Rose looked through her CDs, trying to find something to listen to. She'd listened to all her Nickelback albums multiple times and was, frankly, tired of them. She'd had "Someday" in her head for about a week now and wanted something else in its place.
She found Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP wedged in between a Fall-Out Boy Album and a Blackalicious album. She pulled it out and noticed the "NS" scrawled across the front. Nathan had lent it to her months ago, but hadn't asked for it back. She shrugged and inserted it into her stereo.
As Eminem's nasal aggressive voice filled her room, a knock on her door accompanied it. She turned the volume down to make sure it was a knock, because her door was usually unlocked and anyone she really knew just walked in like "It's me." She was used to that.
Whoever it was knocked again, harder this time. She looked through the peephole, trying to see who it was, but she couldn't tell because whoever it was had a Yankees hat on. After she thought about what digusting taste the guy/girl had in sports teams, she wondered exactly why they were trying to hide their identity.
She grabbed her mace can from her nightstand and slowly opened the door.
"What the hell are you doing in Tree Hill?"
"That's no way to greet an old friend."
"You're no friend of mine, Tony," Rose said. "Now, let me ask again, what the hell are you doing in Tree Hill?"
"I missed my best friend," Antonio shrugged.
Rose sighed."I'm not your friend."
"What, you wanna be cold to your dead ex's brother?"
"Yes," Rose said.
"You're a bitch," Antonio said, grinning.
"So I've been told," Rose said, the same sour expression on her face.
"Come on, you can't still be mad at me for-"
"Oh, I can, and I am. What you tried to do was ultimate betrayal to your brother."
"Who is dead, by the way," Antonio said.
Rose glared at him, shook her head, and slammed the door.
"Wait, Rose, c'mon! I didn't come all the way down to sleep with you!"
"Well, I sure hope you didn't," Rose heard a familiar voice outside different from Antonio's.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I could ask you that same question."
"Antonio McIntyre."
"Nathan Scott."
Rose opened the door. "This is a New York nuisance," she said, gesturing to Antonio. "And this," she continued, gesturing to her twin, "is my twin brother, Nathan."
"Cool, I've always wondered what you would look like as a guy," Antonio shrugged.
Rose looked at Antonio like he was crazy. "Why?" she asked, and she couldn't help but chuckle.
Antonio shrugged again.
"So," Rose said dismissively, turning to Nathan, "why are you here?"
"It's something with me and Haley," Nathan said, "can I come in?"
"Yeah, sure," Rose said, opening the door wider for him to walk in. She looked at Antonio and said with finality, "Go home."
She shut the door. "What's the problem? She go on another tour? You sleep wih another one of her sisters?"
"No, I-uh," he sighed. After a long paused, he sighed, "She's pregnant, Rose."
"Congratulations," Rose said. "I don't see how that's a problem."
"Well, I mean, my dream is to play professional basketball and the next step to get to that is college basketball, and a kid would get in the way of that,"Nathan reasoned.
"Do you hear yourself?" Rose asked. "Pop quiz: tell me the reason Dan left Karen when she was pregnant with our brother."
"Because-"
"His dream was basketball, right? Okay." Rose said. "So, you're gonna follow in Dan's ugly footsteps and subject him to a single parent family, making him feel unwanted? Nice, Nathan."
"Well, it's not just my dream, it's hers, too."
"Listen to me, Nate. Once a girl knows that she's responsible for the life of a child of her own," Rose said, blinking back the tears that were forming in her blue eyes, "that's all that matters. The dreams and everything they thought they wanted just doesn't really matter anymore. You can't be selfish, Nathan. Not now that you have a child."
Nathan sighed, and then looked at his sister. "How do you know all that?"
Rose sighed, also. "I was pregnant in my sophomore year. It was Steven's. I carried full-term, and I was so...happy. I felt like I had a purpose. Then, Georgina convinced me that I couldn't raise a child without a father, and she'd be better off adopted like I was."
"Did you get to name her?"
"Yes," Rose nodded, wiping away her tears. "Her name's Graycie Stephanie and she's with a nice family in Upstate New York. She's one and a half and I get pictures every once in a while. "
"Anybody else know about this?"
"Antonio," Rose gestured at the door she assumed he was still at.
"No one here?" Nathan asked.
"Just you now."
"What about Jake?"
"He doesn't even know about Steven," Rose said. "That's all beside the point. It's just that you'll be so much better off if you don't just give it all up. I regret it every single day."
"What do I do about basketball?"
"If you really want it, Nathan, you'll find a way to do both. Now, go home to your wife, apologize for whatever stupid things you said before you left-I know you-and get ready for that press conference while I deal with my nuisance."
After Nathan left, Antonio was still there.
"Thought I told you to go home," she said tensely.
"I heard you talking about Graycie," he said.
"Yes, I was. Problem? Do I not have permission to talk about my daughter?"
"I don't see why you didn't just give her to us. You still could have been in her life, then."
"No," Rose shook her head. "Not with your family. Get real, Antonio. I'm done with all of you."
"Rose," Antonio said, "Graycie's adoptive parents died in a car crash. They're looking for her living birth parent."
"There is no way I'm raising a child at my income rate!"
"No? Guess we'll take her, then."
"Over my dead body," Rose growled.
"Then it's your choice," Antonio said, "you have until Friday."