A Way of Working Out
Chapter 6
It had been just over a week since Lucas had moved back home when he got a call from Skills. "Hey man, you are not an easy person to reach. Your parents said you were living with Haley a couple of weeks ago. Then, when I finally get around to calling, she tells me you moved home. What gives?"
"We just decided that we needed a break. That's all."
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Nah, everything's fine."
"Ok. Well, I'll call again soon, we should go out and catch up."
"Definitely."
After Skills hung up, he knew things were worse than Lucas let on, so he began to make some phone calls - Edwards, Fergie, Barry, and others. They decided to go out in a group and figure out what was going on. They too had no idea why Lucas had suddenly moved home. The last phone call made answered a lot of questions.
"Hey Teresa, is Tim around?"
"Hold on."
"Hello?"
"Hey Tim, Skills here."
"Hey man, how's it been?"
"Not too bad. Yourself?"
"Pretty well. Married life has been good to me. So, to what do I owe this call?"
"A bunch of us are getting together to help a friend. A gal's got him in the dumps."
"Who is it?" Tim questioned, not even thinking.
"Lucas. After a year, he and Haley have decided to spend some time apart."
Tim groaned, "Ehh…Yeah. I heard about that. But, as much as I like Lucas, I wouldn't be the best person to go along for this cheer-up session."
"What, did you break them up? I thought you and Teresa were good."
"Oh, we are. I didn't split them up, but one of my best friends kinda did."
"Who?"
"Nathan Scott."
"You're kidding."
"I don't think he truly intended to split them up. At the reunion, it was obvious he was jealous of Lucas. Probably because he'd never actually had to see her with someone else. Afterwards, she was all he could think about. For years, Jake and I had encouraged him to talk to her. But when he started talking about actually doing it this time, we discouraged it as much as possible, she was with someone else. He had no right. He thought it was perfect, because she couldn't reject him if she didn't like him. It would be due to her relationship, he expected no reciprocation. Nathan never thought that Haley would have feelings for him that were just as deep and long term as his. She talked to Lucas, and he moved out to give her time and space to make a decision. And that's where we're at now."
"I thought things were fine after she cheated on him."
"Wait, what did you say?" It was Tim's turn to be shocked.
"She cheated on Lucas. It was with Mouth, her roommate, who happens to be one of her best friends. They were sleeping together for three months. It was before Lucas moved in."
"Hmm…interesting."
"Yeah, well, I never would have guessed any of this was possible. Especially not these three in a triangle."
"Yeah, guess we'll just have to wait to see how it ends. No matter what, someone gets hurt."
"That's the truth. Thanks for the info. Give Teresa my best."
"Will do. Keep me informed."
"Sounds great."
"You know, I haven't met this Nathan guy yet. What if I don't like him? I really liked Lucas."
Haley shook her head at Peyton, "I can't even think of the possibility of you NOT liking him. But I want you to meet him, soon."
"How's this weekend?"
"It should be good. I'll make plans with him, but I won't mention that you're coming. Otherwise he'll stress out, and you won't meet the real him."
"So things are going well?"
"Yeah, they really are."
"Have you made any decisions?"
"Only that it's going to be a hard decision to make. No matter what I decide, someone that I love is going to get hurt. And I don't want to hurt anyone. Nathan and I are getting together tonight, but I haven't talked to Lucas since he moved out. I just don't know what to say."
"You'll know what to say when the time is right."
That night, Haley made dinner for Nathan. Over conversation, Nathan asked, "Do you want kids?"
Haley coughed, almost choking, startled by the question, "Of course, why?" She became a little worried, what if he doesn't want kids.
"I was just wondering. I figured you did."
"Is that a problem?"
Nathan saw the concern in her eyes, "Oh, no! God no. I love kids, I'd love to have a house full of kids."
"A house full huh, how many do you think would fill a house?"
"At least four, if not more. How many do you want?"
"My dream has always been six. But I could settle for four."
"No need to settle," Nathan paused and then went out on a limb, "How many did Lucas want?"
"Whatever I did. He was like that quite a bit. Not a big decision maker."
After dinner, Haley and Nathan sat out on the back porch, enjoying the cool fall weather. She looked at him, "Nathan, I have something to tell you."
"What is it?" Nathan feared that she'd made her decision, and it wasn't him.
"I don't live here alone."
"Really? I never would've guessed someone else lived here."
"Yeah, he's been staying at his girlfriend's when you're coming over, knowing we could use some space."
"Your roommate's a guy?"
"Yeah, Mouth is one of my best friends. Most of the time his girlfriend Brooke stays here too though," Haley paused, "You met her, she was working that day you stopped in."
"Okay, sure, the brunette," knowing that this roommate had a girlfriend eased his mind a little.
"There's something else you should know about me and Mouth," she paused again, hoping she was doing the right thing, telling him, "We were sleeping together for three months, while I was still dating Lucas."
"Does Lucas know?" Nathan couldn't believe she was telling him this.
"Yes, he moved in after that happened. It was a mistake, and Mouth and I both knew it. That was about six months ago. It's over, and will never happen again, but I wanted you to know."
"Why?"
"Because I have a feeling you would have found out anyway, so I wanted to get it out in the open."
"Did you think it would make me love you less?" Nathan asked.
"Maybe. There are a lot of guys out there, that no matter how much they love a girl, if they know she's cheated once, they assume she'd do it again. But I've regretted it ever since."
"That's why Lucas moved out though, isn't it. Why he's giving you this chance to decide. Because he fears you'd cheat again otherwise."
"Yes," Haley hung her head, "I think so."
"Thank you for telling me. But tell Mouth to stick around next time I'm here, I'd love to meet him."
"I can do that."