The buzzing and ringing sounds from the nightstand are so jarring that they startle her awake. Not bothering to open her eyes, Haley gropes for the cell phone, and holds the rumbling device to her ear under the covers.
"What are you doing tonight? I want to take you out on a date," he says before she can utter a word.
A smile shapes up on her lips, her brain quickly losing its sleepy fogginess when she hears his voice. "No hello?"
"Hello. I want to take you out on a date tonight."
She chuckles softly, drawing the duvet from her face. She feels good this morning in comparison to the past few days; the good mood must have something to do with kissing Nathan last night and sleeping thinking about him. And the fact that his voice is the first thing she's heard after waking up.
"Hales? You there?"
She sits up, propping one of her pillows behind her. It's not unnatural for her to space out these days when she thinks of him.
"Um, yeah."
"I hope you don't have any plans."
That smile grows, and she has the most urgent need to fall onto her back, lift her legs up in the air and twirl a strand of hair in her finger as she talks to him. "Lucky for you, I don't. And yes, I'd like to go out on a date with you. You're up early. Do we have a session that I forgot about?"
He chuckles, a throaty laugh that sends a shiver down her back. "I went out for a run. Did I wake you up?"
"You did, but I forgive you. What should I wear?"
"Something dressy. I'll pick you up at seven."
In the background, she hears a loud voice yelling incomprehensible things, the bellowing voice unmistakably Dan Scott's.
"I'm coming!" Nathan yells back, then curses.
"Everything all right?"
He sighs softly. "My dad's being a hard ass as usual. I gotta go but I'll see you tonight, okay?"
"Okay."
When they hang up, she's left staring at the phone, wondering what is happening in the Scott household at this moment. Is Dan chewing him out for school being shut down for the week, more so because it affects basketball? She wouldn't put it past him to be the one who dragged Nathan out of bed for a run and placing blame on him for something that's not his fault.
The soft knock on her door has her focusing back on the present.
"Come in."
Her mother walks in, dressed like she's on her way out of the house. A flare of anxiety rises in Haley's gut. It's been really comforting having her parents around after what happened at the school, but she knew it wouldn't carry on forever. Life has to go on.
"Morning, honey," her mother greets her with a faint smile and worry in her eyes.
"Morning. I'm fine, Mom. I promise."
She didn't even flinch last night when she was in the kitchen and her father was in the living room watching an action film with gunfire and bombs.
Her mother nods as she sits beside her. "I just can't stop thinking of what could have happened if…"
Unlike the past few days, her mother doesn't start crying, and Haley feels relieved. They'll weep while trying to unsuccessfully soothe each other.
Her mother squeezes her hand, giving her a wide grin. "So I heard that you have a boyfriend."
Haley rolls her eyes slightly, incapable of containing her smile. "He's not my boyfriend, but he's unlike any of the other guys I've dated."
Few as they have been, they haven't made her feel what Nathan does. Being around him is...exhilarating. There's friendship between them, and attraction, a draw that makes her think of cosmic soul mates and kismet connections.
"You are quite serious about him, aren't you?"
"A lot," she breathes, a warmth flushing her face out of embarrassment.
"I know that we leave you a lot on your own, but we trust you, Haley. Whether it's to make sure that the house doesn't go up in smoke or you don't get involved with drug addicts—"
"Mom."
Her mother laughs, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I wish I could meet him."
"But you did."
"Telling him that you didn't want to see him doesn't count."
"So you're really leaving?"
With a sad sigh, her mother draws her into her arms. "I'm needed back."
"When?"
"Today. I have to leave early to beat traffic."
They sit in silence, Haley feeling less and less melancholic at the thought of eventually being left alone at home. She has Nathan now to keep her from going crazy.
"Is Dad going with you?"
"No. He'll be here for a while. Don't cause any trouble for him, alright?"
After a tearful goodbye, on her mother's part, Haley and her father have a breakfast with high sugar content on the couch while watching an old Western movie. Luke comes over while her dad is out, and she kicks him out when he sulks too much about her date with Nathan. She retreats to her room, and the bulk of the day is spent with thoughts of the coming night.
