A/N: Two updates today, everyone. But just a heads up, I probably won't be able to update this weekend. Sorry!

All That She Wants

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Too good for cafeteria food?"

She tilted her head back, staring at him from behind her movie star-esq sunglasses. "Have you got something important to say or are you just being your usual jackass self?"

Nathan slid his cafeteria tray onto the outdoor table beside Brooke's sack lunch. "I need to talk to you."

"Of course," she replied in annoyance. As she stabbed her straw into her Minute Maid Orange Juice she added, "And for your information I'm eating healthy." Her stomach flip-flopped. "For the baby."

Nathan looked down at his tray and absentmindedly began to stir his mashed potatoes and gravy. "I uh…we haven't really had a chance to talk much."

"You haven't bothered to try."

"Peyton's usually around," he replied in a low voice.

"Right." She dropped her head. "What did you want to know?"

"I…" The potatoes and gravy had turned to a pale brown slop, so he stopped stirring and just began to prod the food with his spoon. "I was wondering how it's doing. Do you even know what it is yet?"

"She-" at his look she added "-or he is fine, according to my three month appointment. And as far as the gender, I won't be able to know until the five month appointment. Unless I wanted to do an amniocentesis, but that involves a risk of miscarriage since the needle pierces through the womb to collect the amniotic fluid."

"Oh."

"You don't sound very interested."

"I am!" he announced, a little too loudly. Nathan glared at the few people who turned in his direction until they resumed their own business. "I just," he shrugged, "I don't know what you're talking about. It's not like I've ever been in this position before." He watched Brooke peel back the tin foil from around her peanut butter sandwich as if she wasn't even listening to him. "And it's not like it would be awkward at all if I went to one of the appointments with you and Peyton," he replied, his voice choking with sarcasm.

Brooke bit into her sandwich, leaving a perfect half moon cut out in the bread. As she chewed, she was sure she could see Nathan staring at her from the corner of his eye. I know my boy-o-meter has been on vacation with my hormones, but he's staring at me! Nathan Scott is watching me eat! Isn't he? Deciding to trust her gut, she pretended not to notice and instead drew her tongue slowly across her lips, licking up the excess peanut butter.

The edges of his mouth twitched as he looked down at his tray again to avoid looking at Brooke. "What's wrong with you?" he finally spat. "You don't usually act like this…it started after you started hanging out with Jagielski all the time."

"Not all the time."

"You've been seeing him for a month!"

"I'm not seeing him," she replied through gritted teeth.

"You've been spending all your time with him."

"You've been counting?" She surveyed him, pretending to be irritated, but secretly, the admission had caused a pump of adrenaline throughout her veins. He's been keeping track of how long I've been hanging out with Jake? Does that mean he's…jealous?

Nathan snorted. "You've got Peyton thinking he's the father."

"What!" she sputtered, literally choking on her orange juice. Spurts of the liquid spewed from her mouth in shock. As she composed herself, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, accidentally smearing her lip gloss onto her hand. "That's insane!"

"Yeah, to us it's insane. But to her, well god Brooke, think about it: you're suddenly hanging out with Jake like you've never done before, you won't tell her who the father is, and you got all pissed off at her when she confronted you about why you were spending time with him!"

Brooke bit her words. He's right. It does sound suspicious. She hung her head. "Well she hasn't said anything to me about that," she replied lamely.

"She's afraid you're going to freak out and give her the cold shoulder again."

She sighed. "Fair enough."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"What can I do about it?"

"Stop hanging out with him?"

Brooke scowled. "Like that won't make me look more suspicious. Besides, who is asking me to stop hanging out with him? Peyton or you?"

Nathan recoiled, accidentally dropping his plastic fork onto the ground. With a dragon-like snort he answered, "Why would it matter to me?"

"Because you're the one grilling me about hanging out with him. It's not like I have a lot of other people to hang out with you know."

"You have Peyton."

"Yeah," she replied in a haze. "Sometimes."

"And the entire cheerleading squad."

The ex-cheerleader scoffed. "As if! I've become more of a pariah since I had to quit the team and get fat. And trust me, I don't have any true guys friends. Guys don't go near a pregnant girl."

"Then why does Jake?"

"Why do you keep going back to Jake?" She blew a puff of air between her glossy pink lips, forcing a strand of her hair out of her eyes. "If you haven't noticed, he's not like other guys. He's sensitive, sweet-"

"Sweet?" Nathan barked. "Your hormones really are acting up!" The next thing he knew, the brown potato slop he'd been making was in his face and once he had wiped his sleeve across his eyes and realized what had just happened, Brooke was stalking away with her sack lunch in one hand and the other still coated in the leftover potatoes that she'd scooped from his tray and hurled at him. "Brooke! Brooke!" Angrily, he picked up his tray and slammed it down on the floor, creating a jagged crack along the center of the tray. "Damnit!" He punched waxy grid of the table out of frustration.

All he had wanted to do was talk to Brooke about the baby, about her appointments, and maybe even get a valid reason that would put his girlfriend's constant blubbering theories about Jake Jagielski being his baby's father to rest. Not only had he managed to fail at all of his goals, but he'd also managed to get Brooke so pissed at him that she'd thrown food in his face! While he knew that it was his fault for verbally approaching her the way he had, he couldn't get the prevalent idea out of his head that this was all Jagielski's fault.

"Fine," he sneered, picking up the cracked tray. "If Brooke's not going to tell me what's going on, then I'll just confront her little boyfriend about it after school at practice." As he slugged back to the cafeteria, he found Tim at his side and a mental groan amplified in his heads. Great! One more thing to deal with today.

"You'll never guess who I just asked out!"

"And I don't care," he swore under his breath.

Tim cocked his head. "What d'ya say?"

"What do you want, Tim?" he spat, loud and clear.

Tim bobbed along, keeping right in tow with Nathan's pace. "Bevin! I'm gonna take her out Tuesday night. And just between you and me," he nudged the star's arm playfully, "I think I just might get-"

"Do me a favor," Nathan interrupted, shoving the broken tray into Tim's hands. "Return that for me. I have something I need to do."

Tim stared dumbly as he watched the basketball storm off into the blustering Tree Hill High crowd, leaving him alone holding the busted lunch tray. He looked down at it. "Sure, Nate, whatever you say." His shoulders sunk down and he exhaled softly. "I don't know what I did, but whatever it was, I'm sorry…"