It was like his life had become this monotonous circle: each day like a
ring flowing into the next, patterned and predictable. There becomes no
reason to search for the surprises in life because it seems like nothing
will ever happen to bust open the mold. Except, when she is around, he sees
a little glimmer of possibility and that is enough to drive him towards her
despite all probable devastating costs.
If he didn't act, it would be like he was admitting he was okay with having a static life. If he didn't acknowledge his feelings, it might take years for the ideal opportunity to come around again. He wouldn't be the only one to see her special character, and he knew all too well what happens when you don't act on what you want when you first want it. That was how Jake asked her out first.
Lucas brought Haley into their lives at a time when the jocks and cheerleaders were in dire need of new blood. She was unpredictable, bitingly funny, never afraid to speak her mind, incredibly sexy, academically smart and knowledgeable, and always willing to try anything at least twice. The thing he liked about her most was that she paid him absolutely no attention. He was so used to girls fawning all over him that her usual unpleasant nod in his direction was a challenge he wanted to undertake. Then she fell for Jake, and he decided that girls fawning all over him really wasn't all that bad in retrospect.
Jake would tell Nathan everything about Haley. Through Jake, Nathan knew what side of the bed she liked to sleep on; he knew her favorite places to go on a date, he knew the way she took her coffee, he even knew random tidbits of information about her like which Trading Spaces designer was her favorite (Doug, of course). He treated her indifferently while she was dating his best friend but the birth of the baby caused him to really take another look at this girl. It took incredible strength to keep the baby and raise her in Tree Hill, where the people never forget past indiscretions and always use it to remind you of your place as well as to kick you when your down. Her courage was beautiful, and he admired her for it greatly.
Then again, she was also very much a mystery to him. Brooke and Jake were always talking about Haley so he obviously knew things about her, and he sometimes watched the way she interacted with the others at parties, and there was all the gossip spread about her at school, but there had never been an overly great amount of direct contact between the two of them. That was why, a few weeks ago, when he had been given the opportunity to watch after Gracie while Jake was otherwise occupied with a girl he took it, not only to show up Jake as well as fix his mistakes, but because he knew it would create a situation where Haley and he could finally exchange words. And that they did.words, sparks, flirtation all passed between them and it cemented the creeping suspicion in Nathan's gut that he had been destined to have this girl in his life.
First though, he needed to get his priorities in order before second, he could find out how Haley felt.
**
"Brooke, will you stop," Nathan said as he tried to push the cheerleader off of him, "we need to talk and it's not going to happen if you keep on crawling in my lap."
Brooke wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I don't want to talk. I want to kiss," she drawled, pressing her lips to his.
"Brooke," he groaned, as he turned his head away from her mouth.
"Nathan," she exclaimed, exasperated, "what the hell is so important that you're willingly passing up a make-out session with me?"
"I've been thinking a lot about you and me, and me and other girls, and it bothers me how I've been acting. I'm going to make a change and I hope you can understand," he tried to explain himself to her.
Instead of being mad she looked surprisingly overjoyed.
"I knew it Nathan," she leaned up to kiss him again, "I knew I'd get you to commit to a monogamous relationship."
She kissed him again, which preventing him from talking and telling her how badly she was interpreting his confession.
"This is like the best news in the entire world I have to run and tell everyone I have ever met," she said, practically jumping up and down before kissing him a last time and running out of the room.
Nathan fell back on the bed and ran his hand over his face.
"Okay, what the hell just happened?" he bemoaned.
**
"Mom-my," Haley said to Gracie, "can you say Mom-my?"
Gracie just looked up at her with those beautiful innocent baby eyes.
"No? Okay then how about Ma-ma?" she asked again.
Haley had been taking Gracie for a ride in her stroller when she started seeing if her little girl would imitate the words she was making.
"Oh, c'mon.Ma-ma?" she repeated.
She had this hope that Gracie would show that she was terribly advanced for her age and say the words right after her, even though she knew it was most likely not going to happen. Haley gave up on hearing her daughter recite poetry and instead starting tickling the baby's tummy. Gracie let out a laugh.
"I guess that sweet sound is good enough for me," she said.