In between studying ahead and making sure that her tutor lessons are planned out for the coming week, she takes a good portion of time wondering how their first date will turn out. It's long overdue that a real date has come to fruition.
Close to sunset, she stands before her opened wardrobe, her eyes running over her clothes as she tries to find something suitable to wear. She has never been this nervous about a date. And she likes it. It means that she really likes Nathan, which is infinitely better than being nonchalant or bored.
The edge of the closet is packed with dresses that her mother has brought for her after an assignment. Most of them are flashy, like her mom expects her to be invited to a state dinner or the opera at some point in her teenage life.
She looks through them one by one, getting more and more frustrated with each one she dismisses. It makes her wonder what her mother was thinking when she picked out some of them. Some are so sparkly that they're only suitable for a cabaret show in Las Vegas or a night out in a club, rather than for dinner at a restaurant.
She's ready to give up and grab a pair of trousers when she finally finds something near the end that's not too loud or too casual. Plucking it out of its hanger, she pads to the mirror, holding it against her. It could work; it's an emerald-green, knee-length dress that comes with a black sweater, one of the few outfits she actually liked.
If she paired it with one of the rarely worn heels on the floor of her closet, it would definitely work. Just as long as Nathan doesn't change his mind and decide to take her to a fast food restaurant instead.
Looking over at the clock, she grimaces in surprise at the time. With less than an hour to get ready, she scrambles to the bathroom.
She's just hopped out of the shower when her phone rings from the bed. Hoping it's not Nathan telling her that he's at the door, she glances at the caller ID. She's relieved to see that it's not him.
"Hey!"
"Did you find something?" Peyton asks from the other end of the line.
Haley looks over at the outfit laid out on the bed. "I did. I'm actually about to get dressed."
"Okay. Have fun. Call me later. Oh, wait!"
"Yeah?"
"If he asks to see yours first, tell him that you want to see his first."
"What? Oh, jeez, Peyton!"
"Call me!"
With a few minutes to spare, she falls back on the bed to cool off from the rush of dressing. For a girl who has waited so long to be asked out on a date by her crush, she has really played against the odds at getting ready.
Her anxiety mounts when the doorbell rings, sounding like a town church bell to her ears.
Swiping the beaded clutch bag from the bed, she forces herself to calm down. There's a spring to her step as she heads for the staircase.
Disco music is playing loudly from the garage, her father probably too engrossed in fixing up the old bike to pay attention to the doorbell.
A surge of awareness shoots through her when she opens the door. If she thought that he looked incredible the night he came to her house from the party, she was far from it. It's possible that Nathan Scott looks better and better as days progress.
In the black blazer, white dress shirt and jeans, he is heartbreakingly gorgeous. His height, blue eyes, dark hair and masculine physique make him the kind of guy women are instantly attracted to; she doesn't blame the girls in school for throwing themselves at him.
"Wow," he breathes, his eyes looking her over admiringly.
"I hope I'm not overdressed," she says shyly, taking a step back to let him in.
He shakes his head, looking her over again, his expression fuelling her blush. "No. You look amazing."
She catches a whiff of that wonderful cologne that leaves her intoxicated. "You look amazing, too."
"And you're taller."
She laughs, glancing down at the black, peep-toe heels that raise her three inches off the ground. "Thought I'd aim for your height tonight."
He grins at her, holding out a simple bouquet of purple and white daisies. "For you."
"Thank you."
Unable to contain herself, Haley grazes her lips across his neck to taste his delicious scent. When she draws back, she laughs softly at the curious look in his eyes. "I felt like it."
Nathan rests a palm on her waist, leaning over to peck her lips. "Me, too."
She kisses him again before stepping away and leading him towards the living room. "Let me just put these in water."
She plucks out the wilted daisy he gave her for her birthday from the small vase, putting in the fresh flowers and filling it up with water.
His eyes are riveted on one of the framed family pictures on the living room wall when she returns.
"You really do have a big family," he says.
She grabs her clutch, sliding the strap onto her wrist. "It's rare for all of us to be together like that when everyone is all over the country."
"Does it bother you?" he asks, shutting the door behind them.
"Not really. It was chaotic when many of them were still around, and I much prefer silence."
He looks towards the garage, chuckling softly. "Your dad really knows how to kill the silence for you, huh?"
