AUTHORS NOTE: I'm speechless, guys. Truly. When I posted my last chapter, I didn't think I had it in me to write anymore of this story, but honestly your reviews were so kind and amazing that it made me want to write again straight away, and here I am! I actually had most of this chapter done within a week or so, and I'm not that happy with this ending, but it is what it is. If you have been reviewing and supporting this story, I can't thank you enough, it means so much to me and clearly it's very inspiring. THANK YOU!
I know people are keen to see Naley together, but we're so close to the end now and there won't really be anything after that. I hadn't planed to write anything apart from the obligatory epilogue to show how happy and in love they are in the future (not a spoiler alert because, well, it's Naley). I think there's only a chapter or two left to go, and I will do my very best to get to the finish line now the end is in sight :)
I hope you enjoy this update. Usual disclaimer applies - I don't own anything except the typos.
"What photos?"
It was as if he had thrown a bucket of iced water over her. Haley reared back, scuttling along the cool leather seats until her bare back pressed against the driver's partition, desperate to put as much space as possible between them. She groped blindly for the boned bodice of her bridesmaids dress and hastily pulled it over her breasts, the cool air taunting her with how awful it felt against her tender skin compared to Nathan's hot, skilled hands and mouth. It had only been a matter of hours earlier when she had sat in this very same limo with Peyton and Brooke, toasting to her having sex with Nathan and getting him out of her system, and seconds earlier she was so, so close to making that a reality. What had just happened?
"What photos, Nathan?"
"The photos you sent to Devil12. The photos of... you."
Haley stared back at him, stunned. "No, that's impossible." She shook her head, confusion weighing her brain down like wet sand. "How could you... I haven't even..."
"Haley...I'm Devil12."
She couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped her mouth. She knew she must have sounded deranged, and she couldn't even explain where the noise had come from; there wasn't anything funny about what he was saying.
"Look, Nathan, I don't know what kind of joke you're pulling and how you heard about that so fast, but..."
"I'm not joking, Haley. I'm Devil12, and I know you're Halo. Halo23."
She continued to stare at him, her thoughts racing like dust motes she couldn't catch, but feeling slow and sluggish at the same time. She was thinking so many things at once:
The photos. Not just the ones she'd sent Devil12, but the ones he'd sent back. Photos she'd revisited more than once in the darkness of her room. She had scrolled through their heated messages and climaxes, his words and his body fuelling her with more lust and confidence than anyone had ever given her in her 'real' life. They had been in that exchange, in that moment, together. Totally in sync and on the same page.
Haley hadn't shown her face in her photos, either. She was sure of that. She knew there was no way anyone could identify her from what she sent. She had been beyond bold and daring and somewhat stupid that night, but she hadn't been that stupid.
And lastly, earlier with the girls, when she had been telling them about the man that had stolen her heart, she'd never mentioned his username. Only the two of them knew that Halo23 and Devil12 existed in a world together.
Nathan couldn't have known that.
Her eyes darted across his face; he was still watching her carefully, as if she were a skittish horse. He was still shirtless, baring the chest Haley had been running her hands all over just seconds before. She could still feel him, the way her fingers slid into the contours of his muscle. He smelled amazing, all fresh and masculine and warm - his special Nathan pheromones she just wanted to bottle and inhale all day long.
"No," Haley shook her head. "No, you're not. You can't be. That's impossible. You're not Devil12. I don't know how you know about him, but you're not him." She was rambling now, desperate to fill the space with logic and reason. "You're 've always been 23." She knew that with a certainty that was tattooed on her heart. Or, more literally, tattooed on the base of her spine.
"I haven't been 23 in a long time, Hales," Nathan looked apologetic, almost pityingly at her and it was making her nauseous. His voice was low and soft, like the voice doctors use when they're breaking bad news. "Duke retired that jersey number before I got to it. I've been number 12 since college"
Haley closed her eyes. A team name slapped her in the face, a name she'd heard so much about such a long time ago. A time when she and Nathan had still been making plans for college, before there was a letter in her drawer with the small blue logo.
Duke Blue Devils.
Number 12.
Devil12.
"No," she repeated. "No."
She had to get out of there. It was the only way to stop this train wreck. Still holding her dress to her breasts, she scrabbled towards the door, squinting into the bright sunshine that streamed in as it opened.
"Haley, where are you...?"
"I don't know why you're saying this, or what you've heard, but you don't know what you're talking about."
"Outside animals can't fart inside!"
Haley stopped in her tracks, one high heeled foot outside of the limo. She slowly turned back towards him. "What did you say?"
"Outside animals can't fart inside," Nathan repeated slowly. "The essential elements of forming a contract. My business exam, the one I scored an 84 on? That was all you, Hales. You helped me."
"I..." Somewhere outside, Haley was sure she could hear someone calling her name. "I have to get out of here."
