Chapter 9: Eccendentesiast- someone who hides pain behind a smile.

Nathan had actually shown up on time for tutoring that night.

Haley almost dropped her extra-large coffee when she walked into the tutor centre and saw him already sitting at their usual table.

"What are you doing here?" Haley asked, sitting at the table and setting down her books.

"You told me to meet you here at 5." Nathan said, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, "It's 5."

"This is the first time you've shown up on time. I'm impressed." Haley replied.

"And I'm offended by your lack of faith in me." Nathan responded mockingly.

"Let's just start okay." Haley rolled her eyes and pushed Nathan a practice math test. Nathan smirked at her briefly before taking the worksheet.

It had been ten minutes and Nathan was still stuck on the first problem. They had gone over how to do these kind of mathematical problems in their last tutoring session, but it had already slipped his mind. Just like everything else that had to do school.

Nathan released a frustrated groan before slamming his pencil down on the table, "There's no point in this Haley. I'm never going to get it. I'm so stupid."

The worst part about this was that it would mean his father was right. Maybe he was just an idiot.

"You are not stupid Nathan." Haley said firmly, "Sometimes you make stupid choices." She gestured to the slight bruising on the side of his face from a previous fight. "But you are not stupid. There's a difference."

She then picked up the pencil he had thrown and passed it to him before moving over to sit beside him. "Do you want me to go through it again?" Haley asked. When he nodded she started to re-explain how to get the solution to the problem.

Nathan was trying to listen to Haley as she sprouted mathematical terms out of her mouth. God he was trying. But there was a weak beam of light flooding into the tutor centre through a shaft in the window, and it was illuminating her honey blonde hair and the side of her face. He watched as she absentmindedly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and bit down slightly of her pink bottom lip before continuing in explain the problem. Nathan didn't understand how she could look so beautiful. Sure, he had seen a lot of hot girls in his 16 years on earth but none of them had the raw beauty that Haley had. He hated himself for feeling this way because he knew it was one-sided, and he didn't want to screw up the friendship they had started.

"Nathan are you okay?" Nathan snapped out of his daze as Haley looked at him in concern.

He made an unintelligent noise of agreement whilst nodding his head wildly.

"Do you want to move onto English?" She asked.

Nathan nodded but was silently screaming on the inside. There were few things in the world he was worst at then math. English happened to be one of those things.

Haley watched Nathan squint at the large chunk of words in front of him for a few minutes before she spoke. "Nathan why didn't you tell me you were Dyslexic?"

Nathan almost fell off his chair in shock. "How did you know that?" He hadn't told anyone. Ever. The only people who knew were Lucas, and Lucas' mother Karen who had been there when he had found out.

"I used to tutor my little cousin when I was younger. She had Dyslexia." Haley explained, "I don't understand why you didn't tell me. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Nathan released a small humourless laugh, "You should talk to my father about that. When I was younger I was having so much trouble with school. Even more so then, if you can believe that. It wasn't I was ten but couldn't read at a kindergarteners level that I figured out something was wrong. I asked my dad if he would take me to go get checked, and he point blank refused. He said that even if there was something wrong he didn't want anyone to put a label on it. He told me he couldn't live with himself if he knew his son was an idiot. I had to get Lucas and Karen to take me to actually get diagnosed."

"God I'm sorry Nathan." Haley responded softly, "But your dad is only one person. I meant what I said before. You are not stupid. I promise I'm going to help you get better at your school work. Nathan this is something you suffer from, it's not who you are."

Nathan looked up at her, his eyes were clouded with such a thick amount of raw emotion Haley just wanted to hug him.

"Thanks Hales." Nathan managed to choke out. He hated himself for feeling so emotional about this, but she had just told him the one thing he had always wanted someone to say to him.

"Well I think that's enough for today." Haley said brightly, trying extensively hard to make Nathan feel better.

They had both stood up and were walking to the closed door of the tutor centre when loud crash of thunder cut through the air and all the lights in the tutor centre flickered off.

Haley squeaked in surprise and dropped her textbooks to the ground with a loud clatter. A crack of lightning ripped through the dark like a clawed hand and illuminated the blackening sky. At the next loud rumble of thunder Haley gave into the fear that had previously keep her mounted to the floor and practically threw herself at Nathan.

Although her fear of thunderstorms embarrassed her, she would rather deal with future ridicule then bursting into tears from her pounding fear. Haley bunched Nathan's shirt between her small fists and squeezed her eyes shut. An intense feeling of panic settled over her like the old familiar blanket it was.

Nathan wound his arms around her before running his hands up and down her rigid back, feeling the unmistakable tension present there.

"It's okay Hales." Nathan murmered, "The storm just caused the power to go out. Let's just get out of here okay."

Nathan moved slightly backwards so he could open the door to the tutoring centre, but Haley gripped his shirt tighter and pulled him back.