"That's the third time he's playing that song in the last hour. I've come quite close to busting out an old school move."
He's still laughing as he opens the car door for her. "I already like how this date has begun."
Haley slides into the car with a grin, settling on the plush leather and buckling in while he goes around. She, too, already likes how the date has begun.
Lulu's is one of the fancier restaurants around town. Haley has been there once with her parents, on her fourteenth birthday, before her mom resigned from the hospital and started taking up independent assignments.
They're led through the filled room to a neat table for two by the wall, the centrepiece a thick red candle floating in a bowl of water and white rose petals.
The maître d' is about to pull the chair out for her but Nathan stops him. With a dazzling white smile, the older man hands them their menus, saying that someone will take their order shortly.
"So far so good, Scott," Haley says, placing the napkin on her lap.
Across from her, Nathan raises an eyebrow in question.
"You opened the car door for me, twice, and you just pulled out my chair. Very chivalrous of you."
"I'm on my best behaviour tonight," he grins impishly. "I have to redeem myself for disappearing on you."
"I think you asking me out is redemption enough. So long as you don't get so bored halfway that you ditch me claiming an emergency."
Nathan laughs, lifting his menu off the table. "Please don't tell me that someone has ever done that to you because I will crush his skull."
She laughs, pleased by the semi-seriousness in his tone. "It was an actual emergency. His grandmother had a stroke."
"Did you go out again?"
"No. We were better off as friends."
"This may be a first for me," he says, his eyes flashing up to hers, "but I promise not to be bored or leave you at any time."
"Your first first date?"
He grins sheepishly, as though embarrassed to admit it.
"I'm that different, huh?" she asks, making light of things to ease his self-consciousness.
"Different in a very good way."
They laugh, simultaneously pulling their menus open. Haley looks over hers to study him, wishing he were much closer than two feet away.
"What did you say to my dad?"
His eyes flicker to hers, and she sees his lips arch into a smile. "I told him that I liked you and I wanted to take you out on a date."
"He called you ballsy."
Nathan laughs heartily, putting his menu down. "Did I make a good impression?"
"Yes, you did."
A dark-haired girl stops at their table with a broad smile and a jug of water.
"Good evening, my name is Kat and I'll be your server," she says, pouring out water into their glasses.
She looks back and forth between them before her kohled eyes settle on Haley, eyeballs widening like in recognition. "Hey! You're that girl who sliced that girl's leg open!"
Haley flinches a little. Not in those words, but she did dig into Peyton's leg.
"Um, yeah."
Kat grins, her gaze then turning to Nathan. "We go to the same school, but I'm a sophomore. Nathan Scott, right?"
Nathan nods politely, while Haley is more focused on the flirtatious smirk Kat is throwing him.
"That was a wicked thing you did but I respect it," she tells Haley, but her gaze is unwavering from Nathan.
"She's brave," Nathan says admiringly, his eyes on Haley.
Kat shifts her gaze back and forth, and then lets out a nervous chuckle. "So what do you guys want? I wish I could say it was on the house."
When she winks at Nathan, Haley wants to pinch her.
"Could you please give us a minute?" she says with a hint of annoyance.
Kat nods, throwing Nathan that wide smile before retreating.
"I think our waitress has a crush on you," Haley says, the irritation fading.
It's not the first time someone has flirted with him in her presence, but back then, they were not dating. She is not semi-cool with seeing girls begging for his attention now.
"I kinda have a crush on somebody else," he grins, reaching for her hand across the table.
"When she mentioned the shooting…Are you okay?" he asks in a low whisper.
She smiles, her thumb rubbing along his gently. "Yeah. It just makes me queasy thinking of what I did."
When she stretches a leg out, her bare knee encounters his jean-clad one. The heat from both sides of her knee tells her that her leg is sandwiched between his.
Neither of them moves, their focus on each other intensifying. Haley pulls her hand from under his to twine their fingers, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip. A fire spirals deep into her body when his gaze shifts to her mouth, her thoughts drifting to wanting to feel his lips on hers. She questions how healthy it is for her to constantly daydream about Nathan and about kissing Nathan.
"Ready to order?"
