A/N: Yay! The party is finally here! Thank you to all you lovely reviewers – don't forget to leave your thoughts at the end of this chapter too!

Chapter Four

Peyton was sitting on Haley's bed waiting for her friend to finish changing. Today was Lucas and Brooke's engagement party, so she and Jake were taking care of Michael and Annie for the night. Jake had already taken the kids to their house, but Peyton stayed behind at Haley's apartment to help her get ready. Half an hour later Haley still hadn't chosen a dress. "Come out already! I have to leave in 15 minutes."

"Peyton, I can't wear this!"

"Come out of the bathroom and let me decide that." Peyton looked up as the door slowly swung open and Haley came out, wearing a black dress. The silky material clung to her body and the dress ended high up on her thigh. It was also completely backless. "Haley, you look amazing!"

"I can't wear this! I can't believe you would pick this dress out for me!"

"What's wrong with it?" Peyton was truly baffled. She thought this dress looked way better than the other ones Haley had tried on.

"It's totally inappropriate!"

"Honey, I'm sure Brooke and her friends will be wearing far more scandalous dresses. Plus, I don't think Nathan will mind," Peyton added.

"Peyton," Haley spoke slowly for greater clarity, "Nathan's parents will be there tonight. I can't meet them in this."

Peyton smiled at her friend. "Hales, you don't have to be nervous."

"I'm not nervous," Haley protested. Peyton raised an eyebrow. "Well, okay…Do you think that's really stupid of me?"

"Why would it be?" Peyton asked, standing up.

"Well, I don't even know if Nathan likes me. And here I am worrying about whether or not his family will. That's what Brooke should be doing."

"Nathan likes you," Peyton said assuredly. "And even if he didn't before, after tonight he most definitely will."

"I am not wearing this dress. Peyt, I'm nervous enough as it is."

"Don't worry." Peyton walked over to Haley's cupboard. "We'll just find another dress for you to look fabulous in." After some rifling through, Peyton found the perfect dress for the occasion. She pulled it off the hanger and showed it to Haley. "This is what you'll be wearing tonight," she said with certainty.

"No."

"Haley! It's longer than the one you have on and it actually has a back. The only way his relatives could think it indecent would be if one of his aunt's is a nun! What do you find wrong with it?"

"It's still way above my knees! And it shows off some cleavage!"

Peyton rolled her eyes. "Well, Nathan's got to have something to look at."

……………

Nathan checked his alarm clock for what felt like the zillionth time. It still said the same thing: 7:26. He had told Haley that he'd pick her up at half past, but he'd been ready since 7:20. Since then he'd been walking around his apartment wondering what to do. He knew most girls were usually late. In fact, he'd once had a girlfriend who'd get angry with him if he showed up less than ten minutes after the time they had set their date. But he wasn't sure what Haley would be like. As long as he'd known her he couldn't remember her being late – unless, of course, Michael had forgotten something. His mind drifted off to a memory of a day he spent with them when this had occurred. When he came back to reality it was 7:28. Nathan decided that he may as well just go get her now and, picking up his keys, locked the apartment behind him.

Nathan rang the doorbell to the apartment, and almost instantly Haley appeared. He opened his mouth to say hello, but no words came out as he noticed what she was wearing. The dress was strapless and a shiny light green. The darker bow around the middle drew attention to her figure and she wore a simple chain around her neck. It took him a few more moments to realize that he was just standing there, staring at her with his mouth open. "H-hi," he finally choked out.

"Hey."

"So…you ready to go?"

"Yeah." Haley walked out of the apartment and locked the door behind her.

As they walked down the long corridor towards the elevator Nathan found his eyes drawn towards Haley. However, the fact that they were walking side by side made this slightly difficult, as well as more obvious. Whenever, Haley looked up, Nathan would quickly turn his head in completely the opposite direction. Once he was sure she was looking away from him, he turned to look at her again. His nervousness was beginning to irritate him; he never got nervous, not even on the basketball court. Nathan contemplated thinking about the reasons for this feeling. He decided against it. Instead, he slowed down his pace, so that he fell slightly behind Haley and therefore had a better view from which to admire the way the dress hugged her curves and how light reflected off of it as she moved.

Haley played with the beads of her necklace as they neared the elevator. She had never seen Nathan dressed up before – he wasn't the kind of person who went to a lot of formal occasions. Tonight he had on a dark blue shirt with a suit jacket, no tie. His white T-shirt was visible underneath his shirt, and Haley found that she rather liked this. It made her mind wander to the subject of what was underneath that and she sighed when she remembered that she had never seen him shirtless before either.

Hearing her sigh, Nathan asked, "You ok?"

Haley immediately blushed, glad that Nathan couldn't read her thoughts. "Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I am a little nervous," she admitted.

"Yeah?" Now they had reached the elevator, Nathan pushed the button to go down.

"Well, I won't exactly know anyone there except for you and Lucas and Brooke." This was true. It just left out the other, more significant, reasons for her nerves.

The bell sounded and the elevator door opened. "Don't worry about it," Nathan said. They walked inside and he pressed the Ground Floor button. "Everyone will like you."

Haley scoffed. "What makes you think that?"

"Because you're Haley," he said sincerely. "And you look exceptionally hot tonight," he added with a smirk.

Part of Haley's brain desperately searched for a witty comment to reply with. She would have even settled for a somewhat clichéd or over-used line, like, 'You don't look so bad yourself.' She had, in fact, almost worked up the courage to deliver something of the sort. That is, until he winked at her. Then, all she could do was look anywhere other than at him. And turn exactly the same colour as her hair.

