'The Limit' - Chapter Forty-Eight
Thanks to all of you for hanging in there with this story. This one was started years ago - literally, more than several YEARS ago - so I really appreciate those of you who have read since the beginning and stuck with it! And of course all of you new to the story, too!
Thank you, Becky, for being an ever-inspiring beta!
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
When he’d given her the address of his new house, she had been more than a little surprised to see that it was only a block away from her old house. Which meant he was only two blocks away from Karen’s house. Almost all day long, there was never a point where he was more than two blocks away from her. Insane, that.
She was leery of having the tutoring sessions at his house. It was so personal and cozy and intimate, and she just didn’t know if she’d be able to keep things in perspective. But she’d shot down his first choice of the dock; as far as personal goes, tutoring spaces didn’t get much more so for the two of them than that. Even after tutoring Tim there a couple of times, and dragging out a few other tutees, she’d never been able to shake the vibe that it was cheating on Nathan to be there.
She didn’t like that feeling, so she ceased and desisted with that quickly enough. Now it was all boring tutoring sessions at the café or the school library or the bleachers of the river court. She’d never considered tutoring at someone’s house; maybe because it was never convenient. But this was definitely the most convenient course of action for both of them, and she had to admit that they may as well take the easy route here.
Besides, they’d already hit their bottom; maybe it was a long climb to the top, but she was relatively sure they couldn’t fall that far again. And there was no denying she was warming up to him a little. She kept her distance still. There was always that little voice of doubt in the back of her mind that questioned what his interest in her was this time. She knew he was trying to give her reasons to trust him again, and she wouldn’t even disparage that or even deny that it was working on some level, but at the same time, the memories she was up against were pretty persistent themselves.
Every time she got closer to letting herself believe that she could risk it again, she’d remember. And she wouldn’t remember the mildly bad stuff, like his fist fights with Lucas or the times he’d storm off in a snit. No, she’d remember how he stared at her and didn’t say a word in the cafeteria. She’d remember that he had never told her how deep this went.
She’d badgered some of it out of Tim and Brooke since Nathan got back. Well, Tim had needed to be badgered, but Brooke was unsurprisingly easy to get the information out of. She actually seemed pleased with herself as she spilled the details of Nathan’s actions and the full scope of his plan. There was a definite limit to her knowledge, though, and it was with relief that Haley realized that meant he never told Brooke everything.
What Brooke did know was creepy enough; definitely better she didn’t get the full details.
So in the end, she knew she should ask him. Just ask him to please, finally, lay everything out on the table. Maybe it would make it worse, but maybe it would just release both of them a little bit. Lord knows she in particular needs that right now. But it was hard. Did she want to hear it? Would it upset him to tell it? Would it just unnecessarily rock the boat? Maybe it was even worse than they were telling her, since no one seemed to think she should know.
Sighing, she lifts her hand and knocks on the door. It swings open quickly, a widely grinning Pete standing before her. “I was beginning to think you’d stand out there and mumble to yourself all day long,” he teases her. “Come on in, Haley.”
“Thanks,” she blushes, glancing past him, her eyes automatically seeking out Nathan. “Uh, how are you?”
“Oh, I’m just fine,” he grins. “Come on, lover boy is in the backyard. We’re cleaning it up, and then the people who own the house are going to put a sport court in. It’s actually a pretty good deal for all of us.”
She nods absently at that. “That’s good.”
Pete just chuckles. “You’re not much of a sports person, huh? I mean, that’s cool if you can’t hang or whatever; guess I just thought pretty boy might like his girl to have a little more appreciation for his sport. His craft.”
She smiles tightly, more than a little uncomfortable. “Well, maybe his next one will, I guess.” The words taste foul even as she says them.
“Whatever,” Pete rolls his eyes. “If he can’t have you, he really don’t want no one else. That boy is all about you.” He stares at her, shrewdly assessing. “Is that just going to end up hurting him?”
“I’m not trying to hurt him,” she sighs in response. “I really don’t want that, actually, and it’s not very fair that you’re implying that I do.”
Pete chuckles at her fervency. “You know, I actually think you’re being too nice to him considering what he did. But at the same time, he’s kinda grown into a cool guy, and he is sorry for what he did.”
Tipping her head to the side, Haley regards him silently for a minute. Finally, she asks softly, “Does that make it okay? That he’s sorry? Because it seems like everyone thinks it should, like saying the word is some sort of magical band-aid that fixes everything. It really isn’t, you know. Hearing it - maybe I should feel better, but I don’t. Maybe I should forget it, but I can’t. It isn’t as easy as people think it should be.”
Shrugging, Pete nods toward the sliding glass door off the kitchen. “Like I said, he’s out there. See you later.”
Finding out that he’s leaving sends a frisson of panic surging through her. He was supposed to be there as a buffer, as a way of keeping things from feeling too intimate. Without him, she wasn’t sure how it’d play out. She groans out loud when she sees him through the window. He’s - he’s shirtless, and tan and hot and all muscle-y, and damn it, that is really not helping.
Deciding to keep the barrier of the glass between them, she knocks on it, giving him a small wave when he glances up. He grins, and she moves away from the door, taking a seat at the kitchen counter. There are four mismatched barstools lining it, and she was surprised at how homey a small thing like that, however unintentional, made it feel in there.
Luckily, he pulled his shirt on before coming in. He grins at her, going to the fridge. Pulling out a bottle of water, he offers her one. As she quietly declines, she can’t help but marvel at the newfound quiet confidence in him. He was always cocky, there was no denying that, but now he had a confidence about him that was really stunning. It was beautiful, actually.
“How are you?” he asks, a little unnerved by how quiet she’s been since he came in. “You okay? Not having second thoughts on me, are you?”
She shakes her head, giving him a rueful smile. “No, sorry. I was just lost in thought. Everything is fine, thanks.”
He smiles, sitting on the stool next to her. “How’s work? What have you been up to lately?” he asks, leaning forward, eager to hear about everything that has been going on with her.
“Work is good,” she smiles, starting to pull her books out of her bag. “How has work been for you? Where are you working, anyway?”
He shrugs, shaking his head. “It’s fine, you know, nothing special.” She frowns slightly at the evasiveness. “Seriously, it’s just a crappy job, and believe me, those are pretty much the only kinds given to high school kids.”
Turning towards him, she arches a brow, a small smile creeping across her face. “Where are you working, Nathan?”
“It’s not a big deal, I swear.”
“That’s not what I asked,” she laughs, leaning towards him a little in a way that he finds completely enchanting. “Come on, Nathan, why won’t you just tell me? It’s not totally embarrassing, is it?”
“What if it is?” he grins, leaning into her as his voice lowers flirtatiously. By the hitch in her breathing, he can tell she’s not unaffected by his nearness. “Maybe it’s just totally embarrassing.”
Rolling her eyes, she gives him a little swat on the arm before leaning back a little to gain some space. “Somehow I doubt that. Come on, Nathan! Tell me, please!” she whines, begging a little.
He sighs, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” he bites out, harsher than he intended, angrier than he feels. “Being on your own isn’t all sunshine and flowers, and I know it’s shocking, but a lot of places don’t hire young kids for their best jobs. So I’m stuck working a crap job that really sucks. Okay?”
Pushing off her stool, she moves so that she is standing right behind him, laying a hand on his back. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Nathan. Wherever you’re working, it doesn’t matter. It’s a job, and you’ll only work there as long as you need to. You don’t have to tell me, okay? I’m sorry I pushed.”
“No,” he sighs shakily, leaning into her touch. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I work at a pretzel stand at the mall on the weekends, and after school I’m digging ditches with a construction crew. It’s not really that glamorous of work.”
“So what?” she asks bluntly, her hand rubbing over his shoulder in tiny circles. “It doesn’t matter where you work or how glamorous it is, and if you think I care about those things, you should just end this now. God, Nathan, you’re so proactive now. You’ve got all these things figured out, and you can’t tell me that you aren’t a million times happier now than you were when you still lived with your parents. Where you work doesn’t matter. It doesn’t, okay? And life isn’t all about status or whatever. Who cares what those idiots at school think anyway?”
He turns himself around, resituating her so that she’s standing between his legs. “I don’t care about anyone at school, idiot or otherwise. I care about you, Hales. I care what you think, and let’s face it, it’s more than a little lame that I have to work at a pretzel shop at the damn mall.”
“Where you work doesn’t matter to me,” she reiterates immediately, for once not bothered by their close proximity. “I don’t know why you’d think that it would.”
“Well, maybe it bothers me then,” he sighs, his hands coming out to rest on her hips, almost unconsciously. “I never pictured myself with these kinds of jobs. God, can you imagine what my dad would say or do if he found out?”
In spite of herself, she winces. “There’s probably no point in thinking about that,” she notes, trying to joke a little. “Unless it’s to picture that vein on the side of his forehead finally popping.”
He laughs, not noticing the tiny tensing of her body as he pulls her to him. “Did you just wish an aneurysm on my dad?”
“Not exactly,” she shrugs, relaxing a touch, “But I wouldn’t think he was undeserving. Has he - have you talked to him lately?”
“No, not since I got back here,” he sighs with a small smile, his fingers hooking through the loops on her jeans. “I know it’ll happen eventually, but the longer it is put off, the better for me, I figure.”
She nods, clearing her throat a little nervously when his fingers skirt under the edge of her t-shirt, hitting bare skin. “Um, I mean, did he give you a lot of trouble over the summer?” she asks, her vision starting to haze over and her mind blurring everything together under his gentle touch.
He leans in close enough that he can smell her, stopping before he gets too close. “He was Dan,” he shrugs, inwardly smiling when her eyes widen when he lets his fingers shift just a little higher. “You know how he is. It wasn’t so bad, though. Keith and Pete were usually with me, so I never had to talk to him alone.”
