Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill
The Con
Chapter Ten: Rock and Roll
"Well, you certainly know your way around a pool table," Nathan commended as Taylor potted her fifth ball in a roll.
"She knows her way around the balls!" Tim exclaimed, laughing at his pathetic joke while Jake and Nathan shared a look. Taylor watched the three of them and wondered how three such good looking guys could hang around together. Sure, that Tim guy seemed a bit dim, but the other two were God's gift to womankind. Lucky, lucky Peyton, Taylor thought, wondering why she hadn't snagged Nathan by now as was her right, but then… Well, have you seen Jake?
She rubbed the blue chalk onto the top of the pool cue and leaned over, keeping eye contact with Nathan as she did so. Nathan couldn't seem to look away for a minute, and then as soon as the thwack of the white ball hitting a striped ball, he looked up at the ceiling fan as if some kind of spell had been broken. Taylor smiled to herself. Yeah, she still had it.
Unfortunately, she didn't seem to have the knack of pool anymore, as the ball missed the pocket by about a mile. She took a step back and nodded to Nathan. "All yours."
They had decided that the winner of the first and second matches should play against each other in the third. Taylor had thrashed Tim quite easily, and Nathan had narrowly won Jake by one ball. She was glad it had worked out that way. It made her plan so much easier.
And what was her plan? Well, that was a secret, and she really couldn't tell.
Thwack.
LINE
Haley pulled her coat tighter around herself as she made her way up the path to the hotel's main entrance. Her shift had just finished, and because Taylor had took the rental car to work that morning, Haley had to get the bus back to Wilmington from Carolina. Haley was sick of telling Taylor to get her own rental car, and when the wind was as cold as this, she felt even more angry at her big sister for being so unorganised.
Suddenly a chill that had nothing to do with the cold weather ran down her back. She stopped dead where she was, in the gardens that led up to the entrance lobby. All around her were bushes and trees, and Haley couldn't shake the feeling that… well, that she was being watched.
Oh, get a grip of yourself, Haley, she chastised herself. She could see the hotel security staff now, and there was no way they wouldn't be able to see someone hiding in the bushes.
Well, there's a lot of bushes…
Haley shook her head stubbornly. She was just wound up tight because of Nathan and how anxious she was to see him. Don't you mean to succeed in the con?
"Of course I do," Haley muttered, earning a concerned look from the concierge who opened the door. She smiled brightly up at him hoping he would forget her momentary loss of sanity and walked up to the reception.
"Can I help? Oh! Miss Gregory, do you want your key?" the receptionist asked, a wide, brilliant white smile plastered on her face.
Haley and Taylor had been living here a while now, and as such they were subject to the scrutiny of the staff who wondered why two attractive young women - not related if there second names were anything to go by - were staying unescorted in a hotel. There had been a theory that the two women were 'lovers', but that had been discarded due to the fact that they had twin beds, not a double, and that Nathan Scott had been seen dropping the younger one off in a taxi last night. He had certainly looked smitten as they'd said goodbye.
"Yes please," Haley said, leaning on the desk and feeling the shivers up her spine. She turned around quickly, but the only other people in the lobby were a few guests who looked completely unfamiliar and were engrossed in there own business, the concierge, the receptionist and a night porter.
Haley took her key without a word, determined to ignore the shivers as she ascended the stairs up to her floor. With the way she was feeling, she really didn't feel like getting the lift right now. It was too enclosed, and if anyone was following her - Which they aren't! - then she wold be too exposed in a lift with them. Alone.
She hurried up the corridor to their room, breaking into a run and slipping the key card hastily into the door. The door beeped and a green light showed, before a click indicated the door was open. She rushed in and slammed the door behind her.
"Taylor!" she shouted, running through the suite. She opened the door into the twin room and popped her head in. "Taylor!" No one answered.
Starting to panic now, even though she couldn't give herself a logical reason why, Haley ran through the bedroom into the bathroom. Empty. "Taylor!" she cried. She walked back into the bedroom and stood in the centre of it, not quite sure what to do. She was seconds away from tears but the rational side of her wouldn't allow herself to get hysterical.
She pulled her cell out of her pocket and ran through her phonebook, finally settling on Taylor's number. She pressed it and waited for her big sister to answer with her heart in her throat.
LINE
'The minute you walked in the joint, bah baah
I could see you were a man of distinction, a real big spender!'
"Uh, I think you're ringing," Nathan said, pulling away from the somewhat compromising position he had been in with the pretty red head just moments before. It was his turn for a round, and as he had went to give a beer to Lisa, it had slipped from her hand and they had both bent down to catch it at once. Lisa had lost her footing and toppled onto Nathan, leaving them both lying on the floor in a heap with their faces - and more specifically their mouths - a mere inch apart.