……………

By the time they reached the Scott household Haley had fully recovered from her nerves. She and Nathan had started talking casually as they were leaving the apartment building and the fight for control of the radio in the car provoked a music debate, so Haley was never bored. Since Nathan was driving and kept his eyes on the road (except for when he was trying to put Jay-Z on and she kept changing the channel), Haley had ample opportunities to glance at him and…appreciate his outfit. Definitely not boring. In fact, she was so comfortable that as she got out of the car and shut the passenger door behind her, she was actually feeling a little confident about the whole evening. This all changed when she saw the house.

"This is where you live?" Haley exclaimed as Nathan came up beside her.

"I live next door to you, remember?" Nathan said, jokingly. "But, this is my parent's house."

"House? More like a mansion! It's huge!" Haley cried. "Your bedroom must have been the size of my entire apartment."

Nathan smiled at her. "No, of course not. But I think the kitchen is."

"What?"

"I'm just kidding, Hales."

"Oh. Is that a basketball court?" she asked. As they walked along the path towards the main door she noticed something that looked like a hoop near the garage, but in the darkness she couldn't be sure.

"Yeah. We have a couple of pools and a tennis court too."

"Are you serious?"

"No. There is a pool, though," he added, just before ringing the doorbell.

As they heard footsteps approaching the doorbell Haley closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Nathan noticed this and so placed his hand on her lower back in what he thought was a reassuring manner. It had a slightly different effect on her.

The door opened and a shrill voice squealed, "Nathan! Haley! You guys made it."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly miss my own brother's engagement party."

"So you didn't come for me?" Brooke pouted, before smiling again. "I'm so glad you're here, Haley."

"You are?" Brooke had never given Haley the impression she had disliked her – she'd actually been quite friendly in their few meetings – but they'd never been close.

"Of course, tonight will be so much fun. Plus, with you here Nathan doesn't have to look like the sad little brother who can't get a date."

What surprised Haley the most about this last comment was the fact that Brooke didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with it. Nathan just rolled his eyes and led Haley inside. Brooke walked with them and took them to a room where about seven girls were sitting and she introduced them all to Haley and Nathan as her friends from high school. Haley wasn't surprised. Apart from the different hairstyles and dresses they all look exactly the same: perfect. She couldn't remember feeling so intimidated since…high school, actually.

"So, how did you two meet?" a girl called Theresa asked Haley and Nathan.

"We live next door to each other," Haley answered.

"Oh, how cute." That came from Bevan.

Haley and Nathan glanced at each other. He just raised an eyebrow at her. She turned to Bevan and said, "Excuse me?"

"She means that it's cute how you guys met like that and are, like, a couple now. It's like something out of a movie." A different girl replied. This one was Erica.

Did they all share the same brain or something?

In a voice much higher than her usual tone Haley immediately replied, "We're not dating. We're just neighbours."

"And friends," Nathan added.

"Yeah. That too."

It was clear to Nathan that Haley was very uncomfortable. The girls had not picked it up yet, so Nathan said, "We should probably go find Lucas," before they could ask any more questions.

"Okay, see you guys later," Brooke said, as they left.

Haley said a quiet "Thanks" to Nathan and he gave a light smile in reply.

"Hey, do you want to meet my mum?"

Haley's eyes opened wide. "Uh…yeah, sure."

He led her to the kitchen where they found a blond woman speaking to one of the waiters. She turned around and saw them. "Nathan!"

"Hi, mum." He walked towards her and they hugged. "This is Haley."

"Hello, Mrs. Scott," Haley smiled nervously.

She held out her hand and Haley shook it. "Please, call me Deb."

Haley smiled again. "You have a really nice house."

"Thank you. Nathan said that you have two children. It's a boy and a girl, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"How old are they now?"

"4 years."

Deb smiled fondly. "Oh, they're so sweet then. Before you know it, they'll be off to college and getting married."

Haley laughed.

"I hope you don't mind Haley if I just borrow Nate for a few moments."

"Of course not, Mrs. – Deb," she said. "I'll just be here," she added to Nathan.

Deb then took Nathan in the opposite direction of where he and Haley had come in, towards the entrance to the room where the food was being kept. "What is it, mum?"

"Your father wants to talk to you."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "About what?"

Deb sighed. "Marriage."

"What!"

"He's got the idea into his head that now Lucas is getting engaged you should be looking for a more…committed relationship instead of just casually dating girls."

"What? Lucas is 3 years older than I am! I don't have to get married just because he is."

"Of course you don't, darling, Dan just thinks you should start taking your relationships more seriously now."

"When did he get this into his head?"

Deb looked at the floor instead of her son. "When Lucas said you were bringing Haley."

"What!"

"When Lucas said that, Dan thought that you two were dating. Lucas said he thought you were just coming as friends, but, well…your father got worried."

"Worried about what? That I might be dating Haley?"

Deb looked apologetically at her son. "You know what Dan can be like. Haley seems like a very nice and sweet girl, but she is a single mother. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with that, but Dan would just…disapprove if you two were actually dating."

"He's never even met Haley! Are you sure he's even met me?"

"Nathan! You and I may not always agree with Dan, but he is your father."

"Well, I don't want to have anything to do with him." Nathan began to walk away, but Deb stopped him. "You can't make me go out there and speak to him in front of all his business buddies. Especially not if he's gonna talk about this."

"I won't, I brought you here to warn you," Deb explained. "Just don't go and do anything rash tonight. At least, for your brother."

For Lucas. As far back as Nathan could remember everything had always been about Lucas. Childhood memories began to flood his brain and Nathan tried to push them back out. He took a deep breath before going back inside the kitchen to calm himself down. He was hoping to talk to Haley; and then introduce her to some of his and Lucas' friends, as well as his uncle Keith and aunt Karen. However, once inside the kitchen, he realized this plan would have to be put on hold. Until he could find out where Haley was.