A/N: Once again thanks to everyone who keeps reading and especially those who keep reviewing. As always your feedback is awesome. I love you guys.
I apologize ahead of time for this chapter. You'll understand why as you read.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.
Nathan made his way over to Peyton's locker, knowing she was probably mad at him for last night. Their practice had run longer than the cheer practice, since Whitey wanted them prepared for their game against Bear Creek on Thursday. Nathan had told her he'd go over right after practice but he hadn't gone.
He leaned against the locker beside her. "Hey," he said in greeting.
Peyton just glanced at him and turned away, her expression withdrawn. She fiddled around with her books, taking out the binder she'd need for her first class and slammed her locker shut.
"I guess you're mad at me, huh?" Nathan asked.
She threw him a look that indicated how stupid she considered his question.
Nathan sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't show up last night. I meant to but…"
"Let me guess," Peyton finally spoke. "The guys wanted to tip a few," she replied dryly.
"Well yeah," he admitted. " Practice was brutal. Whitey's really killing us."
Peyton didn't respond. Instead she started walking away. Until Nathan grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty classroom.
"Would you let me explain?"
"You just did."
"Peyton, don't be like that. I thought you'd understand."
"I would have if you'd called to let me know."
"What, I need to let you know where I am every minute of the day?"
"It's not that and you know it. We had plans Nathan."
"Just to hang out. What's the big deal?"
"The big deal is I waited for you when I could have made other plans too."
"Like what?"
"Like going to the movies with Brooke and Rachel. They asked me but I told them I already had plans with you."
Nathan sighed. "I'm sorry, ok? You're right, I should have called."
"At the very least," she said sourly.
"I'm really sorry, Peyton"
"You know, sorry's getting really old."
"I know. I'm sorry," her repeated with a smirk, producing a small smile from her lips.
Noting that her anger had slightly diminished, he took the opportunity to pull her in closer. He lifted his hand and gently placed a stray blond lock behind her ear. "You forgive me?" he asked.
"Don't I always?" she responded.
"You're still mad." He pointed out, judging by the stiffness in her posture.
She looked down. She wasn't mad exactly, but more disappointed and worried. It was starting again. She knew it. Their blissful moments, minus the bet argument, had lasted a little more than a week and now it was time for the cycle to start all over again. She hated it, but she'd known this time would come. It always did. It would start off small, like him standing her up, and then escalate from there to criticism, constant bickering, and worst of all – cheating. Once again, this time wouldn't be different than any other time.
But when he lifted her chin to stare intently into her eyes, she got lost in those deep blue orbs. She would forgive him for all of it. Of course she would. She would forgive him anything. Anything at all. She loved him and there was nothing he could do that would ever change that.
When Nathan felt her relax in his arms, he drew her in for a long, passionate kiss. His one hand wrapped around her waist, while the other buried itself in her hair. His tongue slid into her mouth, and met hers.
Just as they were really getting lost in each other the door opened and in walked Mouth and Jimmy. They pulled apart from each other and glanced at the cause of their disruption. Peyton felt her cheeks redden at the prospect of a teacher walking in on them, but sighed in relief when it wasn't. Not that she disapproved of PDA, but this had been a heavy make-out session that she preferred her teachers didn't witness.
Nathan was just annoyed. He threw Mouth and Jimmy a scornful look. "Something you want?" he asked sourly.
"Uh, this is our classroom," Mouth replied a little shakily.
Nathan glanced at the clock. "You got five minutes still. Beat it, nerds," he ordered, slightly pushing them out of the doorway and closing the door again.
"Nathan!" Peyton rebuked harshly. " That was rude. Why do you have to be such a jerk?"
"Because I'm not done kissing you yet," he answered with a smirk, stopping any comment she was about to make as his lips once more crashed into hers.
All logical thought escaped her mind as she kissed back. He could always do this; make her forget everything and anything.
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"What an ass!" Jimmy mumbled. "Just because he's the star of the Ravens, he thinks he owns the damn school."
Mouth nodded. "Yeah, and being rich, good looking and popular doesn't help."
"So that makes him better than us? More important?"
"In his eyes, yeah."
"And everyone else's too." Jimmy shook his head. "I wonder what it would be like to be him, just for a day. You know?"
"I bet it'd be great. All kinds of money to spend, your pick of all the most beautiful girls, having the spotlight on you every time you step on a basketball court. That would be the life," Mouth said reflectively.
"You'd never have to worry about anything. Wouldn't that be awesome?" Jimmy said.
"Yeah. I wonder if we'd be rude assholes too."
"We'd have to be," Jimmy said reasonably. "Comes with the territory I think."
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Damien rubbed his temples as the teacher played a movie about electricity at the front of the classroom.
"Headache?" Peyton, who sat next to him, asked.
He nodded in response.