Lisa raised her eyebrows before pulling away. "I never get to have any fun," she whispered so that only Nathan could hear. She pulled herself up and reached into her shirt pocket, pulling out a tiny pink flip phone.
Nathan blinked before getting himself into a sitting position. Tim looked at him with daggers of envy, but Nathan hardly even registered them. Nor did he register what Lisa was saying:
"Um… Ha…Natasha? Yeah, I'm fine, why? I'm just at a bar, getting a few drinks. Look, can we discuss this when I get home? I don't know, I didn't realise I had a curfew… Uh, whatever. Bye Ha… Natasha."
Instead he was just thinking about how close he had come to kissing Lisa, and how disgusted in himself he was.
Sure, the alcohol had been running pretty fluidly, but drunk or not, Nathan hadn't been able to get Haley off his mind, and he couldn't believe he would so easily kiss one girl when his heart belonged to another. After all, hadn't he only just decided that morning that he was in love with the tiny brunette that had came so suddenly into his life?
"My roommate, she's like my mom sometimes, I swear," Lisa said, laughing and taking a swig out of Tim's beer. Nathan looked down at the floor where the two of them had been unable to rescue Lisa's beer in its bid for freedom. It looked about as forlorn as Nathan felt.
"Nathan, what are you still doing down there?"
Nathan's head jolted up as Lisa looked down at him. She offered out her hand and Nathan found himself looking at it. "Um, I'm fine. It's actually… it's really comfortable down here." Idiot!
"Oh? Well, maybe I'll join you," Lisa said, lowering herself down before Nathan had a chance to say no.
Idiot!
Jake looked down at them both with a raised eyebrow. "Fine, I'll stay up here with Tim," he said in a jokey tone that completely flew over Nathan's head.
No, please join us, he silently pleaded. He didn't want to look rude though, so instead he just nodded at Lisa briefly before looking away. Oh, he had had way too much to drink.
"Why are you so quiet all of a sudden? I haven't been able to get you to shut up all night. Wait, this isn't about… what just happened, is it?"
"No!" Nathan protested, even though it totally was. "No, I'm just… I'm thinking about, uh… my girlfriend!" Nathan felt like patting himself on the back over his stroke of genius. Oh yeah, he was good.
"You have a girlfriend?" Lisa asked and to Nathan's relief - oh, okay then, he was a little bit annoyed - she didn't look disappointed. Instead she just smiled even more broadly and leaned in closer. "Wow, lucky girl. What's she like?"
Nathan didn't even have to think up a lie to back up his lie. "She's great," he said, thinking about Haley. "She's sweet, and funny, a little odd, but God, she's beautiful."
Lisa smiled at him, that way girls do when they melt. Nathan lapped it up. He was showing a sensitive side and he wasn't doing it to get laid. My, but he was changing every day!
"How did the two of you meet?" she asked, resting her head on her hands like she was getting ready for a good story.
"Uh, in a coffee shop," he laughed. "she spilt her latte on me and I bought her a new one."
"Wow, a great start," Taylor laughed, only she said it in a way that wasn't sarcastic, more dreamy-eyed and impressed. At least, that's what Nathan liked to believe.
"Nah, it wasn't the greatest start. She said she wasn't ready for a relationship, but there was something about her that just… it clicked, you know? I've never felt that way about any girl before."
Lisa leaned closer to him, but Nathan didn't feel like she was invading his private space. "Do you love her?"
"Yes." Nathan didn't even have to think about it. He was so caught up in his thoughts about Haley that he didn't catch the little glint of triumph in Taylor's eyes.
"Yo, what are you girls doing down there?" Tim asked. "Talking about feelings or something?" He said 'feelings' like it was a naughty word.
"Of course not!" Taylor laughed. "We're talking about manly things like beer and cars and muscles. Isn't that right Nathan?"
Nathan laughed and nodded his head. "Yeah, it is."
LINE
"The doctor said it's just a viral infection," Brooke told Lucas. She had managed to get an appointment at the doctor's office that afternoon - Dr. Nandinski owed her after she had designed his wife's wedding dress - and he had told her what she was pretty much expecting to hear. "I have to take some antibiotics and it'll clear right up."
Lucas came into the front room with a glass of soda water. "Here, drink this. It should settle your stomach."
Brooke looked at the glass with disgust but drank it anyway. Uh, she hated fizzy water. She didn't see the point of it. It scratched your throat and you didn't even get the sugar to make up for it. "Another one of your mom's prescriptions?" she asked. She loved her mother-in-law-to-be, but she still hadn't completely forgiven her for the time Karen had made her drink Whiskey to cure her cold. It had worked, but Brooke had been coughing and spluttering for an hour while her chest burnt.
Lucas laughed and sat down on the couch beside her. "So, you've had a rough day then, huh?"
