Hey everyone, thank you so much for the reviews! Keep it up! I don't really have anything else to say other than I hope you like chapter 13...
P.S. I'm sorry this is late, but in my defense I did update it last night. I don't know what happened, but I think the site got screwed up some how and thought I didn't update? Who knows...
Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.
Summary: After 4 years, Nathan, Haley, Brooke, Lucas, Peyton, and Tim are heading back to the beach for another summer of fun. Some hold secrets, some have suffered through heartbreaks, and some are their same old selves. They will encounter a few familiar faces and unimaginable surprises as they return to the past in this sequel to "A Summer to Remember."
Return to the Past
Chapter 13
"So, do you want your present now? Or when we get back home?" Nathan asked after handing his menu to the waitress. They were sitting across from each other at a nice restaurant, waiting while their meals were cooked.
"Home, it will be more special at home." Haley concluded with a smile. She would prefer to open her present at home because with the way her hormones had been so crazy lately, she was sure to cry. The last thing she wanted to do in this fancy restaurant was make a scene.
"That's probably a good idea since you're going to love it so much." Nathan teased. "You'll probably want to start kissing me."
"Oh really?" Haley laughed. "Well, what makes you think that you have to give me a gift for me to want to kiss you?"
"Nothing really. I've just noticed that I always end up with a kiss after I give you something." Nathan smirked.
"Nathan! Is that why you spoil me? So I'll give you kisses?" Haley asked playfully as he nodded his head. "Huh. Well, tonight I'll give you a kiss just because I love you."
"Sound's good." He smirked. "When do I get this kiss?"
"I don't know." Haley responded coyly. "When you least expect it."
"Oh, ok." He laughed. Just then, a tall red head walked by and both Nathan and Haley had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't the person that they thought it was. Thankfully, when the woman turned around, they both realized that they had been mistaken. "I seriously thought that girl was Rachel for a minute." Nathan laughed when he looked back over at Haley.
"Me too! Thank God it wasn't. That would have ended ugly." Haley laughed with him. She and Rachel weren't exactly best friends. Not only did Rachel make fun of her poncho, for which she had completely forgiven Nathan but still held a grudge against his read-headed friend, but Rachel had been a full on brat during their entire senior year.
Almost 4 years ago…
Haley took a deep breath as she stepped out of Nathan's car. It was the first day of their senior year of high school and Nathan had insisted that he drive her so she didn't have to take the bus. They both knew that people would instantly notice their relationship and many of them probably wouldn't understand it at first.
"You ready?" Nathan asked as he grabbed her backpack out of the back seat and draped it over his shoulder with his.
"Yeah. Just promise me that you'll ignore all the girls that are going to hit on you?" She smiled. It was weird that just the year before, she had never really talked to Nathan, and now she was madly in love with him. She really wasn't worried about what other people were going to say about them being together. What did make her a little uncomfortable though was the way that she knew that probably half the girls in the school were going to throw themselves at him before the day was over. She had learned a long time ago that that was a typical occurrence in the life of Nathan Scott.
"I can't do that." Nathan responded coyly as she gave him a puzzled look. "Well, what if you hit on me?"
"Oh, you're funny." She said sarcastically as he started laughing and took her hand into his.
"Nathan, hey!" A female voice called from behind them as soon as they entered the school building.
"Let the fun begin." Haley mumbled, already recognizing the voice as belonging to none other than Rachel Gattina. Rachel was probably the one person in the world other than Chris Keller that Haley had no patience for. Ever since the poncho incident freshman year, Rachel had done nothing but antagonize her.
"Hi Rachel." Nathan let out in more of a groan than a friendly voice.
"Haley? Is that you?" Rachel asked in a fake polite voice as she stared at Haley next to Nathan. Of course she knew that it was Haley, she just couldn't figure out why she was holding Nathan's hand.
"Hey Rachel." Haley said flatly, not even pretending to like the girl.
"Forgive me for being blunt, but why are you contaminating poor Nathan's hand?" Rachel giggled.
