope you get this before you
freak out and think I left you," Nathan smiled, and sat down, "Well
I probably will be a while. I should be home around 2 or so. Eat
anything you want, and i'll see you when I get back, love you."
Nathan breathed deeply and smiled at these words.
"Hey!"
Peyton shouted to Lucas from the entry door to the gym.
"Oh hey
baby, what's up?" Lucas was watching the team run laps.
"I
was thinking we could go for a walk in the park or something, i'm
dying of boredom at home, and I thought you could use a break."
Peyton said, flinging her hands in the air.
"Sure, we're
almost finished anyway." Lucas joked, walking towards
Peyton.
"Alright, you might want to hit the showers with the
team before we go." She backed away, and he caught up with her, and
squished her face into his sweaty chest. "Ewww! Lucas!" Peyton
laughed and wiped her face with her t-shirt.
"Give us a few
minutes to finish up." Lucas walked back over to the team, and
Peyton took a seat on the bench off to the side.
Meanwhile,
Brooke was sitting in her kitchen flipping through a magazine. She
had been upset and didn't go into work.
Ring…ring…ring.
"Hello?"
Nathan answered his phone while pouring himself a glass of
water.
"Hey Nathan, it's me Brooke,"
"Brooke, i'm in
Chicago, not now." Nathan was still a bit bitter about what had
happened, and didn't want to chance his relationship with Haley.
"I'll call you back later, or see you when I get back."
"Nathan!
Wait. I didn't go to work today, and I cried all last night. I'm
really upset about this. Can I talk to Haley?" Brooke explained
seemingly fine.
"You sound fine." Nathan said, taking a sip of
his drink.
"Yeah well i'm not. Nathan please."
"She's
not here. Brooke what do you want?" Nathan said tiresome.
"A
chance to explain. I'm glad you guys are back together and all, but
when do I get my chance to make things right?" Brooke stood
up.
"You said you didn't care if you guys were friends, as
long as we worked things out. What do you care?" Nathan
paced.
"What do I care? Nathan you're my friend, and so is
Haley. I love you both so much, and I don't want to be the person
shoved aside here. Nathan, you're not being fair." Brooke's
toned turned angry.
"Look Brooke, Haley will be back any minute,
i'll tell her you called." Nathan hung up the phone.
Brooke
sat back down in her chair, and smacked the magazine off the table.
She bowed her head down, and her eyes started to tear up. Than she
heard a knock at the door.
"Oh hey Peyton" she said, fighting
her sadness to look pleased to see her friend.
"Brooke, what's
wrong?" Peyton walked in looking alarmed. She hugged Peyton, and
Lucas followed in closely after.
Brooke led Peyton into the room,
and Lucas followed slightly uncomfortable. They all say down. "Hey
Brooke, we were just in the neighbourhood, Lucas just finished work,
and we wanted to drop by. What's going on?" Peyton was sitting
next to her on the couch.
"I guess it's just this Nathan and
Haley thing."
"You talked to them?" Lucas chimed in.
"Yeah,
I just called Nathan. It sounds like she forgave him…"
"That's
great." Peyton smiled.
"Yeah, but I don't think either of
them have forgiven me yet." Brooke said sadly, pushing her face
into her knees.
Peyton rubbed her back, and Lucas just stared at
the two of them…
"Hey baby!" Haley skipped into her
hotel room to find Nathan writing out some basketball plays on the
pads of Hotel paper. She wrapped her arms around him, and kissed his
neck softly. "Gosh, it's so great to have someone to come home
too," she whispered into his ear.
"It's really great to
finally see you come home…" Nathan smiled, and kissed her on the
lips lightly.
"I have a surprise for you." Haley backed away,
and paced a few times. "Okay, so I was at a meeting today to
discuss the dates of recording for my new album, and…"
"Haley,
we don't have to talk about this now. I want you to know that i'll
always love you, and if this is what you want, I want it too. I'll
wait for you back home until you're ready to come home, i'll come
with you wherever you go. I want this for you." Nathan was now
standing, with Haley in his arms.
