"So did you get the new Britney CD? I heard it's good." Maddie asked casually, running a file over her nails.
"That CD's been out for months." Haley answered, swiping a bottle of pink nail polish from in between the two of them.
They were both lying on Haley's bed, manicuring their fingernails-something they'd always do when they had spare time.
"Well sorry for trying to make friendly conversation. You just seem really quiet lately."
"Yeah, I've just had a lot of stuff going on." She finished painting her final fingernail and blew on them, hoping to get the polish to dry quicker.
Maddie sat up and set the file down next to her. "What kind of stuff?"
"Guy stuff." Haley sighed.
"By guy stuff, you mean Lucas."
"Yeah-" She said, sounding a bit unsure.
"So does this mean there's..more than one guy then?"
Haley raised her eyebrows. "Since when have you been so nosy?"
"Since you never tell me anything like you used to! I mean, you say you're pissed at Lucas but don't tell me why. Then I ask you if this whole guy stuff problem involves more than one guy and you don't give me a straight answer. I'm right to be bothered by this, correct? Because please tell me if I'm going off the deep end here."
"You've been off the deep end since I met you."
Maddie grabbed a pillow from beside her and chucked it at Haley's face. "Haley, come on! I'm seriously wiggin' about this! I feel like you don't trust me with your personal life anymore or something."
"You know it's not like that." She rolled her eyes. "You made me knick my nails."
"Well, cry me a river." Maddie over dramatized, once again picking up the nail file and running it over her thumb nail. "I'm sorry if I'm being a nudge."
"You're not, I'm just being a bitch."
"Yeah you are." Maddie mumbled, and received a playful slap from Haley.
"Things have just been so screwed up with Lucas lately, and then-" Haley stopped for a second and Maddie looked at her.
"And then...?" She was about to make a snide remark before something in the doorway caught her attention. "Mhhm, and then he happened." She softly said, discreetly pointing in the direction of Nathan.
Haley turned around and smiled, then looked back at Maddie. "Yeah."
"Well then I'll leave you two alone." She gathered her things and stood up, walking over to Haley and whispering in her ear. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Which is everything."
Maddie winked and giggled, walking out of the room.
"I'm not even going to ask what that conversation was about." Nathan walked over to Haley and gave her a small kiss.
"Nothing of interest...to you at least." She watched as he sat down and gave her a questioning look. "Girl talk."
Nathan nodded. "So, I was thinking we could spend some much needed quality time together."
"Much needed quality time? We had a whole quality hour in the back seat of your car this morning."
"You're saying I'm only entitled to an hour a day, then?"
Haley laughed. "No, that's not what I'm saying. Way to twist my words, superstar."
"You twisted them first."
"Keep fighting with me and I'll be forced to pin you down."
"Pin me down? That doesn't sound too bad.."
Haley grinned evilly. "Pin you down and paint your nails. Maybe some lipstick, a little blush...you don't really need mascara, you have naturally curly eyelashes.."
She watched as his face paled and he gulped. The look on his face was priceless. It was a classic Kodak moment. "Okay, okay sorry. I'm stopping."
"Good." Haley smiled triumphantly. Carefully moving the numerous bottles of nail polish in front of her out of the way, she climbed over to Nathan and straddled his lap, "So, what kind of quality time did you have in mind?"
"Return of Yoshi." He said matter-of-factly.
"Huh?"
"Video game."
She pulled away from him and let her arms dangle loosely around his neck. "Okay, let me get this straight. You want me to play video games with you?" Nathan nodded. "Isn't that something you do with your buddies?"
"It could be..." She smacked him on the shoulder, rolling her eyes. "Oh come on Haley! Yoshi is lonely!"
"Yoshi can kiss my ass."
"And I'm sure he'd love to."
Haley removed herself from Nathan and went across the room to get her shoes. "I hate video games."
"You won't hate my kind of video games." He said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
"Why, is Yoshi a porn star freak or something?"
"No. Let's just say I have some interesting gaming techniques." His coy response caused Haley to be the one to gulp.
"Why does that scare me?"
Nathan and Haley entered the beach house and threw their coats to the ground, not bothering to hang them up. Or maybe it was because Nathan had never used a closet in his life. Either way, the articles of clothing were carelessly thrown onto the hardwood floor.
