"This is too hard," Haley complained to Lucas.
She threw down her pencil and calculator and dramatically laid her head down in her textbook.
"What is, multiplying binomials? Haley, you can do this stuff in your sleep," Lucas reminded her.
"I don't know why I couldn't just drop out of high school like every other teenage mother," she mumbled.
Lucas tapped her on the head with his pen and she looked up.
"You sound like an idiot saying things like that when you should be damn lucky you're still in school," he yelled at her.
Haley sighed.
"I know I'm just so tired I don't even think I know what I'm saying," she said then, "Gracie is teething and she won't sleep so I can't sleep and I can't multiply binomials if I don't sleep and I can't talk to my best friend without being an idiot if I don't sleep and."
"Hold up, " he said, "was that an apology I heard in there?"
She nodded, yes. Lucas leaned over then and picked up Haley's notebook and placed it in front of him.
"I am such a good friend that I am not only going to accept your apology, but I am also going to finish your math homework so you can go to the nurse for the rest of this period and nap in her office," Lucas said.
Haley got up and kissed his cheek.
"You are the best Luke," she said, "and just for this I promise that the next time you try and cheat off me in Spanish I won't cover up my paper just to spite you."
"Hey, I've never done that." he swore, but she was already out the door.
**
Haley fell asleep practically the moment she lied down, even though the school's beds were incredibly uncomfortable with the hard-as-a-rock cushion that they called a pillow and the wax paper covering that they called a sheet and would crinkle every time she moved. She needed a good power nap otherwise there was no way she would make it through the rest of the day. She hadn't been exaggerating about Gracie not sleeping; the baby was cutting her second tooth and it must have hit an extra-sensitive nerve because she had been miserably fussy for two days straight.
It had also been just about that long since she stopped by Nathan's house. Taking care of Gracie had left her with little time to think about the events of that afternoon. She called Peyton to ask for advice but when she tried to formulate the words to describe what happened, she was unable to think of exactly what to say, so she let it go without discussion and it was now starting to fester deep within her.
Nathan walked into the nurse's office. He had to get ice for his knee, which he busted up in practice the day before. He smiled at the secretary and went into her office to where the refrigerator was. He finished refilling the plastic bag with fresh ice, and was about to sit on the bed so that he could ice his knee when he noticed there was someone sleeping there already. It was Haley.
He took in her sleeping form. The first thing he noticed were the dark circles under her eyes, which hadn't been there a few days ago when she had been in his room. She was sleeping so soundly, but it was cold in the room and she kept involuntarily shivering. He shrugged off his jacket and covered her upper body with it so she would be warm, before returning to his class and icing his knee there instead.
**
Haley held the letterman jacket in her hands and gently traced the outline of the name of the back: Scott. At first she had thought Lucas had given it to her, and that he had come by to check up on her, but after some prodding of the nurse's secretary she had been informed that it was the younger Scott brother who had come into the office while she had been sleeping.
Her next class was English and Nathan happened to be in it with her. She would give him back the jacket. She walked through the hallway as inconspicuously as was possible for a girl like Haley James and found herself safe in the classroom in no time. He was already there, talking with Jake, Tim and Peyton.
"Um, hi," she greeted them all hesitantly.
In return: Peyton smiled and waved, Tim grunted that she was interrupting their conversation, and Jake rolled his eyes at Tim before leaning over and kissing her hello on the cheek.
She turned her attention to Nathan, who hadn't greeted her at all and placed the jacket on his desk. She was about to thank him when their teacher, Mrs. Monroe started speaking and told everyone to take their seats. She smiled hesitantly at Nathan and then sat down.
Mrs. Monroe started the period by explaining to her students that today she was going to run class a little differently than usual and that they were going to work in groups on special projects that would then be presented to the class later in the week.
She read off the groups, and Haley really wasn't interested in who was paired with whom until she heard her own name called.
"Haley, you'll be working with Nathan," Mrs. Monroe instructed before moving on to the next pair.
Jake raised his hand.
"You forgot to give me a partner so can I pick a group to work with," he asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry Jake. Sure, go ahead," she said, glad that he was willing to correct her oversight.
"Okay," he said with a grin, "I'll work with Haley and Nathan."
Mrs. Monroe nodded that it would be fine, and marked it down on her sheet.