"Well that's nice and all,
but I told them to forget. I want to go back to Tree Hill with you
more than anything. That's what I want, and i'm sure of it.
Nathan I want to be your wife, and I want to get a house with you, I
want to be with my friends for once. Touring is a dream come true,
but my dream is to be married to you, and to start a family and build
a life, and I am ready to do that with you, if you'll take me."
Haley looked up into his eyes, with tears in her own.
Nathan
leaned down, and they kissed for a few moments. Nathan pulled out his
phone, and dialed Lucas' number before saying another word.
"Nathan
what are you doing?" Haley looked a little confused.
"Hello?"
Luke answered from Tree Hill on the other line.
"Hey man, where
are you?"
"I'm actually at Brooke's right now. Her and
Peyton are talking, and i'm just hanging out, what's up? Where
are you? How's Haley?" Lucas asked, concerned.
"I'm not
sure, but i'm going to need a favor." Nathan said with a
smile.
"Sure, whatever you need."
"I'm going to need
you to pick us up at the airport in a few hours." Nathan looked at
Haley happily.
"Wait…us?" Lucas was shocked.
Haley walked
over to Nathan, and grabbed the phone from his hand. "That's
right baby, i'm coming home!" Haley yelled into the phone. She
hung it up, and than jumped up on Nathan's sides, and kissed him.
He shook backwards a little, caught his balance, and kissed back
fighting smiles.
"It seems like everyone has so much going
on, so many reasons to be happy and I just feel so alone." Brooke
explained to Peyton.
"You're not alone, Brooke. You have
Lucas, and your clothing store, and you'll always have me, always.
Haley will come around, and same with Nathan. They are just getting
their relationship back together, and they don't, well…" Peyton
was a little stumped at how to word her next thought.
"They
don't need someone like me to get in the way…just like you and
Lucas don't need this either. You should be with your boyfriend
right now, not me. Maybe you guys should go, i'll have dinner
alone." Brooke's eyes poured tears, and she pulled away from
Peyton, not standing.
"Brooke, it's not like that. Look…"
Before Peyton could finished, Lucas interrupted.
"We gotta'
go." Lucas was smiling.
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea…"
Brooke's eyes got impossibly sadder.
"Lucas!" Peyton
snapped, reaching for Brooke.
"No, all of us. Brooke, you too.
Nathan asked us to give them a ride from the airport." Lucas
explained walking towards them.
"What?" Brooke
exclaimed,
"Them?" Peyton was equally surprised.
"Yeah,
Haley called the record production, the tour..everything, she called
it all off. She's coming home. My best friend is coming back home."
Lucas looked positively glowing.
"That's great." Peyton
hugged Lucas, forgetting about Brooke for a few moments.
"Today
should be really perfect…"
"Brooke-" Peyton began.
"No
Peyton, it should, but it's not. Your finally back, and Lucas can
finally be with the person he's always loved all along." Brooke
spoke demeaning towards Lucas.
"Hey, Brooke, don't-" Lucas
interrupted.
"No! Let me finish. Lucas found his love, and you
found your way back to him. Nathan found his way to Haley, and now
she's coming back. I should be happy, everyone that I love has all
their dreams coming true, but what if i'm the one left behind? You
never could see clearly Lucas, I was right in front of you, and I was
so close. I mean, I show Nathan the real me, and he leaves me and
ignores me. My best friend hates me, and my ex-best friend who is
taking everything away from me all over again is the one comforting
me? God!" Brooke ripped herself away from the room, and smashed her
lamp over, balling. "Get the hell out, both of you!" She pointed
to the door, while sobbing.
Peyton stared at Brooke, and Brooke
looked back at her. "Brooke…" Peyton started to say something,
but paused. Lucas placed his arm around her waist, and tugged her
away gently. Peyton resisted, but eventually Lucas won out, and they
left looking confused and perturbed.
Brooke, walked over to her
bathroom, and smashed the tea towel to the ground. She looked in the
mirror, than sunk to the floor, still crying. She grabbed her head
with her hands, and breathed deeply. She sobbed, and buried her head
back into her knees.
