Disclaimer: Sadly I own nothing.

A/N: Nothing new for now.

Inside of You

Chapter 4

Searching for Simplicity

Lucas had finally come to the conclusion that although the thought of two women fighting over him seemed appealing in theory, in actuality it was more stressful than it was worth. Not to say that he didn't feel very flattered, or grateful for the attention, but the act of choosing which girl he should be with was turning out to be more difficult than one would imagine.

And because he hadn't even begun to speculate what the repercussions of his final decision would be on the third party, he had reverted to staying away until said decision was finally made.

However at the moment Brooke wasn't making the situation any easier for him. In fact she was making it harder every time he saw her. Which was why he didn't seem all that surprised to see her plop down next to him at his table during lunchtime, her trademark flirtatious grin on her face.

"Hey sexy, long time no talk," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulders with an easy grace.

"I've been around," he answered, closing the book he way reading.

"I see that. It doesn't explain though, why I see broody Lucas here before my eyes, instead of happy, fun Lucas," she said, her demure smile turning into a more serious expression.

"Oh he's here, thing is, he only comes out on special occasions," he teased her.

She laughed at his attempted joke, leaning closer to him this time. "Well let me know when he's gonna make his next appearance, because we have some unfinished business to attend too," she whispered into his ear, breathing a stream of hot air down his neck, and giving him a quick wink before getting up from her seat.

Suddenly Lucas felt very uncomfortable, and very hot. "I'll do that," he said, clearing his throat and watching her walk away into another crowd of friends. The slow tilt of her hips swaying back and forth, making him lose all of his concentration.

Lucas shook off the rather effective stupor Brooke seemed to put him in, as he scanned the rest of the lunch attendees. He caught Peyton sitting alone across the courtyard with her sketchbook in hand. He debated whether or not to go up to her. Deciding it still wasn't a good plan, considering he hadn't the faintest idea of what he would say.

"So have you talked to your mom lately," Haley spoke from behind Lucas, making him jump and completely cutting into his thoughts. He turned around to see her sitting next to him, waiting for his response.

"Where'd you come from?"

"English ran late," she answered quickly. "So have you....talked to her I mean."

"Oh, um yeah, she' staying in some villa with the other students on the trip. Their all learning how to bake an ancient Italian desert, it's cool. She's really excited. I'm happy for her," he answered, continuing to glance over at Peyton every once in a while.

Haley seemed to pick up on this action and his lack of enthusiasm for their present conversation, realizing because of her own drama, her and Lucas hadn't really discussed what was going on with him. And so being the best friend she had always tried to be, assumed what he was thinking when she caught him looking over at Peyton for the eleventh time.

"You can't avoid her forever."

He looked at her incredulous, "I'm not, I'm just ....just ya know, kind of....well..."

"Avoiding her," Haley asked again.

"Yeah pretty much," he finally relented, knowing he couldn't hide anything from her or himself apparently.

"You plan on doing something about that," she inquired further.

"Yes, when I figure out what to do I will."

"Oooh I know, how aboutcha get your butt up and go talk to her. She's just sitting there waiting for you to come over," Haley prodded him.

"I don't know what say," Lucas addled, "Am I just supposed to go up to her and be like, hey Peyton, how's it going? Sorry I haven't gotten back to you about the whole "us" thing. It's just that, um I think I might like your highly attractive best friend here, as well as you, and I need a couple more days to weigh my options. Mmm, I don't think that would go over well," he ran his hand over his face in frustration.

"Luke I've got a nifty idea, why don't you start off with hi."

"It's not that simple," he maintained.

"Of course it is, you just have to go after what you really want," Haley argued.

Lucas pinched out a short laugh of amusement. "If you think this is such an easy decision, then by all means, tell me what to do oh wise one. Come on, hit me with your best shot."

"You want my honest opinion," Haley earnestly asked him.

"No I want you to lie to me...of course I want you to be honest," he stated.

She paused, making sure he was ready for her answer, before continuing, "Choose Peyton."

"Why?"

"Because it'll never work out with Brooke."

"Maybe that's not the point. Maybe it should just be about having fun," he replied flippantly.

Haley gave him an exasperated glance, before grabbing a few things from her bag. "If that's your prerogative

"What do you mean," Lucas asked

"Is it really your heart telling you to have fun, or your mind telling your heart that you want to have fun so you won't get hurt again?"

"Both," he looked down, feeling somewhat ashamed.

"You should probably figure out which one."

"You're so not helping me," he complained, shaking his head

"That's because you want me to tell you to make the easy choice and I'm not going to, sorry," she gave him a congenial smile.

