"How have you been?" Nathan asked her.
"I'm good." She looked at Nathan's bloodshot eyes, with dark circles around him.
"What about you?" she asked him with slight concern, "You look tired." And ill, but Haley did not want to seem too concerned about her ex-husband.
"Fine, I'm fine." He didn't say anything more. They were awkward around each other now. But that was to be expected. Nathan knew what he wanted to say to her. He wanted to say he was sorry. He wanted to make her love him again. He wanted to ask her out.
"Haley, I" he began. But then he stopped.
"Yes?" she asked him carefully.
"Do you want to go to a movie on Friday?" Haley was taken aback. She didn't want to get caught up with Nathan Scott again even after how badly she still wanted him. But he cheated. He deserved what he was about to get.
"No." Haley's voice was cold. "I'm sorry Nathan, but no." She didn't tell him what she knew.
"Why not? We used to…" his voice trailed off, knowing his argument was hopeless.
"That was the past, Nathan."
"I know," he replied. What he really wanted to know was what were the reasons for it. What events had caused the divorce? He didn't really know. He suspected things, but he didn't know for sure.
Nathan watched as his ex-wife turned to leave. Then he followed after her. He only followed, when she knew Haley was gone.
Then, Nathan got into his car and sped away. He saw Lucas at the front of the school as he was speeding off. He almost went back. But he decided against it, though he knew he had to talk to someone and soon.
All of his pain was
weighing him down. Somehow, despite all that he was actually more
focused on his homework. A part of him thought it was because he
wanted to prove something to Haley. Prove that he was still the one
for her and would still work for her. He wanted to do all of that for
her. He would do anything for her at this point.
So when he got
home, Nathan studied hard. Then he went to the river court again, and
played for an hour, practicing intensely. What he didn't see was
Whitey watching him, with distinct approval.
When he was done, Nathan felt exhausted and weak. He figured that was most likely due to the fact he could never sleep anymore. That was what Nathan figured anyways. He was in fantastically good shape. He stumbled over to the bench. He sat down, breathing heavily. It had been a good workout despite playing by himself.
He did not notice Whitey as he made his way towards the car, until his coach stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Coach?" Nathan asked in surprise.
"Yes. Good job," Whitey said. Nathan stared.
"You watched me?" he asked.
"Yep. I was pleased with what I saw. Do that in practice tomorrow and you'll be fine."
"Whatever you say, Whitey," Nathan replied, "Is this going to take long? I'm pretty beat."
"That's another thing. Get some rest, Nathan. I want you to be fresh for season."
"All right," Nathan said, "I'll get some if I can ever get home." He was slightly joking. Whitey chuckled a bit.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Whitey said.
"Yeah, see you." Nathan got into his car. Weird, Nathan thought. He sighed as he entered the dark apartment alone. He shivered slightly, the place haunting him for some reason.
He really missed Haley a lot. The apartment was full of painful memories. Nathan thought about moving to a different one. But, he never had the time, what with basketball and school. And a part of him wanted to hold on to what they had. The apartment was something he could hold on to.
Nathan kicked off his shoes and took a nice refreshing shower to cool himself off from the workout. Then he went to the bed and lay down. But, as usual, sleep took a long time in coming. He thought he should be getting used to the empty bed by now, but he wasn't. Nathan stared at the ceiling.
Whenever he did sleep, she haunted him in his dreams. The power she held over him was great. Normally, Nathan was used to it being the other way around.
Morning could not come soon enough for Nathan. It was 3:00 in the morning when sleep finally overtook him. 3 hours later, Nathan was forced to wake up.
He groaned. Last night
had been a terrible night for sleeping. He wished it could have been
like yesterday. Yesterday he had felt refreshed. Today, he felt
sluggish and tired. He also had one hell of a headache. For a split
second Nathan felt like drinking or even doing drugs. But then the
moment passed. Nathan wondered how in the world he was going to play
basketball as good as he had last night. He did not even feel like
getting out of bed.
He knew what the coming day would bring:
misery.
Maybe, Nathan thought, Haley would accept being friends. But Nathan didn't know if he could even accept only that. Just friends, after all we had. Still, it is better then what we are right now, which is nothing.