She nods, swaying a little. “That’s good. You shouldn’t have to be around him.” She shakes her head, clearing it slightly. “We should, ah, you know, study now.”
“Probably,” he agrees, leaning close enough to touch foreheads before pulling back, “But that’s not really that much fun, is it?”
“A necessary evil,” she breathes as she moves back to her stool. Taking a deep breath, she gives him a small smile. “I can’t believe you bothered to study into the AP classes,” she says. “I’m not knocking you, but you must’ve been busy with basketball and work, right?”
He shrugs, grinning as he gestures between them. “Yeah, it was hard, really crappy some days. But it’s worth it,” he notes lightly, winking at her.
She rolls her eyes, irritated that he can still draw a blush from her like that, just with a few sweet words. They get to work, actually going a few hours without anything personal creeping in. When he glances up at the clock and catches the time, he groans aloud.
“Hey, I have to get ready for work,” he sighs in disappointment. “Can I give you a tour of the house before I change?”
Nodding shyly, she stands up with him. “Sure, I have to admit, I’m curious to see if the rest of the house looks as decent as it does down here.”
He pokes her in the ribs before grabbing her hand. “Come on, smartass, I’ll show you the backyard first. It’s so cool, and the owners of the house are - “
“Going to put a sport court in,” she laughs. “Pete told me about it before he left. Sounds like that’s a good thing.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic,” he teases her, sliding the door open and pulling her out. “I was banking on living in a crappy apartment by myself, so this is actually really cool.”
She smiles, nodding as she looks around the yard that is so like the ones she played in growing up. Conversely, it is also a far cry from the sterile prettiness of the manicured lawn that Nathan grew up with at his parents’ place. “Well, then I’m really glad that you have Pete. I can tell that you two have become really good friends.”
He grins his thanks as he tugs her back towards the house. He does most of the talking as he pulls her through the house, self-consciously rambling on about secondhand furniture and yard sale appliances. She just lets him talk, figuring this is probably one of his first chances to show the house off to anyone. Maybe Keith had come over, but people at school still weren’t warming up to him, and obviously his parents wouldn’t stop by with a housewarming plant.
When they get back to the foyer, he glances at his watch. “I have to go, Hay,” he tells her apologetically. “Got to put my cardboard hat on.”
She nods quickly, backing towards the door. “Yeah, of course. Thanks for hosting the studying,” she smiles, giving him a little wave as she sets her hand on the doorknob. “I’ll see you at school, Nathan.”
“Yeah, you definitely will,” he agrees, moving to place a hand on the door, keeping it closed with her up against it. Before she can react, he drops down, pressing a light kiss to her lips. “I’ll see you sooner than that if I have some free time.”
“O - I mean, why’d you do that?” she sputters, to his relief not looking all that angry. Definitely more surprise there than anger. That’s a good thing, he figures. Anytime she gives him even an inch, then that’s a good thing.
“Couldn’t help myself,” he grins with false bravado. “You’re just here, taunting me with your prettiness all afternoon, and I couldn’t help myself.”
She shakes her head, a bemused smile gracing her lips. “Whatever you say,” she shrugs, fingers tightening nervously on the doorknob. “Well, I’ll see you at school then.”
He nods, leaning down to brush another kiss, a softer one this time, against her cheek. “Yeah, definitely, and maybe I could call you?”
“I - “ she starts, cutting herself off in confusion, “Oh, about the homework?”
“No,” he chuckles lightly, shaking his head for emphasis. “Because I like talking to you. Because I miss you talking to me. Is that okay?”
He can tell that his words catch her off-guard, and he wonders when the day will come that it doesn’t shock her when he says something like that to her. He doesn’t want her to have that mindset where she’s convinced herself that he never really cared about her, which is pretty much where it seems like she is at right now. Removing his hand from the door, he places both hands on her shoulders. “Haley, I do. I do love talking to you. Even those first couple of tutoring sessions, ages ago, when you were hoping I’d fall off the dock and drown, I liked talking to you, and you were kind of bitchy to me.”
Her eyes widen, and she shoves at his chest. The levity in his voice got to her, though, and she is at least smiling again. “Well, you can’t say you didn’t deserve it. I didn’t have a lot of reasons to like you then.”
“And you don’t really now, either,” he admits in a low voice. “I mean, I’m not exactly Man of the Year, right?”
“I don’t know, I think that maybe you’re getting there,” she says softly. “I don’t want you to think I haven’t noticed.”
“What exactly is it that you have noticed?” he asks, hands drifting to her hips.
She tips her head slightly to the side, her hair spilling over her shoulder in a way that drives him slightly insane. “You’ve changed, and I know that.”
“But it doesn’t change anything between us,” he notes unnecessarily, sighing a little. “I guess it couldn’t, and it probably isn’t very realistic that I’ve hoped it would.”
“I appreciate it, though. I mean, I see it, and I know it’s there, and I’m trying to let it make a difference, but it’s still hard.”
There’s a blunt honesty there that he both admires and despises. It just opens up a box of worms he isn’t sure he wants to deal with. And it’s one that he knows he doesn’t have the time to deal with at present. “We have a lot to talk about,” he sighs, and she nods solemnly in return. “Unfortunately, I can’t right now.”
She nods, giving him a smile. “Yeah, I know, Nathan. Go to work; we can talk later. Maybe we can eat lunch together.” He sort of blanches at the idea. “I mean, alone. If you wanted.”
“Just us?” he makes her promise. “No Brooke or Peyton or Jake looking down their noses at me?”
“Nope, none of that,” she agrees right away. “Just us.”
Breathing out in something akin to relief, Nathan manages to smile for her. “Yeah, okay. That sounds good, Hay.”
She nods in return. “Yeah, it does. Okay, well, you have a good day at work. I’ll see you at school, Nathan.”
He lets her go then, his arms dropping down to his own sides. “Thanks for today,” he tells her seriously, knowing that it’s costing her a lot to swallow her pride and let him back in even this much.
“Bye,” she says quietly before slipping out the door. When it shuts behind her, she thinks that it went much better than she’d expected; maybe too well, in fact.
~*~
Contrary to what he’d told Haley earlier, he wasn’t just embarrassed by his job at the pretzel stand at the mall; he actively hated it. It was awful, pushing brooms and mops around, wearing the paper hat, and smelling like grease. He hated everything about it, not the least because of how embarrassing it was. And it was. But there were definitely other aspects of it to hate, too.
He had been worried, though, about how working here would look to Haley. That was probably a stupid worry, and undoubtedly discounting to her, but if he realized the humiliation of it, surely she’d see it, too. She was…nice about it. Better than nice, actually. She dismissed it like it was the stupidest thing he’d ever come up with, and that was about anything but the truth.
She was softening - he could feel it.
And okay, maybe he wasn’t playing perfectly fair, but if using her body’s awareness of him helped her see that he’d changed, and for the better, then it would be okay. It wouldn’t be so bad, playing with her body. A part of him feels guilty, because that’s what he had started doing in the beginning, too. It made him feel a little sick that it has cycled around like this, but at the same time, his intentions are a lot better now, if not just as selfish.
He’s pretty sure it is his only option now, and he can’t worry about the fairness in it. If goading her into wanting him sexually can bring a resurrection of everything else between them, then mores the better. That was just win-win for him, even if he wasn’t sure she’d see it that way when she figured out what he was doing.
And she probably would, too. That was the one problem with this particular tactic. Things were still tenuous enough that she could really take offense to it, and he knew it would only take a second for her defensive walls to rise back up. And that was the one thing he couldn’t stand having happen. Not now that they’ve made progress and she’s let him back in a little.
There were just so many ways that he could screw this up, and he felt every one of them acutely. Sighing as he pushes his mop across the floor behind the counter of the pretzel stand, he tries to will away the negativity that he can feel seeping in. The more he dwells on it, the more sure he begins to feel that some of it, at least, will come true. And a prophet he does not want to be. Especially when it comes to predicting his own downfall.
Sighing, he again dips his mop into the bucket, wondering why the pretzel stand doesn’t save everyone some time and effort by investing in one of those mops where the liquid just squirts out at the bottom. Then he has to wonder why he even knows of those things. Life was screwed up, sometimes.
“Well, well, if it isn’t my son the pretzel maker,” Dan Scott’s snide voice sneers at him from the other side of the counter. Tensing immediately, Nathan feels the flight instinct kick in over the fight, and all he wants to do is get away from Dan. That’s all. It isn’t too much to ask, is it?
“What do you want?” Nathan asks, forcing as much cold indifference into his voice as he can. Of all the things he doesn’t need in his life, dealing with either of his parents, and this one in particular, is at the top of the list.
“Oh, come on, Nathan! I’m here to check on my younger son. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t keep abreast of the things going on in his pathetic, little life?”
Nathan tries to ignore him; no, he wants to ignore him, but he’s never been good at that. If there’s always been one person capable of breaking through his defense mechanisms, it is Dan. And as always, he’s doing a stellar job of it.
“Order a pretzel, or please leave,” Nathan manages to ground out tersely. “You and I have nothing to say to each other.”
“Well, then,” Dan smirks, the smugness of it making Nathan’s palms itch to rip his face off. “I’ll take one pretzel with a side of mustard. Hurry up with that, boy. Some of us have jobs that are a little more important than providing pretzels to mall rats.”
Nathan makes quick work of filling Dan’s order, looking longingly at the hot cheese sauce. Oh, how he’d love to shove his father’s head down in that. Bet he wouldn’t be quite so smug then. Just the thought of that helped to bolster Nathan’s defenses as he slides the order across the counter to Dan and tells him his total.
“Here’s your change,” Nathan says curtly, dropping the money into his father’s palm to avoid any contact. “Have a nice day, sir.”
“You’re a fool, Nathan,” Dan hisses at the cool dismissal. “You’re a fool if you think this was a smart decision, and you’re a fool if you think you’re proving anything with this stupid quest of yours. You’re eighteen now, you didn’t have to go through the legal drama. You could’ve waited it out.”
