OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE, WHEN FIRST WE PRACTISE TO DECEIVE! – Sir Walter Scott.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Tree Hill characters or any of the songs used in the chapters.
Keep in mind that this is only the first chapter and that I still need to introduce and give history and background to the story, but it will eventually be a Naley fic ) Enjoy and review!
CHAPTER 1
LINGER
Coz I'm feeling lost, when I'm in your arms, the reasons are gone, for why I was holding on to you.
"Nathan! Come down for breakfast!"
I tried so hard, to be the one, I don't like who I've become.
"I'll be down in a sec!"
Won't keep my mouth shut anymore, I've had my share of closing doors.
Taking one last look at himself in the mirror, the dark-haired boy grabbed the remote control from the top of his drawer and slowly, but roughly turned off the music, creating a strange quietness in his room. For a long minute, he just stared off into space, twisting the remote control with his strong hands.
"Nathan!"
He didn't answer his mother this time but instead walked over to his night-stand where a carefully framed picture was neatly placed right beside his bed-lamp. It was a picture of him from two years back, with a curly blonde-haired girl, both in their Raven uniforms, smiling triumphantly after having winning a game.
Peyton Sawyer; the love of his life.
He turned away from the picture, mixed feelings and emotions threatening to sweep him away into the hole of dark depression where he had once been forced to fall into, and looked at the NBA calendar hanging on one side of his room.
Twenty-sixth of October; the day it had all begun, the day it had all ended. A neat circle had been painstakingly drawn around the date and Nathan felt the emotions the he had felt on that same date a year ago when everything was torn away from him. She had simply passed him a note during English, with the lyrics of a song written in a paper filled with the dark, gloomy drawings that made up who she is, and just like that, it had ended. He had tried to talk to her afterwards, had tried to beg, but she never gave him a chance. He had watched her go, walking the way Peyton Sawyer had always had, into the welcoming arms of his half-brother, Lucas Scott. He had never realized how much he could hate a person until that day when he was forced to see the girl he had so very much loved, walked unhesitatingly into the embrace of another boy, a boy that he had disliked ever since he could remember. But in that instant, his dislike was greatly transformed into pure hatred and until now, he had never let go of his personal grudge against his half-brother.
He had disliked Lucas, it was true, but he had never wanted to do anything to the guy. But Lucas had made it personal, and Nathan knew that he had to get even.
Try as he might, Nathan could not understand how Peyton could do something like that not only to him, but also to her best friend Brooke Davis. Lucas and Brooke had been dating, not as long as he and Peyton had, but long enough. And for Peyton to turn around and steal her best friend's boyfriend like that was beyond him. To be fair, Brooke and Lucas were on a break at the time the whole mess was happening, but it was still a horrible thing to do. To him, and this view was supported and voiced loudly by Brooke, it was just the same as stealing and stabbing your friend in the back.
"NATHAN!"
"In a minute!"
Nathan walked over to his drawer once more and put the remote back to its original position. Ever since that unfair break-up, on the twenty-sixth day of every month, he had listened to the song that Peyton had uncaringly written, to try to understand, just a little, what had went wrong. But try as hard as he could, he could not figure it out. Peyton had never bothered to explain and he had stopped trying a while back.
He thought he would give it another try when Lucas and Peyton broke up six months after they had gotten together, but again, she didn't give him a chance. Every time she saw him coming, she immediately turned and walked the other way. He couldn't and still can't figure out what the hell goes through her mind everyday. He never understood her, but it didn't mean that he didn't care, because he did and still did care about her. But she did not let him, and a big part of who he was today, of who he had become, was largely because of her. He had got out of the relationship a changed man. Not for the better, he knew, but for the worse. He had become what everyone thought that Dan Scott's son would be; an egoistic individual fleeting from one relationship to another.
"NATHAN! Last call!"
Sighing, Nathan made his way out his room, grabbing his school bag on the way, and roughly closed the door behind him; the sheer force of it rattled his night-stand causing the bittersweet photo to fall flat against the surface.
I really need to hear how great I am, coz I can't even get up out of bed, now say it like you mean it (it doesn't matter how you really feel), sing it back softly…oh…you've got to be strong, and I've been empty for oh so long.
Long, sleek fingers crawled against his back and made its way to the black headphone Nathan was currently using during lunch break. With the headphones pulled off, Nathan was exposed to the sound and the fray of the students in his school, and it irritated him. He turned around to look at the person who had dared to approach him in such a manner and was confronted by a pair of confident brown eyes that he knew oh so well.
"Rachel," he said flatly.
"Naaathan," she chirped.
She put one side of the headphone against her ear and gave Nathan a sidelong look.
"Jimmy Eat World? Seriously? Where's the Wutang clan?"
"It's the twenty sixth, now give it here," Nathan said as he quickly grabbed the headphone off her and roughly dumped it in his school bag.