It was such a beautiful afternoon that Haley had lost all sense of time, and she had walked a lot further than she thought. In fact, she noticed she was in Brooke and Nathan's neighborhood. She was closer to Brooke's but when she knocked on the door there was no answer. She started to walk home but had to walk passed by Nathan's house in the process. He had been in her mind constantly since the incident at the theater, and she decided she had nothing to lose if she stopped in to get a few new mental images of him and said hello. His mother, Deb, opened the door.
"Hello?" she asked, slightly startled at the sight of the young woman holding her infant child.
"Oh, this must look a little.I'm just a friend of Nathan's from school and I was passing by so I thought I'd say hello. Um, my name is Haley, I dated Jake for a while.I don't think you and I ever met though," she rambled on, inciting a smile from the older woman.
"I know who you are now Haley. This must be Jake's baby girl Gracie, I've heard all about you both" she said.
"Yep, this is my Gracie," Haley introduced her proudly.
"She's stunning Haley," Deb said then, "you must hear it all the time but she looks just like you."
"No I don't," Haley said, "so thank you."
"You're welcome," Deb replied, "would you and Gracie like to come in for a little while. I'm pretty sure Nathan is still here and I can watch her while you talk with him."
"Um, no don't go bothering him.I don't even know why I rang the bell," Haley admitted.
Deb smiled.
"I believe that we never do anything without deep down knowing exactly why we're doing it," she told Haley, "c'mon in, go see Nate."
She held the door open and Haley walked in.
"Would you mind terribly if I." Deb asked, holding her arms out for Gracie, "it's been sixteen years but I think I still remember how to hold one."
"Yeah, okay," Haley said, handing Gracie to Deb, "everything you need for her is either in the stroller outside or in this bag here."
"We'll be fine, and so will you," Deb said knowingly, "by the way, his room is the second door on the left."
**
Haley knocked on Nathan's door.
"Mom, I said leave me." his voice trailed off as he saw it was Haley not his mother standing before him, "hey, what are you doing here?"
"I was in the neighborhood," Haley replied lamely, "with Gracie and her stroller."
Nathan laughed.
"Is she with my mother?" he asked.
"Yeah, downstairs. Should I be worried?" Haley wondered.
"Not at all," Nathan replied, "c'mon in."
Haley walked in and Nathan closed the door behind her.
"Nice room," she noted, "big bed."
"Haley?" he asked then.
"Yeah?"
"What are you really doing here?" his voice was serious.
"I don't know," was her honest reply.
She sat down on the edge of the bed. She caught a whiff of perfume; it was distinctly Brooke's favorite perfume.
"When did Brooke leave?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"A little while ago but how did you know that?" Nathan asked curiously.
"You're pretty experienced with the opposite sex, haven't you noticed that different girls have different smells?" she replied.
"Yeah, I guess I have but I just don't think all that much about it," Nathan responded.
"So you're reputation would suggest," Haley joked.
"Yeah I know the vibe I must give off," he said, "and I was trying to talk to Brooke about that this morning actually but she totally misunderstood everything I said."
"That definitely sounds like Brooke," Haley admitted.
"I try and break it off with her and she takes it to mean I'm asking her to be my girlfriend," he said.
Haley's mouth had to drop.
"You're seriously giving up free sex, any time you want it, with Brooke Davis? Why?" Haley questioned.
Nathan just looked at her for a moment. If he was going to act, if he wanted to see what was really between him and Haley, it had to be done now.
"Because." Nathan started to say, as he stepped closer to her, and kneeled down slightly in front of her.
"Sometimes, when the light hits my face at a certain angle, don't you feel like you've known me forever?" he asked.
He was flirting but it wasn't the in-your-face-overt-and-overly-sexualized flirting the two of them had been exhibiting towards each other, and she had to admit this side of Nathan was a nice change from the one she was accustomed to seeing.
"You mean," she began slowly, "how sometimes, when the light hits your face at a certain angle, I can see right up your nose."
She laughed at her hopeless, awful sense of humor and he leaned up to whisper in her ear.
"Our moment," he said with a shake of his head, "is now totally ruined."
