Here we go guys! I hope you enjoy it.
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Chapter 9

The group of six were promptly seated in a private room upon arriving at the restaurant. Brooke and Lucas sat next to each other at the large circular table, with Haley on Brooke's right, and Nathan next to her. On Lucas' left sat Jake and then Peyton next to him. As soon as he was seated, Nathan's cell phone began to ring. He winced at seeing who it was and looked apologetically to the other occupants of the table before answering.

"Hello," he greeted.

"Why the hell are there pictures of you about to punch some guy all over the internet and TV?" Clay, Nathan's agent yelled.

Nathan grimaced. "The guy was being an asshole," he shrugged.

"SO YOU PIN HIM AGAINST A BUILDING AND PUNCH HIM IN THE MIDDLE OF A NEW YORK SIDEWALK?" he screamed.

Nathan sighed. "What do you want me to tell you, Clay?"

"For starters, it'd be nice to know what you were doing with Haley James. I didn't even know you knew her."

"First of all, I didn't punch the guy. Second of all, I've known her pretty much my entire life," Nathan said while glancing at Haley.

Upon hearing Nathan's response to the other person's statement, Haley knew exactly what the phone call was about. Pictures of Nathan losing it on that paparazzo had already gotten out, and his agent was probably pissed and wanted to know what was going on. Judging on the latter part of Nathan's response, Haley assumed whoever Nathan was talking to wanted to know why he was with her, too.

"Oh, well not punching him makes it look so much better," Clay replied sarcastically.

Nathan ran his free hand over his face. "Well, if people heard what he said, it really wouldn't be as bad," he reasoned.

Haley raised her eyebrows at that. She knew that someone calling her a whore was definitely not a reasonable excuse to almost punch them.

"This better be good. What did he say?"

"He called someone I care about a whore, among other things."

Clay sighed. "Nathan, the rest of the world isn't going to care that the guy was being a douche bag. What they will care about is how quickly you lost your temper."

"I know, Clay, okay?" Nathan said. "What am I supposed to do though? It's not like I can take it back."

"I think the best way to go about it is issue a statement, apologizing."

"What's it going to say?"

"Basically, that you lost your temper and you feel extremely bad about and you're going to work to prevent it from ever happening again."

"So it's just going be a bunch of bullshit?" Nathan laughed.

"Pretty much."

Nathan smirked. "Listen man, I gotta go, I'm out to dinner right now."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later. Try not to almost punch anyone else, okay?" Clay joked.

Nathan shook his head and hung up. "Sorry about that," he apologized while tuning back into the current conversation.

"Have pictures already gotten out?" Haley asked.

Nathan nodded his head in response. "Great," she muttered. "My phone should be ringing any second then."

"Your agent?" Nathan assumed.

"Publicist," Haley corrected.

"What did the pictures show?" Peyton inquired.

"All Clay said was that I had a guy pinned up against a building, about to punch him. Then he asked why I was with Haley James, so she's obviously in at least one of the pictures too."

"Hopefully there aren't many," Brooke added.

"I doubt it," Haley muttered. Her friends turned their eyes to her. "There were too many photographers there for it to only be a few pictures." As she finished speaking her cell phone began to ring. Like Nathan, Haley winced upon seeing the name flashing on the screen.

"Who is it?" Brooke inquired.

"Millie," Haley replied and answered her phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, Haley, how are you?" Millie spoke smoothly.

Haley knew her publicist was beyond angry. She only spoke this calmly when she was pissed off about something in the media about one of her clients. "So you've seen the pictures then?"

"Yes, I'm actually looking at a bunch of them as we speak."

"Are they bad?"

"It depends on what you consider bad."

Haley sighed. "Millie, just tell me what the pictures show."

"Well, there's the one where you're grabbing Nathan Scott's arm. Then there's the one where you're saying something to him. Oh and there's the one when he's dropped the guy on the wall and you guys are staring into each other's eyes, and finally the ones with Nathan's arm around you as you guys are walking," she summed up.

Haley put her face in her hands. "Is that all?"

"Well there are other pictures, but they aren't that bad. But the pictures aren't our biggest problem right now, Haley."

"Then what is?" Haley asked fearfully.

"The fact that I'm looking at a website right now that is claiming you and Nathan Scott are secret lovers, and there are quite a few more like this one."

"THEY'RE WHAT?" Haley screeched.

"Not to mention this one already has couple name for you guys, terming you 'Naley'."

Haley whimpered softly. "This cannot be happening."

The rest of Haley's friends were listening intently to her side of the phone conversation, curious about what Millie could have possibly just told her.

"I need to issue a statement about this right away, but I need to know how you actually know Nathan."

