mercy ▹ one tree hill (discontinued)

i. almost car accidents

ALMOST CAR ACCIDENTS
LILA SCOTT

"Do you ever want to cheer for your brother?" Dan asked his daughter. The noise of shoes squeaking on the gym floor and basketball players throwing their balls had made it hard to hear. With his arms crossed and that permanent frown still etched on his face, he sounded annoyed.

Lila rolled her eyes at her old father's words, his big build being towards her and eyes glaring at him. "Which one? The one you don't care about or the one you care less about?" She asked, her shoulders slouching against the seats.

"You could at least praise him on something," Dan scoffed. He had now turned his head towards the sweaty players, a string of curses coming off his mouth as shots were missed by players being tripped. Lila couldn't care to pay attention to the pre-game ritual, instead she just drew whatever she saw first on the open court. Going to school was the last thing she wanted to do, but sitting next to her father and hearing him bitch and whine all the time was worse. Basketball was a boring sport for Lila and since that's what the whole family was about, she couldn't escape it.

Dan cleared his throat, "Nathan! Remember," he started, Lila beginning to mimic his words, "ten shots -- no less."

Nathan nodded with his lips closed tight, "Got it." Stealing a glance Lila, he saw her pouty lips and raised an eyebrow, "What bug crawled up your ass today, La?"

Lila scoffed, her lips turned downward, "You and your ego-"

"Quit yakking and warm up," Coach grumbled giving each Scott a glare before wobbling away to the other players. Lila rolled her eyes, going back to her small notebook of doodles and fits. On some pages the ink bled through deeply and drawings overlapped with others often creating new sketches. Her fingers curved around the black pen as her eyes flicked to the court tracing player number 4's body.

He was built and Lila could tell that missing leg day was never an option. She quietly chewed on her pen as #4 did a half-court shot a made it with ease. The Ravens did a good job recruiting him, he wasn't too bad at the game or on the eyes.

Coincidentally, Dan had been eyeing the player too and Lila could tell he would be competition for Nathan. His form was almost perfect along with his brown hair and puppy face to go along with it. Lila actually had a reason to stay and watch the game, but knowing her father he would brag about the game all night long to her.

    "When the game starts, I am outta here," she demanded and her father didn't hesitate to agree. All Lila did at games was complain anyways.

The buzzer sounded throughout the gym and Lila grabbed her notebook, satchel and pen making a bee-line towards the door. Nathan waved a small bye as she passed, making the girl smile, but what she didn't expect was for number #4 to be watching with furrowed eyebrows as she escaped the noise.

****

The stench of old flowers filled her nose as she hopped into Peyton's old car. "Hey. Did you watch today?" Peyton asked the girl.

Lila sighed. "Of course not, Pey." Buckling her seatbelt, she pulled her hair back and grinned at Peyton. "Although, I was tempted to stay for many reasons."

Peyton's eyebrow arched as she fought back a grin for the brunette, "Don't give me that bull. You never stay, you just come so your dad can see it as 'family bonding' and you can get out of your house." The car rumbled and drowned out Peyton's small laughs, pulling out of the school parking lot.

"You're right, but there was just someone on that stupid team," she bit her lip. "He was cute too. Number 4," she explained to Peyton.

Peyton's nose scrunched as she kept driving down the lonely road, "Blair? Hayden Blair?" Lila shrugged a small trace of a smile on her face, "He's not good, Lila. Don't even talk to him, no if's and's or but's."

Lila frowned. How could Peyton just tell her what to do? Of course, she would take any advice from the girl, but that wouldn't stop her from speaking to 'Hayden' at all. "How do you even know him?" she accused.

"If Nathan gets to cheat, so do I," she responded.

Cheating on her own brother, how did she not know? She wasn't that surprised that Peyton would do that as Nathan did it almost every week, but having Hayden as a boy toy made Lila feel disgusted towards that girl. She only said those things because she wanted Hayden to herself. Lila couldn't be such a treat to Peyton's booty call that she had to lie.

"You're not going to say anything are you?" Peyton taunted, still staying down the road.

"About you playing my brother like Brooke Davis? No, of course not," sarcastic of course, but Lila would keep her word.

Peyton smirked at the street lights above her as she speeded down the small roads with no thoughts on anything else. Lila just rolled her eyes, her head resting on the cold window and slowly falling into a short nap. She could hear Peyton struggling to reach over the seat and obtain her CD, so she became her eyes and when they landed on a tall silhouette, Lila yelled, "Look out!"

Peyton instantly turned around and slammed on the breaks stopping many inches away from another bad thing in Lila's life, Lucas Scott. Her half brother stared at her as she smiled a bit and released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Lila didn't hate the kid, she just never talked to him. He slowly but surely smiled as Peyton gave him a sign to move along. The boy left with his basketball in tow and headphones tucked in his ears.

Peyton scoffed. "What a moron."

"Yeah, whatever you say."

•
1010 words, not edited

This is short ! im sorry i didn't update months ago, i was on a hiatus from school and i just got back into writing which makes me really happy!!

i dont want peyton to seem bitchy for cheating on nathan, but i had to make changes so things between hayden and lila would be good :))))) sorry if that confused anyone.

as always,
love jade