Author's Note: YAY a new reader! Thanks FiFiEvEr1007 for your review! Thanks Pam211, the plot will continue to thicken! Drewbieee, thank you! Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Bare in mind that there's a lot going on in this chapter for all the characters because I needed to give you guys' the story's background info but in future chapters, there will definitely be more a lot more N/H/C! Happy reading! New readers; if you read, reviews will be loveeee! Thank you!
Disclaimer: All OTH characters belong to the creator of the show, Mark Schwahn except for the ones I wrote. Title and lyrics belong to Lifehouse.
***
"Say you love me, Haley!" Oliver screams on top of his lungs as blood from his chest fills the wooden floor.
Haley's tears make splashes all over her hands as she tries to shield herself away from seeing the big laceration across Oliver's chest.
"Don't you love me, Haley?"
"Oliver, please…"
"I do anything for you, you know that right?"
"Of course, I know, please, Oliver, please…" Haley pleads as her voice cracks. "You're scaring me…"
"Baby, I didn't mean to scare you. I just want to show you how much I love you."
"I know…I know…please just give me the knife and-and-and-we'll talk. We have our whole lives to talk about anything you want."
"No. No! No!" Oliver stomps his feet and slams his fist into his head. "You don't understand, this knife – this knife is power. People listen to you. People don't betray you. People do anything for you when you have this knife. This knife protects me from pain. Don't you understand? My mom betrayed me…and slept with my ex-girlfriend. My dad found out and he committed suicide. He couldn't bare the dysfunctional that is my family. Please, please, Haley don't leave me. Everyone left me…but you can't…"
Haley's eyes widen, as each tears skid down her cheeks and her jaw drops. She couldn't believe the confession he was making. She suddenly becomes frighten for her life.
"But-but-but, I'm not your ex-girlfriend, Oliver." Haley tries to sound calm but failed.
"You won't but you will be. I see how Clay looks at you and down the line he'll profess his love for you and you'll go to him. You won't love me anymore."
"No! Clay is my friend. We will never be anything but friends. Trust me. Please."
"Oh is that why my ex-girlfriend left me for my mom? My fucking mom! That fucking bitch could keep her pants on with my dad but not my fucking girlfriend! What the fuck is that, Haley? You tell me. Tell me Haley!"
"I don't know!" Haley shrieks. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you but you have to understand what's written in the past, we can change in the future."
"The future is nothing without the past. People always say the past is the past but in truth, it's not that easy."
"Oliver, I know it's not going to be easy…but we'll take baby steps. You will get there. You will overcome this."
"You're right baby. We can do this together."
Haley nods, seeing as Oliver starts to cave in.
"Haley we can do this. We can be together forever."
As Oliver walks toward Haley, pointing the knife at her.
***
{FLASHBACK}
"No, I don't. When I look at you, it just reminds me that I can't have your sister. I'm sorry, Taylor."
{FLASHBACK ENDS}
"I'm fine with that" Taylor tries not to sound all choked up.
"No, it's not fine. I'm not fine being the one who hurts you." Clay said sincerely.
Taylor takes a step towards Clay. "You said that, happiness is not about pleasing yourself. It's about seeing the one you love happy and if it makes you happy to hurt me, I will be fine with that."
Taylor then reaches out and grabs a hold of Clay's hand as he looks deeply into her eyes.
***
"Have you guys seen Clay?" Julian pops his head into the kitchen where Peyton and Lucas are fixing breakfast.
"Now that you've mentioned it, where the hell is Clay?" Lucas said with his squinted eyes.
"Thanks Luke. You have been very helpful." Julian grins while Peyton lets out a chuckle, staring at her fiancée.
Lucas smiles. "Where's Brooke?"
"Right here." Brooke pops in and starts to sniff. "What in the world is that awful smell?"
"Breakfast" Peyton presents to Brooke in a silver platter.
"Well – it needs more work. You know how I like my eggs, Luke. Thanks" Brooke looks at Peyton and turns away from the kitchen.
Julian looks at Peyton apologetically and turns around to go after his girlfriend.
"Why do you keep on doing this?"
"Doing what?" Brooke said defensively, crossing her arms.
"Doing this with Peyton. What have she done to you?"
Brooke exhales. "I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that my boyfriend is so protective with his ex-girlfriend."
"Don't turn this around me, Brooke."
"Every time I say something to her, it's not right in your eyes. What do you want me to say? Peyton, you've cooked a wonderful breakfast and then the next thing she sees me doing is puke. You want me to tell her the truth or you want me to lie to her and then show her, quote on quote puke that I lied to her?" Brooke said seriously.
"Whatever you say, Brooke. You always manage to find some idiotic excuses to compensate your wrong doings."
"Idiotic excuses? Wrong doings?" Brooke's eyes flush with tears. "You still love Peyton…"
"No I don't!" Julian yells. "Every time we have an argument you start accusing me of loving Peyton."
"Because you always defend her. You always believe in her. You always listen to her. Why don't you believe in me? Why don't you listen to me? I'm tired of you going after what I'm saying when you should look at your actions because your actions mean more than my words."
