Chapter Fourteen

As soon as he awoke the next morning Nathan grabbed for his phone checking for any missed calls, hoping that by some miracle Haley had tried to call him. But there had been no calls. Not even Tim had called him despite the dozen or so voice mails he had left the night before. Punching a number angrily into the phone he waited impatiently for an answer. Finally someone at the other end picked up and a groggy voice mumbled

"Hello."

"Tim" Nathan snapped "I need your help so get your ass out of bed and meet me at school in twenty minutes."

"You have got to be kidding me" Tim grumbled "Its like 7 o'clock in the morning. What's so urgent that it can't wait another hour?"

"Just be there," Nathan told him as he slammed the phone down. It was time to show Haley exactly how he earned his reputation as King of Tree Hill High.

Roughly forty minutes later at the James residence Haley was for the first time since she could remember contemplating the idea of faking an illness to avoid school. She just couldn't face the thought of seeing Nathan and Tim and being reminded of what a fool she had been. Looking at her bedside clock she saw that she only had about half an hour until Lucas would be arriving to pick her up. She heard the sound of her cell phone ringing and reached over to pick it up checking the caller ID as she did. Seeing Nathan's name appear she dropped the phone as if it had bitten her and buried her head under the covers of her bed. That was it there was no way she was going to school today. Ten minutes later her phone began to ring again, groaning she grabbed it and saw that it was an unknown number. For a moment she allowed it to just ring unsure whether she should answer or not. Stop being such a baby Haley she reprimanded herself if it is Nathan you can just hang up on him. Lifting the phone to her ear she uttered a small

"Hello".

"Haley?" a feminine voice asked, "Is that you?"

"Yeah this is Haley" wondering who on earth she was speaking to, she knew the voice sounded familiar but couldn't quite place it.

"It's me Susie. I was just wondering if you're free to tutor me this afternoon?"

"Umm sorry Susie but I'm actually not feeling that great so I don't think I'll be coming to school today."

"Oh no" Susie groaned, "Remember that maths quiz you were going to help me revise for?"

Haley madly started wracking her brain she couldn't remember anything about a maths quiz.

"You know the one I told you about the day you left early because you had a headache?"

Haley looked puzzled for a moment she hadn't left tutoring early with a headache lately. Then she remembered the day Nathan had come to find her in the tutoring centre and the way he had touched her. Fuck she probably did tell me about the maths quiz then but I was so distracted after what happened with me and Nathan that I didn't even hear her.

"Haley I really need your help" Susie added in a pleading tone.

Haley immediately started to feel guilty it wasn't fair to Susie to make her pay for the personal dramas that she was going through. Sighing heavily she agreed to meet Susie in the tutoring centre straight after school.

"Oh Haley you're the best" Susie added effusively and with a promise not to be late she hung up the phone.

Haley reluctantly got out of bed and grabbing the first thing she laid her hands on in the wardrobe she went to get dressed.

Haley slid on her jeans and picked up the top that she had grabbed from the wardrobe. Looking at it for the first time she realised what it was and let it fall to the floor There is no way I am wearing that she thought staring sadly at the large sweat shirt on the floor. In fact I should probably take it with me and give it back to him. I don't want it anymore. But for some reason she couldn't bring herself to say goodbye to the only thing she had of Nathan's. Maybe I should keep it so I can burn it. Yeah that's what I'll do I'll keep it and burn it then maybe I'll be able to forget about everything that happened and just go back to the way things were before I got to know him. Hearing the doorbell chime she hurried back into her room pulling one of her own sweatshirts from the cupboard. Slipping it on she looked longingly at her bed once more before going downstairs to let Lucas in.

Despite Lucas' best efforts that day Haley was miserable. He had done everything he could think of to cheer her up but nothing had seemed to work. As the day wore on he grew increasingly frustrated with her and leaving her to mope in the library went to find Peyton. He needed to vent and he figured she was the perfect person to listen.

