all that you can't leave behind pt.2
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Carly's nimble fingers knotted her shoelaces tightly. She watched the basketball players warm-up while she sat and waited for Brooke to arrive at cheer practice.
Peyton approach the girl who sat on the floor. Carly took her sullen expression as a sign of mourning her mother.
"I'm not feeling it today either, Pey. Stay strong, things will get better." Carly patted the girl's leg. Peyton gave her a weak smile. Carly's eyes drifted over to Nathan who was talking with Tim over on the sidelines.
"When are you going to tell him?" Peyton asked, interrupting Carly's train of thought. Carly gave her blonde haired friend a sideways glance.
"What do you mean? Who?" Carly questioned. Peyton chuckled and pointed in the direction of Nathan.
"Nate, you idiot. When are you going to tell him that you love him?" Carly took a deep breath. She had certainly thought of telling Nathan how she really felt towards him but it always seemed like the wrong time.
"It all seems too good to be true, you know? Nathan and I being single at the same time. Something is going to screw it up sooner or later." Carly sighed. Brooke had walked into the gym and threw her stuff down.
"Alright ladies! We're gonna practice a new cheer today so stretch out and be limber!" Brooke shouted frantically. Carly and Peyton stood up from the ground.
The two friends stood up from stretching. Peyton's expression had grown grim once more and Carly couldn't help but frown at the girl. Carly had urged the girl to quit cheering because it seemed to make her unhappy but Peyton refused. She was sensing that this was the calm before the storm.
After Brooke ran through the cheer with the squad she decided it would be good to practice it multiple times until it was perfect. This would have been okay if they hadn't practiced the cheer at least 30 times while Brooke nitpicked their entire movements.
"Here we go! Ravens let's score!" They tried once more. Brooke huffed and walked towards Peyton. "Wait, hold on. Peyton, you got the arms wrong." Peyton rolled her eyes. The team crowded around the two girls, sensing a confrontation.
"It's not brain surgery, Brooke." Peyton scoffed. Carly attempted to cut in before the argument escalated but was cut off by Brooke's finger in her face, signaling her to wait.
"Okay, what's with the attitude?" Brooke asked, earning the attention of some basketball players.
"What's with your life? Aren't you embarrassed the most important thing in your world is some stupid cheer?" Peyton pushed. Carly heaved a sigh and walked away from the two girls, realizing herself getting involved would only make matters worse.
"Look, I'm really sorry things didn't work out with you and Nathan, but don't go all Mariah on me, okay?" Brooke reasoned. Carly resisted the urge to slap her forehead. For how close Peyton and Brooke claimed to be, they really knew nothing about each other's lives.
"You think this is about Nathan? You're not even close. You're not even in the neighborhood of close!" Peyton began. Brooke's confusion only seemed to grow. Peyton's sanity was crumbling dangerously fast and all anyone could do was watch and let it happen.
"Then what's wrong?" This time Carly had slapped her own forehead, internally cringing at Brooke's stupidity. Peyton had officially let everything go.
"What's wrong is how pointless all of this is!" She began, only to be cut off by Brooke.
"Stop saying that!"
"No, because it's true! What difference does it make is you sleep with a popular guy, or you go to the right party, or you know the moves to some moronic cheer to do at some lame ass game I could care less about." Peyton threw her pom-poms in Brooke's face and walked out the gym.
Carly debated whether or not to follow the girl out, but eventually decided against it. Peyton needed to heal on her own terms. Carly didn't want to aggravate her even more than she already was.
Brooke looked extremely pissed off. The entire basketball team, including Whitey, had watched the scene. Carly caught Nathan's eye. He gave her a questioning look and she only shrugged before Brooke snapped out of her glare.
"What are you all staring at? Back in formation!" She shouted at the cheer squad. Everyone scrambled back to their spots, dreading what was to come during the rest of practice.
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The gold hairbrush glided through Carly's black hair later that night. She was getting ready for bed, contemplating about calling Nathan to ask how his tutoring session with Haley went.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her bedroom door. She walked towards the door and yanked it open. Nathan leaned against the doorframe looking down at Carly, taking in her appearance. Carly turned and walked back to the dresser while Nathan stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.
"How did you get inside? I'm the only one home." Carly observed. Nathan laid down on her bed, kicking off his shoes. He smirked, "I know where you hide the key."
Carly grinned at the boy. She switched off the light and climbed into bed next to him. The pair stayed quiet for a few moments. Carly rolled over to face Nathan.
"How was the tutoring session with Haley?" She asked. He reached across the bed and draped an arm around her.
"She's trying to be my shrink, Carls. She told me that I should have worried more about Peyton when we were together, just because I mentioned what happened at practice yesterday. I don't need my tutor butting into my life when she doesn't know the first thing about it." Carly nodded along with his words.
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" She asked lightly, hoping not to agitate him. Nathan sighed heavily. He thought for a moment about what he should do about Haley.
"I don't know. I'll probably just have you tutor me if she keeps it up. I don't need anyone associated with Lucas knowing that much stuff about my life. Plus, I already talk to you about my problems and if you tutored me we could spend more time together." Nathan rolled over to face her.
"We already spend time together. Like a ton of time together." Carly giggled as Nathan buried his face into her neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Not enough." He mumbled sleepily. The two fell into a silence, enjoying each other's presence for the time they had together. Carly closed her eyes and fell asleep in Nathan's embrace.