Nathan snorts at Dan’s obliviousness. “Why? Why would I do it knowing it’d be done for me at about the same time? Because! Because I want the whole damn world to know what a crappy father you are to me! I want them to know that I didn’t want to spend one more second than necessary in a house with you and Mom. Is that enough of an explanation for you, or would you like a little more background on all the ways I hate you?”
Dan rears back at the harsh words, disbelief written all over his face. For a second, Nathan can’t believe that this man is so deluded that he’d be surprised that Nathan felt this way, but he gets over that quickly enough when he reminds himself who he is dealing with. “Well, you’ve certainly got being ungrateful down to a art form, haven’t you?”
“Well, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Nathan fights back, charging in return. “How dare you talk to me about things like that? You have two sons, Dan. The funny thing is, you never appreciated or were grateful for either of us.”
“Don’t you dare bring that bastard into this,” Dan snaps in frustration, looking around at the small group of gawkers and looky-loos they were attracting. “He’s nothing to me, and he should be nothing to you, too. Where do you get off - “
“Where I get off? You want to know where I get off!” Nathan yells, honestly to the point where he doesn’t care if he keeps his job at this stupid pretzel stand. “I get off knowing I’m not a delusional jackass like you are! I know that only a sick freak would raise one of his sons to hate the other just so he can get his own jollies or prove some nonexistent fact!”
He looks at Dan, slowly shaking his head. “I know that I’m better than you and that I’m at least smart enough to have got out from under your oppressive thumb. Maybe I’m not much more than that, but you know what? That’s all I need.”
Dan raises an eyebrow at that, a condescending look on his face as he leans across the counter towards Nathan. “You’re a big pile of nothing, Nathan. You’ve pretty much destroyed all the options for the future that you might have had by acting like the impetuous, stupid, and selfish little boy that you are. You don’t even realize how much you’ve wasted, thrown away in your petty attempts at throwing a temper tantrum.”
“You’ll never understand,” Nathan says after a long pause. The fight has gone out of him a little, at the realization that Dan would never, ever see the error of his ways. He was never going to wake up regretting that he’d either never had or lost relationships with his two sons. He’d never realize what he could have had, and the bitterest truth of it all was that he didn’t care. Dan Scott did not truly care. “Just know this: maybe you screwed things up between Luke and me for the first seventeen years of our lives, but we still managed to get around that BS. We’re better than you, Dad, and we are both smart enough to see through your bullshit. Maybe it took awhile, but I’m there, and I’ll never make the mistake of trusting or listening to you again.”
Dan scoffs at that, but backs up off the counter. Maybe he’s finally realized that he cannot intimidate Nathan any longer. “You’ve made a lot of mistakes, and all because you didn’t listen to me. If you had just got The Bastard off the team when I told you to, none of this would have happened.”
Nathan stares hard at the man who fathered and raised him. “Failing at that is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I know you’ll never understand because I’ve seen how you act towards Uncle Keith, but I like having Luke as my brother. I like knowing that I can count on him, even though I don’t deserve that. I like that he doesn’t hold you against me, even though he should.”
“Keith? This has to do with Keith? Oh, I’ll kill him,” Dan growls his eyes narrowing as he seems to come to the decision that things with Nathan must be Keith’s fault in some way. “That - he has no business interfering in our family business.”
“Isn’t he a part of the family ‘business’?” Nathan asks, still staring Dan down. “He is family after all. Then again, knowing what you’ve done to Luke, how you have treated him all these years, not to mention what you’ve done to me, maybe not being considered family by you is the best thing that could ever happen to Keith.”
“Why you ungrateful little piece of shit,” Dan growls, reaching across the counter to grab at Nathan. Luckily, Nathan saw it coming, and moves back out of Dan’s reach. “Get over here!” Dan yells, his fiercest glare fixed on his younger son. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Nathan?”
“Nothing,” is the quiet reply that comes from his son. Nathan stands up straighter, taking the time to rearrange the paper hat on his head. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some pretzels to sell and some dishes to wash.”
With his head held high, he turns his back on Dan, vowing that this is the last so-called conversation that he ever shares with the man. In fact, if Nathan gets his way - and that’s a pretty big if - this can serve as the last contact ever between him and Dan. Happily so, at least on his part.
Dan is not of the same opinion, unsurprisingly, and is more than willing to let Nathan know that. “I have pull, Nathan. You would do very well to remember that, son.”
Nathan just rolls his eyes at the empty threat. “Is that supposed to scare me?” he asks angrily. “It doesn’t, Dan. I am not dependent on you for anything anymore. I don’t need you and you can’t hurt me anymore. But you’ve figured that part out, right? Isn’t that why you’re here, to try and figure out what you’ll have to attack to get at me now. Too bad for you there is nothing. You know why? Because I don’t care about you or what you think you can do. You just can’t hurt me anymore.”
“That’s what you think,” Dan counters, his voice such a low whisper that Nathan has to strain to hear it. “I know the scouts, Nathan. They know me, they’ll believe me, and I can ruin your chances at playing ball for a decent program. You have to know I’d be willing to do it, too. You know that, right?”
In response, Nathan manages an indifferent shrugs despite his inner rage. “Do what you have to do, and I’ll do the same. Just in case it sinks in with repetition, I am not afraid of you. Go ahead and do your worst!”
The lack of a more passionate response infuriates Dan to the point that he doesn’t even call Nathan’s bluff. And a bluff it is; if there is one area that Dan is still capable of screwing things up for Nathan, this is it and Nathan knows it. He feels it acutely, and that shakes him like nothing else from Dan could. Luckily, Dan storms off in a fit of anger before he can pick up on Nathan’s distress.
Behind him, someone clears their throat alerting him to the spectacle their little family moment had become. There are a good number of people still staring at him, and more still staring after Dan as he stalks away. “You can take off for the day if you want, Scott,” one of his coworkers, a dorky little brat that had been a real jerk to him since he started here, offers. “I can cover for you, it’s cool.”
He doesn’t really want this kid’s - anyone’s - pity, but more than that, he does not want to be here any longer. So he nods jerkily, only one thought in his head as he exchanges his apron and paper hat for his jacket and car keys: Haley. It’s a nice gesture on this kid’s part, and to his credit, Nathan remembers to thank him on his way out.
He doesn’t know where she is, and she isn’t responding to his calls, messages, or texts. In a move that even he can recognize as slightly stalkerish, he starts driving to some of the places she is most likely to be. Unfortunately for him, she is in none of those places, and that leaves him with one other main option which is the one he is not excited about, Luke and Karen’s house. No matter how things between him and Luke have progressed, they just are not at the point where he would be comfortable just stopping by there.
At this point, he doesn’t even care about that. He just knows that he has to see her. It is a burning need inside of him to see her, to hear her voice, and feel her arms around him. That last one most of all. In all of his life, she is the only person he can remember willingly giving him comfort, and it was one of the best things he ever had. Now, he wanted it back.
Sucking it up at the inevitable, he parks his car across the street, quickly getting out and jogging up to the front door, ringing the bell before he loses his nerve. Nerve, ha. He can remember a time when he had plenty of nerve and bravado, but he figures all of that was long gone now. All he had left was the option to brazen this out and hope for the best. Maybe Haley will be the one to open the door. He can dream, right?
She isn’t. Oh, of course it wasn’t going to be her. In fact, to make it all worse, Karen is the person looking back at him. “Oh, hello, Nathan. Would you like to come in the house?” she asks kindly, which somehow only serves to make him more uncomfortable. Not a small feat, that.
“Uh, no, that’s okay. I was just hoping that Hay - Haley, I mean, is here. I - I kind of need to talk to her, if that’s okay with you,” he rambles out nervously, hating how he sounds.
“Well,” Karen begins with a smile, “That would be fine with me, but she isn’t here right now. Peyton invited her to a spur of the moment concert somewhere in town, and we talked her into going.”
His face falls in disappointment, and he can only manage to nod numbly. “Oh, okay. Thanks, I mean. I’m sorry to have bothered you. I - could you have her call me?”
This is far and away the most she has ever heard Nathan speak, and he is obviously out of sorts at the moment. “I will certainly do that,” she agrees immediately. “Would you like to come in?” she asks again. “Lucas is here, sulking over not being invited to the concert. A distraction would probably do him good.”
Nathan is so close to declining when he suddenly finds himself agreeing. It surprises Karen, but shocks him more than a little. “Maybe he’d want to shoot hoops or something,” he mutters, feeling like a complete moron. Karen nods, excusing herself to get Lucas from his bedroom.
Feeling as awkward as ever, Nathan looks around the small house. From where he stands, the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all visible. It’s small, but there are pictures - not trophies - everywhere, and it feels like a home. It’s what the James house had felt like before Jimmy and Lydia left. A novel concept still, for Nathan’s money. To his relief, Luke appears shortly, and Karen is nowhere in sight.
“Hey, what’s up?” Luke greets his half brother, unable to completely hide his surprise, despite the forewarning from Karen. “You want to grab a ball and go shoot around for a bit?”
“Yeah,” Nathan agrees hoarsely. He nods once, as if for emphasis. “Yeah, I think that I’d like that. Thanks.”
Luke nods, eyeing him appraisingly. He definitely wants to say something, to ask questions, but he holds his tongue for now. “You mind walking? It isn’t that far to the river court from here, only a couple of blocks.”
Not having an issue with that, Nathan agrees. “Yeah, that’s not a problem with me,” he nods, trying to relax a little now that he’s starting to feel further removed from the Dan situation, a little distanced from that intense bit of drama. It is still with him, the threats, the anger, and even that disconcerting sense of loss he always seems to feel when dealing with Dan.
