Hi guys here's the new chapter. Thanks so much for your reviews. They really made my day. This chapter will get the ball rolling in the story so I hope you guys will like it. Let me know what you guys think ok? Love you all. Cheers! ;)

Chapter 10

"Nathan, are you even listening to me?"

"Huh? What?" Nathan was jerked back into reality at the sound of Rachel whining. They were at the mall and he had previously promised to take her shopping. He had thought at that point that it would be a good idea to take his mind of Haley, but now he wasn't so sure. Haley occupied every single cell in his brain and it would take a lot more than shopping to get his mind of her.

"Are you okay? You seem a bit preoccupied ever since the wedding." Rachel looked at him curiously. Ever since their run in with Haley at Brooke and Lucas's wedding, Nathan had been in a broody mood. At the back of her mind, she had guessed the reason for it, but she didn't want to believe it.

"I'm sorry. I was thinking of something else," he said quietly. He couldn't believe that his plan to make Haley jealous by bringing Rachel didn't work the way he planned to be. In fact Haley seemed to take it too well. He believed her when she told him that Michael was just a friend to her, but he was disappointed when she still didn't want to pursue their relationship. Something was stopping her and he didn't have a clue what it was.

"Hey, are you done? I don't feel so good. I think I should head home." He made an excuse to get away from her hoping that she would take the bait. He knew that it was wrong to lead her on like that, but he needed the distraction although at that moment spending time with her was a bit suffocating.

"Yeah, sure," she agreed reluctantly. "Do you want me to keep you company?" she offered.

He shook his head. "No, I just need to lie down. I'm sorry. I'll call you tomorrow and we'll hang out okay?" He knew that Rachel could be easily pacified. Deep down he felt bad. Rachel wasn't a bad girl. Occasionally he did have fun when he hung out with her, but she was no Haley. Thankfully they drove separately to the mall so he didn't have to drive her back.

"Okay, you call me if you need anything okay?" She stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss, but to her disappointment he turned away and she got his cheek instead. She watched him nod and left, leaving her alone in a place pack full of people.

Half an hour later, he slammed the door to his house with a bang. "Dammit!" he yelled in frustration. His heart was aching with the burden he had been carrying. He and Haley hadn't spoken much since the wedding, and every time he called, she was always out doing something, sometimes with Michael which only made him feel worse. He jumped when the door opened and a head poked through.

"Whoa! What did the door do to you to deserve such a fate?" Haley asked.

He looked at her in surprise. "Haley."

She gave him a grin. "Yeah, glad you still remember my name. Who ticked you off anyway?"

"Sorry, it must be the wind," he made up an excuse. He was still reeling from the surprise of her seeing her in his house.

Haley looked back with confusion. "Funny, I didn't feel any wind when I was coming in. Anyway, how are you doing? I haven't seen you much lately."

"Yeah, you're always busy with Michael," he said grudgingly. "What is he, your new best friend now?"

Haley sighed and looked at him guiltily. "Nathan, you know you're my best friend. And it takes two, you know. You haven't exactly been the best-friend-of-the-year lately."

"Hey, I did call," he said indignantly.

"Well I'm sorry. But since when do we need to call to make appointments to hang out? I believe you still know where I live." Haley could feel her temper rising, and they glared at each other angrily. After a few seconds she relented. "You know what, I'm sorry too. It's just that lately I figured that you would be busy with Rachel, so I didn't want to bother you."

"That didn't stop you when I was going out with other girls before," he said, not willing to lose the arguement.

"Nathan, I didn't come here to fight. I came here to see how you're doing, but if that's the attitude you're gonna take, then I'll just leave." She started to turn away when he grabbed her hand.

"Wait, don't go. Sorry I was a jerk."

"Tell me something I don't already know," she muttered sarcastically.

They looked at each other and burst out laughing. He put an arm casually around her shoulders and pulled her closer. "What are you doing here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

They walked together to the couch and sat down. "Yeah, I'm still recuperating from the shock of being tortured by Brooke. That was some wedding. Hey, move your lazy ass and get me a soda," she told him. What she didn't tell him was that she was avoiding Peyton who kept wanting to know what happened between her and Nathan last week. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell her, but Peyton was too close to the gang and she didn't want everybody to know what happened.

"Here," Nathan said, and threw a can of soda at her.

"Oh and while you're at it. Do you have ice cream? This would be so good with ice cream," she pleaded and batted her eyelashes playfully at him.

Nathan looked at her and laughed. "You're unbelievable. Go get your own."

"Please, pretty please." She pouted her lips for effect.

