Hi guys! Sorry for the late posting. Thanks for being patient and thank you so much for your awesome reviews. I really appreciate each and every one of them. Kinda suck that the season's gonna end soon huh. Anyway, here's the latest chappie. Hope you guys like it. Even if you don't, just let me know ok. Cheers!

Chapter 3

Haley followed Nathan out of Karen's Cafe, fuming at his behaviour. "Nathan! What was that all about?" she asked grabbing his hand.

"Nothing. I just don't like the guy," he retorted angrily, pulling his hand away.

"That's really unfair Nathan." She wouldn't back down and continued to prod. "You spoke what, two words with him and decided you don't like him? What's going on?"

"I told you Hales. Nothing's going on. What? I don't have the right not to like somebody?"

"No, not this time. Why are you being so judgmental anyway?"

He searched his brain trying to come up with an excuse. "I'm just looking out for you Hales. You barely know the guy. He could be some lunatic for all you know." He knew it aw was a pretty lame excuse but it was the best he could come up with.

Haley looked at him with a look of pure disbelief. "What? You know what? Seems to me like you're the lunatic here. Lucas and the rest are fine with Michael, why aren't you?" Just hearing her say his name made him cringe. Because I'm in love with you Hales. Oh my God did I just think that? He loved her, that much he knew. But was he really in love with her?

I'm just..." he took a deep breath and looked at her. "You know what? You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so quick to judge him," he said hoping to pacify her. He hated fighting with her. She had always been the calm in his life.

"Hell yeah you shouldn't have. You can be so childish sometimes Nathan," she said, her voice rising. She couldn't believe that Nathan was acting like this. If she didn't know better, she would think that he was jealous. He couldn't be, could he?

By this time, the whole gang had come out of the cafe to watch them arguing. They were equally shocked to see Nathan react so strongly about Michael. "Oh and you're so mature? Oh my God Haley, I apologized didn't I? What the hell do you want more from me?" he said, his temper flaring again with each word. Do you want me to say I was jealous? That I can't stand it when another man looks at you? That I want to be the only to look at you that way? He bit back the words, afraid that he might say them out loud. He turned to leave. "I think I should go before I say things I might regret later." And with that he walked off, leaving her staring at his back, her body shaking with anger.

"I hate you!" she screamed after him before storming back into the cafe brushing past her friends. Peyton looked at the rest worriedly, unsure of what to do.

"I'll talk to her," she finally said to them, noticing that they had the same worried looks on their faces. They were no strangers to Nathan and Haley squabbling, but nothing compared to this. They usually made up five minutes after their banter, but this looked bad. Really bad. They filed back into the cafe and sat down watching her sip her coffee with trembling fingers.

"I don't wanna talk about it," she said, knowing what must be running through her friends' head at that moment. She was grateful when they didn't say anything although she could feel their eyes boring down on her.

"So," Brooke said nervously. "Did you at least get his number?"

Her question was met with an icy glare from Haley. She got up and gathered her things. "I'm gonna go. I'll see you guys later," she said and left without another word. Peyton immediately got up and gave them a pointed look before following her right on her heels.

"What? I really wanted to know," Brooke said, shrugging at Lucas and Jake once they were alone. "What's gotten into them anyway?"

"Yeah, that was really wild, even for their standard," Lucas said agreeing with her. Lucas knew that his brother had a temper, but he always kept it in check when it came to Haley. And he had never heard Haley say she hated Nathan with such force and conviction.

Jake sipped his coffee calmly and said quietly. "I believe it's called denial."

Peyton found Haley at the office, her head bent as she perused the stacks of papers on her table. "I thought I'd find you here." The office had been a some sort of sanctuary for her, one of the places where she could always go when she something was troubling her. The fact that it housed a piano contributed much to the fact. She had an amazing talent for music and had a beautiful voice. Peyton had always wondered why she never considered recording an album.

"Yeah," she said without looking up. "I'm behind on all these paperwork. The downside of being out of town for three months." She didn't want to tell Peyton that she had been rereading the same piece of paper for the last half an hour without taking any of the things written on it in. Her mind kept going back to her fight with Nathan. Every once in a while she would glance at the phone, going back and forth trying to decide whether she should call him and at the same time wondering why he hadn't called yet to apologize.

"I'm sure it is. But that's not the real reason why you're here, is it? Talk to me Haley."

