Chapter 2(Nathan)
Nathan strode out of his first period class, glad to get away from the bastard. Lucas looked at him as if Nathan owed him something. It wasn't Nathan's fault that Dan had preferred Deb over Karen. He couldn't believe that guy was his half-brother. If Lucas were even kinda cool that'd be something but the kid was a zombie. He always wore fairly pathetic clothes, sat quietly in class, read a book in his spare time, or hung out with that girl that always wore weird clothes.
Nathan had watched them together at lunch a lot. She would wear this knitted poncho thing that was hideous, but Lucas still liked to be around her. Nathan figured that Lucas liked her and that they were dating because they were always together. For some odd reason that sparked a little thread of annoyance in him that he couldn't explain. Some times when he was dreaming of Peyton she would flash into that chick for a second and double the excitement would flash through Nathan.
Peyton trotted up next to Nathan in the hallway and grabbed his hand. Nathan snapped out of his revere and squeezed her hand back. She looked up at him, her green eyes flashing with anger, like always, "What, were you just going to leave me behind. You ran out of that classroom. I had to grab my stuff and sprint out here to get you, thinking you'd be waiting for me, but you were just walking down the hall."
Nathan sighed, "Peyton I don't need this right now." He kept walking but she stopped, pulling on his hand. He stopped and turned, exasperated.
"Like I do Nathan? God you are so self-centered!"
"Well I hate to break it to you but that's how life is. People suck sometimes."
"Well you suck almost all the time and that's not fair to me Nathan.
Nathan looked over her shoulder and saw Lucas. He was watching like he was happy to see them fighting. Normally Nathan would have gone up and yelled at the punk but then that girl walked up to Lucas. She greeted him with a hug that only brought out a small spark of anger in Nathan. Then she looked at him and Peyton fighting in the middle of the hallway. Peyton was still yapping on about how mean he was and blah blah….but Nathan's eyes locked with the other girl. She looked at him with such pity. No one ever looked at him like that. He was Nathan Scott he had everything, except other people's pity. Her eyes seemed to bore into him until he felt he was lost in their brown depths. Peyton stopped in mid-shout and turned to see who he was looking at.
"Nathan! Are you even listening?"
Startled from the girl's eyes Nathan looked down at Peyton. God, how had they come to this. He was fantasizing about some random pathetic girl and she was always mad at him.
"I'm sorry Peyton. Look, I'm really sorry. Can I just walk you to your next class? The bell is about to ring. I didn't mean to leave you in first period, its just I had to get away from Lucas ok. I don't like seeing him."
Peyton seemed to deflate and her eyes softened. She sighed and walked up to him, linking her arm with his and they continued walking. She nestled against his side, feeling so soft and so good. Then why was it he could still feel the girl's eyes on him.
Nathan shrugged. It didn't matter if that other girl had some sort of weird hold on him. Peyton was willing most of the time and she was practically the hottest girl in school. Aside from Brooke her best friend. She was pretty hot too. Nathan had tapped that once at a party when he and Peyton had been fighting but Peyton definitely didn't know about that.
He walked with Peyton to her second period. They stopped in the doorway, even though she was already almost late. She looked up at him, her green eyes glowing.
"Nathan, the fighting has to stop. I know that you can be a better guy than you are. I'm just getting tired of waiting around while you try to figure that out."
With that she turned and walked into her class. Nathan turned and walked to his too. He walked into the class across the hall from Peyton's. He scanned the room really quick and didn't see Lucas. He let out a sigh of relief as he sunk into a desk in the middle. Maybe today was looking up. Then he felt it. A tingling in the back of his neck. Nathan turned around. Sure enough, there was the girl. Sitting right behind him. She smelled incredibly good. She was still looking at Nathan with pity. He smiled at her against his will. His smile was met with a scowl as she rolled her eyes and looked down at her paper.
The teacher was calling the role. At least this time there was no chance he'd mistake anyone in the class for Nathan's brother.
"Haley James?"
"Here." Her voice echoed in his ears from behind. God, even her voice was intoxicating. Nathan was in big trouble. Yep, this year was going to suck