"Now as you all know, we have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird and talking a lot about the themes that are present in the novel. What I want you to do for this presentation is to take one character and explain how he or she expresses one of the themes we spoke about earlier this week."
The groups moved their desks together and there was a lot of chatter in the classroom, some of it related to the assignment but most of it idle conversation about football scores and drama club meetings.
Haley had moved her desk over so she was sitting in between Nathan and Jake. She had her head stuck in the book, and was flipping through the pages.
"We should talk about Boo," Haley suggested, "and his connection to the theme of alienation."
Jake wasn't interested in schoolwork at the moment.
"You know what would be more fun," Jake said then, "if we tell Mrs. Monroe there was some emergency at home with Gracie so she lets us leave, and then we go to the janitors closet and make out for a while."
Haley's face soured.
"No, and stop it. I agreed to talk to you again, and I'll let you visit with Gracie, and we need to work together on this stupid project, but that's the end of it Jake," she said definitely.
Haley looked at Nathan to see if he had any reaction to this and found that he was watching her with a face as cold as stone.
"You know that's not true, and that we'll be back together in no time," Jake answered.
"No not this time," Haley replied.
"Why not? Is our arrangement suddenly not good enough for you?" he asked.
"Your 'arrangement' has never been good enough for me Jake," she seethed, "I didn't want an open relationship and you know it, but I agreed to it at first because you started cheating on me and refused to stop, and I don't know why but I was too in love with you to give you up completely."
Jake crossed his arms.
"Now you're getting all self-righteous on me? Don't make me out to be the only bad guy here Haley, you were always looking at other guys while we were together," he said.
"I didn't, not even once, until after you slept with half of the cheerleading squad," Haley answered him so loudly that a few people turned around to look at the ensuing fight, "and then I certainly felt entitled to."
Mrs. Monroe shushed them.
"You can sugar coat your actions all you want Haley but everyone knows you're a slut and you always will be," Jake said just as loudly.
Peyton had been listening to the conversation from a few desks away and becoming increasingly nervous about where this conversation could be headed. She threw a balled up paper at Nathan and mouthed at him to do something. Nathan sighed, and spoke up knowing he was only going to cause more trouble.
"Jake, man," he said in a serious tone to his best friend, "stop this @#%$, because I swear if you call her that again and I'm going to beat your face in."
Jake threw his hands up.
"I knew you were screwing him," he said then, "you came in here holding his jacket, you keep giving him these intense looks, and now he's all defending your honor."
"I can honestly say I never slept with him," Haley replied, "but that shouldn't matter Jake, it's none of your business who I'm with anymore."
"I think it is Haley, because maybe I don't think it's appropriate for my daughter to be raised by a slut," Jake said.
Nathan clenched his fist, and grabbed Jake's collar.
"I told you if you called her that again I was going to beat your face in," he said before taking a swing at Jake's face, knuckles cracking against his nose.
Jake punched back and his fist landed right in the area between Nathan's eye and cheekbone.
The class erupted then and Mrs. Monroe flew out of her seat to try and break up the fight. Half the students were cheering for Nathan and half were cheering for Jake.
Tim held Jake back and Peyton tried to grab Nathan. They were ordered to the principal's office. Jake started walking in that direction but Nathan started to take off the other way. Haley ignored Mrs. Monroe's protests that she remain in class and started running after Nathan. She caught up with him outside the gym, and pulled him inside before they got caught.
The first thing she did was look at his eye, which was becoming quite swollen and discolored. She touched it gently and he flinched.
"You were stupid to get in the middle," she began, "but I appreciate it, especially since you didn't have to after what happened in your room the other day."
"He has no right to call you names when he doesn't even understand you," Nathan answered.
He started to sway a little and Haley realized he might have a concussion if Jake hit him hard enough. She motioned for him to sit on the bench and he did, while she went into the locker room and removed an ice pack from the refrigerator in there.
"You're a mess," she said, placing the ice on his head as he winced, "first your knee and now your head."
"The nurse told you about my knee?" he asked.
She looked down at her hands.
"No," she said slowly, "I asked Luke about how you were this morning."
He looked up at her.
"Why did you do that?" he asked.
"I don't know," she answered.
He scowled.
"I am so sick of your I don't knows," he said angrily, "when are you finally going to know something?"
"I kissed you," she reminded him, "that was something."