"I would have taken you to the house but my dad is probably there and he's the last person I want to see." He went over to the fridge and opened it up, scanning the contents.
"What's the deal with you and your dad, anyway?"
Haley could see his back tense at the question. She figured it wasn't the best thing to ask him, considering every time she brought the man up an angry expression would creep onto his face.
"We just don't get along." He handed her a bottle of water and walked out to the living room, with Haley in tow. "Okay, so change of plans. I just remembered Yoshi is at my house. Guess we're Mario Kart'n it."
"Nathan, come on! Do we have to?" Haley couldn't help but whine. She hated video games.
"It'll be fun, I promise."
"Yeah, fun." She scoffed, plopping down next to him. Her eyes wandered over to gaming console. Damn Nintendo. She should have brought her sledgehammer with her so she could destroy it before Nathan kicked her butt in whatever they were playing. Mario something or other. "Give me this." She pulled the extra game controller out of his hand and started rapidly pressing the buttons. "What do each one of these do?"
"Uh-uh..not yet. First, I need to explain the rules." That devilish smirk crept onto his face once again. Haley gulped. Wouldn't be the first time.
"Okay, what? Am I not allowed to pick a certain little character to play? Do you want to be Princess Peach?" She teased as she looked through the display of characters to pick from. So that's Yoshi. What a cute little green...thing.
"I wouldn't be saying that right now. Because I'm brutal in these games. And judging by my rules, you're gonna want to not lose..."
Haley's brow furrowed.
"Unless of course, you like being naked."
Her eyes widened as she heard his last comment. "Come again?"
"Well, for every game you lose, you lose an article of clothing."
"You didn't tell me this was strip Nintendo you dirt ball!" She smacked him in the back of the head.
"What's wrong, you scared?" Nathan teased, dangling the controller in front of her face.
"No, I'm not!" She said forcefully, grabbing the controller and pressing random buttons once again. "Now tell me what all of these do so I can kick your ass."
He smirked. "You'll figure it out."
"Nathan!"
"I can't tell you. It's against my rules."
"But I've never played a video game in my life. How the hell am I going to beat you if I don't even know what these little buttons do?"
He looked over at her. She was so flustered. "That's kind of the point. You'll be naked before you know it."
Haley's jaw dropped to the ground. "That is so not fair! I'm not getting naked in front of you!"
"Why not, you did this morning."
"That was different!" She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded.
"Was not." Nathan looked back to the screen. "Come on, let's get this started."
"Take em off, buddy. Come on." Haley laughed as Nathan removed his pants. She threw her head back and let out a giggle as he growled, frustrated at his losing streak.
"I thought you sucked at video games."
"Well apparently I don't now, do I?" She focused her attention back to the screen as she raced her little car down an intricate obstacle course. "Ready to lose that shirt?"
"You ready to lose those socks?" He asked as he put his full concentration on the game.
"Nathan, you're not going to win. Plus the only thing I've had to take off were my sneakers when I lost that one game like an hour ago."
"Damn it, Haley. Stop talking to me. You're going to make me screw up!" He bit his lower lip and feverishly pressed the buttons on his controller. "Go left little Yoshi, now go right!" He screamed, moving to the left and right as if he were in the car as well.
"Stop talking to him! He's not real!"
"Yeah, and that's why you were giving Princess Peach beauty tips. Because I could have sworn you thought she was real."
"You know, this game makes you mean." She pouted, but then shrieked and jumped to her feet. "I beat you, I beat you! Come on Nathan, take it off!"
"No!" He screamed, holding his shirt as tightly as he could to his body.
"Aw what, mad you lost and you have to strip down to your man panties? Or should we play another round and you can lose them too?"
"First of all, they're boxers. Not man panties. Second of all, I LET you win!" He stuck his tongue out.
"You did not, you little liar!"
"Uh huh, I did too. I felt bad so I let you win all those games."
"You are the worst liar I've ever come across." She sat down and looked over at him. "Okay Mr. I can't lose, we'll have a sudden death round. We'll see if you're lying or not. And if you lose, off with the man panties."
"Boxers!" He screamed.
