Here's the next one…
Flashback/Telling the story are in Italics – like I had in a previous chapter, hope you like this one. x
Chapter 31: Postponed Again?
Brooke being clueless as usual and not sensing the tension in the room, just blurts out, "Wow, you guys already know each other, so no introduction necessary"
Haley reaches for a napkin to wipe the blood of Nathan's hands, but he just shoves her away, the amount of rage within him is crazy. All eyes are on them now and Haley is glaring at Chris hoping that he would just drop dead, after everything he did.
Taylor sees all the commotion and walks to the front of the little circle that has been formed.
"You," she yells, "What the hell are you doing here, get out before I call the cops on you" Taylor yells.
Nathan was barely holding back, if he hadn't lost his temper yet it was due to Haley, he was trying to be a better person for her, but after everything Chris did to her he didn't know how much longer he could wait.
"Well, well, well" Chris says, in his southern Texas accent, and by this time everybody's attention was on them and all the women were listening intently to hear some gossip to brighten their week, giving them something to do – every single one of them would be on the phone telling others, and pretty soon everyone would here about Chris Keller, and the rumours would be endless.
Chris continues to speak, directly to Taylor, "If it ain't the black sheep of the family, not my words, that's what your parents would call you when you left, I'm surprised they let you step into their home after what you did" he said winking at Lydia.
Lydia had been in the kitchen all this time and exited just in time to see Chris winking at her.
"Oh Haley-bob you didn't tell me that you were inviting friends from Charleston, Chris has Scarlet come with you" Lydia says in her cosmopolite style. Lydia, as well as everyone being unaware of everything between Chris and Haley had no idea what was going on, except for Nathan and Taylor. Haley could feel her eyes filling up with tears, threatening to fall just at the thought.
"Well Haley looks like you and mommy dearest haven't been talking much lately" Chris says looking directly at her and this is when Nathan looses it and lunges forward, Lucas who senses that this may happen hold him back.
"I don't think you heard the first time GET OUT" Nathan yells.
"Nathan honey I don't think that this is a way to treat a guest of the James', please apologize" Deb says sternly.
"Yea, Natey, listen to mommy and apologize" Chris instigates him. Brooke who has absolutely no idea what's going on, just observes and stays out of it.
"Nathan, just ignore him" Haley whispers in his ear, when she finally has the ability to speak. She moves forward and says to Chris, "You are not wanted here, please leave now" she is very calm and composed but really she cannot wait to lash out at him.
Chris just stands there and sniggers, and Taylor who being in a very emotional state due to her pregnancy took his initial words to heart, walks up to him and 'SMACK' straight across the face, she points to the door and yells "OUT"
Chris just makes it worse, "A little hormonal are we" he says and winks and Taylor. How could he possibly know?
No, no he's just making it up Taylor thought.
"PMS" Chris says, as though speaking to himself, all the while staring straight at Haley, who concentrates on calming Nathan, they cannot afford this specially with the audience, who are now extremely interested.
"No it can't be, because you're looking a little on the plump side huh. Tay?" Chris says.
Upon hearing her daughter's name Lydia moves forward to get a better look at the young girl she knew of as Trish. " Taylor" she says softly, tears streaming down her face.
"Aw isn't that romantic a family reunion" Chris says smugly, Haley steps up to him once more and tells him to get out. Chris just smiles at her cheekily and moves closer to her, he grabs the side of her face and says, "You want a little more of the night before" Haley was petrified but before anyone could say anything Nathan punched him straight in the nose and yelled, "Get the fuck out of here, before something breaks"
"I guess Chris Keller's work here is done, see ya later sweet cheeks" he says to Brooke kissing her straight on the lips" but before he can make an exit he gets another punch from Lucas, and stumbles out.
Dan who senses that the engagement will not be happening today apologizes to the guests and escorts them outside, yelling, "We'll let you know when the date has been confirmed"
All the middle aged gossip queens were taking their time and lurking behind in the hopes of over hearing some more. The news of Lydia's second daughter would be a subject spoken about for weeks, as well as Chris Keller, and rumours and lies would be everywhere.
The only people left were the two families, as well as Lucas, Karen, Keith and Brooke, who was still shocked with everything that had just happened, and she was doing anything but looking at Lucas who was glaring at her non-stop, ever since Chris made his exit. Peyton had some sort of crisis at home with her new step-mum and Abi left with her to try and sort it out.
"We need to talk" Deb says, and the six adults move into another room leaving the kids alone.