Not fazed by Nathan's reaction, Rachel took a seat beside him and bit the apple that Nathan was holding. While she chewed the apple in her mouth, her eyes took in all the people that were sitting with Nathan; practically, almost the whole of the basketball team. Swallowing the apple remains, Rachel snatched the rest of the apple from Nathan and continued to eat it in the midst of all the basketball boys.
If any other girl had done what Rachel had just did, with the exception of Peyton, Nathan would have instantly gotten up and left, and maybe throw in a few curses in between. But this was Rachel, the red-headed girl who had helped him during the first few difficult weeks after his distressing break up. For many nights she had kept him company, making his body betray what he was truly feeling inside, but though this had been so, he had sinfully enjoyed it. At the time, he had despised her, had despised himself, but he took her in nonetheless. Rachel knew that at that time he was very vulnerable, would simply break if one thing went wrong, but she stubbornly fought for what she wanted until Nathan could not resist her any longer.
She believed that she was the cure for Nathan's break-up and surprisingly, in time Nathan found out that she was right. After the countless meaningless nights, the pain in his heart began to ebb away and his heart had slowly become empty. He had thought that Rachel wanted something from him in return, something like commitment, but yet again to his surprise, she wanted nothing of the sort. When he had tried to talk about it with her after one of those nights, she just turned around to look up at him from his bed and said,
"Have you heard of the term, friends with benefits?"
Just like that, she had relieved him of the responsibility of his actions. And though he never voiced it out loud, from the deepest of his heart, he was thankful that she had been there during those hard times when he had needed someone to just simply be there for him. After one year of benefiting each other, they had become great friends, and knew everything about the other.
"Apart from me, who are you doing?" Rachel asked casually, in between of her chewing.
She talked to him as if no one else was there. And he didn't care. It was Rachel after all.
"Kenzie," Nathan answered a matter-of-factly. "But, I'm getting tired of her. She's too needy. I think she's starting to think I want in."
Rachel looked at him and said, "I heard you're good."
Seeing the smirk starting to form on his face, she quickly added, "Not in bed you moron, I think I'm very capable of judging that myself, but in getting close to a girl. They say even if you were not the hottest guy in the basketball team, they still would want to be with you. No new girl you have targeted would listen to your previous toy. They just wouldn't believe. They are always sure that you've changed. Show me how you do it, I was spared the bullshit back in the day, you see."
The smirk still came on his face. "You spared me the need."
"True." Throwing the core to Tim who was sitting right across from her and who was eavesdropping on their conversation, Rachel stood up and dumped her bag on Nathan's lap.
Nathan looked at her questioningly.
"Toilet," Rachel informed and left.
"Chuck the core in the bin Tim," Nathan said. "Stop looking at it like an idiot."
Nathan watched his friend made his way to the bin and was taken aback when he suddenly saw Lucas walking together with Brooke. They were talking to each other, even laughing. Had she forgiven him for getting together with Peyton? Nathan knew that Brooke had forgiven Peyton a few months after Peyton and Lucas had broken up, and he did know that she had not forgiven Lucas. But had she forgiven him now? He didn't think that she would what with all the drama that had ensued after the break-up, but it looked like that maybe she had.
Nathan's eyes narrowed when he saw Lucas brush a strand of hair away from Brooke's face. He felt that Lucas had gotten off easy. All the anger and all the hatred that Nathan had kept inside for so long were starting to stir into life. It angered him that he had not done anything to the guy a year after his break-up with Peyton. He had been tempted so many times during the first few days to beat the guy to a pulp, but he didn't, for Peyton's sake. And after the two had broken up, the anger was somehow already subdued by Rachel. But this, seeing him together again with the girl that Nathan knew Lucas had terribly hurt, was just too much. It was the last straw. It wasn't his business, he knew, it even had nothing to do with him, but Nathan knew that it was his turn to make it personal.
Because he was thinking so hard and was so focused on the two people across the courtyard, Nathan didn't notice Rachel was back until she tapped him on the shoulder.
"What the hell are you staring at?"
"What?" Nathan asked stupidly as he turned to look at her.
"Ugh, whatever. Anyway, now that you're done with Kenzie, soon to be over or whatever, who's your next victim?"
Nathan smirked and unhesitatingly answered her.
"Brooke Davis."
If you, if you could return, don't let it burn, don't let it fade. I'm sure I'm not being rude, but it's just your attitude, It's tearing me apart, It's ruining everything. I swore, I swore I would be true, and honey, so did you. So why were you holding her hand? Is that the way we stand? Were you lying all the time? Was it just a game to you?
But
I'm in so deep. You know I'm such a fool for you. You got me wrapped
around your finger, ah, ha, ha. Do you have to let it linger? Do you
have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger? The
Cranberries.
SONGS:
The Veronicas – Mouth Shut.
Jimmy Eat World – Over.
The Cranberries – Linger.
Till the next chapter! I urge all of you to review ) Feedback is vital to keep me motivated.