"Rachel…" Nathan sighed. He knew that there were only a few people in the school that would give Haley a hard time about being with him, and Rachel was one of them. Ever since freshman year, she had acted as if she owned him. She always got strangely possessive when he was with other girls. It annoyed the hell out of him.
"I wasn't aware that I'm not allowed to hold my boyfriend's hand." Haley said back coolly.
Rachel would have choked or something if she had been eating. What did Haley just say? "I'm sorry. What?"
"You heard me." Haley said back. "He's my boyfriend."
Rachel's mouth fell to the floor. Now Haley was going to get it. Nathan hated when girls called him their 'boyfriend'. She should know, she had made that mistake once and he had rejected her instantaneously. No, Nathan Scott didn't do the whole boyfriend girlfriend thing, and now Haley was going to be kicked to the curb. This was going to be good. "Really?" She smirked.
"Yeah…" Haley said warily. Why was Rachel looking at her like that?
"Somehow I doubt that. Nathan's more of a no strings attached kind of guy."
"I'm actually right here, so…yeah." Nathan said, amused by the scene in front of him. He had to admit, feisty Haley was definitely hot.
"How would you know?" Haley spat back. "You only went out with him once."
"Which I'd venture to say is one more time than you did. I mean, come on, what bet could he have possibly lost that would make him damage his reputation by walking into school holding your hand? Don't forget that he saw you in that ugly poncho." Rachel laughed.
"Ok, Rachel. That's enough." Nathan interjected. As much as he would have liked to see Haley bite Rachel's head off, he didn't want to hear Rachel saying this stuff to her anymore. "Haley's serious. She is my girlfriend."
Rachel was momentarily dumbfounded. Did Nathan just use the word 'girlfriend'? She wasn't sure if she had ever actually heard him say that word…ever. "Wait, Haley is your girlfriend?" She still couldn't believe what she was hearing. Why Haley? Haley was so…normal.
Nathan nodded his head right before the warning bell rang, telling them that they had 5 minutes to get to their first classes. "We actually need to go, so…"
"I can't believe this." Rachel mumbled. She had worked so hard for the last three years to get Nathan to go out with her, and then Haley snags him after just one summer? It didn't make sense. 'She must be pregnant,' Rachel thought. Then, an idea came to her just as Nathan and Haley turned to head down the hall. They would not be allowed to be happy about being together. If she couldn't be with Nathan, then no one could, at least not happily. She took her hands up to her mouth, creating a makeshift megaphone, and then shouted at the top of her lungs. "Nathan Scott got Haley James pregnant!"
Present…
The rest of that year, Rachel had made it her purpose in life to spread ridiculous rumors about both Nathan and Haley. Fortunately, people rarely believed them after about a week. Senior year had been very interesting in the way that Rachel had really been the biggest form of resistance that they met. Sure, there were quite a few girls who were visibly jealous when they heard the news of Nathan and Haley dating, but for the most part, everyone was accepting.
"Baby, you know you like Rachel." Nathan joked. He knew that if there was one person in the world that Haley would pray to God would get stuck in a Siberian ice storm, it was Rachel Gattina.
"Yeah, about as much as I like blood. They both repulse me." She smiled.
"Remember the day that she left for UCLA?" He smiled.
"How could I forget, that was the third happiest day of my life." She laughed.
"Third happiest?" Nathan chuckled. "What were the first two?"
"Our wedding day, and the day we found out about the baby." She responded with a smile, her eyes shining.
"What do you know? Those are mine too." He said with a grin.
"What was the third happiest day of your life?" She asked, genuinely interested to know. Surprisingly, this was one thing that they had never talked about before.
"Honestly?" He asked and she nodded in return. "The day my dad went to jail." He wasn't really proud to say that he was happy about his own father going to jail, but it was the truth. Once Dan was taken behind those bars, he had felt an overwhelming sense of relief. It was then that he knew that Dan wouldn't be able to hurt him or anyone else he cared about ever again.