"There's nothing to talk about," she said stubbornly, still refusing to look at Peyton. Peyton walked over to Haley's side of the table and sat down on the edge. She placed a hand on the piece of paper Haley was reading, forcing her to look up. "Peyton-"

"Ok, you don't want to talk. Let me talk. So Michael huh? Cute guy. Nice too. Did you give him his number?"

Haley tapped the pen she was holding on the table. "No, I didn't."

"Why not? Did I mention he's cute? Come on Haley, you haven't been on a real date since I don't know, dinosaur's age. So what if Nathan doesn't like him." That was one thing Peyton couldn't figure out about her. She was beautiful and one of the nicest people she knew. She could have any guy she wanted but the second a guy came near her, she blew them off like an insect repellent to a mosquito.

Haley looked at her curly blond haired friend and finally caved in. "What's up with Nathan anyway? I don't know what the big deal is. It's not like I went on a secret date with Michael behind Nathan's back. He was right there sitting next time all the I was talking to Michael. And so what if I went on a date with Michael? Is that so wrong? If you ask me the whole looking out for me is total bullshit. We're not in school anymore when we pretended to be a couple so that guys would not hit on me. Uuuugggghhhhh! He's such a jerk!" She let out a frustrated groan as she ranted.

Peyton listened to her ramble and finally said quietly, "I think I know why Nathan reacted that way. If you haven't already noticed, that guy loves you."

"Of course he loves me. I love him too. But that doesn't give him the right to judge Michael."

"Honey, I don't think you understand. He's in love with you."

Haley scoffed upon her hearing her friend's words. "Please, do you even know him at all? Nathan Scott does not fall in love. At least not the Nathan Scott I know."

Peyton sighed and threw her hands in the air in frustration. "Ok, I'm just saying. Believe what you want Hales. Anyway, this will all blow over. You guys are Nathan and Haley. You could never fight that long." Sensing that her friend was no longer in the mood to talk, she said, "ok I'm gonna go. Just call me if you need me ok?"

Haley stared out the office window, watching the Sunday traffic starting to build up, a million thoughts running through her head, and every one of them was about Nathan. She heard the door close behind her and knew that Peyton had left. She breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for the silence which gave her the space to think. Her heart was beating so fast in her chest, she felt like it could explode any second. Is it true? Nathan's in love with me? She grunted to herself. Yeah, right. He's just being a jerk like always. But Peyton's words continued to bug her. She had been fighting for so long to keep her feelings for Nathan in check, making sure that she saw him as her best friend and nothing more. Every fibre in her being told her that it was not a route she wanted to go along with, that nothing good would ever come out of it and she would end up being hurt and she would lose her best friend at the same time. Although truth be told everytime they touched, it sent tingles up her spine and everytime she saw him, she felt a flutter of excitement in her stomach. And that feeling would never go away no matter how hard she tried to fight it.

"I bet they've made up by now," Brooke said as she, Lucas and Jake took a walk after breakfast. "Remember the time when they were arguing about who should rule our treehouse? They made up like two seconds after that."

"Yeah, but that was when they were kids. This is different Brooke," Jake said, taking out his cell phone to call Peyton.

Brooke sighed. "I know. I was just trying to make myself feel better. I hate it when they fight. It's like there's a huge cloud looming on us everytime it happens." Lucas linked his arm with hers and let her rest her head on his shoulder, their own fight long forgotten.

"So Jake, the thing you said justnow about denial?" Lucas asked. "I think I know what you mean."

Jake started to put his phone back in his pocket after managing to talk to Peyton. "Oh yeah, totally. Any idiot could see that."

Lucas laughed. "Yeah, any idiot except those two. I wonder why they haven't got together already."

"Well, you're his brother. You should know Luke," Brooke said, looking up at Lucas. "You know last night I did bring it up, and Haley totally went all demented on me."

Jake and Lucas looked at her in surprise. "Seriously?" Jake asked making Brooke nod. "Wow, looks like there's more to it than just denial. Oh hey babe, well? How is she?" he said seeing Peyton coming towards them. Peyton just shook her head before putting an arm around Jake's waist.

"Nope, she kept rambling on and on about what a jerk Nathan is. She's stubborn as a mule. I bet Nathan's not gonna let us in either. Seriously I wonder how they both survived being best friends all these years."

