Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill.

Lucas ran after his brother and grabbed his wrist, stopping him from leaving the river court. "I don't get it, Nathan. Why are you so mad at me?"

Nathan turned to face Lucas. "Do I really have to tell you?"

"Yes you do!" Lucas demanded, "I don't understand why you're so mad about this! I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Anything wrong? You did everything wrong!" Nate yelled, yanking back his wrist and turning to leave.

Nathan got about five steps before Lucas yelled after him "So I spied on Dan! And went to see my best friend. I said I was sorry."

Nathan stopped in his tracks. "It's not just that."

"What is it then?" Luke asked, clearly exasperated.

"You lied to me, Lucas," Nate said, betrayed.

"Nathan, I had to," Lucas tried to explain, but even to him, his explanation sounded more like an excuse.

"That's the thing. You really didn't," Nate said, shaking his head, turning to leave, yet again.

"Nate..." Lucas said, begging his brother to stay.

"You betrayed me, Lucas," Nathan explained, even though he felt it was pretty much self-explanatory, "It isn't that you spied on my Dad. It's that you looked me in the eye and told me you were done. But that was just a lie wasn't it?"

Luke could see that his brother felt very betrayed and tried to explain, even though he couldn't for the life of him think of a way to make this better for Nate. "Nathan..."

"And going to see Haley? You weren't even gonna tell me?" Nathan said, numbly.

"I was, Nate," Lucas said, even though he was lying.

"No, you weren't," Nathan asserted, "I had to pull the annulment papers out of your bag!"

"Nathan, I needed to see her," Lucas said, annoyed.

Nathan protested. "You could have told me!"

"I thought it would hurt you." Lucas argued

"Hurt me?" Nathan said, thinking Luke must be kidding, "You don't care about hurting me."

"Of course I do!" Lucas protested.

"Then why do you keep telling me I'm so selfish for not getting back with Haley?" Nathan asked.

"Because she's hurting, Nathan!"

"And I'm not?" Nathan replied, shocked, "Lucas, she broke my heart!"

"She's back. Everything can go back to normal." For the life of him he couldn't realize why Nathan did not seem to understand this.

"It will never be normal! I don't know if I can trust her anymore."

"Of course you can, Nathan. She's still Haley."

"Whose Haley, Luke?" Nate asked, "Mine or yours?"

Lucas was exasperated "What does that even mean, Nathan?"

Nathan looked at him a second, before explaining."It means that you're always going to care more about Haley than you do about me."

"Nate..." Lucas protested.

"Lucas, I get she's your best friend," Nathan said, not unkindly, "I really do. But the reason you want me to forgive her isn't for me, its for her."

Lucas argued, "She's sorry."

Nathan explained, a little harshly, "That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt! She hurt me and you're telling me to just get over it."

Luke sighed, "You know I don't mean it like that."

"Do I?" Nate questioned, "Because it seems like you're just on her side, Luke."

"Nathan..."

"I'm your little brother." Nate said simply, "And you always seem to against me."

TBC