Haley reached her hand over the table to squeeze his hand reassuringly. She knew how he felt about Dan and she also knew that he was ashamed that he hated his own father. Before she could say anything, the waitress retuned with their food. "That was fast." She commented as the woman set the plate of salmon in front of her. She had had a craving for salmon all week, now she could eat some.
"Mr. Scott?" The light haired lady asked after setting Nathan's steak on the table in front of him.
"Yeah?" Nathan asked confused, he had never told this woman his name. Haley watched the waitress too, obviously aware of the fact that she seemed to know Nathan's name before he told it to her.
"I'm sorry. I know you're in the middle of a private dinner; it's just that my son is a really big fan. He has a picture of you on his wall and he requested your number as his when I signed him up for little league basketball, and it would really mean a lot to him if I got an autograph for him. You can just sign a napkin if you want, he wouldn't care-"
"Sure, do you have a pen?" Nathan asked. When the woman nodded and produced a black pen from her apron, he turned to his wife. "Hales, do you have a piece of paper?"
"Of course I do." She smiled as she reached into her purse. She wasn't called 'Tutor Girl' for nothing.
Nathan laughed when she ripped out a piece of paper from a Scooby-Doo notebook. "You're a weirdo."
"Shut up, you love me." Haley smiled. "What's your son's name?" She asked the woman as Nathan began to write a note to the little boy.
"His name is Brady. He's 6 years old." She beamed and Haley couldn't help but think that she would be like that soon. Soon she would have a child to talk about to others. "Thank you so much, he will really love it!" She smiled as she stuffed the note in her apron. "I've got some other tables to get to, but I'll be back soon to make sure you have everything you need."
With that, she hurried off and Nathan turned to look at Haley who was smiling brightly at him. "What?" He laughed.
"Don't 'what' me Nathan Scott. You're famous!" She joked. "I knew I was doing a good thing by marrying you."
"I am not famous. It was for a kid, nothing that special." He smiled.
"It was to me." She giggled before stuffing a bite of salmon into her mouth.
"Why is that?" He had to admit that being recognized like that was fun and he loved knowing that he was someone's role model. It made him feel like he was actually making a difference in the world or something, even though all he was doing was playing college basketball.
"Because, I'm so proud of you when things like that happen. I mean, I'm always proud of you, but I love to see you get credit for how much effort you put into basketball." She smiled.
"That was pretty cool, wasn't it?" He chuckled. It made him feel really good to know that somewhere out there a child looked up to him.
"Yeah, it was." Haley laughed.
Nathan carried the to-go-boxes that Haley insisted that they bring home as they walked up to their condo after dinner. Nathan set the bag of to-go-boxes on the ground as he stuck his hand in his pocket in search of his key. Upon finding it, he moved to stick the key into the door but just before he was able to, Haley stepping front of him and pulled his face down to hers in a sweet kiss. "Was that my 'I love you' kiss?" He smirked after she pulled away from him.
"No." Haley smiled as her eyes glowed mischievously. "That was just the kiss before the kiss." She added coyly as she took the key from his hand and unlocked the condo door. They both stepped inside, not surprised to find Tim missing; it was a Friday night after all. "Hold on, I need to get your present."
"Where did you hide it?" Nathan asked in interest. He had looked everywhere, under the bed, in between the couch cushions, on top of the refrigerator, but had still not been able to find it.
"I hid it where I knew you wouldn't look." She smiled as she opened the refrigerator door and bent down to pull open the vegetable drawer.
She put it in the fridge?! Damn it, why didn't I look there? "Well, I'll look there from now on." He laughed. "I mean, cookie dough, presents, what else are you hiding in there? For all I know there's a puppy sitting next to the broccoli."
"Sorry, no puppy." She smiled as she pulled an envelope out and closed the refrigerator. "Now, sit down so I can give you your present."
"Wait, I have to go get yours." He laughed as he made his way into the bedroom where he had hidden the expensive gift. Luckily, he didn't end up having to pay 1,000 dollars for the necklace, but what he paid still wasn't cheap.