"I love you."
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Carly awoke the next morning to an empty bed. She quickly glanced at the clock, which read 6:54 am. She breathed a sigh of relief. She thought she had overslept.
The door creaked open to reveal Nathan holding a cup of coffee. He grinned down at her. "Hey, sweetheart. We have to leave in about ten minutes. I'm giving you a ride today and I need to change out of these clothes." Carly groaned and rolled over, mumbling a 'five more minutes.'
She squealed as Nathan pulled the covers off of her. "Cute pajamas." He smirked. She was clad in velvet shorts and a lace bralette. Carly rolled her eyes at the boy. "It's not like I was expecting company. Let alone you."
Nathan's facial expression grew serious. "Come to the game tonight, please. We need to talk." Carly gave him a weird look. She got up and walked towards her closet to get ready for the day ahead of her.
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The day had passed quite quickly in Carly's opinion. Before she knew it she was walking towards the doors of the Whitey Durham Field House. She walked passed Nathan and said hello to Haley before making her way towards the double doors.
"Carly!" Her name had been called across the pavement. She spun around to see Lucas, who motioned her to come closer to him. His gaze was fixed firmly on Haley and Nathan. Carly rolled her eyes at the boy's obvious anger.
"Hey Luke, what's up?" She greeted the boy with a smile. He quickly looked at her. He threw an arm around her shoulder.
"I just wanted to say thank you for always being there for me and giving me new books to read." Lucas smiled. Carly laughed lightly at the blond.
"Okay for real. What do you need?" Carly could tell he was skirting around something and she wasn't to keen on guessing what it was. Lucas sighed and avoided her gaze. Nathan had said goodbye to Haley and took notice of the engagement Carly was in with Lucas.
Lucas caught his eyes and smirked, fully intended on making Nathan suffer, "I've just had an extremely hard week and I need my best friend around, okay?" Lucas opened his arms, signaling for Carly to embrace him.
"Aw Luke! I'll always be here if you need me. Just give me a call." Carly gladly accepted the hug. Lucas leaned down and placed his head on Carly's shoulder. His hand's found their way to Carly's backside, resting them there for the remained of the hug.
Nathan's eyes burned with rage. He attempted to approach them, hoping to beat Lucas' ass, but a couple of other players making their way towards the locker room came and collected him before he had the opportunity.
Carly told Lucas good luck and walked inside. She found Haley and sat next to her. The girl's began to chat about homework and tutoring before the sons and fathers took the court.
"Luke! Lucas!" Haley attempted to get Lucas' attention. "Hey Scott!" She earned the attention of both Scott men on the court. Lucas locked eyes with Haley and proceeded to glare at her like she had betrayed him in some horrific way. He then looked at Carly and winked before looking back at Nathan, who rolled his eyes.
A confused expression took over Carly's face. She looked at Haley who, judging by her facial expression was just as confused by what happened as she was. "What is their deal?" Carly questioned aloud. Haley huffed.
The game started and the Fathers came out strong but they were no match for the Sons athleticism. Carly cheered for her friends and laughed when they played tricks on their dads while on the court.
Half time rolled around and Carly went to catch Nathan as he was coming out of the locker room. Haley went to do the same with Lucas. It didn't take long for Nathan to emerge from the locker room with a distressed look coating his features.
"You're playing great, Nate. I'm glad you're having fun." Carly smiled. She approached him and laid her hands onto his chest. He smiled down at her, eyes bright with joy.
"Can I stay at your place tonight?" He suddenly asked. Carly was slightly taken back by his question but nodded nonetheless.
"Dan giving you a hard time?" She asked quietly, seeming to already know the answer. He quickly nodded as Whitey emerged from the locker room. "Scott! Let's go!"
"I'll see you tonight my little good luck charm." Nathan yelled as he ran down the hallway back towards the gym. Carly smiled lightly, suddenly not being able to wait until that night.
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Nathan had called her after the game and told her he would be over later than expected. Carly took this time to get some ice cream with Haley. Haley had been having a bit of a rough time with tutoring Nathan and maintaining her friendship with Lucas.
The pair sat on the bridge for what felt like hours after the game, successfully finishing their ice cream in the meantime. Carly looked over at Haley, who seemed to be playing with a pink, beaded bracelet.
"Cute bracelet, Hales." Carly commented. Haley snapped out of her daze and looked at the girl. She seemed to be conflicted about something. Before Carly could register what had happened Haley had taken the bracelet off and thrown it into the river.
"What was that for?" Carly asked. She was a little bit concerned for her friend and her actions.
"I just- I didn't want to get too attached to it you know? There's other jewelry out there for me. That one wasn't meant for me." Haley sighed. Carly thought about her words and whether or not they had an alternate meaning.
Her phone began buzzing, interrupting her thoughts. It was a text from Nathan saying he was going to be at her house soon.
"Alright, Haley. I have to go, Nathan's coming over soon. Don't go throwing your earrings down there while I'm gone either!" She gave her friend a quick hug and started her journey home.
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(VERY VERY UNEDITED IM SORRY)
Once again, here's another terribly written chapter but I promise things start to pick up in the next few. Please tell me what you think so far in the comments! Also I need to address the 2.5 THOUSAND OF YOU HIIII!!! I hope everyone is enjoying themselves and this story:). Until next time!
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