"Childhood friends," Haley supplied shortly.

"Okay. I'm just going to say that and also that there has never been any romantic connection between the two of you."

"You can't say that," Haley protested. "People know that's a lie."

Millie's eyes bulged. "How did I not know about this?"

"I never really told anyone."

She shook her head. "How about I say you two are just friends then?"

"Yeah, sure, that's fine."

"Okay, I should go then. Please try to avoid the paparazzi for a few days."

"I'll try. Bye, Millie," Haley said as she hung up her phone. Her friends looked to her uneasily and she turned to Nathan.

"Apparently you and I are secret lovers now," she revealed. "At least according to a bunch of gossip websites, we are."

Everyone's eyes bulged at what Haley had just said. Nathan put his head in his hands. "Shit."

"Millie is putting out a statement saying that we've known each other since we were kids and that we're just friends," she informed.

"I'll text Clay and tell him to add that to my statement," Nathan responded while reaching for his phone again.

"Then what?" Lucas questioned.

Haley sighed and shrugged. "We wait for it to blow over."

As Haley finished speaking a waitress walked into their private room and began taking orders. Once everyone had ordered their meals the waitress left and Brooke began to speak.

"So we got a bit of the wedding planned today!" she announced to the boys.

As Brooke began explaining everything about what they got done for the wedding today Haley drifted into her thoughts. She couldn't believe that multiple websites were actually claiming her and Nathan to be lovers. As if it wasn't bad enough that the pictures that were released were obviously in some way intimate, she now had to worry about people digging into her past and finding out the truth about her relationship with Nathan. This is only the first time that the world had seen her and Nathan together and already this speculation was arising. What would happen when they were possibly seen at Brooke and Lucas' wedding and bachelor/bachelorette party together? Haley had a sinking feeling that this wouldn't just blow over like she said. She and Nathan were both extremely well known. The general public and paparazzi would not let it just go away. They loved stalking potential A-list couples. All it took was one photo to spark the rumours, and there were probably dozens of her and Nathan. She rubbed her temples, feeling overly stressed now and tried to tune back into Brooke, who was till explaining what they had accomplished earlier on.

The group's food arrived shortly after and they began to eat in relative silence, with someone sparking a short conversation every so often. They finally finished eating and before leaving they called a car service in order to avoid the paparazzi as much as possible. When they arrived back at the apartment building they saw that at least fifteen photographers were waiting for their return. The six friends quickly exited the vehicle and rushed inside, Nathan and Haley being concealed by the other four friends.

They arrived back in the penthouse apartment and Haley rushed to Brooke's laptop that was sitting on the kitchen table. She flipped it open and Google searched herself. Sure enough, the first things to appear were a bunch of different gossip and entertainment websites. She clicked on the first one and clicked through the pictures. She counted about twenty and scrolled down the page slightly before reading an extremely large headline. "Haley James and Nathan Scott, Lovers?" Haley shook her head and went back to the Google page. Every other website had the same pictures and a similar claim and article as the first website. Haley exited the web browser and closed the laptop. She wordlessly walked over to the television in the next room and turned onto the first entertainment show she found. Once again, Haley was met by the pictures of herself and Nathan that were taken merely hours before. The girl speaking on the screen was also reciting the rumour of Nathan and Haley dating, this one adding that both her and Nathan's reps had said they were just friends. Haley angrily turned off the TV and collapsed onto the couch behind her. Haley only noticed the presence of the others in the room when she heard Peyton speak.

"Hales?" she tested.

"What?" she groaned.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out how to make this go away."

"There's nothing you can do to make it go away, Haley," Nathan pointed out.

"Can you do me a favour, Nathan?" Haley asked sweetly.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Leave me alone!" she barked.

Nathan staggered back confused. "What did I do?"

"If it weren't for you wanting to punch that guy, we would have never had to deal with these rumours in the first place!"

Nathan rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry that I was standing up for you."

Haley scoffed. "While I appreciate you doing that, we both know that all those guys ever want is to get a rise out of someone. All you did was give him what he wanted."

"Sorry, Haley. These rumours aren't that big of a deal though."

"Yes, they are! Do you have any idea what people can uncover when they really want to find something?" Haley asked while still lying on the couch with her face covered.

"All anyone would find is that we dated! Who cares?"

"Do you really think that they wouldn't be able to find out about my pregnancy?" Haley replied. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have the entire world know about that."

Hearing Haley mention her pregnancy served as a reminder to Lucas about how angry he was at Nathan for everything he did to his best friend. He cleared his throat and everyone turned their eyes to him. "I think you guys should be separated until you both cool down about what's happening. So, Nathan, can I talk to you in another room?"