Haley instantly pulls Taylor into a hug, how could Chris have known, all this time. " Tay, you ok?" she asked comfortingly.
Taylor was unable to speak at all, Haley nodded towards Nathan and let him know that she was taking Taylor upstairs.
"What just happened here" Lucas being completely taken back by the scene in front of him. Brooke filled him in on Taylor and told him basically everything she knew about it all, and they both left as well to go and talk about the whole Chris Keller kiss, because Lucas was still quite mad about that, leaving Nathan on his own.
A few minutes later the six adults returned to find Nathan on his own.
"Where are the rest of them" Dan asked, rather rudely.
"Haley's upstairs with Taylor" Nathan said and he could actually see Lydia squirm when she heard him speak about her.
"What about Luke" Keith asked, concerned
"He's out back with Brooke"
"I'll go get Brooke and Lucas" Karen said.
"And I'll get Haley and-" but the look on Lydia's face stopped her mid-way and Deb left to go and get the girls.
Once everyone was seated, Dan stood, straightening himself as though he was about to make a speech, which followed indeed.
"Okay, well we adults had a chance to talk and we can obviously see that you kids have hidden a lot from us, which we are thoroughly disappointed by, we are your parents and have every right to know what goes on in your lives" Dan said, and took a breath, he was about to continue with the rant but was interrupted.
Brooke who always spoke what she felt said, "Well maybe we'd be able to if you were here more often"
Dan scowled at her and said, "We unlike your parents do keep in touch with our children" he said scornfully and it was aimed directly at Brooke, who was ready to burst into tears at any moment.
"Don't take it out on her, she has nothing to do with what happened here" Lucas said defending his girlfriend.
"Lucas do not interfere" Keith said courteously.
"Yea she did nothing but bring that retched man into our home" this time it was Deb who spoke, Lydia and Jimmy were still shocked to come face to face with Taylor and find out that she was pregnant, it was all too much to handle so they just stayed out of it.
"Mum, Brooke had no idea" Nathan said. And pretty soon the entire room erupted with angry comments and yelling flying back and forth between one another.
"STOP" Haley yelled, because she being the sensible and calm one realised that they weren't getting anywhere and instead of taking their anger out on each other they should concentrate on solving their problems.
Once everything had settled down, Dan stood, once again and said, "Anyways as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted", Brooke was ready to bite back, but Lucas whispered a few soothing words to her and she kept her mouth shut.
"We've decided to actually postpone the engagement till after this issue has been resolved and I have connections with the Chief of Police, whom I contacted a few minutes ago to find and arrest Chris Keller, on the account of disrupting our celebration, as well as any other charges that we shall determine after clearing everything up amongst ourselves. Furthermore I shall call our lawyer and draw up a restraining order against him, which means that he has to be over 100ft away from any of us, just in case the court decides not to prosecute." Dan let out a gasp of air and sat back down.
"Now kids, we need to know everything that you do" Karen said in her motherly tone, she also noticed the look that Nathan and Haley shared with each other.
"Brooke how about we start with you" Karen said carefully.
"Well as you al know I was in New York, last summer" Brooke started off and got lost in the memory…
Brooke entered the hotel after a long flight and very annoying taxi ride, the driver wouldn't shut up. She was at the reception waiting for her room, and a tall skinny lad was standing in front of her, whistling a song she had only once ever heard at one of North Carolina's many annual talent competitions, it was sung by a young girl, around her age. Brooke started humming along to it, Dancing when the stars go blue…
The man in front of her turned around and winked at her, "Hey there sweet cheeks, I take it you're a fan" he said cockily.
"A fan?" Brooke questioned, she could tell that he was talking about the song, but just thought it would be fun to play dumb.
"Yea, my song, only the very privileged have had a chance to hear it" he said smiling brightly.
"Really, well I heard this song back home, but you weren't the one singing it, the girl's voice was amazing." Brooke complemented, putting emphasis on the word 'girl'.
"Oh that was probably one of the girls I trained to sing" he said proudly, knowing fully well that Haley needed no training and he didn't even feel guilty even when he was lying out of his ass about making the song, it was all Haley.
"Wow, that means that you're from NC as well" Brooke said excitedly, it was always great to meet someone from back home.
"Where have my manners gone, I'm Chris Keller, and yes you are right, I'm from Charleston, what about yourself, sweet cheeks" he asked.
