Title: Holding You

Author: Hana (thedreamygirl)

Rating: Teen

Pairing: Nathan/Haley

Disclaimer: One Tree Hill and its characters are owned by Schwahn and his team. The title of this story and all the chapter titles are lyrics from the song 'I Don't Want To Be Your Friend' by David James (or that's the plan, anyway).

Summary: Sequel to 'The Best Bad Birthday Ever'. After being roommates for all of two whole days, Haley James thought she would never see Nathan Scott again. But, when they meet accidentally, they find themselves soon becoming friends and…roommates?

A/N: Yes, it's a new story, but with 'Always Love' drawing to its inevitable end, I won't be juggling two stories for long. I'm not sure how long updates will take me so I'm not going to estimate, however, rest assured it won't be months between chapters or anything like that at all. And even though it's a sequel, you don't have to have read the first one to understand this, but if you do it'll probably be clearer, and it was only two chapters long. Thanks to everyone who loved the first one and wanted a sequel and thanks to Christina for betaing.

Chapter One: The Day That Made A Difference

Haley James was at a party. It was surprising, even to her, and she was certain that none of her brothers or sisters would believe her, but it was the truth. Short, mousey, Haley James who had been in bed by ten thirty every night during high school – and out of choice, rather than curfew, no less – was at a party. And not just any party; she was at a fraternity party.

Haley had never thought she'd be invited to this kind of party, and actually she hadn't, but her roommate had been. Brooke Davis wasn't the kind of girl Haley normally associated with. Brooke was loud, outgoing, and she liked to have fun. Not that Haley didn't like to have fun; it was just that her idea of fun was a lot mellower than Brooke's. Nonetheless, she had somehow been able to drag Haley out of their shared dorm room and all the way across campus to this party.

Haley should have made a deal with Brooke to get something in return for this, but Brooke had managed to guilt Haley into coming so she hadn't thought to do so at the time. It had been two weeks since college had started, and although Haley loathed admitting it, she hadn't really made any new friends. She spoke to the people she saw in her classes every now and then, but aside from Brooke there was no one she saw on a regular basis and that was only because they were forced to inhabit the same room for a year. Brooke had pointed out that afternoon that Haley would never make any friends if she stayed cooped up in their room all hours. The girl did have a point. Haley loved her semi-regular telephone conversations with Peyton Sawyer, her best friend from high school, but that wasn't really enough. And even Peyton, who was terrible at letting people in, had started to make friends, or at least one, Haley gathered from Peyton's increasing mention of someone named "Jake".

As a result, Haley had not only let Brooke rope her into coming into this fraternity party, but also into helping her dress, which Haley discovered had been a bad idea.

"A very bad idea," she muttered to herself as the sixth drunken guy passed her way and gave her a once-over along with what he clearly thought was a very sexy smile. Eww.

"Haley, did you just talk to yourself?" Brooke demanded, suddenly returning back from her phone call, which she had to take outside due to the not only loud, but terribly poor taste music playing.

"No," Haley said quickly. "And don't leave me alone like that again. I only came here because you forced me."

"I didn't force you. You came here of your own free will. Plus," Brooke added, scanning the room with an appreciative gaze, "I'm kind of hoping I'll have to leave you alone a bit later. You wouldn't mind if you had to sleep on your own tonight, would you, Haley dear?"

Haley couldn't help but laugh. "I can sleep alone just fine, Brooke. I just don't want to be alone in here will all these weird guys trying to grab my ass."

"Well, you can't blame them, James. Your ass looks pretty damn fine in that skirt of mine. Hey, I just rhymed! Oh my God, I did it again! Well, sort of," Brooke giggled, a loud infectious laugh that caused everyone around them to turn their way, but not in a bad way at all. Haley could tell that even without her clothes and perfectly coiffed hair, Brooke Davis would get attention from guys everywhere, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she was a little jealous of that. Not that she wanted to be the centre of attention, but some sort of attention from the opposite sex every once in a while wasn't that much to ask for, was it? She'd settle for just one guy, and she knew just the one in particular.

Haley pushed that thought out of her head, reminding herself that she was probably never going to see said guy again and he wouldn't have been interested in her like that anyway. "Brooke," she returned to her friend, who had finally stopped laughing, "you said that I had to come here with you so that we could make friends, not boyfriends."

"Actually," Brooke began, with a look on her face that made Haley start to worry.

"Brooke!"

"Don't get mad! It's not a big deal, really. Just – you remember how I told you that I heard about the party from someone in my lecture this morning?"

"Yes," Haley said sternly.

"Well, it was this guy who I sat next to and he's really really cute, Haley, and he's not in a fraternity but he's friends with the guys who are throwing this party and he told me he'd be here and he'd really like it if I came –"

"So you could have just come here by yourself, Brooke! You didn't have to drag me down here with you."

"I couldn't come alone! He would think I came just for him!" Before Haley could point out that that was the reason she came, Brooke added, "Lesson one on boys, James, you wanna seem interested, but not desperate."

"So why didn't you just ask the other girls you know to come with you? Like that Rachel girl."

"Because Rachel, well…she's okay if you want to know where the cool place to go is or something, but she, well…if I brought her here then for all I know she'd probably try to get him for herself, you know," Brooke tried to make Haley understand.

Haley's face soured "And I'm the safe choice because he just wouldn't be attracted to me?"