She latched her fingers onto the collar of his shirt and guided him up onto the bed next to her.
"I can fix that," she said huskily, placing her lips over his so they just about touched.
She couldn't help but lick her lips in anticipation and she watched with fascination as his eyes closely monitored her every moment. He was so.intense with every movement he made.
He made her lips wait, and trailed soft kisses down her neck. He eagerly tore off his shirt and hers, needing to have direct contact between their bodies.
"In case you can't tell Haley," he whispered, "this means I like you."
She groaned as he reached for her waistband, and placed kisses on the bone of her hip.
"I like you too," she said then, "it's so much better this way, even though I do this with guys I don't like."
He pulled away to look at her.
"Is this just about sex?" he asked.
"I don't know," she replied trying to bring his mouth back to her body, "does it matter?"
Nathan succeeded in untangling himself from her and stood up.
"Yeah, it does."
He started to put his shirt back on.
"Oh, no you don't," Haley groaned, reaching out for him, "you're the reason why I haven't been able to date anyone or screw anyone or think about anyone else in a month. You tease me and you taunt me and I can't stop fantasizing and dreaming about you; so this is ending right now Nathan, with you and me here on your bed, wrapped in your sheets, naked and glistening with post-coital happiness!"
He gave her a disapproving look and she rolled her eyes in disbelief, knowing full well what she had just said was not going to happen now, even though she really wished it would.
"I'm never honest with anyone but I was being honest with you before," he said, "and if you won't be the same with me than I guess I was just wrong to think that you and I had some stupid fucking connection."
Haley started to button up her shirt.
"I opened up to you about my parents. I listened to you talk about how Jake disappointed you and hurt you. I tried to help you with Gracie so you felt like you had someone to turn to because I know that feeling of having no one Haley, and it really sucks."
He opened up the door.
"Get out of here," he said angrily.
She straightened out her clothes and stood up on shaky legs. She walked past him without a word but stopped right before crossing the threshold.
Standing on her tiptoes, she pulled him in to her and this time covered his mouth directly with hers, and kissed him as deeply and as passionately as she had ever kissed anyone before. Then she went downstairs, pried Gracie away from Deb, thanked her for everything, and went home to call Peyton and figure out what the hell just happened.
If he didn't act, it would be like he was admitting he was okay with having a static life. If he didn't acknowledge his feelings, it might take years for the ideal opportunity to come around again. He wouldn't be the only one to see her special character, and he knew all too well what happens when you don't act on what you want when you first want it. That was how Jake asked her out first.
Lucas brought Haley into their lives at a time when the jocks and cheerleaders were in dire need of new blood. She was unpredictable, bitingly funny, never afraid to speak her mind, incredibly sexy, academically smart and knowledgeable, and always willing to try anything at least twice. The thing he liked about her most was that she paid him absolutely no attention. He was so used to girls fawning all over him that her usual unpleasant nod in his direction was a challenge he wanted to undertake. Then she fell for Jake, and he decided that girls fawning all over him really wasn't all that bad in retrospect.
Jake would tell Nathan everything about Haley. Through Jake, Nathan knew what side of the bed she liked to sleep on; he knew her favorite places to go on a date, he knew the way she took her coffee, he even knew random tidbits of information about her like which Trading Spaces designer was her favorite (Doug, of course). He treated her indifferently while she was dating his best friend but the birth of the baby caused him to really take another look at this girl. It took incredible strength to keep the baby and raise her in Tree Hill, where the people never forget past indiscretions and always use it to remind you of your place as well as to kick you when your down. Her courage was beautiful, and he admired her for it greatly.
Then again, she was also very much a mystery to him. Brooke and Jake were always talking about Haley so he obviously knew things about her, and he sometimes watched the way she interacted with the others at parties, and there was all the gossip spread about her at school, but there had never been an overly great amount of direct contact between the two of them. That was why, a few weeks ago, when he had been given the opportunity to watch after Gracie while Jake was otherwise occupied with a girl he took it, not only to show up Jake as well as fix his mistakes, but because he knew it would create a situation where Haley and he could finally exchange words. And that they did.words, sparks, flirtation all passed between them and it cemented the creeping suspicion in Nathan's gut that he had been destined to have this girl in his life.
