Author's note: I know the pace for the last few chapters went by pretty quickly. So from here on out, I'm gonna try and slow it down a little. It actually took me a while to figure out what I was gonna do with this chapter. I'm not even sure it's even that great, but oh well. But thanks for the reviews everyone! Anyway, enjoy!
Early Friday morning, Nathan made his way up the stairs to Haley's room, holding a bag containing a tupperware of macaroni and cheese, some granola bars, and a bottled water. Knocking on Haley's door to make his presence know, he opened it to find his girlfriend laying on the bed, reading a magazine. "I brought you some food."
Haley smiled with excitement, mostly over seeing Nathan and partially over the food part. He placed it down on her desk and dumped everything out, "It's all I could salvage at my house."
A week after Haley's accident, she and Nathan found themselves apart yet again due to an eviction from lack of rent payments. But Nathan did what he could to see as much of her, more like everyday actually. The bitterness about her departure before the summer still lingered in him, but he didn't have the heart to bring it up, not after what she'd been through.
Haley gestured for him to sit with her and kissed him, "I missed you."
"I missed you, too. But I was only gone for an hour, Hales."
"Well, it felt like an eternity." Ever since she left him, it all felt like an eternity. She looked into his brown eyes, assuring herself that everything was gonna be okay from now on. But the uncertainty she's been carrying since she saw Nathan and Brooke together still gnawed at her. She hadn't mentioned that to him and felt that the right time would eventually come, even if the right time was now.
"So," Haley was unsure how to ask it, "What'd you do while I was gone?"
Nathan was shocked, he didn't expect this to happen. Not yet, at least. Oh, you know, got drunk, moped around, ditched High Flyers, hung out with Brooke. Maybe we'll leave that last part out. Or maybe all of them. Just to save face.
"Just kinda…hung around." He was trying to give his best convincing look.
Haley knew better, "I see you're not in High Flyers."
"It didn't work out after all."
Haley sighed, "I hope it wasn't because of me."
Really? Can you be that naïve? He wanted to blurt it out. "It was a lot of things." Nathan replied. There was a hint of discomfort in his voice, as if he didn't feel comfortable enough to be open to Haley. She was his girlfriend, after all, he should be able to tell her how he feels.
"Nathan, is there something you're not telling me?"
Nathan questioned her and she let out an exasperated sigh, "Okay, I give up. What were you doing in L.A.?"
Whoaaaaa. Where the hell did that come from? Nathan stiffened up, "What are you talking about"
Haley leaned her head back against the wall. Was he really gonna try and talk his way out of this one? "Nathan, you know I love you. So please don't sit there and lie to me. What were you doing in L.A. with Brooke?"
The sound of her shoes hitting the ground was the only thing that Brooke could hear, but it gave her peace. After running for 20 minutes straight, she came to a slow stop, trying to catch her breath and stepping onto that familiar concrete. She'd ended up at the River Court, a place she frequented less and less often as she got older. The memories used to be good on this court, then they became blurry and disappointing. Still, at this time of the day, the combination of the sun shining as well as the slight cool breeze from the river was incomparable. Standing with her hands on her hips, closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath.
"Didn't expect to see you here."
Brooke turned around to the familiar voice. It was Nathan, doing exactly what she did not long ago. Trying to catch his breath, he walked towards her, one hand on his hip. "I told you I run," Brooke defended, "somehow I ended up here."
"Yeah." He looked over at the scenery and sighed, "I got into a fight with Haley."
"What? Why?" The look of concern on her face urged him to continue, "I told her about L.A."
"Oh," Brooke was relieved….or was she? "Whoa wait, which parts? Based on my memory, a lot of things happened in L.A. What exactly did you tell her?"
Nathan shrugged as if accepting defeat, "Everything."
"Everything?" Brooke needed more information than that.
"Yep. Everything except…kissing you and sleeping with you."
