I was bored and wanted to write, so this happened. Enjoy!
"Hey you've reached Nathan Scott, sorry I can't get to the phone right now but leave a message and I'll call you back as soon as I can...or want to." Beep.
Haley James expelled a long, frustrated sigh as she yet again got the infamous answering machine of her boyfriend's cellphone. At the rate, she was sure she had talked more to the recorded voice than with the actual Nathan.
Glancing at the clock, she sighed again. It was 10:34 at night. The last time she spoke to him was over four hours ago. Not that she was a crazy obsessive girlfriend or anything, but she was starting to get worried. All she knew was that he was having a "guy's night" with his best friend Clay but he never once checked in with her. Usually when he was away from her he'd constantly text her saying how much he missed her or how he couldn't stop thinking about her.
Haley hated how attached she had become to Nathan. She always promised herself she'd never be the girl who missed her boyfriend after only hours apart- but here she was, sulking alone on her couch in her dark apartment.
She wanted to laugh at herself- at this situation- at how much she had fallen for him because two years ago she hated him with every fiber of her being.
After graduating from Duke University, Nathan moved to small town Tree Hill, North Carolina, to open a law firm with his cousin Lucas Scott who had happened to be Haley's lifelong best friend.
Haley grew up in Tree Hill alongside Lucas, but soon ventured to the west coast in order to attend her dream college, Stanford University, where she earned her dual degrees in English and Secondary Education. Within months of graduating, Haley longed for home, prompting her return to Tree Hill where she became the newest English teacher at the local high school.
Months later she had the "pleasantry" of meeting Nathan Scott.
Lucas had thrown a small party to celebrate the successful start of his law firm where he introduced Nathan to Haley.
Unfortunately, the introduction hadn't gone as smoothly as he planned. Nathan was pompous, arrogant, crude. Haley was appalled.
He hit on her the entire night but Haley would not have it. She couldn't stand his rich, playboy exterior. Did she think he was attractive? Well, she wouldn't lie- she did have eyes, after all. He was insanely attractive, and a small part of her, the part that would never openly admit it, was absolutely thrilled that someone as sexy as Nathan Scott was hitting on her.
She didn't give in, though. She ended up ignoring him the entire night… until she found out he had the same apartment building as her.
He was getting hard to ignore. Nathan was that pesky bug that would fly around, making it impossible to die. She couldn't get rid of him.
She'd walk to the elevator, and there he was- walking in the hallway shirtless, nonetheless-carrying a mug of steaming coffee.
When she'd get her mail, he'd conveniently be there too.
"What, are you like, stalking me?" She snapped one day.
He chuckled, grinning so smugly that she wanted to punch his lips off his face. "Please," he scoffed. "I'm not that desperate. I guess it's just fate."
She rolled her eyes.
After some time, however, the line between love and hate began to diminish. Haley began to tolerate Nathan- more adequately named the mere exposure effect; because Nathan was always around, Haley adapted to liking him. He wasn't half bad.
As she learned on that rainy Tuesday when they sat for hours drinking bitter coffee in the bayview window of the apartment lobby. It turned out that Nathan wasn't as privileged as he seemed. Sure he grew up with money, but Haley learned that his father treated him like crap and his mother was an absentee-alcoholic. Nathan had struggled to make a name for himself in college but he was finally free from his parents with a fresh start. They got to know each other well as they both began to cherish their newfound friendship.
Of course Nathan's flirting and crude comments also ceased, but Haley found herself strangely missing the attention. It was only four months into their friendship when Nathan became interested in a new girl; the leggy brunette who interned at his law firm.
And as every cliche is written, that's when Haley's feelings towards Nathan ventured way past platonic.
She stifled the feelings for as long as possible but she couldn't deny that she had fallen fast and hard for Nathan Scott- much to her chagrin.
Yet here they were almost a year later, together and happier than ever.
It didn't take long for Nathan to grow bored of the busty bimbo, and so he broke it off with her a little after two months. One night he got drunk and Nathan found himself at Haley's doorstep spilling his heart out and painting her walls with blood.
"I never could get over you." He said. "You're all I ever think about. I need you."
At first Haley was reluctant to accept his words. Not that she didn't want them to be true, because she did. She just didn't want to get her hopes up. After all, he was drunk and vulnerable.
Luckily, Nathan had remembered every word he had said the next day and once again told Haley how he felt. Finally, Haley had told him she felt the same way and agreed to go out on a date where they shared their first kiss and became addicted to each other.
