Hey everyone. I made some changes to chapter three. Like about the bet and stuff, so if you haven't already you might want to re-read it. So this chapter has been re-written about five times. I wasn't sure what to do, first there was a school shooting, and I re-wrote it again but then I thought, nah. So I hope you enjoy this one :) Right, so a BIG BIG BIG thank you to everyone who reviewed! An extra big thanks to xxbabii who was so nice in her one ;D I really never expected so many people to review. So this chapter isn't as long as the others but I hope you enjoy :)

Also, I wont be updating quickly because I have loads of exams, I know I said this before but I just have to say it again. Since I want to get my chapters longer, and good quality-even though they probably aren't- it'll take me longer to update. Also I'm running low in ideas for this story but I think I know where it's going. Now please enjoy and review.

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Chapter Four: Don't Touch Her, She Might Break

"… Lucas takes the shot… And misses, Tree Hill Ravens are down by seven," It's been a couple of weeks since the river court game, and the Ravens are now playing against the Bernton Bears, if they win this one, then they only need to win three more games and they're in the finals. But right now it's not looking so good.

"Come on Ravens!" Brooke shouts, shamelessly checking out Lucas. "Okay, so why didn't you tell me how hot the other Scott is?" She raises an eyebrow at Haley and the shorter girl rolls her eyes.

"Since you never asked," she says simply, watching the other team score another point. Come on, they should be thrashing these guys. "And besides, you told me a couple of weeks ago in the hallway, and I quote, 'Haley what are you doing? You know we don't socialize with, people like them. They're losers'" Haley says in an extra cheery voice, and Brooke whacks her arm playfully.

"Whatever. I totally take it back now, if only he could get a shot. Well he has got a couple so…" Brooke trails off as he dibbles down the court and yet again misses.

"Nice shot," Haley grins at him, and he smirks.

"Nice legs," he grins before running back down the court, leaving a smiling and slight shocked Haley behind. Sure she didn't feel anything other than friendship for Lucas, but it was so much fun teasing him.

"Haley James, is there something you'd like to tell me?" Brooke looks at her, a serious look on her face and Haley instantly tenses. Absentmindedly crossing her arms over her chest, as if to hide the bruises. "Is there something going on with you and Mr Mchotty?" She asks with a dimpled grin, and Haley inwardly lets out a sigh of relief.

"No, I only have eyes for one Scott," she grins lopsidedly, before turning her gaze to the boy in question, sending him a wink. To which he smirks at in return.

Brooke nods with a smile, happy that the Scott she wants is free, well it wouldn't matter if he wasn't. Brooke Davis knows what she wants, and what she wants is Lucas Scott.

"So you coming to the party tonight?" Haley asks, as Brandon scores a three pointer for the Ravens, bringing the game to a tie.

"You know it," she grins, playfully bumping her hip with Haley's, and both girls laugh. Just then the buzzer goes, signalling the games over. "We really should pay more attention to these games," Brooke says and Haley nods her head in agreement.

"Did we win?" Haley asks, then as she sees all the basketball players with huge grins on their faces and Whitey smiling she grins. Yes they did. Walking closer to the boys, she was looking for one in particular. Grinning when she found him in the middle of them all.

"Hey you," Nathan turns and grins when he sees her., walking over he kisses her passionately, and Haley's taken completely off guard, be the want and need. They both pull apart breathlessly as some of the team 'woo!'

She sends him a ghost of a smile, "what was that for?"

"What? I can't show my girlfriend that I love her?" Haley smiles, "so you coming to the party tonight?" He asks, slipping a hand round her waist, as they begin to walk towards the changing rooms."

"You b-"

"Nathan!" Both teens roll their eyes at the booming voice, Nathan sends Haley an apologetic smile before turning around.

"What dad?" He asks, a slight edge to his voice.

"What was that? Why'd you pass the ball to Tim? You could have easily made that shot."

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Nathan tells him, "I was double teamed, dad," he exclaims.