"Oh." Something inside of her broke. Why did she want Haley to know? She wasn't sure, but Nathan continued, "I even told her about Mindy. You know, taking her out and having a good time with her. I guess I did it to hurt her the way she hurt me. I don't know, it just came out." Yeah, except the part where you kissed me and slept with me.
"So, why are you telling me this?"
Nathan finally looked at her, "I guess I always found it easier to tell you things, even though I don't always tell you everything."
"It's been a while since you've told me everything." Her voice was beginning to sound regretful, "Nathan, that fight we had before we came back home? I just want to say I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For acting all…bitchy and saying things I shouldn't have. It was totally uncalled for and you didn't deserve that." She paused, "Besides, Chris Keller is definitely not better than you. People who speak in the third person and try to kidnap teenage wives just don't strike me as a good guy." It was her attempt to get Nathan to smile, even if it was a fake one.
He tightened his lip and replied in a soft voice, "I said things I shouldn't have also. That whole Lucas and Peyton thing wasn't exactly fair either. I'm sorry."
Brooke nodded her head in acceptance, "So we've said our peace and that's that. Now we can go back to our miserable lives yet again. Well, at least I can. Haley's back home so you have nothing to worry about anymore."
"Eh," He shrugged one shoulder, "Just 'cause she's home doesn't mean things are gonna be the way they used to before she left. We still have a lot of things to sort out. I still need to figure out what I want."
Her eyes shot him a curious look, "I thought you wanted her to come home? She's back, Nathan, isn't that what you wanted?"
"I thoug--I did want that. But the way we left things earlier had me thinking when I went out to run. She told me everything she felt while she was gone--missing me and yet couldn't let go of the music. She was choosing music over me before…and to believe that she doesn't wanna go back to that and just be stuck here with me would make me an idiot. Who's to say that's not gonna happen again? "
It took everything inside of her to not lecture him about choices. After all, she knew that situation all too well.
He would have given up basketball for Haley--and he did so with High Flyers--and all Brooke could do to offer some comfort was to place a hand on Nathan's back, "Well, I guess you two have a lot of things to talk about. I do suggest not letting her sing at Tric anytime soon. You never know, just to be safe." She winked at him and he smiled at her.
"So how's it going with the love triangle?"
"Ugh," Brooke rolled her eyes, placing her hand back to her side, "I wouldn't know. I haven't had the chance to see either of them, but then again I haven't really left my house as of late. I think I'm still in hide-out mode."
"You're gonna have to face them sooner or later."
"I prefer later, actually. Maybe even never."
"Come on, Brooke. The least you can do is just forgive them for what they did to you and move on from there. It's probably the only way for you to be really happy again, regardless of what they did. Maybe in the long run things will be better."
"Uh, you're one to talk, Dr. Phil."
Nathan laughed at his failed attempt, "Sorry."
"It's tough though. I mean, I guess in a not-so-succesful manner I've tried to dig inside myself and forgive them, but it's hard. I think it's gotten so easier to just avoid and ignore it that I don't really know what else to do."
"You gotta face it sometime. You can't avoid them any longer, you know. We hang with the same crowds, we go to the same school--"
"There are ways to get around that. I can...not be a cheerleader and I can even start homeschooling--"
"Who's gonna teach you at home?" He challenged.
"I can hire someone!" She gave a half-smirk as Nathan shook his head, but she knew he was right, "Well, how easy was it to forgive Haley?"
He threw his head back and looked up at the sky for a brief moment, "I haven't exactly forgiven her."
"Ah," she mocked him, "Well, the least you can do is forgive her for what she did to you and move on from there."
"Haha," he replied dryly, "It's not that easy with Haley."
"Why?"
He turned his gaze back at her, "She just ditched me to go on tour with that jackass. She even kissed him before she left...with him!"
"Oh!" Brooke raised up one hand, "How about catching your boyfriend and best friend practically having sex via webcam!"
"Ok, you win." Nathan raised both his hands in defeat, "But you still gotta forgive them eventually."