"Serves you right for getting wasted on a school night," she teased lightly.
"How'd you know I got wasted?"
"Lucky guess?" she mocked. "Nathan told me you guys went out drinking last night. Of course I wasn't invited."
Damien's eyebrows lifted. That was news to him. "Neither was I."
"What?" Peyton asked, her face falling.
Hiding the pleasure the situation gave him, he tried to look casual. "I asked Nate to go for a drink, but he said he had other plans," Damien shrugged. "I assumed they were with you."
"Umm, yeah, he was supposed to come over, but he never showed."
"I'm sure he had a good reason," Damien told her, doing his best to sound nonchalant. He turned around to the person behind him. "Hey Tim, you and Nate go for drinks after practice last night?"
Tim shook his head. "Nope. He said he was going to Peyton's."
Damien turned back around and shrugged. "Like I said, I'm sure there's a good explanation."
"Yeah," Peyton said positively. She really didn't care to discuss this with Damien. Nathan had lied to her about where he was last night. She really wanted to believe there was a simple explanation. One that didn't involve another girl. But unfortunately history spoke volumes and had a tendency to repeat itself.
"You alright?" Damien asked, sounding concerned.
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, her voice sounding hollow, even to her own ears. But all she wanted to do was go home, turn on her stereo, curl up in a ball and cry. Slapping Nathan silly was a close second.
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Nathan closed his eyes as Mrs. Peters gave a lecture on the novel they'd been reading. Or supposed to have been reading.
"Tomorrow there will be a quiz on chapters one through six so if anyone's behind in their reading, I would suggest you get caught up. Mr. Scott! Are we keeping you up?"
Nathan opened his eyes. "No. Just the opposite, actually," he said in monotone.
There were snickers heard from several of the students.
"Well, since you find this class so boring, perhaps you'd like to finish it in the Principal's office," Mrs. Peters snapped sharply.
Nathan rolled his eyes and slowly picked himself up to indicate that she had his attention and that a trip to Principal Turner's office wouldn't be necessary.
"Okay, now where were we?" the teacher asked. "Oh yes, the quiz…"
Nathan's mind inevitably wandered, but this time he kept his eyes open. Next week was Peyton's birthday and he couldn't wait to see her face when he gave her the tickets to the benefit concert coming up in three weeks time. He'd wracked his brain trying to come up with a gift that wasn't lame. One she would LOVE rather than just accept with a fake smile. And just when he'd thought it was hopeless and decided to just get her jewelry, she'd mentioned that concert and how disappointed she was that the tickets were all sold out. He'd played it cool and purposely seemed disinterested, but since then he'd been on a mission to score tickets and finally it had paid off. Last night one of his sources contacted him on his cell phone to tell him he had 2 tickets available. He'd had to pay 3 times the price for them but that was fine. Then the guy had insisted he come pick them up immediately. It was a two-hour drive, so Nathan had tried convincing him to hold onto them another day. However, the guy refused and said he'd go to another customer if Nathan wasn't there by 10:00. There were tons of people who wanted those tickets, which left Nathan no room for negotiations. Finally he'd agreed to go, knowing full well Peyton would be upset when he stood her up.
But he knew also that he could talk his way out of that. No matter how old she claimed his apologies were, they still worked. Next week he would tell her the truth. He and Tyler had taken the drive down immediately following practice, arriving in record time by breaking all kinds of speeding limits, something Peyton would definitely nag him about if she knew. But he wouldn't tell her that part.
He'd considered asking Tim to go as well, but thought better of it, knowing Tim's tendency for spilling secrets.
He supposed he could have called Peyton to let her know he wouldn't be going over, but then he would have had to answer why and he didn't want to risk her wanting to come over or something. It was just easier not to go.
"Mr. Scott!"
He jolted out of his reverie by the teacher's loud, screechy voice. "What?"
"Why did Samantha not want to return to her hometown?"
"Who?" he asked in confusion.
Mrs. Peters sighed. "Samantha. From the book. Why didn't she want to go home?"
Nathan shrugged. Truth was he hadn't read a single word of the book – had planned on renting the movie if there was one. "She hates her parents? Doesn't want to see her ex? I don't know. I didn't read it," he admitted.
"Well, I suggest you start since there's…"
" A quiz tomorrow, I know," he replied.
"Yes. Looks like you'll be doing a lot of reading tonight."
'No, looks like I'm renting that movie tonight' he thought to himself.
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It was another grueling session at practice tonight. Whitey informed the team there would be another tomorrow as well. They needed to be ready to play Bear Creek, who, like the Ravens, were also undefeated this season. The practice went quite well, despite the fact that there was still tension between Lucas and the rest of the team. The news that Tim had beat up Lucas was all over the school now, with slightly different variations of the event. Luke just ignored it all, as difficult as it was to do so. In turn, most of the team ignored him right back.