They walk in silence, Nathan staring stonily if not stoically straight ahead. Luke steals the occasional glance at him, trying to gauge his mood a little. Only a complete (and blind and deaf) idiot would not be able to tell that something was seriously bothering him, but Luke didn’t know him well enough to guess what the problem was. He did, however, know enough to figure out that the best option in terms of finding out what was going on was to wait it out. When Nathan was ready to talk, hopefully he’d get that Luke was ready to listen.
“We just shooting around?” Nathan asks as they walk onto the court.
“Sounds good to me,” Luke agrees evenly, arching a brow as he tosses the ball to his younger brother.
What starts out as friendly shooting quickly devolves into a slightly more intense game of one on one. Luke is initially wary of it; in some ways, it still feels like dangerous territory, them competing against each other in any way. It doesn’t devolve into anything it shouldn’t, though, and Luke finds himself enjoying it while Nathan finds himself relaxing a little bit.
Eventually, Nathan grabs the ball and hangs onto it after a basket by Luke. “Dan showed up at my work today,” he says, watching Luke for his reaction.
Despite feeling as though this was a test of some kind, Luke looks over at him with something akin to sympathy. “Normally, I’d ask how that went, but since Dan seems to only have one setting, it’s easy to figure out that part of it. What about this: what did he want?”
“To make me miserable?” Nathan guesses, shrugging. “He threatened to talk to scouts about me. He knows that I have to get a scholarship now if I want to go on to college, so he thinks he has found something that will bring me to heel.”
“Has he?”
Nathan shrugs. “Can’t say it doesn’t bother me, but what can I do, right? I have no defense against whatever crap he spews to these guys. There is nothing I can do.”
Luke eyes him with incredulity. “Are you kidding me? You hold all the cards here, Nate! If you go out onto the court this year and play the way we all know that you can, Dan can’t take a single damn thing away from you! Act right off the court, too, and you’ve got this made. It isn’t about him, which probably bugs him the most, and what he says or does; this is about you and the things that you say and do.”
“I don’t know,” Nathan mutters dully. “He knows these guys, the scouts. He’s made sure of it. I just wouldn’t put it past him to make shit up about me, you know? He’s really mad at me for getting emancipated. I think he’s at the point where he’d do just about anything he could to put me in my place.”
“Who cares?” Luke asks rhetorically. “If you really cared whether or not Dan was mad at you, then you wouldn’t have gotten yourself emancipated in the first place. You have so much confidence and drive to get Haley back, but Dan makes one threat that is realistically impossible, and you fold like a house of cards? You didn’t even do anything wrong when it comes to Dan! Why let him wreck your life, Nate?”
That hits home a little. Maybe Luke is right. Maybe the only way to take away Dan’s power is to stop, for once and all, letting Dan get to him. And he knows this, it is definitely something that he’s aware of on some level. He’s tried to make Dan think he’s immune to him, but until it is true, Dan will continue to be able to get to him.
Finally, Nathan gives Luke a grudging nod. “You’re right, and I do know it. It’s just that sometimes, these things are easier said than done.”
“Yeah,” Luke nods. “I bet it is. I mean, I can’t pretend to know because I obviously have no clue what this is like, but I just think you should keep in mind that your future is in your hands, not his. Besides, what is the worst case scenario?”
Sighing, Nathan shakes his head. “I guess the worst case scenario is that he does get to the scouts and I don’t get accepted to one of the schools I’d want.”
“You should talk to Whitey,” Luke suggests. “He’s got loads of contacts at all sorts of different schools. If the worst case scenario played out, at least you’d have a back-up plan. That’d be something.”
Nathan nods thoughtfully. “You know, that’s a really good idea. “I definitely want to go to college, and it’d be sweet if I could do that and play basketball still. If I could get a scholarship, that’d be cake, you know?”
Luke grins his agreement. “That would be a pretty sweet deal,” he agrees. “I don’t really care about basketball in college. I know it would be great, but I also know that I don’t really have a future in it.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, Nathan regards him skeptically. “How can you know that it isn’t?” he asks quietly. “You’re a good player, Luke. You could have a future, if you wanted it.”
“I doubt that,” Luke laughs good-naturedly. “Thanks, though. If I can play in college, like you said, that’d be cake. But either way, I’d really be there for school”
“At least you know what you want,” Nathan smirks, laughing ruefully. “I know I want to go to college, but I don’t even know what type of degree I’d get. I bet it is nice to have those things figured out, huh?”
“Yeah, you’d think so, right?” Luke grimaces, “But then people start to question you. ‘Are you sure that’s what you want to do forever?’ ‘Wouldn’t it be prudent to get a more practical degree?’ ‘There’s only so much you can do with an English Lit degree, Luke.’ Or, best yet, ‘Luke, if you get that English degree and Peyton gets an art degree, I’m going to have to worry about your ability to support and feed yourselves.’”
Nathan laughs at that. “That last one was Hay, right?”
Luke is a bit nonplussed by that, but he manages an answering grin. “Yeah, that’s my best friend, practical-minded at almost all times. I’m sure Peyton is trying her best to corrupt her now as we speak.”
Shifting the ball to his other arm, Nathan regards Luke with some surprise. “I guess I figured that everyone thought I had already taken care of that. The least of my crimes, right?”
“Look, you did a lot of things very, very wrong, but you didn’t corrupt her. She’s changed some, grown up, but we’re all changing constantly anyway.” Hesitantly, he reaches out and claps Nathan on the shoulder. “She’s still Haley, and nothing is going to take that away from any of us. Just like Dan can’t take anything away from you.”
Nathan falls quiet for a moment before shaking his head slightly. “You know what? If you write even half as well as you speak, then I think you can really kill as a writer. I mean that.”
Stunned, it actually takes Luke about thirty seconds to even formulate words after that. Frankly, he didn’t even think Nathan would know what he wanted to do with his life, so this is indeed a big surprise. “Thanks, man. That, ah, that means a lot to me.”
“Sure,” Nathan nods, holding out a hand. To his surprise, not only does Luke take it, but he uses it to pull him into an awkward half-hug of the man variety.
“Wow, Luke, I leave you alone for a couple of hours, and you’re already replacing me?” Peyton sighs dramatically, hands on her hips and fighting to keep the smile off her face when they jump apart, turning to look at her.
Haley is standing there with her, and oddly enough, both are soaking wet. Luke and Nathan exchange glances, and unable to help themselves, burst out laughing. “What the hell happened to you two?” Luke gasps out between laughs. “You look like drowned rats!”
Nathan doubles over at that when it sets him off laughing even harder. With a semi-stunned look on her face, Haley stares at the two. She’d known they were getting along better, but this was off the charts. Peyton is a little less subtle in her interest. “What happened to us? I think that we could and should ask the same of you two!”
The brothers share a look, coming to some sort of non-verbal agreement. “We were just shooting hoops,” Nathan shrugs, grinning at Haley who smiles in return. “It looks like you two have a way more interesting story to tell.”
“Somehow, I doubt that,” Haley says softly, awkwardly wrapping her arms around herself as a breeze chills her. “I have to admit, it was a little surprising to drive past here and see the two of you playing together. Talking. No bloodshed. There wasn’t any blood shed, was there?”
“We’re just full of surprises,” Luke grins, knowing that the cryptic response will irritate both of the girls. “Come on, Peyt. You’re shivering like a Chihuahua in Alaska. I told you that you needed to gain some weight.”
Peyton scowls at that, but doesn’t protest when he wraps his arms around her as they walk off. An amused expression on her face, Haley looks at Nathan expectantly. “Short work day?”
He grimaces at the question as what led to this floods back over him. “Yeah, you could say that. Dan showed up at the pretzel counter, and we got into it. Then, uh, Luke and I talked.” He glances down at his feet before looking up into her eyes. “It helped, talking to him. He has a good perspective on things, one that I probably needed to hear.”
Somehow, after seeing their awkward hug, this doesn’t really surprise her. “You know, it is kind of cold out here,” she admits, shivering delicately. “Want to walk back to Karen’s with me? We can talk more, if you want.”
“My car is over there, actually,” he notes quietly. “You could come over to my place. Pete is working until 10 or so, so it would be nice to have someone to hang out with. You could borrow some of my sweats.”
“Oh - I - well, okay, yeah,” she agrees, nervously tucking her wet hair behind her ears. “I can probably spare some of my awkward third wheel Luke and Peyton time, right?”
He grins at that as they fall into step. “Are they really that bad still? They don’t seem nearly as mushy anymore. And what did happen to you guys, anyway? Not that wet isn’t a good look for you…”
Reaching a hand up to shake her hair out, she rolls her eyes. “Peyton dragged me to this concert that was actually more of an illegal gathering of potheads and idiots to hear some up and coming band play from a rooftop. When the crowd wouldn’t disperse - and believe me, I was trying to disperse - the firemen sprayed everyone with the fire hoses. That actually hurt! Plus, the band totally sucked,” she complains, squeezing more water out of her hair.
He stops her movement, reaching out to finish getting the water out of her hair for her. “So your band sucked and my dad sucked, so we obviously should have both stayed at my place and kept studying today, right?”
“I guess so,” she smiles, taking a half step back when he finishes with her hair. “Is that why I’m coming back over? To study some more?”
“I hadn’t planned on any studying,” he grins, aching to reach out and pull her to him the way Luke did with Peyton. He doesn’t want to chance it, though, so he keeps his hands to himself. As much as it pains him, and it does in myriad ways, maybe it is time to back off and let her make the physical moves for awhile. That kind of goes against his game plan, and he doesn’t want it to come to that for selfish reasons, but he isn’t sure what will happen if he keeps pushing her.
“Maybe we can watch a movie. That would be nice, to just sit around and relax,” she offers with a smile. Maybe she isn’t as unreceptive as he thinks she is. “And maybe we can talk, too. Brooke and Tim told me a lot, but there are some things I’d like to ask you, and I want to hear your side of things.