"Haley, come on! We have to talk about this."
"Haley? Are you out here?"
"Hales, come on..."
She struggled free of the vehicle and further away from Nathan's voice. There was no way she could zip herself safely back into her dress by herself, so she kept one arm firmly banded around her.
"Haley Bob? Brooke's about to throw the bouquet honey, everyone's waiting for you."
"Mom?" Haley nearly cried with relief as tripped her way forward, catching sight of her mother heading her way down the driveway. Behind her, she heard movement as if Nathan was getting out of the limo to follow her, followed by a low expletive. She refused to turn around to face him, and had no way of knowing that her ex-boyfriend, on top of everything that had transpired over the past few hours, had spotted two very familiar numbers inked low on Haley's bare back, for the first time in over a decade.
"Oh my... Haley!"
It occurred to her much later, how strange the sight she and Nathan must have made, wild and disheveled, half-dressed out of their formalwear. She hadn't seen it in the daylight, but Haley knew Nathan's thick dark hair would be sticking up in a serious case of bedhead from the way she'd been running her hands through it earlier. But it wasn't the sight of some smug and sated couple after having their way with each other - it was a woman on the verge of tears, desperately clinging to the floaty purple fabric that protected what was left of her modesty, and the concerned man safely keeping his distance, in nothing but tuxedo pants and shoes.
It was probably why Lydia ran straight around Haley to pull her zip into place before pulling her youngest daughter into her arms, and why, when Haley tearfully asked her mother to take her home, Lydia displayed uncharacteristic quietness and, without question, led her daughter across the carpark to wear the guests' cars were parked and unlocked the large, solitary RV she called home.
It shouldn't have surprised Haley that her parents were so competent in a crisis. After eight children - four of whom were daughters, one of whom was particularly melodramatic - Jimmy and Lydia stepped in with an almost military precision. Haley's mother had called Jimmy from inside the RV, and he had responded immediately; the trio were driving away from the picturesque wedding venue before Nathan could even get his shirt back on. At Lydia's instruction, Jimmy had dropped them off at Haley's apartment and quietly made himself scarce, as Lydia started a hot shower and ushered Haley into it. It was, Haley noted numbly, the second time she'd unzipped her beautiful dress that day. She allowed herself to be wrapped up in fluffy towels and taken to bed like a child, and it wasn't until after she'd woken up did Haley realise she'd managed to fall asleep at all.
She could tell by the light behind her curtains that it was morning, and by her swollen, painful eyes that it hadn't been a restful sleep. She was curled up on her side with her back to her mother, who was whispering quietly to someone else in the room.
"She didn't say a word to me or Jimmy yesterday. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact she was with him when I found her, this mama bear would have been expecting the worst."
"Yeah, well he seemed pretty distraught himself. He's not exactly the greatest conversationalist at the best of times, but he didn't say anything."
Haley immediately recognised the second hushed voice as Peyton's, and there were no surprises who the he they were talking about was. It was only then she realised how worried her mom must have been, seeing her daughter in such a disheveled, unhappy state. Coupled with her lack of explanation as to why she had left the wedding - when she was a bridesmaid on top of everything - her poor mother must be imagining all sorts of upsetting scenarios. In the light of a new day, guilt and embarrassment suffocated Haley with its weight. She'd run out before Brooke had thrown the bouquet. She'd skipped out on farewelling two of her best friends on their honeymoon. She'd likely kept her mother awake all night, wondering what had happened between her and Nathan.
"Mom?" A third voice that Haley recognised as Quinn's spoke up, entering the bedroom. "I brought some coffee with me. Is she awake yet?"
Not wanting to eavesdrop any further, Haley rolled over and wriggled herself upright. "Yeah I'm up."
Lydia, Peyton and Quinn immediately turned to her. She felt her mother's warm brown eyes quickly assess her before Lydia tenderly ran her hand through Haley's wild, tangled hair. "How are you feeling, honey?"
Haley allowed herself another second or two of her mom's gentle touch before admitting, "I'm so embarrassed, Mom. I'm so sorry for just running off like that." Her eyes met Peyton's over the coffee Quinn had passed around. "I feel like the worst daughter and friend in the world."
"You're not too bad, foxy," Peyton grinned devilishly at her. "But, you know, when Brooke and I told you to sleep with Nathan to get him out of your system, I don't think we meant at the wedding."
It was the icebreaker Haley needed, but she couldn't help but bury her head in her hands as Quinn's jaw dropped and her mother started cheering.
"You told her to what?" Quinn exclaimed.
"Oh honey, why not at the wedding?" Lydia asked, laughing. Turning to her eldest daughter, she said "You can't blame the girl; you didn't see him all dressed up in that tux. Although... I did get to see him half out of it later on, hair all mussed up, panting after our Haley Bob here... oooh, if only I were thirty years younger."
