Take Back Your Hoodie, Take Back Your Gel
Lucas was still simmering the next morning when he turned up at Peyton's. After Nathan's challenge, he'd felt obligated to show up at the gym, where he'd gotten into a silent lifting competition on the Smith machine. He should have known better. Nathan may have started out taller than Lucas, but he's been out-of-shape, flabby. Under Dan's constant coaching, however he'd quickly bulked up, and was by now noticeably broader in the shoulders. He'd managed to beat the little bastard, but only just barely, and he knew he was going to feel it tomorrow. He could barely lift his arms over his head. If Dan noticed the cold war brewing around him, he didn't mention it. He did, however, seem pleased with how much weight they'd both managed.
All he wanted was to stretch out on Peyton's bed in her big house with her completely absent father and engage in a little recreational sex. So he was more than a little cheesed off when he found her cold, unreceptive, and hostile.
"Peyton, what is your problem? It was a joke, get it?"
"It was cruel, Lucas, get it? His mom hasn't even been gone 3 months, and you're making fun of their relationship? I am the last person who you should be turning to for sympathy. I am totally on his side in this. If I'd been him I'd have beaten the snot out of your stuck-up, superior, ego- centric self and then given the poster to your mom anyway. Serve you right. It was mean and vicious, and I don't want to know you anymore. Take that bag of stuff there. It's yours. We are over." She pointed to a shopping bag, but he didn't move for it
"You're picking that bastard spawn over me?" he said, not quite believing what he was hearing. Peyton was his.
"Lucas, I don't know you anymore. I don't even remember why I wanted to date you in the first place. How anyone could be so brutal! If that's how you're going to treat your brother, I don't want to know how you're going to treat me."
"Don't call him that!" Lucas exploded. "He is not my brother! He's like... some puppy Dad found in Vegas. He followed Dad home and now he wants to keep him. Well he can't. He's my father and Nathan-friggin-Carver can't have him!"
Peyton stood, her face white and voice trembling with fury. She picked up the bag. "Nathan said something to me last night. He said he was sick and tired of everyone telling him how you were an only child and didn't know how to share. He said that was past, and this was present. I thought he was exaggerating. But apparently not. So go, Lucas. And take your stuff with you. Because I no longer want to receive any of the crumbs you are willing to give." She shoved the bag in his arms. "Now, get out of my house."
He took the bag and turned to leave. "Fine. I'll come back when you're not PMS-ing."
"Don't bother."
While Peyton and Lucas were having it out on one side of town, Nathan was back on the other, having a much gentler argument with the last person he had expected to fight with: Haley. She'd turned up about an hour after they'd gotten back from the gym. Dan had been called in at the last minute to deal with something at the Chrysler store and Nathan had only just gotten out of the shower. "Haley! What's going on? I told you I'd swing by the cafe this afternoon."
Haley was standing in the middle of his bedroom, looking at the picture Lucas had desecrated to make his little poster, currently rolled up and tucked way in the back of Nathan's closet until he figured out how to get his revenge. "This is your mom?"
"Yeah."
"She's pretty."
Nathan smiled. "Yeah, she is... was. She had this shy smile that always made me want to hug her. She was a lot like Karen in a lot of ways. What's going on?"
Haley abandoned her contemplation of the picture and inspected the rest of the room, eyes lingering on the funerary urn. "I'm sorry to have to do this, Nathan, but I have to stop tutoring you, and it would be better if we just didn't speak for a while."
Nathan's jaw dropped. "What? Why? Is this because of Lucas?"
She shrugged. "Sort of. It's really for you. What he did last night... I've known him my entire life and I've never seen him do anything that horrible. If I'm going to find out what's going on with him, I can't let him see me with you. It's that simple. I want to help you, I do, but I have to help him. And I think in the long run, the best thing I can do for you is to... I don't know, get my friend back. Because this isn't him. I'm not even sure I can find him. But I know that my helping you is only making it worse. This is as much for you as for him."
Nathan ran his fingers through his hair, wondering if his day could get any weirder. "Let me get this straight, the best way you can think of to help me is to not associate with me or tutor me."
"That's about it," she said, holding up her hands in a gesture of supplication. "I know it seems perverse, but I'll find you another tutor. And it's only until Lucas works out whatever in the hell is wrong with him."
"This is insane, you realize. You're your own person, you should be able to associate with who you like. Especially when Lucas will barely talk to you in school. Are you sure he's even your friend?"
Haley shook her head. "I know it's weird and co-dependent. My older sister thinks it's almost abusive. But we have fun when we're alone. We can laugh and talk. As Dan Scott's son, he's been under a lot of pressure most of his life to follow in Dan's footsteps. He knows I don't care if he does or not. It really is a good friendship, for both of us. I have to save it. Besides, it's temporary, just until he finds himself again."
Nathan wondered if he could do this. Haley had been one of the first people to be nice to him. He didn't want to lose her so quickly. "Can I still say hi to you at Karen's?"
She smiled. "I'd be offended if you didn't."
"And you promise it's just temporary?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die," she said, making the appropriate hand gesture. "As soon as I can get him back on stable ground."
"Okay," he whispered. "But I'm going to miss you."
She took his hand. "Me too. I'll see you around, okay?"
He nodded and she left.
Well, this was a fine how-do-you-do, as Tammi, formerly of the Mustang Ranch, would have said. One of the few people he'd really felt close to in Tree Hill couldn't speak to him. Dan was out and who knew when he'd been back. He could bike over to Keith's garage, but Saturdays were really busy for him and Nathan, who was still learning to do an oil change, would just be in the way. Karen was working. He didn't know where Peyton or Brooke lived. Jake was probably busy, like always, with his mysterious "family obligations." He could always call Mrs. Plumber, but that was good for half an hour, max, and he didn't really want any more advice right now. He ambled through the empty house, wondering what to do with himself. He didn't even have much homework. Just as he was thinking there was always the insanely large TV in the living room, his eye fell on a book. Dan didn't have many books in the house, and most of those were about basketball, but this one had an interesting title and appeared to have been read multiple times. There were little stickies in it marking what he assumed were important passages. Maybe if he read something Dan liked, they could talk about it and find something to bond over besides basketball. So he took the book back to his room and settled down to read.