AN: Wow. I am so sorry that I left this story unfinished. I feel bad for any readers that tried to keep up with it. I know it's been a few years. Truth is I had computer problems and then I eventually lost interest for awhile after that. But I'm ready to finish this story if anyone still wants to read it. Please review if you do read it :) And again I apologize to the loyal readers!

Haley sighed closing the open textbook on top of her desk before finally deciding that she had covered everything necessary. It was now time to move onto the next book that was awaiting her attention. As the weeks wore on, everyone had seemed to be falling into their own routines and for Haley specifically that meant that she had been so wrapped up in her school work lately that she felt she barely had time for anything else these days.

Brooke had been hounding her for almost the last two weeks to take a break from hitting the books, claiming that Haley needed to squeeze in some quality best friend time. She knew that soon enough Brooke would surely be personally hunting her down within the next few days instead of the constant text messages she had be receiving recently.

As if on cue, there was suddenly a loud banging at her door. "HALEY! I know you're in there!" She was almost positive that her entire hall could hear her best friend's voice yelling at her. "Open up right now, Tutor-girl! Or else!"

Haley laughed as she opened the door wide allowing Brooke entrance into her dorm. "Well, hi to you too Brookie."

Brooke rolled her eyes as she flopped herself upon Haley's bed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." She dismissed with the flick of her hand. "In case you haven't noticed I'm not so happy with you at this exact moment missy!"

"And why is bitch being a Brooke?" She asked smiling at her friend's oh so dramatic antics.

Brooke huffed. Clearly Haley wasn't taking her very seriously. "Haaaaa-leyyy! I miss my friend." She pouted. "You're always so busy with studying lately that you have no time for you bestest friend anymore."

"Brooke, it's only because mid-terms are rapidly approaching. You know I love ya." Haley explained.

This caused a quick smile to appear on her friend's face. "Well, duhhh. But, none of us have all went out and just had fun in a long time. Since I'm the only one who seems to care about that, I decided that tonight, it's party time. No excuses, Tutor-girl!" She added and pointed her finger at Haley when she saw the other girl was about to make some kind of protest.

Brooke had finally had enough of this everyone in their group focusing on their own thing, thing. So here she was, currently rounding the troops and forcing everyone to take a break from whatever it was that had been keeping them all so busy lately. They hadn't all hung out together as a group for a few weeks now and she knew it was only going to get more difficult to get that to happen with their spring semester mid-terms taking place in another week or so.

Knowing there was no way she was getting out of this one, Haley sighed and relented to her friend. She guessed that one night away from studying would be okay. Besides, Brooke was right, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen everyone altogether. As a matter of fact, she had barely seen any of her friends that much at all recently. In her defense she was just trying her hardest to prepare for her upcoming exams. Her nickname was Tutor-girl for a reason after all. She had always been that way, even when she was a little girl and used to love playing pretend SATs. Besides her grades being extremely important to her, she also couldn't just forget that she was on an academic scholarship, hence why her nose had been stuck in her texts more than usual.

Squealing as Haley had agreed to go out tonight, Brooke shot up off the bed and hugged her. "Ahhh, I'm so happy you agreed! Everyone else already said yes. You were my last stop. Mainly because I thought you would have given me the most trouble about being away from your precious books." She teased her friend.

"Ha ha." Haley dead-panned. "Now go before I change my mind."

"I have to go pick out my outfit anyway. I'll see you later!" Brooke said excitedly, while smacking Haley's butt on her way out of the room.

Haley shook her head while laughing. One thing was for sure, her best friend was insane.

As she walked across campus to meet up with her friends, Haley thought to herself about how Brooke was right and that truth be told, tonight was a good thing. Everyone's schedules had been so hectic lately and she knew they needed this, well at least she knew that she did. A little break would do her some good. Despite living with the girl, she had barely even seen Peyton lately, let alone Brooke or Lucas. Then there was Nathan. Basketball had been keeping that boy so busy these days. Furthermore, there was each of them having classes, studying for exams, and her tutoring sessions. They barely had any time for each other and she hated it. If Haley was being honest with herself, she really couldn't wait to just go out and have a good time with everyone.

Once she was close enough to the assigned spot she was ordered to meet everyone at, she noticed she was the last one there.

"Well, well Tutor-girl, how nice of you to finally show up." Brooke greeted as she saw Haley approaching the rest of them.

Checking the time on her cell phone Haley saw that she was in fact about fifteen minutes late. "Sorry guys."

"And here I thought we would all be waiting hours for Brooke over here." Lucas nodded in his girlfriend's direction, receiving a small smack on the arm from her for that comment, which caused the small group to laugh.

"You hush!" Brooke demanded, poking Lucas in the chest. "Okay, let's go party people!" She declared, while grabbing her boyfriend's hand and leading the way. Luckily for them, the party was right off campus so no one really deemed it necessary to drive.

