Chapter Sixteen: Collision
Haley smiled as Nathan as he let himself into her apartment and easily navigated through a series of rooms to find her sitting in the living room reading, her legs drawn up onto the white chair she was sitting on.
She felt guilty as she remembered the spark of the relationship when it had first begun. Now it felt like they had never broken up. Complete comfort, total safety. Nothing exciting. Haley was beginning to spend a lot of her time feeling guilty.
She was learning to censor her thoughts.
"Hey, you have a good day?" he asked.
"It was okay. Gabby got an A in her math test," bragged Haley.
"That's great. Jenny made the soccer team," said Nathan. Nathan knew of the face off of Peyton and Haley, but it was yet another skirted issue.
"Good for her. They're good friends. It's good," said Haley unconvincingly. For a moment, it occurred to Haley to walk over the couch and sit with Nathan before the idea passed in a flash.
"Yeah. I brought something for you," he said. She raised her eyebrows as he reached deep into his pocket and pulled out a small object. Haley stared at it for a moment. It was pink, blue, slightly sparkly. Nathan was looking at her as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. She reached for it.
Suddenly it came back to her. The day at the pier, the beginning of their relationship as it had been. How this small, insignificant piece of plastic had once meant the world to her.
Haley slowly slipped it onto her wrist, beside the bracelet she'd got from Tiffany the week before, and across from her Rolex. Even her wrists were different than they'd been in high school.
"Thanks, Nate. I wish I had something for you," she said. He smirked.
"Ah, but you do," he corrected her. Nathan walked over, picked her up from the chair and sat her on his lap. Agreeably, she planted a kiss on his lips.
"Is Taylor here?" he asked, as their kisses deepened.
"No," Haley whispered. Haley remembered the Nathan that had been so frustrated with her refusal to have pre-marital sex. She'd always been secretly afraid that her sudden inclination to do so would make her seem like all those other girls. All the millions that there had been. Haley remembered how she and Lucas had played mini-gold when Nathan, Brooke and Peyton had been partying, getting into drugs and having sex. She couldn't help it. She was thinking of these things more and more, and the more she tried to shut them out the more freely they flowed in.
In a flash, Haley was on her back on the couch as Nathan kissed her and fingered the buttons on her blouse and the rounded curve of her breast that escaped. Timidly she pressed her hands into his back and tried to get into it.
But her heart wasn't there.
"Hey Nate…" she said in between kisses.
"Mm?" he said. She could feel his hardness poking her.
"Not right now?" she suggested. Suddenly it occurred to her that if Nathan wanted to do it right then, it really wasn't her choice. "Why do I have to keep thinking those things?" she said desperately to herself.
"Uh, okay. So do you want to go get something to eat?" he asked.
"Not really. I'm not actually feeling that well, so…" she said. She winced. It was the oldest trick in the book.
"I'll see you later. Uh, Haley?" he said. He looked as nervous as he'd looked the day he'd caught him surfing internet porn.
"Yeah?" she asked, as she straightened her blouse.
"You still have your ring?" he asked. Haley looked up sharply.
"What?" she demanded.
"Your ring… I thought…" he said.
"Yeah. Of course," she said. Both wondered if she was lying.
"No reason. I just thought that maybe…" he began again.
"Nathan, we'll talk about this when I'm feeling later, okay?" she suggested. He nodded and left.
Taylor let out a short gasp as she walked in the door of her home and found Nathan Scott, walking in as though he owned the place.
"Hey," she said, suddenly feeling self confident.
"Hey Taylor," said Nathan.
"You look all grown up," she commented.
"I am all grown up. You too," he said. He smirked.
"It happens. How's my little sister?"
"I'm sure she'll tell you all about it," he said.
"I look forward to it. I hope I'll see you around, Nate," she said, as she slipped past him.
"You too," he said, half to himself as she exited the room.
Confused and weary, Nathan decided to take the stairs. Haley would never know it, but if she had she would have thanked her stars that he didn't choose to take the elevator, where another Scott boy was coming up.
Or, as she was more rapidly coming to think of him, a Scott man.
"Haley?" called out Lucas. She had moved to the kitchen, and he heard the tap running in there. He walked over and stood, leaning against the doorframe, watching her wash the dishes, wondering why she bothered. Wondering about more than that.
"Haley?" he said again. She swung her long hair over her shoulder and looked at him, smiling slightly.
"Hey loser," she said fondly. Covertly she pulled down the sleeve of her shirt to cover the pink plastic beads.
"You want to do something tonight?" he asked.
"Sorry, I can't. Taylor's gone tonight so I'm going to put in some Gabby bonding time. I'd invite you, but…" Haley trailed off.
"It's okay. I'll go to the Jagielski's, they'll generally feed me," said Lucas.
"Will Brooke be there?" asked Haley primly. Lucas shrugged.
"You have got to get it into your head that I'm not in love with her. I have a date tomorrow," said Lucas. Haley nodded, her pretty face stiff.
"Right, you said before. Have fun," she said, scrubbing vigorously at a casserole dish.
Haley's back was turned away from him again, leaving his eyes free to stay on her. He didn't understand. Their renewed friendship had started off with so many complications, but he'd really thought that it could be simple again. As it had been in the days before the sojourn into the other world. That's what he really wanted.
Wasn't it?
"You okay?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't I be? Have fun," said Haley. He nodded curtly and left.
Haley abandoned the dish when she heard the front door close. Nothing was right anymore. Her once joyfully renewed love with Nathan had already turned sour. Her easy friendship with Lucas was already beginning to show wear. Haley wondered if it was really a wonder that her and Nathan didn't work anymore. Hadn't he attracted her as a bad boy? But hadn't she married him when he'd become a 'good guy'? Like the only guy Haley had ever thought of for the first fifteen years of her life.
As Haley wandered back to her room, she passed the one doorway in the large apartment that they rarely used. The doorway to the roof. Reflectively she opened it and looked up. She had an idea.
Haley cooked dinner for the two of them and they ate it, fairly silently. Gabby wondered why Haley didn't try to make small talk, as she always did, but Gabby accepted it.
"Come here," requested Haley, as Gabby began to trail off to her bedroom.
"Where does that lead to?" asked Gabby, eyeing the door.
"Come on, I'll show you," said Haley, running up the stairs with Gabby at her heels.
Gabby shivered for a moment on the cold roof. They were many, many floors above street level with only a fence between them and the steep drop.
"What are we doing here?" she asked curiously. Haley nudged a laundry basket with her foot.
"This," she said.
"Water balloons?" asked Gabby skeptically, eyeing the colorfoul, water filled balloons bulging out of the basket.
"Yep," said Haley. Gabby raised a blonde eyebrow.
"Why?"
"Because, Gabriela Travers, you have been rather lacking in a childhood," said Haley. Gabby puzzled over this for a moment while Haley plucked a red balloon out and threw it directly at her foster daughter's chest.
Gabby gasped as the water soaked through her shirt, and then lunged forward to grab another one while Haley dodged behind a pipe.
Haley sneaked around behind the small staircase covering structure to hit Gabby in the back, but the younger girl dodged as the balloon came by, causing it to go sailing through the air and splatter on the ground. Gabby quickly retaliated with a well aimed shot at Haley.
The two were shivering as they ran down the staircase, much later, to dry off. Gabby found towels for them both while Haley quickly located the packages of hot chocolate and began boiling water.
Taylor came in just as Gabby was going to bed, and Haley took the opportunity to call Jared with the limo.
Haley took a deep breath while she knocked nervously on the door, praying that she was truly ready for her past and her present to collide.