Haley walked among the shelves taking very little interest in any of the books but pretending to look at them anyway. She had no idea where Lucas had disappeared to and at the moment she really didn't care. He had been getting on her nerves all day with his inability to accept that she was upset and a few corny jokes and a bunch of flowers was not what she needed in order to feel better. Her thoughts had been consumed with Nathan all day and although she had tried to pretend to herself that she was over him she couldn't help but look for him everywhere she went. But sightings of him had been very few and far between. She had caught a glimpse of his back as he walked down the hall that morning and had thought she had seen his dark head in amongst a group by Tim's locker just before lunch but that had been all. To be honest though she wasn't even sure what she would do if she did see him slap him across the face or kiss him senseless. Both courses of action had their appeal at the moment. She remained lost in her thoughts even as a figure approached her from behind

"Are you ready to talk to me yet?" a voice asked.

For a moment it seemed that her heart had stopped beating as she heard that oh so familiar voice. Regaining her composure she stayed facing away from him not daring to look at him in case her body had unbeknownst to her decided on the latter course of action even though her head still told her that she should slap him.

"I told you I never wanted to see you again and I meant it." She told him silently celebrating the fact that her voice had come out as firm as she had intended it to.

His face was grim as he heard the coldness in her tone. But he wasn't ready to give up on her yet. His hand came out grasping her wrist forcing her to turn around to face him. She still would not look at him though keeping her face averted staring at a point over his shoulder. He grabbed her chin roughly bringing her eyes to meet his feeling his anger start to build as he saw the emptiness in her eyes.

"Nathan I have nothing to say to you and no interest in hearing anything you have to say. Just leave me alone."

"Fine" he growled, "then we won't talk. There are other ways to communicate." He added cryptically before he bent his head covering her mouth with his kissing her harshly.

He still held her chin preventing her from turning her head away as she struggled against him his other arm coming around her to hold her to him. She stubbornly kept her lips closed denying him the access he craved and he drew back slightly wondering how he could get her to respond to him. She opened her mouth to yell at him and seeing his opportunity he swooped in again, his tongue urgently entering her mouth. She felt her will to fight slipping away under his onslaught and hesitantly began to move her tongue against his. His triumphant groan at her actions though served to bring her back to reality and using all her strength she wrenched away from him.

Angry tears filled her eyes as she looked at him. "Are you happy now? Have you proved your point? Yes you can still get a physical response from me but that was all it was." She told him.

She was furious but she didn't know who she was angrier with him for kissing her or herself for responding to his tactics. "If you ever do that again I'll report you for assault" she snarled.

"Haley I'm sorry. I just couldn't stand the way you were looking at me" he tried to justify his actions but to no avail.

"You know Nathan" she continued her anger abating to be replaced by sadness "for a while there I thought we might actually have something between us. But I can see now that I was just another conquest to you. I was just another notch to add to your belt. I don't know why you can't just leave me alone. I know about the challenge and it destroyed anything we might have had. So why can't you just let it go."

Nathan could only stare at her as he realised that she truly meant what she was saying. It was over. Suddenly Haley's head snapped back up and she looked at him once again.

"Oh my god I just worked out why you can't let this go. Its because we never had sex isn't it? You're worried about your reputation if it ever gets out that you didn't nail me. You're worried about what all your groupies would think of you."

Nathan's look changed to one of disbelief "You really think that little of me?" he asked. "Well I guess you really don't know me at all" he finished sadly and he walked away without looking back leaving Haley to ponder his words and the possibility that maybe just maybe she had misjudged him.

As Nathan left the library Tim stepped in front of him. "So how did it go?" he asked.

"It didn't" came Nathan's response.

"So I guess it's on to Plan B." Tim replied.

"I don't know man I'm not sure if she will ever forgive me."

A.N Ok as you may have guessed there has been a slight change of plans with this story. As I was writing this chapter a new idea came to me, which I decided to use in this chapter so my plans for the ending will have to wait until the next chapter. Work has been getting a bit crazy at the moment but I am hoping to get some time off tomorrow so with a bit of luck I should be able to update then. As usual a big thank you to those who have reviewed. Ange x.