Another one-shot in the "I Belong" series. This was written on the fly at work when a meeting was cancelled (being the boss helps, yay!) so it probably isn't very good or makes any sense. I needed to write something as I'm languishing on "In Your Eyes" (which will be finished, I promise!). Hope you enjoy the short one-shot. Any feedback is greatly appreciated and welcomed!

Notes: The song lyrics (in italics) are from "Someday" by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. If you don't know this fabulous band already, get on it!


I've known you for years;

You always say that we're just friends.

Nathan can't remember a time when Haley wasn't in his life. His earliest memories involve a serious four year-old Haley forcing him to play school, her pigtails swinging back and forth as she lectured him on just how important an education is.

It seems like she was always destined to be "Tutor Girl," his Haley.

All of his important, most cherished memories include Haley in one way or another: from "running away" together to the tree fort in her backyard to laying on the grass under that big oak day after day, watching the clouds drift past as they talked and dreamed about the future (Nathan in the NBA, Haley as a teacher with three kids). From the first days of school to the last, and all the days in between. From the time Nathan joined his first basketball team and fell in love with a sport to the day the Ravens won the state championship. From the day Nathan heard his parents arguing and he found out he had a half-brother he had never known about to the day he and his brother finally became friends. From his first date (disastrous) to her first date (not so disastrous) to her first heartbreak (world-ending, or so it seemed at the time).

Haley has always been the biggest part of his life, for as long as he can remember. She is, without a doubt, his best friend. The one person who knows everything about him—the good, the bad, and the ugly. How he hates getting up early but does it every day so his father won't bitch at him. The way he likes his toast (nearly burnt) and eggs (soft scramble with cheese). How he worries about his grades (though he doesn't show it). The utter terror he feels each time his mom has a business trip, certain this one will be the time she leaves for good. How much he hates his dad and the unrelenting pressure Dan puts on Nathan every day.

To the outside world, Nathan Scott is cool, confident, arrogant even. Nothing touches him. He leads a charmed life, this golden god of Tree Hill. Or so everyone thinks. He is inscrutable, a mystery others want to solve but can't come close. They see nothing of the scared boy behind the cool façade.

Except Haley James—Tutor Girl, the quintessential girl next door. The diametric opposite of Nathan, in more ways than one. She wears her heart on her sleeve, always has. She has a friendly word for everyone, even those who mock her. She is Nathan's biggest cheerleader and staunchest defender. To outsiders, their friendship is unusual for the typical high school world: popular basketball star used to getting whatever he wants and the shy, studious tutor who doesn't know the difference between a free throw and a touchdown. To Tree Hill High, Nathan is a supernova and Haley is just another nameless face in the crowd as he burns bright as the sun.

What they don't know about Haley, what no one knows, is that Nathan Scott has been in love with her for as long as he can remember.

Over a hot cup of coffee,

You just talk about him.

Haley always calls him her "rock." The one person she can count on, no matter the circumstances. He's seen her through the ups and downs, from cheering her on when she first took the stage at Tric to perform to whispers in the hallways at school about why Nathan is really friends with her. From fights with her siblings (there's a reason she calls Taylor "Hurricane Taylor") to watching chick flicks with her a breakup. It's a role that Nathan takes very seriously. After all, if a girl can't depend on her best friend, who can she depend on?

Which explains why he's sitting in Karen's Café, a steaming cup of coffee before him, listening as Haley rambles on about the new guy, Chase. It seems that Chase is a nice guy and soooo funny but kinda quiet and I think I caught him glancing at me in chem lab the other day but I don't know because Teresea was eyeing him too so maybe he was looking at her and Nathan, what does that mean?

It takes everything in him not to scream out that he loves her, that's he always loved and thinks he always will. But she doesn't see him that way, he doesn't think she ever has or ever will. They're friends, the "bestest of the best" as Haley says. If he had a nickel for every time she has said, "I don't know what I would do without our friendship, Nathan," well, he'd be a rich man. To Haley, he is Nate, her best friend. Nothing more, nothing less.

And it kills him inside a little more each day.

We take a ride through the city.

I play some music to ease your broken heart.

You put your head on my shoulder

And I just try to listen.

After Chase breaks up with Haley (with a bullshit excuse of "it's not you, it's me." Who the hell actually says that?!"), he wonders if maybe this is his chance. The opportunity he's been waiting for to confess how long he's loved her.

Then she opens her front door, face streaked with tears and lower lip trembling, and all Nathan can think to do is comfort her. He opens his arm, the tiny spitfire of a girl he's loved for as long as he can remember rushes in, and he takes a deep breath as she cries against his chest. Over another.

He holds her as the sobs slowly dissipate, soft hiccups in their place. When she starts speaking of her sadness and confusion, her worries that she won't ever find anyone else, he wants to hunt Chase down for hurting her. He doesn't understand why she doesn't realize how wonderful she is, how wrong Chase was to ever want to break up with someone as amazing as her, and how lucky any guy would be to have her at his side, but his Haley has always suffered from (in his mind, foolish) insecurities.

So he does as he's always done, what he only knows what to do when it comes to Haley: he is her rock.

Our love is slow and easy,

But you don't even know it,

Well I've got nothing but time,

For you to recognize it.

Nathan has loved Haley for so long, he can't remember not loving her. His love for her is as nature to him as breathing. An essential part of living, but something done so automatically, without thought. He is Nathan Scott and he loves Haley James. It's as simple and as complicated as that.

Because she has no clue that he is desperately, madly in love. She sees him as her best friend, her protector, her confidant, her fellow dreamer… but nothing beyond that. It's hard sometimes to be around her, when she's so clueless as to his feelings and all he wants to do is kiss her senseless.

The one thought that keeps him from confessing is the fear that telling her would change their friendship. For as much as Nathan loves her, not having Haley in his life is terrifying and he worries that confessing his long-held secret would irrevocably change everything between them. It's a risk he's unwilling to take. He'd rather suffer in silence than risk ever losing her.

Deep in his heart, he knows that someday she'll see him the way he longs to be seen: as the man who will love her until the end of time.

He's content to wait for someday.

Someday, I will hold you as my own.

Someday, you will know that I am the only one for you.

So one early morning about a year after college when Haley bangs on his front door as if the world was ending, and he opens the door to find her panting as if she just ran a marathon, and she grabs him in a hug before kissing him silly and whispering, "It's been you all along, hasn't it?" he's not surprised.

After all, he always knew someday would come.

I've known you for years;

You always say that we're just friends.

Fin.