Brooke leant into Lucas' strong chest and nuzzled her nose in his t-shirt, smelling his scent. "I don't know, it wasn't so bad today. I'm not throwing up anymore, I just feel like I'm going to any minute. It's a shame because I totally love what I'm doing otherwise. Do you know I went shopping for Five hours today? And I don't even feel guilty because it was entirely for the ball! How cool is that?"
"Very cool pretty girl," Lucas laughed, stroking her soft hair. "How about you choose what we watch tonight?"
Brooke looked up at him, her eyes watering. "But, it's your turn," she said softly. Lucas chuckled at his fiancée.
"Yeah well, you deserve it after all those tedious hours shopping. I swear, I won't even argue once."
"Oh Lucas!" Brooke cried, hugging him. "That is so sweet. What did I do to deserve you, huh?"
"Just choose a DVD!" Lucas laughed.
"Fine, we'll watch… Dead Poet's Society."
"But you don't even like that," Lucas protested.
"Shh! You said you wouldn't argue, remember? Now put it on."
"I love you."
"Love you too."
LINE
"One, two, three, GO!"
As one, Nathan, Tim and Lisa licked the salt off their wrist, downed a shot glass of tequila and then bit on a lemon.
"Ah, hit's the spot," Lisa laughed with a sour look on her face. Nathan was going for the manly silence thing, and Tim was jumping up and down.
"My taste buds! I can't feel my taste buds!"
Nathan and Lisa looked at each other and burst out laughing. It was nearly midnight and Nathan and Tim had been here since three in the afternoon, with Lisa since six. Tim had left an hour ago claiming he needed to be up early in the morning.
Nathan took a swig of the scotch he had ordered - though he couldn't remember why he had ordered it, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.
"I am so wasted," Lisa laughed, leaning onto him and nearly falling off her chair. Nathan turned and grabbed her by the waist, trying to steady her.
"Whoa there," he said. "Try not to fall."
Lisa burst out laughing at that, as if it was the funniest thing she had ever heard in her life. "I'll try, but I may not be able to succee…" She couldn't finish as she burst out laughing again. Nathan looked over to Tim to see if he was the only one missing the joke, but Tim was still jumping up and down and whimpering.
Suddenly, a song came on the juke box and Lisa jumped up excitedly. "Oh my God! I love this song! Dance with me! Nathan, Tim! Dance with me!"
Nathan wondered when she had started speaking solely in exclamations, but couldn't be bothered to protest as Lisa grabbed his hand and yanked him up to the dance floor. He looked back to see that Tim was still jumping up and down.
"An' I could tell it wouldn't be long till he was with me, YEAH ME! SINGIN'" Lisa sang along, closing her eyes and shaking her head. Nathan stood awkwardly. God, he hated dancing to songs like this.
I love rock and roll, put another dime in the jukebox baby,
I love rock and roll, so come an' take your time an' dance with me!
Taylor put her hands up in the air and moved closer to Nathan, her eyes still closed as she swayed her hips to the music.
He smiled so I got up and asked for his name.
That doesn't matter he said, 'cause it's all the same
She lowered her arms over Nathan's head and moved them down until the were on his hips, still swaying in time to the music.
Said can I take you home, where we can be alone.
An' next we were moving on, he was with me, yeah me!
Next we were moving on and he was with me, yeah me! Singin'…
She was so close now that she was pushed up against him. Her eyes closed and lost in the music. Nathan tried to move a little in something that passed for a dance, but Taylor didn't seem to notice. She turned away from him but pushed even closer, gyrating against him.
I love rock and roll, so put another dime in the juke box baby!
I love rock and roll, so come an' take a second an' dance with me.
She turned back to face him, her eyes open now and her mouth smiling. She took Nathan's hand and waved them up with hers. Nathan laughed at the spectacle he was making of himself as a couple of old men in cowboy hats started wolf-whistling.
Said can I take you home, so we can be alone…
She moved their arms down together and put his hand on her waist.
An' we'll be moving on and singing that same old song,
With me, singin'…
She leaned up towards him, and Nathan was so lost in trying to control his two left feet that he didn't really notice.
I love rock and roll, so put another dime in the jukebox baby!
Her lips came crashing on his and he didn't think about it as he kissed her back, the alcohol in his system rushing up to his head as he imagined he was kissing Haley, and his hands moving up her back and tangling in her hair.
I love rock and roll, so come an' take your time an' dance with me.
AN: So… I expect you all hate me then? I'm sorry! I had to do it! I've had the plot typed up forever and I was so tempted to forgo this bit, but then I would have to change loads of stuff in the future and, really, it's worth it more this way.
So, please don't hate me? Please? Feel free to hate Taylor though. I do at the moment.
Please RandR xxx