If this were a movie, this is when the music would come to a screeching halt. Not what he wants to hear right now.
Thank you, Becky, for being an ever-inspiring beta!
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
When he’d given her the address of his new house, she had been more than a little surprised to see that it was only a block away from her old house. Which meant he was only two blocks away from Karen’s house. Almost all day long, there was never a point where he was more than two blocks away from her. Insane, that.
She was leery of having the tutoring sessions at his house. It was so personal and cozy and intimate, and she just didn’t know if she’d be able to keep things in perspective. But she’d shot down his first choice of the dock; as far as personal goes, tutoring spaces didn’t get much more so for the two of them than that. Even after tutoring Tim there a couple of times, and dragging out a few other tutees, she’d never been able to shake the vibe that it was cheating on Nathan to be there.
She didn’t like that feeling, so she ceased and desisted with that quickly enough. Now it was all boring tutoring sessions at the café or the school library or the bleachers of the river court. She’d never considered tutoring at someone’s house; maybe because it was never convenient. But this was definitely the most convenient course of action for both of them, and she had to admit that they may as well take the easy route here.
Besides, they’d already hit their bottom; maybe it was a long climb to the top, but she was relatively sure they couldn’t fall that far again. And there was no denying she was warming up to him a little. She kept her distance still. There was always that little voice of doubt in the back of her mind that questioned what his interest in her was this time. She knew he was trying to give her reasons to trust him again, and she wouldn’t even disparage that or even deny that it was working on some level, but at the same time, the memories she was up against were pretty persistent themselves.
Every time she got closer to letting herself believe that she could risk it again, she’d remember. And she wouldn’t remember the mildly bad stuff, like his fist fights with Lucas or the times he’d storm off in a snit. No, she’d remember how he stared at her and didn’t say a word in the cafeteria. She’d remember that he had never told her how deep this went.
She’d badgered some of it out of Tim and Brooke since Nathan got back. Well, Tim had needed to be badgered, but Brooke was unsurprisingly easy to get the information out of. She actually seemed pleased with herself as she spilled the details of Nathan’s actions and the full scope of his plan. There was a definite limit to her knowledge, though, and it was with relief that Haley realized that meant he never told Brooke everything.
What Brooke did know was creepy enough; definitely better she didn’t get the full details.
So in the end, she knew she should ask him. Just ask him to please, finally, lay everything out on the table. Maybe it would make it worse, but maybe it would just release both of them a little bit. Lord knows she in particular needs that right now. But it was hard. Did she want to hear it? Would it upset him to tell it? Would it just unnecessarily rock the boat? Maybe it was even worse than they were telling her, since no one seemed to think she should know.
Sighing, she lifts her hand and knocks on the door. It swings open quickly, a widely grinning Pete standing before her. “I was beginning to think you’d stand out there and mumble to yourself all day long,” he teases her. “Come on in, Haley.”
“Thanks,” she blushes, glancing past him, her eyes automatically seeking out Nathan. “Uh, how are you?”
“Oh, I’m just fine,” he grins. “Come on, lover boy is in the backyard. We’re cleaning it up, and then the people who own the house are going to put a sport court in. It’s actually a pretty good deal for all of us.”
She nods absently at that. “That’s good.”
Pete just chuckles. “You’re not much of a sports person, huh? I mean, that’s cool if you can’t hang or whatever; guess I just thought pretty boy might like his girl to have a little more appreciation for his sport. His craft.”
She smiles tightly, more than a little uncomfortable. “Well, maybe his next one will, I guess.” The words taste foul even as she says them.
“Whatever,” Pete rolls his eyes. “If he can’t have you, he really don’t want no one else. That boy is all about you.” He stares at her, shrewdly assessing. “Is that just going to end up hurting him?”
“I’m not trying to hurt him,” she sighs in response. “I really don’t want that, actually, and it’s not very fair that you’re implying that I do.”
Pete chuckles at her fervency. “You know, I actually think you’re being too nice to him considering what he did. But at the same time, he’s kinda grown into a cool guy, and he is sorry for what he did.”
Tipping her head to the side, Haley regards him silently for a minute. Finally, she asks softly, “Does that make it okay? That he’s sorry? Because it seems like everyone thinks it should, like saying the word is some sort of magical band-aid that fixes everything. It really isn’t, you know. Hearing it - maybe I should feel better, but I don’t. Maybe I should forget it, but I can’t. It isn’t as easy as people think it should be.”
Shrugging, Pete nods toward the sliding glass door off the kitchen. “Like I said, he’s out there. See you later.”
Finding out that he’s leaving sends a frisson of panic surging through her. He was supposed to be there as a buffer, as a way of keeping things from feeling too intimate. Without him, she wasn’t sure how it’d play out. She groans out loud when she sees him through the window. He’s - he’s shirtless, and tan and hot and all muscle-y, and damn it, that is really not helping.
Deciding to keep the barrier of the glass between them, she knocks on it, giving him a small wave when he glances up. He grins, and she moves away from the door, taking a seat at the kitchen counter. There are four mismatched barstools lining it, and she was surprised at how homey a small thing like that, however unintentional, made it feel in there.
Luckily, he pulled his shirt on before coming in. He grins at her, going to the fridge. Pulling out a bottle of water, he offers her one. As she quietly declines, she can’t help but marvel at the newfound quiet confidence in him. He was always cocky, there was no denying that, but now he had a confidence about him that was really stunning. It was beautiful, actually.
“How are you?” he asks, a little unnerved by how quiet she’s been since he came in. “You okay? Not having second thoughts on me, are you?”
She shakes her head, giving him a rueful smile. “No, sorry. I was just lost in thought. Everything is fine, thanks.”
He smiles, sitting on the stool next to her. “How’s work? What have you been up to lately?” he asks, leaning forward, eager to hear about everything that has been going on with her.
“Work is good,” she smiles, starting to pull her books out of her bag. “How has work been for you? Where are you working, anyway?”
He shrugs, shaking his head. “It’s fine, you know, nothing special.” She frowns slightly at the evasiveness. “Seriously, it’s just a crappy job, and believe me, those are pretty much the only kinds given to high school kids.”
Turning towards him, she arches a brow, a small smile creeping across her face. “Where are you working, Nathan?”
“It’s not a big deal, I swear.”
“That’s not what I asked,” she laughs, leaning towards him a little in a way that he finds completely enchanting. “Come on, Nathan, why won’t you just tell me? It’s not totally embarrassing, is it?”
“What if it is?” he grins, leaning into her as his voice lowers flirtatiously. By the hitch in her breathing, he can tell she’s not unaffected by his nearness. “Maybe it’s just totally embarrassing.”
Rolling her eyes, she gives him a little swat on the arm before leaning back a little to gain some space. “Somehow I doubt that. Come on, Nathan! Tell me, please!” she whines, begging a little.
He sighs, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” he bites out, harsher than he intended, angrier than he feels. “Being on your own isn’t all sunshine and flowers, and I know it’s shocking, but a lot of places don’t hire young kids for their best jobs. So I’m stuck working a crap job that really sucks. Okay?”
Pushing off her stool, she moves so that she is standing right behind him, laying a hand on his back. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Nathan. Wherever you’re working, it doesn’t matter. It’s a job, and you’ll only work there as long as you need to. You don’t have to tell me, okay? I’m sorry I pushed.”
“No,” he sighs shakily, leaning into her touch. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I work at a pretzel stand at the mall on the weekends, and after school I’m digging ditches with a construction crew. It’s not really that glamorous of work.”
“So what?” she asks bluntly, her hand rubbing over his shoulder in tiny circles. “It doesn’t matter where you work or how glamorous it is, and if you think I care about those things, you should just end this now. God, Nathan, you’re so proactive now. You’ve got all these things figured out, and you can’t tell me that you aren’t a million times happier now than you were when you still lived with your parents. Where you work doesn’t matter. It doesn’t, okay? And life isn’t all about status or whatever. Who cares what those idiots at school think anyway?”
He turns himself around, resituating her so that she’s standing between his legs. “I don’t care about anyone at school, idiot or otherwise. I care about you, Hales. I care what you think, and let’s face it, it’s more than a little lame that I have to work at a pretzel shop at the damn mall.”
“Where you work doesn’t matter to me,” she reiterates immediately, for once not bothered by their close proximity. “I don’t know why you’d think that it would.”
“Well, maybe it bothers me then,” he sighs, his hands coming out to rest on her hips, almost unconsciously. “I never pictured myself with these kinds of jobs. God, can you imagine what my dad would say or do if he found out?”
In spite of herself, she winces. “There’s probably no point in thinking about that,” she notes, trying to joke a little. “Unless it’s to picture that vein on the side of his forehead finally popping.”
He laughs, not noticing the tiny tensing of her body as he pulls her to him. “Did you just wish an aneurysm on my dad?”
“Not exactly,” she shrugs, relaxing a touch, “But I wouldn’t think he was undeserving. Has he - have you talked to him lately?”
“No, not since I got back here,” he sighs with a small smile, his fingers hooking through the loops on her jeans. “I know it’ll happen eventually, but the longer it is put off, the better for me, I figure.”
She nods, clearing her throat a little nervously when his fingers skirt under the edge of her t-shirt, hitting bare skin. “Um, I mean, did he give you a lot of trouble over the summer?” she asks, her vision starting to haze over and her mind blurring everything together under his gentle touch.
He leans in close enough that he can smell her, stopping before he gets too close. “He was Dan,” he shrugs, inwardly smiling when her eyes widen when he lets his fingers shift just a little higher. “You know how he is. It wasn’t so bad, though. Keith and Pete were usually with me, so I never had to talk to him alone.”
She nods, swaying a little. “That’s good. You shouldn’t have to be around him.” She shakes her head, clearing it slightly. “We should, ah, you know, study now.”