Taking the interaction of her friends, she realized that she had missed this, being with her friends like this that is. Tonight was going to be a good night, Haley thought as she reached Nathan who was trailing a few steps behind everyone so she could catch up to him. "Hey." She acknowledged him before reaching up and placing a quick kiss on his lips.

"Hey you." He casually slung an arm over her shoulders as they continued to follow Brooke's lead. "Long time, no see."

Haley sighed. "I know. I miss you."

"Me too. Basketball has been kicking my ass. Playoffs are coming up and Coach K. isn't holding back on us one bit."

"Sorry, baby. Let's just have fun tonight then." She smiled up at him.

"You bet." His signature smirk making it's way onto his handsome face.

"CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!" The loud cheering could be heard by all. The party was definitely in full swing. Haley and Peyton threw her heads back in laughter and high-fived each other as Brooke had just downed her drink, beating the third or maybe fourth boy in a row to challenge her. The girl sure could hold her own. Sticking their hands out, Haley and Peyton awaited the placement of the money from the friends of the boy who had just lost, who they moments ago had bet twenty dollars each that Brooke would out-drink him.

Brooke slammed her cup on the countertop and threw her hands in the air claiming yet another victory. "Any more takers?" She called out, daring anyone to try to compete with her.

None of them really knew how many drinks deep Brooke currently was. They had certainly lost count. Sure, Haley and Peyton had each a few drinks themselves, but they were nowhere near close to being at Brooke's level.

At this point, the small group of friends had been there for about a few hours now. Of course, Brooke had taken over the life of the party role as soon as they walked through the door. Apart from Nathan that was. The girls and even guys were flocking to him the moment he had arrived. Haley recalled suppressing an eye-roll at thinking of how pathetic it was that just because someone was capable of putting a ball through a hoop that it meant you received royal treatment.

It didn't stop there though. This time, she didn't hold back from rolling her eyes at seeing all the sluts that didn't even wait a whole five minutes of him being there to begin throwing themselves at him. All the while she was still holding his hand, might she add. Needless to say, it had slightly pissed her off. It wasn't that she hadn't ever seen girls eyeing up her boyfriend before, but she noticed that the more and more the Duke Blue Devils continued to win, the more and more pathetic the sluts got. It was a fact, Haley had decided. Therefore, with playoffs around the corner, they were worse than ever before.

Everyone always tried to tell her that it was all just part of the territory that came with dating the star basketball player, but Haley didn't care what he was the star of, he was taken. These girls needed to learn how to take a hint. Don't get her wrong, Haley admired how amazing and dedicated Nathan was to the game, but sometimes, in situations like these, she couldn't help but wish he was just Nathan, a regular guy that attended Duke University.

As her thoughts drifted to her boyfriend she realized that she had spent almost the entire time with the girls so far and she was missing him. The girls had quickly opted for ditching the Scott boys once they had stopped to talk to some of Nathan's teammates about none other than basketball. How surprising.

Finishing up the rest of her drink, Haley stood up from the stool she was sitting on. "If you ladies will excuse me, I'm going to go see if I can find my boyfriend now." She declared, even though she was pretty sure that her friends were too enthralled with planning out the next game they wanted to partake in.

Entering the next room she could easily spot Nathan right where she had remember leaving him. She started shoving her way through the crowd in order to make it over to the group he was engaging with.

"Haley!" Lucas shouted over the loud music and voices of everyone around him when he spotted her. "Where's Brooke?" He asked, still in a yell.

"Kitchen." She answered. Lucas began saying something else, she knew because she saw his lips moving, but she couldn't bring herself to keep focus on the words that were coming out of his mouth. Her attention was being directed more on what was behind him where Nathan was standing. Some girl was evidently trying her hardest to be all over him and in that instant Haley was feeling unable to control the pangs of jealousy that were creeping up inside her.

In a flash, Lucas had disappeared leaving Haley to face her boyfriend and the red-head that was shamelessly flirting with him. "Ahem." She cleared her throat, grabbing his attention.

"Halesss." Nathan smiled her way once he finally noticed her standing there.

She noticed he must have had a few drinks himself as he somewhat slurred the end of her name. Not that that was surprising to her. He had been known to be a big partier. "Hi." She responded shortly. "And you are?" Haley said, directing her attention towards the unknown girl. She wasn't too thrilled with this girl being here. Especially since she already getting bad vibes from her.

"Rachel." The girl said barely glancing in Haley's direction like she wasn't even standing there.

"Right...I'm Haley, Nathan's girlfriend." She made sure to put an emphasis on her last word.

"Not for long." Rachel mumbled under her breath just loud enough for only Haley to hear.

Haley's eyes immediately widened at this. Was this girl serious? "Excuse me, what did you say?" She must have heard her incorrectly.

"Nothing, Holly." Rachel smiled sweetly at her.

"It's Ha-ley." She corrected her while pronunciating her name syllable by syllable to make it easier for this girl to understand. It wasn't that difficult and Haley was pretty sure that she was calling her 'Holly' on purpose.