They both seem to be heaved out of a daze, Haley the first to look up at Kat. "Uh, we haven't decided yet."
Kat appears aggravated at the answer, but before she can retort, Nathan pipes, "How about you order me your favourite meal, and I do the same for you."
Haley nods and shoots him a smile, raising her menu to Kat. "He'll have macaroni and cheese, and a side salad."
Shutting his menu, Nathan doesn't look away from Haley as he says, "She'll have the prime rib and mashed potatoes."
When Kat is gone, Nathan leans over, elbow on the table. "I order you prime rib while I get rabbit food and something off the kids' menu?"
"Macaroni and cheese is food of the gods, my friend."
"Yeah, if the gods are five-year-olds."
"When you have my homemade mac and cheese, you will not think like that ever again."
"Are you inviting me over for dinner at your house, Haley James?" he asks, wiggling his eyebrows playfully.
She rolls her eyes, letting out a low laugh.
Over their meal, they share stories and laughs, that feeling Haley gets about them being kindred spirits strengthening as the date progresses. They have the same sense of humour, and he's as interested in listening to her opinions as she is his.
"Nate?"
They both look up from their desserts, stopping mid-laughter. Tim is standing over them with a quizzical look on his face and a snide smirk, his eyes flitting between them.
"Hey, man. What are you doing here?"
"Family Sunday dinner. What are you doing here?"
Nathan looks at Haley across the table, his smile growing. "We're on a date. You know Haley, right?"
She catches Tim's smirk fade but she doesn't pay much attention to his coldness. She was bound to encounter Nathan's friends at some point.
"Hi, Tim."
He nods curtly at her greeting, that look on his face still there, like he can't comprehend that they're actually on a date. "You're his tutor."
He says it with some disdain that is not lost on her.
"Am I your tutor?" she throws at Nathan instead of saying something snarky.
"You did say you'd get me through the quarter," Nathan grins.
With an even smile, Haley looks up at Tim. "I still am."
Tim gives her an equally flat, frosty grin. "I'll see you later, Nate."
She feels relief pour through her once he's gone, hoping that not all of Nathan's friends will treat their getting together like Tim did.
"Tell me a secret," Nathan says, taking a drink of water.
"I'm an open book, Scott. What you see is what you get."
"Really? Humour me."
She catches herself playing with the edge of her napkin when she thinks of the one thing that she carries daily in her role as a tutor. "I, um, I cheated on a geometry test last year."
Nathan raises an eyebrow. "You cheated?"
She ducks her head with a nod, straightening the napkin on her lap. "Um, my dad had to go out of town and my mom was sick, so I didn't really have time to study. I cheated for the first time in my life."
"Did you get caught?"
"No, but that wasn't the point. I mean, I knew what I had done and that didn't sit right with me."
"So you started tutoring."
She offers him a smile when she realizes that he gets it, he gets her, without her having to explain. "Yeah. I guess I thought it would be penance or something, but it turns out that I really like it."
He pauses, propping his elbows on the table. "What you do for people like me, what you've done for us who struggle through schoolwork, is something you should be proud of, Haley. If you've been tutoring this whole time while still carrying your guilt around, you're weighing yourself down for nothing. It's incredible what you're doing."
She can simply nod, feeling lighter after confessing her reasons for tutoring. Everyone thought that she wanted to help out of the goodness of her heart when it all began out of guilt and a search for atonement.
"What about you? What's your secret?"
Nathan smirks, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "I have a few skeletons in my closet."
It's her turn to raise an eyebrow in challenge. "You do? Humour me with one of them."
He thinks deeply for a moment, and when he appears to have come to a decision, his face evens out with seriousness. "I don't know how to do this. Us."
Haley doesn't say a word; he looks like he wants to say more. Nathan drops his arms, leaning forward to look at her. The reflection of the burning candle flickers in his eyes.
"I'm not like you."
"What does that mean?"
He sighs, shaking his head slightly. "I screw up a lot, Haley, and being around you, I don't want to be that guy anymore."
"Who do you want to be?"
"I want to be somebody who's good enough to be with you," he says softly.
Feeling both curious and flattered by his admission, she reaches across the table for his hand like he had when Kat spoke about her slicing Peyton's leg open.