“Probably,” he agrees, leaning close enough to touch foreheads before pulling back, “But that’s not really that much fun, is it?”
“A necessary evil,” she breathes as she moves back to her stool. Taking a deep breath, she gives him a small smile. “I can’t believe you bothered to study into the AP classes,” she says. “I’m not knocking you, but you must’ve been busy with basketball and work, right?”
He shrugs, grinning as he gestures between them. “Yeah, it was hard, really crappy some days. But it’s worth it,” he notes lightly, winking at her.
She rolls her eyes, irritated that he can still draw a blush from her like that, just with a few sweet words. They get to work, actually going a few hours without anything personal creeping in. When he glances up at the clock and catches the time, he groans aloud.
“Hey, I have to get ready for work,” he sighs in disappointment. “Can I give you a tour of the house before I change?”
Nodding shyly, she stands up with him. “Sure, I have to admit, I’m curious to see if the rest of the house looks as decent as it does down here.”
He pokes her in the ribs before grabbing her hand. “Come on, smartass, I’ll show you the backyard first. It’s so cool, and the owners of the house are - “
“Going to put a sport court in,” she laughs. “Pete told me about it before he left. Sounds like that’s a good thing.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic,” he teases her, sliding the door open and pulling her out. “I was banking on living in a crappy apartment by myself, so this is actually really cool.”
She smiles, nodding as she looks around the yard that is so like the ones she played in growing up. Conversely, it is also a far cry from the sterile prettiness of the manicured lawn that Nathan grew up with at his parents’ place. “Well, then I’m really glad that you have Pete. I can tell that you two have become really good friends.”
He grins his thanks as he tugs her back towards the house. He does most of the talking as he pulls her through the house, self-consciously rambling on about secondhand furniture and yard sale appliances. She just lets him talk, figuring this is probably one of his first chances to show the house off to anyone. Maybe Keith had come over, but people at school still weren’t warming up to him, and obviously his parents wouldn’t stop by with a housewarming plant.
When they get back to the foyer, he glances at his watch. “I have to go, Hay,” he tells her apologetically. “Got to put my cardboard hat on.”
She nods quickly, backing towards the door. “Yeah, of course. Thanks for hosting the studying,” she smiles, giving him a little wave as she sets her hand on the doorknob. “I’ll see you at school, Nathan.”
“Yeah, you definitely will,” he agrees, moving to place a hand on the door, keeping it closed with her up against it. Before she can react, he drops down, pressing a light kiss to her lips. “I’ll see you sooner than that if I have some free time.”
“O - I mean, why’d you do that?” she sputters, to his relief not looking all that angry. Definitely more surprise there than anger. That’s a good thing, he figures. Anytime she gives him even an inch, then that’s a good thing.
“Couldn’t help myself,” he grins with false bravado. “You’re just here, taunting me with your prettiness all afternoon, and I couldn’t help myself.”
She shakes her head, a bemused smile gracing her lips. “Whatever you say,” she shrugs, fingers tightening nervously on the doorknob. “Well, I’ll see you at school then.”
He nods, leaning down to brush another kiss, a softer one this time, against her cheek. “Yeah, definitely, and maybe I could call you?”
“I - “ she starts, cutting herself off in confusion, “Oh, about the homework?”
“No,” he chuckles lightly, shaking his head for emphasis. “Because I like talking to you. Because I miss you talking to me. Is that okay?”
He can tell that his words catch her off-guard, and he wonders when the day will come that it doesn’t shock her when he says something like that to her. He doesn’t want her to have that mindset where she’s convinced herself that he never really cared about her, which is pretty much where it seems like she is at right now. Removing his hand from the door, he places both hands on her shoulders. “Haley, I do. I do love talking to you. Even those first couple of tutoring sessions, ages ago, when you were hoping I’d fall off the dock and drown, I liked talking to you, and you were kind of bitchy to me.”
Her eyes widen, and she shoves at his chest. The levity in his voice got to her, though, and she is at least smiling again. “Well, you can’t say you didn’t deserve it. I didn’t have a lot of reasons to like you then.”
“And you don’t really now, either,” he admits in a low voice. “I mean, I’m not exactly Man of the Year, right?”
“I don’t know, I think that maybe you’re getting there,” she says softly. “I don’t want you to think I haven’t noticed.”
“What exactly is it that you have noticed?” he asks, hands drifting to her hips.
She tips her head slightly to the side, her hair spilling over her shoulder in a way that drives him slightly insane. “You’ve changed, and I know that.”
“But it doesn’t change anything between us,” he notes unnecessarily, sighing a little. “I guess it couldn’t, and it probably isn’t very realistic that I’ve hoped it would.”
“I appreciate it, though. I mean, I see it, and I know it’s there, and I’m trying to let it make a difference, but it’s still hard.”
There’s a blunt honesty there that he both admires and despises. It just opens up a box of worms he isn’t sure he wants to deal with. And it’s one that he knows he doesn’t have the time to deal with at present. “We have a lot to talk about,” he sighs, and she nods solemnly in return. “Unfortunately, I can’t right now.”
She nods, giving him a smile. “Yeah, I know, Nathan. Go to work; we can talk later. Maybe we can eat lunch together.” He sort of blanches at the idea. “I mean, alone. If you wanted.”
“Just us?” he makes her promise. “No Brooke or Peyton or Jake looking down their noses at me?”
“Nope, none of that,” she agrees right away. “Just us.”
Breathing out in something akin to relief, Nathan manages to smile for her. “Yeah, okay. That sounds good, Hay.”
She nods in return. “Yeah, it does. Okay, well, you have a good day at work. I’ll see you at school, Nathan.”
He lets her go then, his arms dropping down to his own sides. “Thanks for today,” he tells her seriously, knowing that it’s costing her a lot to swallow her pride and let him back in even this much.
“Bye,” she says quietly before slipping out the door. When it shuts behind her, she thinks that it went much better than she’d expected; maybe too well, in fact.
~*~
Contrary to what he’d told Haley earlier, he wasn’t just embarrassed by his job at the pretzel stand at the mall; he actively hated it. It was awful, pushing brooms and mops around, wearing the paper hat, and smelling like grease. He hated everything about it, not the least because of how embarrassing it was. And it was. But there were definitely other aspects of it to hate, too.
He had been worried, though, about how working here would look to Haley. That was probably a stupid worry, and undoubtedly discounting to her, but if he realized the humiliation of it, surely she’d see it, too. She was…nice about it. Better than nice, actually. She dismissed it like it was the stupidest thing he’d ever come up with, and that was about anything but the truth.
She was softening - he could feel it.
And okay, maybe he wasn’t playing perfectly fair, but if using her body’s awareness of him helped her see that he’d changed, and for the better, then it would be okay. It wouldn’t be so bad, playing with her body. A part of him feels guilty, because that’s what he had started doing in the beginning, too. It made him feel a little sick that it has cycled around like this, but at the same time, his intentions are a lot better now, if not just as selfish.
He’s pretty sure it is his only option now, and he can’t worry about the fairness in it. If goading her into wanting him sexually can bring a resurrection of everything else between them, then mores the better. That was just win-win for him, even if he wasn’t sure she’d see it that way when she figured out what he was doing.
And she probably would, too. That was the one problem with this particular tactic. Things were still tenuous enough that she could really take offense to it, and he knew it would only take a second for her defensive walls to rise back up. And that was the one thing he couldn’t stand having happen. Not now that they’ve made progress and she’s let him back in a little.
There were just so many ways that he could screw this up, and he felt every one of them acutely. Sighing as he pushes his mop across the floor behind the counter of the pretzel stand, he tries to will away the negativity that he can feel seeping in. The more he dwells on it, the more sure he begins to feel that some of it, at least, will come true. And a prophet he does not want to be. Especially when it comes to predicting his own downfall.
Sighing, he again dips his mop into the bucket, wondering why the pretzel stand doesn’t save everyone some time and effort by investing in one of those mops where the liquid just squirts out at the bottom. Then he has to wonder why he even knows of those things. Life was screwed up, sometimes.
“Well, well, if it isn’t my son the pretzel maker,” Dan Scott’s snide voice sneers at him from the other side of the counter. Tensing immediately, Nathan feels the flight instinct kick in over the fight, and all he wants to do is get away from Dan. That’s all. It isn’t too much to ask, is it?
“What do you want?” Nathan asks, forcing as much cold indifference into his voice as he can. Of all the things he doesn’t need in his life, dealing with either of his parents, and this one in particular, is at the top of the list.
“Oh, come on, Nathan! I’m here to check on my younger son. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t keep abreast of the things going on in his pathetic, little life?”
Nathan tries to ignore him; no, he wants to ignore him, but he’s never been good at that. If there’s always been one person capable of breaking through his defense mechanisms, it is Dan. And as always, he’s doing a stellar job of it.
“Order a pretzel, or please leave,” Nathan manages to ground out tersely. “You and I have nothing to say to each other.”
“Well, then,” Dan smirks, the smugness of it making Nathan’s palms itch to rip his face off. “I’ll take one pretzel with a side of mustard. Hurry up with that, boy. Some of us have jobs that are a little more important than providing pretzels to mall rats.”
Nathan makes quick work of filling Dan’s order, looking longingly at the hot cheese sauce. Oh, how he’d love to shove his father’s head down in that. Bet he wouldn’t be quite so smug then. Just the thought of that helped to bolster Nathan’s defenses as he slides the order across the counter to Dan and tells him his total.
“Here’s your change,” Nathan says curtly, dropping the money into his father’s palm to avoid any contact. “Have a nice day, sir.”
“You’re a fool, Nathan,” Dan hisses at the cool dismissal. “You’re a fool if you think this was a smart decision, and you’re a fool if you think you’re proving anything with this stupid quest of yours. You’re eighteen now, you didn’t have to go through the legal drama. You could’ve waited it out.”