"Nath-" Haley started, but found herself immediately being cut off by Rachel's obnoxiously loud and squeaky voice.

"So, Nathan, what we're you just saying about the team winning the championships?" Rachel pretended to be truly interested, while flipping her long red locks of hair in Haley's direction. Just like she had wanted it captured Nathan's drunken attention and allowed for him not to even notice Haley was about to speak since the guys cheered loudly at Rachel's mention of being the champions.

Haley was literally seeing red now. She couldn't believe this girl. Just who did she think was? Nathan was her boyfriend and here was this girl pushing her out of the way! He wasn't even doing anything about it either.

After two more unsuccessful attempts at grabbing Nathan's attention, Haley huffed off back towards where she had last seen Brooke and Peyton. There was no way she was just going to stand there and continue to be ignored. She wasn't putting up with that. Besides, she couldn't stand being around that skank anymore either.

"Uh-oh, what's that look about?" Peyton questioned once she saw a very pissed off Haley come into view.

"One word: Rach-ho." She gritted out.

"What?" Peyton asked, now amused.

"Some whore is all over Nathan in there!" Haley exclaimed while pointing in the direction she had just came from.

Peyton laughed, but immediately stopped when she saw the glare Haley was sending her way. "Sorry Hales, but seeing you so flustered about it was just a little funny." She said showing using her thumb and index finger to demonstrate how much. It was obvious to Haley that Peyton and Brooke had kept up the drinking after she left them and now they were even giddier than ever.

"Ooh Haley! You should totally come back to my room to mine and Peyton's sleepover!" Brooke squealed when she saw her friend, oblivious to her current state of frustration.

Haley shook her head. "No thanks, Brookie. Actually, I think I'm going to head out now anyway." This wasn't fun. Not anymore. All she wanted to do at this point was get back to her room and go to sleep.

After eventually convincing Brooke to let her leave and saying her goodbyes to her friends Haley was making her way through the crowds once again. As she neared the door she felt someone slam into her. She knew it was crowded, but was that really necessary? "Ouch!" She yelled. Looking to her left she saw Rachel sneering at her. I should have known,Haley thought to herself.

"Oh I'm sorry...Holly was it?" Rachel feigned innocence.

Haley glared at the girl. "You did that on purpose." She accused. "And it's Haley!" As if she doesn't remember, Haley thought.

"Oops, my bad. You know, I'm not sure what Nathan sees in you really."

This only caused Haley's eyes to narrow even more. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I used to be a fat chick with a little head too." Rachel snickered at Haley's facial expression. "See you later, Holly. We wouldn't want to keep Nathan waiting for me, now would we?" She winked and made her back through the crowds of people before Haley could even get another word out.

Haley's eyed snapped open as she thought she heard a noise. Just when she was about to close her eyes she heard it again. She froze in place from her spot on her bed as she heard someone turning the handle on the door of her dorm. Since Peyton was staying with Brooke tonight it couldn't be her. A sigh of relief escaped her once the door flung open and she saw that it was only Nathan. That was until she remember that she was pissed at him due to the earlier events of that night.

Glancing at the clock she took notice that it was a little after three in the morning. "Nathan? What are you doing?" She asked still in shock. "How did you get in?"

"Peyton's key." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world as he kicked off his shoes and made his way over to her bed.

"Still, what are you doing here, Nathan?"

"I want to see you." He reached out and touched her face almost as if he was making sure she was real.

She rolled her eyes and removed his hand. "It's 3am."

Nathan ignored her and moved his body over to sloppily kiss her. As he went to climb on top of her, Haley immediately pushed him away. "Stop it, Nathan."

A confused look appeared on his face before he attempted to do the same thing once again."What, you couldn't find Rach-ho's room?" She accused, pushing him away for a second time.

His eyebrows crinkled in confusion. "Huh?"

"Nothing." She dismissed. She knew that now wasn't the time to talk about what happened with Rachel tonight.

Believing her, Nathan went in for a kiss again. "You don't love me?" He questioned, looking hurt when she continued to deny him.

She couldn't help rolling her eyes again at his behavior. "Of course I do." She answered softly. There was never a time she would ever want him to think that she didn't love him. That wasn't the case at all. If he wasn't drunk right now then maybe he would get that.

"Then what's the problem?" He didn't get it. Why didn't his girlfriend want him? It didn't make any sense to him.

She sighed. "You're drunk."

"No, look, I'm okay." He insisted, holding out his arms to show he was physically okay.

"Like I said, you've been drinking. Look, I'm going to go back to sleep and I suggest that you do the same." She advised him. "Nathan?" She questioned when all she was met with was silence.

Seeing that he had indeed already passed out next to her, she felt a small amount of relief at not having to continue putting up with him when he had no clue she was pissed off. How could he not know? It infuriated her that he seemed to be so clueless.

She shut her eyes deciding to fall back asleep for now. Everything else would have to wait until the morning came. All she knew was that she was not looking forward to tomorrow, that was for sure.