Haley could hear him rustling through clothes in the other room and decided that he must have hidden it in a dresser drawer. He was such an amateur. It's a good thing that she didn't go looking for her gift because his sock drawer would have been where she started.
When he came out of the bedroom, she was absentmindedly doodling on the outside of the envelope and he chuckled to himself as he plopped down on the couch. He wanted to see this impromptu drawing; he knew as well as anybody that Haley had very low artistic abilities. When she walked over to sit on the opposite end of the couch, Nathan quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her on top of him. Haley giggled when she landed in his lap and quickly kissed him on the nose. "I want you to open yours first."
"Whatever you say." Nathan conceded gladly. He had overheard Brooke and Haley talking about whatever it was that she got him a few days ago. They said something about a "tip" which made him very curious.
Haley handed him the envelope and Nathan stared at the cover for a few moments. Never in his life had he seen such beautiful art work. It simply said 'I love you' in a bunch of squiggly lines, but it was enough to make him feel like the drawing on the front, which she had done a few minutes ago with her spare time, was the entire present. He put his arm around her waist and kissed her bare shoulder before smiling up at her. "I love you too."
"Don't forget to read the card first." She reminded him playfully as he opened the white envelope and reached his hand in.
After smiling playfully in response to her instructions, he pulled out the card. His eyes slowly scanned over the extremely long note she had written and he smiled at all of the beautiful things she had said. God, he loved her. "I love it. I think that was my favorite card ever." He smiled at her.
"Aw, you're so sweet. Now open the present." She demanded impatiently. She knew that he was going to love this gift and she was excited to see his reaction after working so hard to get it.
Nathan chuckled as he reached his hand into the envelope again, this time pulling out what seemed to be a small piece of thick paper wrapped in tissue paper. Nathan looked at her inquisitively and proceeded to remove the tissue paper when she gave him an encouraging look. He pulled the gift from the wrapping paper and his mouth fell open at what he saw. "These are Bobcats tickets."
"I know. Do you like it?" She asked excitedly, already knowing that he did.
"Hales, how did you get these? This game has been sold out for months." He laughed happily as he studied the two tickets in his hand. They were for the second row for the Charlotte Bobcats game against the Atlanta Hawks 2 weeks from now in Jacksonville.
"I'm actually not sure. Brooke knows somebody who knows somebody. She said that as long as you are there by the tip off she can arrange for you to have floor seats." Haley grimaced, trying to remember what Brooke said. She knew the rules of basketball and everything from watching Lucas and Nathan play so many times, but she still got confused when anyone talked about professional games. It was as if those people had their own set of rules.
"Wait, you're not coming with me?" Nathan asked curiously. She had said 'you' instead of 'we'.
"Nathan, you know how much I love to watch you play right?" She giggled and he nodded his head. "And you know that I really don't enjoy watching anyone but you or Lucas play, right?" Nathan nodded again, starting to see where this was going. "Well, I figured that you would have more fun going with someone who appreciates basketball so I invited Tim to go with you. Then I threatened to burn his Buzz Lightyear pillow if he told you."
Nathan laughed. She had no idea how alike they truly were… "Thank you so much. I love it." He smiled as he pulled her in close for a kiss. "You're definitely the best wife ever."
"I know." She joked. "Now hand it over." Nathan chuckled as she held out her hands playfully in order to receive his gift which looked to be wrapped professionally. She couldn't help but laugh a little as she saw the perfect bow made out of ribbon that was sitting on top of the small box. "So, you wrapped this yourself?"
"Nah, the store did that." He smiled, knowing she was joking about the wrapping. It was quite obvious that no man wrapped that gift.
"Oh." She nodded knowingly and with a large grin as she opened the card. "Nathan!" She scolded playfully as she read the first couple of sentences and he burst out into laughter.
"I knew you'd like the beginning." He joked as she gave him a playful shove. "We can do that later if you want."
Haley smiled at him mischievously before answering. "Sounds like a plan."
"Really? Even the part about handcuffs?" He raised his eyebrow before laughing again.