Nathan nodded and followed his brother out of the room, leaving the three girls and Jake together.

"Okay, Haley, you shouldn't be blaming this all on Nathan," Brooke spoke up.

Haley sighed. "I know, Brooke. He's just the easiest person to pin my frustration on."

"Are you actually admitting that Nathan did nothing wrong?" Jake joked.

Haley smiled. "Yes! I'll be sure to apologize later."

"And what are you going to do about this rumour?" Peyton asked.

"Nathan's right, there is nothing I can do. If they dig into my past I'll have to deal with it then."

"Now that that's settled, can we please talk about how cute it was that he was defending you!" Brooke squealed.

Haley laughed and shook her head. "It was nice"

"Nice? That's all you've got to say? If Jake over here defended me like that, we'd be in the bedroom," Peyton added.

Haley's face scrunched up in disgust. "Okay, that was gross and unnecessary, and yes Nathan defending me was beyond nice."

Brooke clapped. "It totally turned you on!" she accused.

Haley blushed. "It did not!"

"Oh, yeah? Why else would you let him put his arm around you like he did?" Brooke countered.

"She's got a point, Hales," Jake piped in.

"Okay, just because Nathan defending me like that was a total turn on, does not mean I have feelings for him! Understood?"

Brooke, Peyton, and Jake nodded in understanding, all three of them knowing their friend was in extreme denial.


Nathan followed his brother into his office. Lucas closed the door behind them and turned to face Nathan. "What did you want to talk about?" Nathan asked.

"What you did to Haley," Lucas replied evenly.

"Oh."

Silence passed between the two men until Lucas lunged at Nathan out of nowhere, punching him square in the jaw. Nathan saw the attack coming, but took it anyway. He held his jaw and looked at his brother again.

"Feel better?"

"Surprisingly, yeah," Lucas responded. "And I wanted to tell you that if you ever even think about mistreating her again, I'll kill you."

"Don't worry, Luke, if I do anything to hurt Haley again I'll kill myself."

"Good, you would definitely deserve it," Lucas said with a hint of a smile.

Nathan smiled slightly back at his brother. The two did a quick man hug and then exited the office and returned to the family room where they had left their friends. Haley looked up when they entered. Brown met blue and she smiled at Nathan. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked softly.

Nathan nodded and left the room once again, this time heading to the kitchen with Haley following behind. When they arrived he turned and gazed at her intently. "What's up?"

"I'm sorry for being so mean to you before."

"Its fine, Haley. I know you were just scared about what might be brought out because of this stupid rumour."

Haley smiled and hugged him. "Thank you for defending me, you didn't have to do that."

"Of course I had to do it. I'm not about to stand there and watch someone try to hurt you."

She gazed up at him gratefully and pulled away from the hug. "Although, I don't know if i would be thanking you if you did actually punch the guy," she teased.

Nathan laughed. "Don't I know it. You always did hate it when I got into the occasional fight."

"Occasional? Nathan, you threatened to fight people all the time."

"But I never fought all of them. You stopped me most of the time," he winked.

"Lord, what would you have done without me?" she joked.

"I would have been a mess," he replied seriously. "Did you not see me on the cover of all the tabloid magazines?"

"Well, I'm here now. You won't put a toe out of line as long as I'm around," she said, attempting to bring back the joking atmosphere. "Speaking of fighting, why does your cheek look bruised?"

Nathan quickly averted his gaze from her. "Does it? That's weird."

"Nathan," she spoke sternly.

"Lucas punched me," he shrugged.

"Why would he do that?" Haley asked angrily.

"Because of everything I did to you."

"I'm going to kill him," she muttered as she moved to leave the room, but was topped by Nathan's hand on her arm.

"Haley, it's fine, I deserved it. Lucas was just protecting you, please don't say anything to him."

Haley smiled softly at him. "Fine, I won't."

Nathan smiled back. "Promise me we'll keep in touch after I go home."

"I promise." Haley replied. "We won't have to worry about that for a while though, we've still got all the wedding planning for the next few months."

"Actually, I have to go home the day after tomorrow." Nathan revealed. "I was out on injury, and now that I'm pretty well healed my coach wants me to start practicing with the team again to have me ready for games in a couple weeks."

"I'll still be sure to keep in touch. You're actually lucky to go home now, before Brooke becomes bridezilla."

They both chuckled knowing how true the statement was. "Just say the word and I'll be here to save you from the madness."

"I'll definitely keep that in mind."

They laughed together once more and hugged a final time. Nathan and Haley pulled apart and walked back into the family room to rejoin their friends, forgetting about all the drama that occurred earlier on for the rest of the night.