"That doesn't matter, you never give away a shot. Tomorrow morning, three mile run." Dan tells him.

"Whatever," Nathan says, in a pissed off tone before turning around and walking to the changing rooms. Haley sighs, great, now he's pissed off, and who gets the end of his rage? Her.

"Nice cheering Miss James," Dan sends her a sleazy grin and she sends him a sarcastic smile.

"Nice parenting," with that she turns around, deciding she'll just go straight home and get changed for the party, she walks out of the gym doors.

Dan smirks. He's never liked Nathan having a girlfriend, no, their too much of a distraction, but Miss James was the only real one his son's ever had. And he has to approve of his choice, she certainly has spunk.

…

"Where the hell have you been?" Haley rolls her eyes slightly as she shuts the front door, she turns to walk up the stairs but Marks grabs her wrist before she can, "I asked you a question Haley."

"I was at a basketball game, okay?" She pulls her wrist from his grasp before practically running up the stairs. She can hear him behind her but that only makes her go faster. Just as she reaches the top Mark grabs her wrist again and turns her round so she's facing him. "Let go of me!"

"Did I bring you up to talk to me like that?" He asks, and she can hear the underlying threat in his voice, the one that tells her not to push him, but what's the fun in that?

"Since when did you bring me up?" She gives him a cold look and before she knows it, the back of his hand's connecting with her cheek. He doesn't let go of her wrist, which is probably because if he had, she would have fallen to the floor with the impact.

"Since that whore of a mother of yours left me!" He shouts, taking her chin between his hands and forcing her to face him.

"She left me as well!" Haley screams, but just like before she feels his hand come into contact with her cheek, this time a lot more forceful. She tries to get out of his grasp but he's too strong. Suddenly she feels his fist connecting with her jaw, her stomach. Everywhere you can imagine. Soon he's using his legs too. Haley shuts her eyes, praying, hoping, that maybe if she can't see it, it wont be real.

…

"Hey, have you seen Haley?" Tim looks away from the girl he's chatting up-well more like trying to-and looks at his best friend.

"Nah, I thought she came with you?" Tim says, slightly confused and Nathan simply rolls his eyes before walking off. Taking his cell from his pocket he dials her number again. Voicemail. He sighs in frustration, he's been trying to get a hold of her for an hour now. After trying again he gives up and puts his phone back in his pocket. He's actually starting to get a bit worried-which isn't something he does often-but what if something happened to her? He quickly shakes those thoughts from his head when suddenly Brooke makes her way into the kitchen. Making his way over, he pushes past all the drunk kids on his way.

"Hey star basketball." Brooke smiles at him-obviously a little tipsy.

"Have you seen Haley?" He asks, not wanting to make chit chat.

She looks as if she's thinking for a minute before answering, "no, I thought she ca-me with you?" She asks with a little hiccup.

Not bothering to answer her Nathan quickly makes his way from the kitchen and out of the beach house. Haley's fine, you're just getting yourself worked up over nothing. He tells himself, as he drives down the street. What if she's not? Ten minutes later he stops the car and practically jumps out, he looks up at the house and notices the lights are on. He feels a wait been lifted from his shoulder as he walks up the path, just as he lifts his hand to knock he hears a loud crash. Panic suddenly fills him again and he open the door.

"Haley!?" The noise seems to have come from the living room, so he rubs through there. "Mark?" To say he's surprised would be an understatement, he's only met the man a few times, and that was getting caught leaving Haley's house in the morning-but Mark's hardly ever home so it's not really a problem.

Quickly looking up from the bottle he's dropped, Mark puts a big smile on his face, "Nate." Nathan stiffens at the use of his nickname, sure he has nothing against the guy, but he just doesn't get a good vibe when he's around the older man. "You looking for Haley? She's up in her room." Nathan swear there's a slight edge to his voice but just ignores it.

"What happened?" Nathan asks, pointing to Mark's red, and bruised knuckles.

Mark chuckles slightly, "bar fight got a little rough last night," he tells him and Nathan nods with a tight smile.

