CHAPTER EIGHT.
pink stained wall

"WHO ARE YOU?" Haley James spoke the question that was the top on her mind, glancing between her husband and the girl, noticing how protective he seemed.

Lola looked up at Nathan before her gaze fell on the dirty-blonde, "The stripper he hired." She smirked, seeing the gaping mouth that fell from the girl's lips. "I'm kidding."

"Not that it's any of your business, but this is my new friend, Lola. The one I was telling you about? How she's always there for me." Nathan shrugged, not caring if his words hurt. "What're you doing here?"

Haley puts on her best innocent voice, ignoring Lola completely. "I wanna come home, Nathan." She clutched her jacket in her hands, pleading for the boy to let her in with brown eyes.

Staring into her eyes, Nathan noticed he had grown to like Lola's more, the distinct color was different from Haley's and he enjoyed that. He scoffed, about to say something, when Deb suddenly interrupted the teenager's conversation.

"Guys, we have to go!" Deb grabbed ahold of Nathan and Lola, dragging them down the steps and towards the car. "It's your father, we have to go now." She turned towards Nathan's wife. "Haley, come with us."

Lola glanced at Nathan, pleading with him to let her have the front seat. With a small smirk, he shakes his head and rushes into the passenger, causing Lola to roll her eyes and get in the back with Haley.

She honestly didn't want to speak to the girl, but she's always been known for her niceness. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Haley looked over at her as Deb sped out of the driveway, scoffing. "You too."

Welp, Lola wasn't going to try anymore. It took a few minutes to make it to the destination the older woman was taking them and they rushed out of the vehicle.

Dan's dealership was up in flames, orange filling their eyesights as it crackled in the night. Firefighters shot at the building, trying to get the flames gone and an ambulance was a few feet away, pushing down inside it's doors.

In that moment of fear for Nathan, he felt to different hands slip inside his right and left side. Glancing down, he noticed Lola had gripped his right side and Haley had a firm hold on the left. And in that moment, he decided to squeeze Lola's back.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.

Three months. That's how long it's been since Lola's seen anyone besides her brother, Peyton and Lucas. She didn't feel lonely with her two blonde companions, but she sort of felt like she'd been third wheeling every-time they all hung out. The black haired girl kept in touch with Nathan, but the two never talked about what almost happened. She wanted to talk to him in person instead of over the phone or letters. She knew what she wanted to say, which was he had been upset talking about Haley, and that set him off. That what he almost did was due to his heightened emotions.

Before he left though, he made Haley sign their divorce papers and Deb had taken them to the court for him, the annulment happening because of it. He decided that since she showed up, trying to claim she suddenly missed him after not caring for months, it was time. Lola had tried to talk him out of it, but he replied to her, saying he'd already started to slowly move on.

Knocking on Nathan's old apartment, which was now Brooke's, Lola walks in and rushes towards the brunette, throwing her arms around her. "B. Davis! I have missed you!"

Brooke screeched in her left ear, "L. Hernandez! I have missed you so much more!" She pulled away, grinning widely. "Okay, what do you think of me in this apartment? It'll definitely be more classy than trashy like Nathan had it before he left."

Lola glanced at Peyton before laughing, "I'm sure it'll look great. Let me guess, Peyton is going to be the one doing the painting."

"Duh! Brooke can't ever do anything for herself." Peyton raised an eyebrow jokingly.

The Davis girl slapped Peyton's arm, "Hey! I do things by myself!"

Just as those words leave her lips, Mouth walks in with a ton of boxes in his hands, almost falling over and knocking him down.

The two girls snicker at Brooke before going to help the boy who looked to be in a lot of pain. He lout out a long breath, "Thanks, guys." He took the box he had to the back where the main room was.

Lola put her's on the couch, Peyton following after. Brooke continued staring at the big pink stain in the middle of the room, "We need to cover up Nathan's hideous pink paint stain."

"I don't know." Peyton had her arms crossed against her chest as the three stared at the wall. "I say we keep it."

Lola shrugged, "Me too. It's not bad looking and it symbolizes art in some, weird messed up way."

"We can't leave it. Haley's gonna be here now and then. She can't be looking at that."

Peyton gave her a look, "Why not? It's her fault it's there."

"Are you and Haley fighting?" Brooke asked as Lola just stood by and listened.

The blonde shrugged. "That's depends on which Haley we're talking about. Haley Scott, the nice girl that played Tric or Haley James, the not-so-much-of-a-wife and left town, never calling. Because her... I have a problem with."

That's when Lola realized that Nathan wasn't the only one heartbroken over Haley's leaving. It had also bothered her closest friends and if she was in the situation, she'd probably be mad too.

"Do you ever think maybe it got too much for her? Like, leaving the whole Chris thing out of it, maybe she just got scared of needing somebody too much."

Peyton just scoffed at Brooke's question, "Needing them so much, she abandoned them? My main problem with it is the people that walk out of other people's lives, vanishing, and then waltzes back in and expects to be instantly forgiven."

Lola agreed with her, completely. If you really loved someone, you wouldn't have left in the first place. And you definitely wouldn't have kissed another man.

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the chapters will go back to normal length once nathan comes back & whenever the episodes aren't boring af lol.