A Lot Can Happen At Boarding School (One Tree Hill FF)

Chapter 18

Chapter 18: A Tree Hill Raven always knows, when life gives you lemons, put a cherry on top.

"I wonder what it's going to be like down there," Rachel says from the bathroom, applying a final layer of lipstick. She blots, thinking.

Nathan sits on the end of the bed, tying a knot in his high-top converse. Freshly shaven, now-dressed in an open button-down, he'd been wondering the same thing, but more like who was going to be down there.

"Nathan?" Rachel repeats, peaking her head in the doorway to find him staring at his shoelaces.

Nathan snaps back to action, robotically tying his shoes. "I'm sure drunk and disorderly."

"Well, we'll be there," Rachel laughs. Going back to her final make-up touches.

"About that, I'm really tired. I don't know how much I'll drink tonight."

"Yeah, right," he hears Rachel retort.

"I'm serious, do whatever you want. I'll be nursing a beer," Nathan says, getting up to button his shirt in front of the mirror. He eyes himself, god, he looked a lot different than the last time he was in Tree Hill. He'd always been tall, but he finally got NBA height with a solid 6'4" in college; his shoulders were now broad, his arms extra-muscular, and his abs, he was happy to say, next level.

He runs his hands through his hair, styling. He looks decent, but tired. Not from a lack of sleep, more perpetually exhausted with no rest in sight. There was always something.

Rachel rushes out of the bathroom, grabbing her purse, "You ready?"

Nathan straightens up, grabbing his wallet, "I guess I am."

"Great," Rachel chirps, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. "They're going to eat you up."

Nathan gives Rachel a look, stop.

"Tree Hill Prep's most eligible bachelor," she quips. "Kind of."

"Rachel," Nathan cuts in.

"Look, I get it," Rachel sighs, grabbing the door handle. "We're not really a thing. We just do things. It's convenient."

"Yup," Nathan agrees.

"But does everyone need to know that?"

....

Haley stands at the bar, ordering another drink. It was her third in an hour, not that she was counting, not that she was worried, and not that she was drinking for confidence. Not at all. No, she was having a blast, by herself, at her high school reunion.

The bartender hands her a drink, and she takes it to her little corner table, keeping a lookout for Jake. He'd always had her back, ever since they bonded at Thanksgiving many moons ago. They didn't talk a lot, she hadn't seen him in years until today, but he was someone who always picked up where they left off. Thankfully for her, Jake was one of the only people she'd left on a good note.

We all have our secrets, he'd said with a shrug, giving her a hug. And he left it at that. The rest of the gang? Well, she wasn't so lucky.

Haley fiddles with her straw, playing with the cherries at the bottom of her whiskey sour. Even as an adult, she couldn't resist asking the bartender for a million cherries, a trait she never even knew she had before Nathan. God, this place really was memory lane...

...

10 Years Ago – August

She couldn't believe it was already here, senior year. And yet, here she was, at a bonfire in the woods just outside school grounds, cheers-ing to her final days with her best friends, in the best place that ever happened to her.