He continued to scowl.
"It meant you were still worked up from before and you wanted some kind of release since I made it pretty obvious I wasn't going to @#%$ you," he was bitter.
"No, it wasn't like that," she tried to explain.
She rubbed her eyes. She was becoming so tired again, like she had been before she took her nap, but this conversation was one that needed to happen no matter how tired she was.
"So then what was it?" he asked a little more calmly.
"I.I think.if I slept with you it wouldn't just be for sex," she admitted.
He smiled then.
"You feel it too?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Yeah, I do. I really like you, okay," she spit out, almost embarrassed at having to say the words.
"So what happens now?" he questioned.
She smiled and then asked.
"You want to go out on a date?"
**
Nathan and Haley went out on their date the following weekend. They went to a movie and then had dinner at a nice restaurant in traditional date fashion and like any James event the entire evening was plagued from the start.
In the movie theater they had run into two different guys who Haley had been with, and who tried to pick her up while she was obviously on a date with someone else. Then, the entire thing had made her so flustered that she spilled her soda all over the person sitting next to her. In the restaurant her cell phone rang and her sister informed her that Gracie had not stopped screaming since the moment she left and that babysitting duty would be over in a half hour unless the baby calmed down. The two decided to leave and spend the rest of the night at Haley's house taking care of Gracie.
It was later, after Gracie had actually fallen asleep in Nathan's arms and then settled peacefully into her crib, and her parents and siblings had all turned in for the night as well, that Haley led Nathan to her room, and shared their second kiss.
Somewhere down the line he had become her strongest temptation. He represented loss of control, and while she thrived on losing physical control she hated losing emotional control of her faculties. If she got hurt.then she'd just have to bring him down with her.
**
Rumors flew.
Nathan Scott and Haley James didn't get together without the entire world knowing about it, and by world it is meant to imply every person at Tree Hill High.
The confrontation with Brooke happened sooner than Nathan would have liked. He had been hoping that she would be too mad to talk with him about it and then maybe never even have to have the conversation with her at all.
She found him sixth period and dragged him into an empty classroom.
"Why the hell is it all over school that you went out with Haley last night?" Brooke asked directly.
"I tried telling you the other day at my house but you wouldn't listen."
"No Nathan, the other day you said that you were sick of being with other girls and you wanted to change. You implied you wanted to change for me!" she yelled.
"I never implied it but you jumped to that conclusion and didn't give me a moments chance to correct you," he explained.
Brooke's face fell.
"She's going to chew you up and spit you out. I've seen her do it a hundred times," she said.
"It's different with me," he defended their relationship.
"Well of course you're going to think that, sugar," she belittled him again, "Haley is very good at making boys believe whatever she wants them to."
"You don't know how it is," he said.
"That's where you're wrong Nathan because I taught that girl every trick she knows."
She sauntered up to him.
"I'll give you one last chance to change your mind," she whispered into his ear before kissing him on the mouth.
He was caught off guard and he continued to kiss her for a minute before pushing her off him. He saw a shadow disappear past the window, and deep in his heart he knew Haley had seen him kiss Brooke. He left Brooke standing there as he ran out of the classroom and down the hall chasing after Haley.
Nathan cornered Haley in front of the janitor's closet. The bell rang and students were shuffling into the hallway so Nathan quickly pulled her into the closet and locked the door. Haley turned her back to him.
"Will you let me explain?" were the first words out of his mouth.
"No," she responded.
"I'm going to anyway," he said, "Haley?"
"I don't care Nathan."
He physically grabbed her arm and twirled her around so he could apologize to her face.
"I told her that the rumors were true and that you and I were together now and she got bitchy and started talking trash about how she created you to be a cold hearted slut who can't fall in love and she got mad when I defended you and then she kissed me hoping I would go back with her but when I realized what she did I pushed her off. She gets that its over with her and me."
"Whatever. I don't care," she repeated.
She was glaring at him with cool, indifferent eyes. He had never seen her look at him like that before.
"You don't believe me," he stated simply. Then he amended, "I'll make you believe me."
He grabbed her then and lifted her up so she was sitting upon a shelf and stepped in between her legs. He pressed her to him and started kissing her. She squirmed, trying to get out of his embrace, but she stopped fighting when he started talking.
