"key"
Third Person POV
The next day came as the Tree Hill Ravens were still occupied by the task of cleaning up their new gym. Andrew and Nathan were stuck with the duty of painting the old faded wall as Lucas helped fixed the backboard with Whitey.
"Nice to see that you stopped acting like a conceited jackass," Andrew spoke as he brushed the blue paint on the surface. A small chuckle came from Nate. "So what was with the whole thing that just happened with your dad?"
"Nothing really, I just confronted him about turning down that opportunity for the other school." He turned to me with a shrug as I acknowledge his sentence with a small nod.
"That makes sense with how he marched in here," Andrew said before bringing up last night. "Speaking about marching in, Haley stopped by last night. Gave me another recap." The mention of his wife's name caught Nathan's immediate attention. "Look, I'm not trying to put myself in your relationship, Nate,"
"But," Nathan said with a small eye roll.
"But," Andrew continued, ignoring his friend. "You truly have to apologize this time. Haley might be in love with you now but don't think it won't get turned right around with you acting like an asshat." He told Nathan who nodded his head quietly. "Also, I have a question." Andrew added which made the young Scott brother signal him to keep going. "Do you have any ideas for a first date?"
~
"How the hell do I lose the damn thing?" Andrew frustratedly exclaimed as he loudly shut the drawer. The teenager had rummaged through his room and most of the house. Yet, he could not find the one thing he was looking for, his motorcycle key. "I stop riding for a few months and all of sudden it's lost forever." He mumbled to himself as he stood, placing his hands on his hips.
His eyes scanned through his room one last time, hoping that it would just pop out of nowhere but nothing. The boy sighed as he momentarily put his head down.
He grabbed his leather jacket that was lying on the bed and walked out of the room, putting on the piece of clothing. He closed his room door, a habit he picked up from living with David. Before Andrew headed down the stairs, he annoyingly fixed his collar on the jacket while he glanced around the little area around him. Nothing was out of the ordinary until his eyes came across his father's door. A slightly creaked open door. It didn't seem like anything weird but it was to Andrew. See the boy knew one thing about his father and that was he would never leave his room or office open.
So to see that was off for him especially since he didn't remember it being like that when his father left. Andrew grabbed a basic vase that was placed on a small table in the middle of the little area and started to creep to the door. A little hesitation came from him before opening the door, flipping the light switch on, and cautiously looking around the master bedroom and then the small restroom.
Nothing.
Andrew relaxed and just shook his head before heading to leave the room. Yet he didn't take a step out but turned back around and went to his father's relatively small desk which was placed in the corner of the room. Andrew has never really been one to sneak through a person's stuff, especially his father's but it was like there was a voice in his head to tell him to.
He opened the drawer that was very limited in space and stacks of paper that were organized side by side. Andrew searched thoroughly, making sure that he was not missing any spots. And that tiny bit of hope gets smaller and smaller as each minute goes by without the key.
Anything that could've hidden something, he searched but nothing was showing up until he remembered a small memory back when he was a kid.
***
"It's easy to pinpoint where something may be when it's in plain sight." Was a sentence from his mother that echoed in his head. A recollection of when she found a young Andrew trying to leave a note for Santa without his father noticing it. "A letter is thin so it can hide in a narrow space than something large."
She looked around the corner of the hallway to see if there was any sight of her husband and fortunately for them, he wasn't to be seen. So she took her son's hand and led him to grab some clear tape while he clenched his handwritten note.
"All we need is some tape," She ripped a small piece of the tape and placed the lower half of it on the edge of the folded paper before she taped it under the small rounded table surface that held the cookies and milk. "And just like that, there's no letter to be seen."
"But how is Santa supposed to know that is under there?" Andrew asked his mom as he looked up at her before she messed with his short light blonde hair.
"If he knows when you're naughty or nice, he should know where we hid the letter." She answered.
"But mom,"
"He will know, Andrew." She repeated, but that was still not enough for the young boy. Angela let out a soft sigh before kneeling to reach his eye level. "I promise." She swore as she held out her pinky which made her son smile and complete the pinky promise. "Okay, now how bout we make some hot chocolate?"
***
Andrew walked to the table in the corner and kneeled to get down to the level of the table before tilting his head at a certain angle so he could see under the top surface.
His eyes scanned until they fell upon the single key that was taped on the side of the desk board.
"Thanks, mom." He said under his breath as he pulled the key off and went on his way.
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A few days passed and Andrew slowly eased back into riding his motorcycle to school again. Which didn't go noticed by his friend group.
"Nice to see a duo back together," Peyton spoke as she walked beside the young man who gave a smile as he took off his helmet.
"Yeah, felt like it was a good time to start riding it again," Andrew responded as he glance at the motorcycle. Peyton smiled at him looking like he was being genuine with his happiness. "Have you spoken to the counselor about your future yet?" He asked, breaking the silence as they both started to walk toward the entrance of the school.
A groan came from her, "I forgot about that. How long do you think it'll take?"
The teenage boy squinted his eyes and tilted his head like he was deep in thought. "Well, that depends on your answer to their college question." He replied, "In eighth grade, I made the mistake of questioning college to my English teacher and that ended with a headache." Andrew told Peyton which received a laugh from her. "So what do you want to do after this?"
"I don't know really, right now it seems like college is a waste of time. You just get another piece of paper and that's supposed to up your chances for a better future?" She questioned. "I mean like Ellie didn't go and she's doing pretty well." She pointed out. Andrew nodded his head, seeing her point of view. "Now what school has offered to put up with you?" She playfully teased with a smirk crossing her face.
Before Andrew could answer the question...
"Peyton!" A known raspy voice called from a good distance behind them.
The blonde turned semi-around, seeing her best friend hurriedly walking toward the two. When Peyton saw her coming their way, she glanced at Andrew who quickly turned away from the approaching brunette and let out a sigh.
Brooke Davis wasn't oblivious to the fact that Peyton was talking to her ex. She wasn't going to sway from the potentially awkward exchange. In fact, that's why she was going in their direction, to try to receive a snippet of acknowledgment from Andrew.
Was it selfish?
Definitely, but the teenage girl couldn't help herself, months were going by, and yet the former couple only shared a handful of glances. Not something Andrew was keeping track of but Brooke. It was hurting her to see a person that she cared about so deeply, not even spare her the time of day.
"Hey, Andrew," Brooke greeted as she settled beside Peyton.
To the surprise of the two best friends, Andrew didn't excuse himself or ignore Brooke. He gave a small genuine smile and replied, "Hey, Brooke."
Now it wasn't in a very enthusiastic tone but to the brunette it was something. It was a start and to Brooke, it was a slimmer of hope.
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