"Alright, alright. Boxers." She pressed the start button and smiled. "Let the games begin."
Haley was once again in the lead, with Nathan trailing shortly behind her. Or should it be..Princess Peach was once again in the lead with Yoshi trailing behind her? Whatever, you get the point.
Much to Haley's surprise, video games were kind of fun. At least this one was. It's always fun to watch your boyfriend strip down after he loses about seven games to you. What probably makes it better is that you've never played a video game in your life and you still beat him. What could be better than that?
"So, why am I winning this game again?" Haley asked, smirking.
"Because I'm letting you."
"No you're not! Stop saying that you sore loser!" It was clearly obvious that Nathan's video playing skills couldn't hold a candle to hers. He could have probably beat her at any other game, but she reigned supreme in this one. She had quite a knack for it.
Wanting to play around with his head for a little bit, she pressed the pause button and threw the controller to the ground.
"Hey! What did you do that for?"
"Because in about five seconds I'm going to cream you again."
Nathan frowned and realized that Haley was basically at the finish line.
"But, I could be willing to bargain with you." She bit her bottom lip, causing Nathan to get scared. This girl was dangerous now that she had video gaming power.
"And what kind of bargain did you have in mind?"
"Well..." She put her finger to her lip and tapped on it gently, signaling that she was thinking. "You could take off the shirt..you know, the one that you SHOULD have taken off during the last game you lost, and I can just forget about everything else and let you win. Or, you could be stubborn like you always are and try to beat me. But if you don't, you have to take off the shirt AND the ma--boxers." She corrected herself before the dreaded man panties word slipped out again. "Take your pick."
"What if I pick neither of them?"
"Well you better pick one of the above because in three seconds, my finger is un-pausing that game and I'm high tailing it to the finish line."
"Damn it why do you have to be so competitive about this?"
"Um because..it was your idea to do this in the first place. Just because you suck doesn't mean you can dodge your own rules."
"But those aren't my rules!" He whined.
"Oh that's right. Oh well, they're my rules now. Mine are better anyway."
Nathan glared at her. "Fine, you know what? I'm going to beat you. And If I do, you're taking off your pants, your shirt, AND your bra. Deal?"
Haley couldn't help but laugh. Was he serious? There was no way he could possibly beat her at this point. "You're on, buddy. Just don't come crying to me when you lose."
"We'll see about that." He un-paused the game and began to furiously throw things at Haley's car. The objects he was throwing were disabling her from making the short distance from the place she was currently at to the finish line.
"You asked for it." She slickly threw a banana peel from her car, causing Nathan to slip on it and stall his time. "Take that!" She screamed as she crossed the finish line. "Oh yeah!"
Nathan threw his arms angrily to the ground. "Aw man." He pulled off his shirt and slammed it on the ground as Haley danced around him.
"Who's your daddy, Nathan!! WHO'S YOUR DADDY!!!!" She laughed uncontrollably, watching as he went to pull down his boxers when she heard a noise coming from the doorway. There stood Dan Scott, arms crossed over his chest with an amused smirk on his face.
Haley closed her eyes and reopened them, hoping that when she did he wouldn't be standing there anymore. No dice. She turned back to Nathan and squinted. "Guess that's your daddy." She said embarrassed, sitting back down and covering her face with her hands.
"You know Nathan, you could have just come to the house and played that in your room where I had less of a chance of seeing you getting your ass kicked by a girl." Dan laughed sarcastically. "But I see it's too late for that."
"Dad-" He started, not looking at him. It would make him want to jump the guy.
"So this is the new flavor of the week" He looked at Haley. "Have fun with this one."
Before Nathan could say anything, Dan left.
"Ass hole." He mumbled, looking over at Haley. She was staring at the ground. "Haley.."
"What did your dad mean? Do you have a new girlfriend every week or something?"
"No. See, this is what he does!" He stated angrily. "He tries to play mind games with everybody and he keeps doing it because he knows it works!"
Haley tucked her hair behind her ear. "I need to go." She got up and gathered her things.
"Haley, don't."
"No, it's okay. It's just..that was really embarrassing." She forced a smile.
"You're mad at me aren't you?"
"No." She answered quickly. "I just want to go home."