She smiled at the memory. Nathan was so nervous to kiss her, claiming how he didn't want to mess it up. They stood outside her apartment door for nearly fifteen minutes simply holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes before he gained the courage to lock his lips on hers.
Her cheeks flushed with warmth just thinking about it. What she would do for him to kiss her like that right now…
"Oh God, I am pathetic." She berated herself, standing up and carrying her tired body to her bed. She wasn't going to wait up for Nathan to call her. She wasn't that desperate. He was probably watching some basketball game with Clay and didn't check his phone. It was fine, she'd just talk to him tomorrow.
With that final thought, Haley collapsed against her mattress and surrendered to a deep sleep.
Nathan cursed a spew of expletives at the sound of fierce knocking on his door. He slowly picked his head up off the pillow and groaned. It was almost 11 am, but it was Saturday and all he wanted to do was sleep.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." He mumbled, practically rolling off his bed and onto the hardwood floors which he padded along to the front door. His eyelids hung heavily over his sleepy eyes and his raven black hair sat messily atop his head. All he was wearing were his blue and black plaid pajama bottoms but he couldn't care less about his appearance.
"Haley?" He greeted, swinging the door open to reveal his very worried looking girlfriend.
"Nathan!" She nearly shouted with a perfect blend of relief and anger mixed beneath her tone. "Nice to know you're alive." She mumbled, throwing her arms around his naked torso.
Nathan wrapped his arms around her, dropping a kiss on top of her head. "Sorry babe, I got home late last night and my phone died."
"That's okay. I just got worried when I didn't hear from you." Haley spoke, looking longingly into his cerulean eyes.
He frowned, "I'm sorry."
"It's fine, I'm just glad you're okay." She smiled softly, running her hands over his bare chest. "So what did you and Clay do last night?"
Nathan cleared his throat, "Oh, um, we actually went to a bar and met up with some people we knew."
"Oh yeah? Anyone I know?"
He ran his hand over his bare neck but kept his other arm around her waist. "Uh, you remember Jenna, don't you?"
Haley's eyes widened. "Jenna Luinski? As in Jenna your ex-girlfriend?"
He coughed again, averting his eyes. "Y-yeah."
"You're kidding me right?" Haley was fluent in sarcasm and her voice was dripping with it.
"No."
"Were you even going to tell me you were hanging out with your ex last night or did your phone conveniently die and you forgot to mention it?" She snarled, pulling away from his touch as if he had just scorched her.
"Hales, I wasn't hiding it from you. I just told you. It wasn't even a big deal and I didn't plan it. It just kind of happened."
"So you just accidently decided to meet up with her?"
Sarcasm again. Ouch.
"No. I don't know." Nathan flustered. "Clay and I were on our way to the bar either way and we ran into her and I was just being polite when I invited her. I didn't think she'd come!"
Haley was pissed. He could tell by the way her jaw cocked to the right.
"And did it ever occur to you that maybe your girlfriend might be, oh I don't know, slightly annoyed that you didn't tell her?"
"I told you my phone died!" He argued. "It wasn't even a big deal. You make it seem like I cheated on you or something."
Her voice dropped as tears glistened over her eyes merely thinking about it. "Did you?"
Nathan scoffed, "How could you even ask me that?" His temper flared.
"Because I don't even know what to think anymore! You were hanging out with your slut of an ex-girlfriend while I was at home worrying about you. I never thought I'd have to worry about you cheating on me…"
"Dammit Haley! I can't believe you would even think I could cheat on you. Clay was there the whole time. All we did was sit at the bar and talk. I didn't even want to talk to her. You're overreacting."
A sardonic laugh escaped her lips. "Oh, you want to talk about overreacting? How about last week when you saw me talking to my old friend Matt? You freaked out!"
"He was blatantly staring at your chest the entire time. That guy was a freakin' pig!"
Haley rolled her eyes. "At least I didn't hang out with him and not tell you!"
"I didn't hide anything from you! I was honest with you. Sorry my phone died." Nathan snapped.
"Well did you even think to invite me? I bet you didn't even think of me the entire night because if you did then you would have realized it was wrong to even associate with your ex!"
"Haley we work together. I still talk to her from time to time. It was strictly friendly the entire night. I don't know why you can't understand that."
Haley shook her head, clenching her eyes tightly to prevent the tears from rolling down her cheeks. "No, Nathan. I can't understand how you didn't even think to tell me or that you didn't even ask me to join you."