First though, he needed to get his priorities in order before second, he could find out how Haley felt.
**
"Brooke, will you stop," Nathan said as he tried to push the cheerleader off of him, "we need to talk and it's not going to happen if you keep on crawling in my lap."
Brooke wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I don't want to talk. I want to kiss," she drawled, pressing her lips to his.
"Brooke," he groaned, as he turned his head away from her mouth.
"Nathan," she exclaimed, exasperated, "what the hell is so important that you're willingly passing up a make-out session with me?"
"I've been thinking a lot about you and me, and me and other girls, and it bothers me how I've been acting. I'm going to make a change and I hope you can understand," he tried to explain himself to her.
Instead of being mad she looked surprisingly overjoyed.
"I knew it Nathan," she leaned up to kiss him again, "I knew I'd get you to commit to a monogamous relationship."
She kissed him again, which preventing him from talking and telling her how badly she was interpreting his confession.
"This is like the best news in the entire world I have to run and tell everyone I have ever met," she said, practically jumping up and down before kissing him a last time and running out of the room.
Nathan fell back on the bed and ran his hand over his face.
"Okay, what the hell just happened?" he bemoaned.
**
"Mom-my," Haley said to Gracie, "can you say Mom-my?"
Gracie just looked up at her with those beautiful innocent baby eyes.
"No? Okay then how about Ma-ma?" she asked again.
Haley had been taking Gracie for a ride in her stroller when she started seeing if her little girl would imitate the words she was making.
"Oh, c'mon.Ma-ma?" she repeated.
She had this hope that Gracie would show that she was terribly advanced for her age and say the words right after her, even though she knew it was most likely not going to happen. Haley gave up on hearing her daughter recite poetry and instead starting tickling the baby's tummy. Gracie let out a laugh.
"I guess that sweet sound is good enough for me," she said.
It was such a beautiful afternoon that Haley had lost all sense of time, and she had walked a lot further than she thought. In fact, she noticed she was in Brooke and Nathan's neighborhood. She was closer to Brooke's but when she knocked on the door there was no answer. She started to walk home but had to walk passed by Nathan's house in the process. He had been in her mind constantly since the incident at the theater, and she decided she had nothing to lose if she stopped in to get a few new mental images of him and said hello. His mother, Deb, opened the door.
"Hello?" she asked, slightly startled at the sight of the young woman holding her infant child.
"Oh, this must look a little.I'm just a friend of Nathan's from school and I was passing by so I thought I'd say hello. Um, my name is Haley, I dated Jake for a while.I don't think you and I ever met though," she rambled on, inciting a smile from the older woman.
"I know who you are now Haley. This must be Jake's baby girl Gracie, I've heard all about you both" she said.
"Yep, this is my Gracie," Haley introduced her proudly.
"She's stunning Haley," Deb said then, "you must hear it all the time but she looks just like you."
"No I don't," Haley said, "so thank you."
"You're welcome," Deb replied, "would you and Gracie like to come in for a little while. I'm pretty sure Nathan is still here and I can watch her while you talk with him."
"Um, no don't go bothering him.I don't even know why I rang the bell," Haley admitted.
Deb smiled.
"I believe that we never do anything without deep down knowing exactly why we're doing it," she told Haley, "c'mon in, go see Nate."
She held the door open and Haley walked in.
"Would you mind terribly if I." Deb asked, holding her arms out for Gracie, "it's been sixteen years but I think I still remember how to hold one."
"Yeah, okay," Haley said, handing Gracie to Deb, "everything you need for her is either in the stroller outside or in this bag here."
"We'll be fine, and so will you," Deb said knowingly, "by the way, his room is the second door on the left."
**
Haley knocked on Nathan's door.
"Mom, I said leave me." his voice trailed off as he saw it was Haley not his mother standing before him, "hey, what are you doing here?"
"I was in the neighborhood," Haley replied lamely, "with Gracie and her stroller."
Nathan laughed.
"Is she with my mother?" he asked.
"Yeah, downstairs. Should I be worried?" Haley wondered.