Suddenly, Brooke went up ahead of them and stood facing them, her arms akimbo. "You know what? This is depressing. It's such a lovely day. Can't we just enjoy it? When those two idiots are ready to talk, they'll talk. How about it?"

Brooke's cheerfulness seemed to work making them smile. "Yeah, I need to see Max at the record store anyway. He was hinting about the new album from The Get Up Kids coming in today," Peyton said. "Wanna come?"

"Yeah, sure," the three of them answered and made their way back.

Nathan laid down on the couch, tossing his basketball up in the air as he contemplated his fight with Haley that morning. The only other thing that could calm his was basketball, a sport which Dan had instilled in him and Lucas since they were kids and they were really good at it. Nathan had even considered going professional, but the prospect of fame and fortune was not enough to lure him away from Tree Hill. Tree Hill was home to him. He remembered his mom telling him a long time ago, "There's only one Tree Hill Nathan. And that's your home." He really took those words to heart, which was not really surprising that he and Lucas became coaches for the Tree Hill Ravens, the team they used to play with and won the State Championship a few years ago.

"Hey what are you doing home son? I thought you're spending the day with Haley and the rest?" Dan asked as he entered the living room.

"Yeah," Nathan answered without looking up. "So did I. I kinda got into a fight with Haley."

"Oh yeah?" Dan asked, although he wasn't really surprised. As far as he knew, Nathan and Haley always got into some kind of a fight. He loved Haley like his own daughter and sometimes even acted as the referee when Nathan and Haley argued, although he had to admit that he was on Haley's side most of the times, just to tick Nathan off. "That's nothing new. Oh you'll get over it. You guys always do anyway."

"I don't think so Dad. Not this time." Nathan knew that he had behaved badly about Michael and he was not sure that Haley would forgive him that easily. He had contemplated calling her, but he was scared that she would hang up on him, which he wouldn't blame her if he did.

"Oh? What did you do to her this time?" his dad asked, his curiosity peaked. "Pull her hair? Cut her doll's head?" he said jokingly. Seeing that Nathan did not share his humour, he sighed and patted him on the shoulder. "Ok that was a lame ass joke. Come on, why don't you tell your old man what happened. Who knows, I might be able to help."

Nathan sat up on the couch and looked at Dan. "Why are girls so difficult anyway? Is it in their DNA already?" he fumed. "There was this new guy who came out of nowhere chatting Haley up, and I was just being protective. Is that so wrong? And she totally freaked out!"

Dan listened to son's ranting in amusement. "Protective or overprotective? Son, Haley's a big girl. I don't think she needs protecting anymore."

"But she's Haley dad." He added quietly to himself, "she's my Haley." He looked at Dan and sighed before continuing, "I can't help look out for her. That's what I've been doing since we were kids. I was always the one who had to ward off the losers swarming her."

"Well, here's a thought. Do you think there a bigger reason why you're acting this way?"

Nathan looked at his dad with a puzzled look on his face. "What do you mean?"

Dan gave a low chuckle. "Oh I think you do. You're just afraid to say it." He got up and patted Nathan on the shoulder. "But you will one day. You'll figure it out Nathan," he gave Nathan a knowing wink.

Nathan pretended not to know what his dad was talking about, not sure whether he wanted to share his newly discovered feelings towards Haley just yet. "Thanks Dad, I think I can handle this."

"Yeah sure. I know you can handle it. But you know you can tell me and your Mom anything," he said, slightly concerned seeing that his son looked more troubled than he was saying. Nathan looked at the phone for the millionth time.

"You know, the phone's not gonna dial itself," he heard his dad say as he was leaving. Gee, thanks Dad. He gingerly touched the phone as his heart hammered in his chest. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally got the courage to pick it up dialed a number he knew by heart.

"Hey, can I see you?" he stammered into the receiver. The voice on the other end gave him the answer he needed. He put the down the phone with trembling fingers. Shit, I can't believe I'm doing this. This is so wrong. He shook the guilty feeling away and got up, not giving him the chance to chicken out. Well, it's a little too late for chickening out now.

So what do you guys think? I'm not sure if you'll like the idea of Dan being the good guy, but hey the guy deserves a chance. Plus he's hot hhahahahha...Leave me some love guys! Cheers! ;)