"Don't leave." Haley said, her eyes were wide with fear and her voice was raised an octave higher than it usually was.

Haley hated herself for how scared she was.

"Hey, I'm not leaving you. I promise." Nathan caressed her face gently in an attempt to comfort her, "I'm just going to open the door okay."

Haley nodded, untangling her hands from his shirt. She blushed slightly in humiliation and for the first time was glad it was dark so Nathan couldn't see her now beetroot red face.

"Haley we have a problem." Nathan said, from where he was standing by the door. "The door's electronic. It won't open until the power turns back on. I guess we're stuck in here until then."

"You've got to be kidding me." Haley said, her voice raising slightly in hysteria.

She couldn't be stuck in here. Not with the power out and the crashing thunder caving her skull in on itself. She sunk down against the wall and put her head in her hands.

"Hales it's going to be okay." Nathan promised, noticing her silence and defeated posture. He crossed over to where she had collapsed. He sat down beside her, and debated with himself internally for a moment before wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

Haley instantly leaned into his warm body and without thinking rested her head on Nathan's chest. She was surprised at the immediate sense of safety she received from simply being without a close proximity of Nathan.

"Do you want to play a game?" Nathan asked, "To get your mind off the storm."

"What did you have in mind?" Haley shifted her head up slightly to look at him.

"20 questions?"

"Okay you go first." Haley responded, her breathing hitching slightly when Nathan absentmindedly took her hand in his and laced their fingers together.

"Alright, besides storms and clowns. Is there anything else I should know you are afraid of?" Nathan asked, receiving a sharp jab in the side from Haley when he listed off her earlier revealed fears.

"Well besides my completely rational fear of clowns." Haley defended herself, poking her tongue out at Nathan. "I guess small spaces. It's not that they scare me, more that I get insanely claustrophobic in them. Oh, and when I was a kid I was terrified of jelly."

"Jelly?" Nathan asked in amusement.

"Yes jelly." Haley couldn't help but laugh as well, "I'm not even sure why. All I know is that every time I saw it I would start screaming hysterically. My family was no help. My siblings spent half their time chasing me around the house with it. They were really mean." She pouted, and Nathan couldn't help but laugh loudly at her confession.

"Shut up." Haley tried to look annoyed but couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face. She didn't even hear the next boom of thunder. "Okay hotshot what about you?"

"I hate heights." Nathan confessed. It was the first time he had ever actually told anyone that.

"The Nathan Scott is afraid of heights." Haley teased, resting her head on his shoulder when he pouted at her.

"Shut up." Nathan said.

"I'm sorry." Haley tried to choke back the smile threatening to break onto her face, "Hey, it's less embarrassing then my fears."

"What did you even do last time there was a storm?" Nathan asked, playing with Haley's fingers.

"Peyton and Brooke sat in the cupboard with me and we listened to one of Peyton's Fall Out Boy CD's on full volume until it finished." Haley confessed.

Nathan laughed, "Seriously?"

"Yep. Okay my question." Haley said, "If there was a zombie apocalypse, what would your weapon of choice be?

"Hm." Nathan said, "Possibly a gun with a silencer. It would probably just be easier to blow off their heads then to cut them off."

"Graphic." Haley replied, "I'd probably go with a motorbike."

"That's not a weapon." Nathan nudged her with his shoulder.

"Yeah but it would mean that I could simply get as far away from the apocalypse as possible." Haley pointed out, "And I like to think that in this alternative universe I would actually have to balls to ride a motorbike."

"I know how to." Nathan said, "I'll teach you one day." Haley's eyes widened comically at the thought, and Nathan laughed at her expression.

"What's your middle name?" He asked.

Haley sighed, "Bob."

"Bob?" Nathan laughed, "Why?"

"I was named after my parents old cat." Haley said.

"Well at least you were named after something people liked." Nathan replied, "My middle name's Royal."

"Fitting." She teased.

"Hah hah." Nathan replied, poking her in the side. "After my grandfather. No one likes him. He's almost as bad as my father."

"Well Nathan Royal Scott I think it suits you." Haley chuckled.

"You too, Haley Bob James." Nathan responded. Haley found she didn't actually hate her full name that much when Nathan said it.

"Do you have any scars?" Haley asked.

"Yeah." Nathan shifted his shirt up slightly so she could see the thin white mark stretching across his hip. "When Lucas and I were kids we stayed with our grandparents for one summer. We were on their balcony wrestling, and I jumped on his back but ended up going over the edge of the balcony."

"Holy shit." Haley murmured.

"Yeah I broke my wrist and landed on this massive nail which went into my hip." Nathan said, tugging down his shirt. "What about you Haley James?"

She moved her hand up to shift the neckline of her shirt. He could see a long white scar on her shoulder.

