Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!
Nathan walked up to Karen's house and tentaviely knocked on the door. He hadn't really spoken to her a whole lot since he found out about the custody battle.
Karen opened the door and froze when she saw who it was.
"Hi Nathan." Karen said shyly.
"Hi Karen."
"How are you?"
"I'm fine."
"That's good."
"You know, I understand why you would want to do a custody battle. But please…don't." Nathan said quietly.
"Oh Nathan, I'm not. I'm so sorry."
"It's okay."
"Thank you. Lucas is upstairs in his room."
"Okay…I have no idea where that is." Nathan laughed.
"Oh that's right, you've never been here before."
"Yeah, but the house is really nice. Um…it's huge too." Nathan said.
"It was hard to find our way around at first, but you get used to it."
Nathan followed Karen as she went up the stairs and down a hallway.
"Honey, Nathan's here."
"Oh, hey." Lucas smiled. He got up from his bed and gave Nathan a quick hug.
"How are you doing?"
"Good, good."
"Have fun." Karen said, and headed out the door.
"Dude. This house is freaking amazing." Nathan grinned.
Lucas laughed.
"Seriously," Nathan said, walking toward the window. "This is your backyard, man. It's huge!"
"Yeah, it's crazy." Lucas said.
"Okay, so you're either extremely forgetful, or just a dumbass." Nathan said, sitting down and turning on Lucas' TV.
"What? Why?" Lucas said, sitting down at his computer.
"You didn't tell me you were coming to your mom's."
"Oh, whoops. Sorry." Lucas said, getting up and laying on his bed.
"No problem."
"Cookie?" Lucas asked, reaching under his bed and pulling out a package of Oreos.
"Absolutely."
"Here." Lucas handed him the package.
"Your mom would most likely kill you if she knew that you were getting cookie crumbs all over your room."
"Yes, she would. And that is why we're not telling her."
"Nice. So are you coming back to dad's on Friday?"
"Yeah."
"Is Dad picking you up or what?"
"No idea."
"Okay. Well…I'm playing this week…"
"That's great, Nate. You think that you're ready?"
"Definitely. Whitey has been working us hard."
"That's good."
"So, do you want to come? I mean I know it's probably the last thing you want to see, considering everything that's happened, and you're probably tired, but I really want you to be there."
Lucas smiled.
"I'll definitely come watch. Of course."
"Thanks, man."
"You better not suck." Lucas teased.
"I'll do my best." Nathan grinned.
"So, have people stopped talking about you yet?"
"If they haven't they're being more discrete."
"Well at least there's that."
"Okay, I need some advice…since I've gotten back, the cheerleaders have been really nice and supportive of me…"
"Like Theresa?" Lucas said knowingly.
"Yes. Among others. And I was wondering, do you think I should ask one of them out?"
"Um…"
"Come on, Luke."
"Not until you work things out with Haley." Lucas said firmly.
Nathan sighed.
"I know, I know. It sucks, but you've got to talk to her and decide where you stand."
"I don't know where we stand." Nathan said, staring at his shoes.
"Look, it's okay. It sucks, I know. I kind of went through the same thing with Brooke."
"You weren't married though."
"True."
"Before you went to talk to Brooke this summer, what did you do?"
"I went through all the scenarios in my head, paced around my room, and looked for any excuse not to go."
"Sounds about right."
"You just have to go through with it."
"What do you think? About me and Haley?"
"I don't know. You both have changed so much since this whole music thing started."
"That's just it. I don't know…if it's right anymore."
"I understand."
"But I've put it off way too long, haven't I?"
"Well…yeah."
"I just don't know what to do."
"Well you have some time to think over it. You don't have to talk to her until later."
"Hey, your mom left the front door unlocked. That's dangerous you know. Okay, so I brought over a couple of DVDs and…Nathan." Haley said, stopping short when she saw who Lucas was with.
"Okay, so I was wrong." Lucas said.
"I'll come back." Haley said quickly.
"No I can go." Nathan said, turning red.
"No, really it's okay." Haley said.
"No, I should get home anyways. I have…homework. Okay Luke, I will call you later tonight or something. Okay?"
"Nate…"
"Bye." Nathan said, clapping Lucas on the shoulder and hurrying out of the room, leaving behind his jacket.
"Nathan, your jacket!" Lucas called out, but Nathan was already out of earshot.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut your time with him short." Haley said.
"It's fine. I don't know why he got so freaked out."
"Well obviously spending more than 5 seconds in my presence now scares him."
"I'm sorry, Hales. He'll come around."
"I hope so."
"Okay so what did you bring?"
"Well…"
"I swear, if The Notebook is in that pile…"
"It's not." Haley laughed.
Haley put in a DVD, and she and Lucas both sat back on his bed.
After a few minutes, Lucas put his arm around his best friend and kissed the top of her head.
"Just give him time." He said softly.
A few hours later, Lucas had fallen asleep and Haley was sitting on his bed while he slept, looking through old photo albums.
She smiled as she flipped through the pages, looking at pictures from birthday parties and a few middle school dances that they went to together.
"We look like such dorks." She said to herself.
Lucas rolled over and sighed as he slept.
"Lucas." She said, gently shaking him awake.
He sat up and looked over her shoulder.
"Wow, we were dorky." He laughed.
"Yeah, but it was fun."
"Yeah."