"Brooke" Julian grows angry. "You know what this is about."
"Don't you dare bring up Lucas." Brooke warns.
"Admit it. You still love him."
"I don't…" Brooke looks away.
"Then look at me and tell me you love me, Brooke" Julian said faintly.
Brooke falls silent.
"We've been going out for three years and I'm trying my hardest to replace him. I know the other day I said I'd deal with it, but I can't do this anymore. I thought, maybe one day, you'll look at me the way you look at him but I come to realize that even if somewhere in your heart you still have feelings for me, there will always be this big space in your heart reserved for him. I can't keep up with this game. I forfeit."
Julian grabs his jacket and walks out. Brooke looks at her boyfriend fading into the other side of the door. Lucas stands stunned while Peyton looks at her fiancée staring at her best friend.
***
"Oliver, what are you doing?" Haley's eyes grow wider as she takes a step back.
"We are going to be together forever, Haley."
"No, no, no please, please" Haley cries.
"Don't cry baby. It will be all over soon and we'll be together…" Oliver grabs Haley by the neck and covers her mouth.
"Please, please don't do this" Haley muffles through his hand.
"It's going to be quick and we can be together happily ever after," Oliver said with a devil smile.
Haley's hand clinches onto Oliver's forearm as tears rush down her face. "Oliver, you're hurting me."
"Don't worry sweetheart, it'll be all over soon."
"You said you love me Oliver."
"I do, I love you very much."
"Then why do you want to hurt me?"
"I'm not. I just don't want you to leave. Everyone leaves me but you can't. You mean so much to me, don't you understand? You belong to me!"
***
"Julian loves you. He doesn't love me." Peyton said, standing behind Brooke.
"Shut up. Shut the hell up." Brooke turns around and faces her best friend.
"Brooke!" Lucas shouts.
"It's okay Lucas." Peyton grabs a hold of his hand.
"Oh what you're playing victim now? You know what? You win, my boyfriend and ex-boyfriend is yours."
Brooke walks away.
"Julian was never mine." Peyton said honestly.
"And what? Lucas was yours?" Brooke smirks. "Lucas was mine first. But you manage to steal him away didn't you?"
"I didn't steal him away from you!" Peyton yells.
Brooke said sarcastically. "Oh, I wonder how he gotten away then?"
"Brooke, please." Lucas eyes Brooke to not go any further.
"I caught you guys kissing each other on his front porch." Brooke said, as tears come down her face, shaking.
"Brooke." Lucas signals her to stop talking.
"What? She doesn't know. Well, let me tell you honey- Lucas was never yours. We were going to have a baby together but-but-but when I saw my best friend kissing my boyfriend, I hated this baby…so I terminate it"
Peyton's jaw drops and suddenly her knees fall weak.
"Because of you…I killed my own baby…you took everything away from me" Brooke lets out a heart-breaking cry.
Lucas tries to hold his tears in.
"Brooke, I'm sorry." Peyton tries to grab Brooke's hand.
"We were going to name him Jayden" Brooke's voice cracks.
Lucas walks to Brooke and grabs her into his arms and holds her tightly as she falls deeply into his chest. Peyton looks on as her engagement ring drops to the floor.
***
Clay releases his hand from Taylor's and takes a step back.
"I don't love you Taylor." He states explicitly.
"I know, you love my sister and that's fine."
"You have to understand, I will always love her."
"That's fine" Taylor said, as she steps forward.
"Stop saying that! It's not fine. It will never ever be fine. I used you on one lonely night and that's not fine."
"Well, I'll get over it."
"Well, I can't."
"I'll make you forget." Taylor grabs Clay's waist and pulls him closer but he yanks away.
"Taylor, don't. Taylor. Stop it."
"Come on Clay, we're both lonely; we're absolutely perfect for one another."
Taylor draws Clay closer as he puts his hand on her waist. She smiles. He feels guilty. Taylor gently runs her fingers through Clay's hair and then her fingers make their way down his cheeks sweeping by his lips. She draws his lip closer to hers. They hear each other breathing as they close their eyes.
"Clay, I need to talk---" Nathan drops in, seeing as the door was open and interrupts.
Clay's face becomes pale as though he saw a ghost. He aggressively pushes Taylor away. "Nate, what-what-what are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-uh-um, sorry!" Nathan walks out.
Clay runs after his friend. "Nathan!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were-um -I should call next time" Nathan half smiles.
"That was---"
"I'm going to go." Nathan turns around to exit.
"Don't tell Haley, please."
Nathan stopped.
"Please."
After hearing what Clay has to say, Nathan walks out.
***
"Haley we're on our way" Oliver holds tightly onto Haley.
Haley tries to breath but her body is telling her that it wants to shut down. The smell of blood fills the room. Her vision goes blurred. She sees this faint figure coming towards her but it fades out as her blood pressure crashes.
"Do you see it, Haley? The light is guiding us, we're almost there, we're almost happy."
***
how long have I
been in this storm
so overwhelmed by the ocean's shapeless form
water's getting harder to tread
with these waves crashing over my head
if I could just see you
everything will be alright
if I'd see you
this darkiness will turn to light