"You know I'm different with you," he said, trailing kisses across her mouth, from one corner to the other.
"You've kissed her mouth too," she shot back, pushing into his chest to make him back up.
He didn't let go though. His lips were still terribly close to hers and he leaned in for another kiss but she pouted and turned her head. He was going to have to play a little rougher.
He bit her lip and when she opened her mouth to ask what the hell he thought he was doing, Nathan plunged his tongue deep into her mouth. While he kissed her for a couple of seconds he skillfully unbuttoned her shirt at the same time. He broke off the kiss and positioned her arms around his neck. She let him but then once her hands were there she clawed him in the neck with her nails.
"Haley," he growled.
He placed her finger over his carotid artery. His heart was racing and she could feel it beating a mile a minute.
"You feel that?" he asked.
"Yeah, so what," she snapped back, "you're blood is rushing other places right now too and you can bite me all you want but I'm not feeling that."
"You are acting so dense. I'm trying to tell you that I'm falling in love with you so give me a little break."
A brief glimpse of surprise passed over Haley's features before she returned to her stoic glare.
"Don't ever kiss her again," Haley said then, a small smile creeping across her face after she said it.
"I won't," he promised.
"I mean it; not even a truth-or-dare kiss or a one-last-hurrah kiss," she demanded, as he started to kiss her throat and her neck.
"I won't," he said again.
She sighed against him, and tangled together they melted to the floor.
"Haley," he called out a few minutes later.
"Hmm," she said, removing her lips from his chest so she could answer him.
"Can we switch positions, my busted knee is killing me."
Haley started to laugh, and soon he was joining her. They kissed for a little while more, until the janitor knocked on the door and ordered whoever it was in there to get out, and then went to get Nathan some more ice for his knee.
**
The bride tried to show no fear but a sob escaped her throat as she continued to stare down the barrel of the gun.
It had only been moments before when her groom had uttered their vows. She had closed her eyes because the intensity of having said her vows to the man she loved had been so overwhelming but when she opened them back up, expecting to be a married woman in a moments time, her groom was gone and the man had taken his place.
"I'm not just going to disappear," he said and then he fired into the distance.
The priest spoke over the ringing gun: I pronounce you man and wife.
She threw down her pencil and calculator and dramatically laid her head down in her textbook.
"What is, multiplying binomials? Haley, you can do this stuff in your sleep," Lucas reminded her.
"I don't know why I couldn't just drop out of high school like every other teenage mother," she mumbled.
Lucas tapped her on the head with his pen and she looked up.
"You sound like an idiot saying things like that when you should be damn lucky you're still in school," he yelled at her.
Haley sighed.
"I know I'm just so tired I don't even think I know what I'm saying," she said then, "Gracie is teething and she won't sleep so I can't sleep and I can't multiply binomials if I don't sleep and I can't talk to my best friend without being an idiot if I don't sleep and."
"Hold up, " he said, "was that an apology I heard in there?"
She nodded, yes. Lucas leaned over then and picked up Haley's notebook and placed it in front of him.
"I am such a good friend that I am not only going to accept your apology, but I am also going to finish your math homework so you can go to the nurse for the rest of this period and nap in her office," Lucas said.
Haley got up and kissed his cheek.
"You are the best Luke," she said, "and just for this I promise that the next time you try and cheat off me in Spanish I won't cover up my paper just to spite you."
"Hey, I've never done that." he swore, but she was already out the door.
**
Haley fell asleep practically the moment she lied down, even though the school's beds were incredibly uncomfortable with the hard-as-a-rock cushion that they called a pillow and the wax paper covering that they called a sheet and would crinkle every time she moved. She needed a good power nap otherwise there was no way she would make it through the rest of the day. She hadn't been exaggerating about Gracie not sleeping; the baby was cutting her second tooth and it must have hit an extra-sensitive nerve because she had been miserably fussy for two days straight.
It had also been just about that long since she stopped by Nathan's house. Taking care of Gracie had left her with little time to think about the events of that afternoon. She called Peyton to ask for advice but when she tried to formulate the words to describe what happened, she was unable to think of exactly what to say, so she let it go without discussion and it was now starting to fester deep within her.
Nathan walked into the nurse's office. He had to get ice for his knee, which he busted up in practice the day before. He smiled at the secretary and went into her office to where the refrigerator was. He finished refilling the plastic bag with fresh ice, and was about to sit on the bed so that he could ice his knee when he noticed there was someone sleeping there already. It was Haley.
