United as One (ONE TREE HILL//OCxOC)

All That You Can't Leave Behind

The day after the party, Callie wakes up with the sun almost blinding her and her head pounding so much that she practically can hear it. She turned over to the clock, and her eyes bulged out of her head as she realized what time it was. It is less than 30 minutes before her shift at work.

"Shit!" she hissed out as she basically leapt out of bed. She rushes her shower and tries to get ready as fast as she can.

Callie leaves through the front door and is mortified when the black car that Zach has is not around the corner, like most times, but is on the driveway of her house. She wastes no time in rushing over there with her impatient boyfriend coming out of the driver's side of the car.

"Jesus Christ, Cal, what fucking took you so long?" Zach asks impatiently.

"I just overslept. We need to leave. Right now." Callie brushes off as she gets into the passenger side of his car.

While Zach was driving off, they didn't notice that Callie's dad had seen them take off. He turns towards his son. "Who the hell is that guy with your sister?" Dan asks.

"It's just a friend of hers from school, dad." Nathan brushes off, partially lying to his dad.

"Is she hiding something from me?" Dan asks.

Nathan grew slightly annoyed. His dad was the one that called Callie a lost cause. Why the sudden interest? "No. You know how Callie keeps to herself." Nathan lies.

He might be an asshole, but he would never put his sister in that position, especially with his dad.

"Do you know how much of an idiot I..." Zach was lecturing Callie, but her head was killing her.

"Please don't yell. I have a headache." Callie whines out. Zach peers over to see the state that Callie was in.

"You're hungover. Did you drink last night?" Zach questions.

"So what if I did?" Callie questions.

Zach shortly then pulls up. Because Callie is in a rush, she rushes out of the car and into the diner.

"Finally, Cal. I thought you were gonna bail." Bernadette tells her as she clocks in.

"I know, I know. I just overslept." Callie brushes off as she sets her stuff in the back area so she can begin her day.

Callie was able to pull through the rest of her day, in spite of the headache that she has, but thankfully, she was able to borrow some ibuprofen from Marcie during her break.

The following day, Callie was getting ready for school. While she was heading downstairs, she heard her older brother in the kitchen. "Who would've known that Dan Scott's basketball pedigree would be inherited by his two sons, Nathan Scott and Lucas?" Callie hears Nathan read off the newspaper as she makes her way into the kitchen.

"You've got to be kidding me." Dan hisses out as he takes the newspaper from Nathan.

"That's great, Dad. We're all one big happy family now." Nathan adds in.

"Watch it." Dan tells his son with a warning glare. "I wonder what they're paying this reporter to support his crack habit?" he comments.

At that point, Callie just rolls her eyes and leaves the house. A few moments later, Nathan was calling out her name.

"Are you okay? Because ever since that party..." Nathan was about to voice his concern, but Callie cut him off.

"Cut the bullshit. I know you don't care." Callie tells him, coldly. She is assuming that he is only apologizing so he could salvage his friendship with Brandon.

Nathan, on the other hand, was taken aback by her cold tone. Unbeknownst to her, he was thinking the complete opposite to what she was thinking. He is now trying to come up with the right words to say. "I-I was just saying that y-you've said some pretty heavy stuff over at..." Nathan is stumbling through his words, but again, Callie cuts him off.

"Please, it was nothing. It was the alcohol talking, right?" she brushes off. Nathan hesitantly nods, knowing that even the slightest of tipsy words are sober thoughts.

A horn honks fervently, spooking Callie a bit. "Look, I need to go. Just carry on with your life, and I'll carry on with mine." she concludes as she rushes over to Zach's car.

Nathan casts a suspicious glance over at that vehicle that his sister's boyfriend is in. What the two siblings didn't know is that Deb watched her daughter go into that car. Ever since the game, she was trying to wonder who the mysterious figure that has been taking Callie to school.

"Look, if you're mad at me, go ahead and say it." Callie tells Zach.

"Cal, baby, I know the symptoms of a hangover from a mile away." Zach tells her while he drives to school, referring to their phone call the day after the party, where Callie was practically groaning through it.

"I know it's bothering you because you weren't there with me." Callie tells him.

"It did. I'm not gonna lie about it, but I'm letting it slide because it was your first time drinking and all." Zach brushes off.

They finally pulled up to the school's parking lot. "I was thinking that maybe we can make our relationship a little more public, you know. I just want people to know that I'm not ashamed of you or anything." Callie tells him.

"It's definitely something to think about." Zach tells her with a smirk. He pecked her on the lips and they both left the car, going their own separate ways.

Throughout her day, it was more dragging on. She was about to go to her French class before someone called out her name. It wasn't Zach or Nathan, but to her surprise, it was Lucas.

"Uh, hi, Lucas." Callie greets him, a little bit wary of his presence. Never once did Lucas show any signs that he cared about her, so why now?

"Hey, I was just wondering how you were doing." Lucas tells her. "Fine. Why do you ask?" a suspicious Callie asks him.

"Just be careful, okay." Lucas tells her. Ever since the night at the River Court game, he was growing more and more suspicious of Callie and Zach's dynamic.

Callie, on the other hand, was just thinking that he was referring to either Nathan or Dan. "Of my brother and father? Okay." Callie brushes off, not taking it seriously.

The following night was the night of the father-son charity basketball game. Callie sat down at the front of the bleachers, bringing out everything so she could take her notes to publish in the paper the following day. She did find it heartwarming that Keith stepped in tonight for Lucas.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the Tree Hill Ravens' father and son charity basketball game." the announcer announced.

While the announcer is summarizing everything, a figure sits down next to her. Callie becomes perplexed when she sees Brandon sitting next to her. He greets her with a smile. "Hey there, drifter." he greets her.

"I thought you would be in that game." Callie initially thinks out loud.

Brandon just shrugs. "Dad bailed at the last minute." he casually brushes off.

At the sound of that, Callie gives him a worried look, and he also brushes that off. "It's okay, Scott. It's nothing that I'm used to." he tells her. All she did was slowly nod, her worried expression not wavering in the slightest as she turned her attention to the game.

Callie rolls her eyes as the crowd cheers for her egomaniac dad, who takes all the pleasure of reveling in those cheers.

"Your dad really is something, isn't he?" Brandon speaks out.

"Let's put it like this; if either Nathan or I were in a burning building, he would save Nathan within a heartbeat." Callie casually tells Brandon.

Now, it is Brandon's turn to be worried for Callie, who seems nonchalant about that whole ordeal. "It's okay, Barnes. I'm used to it." she lightly throws back what Brandon just said.