"My brother and sister, Taylor and Jeremy, are twins." Haley started, "They're three years older than me, and when we were younger they used to constantly get into these fully fledged prank wars. When they were eleven and I was eight they were in the middle of this massive fight. Taylor unhinged all the doors to the cabinets in the kitchen, thinking that when Jeremy came down to get food one of the doors would fall on him. Unfortunately for me, I was hungry. I had to climb on top of the countertop to reach the cabinet because I used to be really short."

"Used to be." Nathan teased, shutting up when Haley punched him in the shoulder.

"Anyway, when I opened the cabinet it fell out of the wall and knocked me off the countertop. I also managed to pull some china plates out of the cabinet which fell on me and caused this scar." Haley finished.

There was silence for a few moments and for the first time in a while Haley was able to hear the distant roar of thunder. She noticeably flinched and turned to bury her face in the space between Nathan's shoulder and neck.

"Hales." Nathan murmured after a few minutes, "Why are you scared of thunderstorms?" He wasn't sure why but he was dreading the answer.

"If I told you, you'd never look at me the same again." Haley said, her voice thick with choked back tears.

"I promise whatever it is won't change anything." Nathan replied, squeezing her hand in his.

Haley sucked in a long shaky breath, "It was six years ago."

Ten year old Haley James sat in the back of her father's convertible amidst the many empty beer bottles. She was smart for a child, so knew what used to be in the bottles. She just wasn't aware of the effect the stuff her father stashed under the kitchen sink and in his car had on him.

"Daddy are you alright?" Haley asked softly from the backseat of the car.

He father didn't answer, instead groaned and leaned over the car wheel as he continued driving down the dark road. It was a normal night of drinking for Jimmy James. However, this was the first time Haley had been the car with her father when he was wasted.

"Dad's fine." Emmett, Haley's seventeen year old brother turned around from the passenger seat of the car and smiled at her reassuringly. "Maybe you should let me drive Dad?" Emmett lowered his voice so his younger sister couldn't hear him. Jimmy made a string of protest that involved some swearing and tightened his grip on the wheel.

Jimmy James loved his children. Always had, always would. But the depression had gotten worse. He wasn't the man he used to be.

Haley reached a hand up and pushed away a strand of soaked blonde hair away from her face. Her dad had forgotten to close the roof to the car again. She didn't mind though, she liked the rain. Even though it was a little cold. They were on their way back from picking Emmett up from a party. It was really late, there were no other cars on the road.

A loud crash on thunder broke through the air, and Haley looked up in wonder as lighting split open the dark sky.

Suddenly Jimmy's hand slipped on the wheel, and he keeled over in complete intoxication. The car spun a few times before it smashed into a large pine tree.

A scream pierced the air and it took a while before Haley realized it was her own.

"Emmett?" Haley sobbed, "Daddy?" She tried to move from the back seat of the car, but the whole front of the car was mutilated and the front seats had moved back, locking Haley into place. The rain had stopped but the thunder was getting noticeably louder.

She could see the unmoving body of her brother in the front seat. Blood dripping slowly from his forehead, his chest still. Her father was passed out beside him. She wasn't sure if he was dead or drunk.

"The storm was really bad so no one found me for six hours." Haley continued, clasping her hands together to stop them from shaking. "Emmett died on impact. My dad wasn't dead, but he went to jail for manslaughter. After that everything just fell apart. Everyone reacted differently. For the first few months my mum tried to keep Emmett alive in our thoughts. Too alive. She still set a place for him at the dinner table, she kept his room intact like he was just away on camp and would come home soon. I think she said it to herself so many times over that it had managed to wrap itself around her brain until it felt like the truth. Eventually I think she came to terms with the fact that Emmett wasn't coming back. She cracked, and we moved. Since then we haven't stayed in one place for more than a month. As soon as my mum sees something that reminds her of Emmett or Dad she loses it and we move again. I think she still loved my Dad, even after what he did. When she married him he was a different person I guess."

"Where's your dad now?" Nathan asked softly.

"He was in jail for a few years, but last year he killed himself. They said they couldn't stop him." She said.

"Haley…" Nathan trailed off. He didn't know what to say to her. He knew what it was like to go through something traumatic like that and it sucked.

Not able to find the right words he wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her towards him. The second Haley's head hit Nathan's chest she burst into tears. Years of pent up emotions that she hadn't felt like she could express to anyone leaked out of her all at once. Her small frame began to wrack with sobs as they came out louder and harder with each uneven breath.

"I got you Hales." Nathan soothed, holding her as close as he could to his body. "You're okay, I got you." He ran his hand gently through her hair and then kept his hand on the back of her head. With his other hand he continuously rubbed circles on her back.

They sat on the cold tile floor of the tutoring centre for what could have been minutes or hours. Haley's heart wrenching sobs had been reduced to occasional sniffles.