He took in her sleeping form. The first thing he noticed were the dark circles under her eyes, which hadn't been there a few days ago when she had been in his room. She was sleeping so soundly, but it was cold in the room and she kept involuntarily shivering. He shrugged off his jacket and covered her upper body with it so she would be warm, before returning to his class and icing his knee there instead.
**
Haley held the letterman jacket in her hands and gently traced the outline of the name of the back: Scott. At first she had thought Lucas had given it to her, and that he had come by to check up on her, but after some prodding of the nurse's secretary she had been informed that it was the younger Scott brother who had come into the office while she had been sleeping.
Her next class was English and Nathan happened to be in it with her. She would give him back the jacket. She walked through the hallway as inconspicuously as was possible for a girl like Haley James and found herself safe in the classroom in no time. He was already there, talking with Jake, Tim and Peyton.
"Um, hi," she greeted them all hesitantly.
In return: Peyton smiled and waved, Tim grunted that she was interrupting their conversation, and Jake rolled his eyes at Tim before leaning over and kissing her hello on the cheek.
She turned her attention to Nathan, who hadn't greeted her at all and placed the jacket on his desk. She was about to thank him when their teacher, Mrs. Monroe started speaking and told everyone to take their seats. She smiled hesitantly at Nathan and then sat down.
Mrs. Monroe started the period by explaining to her students that today she was going to run class a little differently than usual and that they were going to work in groups on special projects that would then be presented to the class later in the week.
She read off the groups, and Haley really wasn't interested in who was paired with whom until she heard her own name called.
"Haley, you'll be working with Nathan," Mrs. Monroe instructed before moving on to the next pair.
Jake raised his hand.
"You forgot to give me a partner so can I pick a group to work with," he asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry Jake. Sure, go ahead," she said, glad that he was willing to correct her oversight.
"Okay," he said with a grin, "I'll work with Haley and Nathan."
Mrs. Monroe nodded that it would be fine, and marked it down on her sheet.
"Now as you all know, we have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird and talking a lot about the themes that are present in the novel. What I want you to do for this presentation is to take one character and explain how he or she expresses one of the themes we spoke about earlier this week."
The groups moved their desks together and there was a lot of chatter in the classroom, some of it related to the assignment but most of it idle conversation about football scores and drama club meetings.
Haley had moved her desk over so she was sitting in between Nathan and Jake. She had her head stuck in the book, and was flipping through the pages.
"We should talk about Boo," Haley suggested, "and his connection to the theme of alienation."
Jake wasn't interested in schoolwork at the moment.
"You know what would be more fun," Jake said then, "if we tell Mrs. Monroe there was some emergency at home with Gracie so she lets us leave, and then we go to the janitors closet and make out for a while."
Haley's face soured.
"No, and stop it. I agreed to talk to you again, and I'll let you visit with Gracie, and we need to work together on this stupid project, but that's the end of it Jake," she said definitely.
Haley looked at Nathan to see if he had any reaction to this and found that he was watching her with a face as cold as stone.
"You know that's not true, and that we'll be back together in no time," Jake answered.
"No not this time," Haley replied.
"Why not? Is our arrangement suddenly not good enough for you?" he asked.
"Your 'arrangement' has never been good enough for me Jake," she seethed, "I didn't want an open relationship and you know it, but I agreed to it at first because you started cheating on me and refused to stop, and I don't know why but I was too in love with you to give you up completely."
Jake crossed his arms.
"Now you're getting all self-righteous on me? Don't make me out to be the only bad guy here Haley, you were always looking at other guys while we were together," he said.
"I didn't, not even once, until after you slept with half of the cheerleading squad," Haley answered him so loudly that a few people turned around to look at the ensuing fight, "and then I certainly felt entitled to."
Mrs. Monroe shushed them.
"You can sugar coat your actions all you want Haley but everyone knows you're a slut and you always will be," Jake said just as loudly.
Peyton had been listening to the conversation from a few desks away and becoming increasingly nervous about where this conversation could be headed. She threw a balled up paper at Nathan and mouthed at him to do something. Nathan sighed, and spoke up knowing he was only going to cause more trouble.