"I know what I need, I need a man to talk to about this. Like Keith, yeah I'm gonna talk to Keith," he said aloud to himself.

"Good luck with that," Haley willed to him, hoping his uncle would be more helpful than she was.

*************************************

Deb stood behind the counter of Karen's Café, carefully measuring out her next batch of coffee. She peeked over her shoulder and saw her son sitting at one of the corner tables, the golden colored sun about to touch the horizon through the window behind him. She also noticed how Haley managed to multitask her time, serving each customer, while persistently checking that Nathan was doing alright on his homework.

It was in that moment she naively wished life could always be this wonderfully simplistic. Stealing another glance outside at the falling sunset, Deb let out a calming breath as she headed into the back of the store.

Not long after the final customer had left and the sky had become a dark shade of blue, did Haley take a seat next to Nathan. Her thoughts seemed to mirror Deb's as she sat, helping him with his homework. Ever since his apology, the past few days had been different, better. They had fallen into a more even rhythm with each other, becoming closer again, like the morning they had spent together in her room. She refocused her mind, rereading the sentence on the paper in front of her once more, correcting it for him.

"Jameson had four daughters to take care of his crops. In addition, he also had a numerous amount of stable hands, despite his lack of farm tools."

"How is that any better," Nathan questioned.

"Never begin a sentence with 'and', teachers despise it. Use 'additionally', 'In addition to', 'however,' words like that, it reads better," she said, marking a few more paragraphs before handing it back to him.

Nathan squeezed the pieces of paper in his hand crumpling them up before letting it carelessly drop on the table. "Screw it, I'm never gonna get this," he groaned, looking hopeless.

"Yes you will," Haley assured him, as she smoothed the papers out.

"And you know this how?"

"Because I'm not going anywhere until you do," she answered, looking into his eyes.

Nathan gave her the most endearing , sincere smile, something that he so rarely did, that Haley knew for once she'd said the right thing. She watched him return to his paper, and looked around the café, seeing that they were alone. She reached up lightly caressing the outline of his jaw. When he looked up at her curiously, she moved closer to him until her lips softly brushed against his in a chaste kiss.

Haley figured Nathan would take this opportunity too deepen the kiss, but when he didn't she realized how much she wished he had. Instead of going any further, she pulled away gazing at him coyly.

"What was that for," Nathan inquired of the kiss, his breathing becoming rapid with anticipation of the next one.

"I'm proud of you, of how much you're trying. I just thought you should know that," she answered with conviction, her eyes sparkling.

Now Nathan Scott had never been widely known for his ability to talk about his emotions, and this time was no different than the rest. What Haley had said, however, meant so much to him he didn't have words to thank her.

"So does this mean we can make-out every time I get a math problem right. Cuz ya know, I did get a B on that last test," he baited her, capturing her face again, and bringing her lips up to his in a smoldering kiss. Their mouths locked together as their tongues intertwined with each other. Haley ran her hands through the back of Nathan's hair, as he pulled her body closer to his. They broke apart a second later, heavy lidded eyes followed in suit with heavy breaths.

They looked up at each other once again, that same feeling of butterflies entering their stomachs. 'So what do you say," Nathan began, "You, me, some food from the café- back at my house?"

Haley giggled at his implications, thinking that although the offer seemed more than tempting, she couldn't risk it. "I've got loads of homework, and tests to study for Nathan, I can't," she gave him an apologetic smile.

"Can't what," Deb said, coming from the back of the store.

For a moment they didn't move.

 Then both teens looked at each other, and back at her flabbergasted, knowing they couldn't very well tell her what they had actually been discussing. In quick move Haley blurted out the first thing she could think of. "Dinner, I can't come to dinner."

Deb looked to her son confused. As he confirmed Haley's statement, "Right, that's right," he nodded his head. "See I invited Haley to dinner at the house tonight, but she can't come," he gave his mother a disappointed frown.

"I've got lots of homework," Haley emphasized.

"Tons...tons of homework," Nathan added.

Deb appeared perturbed for an instant, before a light bulb went off in her head, and her eyes widened joyfully. "Well how about Haley comes to dinner tomorrow night," she eagerly beamed.

Nathan tried to interject, but was cut off, "Yes it would be perfect. Sunday's we close early, so we can all have dinner together, say 7:30," she asked, waiting for their reply.

Nathan and Haley gave each other a bewildered glance before Haley finally agreed. "Sounds great."

"Great," Deb responded with a cheery clap of her hands, before returning to the back to finish cleaning up.

"Yeah...great," Nathan mocked, running a hand through his hair. Then laying his head in the crook of Haley's shoulder, they both laughed at the situation they had just gotten themselves into.

A/N: Don't forget to review!!