Northern Downpour

As the party wound down for the evening, bodies started to disappear from the bar and the crowd thinned but a select few remained. Shaun White among them. He couldn't take 'No' for an answer as, to him, that was just not in his vocabulary. As the night wore on he had become increasingly belligerent and drunk. Haley thought that for someone as involved and famous as he was, Shaun sure couldn't hold his liquor very well.

"Come on," Shaun urged as he leaned against the bar. The bar still filled with people but less than before as many people had headed to house or after parties. "Just give me your number."

Haley rolled her eyes as she wiped down the bar, "No. I don't know you." She said simply watching as a group of guys approached. She busied herself away from Shaun, letting him harass the other girls as she worked on cleaning up the bar and replenishing things seeing as the party had slowed.

"Come on Shaun, leave the poor girl alone." A voice said, followed by a laugh. It was one that Haley, despite her best attempts, still often dreamed about. She turned to see three men surrounding Shaun; Jack, Kevin (who laughed), and their other friend who Haley recognized as... oh gosh, David? She knew she'd seen him before but the name wasn't coming.

Shaun straightened himself against the group of three as Haley watched out of the corner of her eye. "Oh, buzz off you guys." Shaun's words slurred together.

Jack shook his head and reached for Shaun's Bourbon and Coke that he'd been nursing for some time, "I think you're done." Jack replied, leaning in to the other man who Haley couldn't name who promptly disappeared.

"NO!" Shaun said, pulling his drink out of Jack's reach. Kevin merely reached and grabbed it from Shaun anyway. Haley figured that was the shitty thing about being the short man in a group of tall men, though Jack wasn't a whole lot taller than Shaun, Kevin had a good number of inches on the ginger.

Kevin shook his head and set the drink down out of Shaun's reach, "Come on man, let's go find Jesse and you can go back to the house." Kevin put his arm around Shaun, trying to pull him from the bar.

Haley was drawn from watching them when her friend Jasmine, or Jazz as she was called, elbowed her. "Ow, What?" She whispered, trying not to let on that she had been watching as she slowly filled the cooler with ice.

Jazz followed her gaze, "I see you watching but we gotta break this up before it goes bad. Security is still busy fending off people who aren't allowed in."

Haley gave a nod, "Alright, alright." She said as Jazz turned away. Haley was apprehensive, what if they recognized her. What if they asked questions.

"Hales.." Jazz said, nodding her head to the group of three men who were now all shoving each other in front of her bar.

Haley turned around and shouted at them, "HEY! BREAK IT UP YOU THREE!" She yelled, but she must have been ignored because no sooner had she yelled for their attention, than Shaun's arm cocked back and he punched Jack square in the jaw. Haley assumed he was going for the nose but in his drunken state missed.

Before Haley could stop them punches were being thrown and before anyone could stop her, "JAZZ!" She shouted as she bounded over the bar, "ICE AND WATER!" she yelled to her coworker who was right behind her as she jumped in the melee. Having worked in bars for a while now, Haley was no stranger to having to break up fights but this would be by far the most interesting fight to break up.

Just as Haley jumped in the center pile of the melee, Jazz stood on the bar and dumped a 5-gallon bucket of ice on the whole group and then started spraying them all with water. Haley was screaming at the three of them, pushing each of them off of each other.

As quickly as the fight had started, it stopped.

Haley was drenched as were the three boys. The fight had lasted long enough for people to be staring and the third friend was just now re-appearing with a brunette man, taller than Shaun but definitely related. She took one look at the man and with hardly a shove, sent Shaun in his general direction, "Get him out of here!"

"Jesus.." He muttered, grabbing Shaun by the arm and nearly ended up carrying him, "What the hell is wrong with you? Starting a bar fight..." He questioned as a small path parted so they could leave.

Haley was no stranger to fights but this was about to get interesting as she looked at the three remaining men. "I think you guys should leave." Haley hoisted herself up on the bartop and back down over the counter.

Jack was busy moving his jaw, making sure it wasn't broken and Kevin was shaking ice out of the back of his shirt and out of his pants. He was looking at Haley, more like staring, when Jazz pulled her back from the bar and handed Haley a clean, damp rag. "You should go Hales." Jazz said quietly, pressing the cloth to her eyebrow.

Haley winced and turned to see the cut above her brow and the streak of blood that had dribbled down the side of her face. "I'm fine—"

"—You're a health risk bleeding in the bar." Jazz chided Haley, "Plus, you might need a stitch or two."

Haley sighed and nodded, "Yeah... I guess." She said, her voice sounding a bit defeated. It was a cut, it wasn't that deep and she saw it as a waste to let her go because she'd gotten cut in a bar fight. Really, she'd had broken fingers and black eyes from worse fights than this and she worked through all of it.

Haley disappeared in to the back to get her things. The bar resumed it's normal party once the fight was over and people continued to file out as it was now well after midnight. Haley threw on her jacket and headed out in to the cool night air, her hair still sopping wet from being hosed down She was eager to get back to the condo and rest up.

"Hey, wait!" A couple of voices called after her as she turned to walk to her car from the bar. Haley turned back and looked to see Jack and Kevin running after her, a couple of ladies behind them looking a bit perturbed that they ran off in search of another girl.

"I'm fine, I promise." Haley said, waving them off as they came closer. She didn't want to speak to either of them. She wanted them to go away. She wasn't ready for this, she wasn't better yet, she hadn't fixed herself and still, she wasn't sure why she kept standing there.

"No, no, we know. We just, uh," Kevin said with a slight pause, "We wanna say we're sorry—"

"—We didn't mean for you to get hurt." Jack said, reaching his hand out towards Haley's face to check that cut. "You really should get that looked at. We, um, we have an on-call doc if you want to come with us back to the Burton place. He could take a look at it so you don't have to go see someone." Jack offered, frowning when Haley shifted her head and body away from him. He meant well.

Haley felt a little guilty for shifting away from the older man. It was bad enough when strangers wanted to touch her but she was dirty, sweaty, wet, and frankly, not in any mood to be touched by anyone even if they didn't mean any harm or have anything behind it. "Really, it's just a little cut. I will be fine." She paused to look at the blond, "Kevin," She turned to the brunette, "Jack, I'm fine."

There was a bit of an awkward silence as the boys stared at each other trying to figure how she'd come up with their names so quickly like that. She hadn't served them at all in the bar and the only conclusion was that she was a fan.. or something, they really couldn't figure it out in their mildly intoxicated state.

Jack and Kevin turned when a loud whistle from down the street sounded followed by, "We're heading back to the house!" Kevin looked at Jack with a shrug, "We'll meet them back there." He muttered, turning to Haley. "At least give us your name?" Kevin asked, sounding unsure if that was the right thing to say right now.

Haley shrugged, "My name is Haley." She looked at the both of them, figuring that this would be about as painless as ripping off a band-aid, "Haley James." She smiled a little, "It's been quite a long time since I've seen you guys..."

A small piece of Haley hoped they would remember her. After all, it had been nearly two years or over two years since she'd seen them face to face (She'd really stopped counting some time ago). She had no doubt that they'd moved on by now, each of them, and that they had long forgotten her— At least she hoped that they had forgotten her.

Haley had moved on for the most part. She was mentally and physically fine, but emotionally, she was crippled.