"Fine. Don't move." He rummaged his freezer and found what he was looking for. He was just starting to scoop the ice cream in a bowl when he heard her scream.

"What are you doing?"

He looked at her in confusion, the spoon hanging mid air. "Errr...getting you ice cream." She started to get up from the couch and walked over to him.

"Gimme that," she grabbed the spoon from him and with a shock, he watched her pour the can of soda in the ice cream tub.

"What the hell are you doing?"

She dug the spoon in the tub and happily took a spoonful of ice cream. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Yeah, but the whole tub?"

She glared at him. "Hey, I'm a growing girl. So do you have anything good to watch?" she asked nonchalantly. Inside, her heart was aching as she pretended that everything was alright when in fact it was far from it. He said it himself. He was happy with Rachel. Who was she to take that happiness away?

"I was just thinking of watching Coach Carter," he said as he walked to the dvd closet. He could see her digging in the tub of ice cream from the corner of his eye.

"Again? Haven't you watched it like a million times already?"

He looked at her indignantly. "Hey, it's a cool movie. And that dude Antwon Tanner is in it."

She groaned in exasperation. "Ok fine. Coach Carter it is." He gave her a triumphant smile before inserting the dvd in the player. Having done that, he walked over to the couch and sat next to her with his hand held out.

"What?" Haley asked him.

"Ice cream. Please don't tell me you plan to finish it all by yourself."

She bit her bottom lip and gave him a guilty look. "Emmm sorry. You were late by two seconds."

He looked at her with a bewildered expression on his face. "You finished it? You actually finished a whole tub of ice cream by yourself?" His question was answered by a loud belch. "Oh gross!" he yelled.

She smacked her lips and grinned at him, which took him all of his will not to kiss her then at then. God Haley, what are you doing to me?

"How did you manage to finish the whole thing?" he asked. "You know what, forget it. I don't wanna know. Geez," he muttered. He flicked the dvd player on and they sat in comfortable silence for a long while just watching the screen. In between Haley had managed to dig up some snacks for them to munch on.

Halfway through the movie, he heard her yawn. "Oh my God someone kill me now. Nathan, you're my best friend and I love you but this movie is like some sort of torture device for me."

"How much do you love me?" he asked quietly without looking at her.

She turned to him thinking that she must have heard it wrong. "What did you say?"

"Nothing," he said, dismissing his question. "Ok fine, what do you wanna do?"

"Oh wait. Shit I feel sick. This is all your fault. Why did you let me eat all the ice cream and the four packets of Cheerios?"

"What? What do you mean my fault? You practically hogged them all to yourself. You hit me when I tried to take one, remember?"

"Oh crap," she said before running to the bathroom. A few seconds later she returned, wiping her mouth with a towel.

He looked at her in concern. "Are you ok? You look a little green."

"Yeah, no thanks to you," she muttered. "You should have wrestled the Cheerios from me."

He grinned at her. "No thanks. I have a feeling I would have lost. So what do you wanna do?"

"Hey, didn't you say you've got the new racing game for you Xbox? My hands have been itching to try it out." She had begged him to let her try her hand at it a few months ago but he refused, saying that he wanted to master it first before racing her. Knowing Haley, she would have beat the crap out of him. For a girl, she was pretty good at video games.

"Yeah, why? You wanna try beat me? Bring it on," he said grinning.

A few minutes later a mixture of sounds could be heard in the living room, mostly Nathan yelling at Haley. "You cheat! How did you manage to beat me again?"

Haley shrieked with laughter. "Wow you really suck at this. And you call yourself a guy? You disappoint me Nathan Scott."

"Laugh all you want but I'm gonna get you for this." He pushed her back against the couch and started tickling her, emitting screams and laughter.

"Nathan stop! Help!" He pinned her down on the couch and for a moment there was silence as they stared at each other. "Let me up," she said softly.

Still he didn't move. Before she knew it, he leaned down and kissed her gently on her lips. She laid there paralyzed with the feel of his lips grazing hers. She involuntarily parted her lips, giving him the access he needed making them both moan at the contact. He gently touched her face as he deepened the kiss, their tongues massaging each others. She moaned as pleasure swept through her. She knew that they needed to stop but for the love of God, she didn't want them to.

"God Haley," he groaned in her mouth. He wanted her in every sense of the word. He wanted her body. He wanted her soul. He wanted all of her.

"We should stop," she whispered. "This is wrong. You're with Rachel." Suddenly, the sound of a knock on the door made them both jump. She sat up and straightened herself, just in time for Rachel to walk in. She stopped in the doorway taking the scene before her.