"Mother!" Quinn admonished as Peyton reached over for a high-five with Lydia before doubling over with laughter. With a groan, Haley pulled her blankets back over her head to hide her flaming face, but she couldn't help but feel infinitely better than she had when she'd woken up.
"Well, call it mother's intuition, but I don't think they got that far..." Haley felt her mom's warm hand rub her back, soothingly. "Want to tell us what happened, honey?"
With three of her favourite women around her - Peyton told her the only reason she'd been able to get Brooke off FaceTime earlier was because she had to board her plane - Haley had never felt so loved and supported. With a deep break and a fortifying swallow of caffeine, she filled her mom and sister in on signing up to the dating app and chatting with Devil12. While she glossed over the part where they exchanged naked photos of themselves - Peyton wisely staying quiet and busying herself with her drinking her own coffee when Haley got to that part of the story - she told them about how hard it had been committing to falling for this amazing man when her ex-boyfriend was turning up everywhere, and the girls' tipsy conversation in the limousine the day before.
"And then we had to dance in front of everyone, and he was just there, looking at me as if I was the most amazing thing in the world. It just felt so perfect being so close to him, and he kept telling me that I was beautiful..."
Just thinking about the way Nathan had looked at her as he held her on the dancefloor had swarms of butterflies flapping their wings wildly in her stomach. She'd never felt so beautiful. Not only then, but even while she was desperately trying to ravish him in the backseat, it just felt like he had been in so much awe of her beauty. She felt so cherished, worshipped.
"It felt like being struck by lightning..." she whispered to herself, lost in the jungle of her thoughts.
"So how did you go from that to your mom finding you and taking you home?" Peyton's confusion pulled Haley back to the room.
"He told me..." Haley cringed as she spoke the truth out loud. "He told me that he knew I was Halo23 on MetYet and he was Devil12, the guy I'd been messaging all this time. The guy I'd been falling for all this time."
A collective "Ohhh..." sounded throughout Haley's room, as the three women around her all nodded understandingly in unison.
Peyton suddenly clapped a hand to her mouth. "Oh my God! So that's was why he was there at Karen's Café! You were going to meet him!"
"Yup," Haley nodded. "I just... I can't believe I've been so stupid. All this time I've been trying to move on from Nathan so I can commit to Devil12, and now they're the same person. It's such a mess."
"Are they really the same person?" Lydia spoke up softly, yet pointedly. "Is it really such a mess?"
"Uh, Mom, have you just forgotten about what an asshole Nathan used to be in high school? How horrible he was to Lucas? All that drama with his father? That drama which, I might add, caused him to break up with me out of the blue and leave me just when I was thinking about giving up my dream school to be with him?"
As she had gotten more and more worked up, Lydia calmly blinked back at her. "I haven't forgotten that, honey. But maybe you've forgotten that you used to love that asshole."
Before Haley could open her mouth to reply, her mother continued. "And have you forgotten how close Nathan and Lucas are now? Or how much that boy has grown into a mature, respectable man despite all that 'drama with his father'" Lydia quirked her fingers around her coffee cup. "The father who, by the way, is no longer around to interfere and cause so much hurt and destruction? And," she continued without a pause, "you didn't give up your dream school. You went to Stanford just like you always wanted?"
"Mom..."
"Sweetheart, your father and I are so proud of you for getting into Stanford and for everything that you've achieved since then, but even I can see that my beautiful daughter has been holding her heart back all these years. And I know that you were hurt badly when you and Nathan broke up, but you were just kids back then. Both of you were far too young to understand the sacrifices involved following each other to college. Nathan has been through a lot, especially in the last year. Is it so hard to imagine that's hes not that teenager you left behind? that he might have grown into a man worthy of your love?"
Speechless, Haley simply stared back at her mother. Lydia patted her blanket-covered leg with affection and a gentle smile. "I think you have a few things to think about, honey. I'm going to let my other daughter take me out for lunch with her handsome new boyfriend, but Daddy and I will stop by before we hit the road again, ok?"
Haley nodded numbly, oblivious to Peyton and Quinn's goodbye hugs and as the three women left her room. Lydia's words kept echoing in her head; could it really be that simple?
She glanced around her room and spotted her purple clutch on top of her dresser. She retrieved her phone from its silky lining and returned to her bed, ignoring the dozens of missed calls and messages and tapping the oh-so familiar MetYet icon. The strange blue and white photo that marked Devil12's messages became stupidly obvious as Duke University's famous grinning Blue Devil and she wondered about all the other painfully obvious clues that she had missed. Shaking her head, Haley knew it wasn't the time to beat herself up; she had a lot of questions that needed answers and those answers lay within the words on her screen.
The biggest question of all was, could she ever have a future with Nathan Scott?