When practice was over, all the boys were exhausted. Nathan was kind of glad that Peyton had made plans to go out with Rachel and Theresa tonight, since all he wanted to do was go home and crash. And he still had to go find that stupid movie for English, and then watch it.
Nathan stripped down to his boxers, and put the DVD in. He'd had to go to three different stores, but much to his relief, he'd finally found it. He laid down on his bed, his arms tucked under his head and prepared himself to be bored out of his mind.
Midway through, there was a soft knock on his bedroom door. "Yeah?" he answered without getting up. He watched as the door slowly opened and Katherine Sanders, a pretty brunette from his physics class, poked her head in.
"Hey Katie," Nathan greeted. "What's up?"
She entered the room fully and closed the door behind her. "Funny you should ask that," she said seductively, as she immediately began unbuttoning her blouse.
Nathan propped himself up on his elbows and watched her movements, desire already stirring in him. He was no longer tired. He'd hit his second wind. He smirked at her. "You don't waste any time, do you?"
"No," she answered. "You've been avoiding me long enough," she added, coming over to the bed once she'd removed her shirt. Her bra followed and she got up on top of him.
"I haven't been avoiding you," he said hoarsely.
"You blew me off at the bowling alley and again yesterday," she contradicted him. "So tonight, I'm making sure you can't."
Gladly turning off the movie, he reached his hands up to touch the soft mounds of her exposed skin, causing a soft moan to escape her lips.
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"Peyton, what's wrong?" Rachel asked as she, Peyton and Theresa drove home from the movies. "And don't say nothing," Rachel said. "Because I know it's something."
"I don't really want to talk about it, ok?"
"Is it Nathan? Did he do something?"
"Don't worry about it, Rachel. I can handle it."
"Ok," Rachel conceded.
No one spoke again until Peyton pulled in Rachel's driveway.
"Thanks for the ride," she said. "See you tomorrow," she told both the girls. "And Peyton, if you need to talk, you know where I am."
Peyton nodded gratefully. "Thanks. I may take you up on that one day."
"You better," Rachel responded before heading toward her house.
"You know, Peyton," Theresa started, once they'd begun driving again. "you don't have to talk about it, but if what's bothering you is about Nathan, I just want you to know that he really loves you."
Peyton sneered at the girl's comment. Theresa had always run in her circle, but she'd never been extremely close to the girl. She was getting to know her better now since she was dating Tyler and he and Nathan were really close friends.
"I'm serious," Theresa insisted.
For some reason, the girl's words irritated her. "If that's true, then why is he always off screwing one skank or another?"
"I don't know," Theresa answered honestly. "I really don't understand him. You don't deserve that. I know he loves you though. Just the way he looks at you, I can tell his feelings are real, so I don't know why he has to act like such a jerk sometimes. "
Peyton softened at her honesty and genuine compassion. "I think he was with someone last night," Peyton admitted, not exactly sure why.
Theresa shook her head. "He was with me and Tyler last night."
Peyton pulled into Theresa's driveway and put the car in park. Relief and hope swept over her at the other girl's words. "Really? He said he went out with the guys."
"I know," Theresa responded. "Look, he had a really good reason to be with us. I can't tell you any of the details, or at least not yet, but I can promise you he wasn't with some skank. I swear."
For some reason Peyton believed her. Maybe it was her heart talking, but she believed her. Nathan hadn't been with another girl last night. "Seriously?" Peyton asked, just to be certain.
"Seriously," Theresa answered.
Peyton's face broke into a huge grin. She couldn't have been happier if she'd won the lottery. She felt like she had.
Once Theresa was inside, Peyton decided to go over to Nathan's house. She wanted to see him so badly. She was so relieved that she hadn't outright accused him of cheating, only to find out he hadn't. She was glad she'd been able to hold her tongue and keep her suspicions from him. She felt like she was on top of the world as she turned her car in the direction of his house.
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Nathan groaned and grabbed the brunette by the hips, increasing the tempo of his thrusts as he neared his climax. She screamed out his name over and over as she reached her own. He followed suit soon after and she plopped down beside him.
He looked down at his chest and stomach, which had now begun to burn. "Geez, you're like a cat. You really need to cut your nails," he said when he noticed all the scratch marks.
She laughed at him. "What can I say?" she returned. "You're an awesome fuck."
He smirked at her. "Obviously."
She returned his smile. "Ready for round two?"
"Always."
A/N: I'm thinking you all understand my apology now. I know I hinted at it already but I never showed it until now. Don't hate me too much…lol. You can smack Nathan if you want to. That may be just what it takes for him to get his act together…lol. But it's my birthday today so please don't take Nathan's behavior out on me…hehe. I'm just kidding. Go ahead and tell me anything, good or bad.