"What? No!" Brooke exclaimed, and she sounded so shocked that Haley believed it was genuine. "I mean that Rachel's kind of bitchy and well, who knows whether he'd like her or not, but she'd definitely put the moves on him. And I know that we don't know each other all that well, but you don't seem like the kind of person who'd do that to another girl's boyfriend – or, in this case, potential boyfriend," Brooke admitted.

"I wouldn't," Haley informed her.

Brooke smiled. "I thought so. And, wasn't it fun? Getting ready together?"

Haley's face broke out into a small smile. She had to admit that doing all that girly stuff with Brooke had been kind of fun. "Yeah."

"Plus," Brooke returned her grin, "if I had really thought he wouldn't be attracted to you, no way I would have dressed you up all hot and given you my skirt to show off those legs and that ass in."

Haley was about to laugh, but it died in her throat when she felt a small thud on her rear. "Brooke!"

"What now?"

"You just slapped my ass!" Haley ground out through her teeth.

Brooke rolled her eyes like it was no big deal. "You seriously need to lighten up."

Haley prevented herself from making an unladylike growl type sound and tried to approach it from a perspective Brooke might understand. "Well, you don't want this guy to think you're a lesbian, do you?"

"Haley, slapping another girl's ass does not mean that you're lesbian, and, I don't know. I don't know him that well yet and he might think that's kind of hot." When Haley looked horrified, Brooke burst into giggles again, "Just kidding, James! Well, to be honest, I don't know if he thinks that thing is hot, but if he does, don't worry, I won't ask you to participate in any kinky threesomes."

Haley was about to exclaim Brooke's name, but was saved from having to when a much deeper voice among the crowd did so. Both girls turned to find a tall, blond, blue-eyed boy approaching them and when Brooke grinned, Haley had a feeling that this wasn't just some random guy, but the boy Brooke had come to see.

"Hey, you made it."

"Yep." Brooke nodded.

"I'm glad you came."

Brooke smiled, but just said nonchalantly, "We were just looking for a cool party."

When she looked at Haley for encouragement, Haley nodded vigorously. "We just love to party," she added, doing her best to sound convincing.

Lucas grinned, before Brooke jumped in. "Oh, what's wrong with me? Haley this is Lucas. Lucas, this is Haley, my roommate."

"It's nice to meet you," he said.

"You too."

"So, me and my friends were sitting over there," Lucas gestured to his right. "Do you two want to join us?"

Haley looked at Brooke who pretended to contemplate it for a moment before saying, "Sure, why not?"


Nathan Scott was sitting on a chair quietly minding his own business when a hand slapped his back, causing a 'thwack' sound and making him nearly choke on his beer. After he had put the drink down and finished coughing, he turned to glare at his friend. "Tim! What the hell were you doing?"

"Sorry, man. Accident."

Nathan just shook his head and sat back in his chair while his friends around him continued their conversation, somewhat slurred by their level of intoxication. Nathan had been at the party just as long as they had, but for some reason he hadn't felt like drinking all that much. He wasn't even all that interested in the girls, which surprised both his brother and himself.

It was hard to explain, but he was starting to find college…kind of boring really. People had told him about the parties and the girls and the freedom, but…there was no newness there, for him. He'd thrown his fair share of parties, and had way more than his fair share of girls at his high school, plus his parents hadn't really cared much so he'd always had a lot of freedom.

He wasn't sure what he had been expecting of college, but on some level he supposed he thought it would be different. Yet, aside from the fact that his Dad wasn't breathing over his shoulder about basketball there didn't feel like there was that much difference. Nathan just wanted something more…interesting than all the sameness in his life.

His first two days at college had certainly been interesting, he thought with a small smile on his face, thanks to, of all things, a screw up in the accommodation office, which had landed him in not only the wrong dorm, but with a girl as a roommate. Nathan couldn't help but smile as he thought of the girl in question; shy, smart and an incessant rambler, she was far from what he expected in his roommate, not least in terms of gender. However, that acquaintance had only lasted two days since the accommodation department had soon reallocated him to another building. They had exchanged cell phone numbers, but Nathan had decided he shouldn't call after just one day so he had waited for two full days to pass by before dialling her number – and she never answered. He wasn't sure exactly why; Haley hadn't seemed like the kind of person who just wouldn't pick up or at least call back, since the number would have registered, but as the days went by with her never calling back, he realised that she had no intention of calling him back, and that was fine by him. Or, so he kept telling himself.

As Nathan's mind wandered, one of the guys sitting in their group got up to get a refill of his drink. The moment he left, the girl who had previously been fawning over him turned to Nathan, who's chair was on her other side, a sultry smile on her face as she twirled her curls around her index finger in what she clearly thought was a very sexy action. "It's Nathan, right?"

Nathan nodded warily. "I don't suppose the fact that I don't remember your name is going to make you stop doing that, huh?"

She laughed as if he had made some hilarious joke, and it was so loud that even Tim stopped chugging back his liquor to stare bewildered at her. "You're so funny, Nathan," she said when she had finally stopped, moving forward to place her hand on Nathan's chest, which he prevented by leaning backwards in his already unsteady chair.

"Hey guys!"

At the sound of his roommate's voice, Nathan looked up and was taken aback beyond belief at the sight of the girl standing next to him. And, without realising it, he suddenly fell out of his chair.