An Inconvenient Comfort

Chapter VII

A/N: I decided to shy away from the heavy doom-and-gloom this chapter and possibly resolve a few problems along the way. I finally got an idea of how this story might end but in order to do that, I have to stop dragging along the small details and move on to the big idea(I think we all know what that is wink).

Rachel stood in the empty school halls with her back against the walls. She took heavy breaths of distress as she contemplated when she was going to enter class... if she was going to enter class. Every time her hand grazed the iron of the class's doorknob she fell back instantly and started to catch her breath. She repeated the routine for a full hour without realizing it.

The class bell rung and all her classmates started to exit the class; Brooke and Peyton, respectively, took devilish glances as they entered the halls to see her against the wall.

Rachel tucked her hair behind her head, took a deep breath, and straightened her posture as she entered the classroom. Mr. Chavez… or, Nick, was clearing the chalkboard before the next batch of students shuffled their way into his class.

"Nick…" Rachel said lowly to catch his attention.

He turned around to face Rachel as she kept her distance. He glided over to the door and shut it.

"Brooke…" he said in an uninviting tone. "Or is that even your name?" he folded his arms defensively.

Rachel hadn't expected a different reaction at all. In fact, in her entire hour pacing herself in the halls she had replayed how she imagined the conversation to go the entire time.

First, he'd be really pissed and hardly look at her in the eyes. Then, he'd ask her about her real name and how old she is. After she reveals that she's still a kid he'd tell her what happened was a mistake and they should never mention it again. If he continues to shout at her then she'll start crying to get sympathy points. After he apologizes for going off and let her go, she'd leave feeling slightly victorious with nothing but a slap on the wrist.

"Rachel… my name is Rachel."

She answered quietly with her head facing the ground.

She felt his familiar hands cup her chin and force him to look her in the eyes. She looked questionably and confused into his narrowed eyes before he conjoined their eager lips together. Before she could register the fact that Nick is kissing her, he broke it off and continued to stare her in the eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Rachel."

--

Nathan stumbled into his living room with an arm full of beers. He waddled drunkenly onto his comfort spot on the couch and slouched as he let the armful of canned beers scrambled over the coffee table in front him.

He pinched open the first can of beer and before he knew it, he was gulping down the third can. He drunk in attempt to drown his misery but it never got better. Never.

The doorbell rung through the house several times before Nathan responded to it. He stood up from the couch and dragged himself to the door with a beer in his hand. Peyton stood before him.

"Nathan…" she greeted, nodding genially.

"Peyton?"

"Yeah…" she paused awkwardly and scuffed her tennis shoes on the concrete ground. "I… I'm…" she reached into her bag and pulled out a few envelopes. "I'm just giving you some mail." She uttered as she handed him the letters. "Your electricity is out."

Nathan shrugged nonchalantly to the news and shuffled the letters in his hand. Peyton nodded a bit and began walking away.

"Hey," he called out to her. "how are you?"

"I'm great!" she replied happily. "I could be a little better but I'm still great."

Nathan nodded with a genuine smile. "And Haley?"

"She's… hanging in there."

Peyton had no idea how to reply any better than she had. She didn't want to sugarcoat the situation but she didn't want him to know how horrible she was really doing. She was sick every morning and she spent most of her nights silently sobbing when she thought Peyton was asleep.

Nathan, on the other hand, seemed pleased to hear those words.

"That's good." He replied with a heavy slur.

Peyton looked down to Nathan's hand and noticed the beer he was holding.

"Nathan has Vodka."

Those words repeated in her head when she saw the can. Maybe, just maybe, Rachel was right. Nathan surely looked drunk and sloppy. Maybe he was doing horrible and decided to drown himself in guilt.

Peyton pointed to the beer can in his hand before speaking.

"So… drinking in the day, I see." she stated aloud.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" he responded coldly as his eyes narrowed.

Peyton shook her head and took a few steps closer towards Nathan and the door. She lifted her index finger and gave him a small nudge on his shoulder. He stumbled backwards into the house and nearly fell to the ground before regaining his drunken posture and raging out on Peyton.

"What the hell?!"

Peyton glared at Nathan in disappointment before walking into the house and exploring the living room. She quickly noticed the beer cans and liquor bottles that were spread across the entire coffee table.

"Nate…" she managed to escape through her dumbfounded expression as she turned to look at him standing shamefully the door.

Nathan bit his lips as he studied Peyton studying him. Her face had an array of emotions. The most evident one was sympathy. Sympathy was something that he didn't deserve. He can take Peyton being angry at him. Hell, he can even take Peyton ignoring him forever. But not sympathy. He ruined Haley's life. He made a mistake and now he ruined his life and Haley's life. Yet, he found himself often being treated as the victim.

He forced himself to wear a insouciant presence while scowled at Peyton as if she were the enemy.

"So what? I drink! Are you going to judge me now?"

Peyton's face fell quickly to the ground. Her frown grew even larger.

"Nathan, I don't want to fight."

"Yeah?" he forced himself to say aggressively. He made himself sick. "Well, I do!"

Peyton's eyes began to well.

"What?" she shook her head in half-shock, half-sadness. "I don't understand."

Nathan blinked excessively as he saw Peyton's eyes water. His stomach hurled at the sight. He turned around to look away from Peyton.

"You don't mean that." She cried, looking away from Nathan as she cleared her moistened eyes. "Why are you doing this?"

Nathan's knees began to shake. He can feel the gravity pull himself to the ground for the first time that day. He quickly grabbed on to the doorknob to support his weaken state but it wasn't enough. His knees crashed into the cold tile of the ground and his head fell immediately behind them. The cold tile stung his heated face.