"You're not a bad guy if that's what you think of yourself, Nathan. Sure, I've wanted to rip your head off at some point since I got to know you," she says, making him chuckle, "but you're also this great guy who is kind and funny and good."
She's often thought that she wasn't good enough to be with him.
"You forgot attractive, charming and smart."
She swats at his hand, pulling away just as Kat drops their check on the table. Like she's done every time she comes by their table, Kat smiles widely at Nathan.
"I think we should go before I find myself in the back of her van or something," he whispers.
Haley guffaws a little too loudly as she reaches for the check, but he swiftly tugs it from her hold.
"I can help you with it, you know. I'm in tune with gender equality, feminism and all that."
He laughs while shaking his head. "I'm a bit of a traditional guy."
When he's paid, they push away from their chairs, Nathan taking her hand and interlocking their fingers. They pass by Tim's table, stopping for a moment for Nathan to greet the family. Like Kat, Tim's younger sister looks admiringly at Nathan. Haley smiles politely at them, conscious that Tim is glaring at her rather coldly. She guesses that he's assessing her worthiness to be out on a date with Nathan.
When they step out of the restaurant, the night air is not as chilly as it was before. They stop on the sidewalk a few feet from the door, like they're silently deliberating on where to go or what to do.
They burst out laughing, Haley suggesting, "How about a walk around the block?"
"Sounds good."
There's a comfortable silence between them as they walk past the stores, her hand still encased in Nathan's.
"Thank you for dinner," she says quietly, stepping away slightly and swinging their joined hands.
He smiles, his gaze raking over her quickly, causing more tingles to spiral through her body. "You look really beautiful tonight."
"Only tonight?" she throws back, nudging his arm lightly.
"Fishing for compliments, James?"
"Fishing? You've been giving them freely."
He loosens his hand from hers and slings his arm around her shoulder, pressing a kiss to her temple. "You are such a smart-mouth."
Slowly, they walk towards the docks by the river, talking and laughing about the most random things. Every so often, they kiss, sometimes briefly, sometimes for longer.
In the months since she started tutoring him, he has become a close friend to her, someone it would hurt immensely if she lost.
"Look where we ended up," she says as they stand by their table. "Where you called me frosty."
He's laughing as he slides in beside her on the bench.
"'Please don't waste my time,'" he says in a high-pitched voice, linking her arm through his. "'I'm already taking a huge chance on you because my instincts are screaming that you're full of it.'"
With a laugh, she punches him lightly on the shoulder. "Is that supposed to be me?"
"I nailed it, didn't I?"
As she rests her cheek on his arm, she wonders if he feels the same way she does, that she fits so snugly and perfectly right by his side.
"Are you okay?" she asks at his pensive silence.
His face is lifted to the sky, eyes darting back and forth like he's searching for something in the stars. "When I realized that you were stuck in the school with that drunk senior, I just…"
He looks down at her, eyes shadowed with sorrow and sadness. "I nearly lost it. I couldn't find you when we were all herded to the gym, and when I finally stopped ignoring the thought that you were still in the school, I wanted to come look for you and get you out of there."
"I'm all right, Nathan. I really am." Her eyes are shimmering with tears as she fondly gazes at him, drinking in the concern and worry for her on his face. "I'm glad you didn't come looking for me because you could have gotten really hurt and I wouldn't…"
Her voice quivers a little.
He raises his hand to her lips, pressing a kiss to her palm. "I meant what I said back at the restaurant, Haley. You are brave, and I'm lucky to know you."
Her fingers at the back of his neck, she pulls him down for a kiss, their teeth tugging at each other's lips, tongues driving in and out of each other's mouths.
"I love kissing you," she whispers, her nose nuzzling his.
"Then don't stop."
They kiss again, lips joined for a long while with a heated force and need.
"I've had a really wonderful time with you, Nathan," she says.
"I had fun, too, up to the point where you ate half of my blackberry cobbler."
She giggles. "Yet you ate half of my coconut cream pie."
"Fine. Next time I'll order my own pie."
She looks at him expectantly. "Next time?"
He smirks, placing a soft, sweet peck on her mouth and resting his forehead against hers. "Next time."
I hope I did justice to a Naley first date!