This Isn't A Permanent Goodbye
Written for a prompt here left by singyouhome
Prompt: And then you miss me while you're looking for yourself out there
Characters: Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl) & Haley James (One Tree Hill)
Word Count/Rating: 784words/K
Five year old Haley James’s mantra going into her first day at Constance Billard was get through the next thirteen years as quickly, quietly and painlessly as possible.
She avoided the two little girls, blonde and brunette, sitting together in the middle of the play floor; surrounded by half the class - knowing that they would only cause trouble.
In the playground, while a small group of ‘chosen’ girls followed Blair and Serena around loyally; Haley sat on a stone bench with her back pressed up against the ivy covered wall as she stared at her half-eaten sandwich. Looking up, she eyed them with a scoff in the back of her throat, knowing that underneath their designer clothes they were nothing special.
“What, are you too good to play with everyone else?” Haley moved to stared at the drawl that startled her out of her five-year-old thoughts.
“Excuse me for not following a group of rich kids around hoping to be liked by them.” The sarcasm in her voice, making her sounder older than only five; came from years of sparring with her older brothers and sisters.
The little boy laughed, sitting down next to her. “I think I’m going to like you.”
---
“This isn’t fair Chuck; you know I don’t like being here. You knew that I was going to leave someday.” Haley James had never been able to feel like she belonged amongst the skyscrapers and crowded streets of New York City.
“Not when we’re fifteen Haley.” He voiced his anger as his hand tightened around the tumbler of whiskey he’d poured just before his old friend, one of the only people who could claim they knew the real Chuck Bass, had shown up in the foyer of the Bass Penthouse.
He was criticizing her decision to move out of state and stay with family friends until she was eighteen. “What are you going to do? Go live out in the middle of nowhere, become a cheerleader and fall for the perfect all-American boy?” He scoffed at the idea. “Get married straight out of high school and have the white picket fence and 2.5 children?” It sounded absurd to him.
“Maybe.” Haley cried back. “I don’t know, all I do know is I don’t feel right here, I’ve never felt right here. You know that Chuck.”
“You’re selling yourself short Haley James. Out in the middle of nowhere no one is going to be able to hear you sing. You’re going to waste all that talent.”
Haley shook her head. No, she wasn’t.
“So, you’re just going to leave me here?” He tipped back the last of his drink before the sensible brunette staring at him could scold him for his underage drinking. His voice softened, as he let the steely demeanour he usually carried with drop.
Haley giggled. “You’re not going to be alone. Not when you have Nate and Serena and Blair,” she grimaced, still unable to stand the two girls, “and every other girl falling over their feet to be with you. After all, you’re Chuck Bass.”
Chuck smirked at the sound of Haley’s giggle. No one was really sure how Chuck and Haley had become the closest of friends in the past ten years. Chuck Bass was a narcissistic, sarcastic, entitled rich boy while Haley James was the humble, quiet student tutor. Chalk and cheese. But never separated.
“Don’t sulk, Bass.” Haley teased, sitting down in the chair opposite him. “It’s not like you’re never going to see me again. I can still come to the city for weekends and holidays. You can even come to visit me, you know.”
Chuck scoffed again, they both knew that Haley would come back to the city but she would never get him out of it. Not even to visit her.
“I’m never going to forget you Bass; you know that. You’re impossible to forget.” She smiled at him again.
“Damn right, I’m Chuck Bass.”
Haley laughed and stood up, Chuck following suit. She wrapped her arms around him. “I’m leaving tomorrow, this is goodbye for now.”
He nodded, knowing that any fight against the fact would be futile.
He brushed his lips against her cheek. “Miss me while you’re looking for yourself out there, okay?”
Haley nodded, turning her head to meet her lips with his. “Like I wouldn’t be able to. Those all-American boys, they have nothing on you.”
She pulled away, and smiled one last time before disappearing behind the sliding doors of the elevator.
He was the first friend she had made in the city. He was the only reason why she would ever consider staying in the city.
She was going to really miss Chuck Bass.