As his eyes began to slowly close, he took a look at the blurry vision in front of him. Next to the collection of beer cans and liquor scattered on the coffee table he saw a picture of Rachel in a frame. He couldn't really see a sharp vision of her but the red hair was a giveaway. Eventually, without much time, his eyes crashed and his hearing faded through the echoes of his name being shouted through tears.

--

Brooke walked into the house with a tear-stained face. She managed to keep from crying during school but the car ride home was a different story. She gripped the wheel in front of her and her forehead fell collided into it as her tears fell into her lap. Lucas hadn't looked her way the entire day.

As she threw her bag to the floor she surveyed the living room for some sort of evidence that she wasn't alone in the house. The coffee table was wiped clean and there wasn't a liquor bottle or beer can in sight. Her eyes circled the room in disbelief. As she took slow steps into the house footsteps were heard walking down the stairs beside her. A curly blonde walked into the living room.

Brooke shook her head and spat out in disbelief. "Peyton?"

Peyton sighed as she looked at Brooke and turned to look towards the stairs.

"I was here to give Nathan some mail during study hour." Brooke's eyes squinted in confusion. Before she can ask her why she was upstairs Peyton finished, "he fell out after an argument." Brooke gasped. "So, I put him to bed in the guest room and cleaned up a little down here."

"Is he okay?" Brooke asked with her palm over her mouth.

"He's fine. He keeps drifting in and out of sleep."

Brooke simpered and stood in her place for a minute, looking at Peyton. Peyton stood at the bottom of the staircase, bracing tightly onto the rail. As Brooke started to make her way up the stairs, Peyton took that as a sign to leave.

"Wait," Brooke called out as Peyton's hands rested on the doorknob. "You can stay… if you want."

Peyton beamed and met Brooke as she made her way up the stairs.

As they entered the room, Nathan's eyes were nearly open. His eyes searched the room to study his surroundings. The room was dreary and dim-lit. The room lacked furniture and the furniture lacked garnish. It abstracted the beauty that the rest of Rachel's house carried.

Brooke and Peyton were watching him for a while. It wasn't until he felt fingers brushing back his hair that he noticed their presence.

"How are you?" Brooke whispered sensitively.

Nathan's voice was harsh when he spoke. "I feel like shit. What happened?"

"I came over to give you mail and you just fainted right there by the door. You don't remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." He responded as he recollected the event.

Brooke smiled a little as she petted his head. Peyton sat beside Nathan and began rustling through his raven hair playfully. Brooke and Peyton smiled at each other while they toyed Nathan respectively.

"You know you both want me." He joked.

Brooke and Peyton scoffed in laughter before Brooke replied.

"In your dreams."

--

Rachel walked through her hallway. She just spent the entire night making out with Nick and rejecting his pleading for something more than her kisses. She didn't realize at all that the couch was Nathan-less and the coffee table, for the first time since he moved in, was alcohol free.

She opened her door to see Brooke in the secondary bed, looking up at the ceiling.

"Brooke." Rachel shot out in surprise. "You're… sleeping in here tonight…?" she said in half-reassurance, half-suspicion.

"Yeah." Brooke said in a deadpan tone as she glanced at Rachel. "I figured I should get used to having backstabbing boyfriend-stealers as best friends."

Rachel paused for a minute and waited to see a smirk from Brooke's mouth. She got one.

"Nathan's sleeping in the guest room." Brooke announced as she broke the silence while they laid themselves to sleep.

Rachel figured he'd be sleeping there with Brooke no longer occupying the bed anymore.

"Is he fine?" Rachel asked, sensing concern in Brooke's voice.

"Fine? Always. Is he okay? Not so much."

Rachel couldn't help but smile just a little at what Brooke said. "That sounds like something I would say."

Brooke shrugged in her sleeping position and looked over at Rachel, who was facing her with a friendly grin.

"You can go talk to him if you want." Brooke said, giving Rachel her approval.

Rachel nodded and crawled out of bed. Before leaving the room, she brushed Brooke's shoulders underneath the covers and quickly made her way to the hallway.

Nathan was in a cold sleep. Not even the loud creaking of the door could awake him. Rachel crept towards the bed and sat on the very edge of it. She sat there for a minute watching him sleep. He looked so young and unmarred while he slept. Seeing his face in the moment reminded her of how young they were. She grew up so fast with the history of her parents (or lack thereof) and now Nathan was honorary member of the club. She sighed deeply as she tried to imagine what he's going through.

Nathan twisted in his sleep and his arm wrapped itself around Rachel's waist.

"Haley…" he mumbled peacefully with his eyes still completely shut.

"No… It's me, Rachel."

Nathan didn't respond to her words. He just snuggled into her bare legs as he gripped tighter onto her waist. He took heavy breaths into the skin of her thighs and his cold fingers ran across the dimples of her back.

"I love you…" he muffled into her skin.

Rachel's eyes widened and muscles tightened at those words. She attempted to swallow but her throat was bone dry. Her first and only thought was to get the hell out before she made the already complex scenario even worst. She twisted her waist a bit to loosen Nathan's grip.

"Don't go, Hales. Please, don't go." He pleaded in a woozy state.

Rachel sat still, afraid to breath at this point. His fingers began to circle her back and send chills down her spine.

"I'm not going anyway." She responded to him.

She placed her hands on his face and admired him while he slept. It was the first time in a long time that he was carefree and happy. She stroked his cheek and tucked his growing hair behind his ear.

"I love you…" he repeated. The room grew silent. Silent of the gulping and heavy breathing. Nathan ruffled into her thighs once more and spoke again. "Did you hear me?"

'Can he hear me?' Rachel thought to herself.

"I love you too, Nathan."

A/N: Yeah... so... you know the drill. Make my day and leave a review!! Please.