"Jake, man," he said in a serious tone to his best friend, "stop this @#%$, because I swear if you call her that again and I'm going to beat your face in."
Jake threw his hands up.
"I knew you were screwing him," he said then, "you came in here holding his jacket, you keep giving him these intense looks, and now he's all defending your honor."
"I can honestly say I never slept with him," Haley replied, "but that shouldn't matter Jake, it's none of your business who I'm with anymore."
"I think it is Haley, because maybe I don't think it's appropriate for my daughter to be raised by a slut," Jake said.
Nathan clenched his fist, and grabbed Jake's collar.
"I told you if you called her that again I was going to beat your face in," he said before taking a swing at Jake's face, knuckles cracking against his nose.
Jake punched back and his fist landed right in the area between Nathan's eye and cheekbone.
The class erupted then and Mrs. Monroe flew out of her seat to try and break up the fight. Half the students were cheering for Nathan and half were cheering for Jake.
Tim held Jake back and Peyton tried to grab Nathan. They were ordered to the principal's office. Jake started walking in that direction but Nathan started to take off the other way. Haley ignored Mrs. Monroe's protests that she remain in class and started running after Nathan. She caught up with him outside the gym, and pulled him inside before they got caught.
The first thing she did was look at his eye, which was becoming quite swollen and discolored. She touched it gently and he flinched.
"You were stupid to get in the middle," she began, "but I appreciate it, especially since you didn't have to after what happened in your room the other day."
"He has no right to call you names when he doesn't even understand you," Nathan answered.
He started to sway a little and Haley realized he might have a concussion if Jake hit him hard enough. She motioned for him to sit on the bench and he did, while she went into the locker room and removed an ice pack from the refrigerator in there.
"You're a mess," she said, placing the ice on his head as he winced, "first your knee and now your head."
"The nurse told you about my knee?" he asked.
She looked down at her hands.
"No," she said slowly, "I asked Luke about how you were this morning."
He looked up at her.
"Why did you do that?" he asked.
"I don't know," she answered.
He scowled.
"I am so sick of your I don't knows," he said angrily, "when are you finally going to know something?"
"I kissed you," she reminded him, "that was something."
He continued to scowl.
"It meant you were still worked up from before and you wanted some kind of release since I made it pretty obvious I wasn't going to @#%$ you," he was bitter.
"No, it wasn't like that," she tried to explain.
She rubbed her eyes. She was becoming so tired again, like she had been before she took her nap, but this conversation was one that needed to happen no matter how tired she was.
"So then what was it?" he asked a little more calmly.
"I.I think.if I slept with you it wouldn't just be for sex," she admitted.
He smiled then.
"You feel it too?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Yeah, I do. I really like you, okay," she spit out, almost embarrassed at having to say the words.
"So what happens now?" he questioned.
She smiled and then asked.
"You want to go out on a date?"
**
Nathan and Haley went out on their date the following weekend. They went to a movie and then had dinner at a nice restaurant in traditional date fashion and like any James event the entire evening was plagued from the start.
In the movie theater they had run into two different guys who Haley had been with, and who tried to pick her up while she was obviously on a date with someone else. Then, the entire thing had made her so flustered that she spilled her soda all over the person sitting next to her. In the restaurant her cell phone rang and her sister informed her that Gracie had not stopped screaming since the moment she left and that babysitting duty would be over in a half hour unless the baby calmed down. The two decided to leave and spend the rest of the night at Haley's house taking care of Gracie.
It was later, after Gracie had actually fallen asleep in Nathan's arms and then settled peacefully into her crib, and her parents and siblings had all turned in for the night as well, that Haley led Nathan to her room, and shared their second kiss.
Somewhere down the line he had become her strongest temptation. He represented loss of control, and while she thrived on losing physical control she hated losing emotional control of her faculties. If she got hurt.then she'd just have to bring him down with her.
**
Rumors flew.
Nathan Scott and Haley James didn't get together without the entire world knowing about it, and by world it is meant to imply every person at Tree Hill High.
The confrontation with Brooke happened sooner than Nathan would have liked. He had been hoping that she would be too mad to talk with him about it and then maybe never even have to have the conversation with her at all.
She found him sixth period and dragged him into an empty classroom.
"Why the hell is it all over school that you went out with Haley last night?" Brooke asked directly.