Nathan snorts at Dan’s obliviousness. “Why? Why would I do it knowing it’d be done for me at about the same time? Because! Because I want the whole damn world to know what a crappy father you are to me! I want them to know that I didn’t want to spend one more second than necessary in a house with you and Mom. Is that enough of an explanation for you, or would you like a little more background on all the ways I hate you?”
Dan rears back at the harsh words, disbelief written all over his face. For a second, Nathan can’t believe that this man is so deluded that he’d be surprised that Nathan felt this way, but he gets over that quickly enough when he reminds himself who he is dealing with. “Well, you’ve certainly got being ungrateful down to a art form, haven’t you?”
“Well, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Nathan fights back, charging in return. “How dare you talk to me about things like that? You have two sons, Dan. The funny thing is, you never appreciated or were grateful for either of us.”
“Don’t you dare bring that bastard into this,” Dan snaps in frustration, looking around at the small group of gawkers and looky-loos they were attracting. “He’s nothing to me, and he should be nothing to you, too. Where do you get off - “
“Where I get off? You want to know where I get off!” Nathan yells, honestly to the point where he doesn’t care if he keeps his job at this stupid pretzel stand. “I get off knowing I’m not a delusional jackass like you are! I know that only a sick freak would raise one of his sons to hate the other just so he can get his own jollies or prove some nonexistent fact!”
He looks at Dan, slowly shaking his head. “I know that I’m better than you and that I’m at least smart enough to have got out from under your oppressive thumb. Maybe I’m not much more than that, but you know what? That’s all I need.”
Dan raises an eyebrow at that, a condescending look on his face as he leans across the counter towards Nathan. “You’re a big pile of nothing, Nathan. You’ve pretty much destroyed all the options for the future that you might have had by acting like the impetuous, stupid, and selfish little boy that you are. You don’t even realize how much you’ve wasted, thrown away in your petty attempts at throwing a temper tantrum.”
“You’ll never understand,” Nathan says after a long pause. The fight has gone out of him a little, at the realization that Dan would never, ever see the error of his ways. He was never going to wake up regretting that he’d either never had or lost relationships with his two sons. He’d never realize what he could have had, and the bitterest truth of it all was that he didn’t care. Dan Scott did not truly care. “Just know this: maybe you screwed things up between Luke and me for the first seventeen years of our lives, but we still managed to get around that BS. We’re better than you, Dad, and we are both smart enough to see through your bullshit. Maybe it took awhile, but I’m there, and I’ll never make the mistake of trusting or listening to you again.”
Dan scoffs at that, but backs up off the counter. Maybe he’s finally realized that he cannot intimidate Nathan any longer. “You’ve made a lot of mistakes, and all because you didn’t listen to me. If you had just got The Bastard off the team when I told you to, none of this would have happened.”
Nathan stares hard at the man who fathered and raised him. “Failing at that is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I know you’ll never understand because I’ve seen how you act towards Uncle Keith, but I like having Luke as my brother. I like knowing that I can count on him, even though I don’t deserve that. I like that he doesn’t hold you against me, even though he should.”
“Keith? This has to do with Keith? Oh, I’ll kill him,” Dan growls his eyes narrowing as he seems to come to the decision that things with Nathan must be Keith’s fault in some way. “That - he has no business interfering in our family business.”
“Isn’t he a part of the family ‘business’?” Nathan asks, still staring Dan down. “He is family after all. Then again, knowing what you’ve done to Luke, how you have treated him all these years, not to mention what you’ve done to me, maybe not being considered family by you is the best thing that could ever happen to Keith.”
“Why you ungrateful little piece of shit,” Dan growls, reaching across the counter to grab at Nathan. Luckily, Nathan saw it coming, and moves back out of Dan’s reach. “Get over here!” Dan yells, his fiercest glare fixed on his younger son. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Nathan?”
“Nothing,” is the quiet reply that comes from his son. Nathan stands up straighter, taking the time to rearrange the paper hat on his head. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some pretzels to sell and some dishes to wash.”
With his head held high, he turns his back on Dan, vowing that this is the last so-called conversation that he ever shares with the man. In fact, if Nathan gets his way - and that’s a pretty big if - this can serve as the last contact ever between him and Dan. Happily so, at least on his part.
Dan is not of the same opinion, unsurprisingly, and is more than willing to let Nathan know that. “I have pull, Nathan. You would do very well to remember that, son.”
Nathan just rolls his eyes at the empty threat. “Is that supposed to scare me?” he asks angrily. “It doesn’t, Dan. I am not dependent on you for anything anymore. I don’t need you and you can’t hurt me anymore. But you’ve figured that part out, right? Isn’t that why you’re here, to try and figure out what you’ll have to attack to get at me now. Too bad for you there is nothing. You know why? Because I don’t care about you or what you think you can do. You just can’t hurt me anymore.”
“That’s what you think,” Dan counters, his voice such a low whisper that Nathan has to strain to hear it. “I know the scouts, Nathan. They know me, they’ll believe me, and I can ruin your chances at playing ball for a decent program. You have to know I’d be willing to do it, too. You know that, right?”
In response, Nathan manages an indifferent shrugs despite his inner rage. “Do what you have to do, and I’ll do the same. Just in case it sinks in with repetition, I am not afraid of you. Go ahead and do your worst!”
The lack of a more passionate response infuriates Dan to the point that he doesn’t even call Nathan’s bluff. And a bluff it is; if there is one area that Dan is still capable of screwing things up for Nathan, this is it and Nathan knows it. He feels it acutely, and that shakes him like nothing else from Dan could. Luckily, Dan storms off in a fit of anger before he can pick up on Nathan’s distress.
Behind him, someone clears their throat alerting him to the spectacle their little family moment had become. There are a good number of people still staring at him, and more still staring after Dan as he stalks away. “You can take off for the day if you want, Scott,” one of his coworkers, a dorky little brat that had been a real jerk to him since he started here, offers. “I can cover for you, it’s cool.”
He doesn’t really want this kid’s - anyone’s - pity, but more than that, he does not want to be here any longer. So he nods jerkily, only one thought in his head as he exchanges his apron and paper hat for his jacket and car keys: Haley. It’s a nice gesture on this kid’s part, and to his credit, Nathan remembers to thank him on his way out.
He doesn’t know where she is, and she isn’t responding to his calls, messages, or texts. In a move that even he can recognize as slightly stalkerish, he starts driving to some of the places she is most likely to be. Unfortunately for him, she is in none of those places, and that leaves him with one other main option which is the one he is not excited about, Luke and Karen’s house. No matter how things between him and Luke have progressed, they just are not at the point where he would be comfortable just stopping by there.
At this point, he doesn’t even care about that. He just knows that he has to see her. It is a burning need inside of him to see her, to hear her voice, and feel her arms around him. That last one most of all. In all of his life, she is the only person he can remember willingly giving him comfort, and it was one of the best things he ever had. Now, he wanted it back.
Sucking it up at the inevitable, he parks his car across the street, quickly getting out and jogging up to the front door, ringing the bell before he loses his nerve. Nerve, ha. He can remember a time when he had plenty of nerve and bravado, but he figures all of that was long gone now. All he had left was the option to brazen this out and hope for the best. Maybe Haley will be the one to open the door. He can dream, right?
She isn’t. Oh, of course it wasn’t going to be her. In fact, to make it all worse, Karen is the person looking back at him. “Oh, hello, Nathan. Would you like to come in the house?” she asks kindly, which somehow only serves to make him more uncomfortable. Not a small feat, that.
“Uh, no, that’s okay. I was just hoping that Hay - Haley, I mean, is here. I - I kind of need to talk to her, if that’s okay with you,” he rambles out nervously, hating how he sounds.
“Well,” Karen begins with a smile, “That would be fine with me, but she isn’t here right now. Peyton invited her to a spur of the moment concert somewhere in town, and we talked her into going.”
His face falls in disappointment, and he can only manage to nod numbly. “Oh, okay. Thanks, I mean. I’m sorry to have bothered you. I - could you have her call me?”
This is far and away the most she has ever heard Nathan speak, and he is obviously out of sorts at the moment. “I will certainly do that,” she agrees immediately. “Would you like to come in?” she asks again. “Lucas is here, sulking over not being invited to the concert. A distraction would probably do him good.”
Nathan is so close to declining when he suddenly finds himself agreeing. It surprises Karen, but shocks him more than a little. “Maybe he’d want to shoot hoops or something,” he mutters, feeling like a complete moron. Karen nods, excusing herself to get Lucas from his bedroom.
Feeling as awkward as ever, Nathan looks around the small house. From where he stands, the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all visible. It’s small, but there are pictures - not trophies - everywhere, and it feels like a home. It’s what the James house had felt like before Jimmy and Lydia left. A novel concept still, for Nathan’s money. To his relief, Luke appears shortly, and Karen is nowhere in sight.
“Hey, what’s up?” Luke greets his half brother, unable to completely hide his surprise, despite the forewarning from Karen. “You want to grab a ball and go shoot around for a bit?”
“Yeah,” Nathan agrees hoarsely. He nods once, as if for emphasis. “Yeah, I think that I’d like that. Thanks.”
Luke nods, eyeing him appraisingly. He definitely wants to say something, to ask questions, but he holds his tongue for now. “You mind walking? It isn’t that far to the river court from here, only a couple of blocks.”
Not having an issue with that, Nathan agrees. “Yeah, that’s not a problem with me,” he nods, trying to relax a little now that he’s starting to feel further removed from the Dan situation, a little distanced from that intense bit of drama. It is still with him, the threats, the anger, and even that disconcerting sense of loss he always seems to feel when dealing with Dan.