"What?! I hadn't gotten to that part yet!" She laughed. "Nathan Scott, you are such a bad boy." She continued to giggle as she read through the rest of his note and by the end she was sniffling and trying to hold back tears. "That was so sweet." She said as she gave him a warm smile. "You're definitely my favorite husband too." She joked in reference to the last line of his card.
"Thanks." He laughed as she began to gently tear the wrapping paper off of the small box. "You know, we don't have to save the wrapping paper or anything." He teased.
"It's so pretty though." She concluded. "I would feel bad if I just ripped it up, especially since trees had to die to make it." Nathan chuckled at her antics as she removed the single piece of wrapping paper and set it on the coffee table. "Oh my Gosh." She whispered when she opened the small box and saw the beautiful necklace sitting inside. "Nathan, it's gorgeous."
"I'm glad you think so." He smiled as she removed the necklace from the box to get a better look at it. "The lady told me that this is actually a special necklace because we can add another diamond to it on every one of our anniversaries."
"Really?" She asked with a smile. That was an amazing idea. She started to cry now, mainly from the hormones.
"Why are you crying?" Nathan asked softly, trying to keep from laughing at her sudden mood swing.
"I…I don't know." She stammered as she wiped a tear from her eye and then started to giggle. "It's just so beautiful. I love it…I'm a real basket case, aren't I?"
"No, you're only half crazy." Nathan joked.
"What makes you say that?" She laughed as she finished drying her eyes.
"You can't be all crazy since you had enough sense to marry me." He explained.
"True." With that, she kissed him softly on the lips and then shifted around in his lap so that she was facing him and each of her legs was on either side of his waist. "Thank you so much. I really love it."
"You're welcome. Do you want me to put it on you?" He asked sweetly.
She smiled mischievously at him before shaking her head no. "I think we would end up taking it off as soon as I put it on."
"Yeah, probably." He laughed before pulling her close for another kiss which intensified quickly to where Haley had Nathan pinned with his back against the couch and he was playing with the strings of the halter tie on her dress.
"Nathan, wait." She commanded breathlessly when she felt the tie that was holding the top of her dress up starting to come loose. "I want to show you something."
"Do you have to?" Nathan whined playfully and groaned when she got up off his lap. "Hales, where are we going?" He asked when she grabbed his hand and led him out the front door.
"I told you. I have to show you something." She replied coyly as they started making their way down the stairs. The sun was hovering just above the horizon as Haley led Nathan outside and over to a familiar sign that led into the parking lot of the condo complex. "I saw this a few days ago." She giggled as she pulled back the flower arrangements that were growing in front of it and revealed a small heart in red paint.
Nathan laughed as he leaned in for a closer look. How was it possible that what she had painted four years ago was still there? The same 'NS and HJ' were initialed inside of the little red heart and it looked as if it had just been painted yesterday because the paint had barely chipped at all. "I can't believe that no one has painted over that yet." He said in amazement as he draped his arm around Haley's shoulder, bringing her closer to him.
"I love you, Nathan Scott." She mumbled against his chest.
"And I love you Haley James Scott." He smiled back as he kissed her head and then she leaned up to kiss him on the lips. She pulled his face to hers and captured his lips in a passion filled kiss. His arms wrapped around her back, careful not to hold her too tight, while one of her hands went to the back of his head and ran through his short dark hair.
"So, this is your 'I love you' kiss." She giggled after pulling away from him for air. "Happy anniversary."
He chuckled as he pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and then kissed her soft lips again. "Happy anniversary." He mumbled before picking her up and allowing her legs to wrap around his waist. The happy couple stayed that way for a long time, her in his arms, giggling and laughing in an adorable show of PDA.
"Nick." Nicki called from the balcony as she witnessed the two flirting and kissing. It was obvious that they were in love and that was something that Nicki was seeing for the first time. "I think I just found Nathan Scott's weakness."
"Good. We might need it if worse comes to worse." Nick stated as he joined his sister on the deck. "So what is it?"
Nicki pointed out to where Nathan and Haley were now laughing and kissing as Nathan whispered something in her ear. "His wife."