"I tried telling you the other day at my house but you wouldn't listen."
"No Nathan, the other day you said that you were sick of being with other girls and you wanted to change. You implied you wanted to change for me!" she yelled.
"I never implied it but you jumped to that conclusion and didn't give me a moments chance to correct you," he explained.
Brooke's face fell.
"She's going to chew you up and spit you out. I've seen her do it a hundred times," she said.
"It's different with me," he defended their relationship.
"Well of course you're going to think that, sugar," she belittled him again, "Haley is very good at making boys believe whatever she wants them to."
"You don't know how it is," he said.
"That's where you're wrong Nathan because I taught that girl every trick she knows."
She sauntered up to him.
"I'll give you one last chance to change your mind," she whispered into his ear before kissing him on the mouth.
He was caught off guard and he continued to kiss her for a minute before pushing her off him. He saw a shadow disappear past the window, and deep in his heart he knew Haley had seen him kiss Brooke. He left Brooke standing there as he ran out of the classroom and down the hall chasing after Haley.
Nathan cornered Haley in front of the janitor's closet. The bell rang and students were shuffling into the hallway so Nathan quickly pulled her into the closet and locked the door. Haley turned her back to him.
"Will you let me explain?" were the first words out of his mouth.
"No," she responded.
"I'm going to anyway," he said, "Haley?"
"I don't care Nathan."
He physically grabbed her arm and twirled her around so he could apologize to her face.
"I told her that the rumors were true and that you and I were together now and she got bitchy and started talking trash about how she created you to be a cold hearted slut who can't fall in love and she got mad when I defended you and then she kissed me hoping I would go back with her but when I realized what she did I pushed her off. She gets that its over with her and me."
"Whatever. I don't care," she repeated.
She was glaring at him with cool, indifferent eyes. He had never seen her look at him like that before.
"You don't believe me," he stated simply. Then he amended, "I'll make you believe me."
He grabbed her then and lifted her up so she was sitting upon a shelf and stepped in between her legs. He pressed her to him and started kissing her. She squirmed, trying to get out of his embrace, but she stopped fighting when he started talking.
"You know I'm different with you," he said, trailing kisses across her mouth, from one corner to the other.
"You've kissed her mouth too," she shot back, pushing into his chest to make him back up.
He didn't let go though. His lips were still terribly close to hers and he leaned in for another kiss but she pouted and turned her head. He was going to have to play a little rougher.
He bit her lip and when she opened her mouth to ask what the hell he thought he was doing, Nathan plunged his tongue deep into her mouth. While he kissed her for a couple of seconds he skillfully unbuttoned her shirt at the same time. He broke off the kiss and positioned her arms around his neck. She let him but then once her hands were there she clawed him in the neck with her nails.
"Haley," he growled.
He placed her finger over his carotid artery. His heart was racing and she could feel it beating a mile a minute.
"You feel that?" he asked.
"Yeah, so what," she snapped back, "you're blood is rushing other places right now too and you can bite me all you want but I'm not feeling that."
"You are acting so dense. I'm trying to tell you that I'm falling in love with you so give me a little break."
A brief glimpse of surprise passed over Haley's features before she returned to her stoic glare.
"Don't ever kiss her again," Haley said then, a small smile creeping across her face after she said it.
"I won't," he promised.
"I mean it; not even a truth-or-dare kiss or a one-last-hurrah kiss," she demanded, as he started to kiss her throat and her neck.
"I won't," he said again.
She sighed against him, and tangled together they melted to the floor.
"Haley," he called out a few minutes later.
"Hmm," she said, removing her lips from his chest so she could answer him.
"Can we switch positions, my busted knee is killing me."
Haley started to laugh, and soon he was joining her. They kissed for a little while more, until the janitor knocked on the door and ordered whoever it was in there to get out, and then went to get Nathan some more ice for his knee.
**
The bride tried to show no fear but a sob escaped her throat as she continued to stare down the barrel of the gun.
It had only been moments before when her groom had uttered their vows. She had closed her eyes because the intensity of having said her vows to the man she loved had been so overwhelming but when she opened them back up, expecting to be a married woman in a moments time, her groom was gone and the man had taken his place.
"I'm not just going to disappear," he said and then he fired into the distance.
The priest spoke over the ringing gun: I pronounce you man and wife.