They walk in silence, Nathan staring stonily if not stoically straight ahead. Luke steals the occasional glance at him, trying to gauge his mood a little. Only a complete (and blind and deaf) idiot would not be able to tell that something was seriously bothering him, but Luke didn’t know him well enough to guess what the problem was. He did, however, know enough to figure out that the best option in terms of finding out what was going on was to wait it out. When Nathan was ready to talk, hopefully he’d get that Luke was ready to listen.
“We just shooting around?” Nathan asks as they walk onto the court.
“Sounds good to me,” Luke agrees evenly, arching a brow as he tosses the ball to his younger brother.
What starts out as friendly shooting quickly devolves into a slightly more intense game of one on one. Luke is initially wary of it; in some ways, it still feels like dangerous territory, them competing against each other in any way. It doesn’t devolve into anything it shouldn’t, though, and Luke finds himself enjoying it while Nathan finds himself relaxing a little bit.
Eventually, Nathan grabs the ball and hangs onto it after a basket by Luke. “Dan showed up at my work today,” he says, watching Luke for his reaction.
Despite feeling as though this was a test of some kind, Luke looks over at him with something akin to sympathy. “Normally, I’d ask how that went, but since Dan seems to only have one setting, it’s easy to figure out that part of it. What about this: what did he want?”
“To make me miserable?” Nathan guesses, shrugging. “He threatened to talk to scouts about me. He knows that I have to get a scholarship now if I want to go on to college, so he thinks he has found something that will bring me to heel.”
“Has he?”
Nathan shrugs. “Can’t say it doesn’t bother me, but what can I do, right? I have no defense against whatever crap he spews to these guys. There is nothing I can do.”
Luke eyes him with incredulity. “Are you kidding me? You hold all the cards here, Nate! If you go out onto the court this year and play the way we all know that you can, Dan can’t take a single damn thing away from you! Act right off the court, too, and you’ve got this made. It isn’t about him, which probably bugs him the most, and what he says or does; this is about you and the things that you say and do.”
“I don’t know,” Nathan mutters dully. “He knows these guys, the scouts. He’s made sure of it. I just wouldn’t put it past him to make shit up about me, you know? He’s really mad at me for getting emancipated. I think he’s at the point where he’d do just about anything he could to put me in my place.”
“Who cares?” Luke asks rhetorically. “If you really cared whether or not Dan was mad at you, then you wouldn’t have gotten yourself emancipated in the first place. You have so much confidence and drive to get Haley back, but Dan makes one threat that is realistically impossible, and you fold like a house of cards? You didn’t even do anything wrong when it comes to Dan! Why let him wreck your life, Nate?”
That hits home a little. Maybe Luke is right. Maybe the only way to take away Dan’s power is to stop, for once and all, letting Dan get to him. And he knows this, it is definitely something that he’s aware of on some level. He’s tried to make Dan think he’s immune to him, but until it is true, Dan will continue to be able to get to him.
Finally, Nathan gives Luke a grudging nod. “You’re right, and I do know it. It’s just that sometimes, these things are easier said than done.”
“Yeah,” Luke nods. “I bet it is. I mean, I can’t pretend to know because I obviously have no clue what this is like, but I just think you should keep in mind that your future is in your hands, not his. Besides, what is the worst case scenario?”
Sighing, Nathan shakes his head. “I guess the worst case scenario is that he does get to the scouts and I don’t get accepted to one of the schools I’d want.”
“You should talk to Whitey,” Luke suggests. “He’s got loads of contacts at all sorts of different schools. If the worst case scenario played out, at least you’d have a back-up plan. That’d be something.”
Nathan nods thoughtfully. “You know, that’s a really good idea. “I definitely want to go to college, and it’d be sweet if I could do that and play basketball still. If I could get a scholarship, that’d be cake, you know?”
Luke grins his agreement. “That would be a pretty sweet deal,” he agrees. “I don’t really care about basketball in college. I know it would be great, but I also know that I don’t really have a future in it.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, Nathan regards him skeptically. “How can you know that it isn’t?” he asks quietly. “You’re a good player, Luke. You could have a future, if you wanted it.”
“I doubt that,” Luke laughs good-naturedly. “Thanks, though. If I can play in college, like you said, that’d be cake. But either way, I’d really be there for school”
“At least you know what you want,” Nathan smirks, laughing ruefully. “I know I want to go to college, but I don’t even know what type of degree I’d get. I bet it is nice to have those things figured out, huh?”
“Yeah, you’d think so, right?” Luke grimaces, “But then people start to question you. ‘Are you sure that’s what you want to do forever?’ ‘Wouldn’t it be prudent to get a more practical degree?’ ‘There’s only so much you can do with an English Lit degree, Luke.’ Or, best yet, ‘Luke, if you get that English degree and Peyton gets an art degree, I’m going to have to worry about your ability to support and feed yourselves.’”
Nathan laughs at that. “That last one was Hay, right?”
Luke is a bit nonplussed by that, but he manages an answering grin. “Yeah, that’s my best friend, practical-minded at almost all times. I’m sure Peyton is trying her best to corrupt her now as we speak.”
Shifting the ball to his other arm, Nathan regards Luke with some surprise. “I guess I figured that everyone thought I had already taken care of that. The least of my crimes, right?”
“Look, you did a lot of things very, very wrong, but you didn’t corrupt her. She’s changed some, grown up, but we’re all changing constantly anyway.” Hesitantly, he reaches out and claps Nathan on the shoulder. “She’s still Haley, and nothing is going to take that away from any of us. Just like Dan can’t take anything away from you.”
Nathan falls quiet for a moment before shaking his head slightly. “You know what? If you write even half as well as you speak, then I think you can really kill as a writer. I mean that.”
Stunned, it actually takes Luke about thirty seconds to even formulate words after that. Frankly, he didn’t even think Nathan would know what he wanted to do with his life, so this is indeed a big surprise. “Thanks, man. That, ah, that means a lot to me.”
“Sure,” Nathan nods, holding out a hand. To his surprise, not only does Luke take it, but he uses it to pull him into an awkward half-hug of the man variety.
“Wow, Luke, I leave you alone for a couple of hours, and you’re already replacing me?” Peyton sighs dramatically, hands on her hips and fighting to keep the smile off her face when they jump apart, turning to look at her.
Haley is standing there with her, and oddly enough, both are soaking wet. Luke and Nathan exchange glances, and unable to help themselves, burst out laughing. “What the hell happened to you two?” Luke gasps out between laughs. “You look like drowned rats!”
Nathan doubles over at that when it sets him off laughing even harder. With a semi-stunned look on her face, Haley stares at the two. She’d known they were getting along better, but this was off the charts. Peyton is a little less subtle in her interest. “What happened to us? I think that we could and should ask the same of you two!”
The brothers share a look, coming to some sort of non-verbal agreement. “We were just shooting hoops,” Nathan shrugs, grinning at Haley who smiles in return. “It looks like you two have a way more interesting story to tell.”
“Somehow, I doubt that,” Haley says softly, awkwardly wrapping her arms around herself as a breeze chills her. “I have to admit, it was a little surprising to drive past here and see the two of you playing together. Talking. No bloodshed. There wasn’t any blood shed, was there?”
“We’re just full of surprises,” Luke grins, knowing that the cryptic response will irritate both of the girls. “Come on, Peyt. You’re shivering like a Chihuahua in Alaska. I told you that you needed to gain some weight.”
Peyton scowls at that, but doesn’t protest when he wraps his arms around her as they walk off. An amused expression on her face, Haley looks at Nathan expectantly. “Short work day?”
He grimaces at the question as what led to this floods back over him. “Yeah, you could say that. Dan showed up at the pretzel counter, and we got into it. Then, uh, Luke and I talked.” He glances down at his feet before looking up into her eyes. “It helped, talking to him. He has a good perspective on things, one that I probably needed to hear.”
Somehow, after seeing their awkward hug, this doesn’t really surprise her. “You know, it is kind of cold out here,” she admits, shivering delicately. “Want to walk back to Karen’s with me? We can talk more, if you want.”
“My car is over there, actually,” he notes quietly. “You could come over to my place. Pete is working until 10 or so, so it would be nice to have someone to hang out with. You could borrow some of my sweats.”
“Oh - I - well, okay, yeah,” she agrees, nervously tucking her wet hair behind her ears. “I can probably spare some of my awkward third wheel Luke and Peyton time, right?”
He grins at that as they fall into step. “Are they really that bad still? They don’t seem nearly as mushy anymore. And what did happen to you guys, anyway? Not that wet isn’t a good look for you…”
Reaching a hand up to shake her hair out, she rolls her eyes. “Peyton dragged me to this concert that was actually more of an illegal gathering of potheads and idiots to hear some up and coming band play from a rooftop. When the crowd wouldn’t disperse - and believe me, I was trying to disperse - the firemen sprayed everyone with the fire hoses. That actually hurt! Plus, the band totally sucked,” she complains, squeezing more water out of her hair.
He stops her movement, reaching out to finish getting the water out of her hair for her. “So your band sucked and my dad sucked, so we obviously should have both stayed at my place and kept studying today, right?”
“I guess so,” she smiles, taking a half step back when he finishes with her hair. “Is that why I’m coming back over? To study some more?”
“I hadn’t planned on any studying,” he grins, aching to reach out and pull her to him the way Luke did with Peyton. He doesn’t want to chance it, though, so he keeps his hands to himself. As much as it pains him, and it does in myriad ways, maybe it is time to back off and let her make the physical moves for awhile. That kind of goes against his game plan, and he doesn’t want it to come to that for selfish reasons, but he isn’t sure what will happen if he keeps pushing her.
“Maybe we can watch a movie. That would be nice, to just sit around and relax,” she offers with a smile. Maybe she isn’t as unreceptive as he thinks she is. “And maybe we can talk, too. Brooke and Tim told me a lot, but there are some things I’d like to ask you, and I want to hear your side of things.
If this were a movie, this is when the music would come to a screeching halt. Not what he wants to hear right now.