"Oh my God! I told you a million times that it wasn't a big deal and that my phone died. What was I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, maybe use Clay's phone?" Haley stated obviously.
Nathan threw his hands up in the air exasperated. "I didn't know I had to check in with you every twenty minutes, mom."
Haley cut her eyes at him as if her eyes could slice through his skin sharper than a knife.
"You're unbelievable!" She screamed.
"Well you're irrational!"
She brought her hands up to her eyes and wiped away the tears. "I can't do this anymore."
"You can't do what?"
"This!" She motioned towards the air between them.
Nathan walked closer to her, only for her to walk backwards.
"What are you saying, Haley?" He asked softly.
Haley blinked through her tears, "I… should go."
"No, stay. We need to work this out." Nathan spoke sternly. "I said I was sorry. What more do you want from me? Do you not believe me?"
"I-I don't know…" Haley cried. "I just… I have to go."
"Will you quit running away? Let's fix this here and now. I am willing to do anything to get you to forgive me even though you're so damn stubborn and overreacting."
Hot tears slipped down her silky skin. "You hurt me, Nathan. I thought you were done with Jenna."
"I am!" Nathan shouted loudly. "Why can't you trust me?"
"I don't trust her. You know, Lucas told me she still has a thing for you-"
"So that's what this is about?"
Haley shrugged. "I thought that if she ever tried anything with you that you would tell her you were in a happy relationship but I guess I was wrong."
"Okay, I get it. I probably shouldn't have asked her to come out with us. It was a dumb idea and I won't do it again." Nathan relented.
"You don't get it!" Haley sighed.
"So tell me! Why are you freaking out?"
"You should know why! How would you feel if I hung out with an ex-boyfriend and didn't tell you? Not to mention if that ex still had feelings for me!"
Nathan groaned tiredly. "This is stupid. We're literally going around in circles. I don't know what you want me to say besides the fact that I'm sorry so can you please just quit being so dramatic?"
Haley looked at the door then back at Nathan. "I need time."
"Time for what?"
"To think."
The air swallowed silence.
Nathan felt his heart twitch sharply. "Are you saying we should break up?"
Haley looked down at the floor noticing the subtle stain on the shaggy carpet. "I don't know."
"Hales, please, just…"
"I'll talk to you later, okay?" Her voice was somber, as she could barely bring herself to look at him.
"I'm not letting you walk out." Nathan said with such strong conviction, a row of chills crawled up Haley's spine. He grabbed her hand and pushed her into his chest, kissing her feverishly.
"I love you. Please don't go. I can't lose you. I won't lose you. Do you hear me? I love you Haley James." His blue eyes bore desperately into her own. "If you don't want to be with me anymore, I understand, but I'm not going to let you go without a fight."
By now, tears were streaming down both of Haley's cheeks which Nathan soon wiped away with the pads of his thumbs. "I love you." He whispered again.
The corner of her lips turned slightly upwards, "I love you too, idiot."
Nathan chuckled with relief as he lifted her into his arms and spun her happily around. "You love me?"
"I do. I love you so much that it hurts." She whispered in his ear, clinging fiercely to his shoulders. "Never let me go."
"I won't." He swore. "I'm so sorry about last night-"
"It's okay. You're right. I overreacted but only because I love you." She smiled again.
His heart nearly leapt through his chest. "It feels so good to hear you say that, baby."
"I." She pressed a kiss on his lips after she spoke. "Love." Kiss. "You." Kiss.
Nathan slowly walked backwards until he hit the couch where he gently laid Haley down. "It's kind of hot how jealous you got." He whispered against her neck.
She gasped playfully. "I was not jealous!"
"You so were."
"Fine." Haley relented, biting her lip softly. "Maybe just a little."
Another chuckle emit from his lips. "Maybe I should get you jealous more."
"Don't you dare." She warned, gently slapping his bicep.
"Well I surely don't mind fighting if we fix it like this." He smirked before kissing Haley passionately, making them both forget what they were just fighting about.
The end.
Eh, I don't like how this came out but I felt like writing it and once I did I couldn't stop and now that it's finished I wanted to post it, so why not? It was just a way to get back into the writing flow so hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading. I may update give your heart a break soon but I don't know… keep an eye out for my updates. Maybe I'll get random bursts of inspiration and post some one-shots here and there. If any of you have ideas feel free to let me know! Thanks.