Nathan pressed a kiss to her hairline and kept his lips there as he murmured against her hair, "Haley, do Brooke and Peyton know?" Nathan wasn't sure about Peyton, but he knew Brooke had known Haley longer then all of them.

"Brooke knows Emmett died. She doesn't know I was there." Haley said, turning her head to the side so it was still resting on Nathan but she could talk freely, "And she doesn't know about my dad. I just haven't felt like there was ever a good time to tell her. Or Peyton for that matter."

"You know they love you no matter what." Nathan murmured, "They wouldn't judge you. None of us would."

"I know." Haley sighed, "It's just that at the last school I went to when everyone found out they all started treating different. Like I was broken, and everyone kept trying to fix me."

"I don't think you need to be fixed." Nathan said.

"You don't?" She couldn't deny the fact that she sounded like she was going to erupt into tears again.

"You were never broken in the first place." Nathan whispered, "At least not to me."

Haley looked up at him with a watery tear streaked smile, "You still have one question left."

"Will you dance with me?" Nathan asked.

"What? Why?" Haley asked.

"We might as well practice for the Cotillion. In case you didn't notice we kind of suck." Nathan unravelled himself from Haley before standing up and pulling her off the floor. The truth is dancing was the first thing that had popped into his mind. He just really wanted to take her mind off the storm and the memories that were probably flashing before her eyes.

Although their dancing was quite horrendous and unappealing to the eyes both of them were enjoying it. Haley giggled loudly as Nathan spun her in a circle. She almost bashed into a table and laughed when Nathan pulled her back as to avoid getting hit.

"This is tragic." Haley murmured.

"So are we." Nathan said, spinning her around again.

Suddenly a deafening roar of thunder broke though the laughter and Haley squealed in surprise and ran into Nathan's already outstretched arms.

They continued to rock back and forth as Nathan started to hum a tune. He knew it sounded terrible, she knew it sounded terrible. But they danced to it nonetheless.

"Thanks for not being a prick about this Nate." Haley mumbled, from where her face was pressed against his shoulder.

"Anything for you Haley James." He spoke in a teasing tone, but deep down he knew he was serious.


It was around and hour later when Nathan carried a sleeping Haley out of the tutor centre. She had fallen asleep on him a while ago and when the electricity came back on he didn't have the heart to wake her up. She had had a really tough night.

Meanwhile in their dorm room Brooke and Peyton were staring out their window in concern.

"It's eleven and she's still not back." Peyton said, "Should we try and find her?"

"I'm sure she's fine." Brooke replied, trying to push down her own worry.

"The storm was bad…" Peyton trailed off warily.

"Wait is that her…and Nathan?" Brooke asked, as she saw Nathan approaching the building nestling a limp Haley against his chest. "Pretend to be asleep." Brooke shoved Peyton away from the window and in the direction of her bed.

"Ow!" Peyton exclaimed, "What the hell! Why?"

"I just want to see what he'll do." Brooke exclaimed, "You know you want to know for sure that he likes her."

"I really do." Peyton sighed, before turning off her light as Brooke did the same.

Nathan softly creaked open the door to Haley's dorm room. After checking to make sure both Brooke and Peyton were asleep he entered the room with her. He was actually quite proud of himself for managing to keep her asleep during the entire walk back to her room.

He walked over to Haley's bed at the back corner of the room and sat down on the side resting her in his lap. He then delicately tugged off her shoes and placed them beside her bed. Nathan then pulled back the comforter and detached Haley's small hands from where they were gripping his shirt tightly.

Feeling like a complete pansy he pulled the comforter back up and tucked her into the bed. Nathan then tenderly brushed the honey blonde hair away from her face and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead before turning around to leave the room.

He almost had a heart attack when he turned because both Brooke and Peyton had risen from their beds and were smirking at him widely.

"Hey." Nathan said softly. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to act like him being in their dorm room at eleven at night, tucking their best friend into bed was a completely normal occurrence.

"Please tell me you two got together?" Brooke questioned, lowering her voice when Nathan glared at her.

"It's not like that." Nathan kicked at the ground softly.

"Because you think she doesn't like you, and that you're not good for her." Peyton continued.

Nathan looked up at them in shock, and Peyton knew she had hit the nail right on the head.

"Nate, she's totally into you." Brooke said, "And after that display I sure as hell know you're into her."

A sure giggle erupted from both Brooke and Peyton's mouths as Nathan reddened slightly in the face. That had to be the first time the guy had even come close to blushing.

"It can't happen." Nathan said firmly, before turning and leaving the room much to Brooke and Peyton's dismay.

Haley had already been through enough without him causing her trouble.

AN:
Gosh Nathan how oblivious can you be?!
So this chapter explained quite a bit of Haley's past which I hope although sad you all enjoyed.
Please let me know what you think and I'll update as soon as I can!
Merry Christmas beautiful readers and reviewers!

-Rosie