"Not at all," Nathan replied, "c'mon in."
Haley walked in and Nathan closed the door behind her.
"Nice room," she noted, "big bed."
"Haley?" he asked then.
"Yeah?"
"What are you really doing here?" his voice was serious.
"I don't know," was her honest reply.
She sat down on the edge of the bed. She caught a whiff of perfume; it was distinctly Brooke's favorite perfume.
"When did Brooke leave?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"A little while ago but how did you know that?" Nathan asked curiously.
"You're pretty experienced with the opposite sex, haven't you noticed that different girls have different smells?" she replied.
"Yeah, I guess I have but I just don't think all that much about it," Nathan responded.
"So you're reputation would suggest," Haley joked.
"Yeah I know the vibe I must give off," he said, "and I was trying to talk to Brooke about that this morning actually but she totally misunderstood everything I said."
"That definitely sounds like Brooke," Haley admitted.
"I try and break it off with her and she takes it to mean I'm asking her to be my girlfriend," he said.
Haley's mouth had to drop.
"You're seriously giving up free sex, any time you want it, with Brooke Davis? Why?" Haley questioned.
Nathan just looked at her for a moment. If he was going to act, if he wanted to see what was really between him and Haley, it had to be done now.
"Because." Nathan started to say, as he stepped closer to her, and kneeled down slightly in front of her.
"Sometimes, when the light hits my face at a certain angle, don't you feel like you've known me forever?" he asked.
He was flirting but it wasn't the in-your-face-overt-and-overly-sexualized flirting the two of them had been exhibiting towards each other, and she had to admit this side of Nathan was a nice change from the one she was accustomed to seeing.
"You mean," she began slowly, "how sometimes, when the light hits your face at a certain angle, I can see right up your nose."
She laughed at her hopeless, awful sense of humor and he leaned up to whisper in her ear.
"Our moment," he said with a shake of his head, "is now totally ruined."
She latched her fingers onto the collar of his shirt and guided him up onto the bed next to her.
"I can fix that," she said huskily, placing her lips over his so they just about touched.
She couldn't help but lick her lips in anticipation and she watched with fascination as his eyes closely monitored her every moment. He was so.intense with every movement he made.
He made her lips wait, and trailed soft kisses down her neck. He eagerly tore off his shirt and hers, needing to have direct contact between their bodies.
"In case you can't tell Haley," he whispered, "this means I like you."
She groaned as he reached for her waistband, and placed kisses on the bone of her hip.
"I like you too," she said then, "it's so much better this way, even though I do this with guys I don't like."
He pulled away to look at her.
"Is this just about sex?" he asked.
"I don't know," she replied trying to bring his mouth back to her body, "does it matter?"
Nathan succeeded in untangling himself from her and stood up.
"Yeah, it does."
He started to put his shirt back on.
"Oh, no you don't," Haley groaned, reaching out for him, "you're the reason why I haven't been able to date anyone or screw anyone or think about anyone else in a month. You tease me and you taunt me and I can't stop fantasizing and dreaming about you; so this is ending right now Nathan, with you and me here on your bed, wrapped in your sheets, naked and glistening with post-coital happiness!"
He gave her a disapproving look and she rolled her eyes in disbelief, knowing full well what she had just said was not going to happen now, even though she really wished it would.
"I'm never honest with anyone but I was being honest with you before," he said, "and if you won't be the same with me than I guess I was just wrong to think that you and I had some stupid fucking connection."
Haley started to button up her shirt.
"I opened up to you about my parents. I listened to you talk about how Jake disappointed you and hurt you. I tried to help you with Gracie so you felt like you had someone to turn to because I know that feeling of having no one Haley, and it really sucks."
He opened up the door.
"Get out of here," he said angrily.
She straightened out her clothes and stood up on shaky legs. She walked past him without a word but stopped right before crossing the threshold.
Standing on her tiptoes, she pulled him in to her and this time covered his mouth directly with hers, and kissed him as deeply and as passionately as she had ever kissed anyone before. Then she went downstairs, pried Gracie away from Deb, thanked her for everything, and went home to call Peyton and figure out what the hell just happened.