She raised an eyebrow, "I will if you will."
Nathan chuckled, "All right, fine. What about me? How come you forgave me so easily?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You know, I was an ass to you all these years...but here we are and we're leaning on each other for support."
"Who said I forgave you for anything...and who said I was leaning on you for support?" It came out defensively, even though she meant it jokingly...sort of.
"Well, I know I wasn't exactly the best friend I used to be--"
Brooke cut him off; she just didn't like bringing that up anymore, "Oh, maybe it was your dreamy brown eyes or the smell of your cheap cologne. One or the other."
She made a face at him and they continued to stand there together in the next few seconds in silence, until Nathan spoke up, "Man, the last time we were here together…was so long ago."
"Hmm," Brooke sighed at the memory, "It feels like another lifetime." Just for a moment, she allowed herself to remember the way things used to be, "I remember you beat up a boy once because he wouldn't stop pulling my hair for his own entertainment."
Nathan laughed, "Well, if you call throwin a basketball at his face beating up."
"Still chased him away." She shook her head, "That's Tim for ya."
He couldn't help but smile at her, "You used to watch me just shoot around for hours."
"I had no choice. It was either watching you or watching the wall at my house."
"Yeah, you always did like watching me."
"Cocky!" She laughed at him.
"Isn't that why you became a cheerleader?" He joked.
"Don't flatter yourself." She replied, even though there was some truth in that.
"God, l remember kicking your ass in basketball all the time!"
She scowled, "Excuse me, but I do remember that you suddenly grew 10 inches that time!"
"I was eight!"
"But you were still freakishly taller than me for an eight year old. Maybe your dad was already giving you steroids at that age, huh, Nate?"
"Yeah, steroids that made me tall but kept the rest of my body skinny." Nathan responded sarcastically.
"Well, results do vary, I guess." Regardless, Nathan grew into a nicely-built and highly attractive seventeen year old. That was putting it G-rated. There were other words in Brooke's mind to describe Nathan's physique, but she deviated.
Again, that silence fell between them. He glanced at the basketball net, and then down on the ground, and then at her, as if trying to figure out what to say or do next. He wanted to tell her how much he missed their friendship, the way he'd come over her house to make her play video games with him, or she'd go over to his and make him Pop Tarts while they formed jigsaw puzzles together, which always turned out to be some lame Disney cartoon.
Nathan had drifted off to those memories, not realizing that Brooke was beginning to walk away towards the park bench. He followed her, unsure if that was what she wanted. She eventually turned around and nodded slightly and looked back at the river, "Why didn't you tell her about what we did?"
She said it just like that. No hesitation, as if no surprise was to come from it. With both hands in his pockets, he shrugged as if the answer was something he'd always expected himself to say, "Because it didn't mean anything, right? It was a mistake."
Brooke stood there blankly, unsure of her next move. "You said so yourself, Brooke."
Yeah, throw it in my face. "You're right. Why bother?" She wasn't sure if this was how the conversation was supposed to end, but it did.
Nathan sensed her uneasiness, not so much the twinge of hurt and anger boiling inside of her, "So anyway, I gotta get back to Haley. We still have a lot to talk about." He gave a nervous chuckle, "See ya, Brooke."
Brooke's eyes never left the river, "Yeah." She sensed Nathan wasn't too close anymore, and it took all the strength in her to watch him walk away until she couldn't make out his figure.
Nathan mumbled "idiot" under his breath as walked away from the River Court. His mind drifted back to the argument with Haley earlier in the day. She asked him about Brooke and he did tell her everything, the road trip, the fun they had in L.A., the rason they both left Tree Hill...except the kissing and the sex. He did want to hurt Haley in retaliation for what she did to him, and he knew that would crush her to pieces...but he didn't want to do that to Brooke. To portray her as rebound sex, even if it was a drunken action. Because, truthfully, maybe Nathan wasn't even all that drunk after all.
Author's note: I realize this chapter wasn't that great, but the next one should be better.