"Okay, so I have to head out. I'll see you tomorrow." Haley said.
"Okay." Lucas said, hugging her.
"Bye."
"Bye." Lucas called after her as his cell phone rang.
"Hey Broody, how are you holding up?"
"I'm doing good, I thought you were coming over."
"I was, but Bevin and Theresa had some trouble grasping the routine so I had to stay after."
"Oh, that sucks."
"I'll come over tomorrow morning before school."
"That's so early, Brooke. Are you sure?"
"Yes, I want to see you before my day starts."
"Well, good." Lucas said fondly.
"Okay, well I've got to go and do homework…"
"Do what?" Lucas teased.
"Shut up." Brooke laughed.
"I'm just kidding. Good night."
"Night. I love you."
"I love you too." Lucas said, and hung up.
"Aw, I love you too." Nathan said as he came into Lucas' room.
"Eavesdropping, little brother. Tisk tisk." Lucas laughed.
"Yeah, whatever. What's up?" Nathan asked.
"Nothing, what are you doing here?"
"Well I just missed you so much…and also I left my jacket."
"Oh yeah." Lucas said, remembering.
"I'm sorry I bolted before."
"It's okay, but you-"
"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'll talk to her tomorrow in school."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"I'll know if you don't."
"Oh really?" Nathan said, raising his eyebrows.
"I have my sources." Lucas smiled.
"Right. So what's all this?" Nathan said, moving aside the photo albums.
"Haley got some DVD, I fell asleep during it, and when I woke up she was looking through them."
"Oh." Nathan said, flipping them open.
"I'm almost afraid to let you look through them."
"Probably for a good reason."
"Yeah."
"Huh." Nathan said after a moment.
Lucas glanced at the picture. It was his 11th birthday party. He was sitting with his cake in front of him, just after he blew out the candles, and Haley was kissing his cheek. If Karen had taken the picture three seconds later, it would have shown Lucas making a face and Haley laughing.
"Oh, yeah. My 11th birthday. Look, there's Skills…and Mouth…"
Nathan laughed.
"He looks exactly the same."
"Pretty much." Lucas chuckled.
Nathan flipped a couple more pages, until he found the same pictures Haley was looking at, from middle school dances.
"You two went to these together?"
"All the ones our parents forced us to go to."
"Wow."
"Okay Lucas, tomorrow Andy and I have to go out and make final wedding arrangements." Karen said, walking into the room.
"Cool. Do you know the date yet?"
"Whatever the next available date is."
"That's great Mom."
"I know you're not really recovered yet, but would you be up for coming with us? I don't want you to be here alone all day."
"It's fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Although in the afternoon, I'm sure Brooke would go." Nathan interjected.
"Really?"
"She's crazy about weddings." Lucas agreed.
"Alright then, I'll see if she wants to."
"Is it okay if she comes over real early tomorrow?" Lucas asked.
"Of course. You mean before school?"
"Yeah."
"That's fine, honey. I'm going to bed. It's getting late, just so you know Nathan."
"Okay." Nathan nodded.
"Night boys." Karen said as she closed the door.
"I guess you've gotta head out." Lucas said.
"Yeah."
"Night, bro."
"Night." Nathan said, getting up and leaving.
Brooke tiptoed into Lucas' bedroom the next morning and sat on his bed. He was still fast asleep.
"Lucas…" She whispered. She lay down so she was at his level.
He opened his eyes and blinked a few times to clear his vision.
"Hey." He whispered.
"Hi…I almost didn't want to wake you up you looked so cute sleeping."
"I'm glad you did. I missed you yesterday."
"I missed you too. Your mom called me, we're going dress shopping."
"Oh boy. I'll never see her again if she's going shopping with you." Lucas laughed.
"Don't worry, I'll get her back to you." Brooke smiled.
"That's good to know."
"So are you excited about the wedding?"
"Yeah," Lucas smiled, "She deserves this. And Andy is great."
"He is."
"So Brooke, are you my date?" Lucas said, sitting up.
"You bet your ass I'm your date." Brooke said, pulling him back down and kissing him.
"Lucas we're going-" Karen said, stopping short.
"Oh, jeez. This is…extremely awkward. Mom, this isn't-"
"It's okay Lucas. I let her in." Karen said, smiling a little.
"Sorry Karen, that probably didn't look too good."
"No, but I trust you two. It's getting to be time for school, Brooke." Karen said.
"Noted. See you later." Brooke said, sitting up and wrapping her arms around Lucas, who tightly returned her embrace.
"I'll see you when we get back." She said.
"Okay." Lucas smiled.
"I'll be calling to check on you." Karen said firmly.
"Okay mom."
"I'm really sorry, I know what that must have looked like." Brooke said quickly once they were outside.
"Brooke, I understand. Just…be careful. Both of you have to be responsible about this relationship."
"I know." Brooke nodded.
"He seems so sad whenever you have to leave." Karen said, smiling at Brooke.
"I want to be able to spend more time with him. It must be lonely sometimes during the day."
"He's having a bit of hard time wrapping his head around what happened. We just all need to be there for him."
"Absolutely."
"I'll see you later then, Brooke."
"Bye Karen." Brooke said, heading off to school.
Sorry if that was a bit on the boring side, I have the next part of this story all in my head, and I just needed a few chapters to set it up and get there.
Please leave me a review, you know you wanna ;)