She blushed slightly and answered, "Brooke Tree Hill Davis" she laughed again, "sorry still a bit exhausted from all the travelling, I'm Brooke Davis, from Tree Hill, NC" she was just about to extend her hand, when an angry and definitely grumpy old woman, yelled, "Will you get a move on we don't have all the time in the world and save your banter and smooching for the bed room"
Brooke was so ready to bitch slap that woman, even with her age, no one speaks to Brooke Davis like that and gets away with it.
When she turned around Chris had disappeared, she got to the counter and everything was ready, her daddy had come through, for once at least.
She tipped the porter and ran the water for her bath, she just needed to relax.
While the water was running she explored the room, it wasn't too big, had a single king sized bed, dresser, TV, and her favourite the mini-bar, she grabbed a beer and plopped onto the bed.
Brooke stripped getting ready for the shower, just as she was about to set foot into it there was a knock. She grabbed the bath robe and opened the door, but there was no one. She shut it again and the knocking persisted but she realised that it wasn't coming from the main door, she walked back to the bed and noticed another door, walking towards it she opened it, she never noticed it before, weird.
"Why hello, I'm Keller, Chris Keller, and I'd just like to say hi, seeing as we're going to be neighbours for the next few weeks" Chris recited as though he had been planning the speech for ages, "Oh wow, twice in one day, I must have done something good," he joked.
"Did I catch at a bad time" he asked looking a her attire, "Expecting someone" he said with a wink.
"Brooke quickly covered herself even more, "Oh no, no I was just running a bath but how about we meet up in a couple of hours" she said with a smile.
"That sounds great, I have a few errands and I shall see you later, sweet cheeks" he said.
"The name's Brooke" she replied and carefully shut the door between the two.
Later on that night, she got another knock and Chris appeared with a bunch of flowers, "Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady"
"Does that line ever actually work" Brooke said gladly accepting the flowers and placing them on the coffee table.
"So what do you wanna do, sweet cheeks" he asked, Brooke had officially given up, trying to get him to use her name was impossible, and se quite liked Sweet Cheeks, it suited her.
"Well as I already told you I'm exhausted so how about we just order in and get really drunk"
"Sounds good to me" he said.
Brooke was mid-way through her story, when Dan interrupted her, "Could you just get to the point please, what happened, did you ever see him again, why was he in NY in the first place, anything useful we could use to find him"
"Sorry for taking up your precious time Mr. Scott, but Karen asked for everything" she replied back politely.
Brooke had been giving Luke the exact same story before Karen interrupted them and called them inside in this precise spot, so Lucas was more eager for her to continue because he dreaded what was coming next.
"He told me he wouldn't be there too long because the person he came to find wasn't there, and I didn't really care so I didn't ask him anymore about it, well I only saw him that one night, because he left the morning after I woke up to find that he wasn't there" she said, she had to e careful she was treading water now.
"What do you mean the morning after" Lucas asked abruptly.
But before Brooke could answer, Haley said, "He was looking for me, when we moved I lied to him and told him that we were going to New York, because I knew he wouldn't leave me alone" Haley said and suddenly became quiet again.
Lucas spoke once more, this time more sternly, "Brooke what do you mean the morning after?"
"Well that night we got really drunk and well one thing led to another and we ended up having sex" Brooke said shamefully.
"I'm sorry I have to go," Lucas said, and he walked out, followed by Brooke who ran to keep up with him, but he had already taken off in his car by the time she got outside, but she knew exactly where he was headed, the Rivercourt, it was like the Scott boys' territory.
"Well, looks like it's your turn Haley" Karen said apologetically.
Haley looked scared, she couldn't go through with it, she looked at Nathan for help, and asked, "Is it okay if I speak to Nate alone, just for a few minutes" everyone nodded apart from Dan, who spoke again.
"Whatever you have to say to 'Nate' you can say to the rest of us" he said uttering Nathan's name sarcastically.
But Nathan had already stood up and, took Haley by the arm towards the kitchen, Taylor got up as well, she couldn't stay there on her own, not with everyone apart from her own parents, (who refused to look at her), glaring at her.
"Nathan, I can't" Haley pleaded.
"Hales, you're going to have to, tell them everything, the longer we wait the worse it's going to get" he explained.
"Hales, you're going to have to tell them something" Taylor said.
"I have an idea," Nathan said. "We could tweak the story so that you don't get too embarrassed or hurt whilst telling it" he said.
The three of them exited the kitchen with a new story, which only gave the truth partly so that it wouldn't hurt Haley too much because flashes of that night still haunted her and having to retell it would be like suicide.
Well I spent absolutely ages on this chap I hope you liked it, it's nice and long so it'll keep you busy until the next one, pls review tell me what you think.
REVIEW x