"Well I'm just gonna go see Hales. Nice seeing you again Mark,"

"You too."

He takes the stairs two at a time, as he reaches the end of the hall he walks into Haley's room. "Hales?" He calls out, when he doesn't see her anywhere. Just then the bathroom door opens and she walks out. "What have you done to your face?" He laughs as she walks out with a green mud mask on.

Haley glares at him, "it's called exfoliating," she states, before going over to her computer.

"You okay?" He asks, as he sees her limp slight.

"I'm good," she says and he walks closer to her, tightening the rope on her robe tighter around herself she asks. "You?"

"Better now I'm with you," he says and she can't help but let a smile grow on her lips. Him and his stupid cheesy lines. "Where were you tonight? I looked for you at the party but you were no where to be seen." he asks, absentmindedly rubbing a hand over her bare calf, as her legs rest on his lap while she sits on the computer chair.

Haley shrugs, "I just wasn't in the partying mood." she explains, trying to concentrate on him, not the fact that his hands slowly sliding higher and higher up her leg.

He nods, just as he reaches her knee his eyes widen, "Haley what the hell happened?" Knocking herself out of her Nathan filled haze she looks down at her knee, looking where his hands resting she sighs. Her leg from the knee upward is pretty much all black and blue-but he can't see past her knee, which is a good thing.

Quickly pulling her leg from his lap she gets up, wincing slightly as she puts pressure on her left foot.

"Are you gonna answer me?" Nathan asks, as he also stands up, walking over to her.

"Nothing Nathan, okay? You know me, I'm a klutz." She tries to shrug it off but Nathan wont let it go that easily.

"Haley there's no was that was an accident." He tells her, "now tell me what happened."

She sighs in frustration, "it was nothing Nathan! Just let it go!" Suddenly Bloo runs into the room, but as he hears Haley's loud shout he runs back out again.

"What the hell has been up with you lately?" Nathan asks, his temper getting the better of him. If she can be in a pissy mood, so can he.

She quickly turns around to face him, "nothing," she says again.

"You've been so bloody hot and cold. What did I do Haley? Huh? I mean it's always my fault right?" He shouts, and Haley sighs.

"You know, the other week, Lucas asked me why I'm with you, and, I couldn't think of an answer Nathan. Not one." She says, wanting to cry out in frustration as he just stands there. "I love you, Nathan. I really do." She tells him, and closes her eyes as she can feel tears starting to well up in them.

Nathan doesn't speak for a minute, and it doesn't surprise her. Every time she opens herself up, he puts his own wall back up. "Isn't that enough?" She opens her eyes in shock, at how quiet his voice sounds, almost scared.

She lifts her head so she can look him in the eye, "Truthfully. I don't know anymore." She lets out a shaky breath. "I need you to let me in Nathan. Like we used to be."

"We're still that same couple," Nathan tells her, but Haley shakes her head.

"We haven't been those people in a long time Nathan."

He suddenly feels his temper flare again, "What do you want me to say Haley?! I'm sorry?!"

She sighs while shaking her head, "I don't want to hear you're sorry Nathan. I want you to not have any reason to be." She explains.

Nathan shakes his head. She's opening up and it scares him. It truly does. "I've gotta go," with that he turns around and walks out of her house.

Haley bites her lip, willing herself not to cry. Walking into the bathroom she turns on the sink taps and washes the mask off her face. She winces at the site of herself, she's black and blue, and red all over. That's why she'd put the mask on, so he wouldn't see her face and ask questions-but it hadn't helped much after all. She hears someone walking up the stairs and is suddenly filled with fear. She holds her breath as it gets closer, but sighs in relief when Bloo bounces into her room.

She shouldn't have to live this way, terrified, even in her own house. Looking up at her reflection again she lifts her fist and smashes the glass. Finally letting her tears fall, she leans against the tiled wall and sinks to the ground, not caring about the glass on the floor. Because it's broken, just like her.

…

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