"Rachel, what are you doing here?" Nathan asked, hoping that he sounded as if nothing happened.

Unsure of what to do, she took a tentative step towards him. "I ummm brought you some soup. You said that you were not well." She slowly turned her head towards Haley and said, "hi Haley."

"Hi Rachel," she said nervously. She then turned to Nathan and said, "you should have mentioned that you weren't well, I would've let you rest."

"No, it's fine. I'm fine," he said. Hales, please don't go.

Haley gathered her things and got up. "Well, I'd better be going. I should leave you two lovebirds alone." Just saying those words broke her heart into a million pieces.

"Haley-" Nathan started to say.

She looked at him with vacant eyes. "I'll call you. Bye Rachel," she said and turned to leave, but not before seeing Rachel wrap her arms around Nathan's neck and gave him a kiss. She closed the door quietly behind her and leaned against it, a lump forming in her throat as she thought of what they did. She felt guilt wash over her. He was with Rachel and what they did was wrong.

Inside the house Nathan untangled Rachel's arms from around his neck. "Do you feel better?" Rachel asked. Nathan just nodded. "What's going on in here?" she said looking at the mess around her.

Nathan was lost for words. His mind kept going back to the kiss he and Haley shared just a few moments ago. "Haley came by to say hi," he managed to say. "We haven't been seeing each other much lately so she stopped by to say hi." He knew he was rambling and he prayed that Rachel wouldn't notice.

She looked at him curiously and a thought entered her head which she quickly dismissed. "Oh ok. Do you want some soup? I'll put in a bowl if you want," she offered.

"Yeah, sure," he answered distractedly. He watched her in his kitchen and all he could think of was Haley. Why is everything not going the way I planned it to be? With a sigh, he faked a smile and joined Rachel in the kitchen.

Back at home, Haley felt a throbbing pain in her head as she thought about the afternoon she had. The day had not been going well at all, and it looked like it was not going to get any better anytime soon. Her stomach was still a little bit queasy and she had took it as the 'cocktail' of junk food that she had at Nathan's. She had a slight panic attack as another thought crossed her mind. She contemplated her next course of action and threw a glance at the telephone. She gingerly picked it up before dialing, knowing that Peyton would still be at the office.

"Hi Peyton. It's me. I need a favour."

On the other end of the line, Peyton listened to her friend with a mixture of shock and disbelief. She must have heard her wrong. "Wait hang on Haley. You're talking too fast. Tell me again, slowly this time." She continued listening to Haley without any interruption. When Haley had finished, she gave a long whistle. "Are you sure? Okay. I'll be over as soon as I can."

Haley heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks Peyton. But please don't tell anybody. Promise me."

"I promise. Now hang in there. I might take longer to get there coz I have to make a stop ok," Peyton said before hanging up, a million questions she wanted to ask Haley jumbled in her head. Okay Peyton, one thing at a time. She quickly grabbed her jacket and hastily left her office.

Haley hung up and paced around the room as a sense of foreboding overtook her. She grabbed the phone again and dialed another number. "Hey Michael. Are you busy? Could you come over?"

Michael was having an uneventful day at his office before Haley called him. He looked at the stack of paperwork on his table and contemplated throwing them out of the window, the only thing stopping him was the fact that his staff had been working their asses off trying to make the deal. His company had been in negotiation with another company for a possible takeover for the last couple of months. He had really wanted this to work, although if the deal had gone in his favour, it might take him away from Tree Hill and to Chicago instead.

The phone on his table rang making him jump. "Oh hi Haley. What's up? Nope, not busy at all," he said, turning his back on his paperwork. "What's going on? You sound a bit edgy."

"I'm fine. I think. Listen, could you come over please. I really really need to talk to you and I can't do it over the phone."

Michael listened to her and detected a slight tone of panic in her voice. "Yeah sure. Right now?"

"Could you come in an hour?" Haley bit her bottom lip in anticipation.

Michael grinned. "You know, you might actually save me from killing myself today. I'll be there in an hour."

"Thanks Michael." Haley ran her fingers through her hair and made her way to the couch. She laid there with her eyes closed. What have I done? She groaned as she felt her stomach turning again.

A few minutes later, she heard a knock on the door. "It's open!" she yelled.

Peyton walked in to find her friend rolled up in a ball on the couch. "Hey honey. I got what you wanted. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Haley looked at her with tears brimming in her eyes and nodded silently. Peyton gathered her in hug as if trying to soothe her. "Now do you want to tell me what happened?"

Sorry to leave it hanging like that guys :) You know what to do. Leave me some love!