Chapter Two: Testing Boundaries
Author's note: The character Robert James should be called Jimmy James, but don't the show writers realize that Jimmy is short for James and that Haley's father would be called James James?
Brooke smiled when she let herself into her apartment and saw Nathan, sitting on her sofa, his large feet planted firmly on the ground, staring intently at the game he was playing-his favourite, something to do with pirates, or barbarians. Brooke never could tell the difference.
She sat on the sofa and drew her legs underneath her, looking with satisfaction around her small home.
"God, don't you have anywhere else to be?" she asked, grabbing the controller abandoned on the couch and joining the game.
"Why would I want to be somewhere else?" he teased. Brooke wasn't really asking him to leave, Nathan wasn't really imposing. He had a key to the place, full access to the refrigerator. He kept his Playstation at her house because he spent so much more time there. She knew she'd be lonely without him.
In her childhood it had never occurred to her that Brooke actually liked Tree Hill, or it's inhabitants, but when she'd turned fifteen, and her mother had announced that the two of them would be moving to New York on a business transfer, Brooke had rebelled and refused to leave, and had refused to let her mother stay. She'd been on her own for almost two years, with the exception of her mother's occasional visits and constant phone calls.
"But of course," reflected Brooke, "I'm never truly alone." Nathan had been around as long as she could remember, through thick and thin. Though lately she'd come to the sickening idea that he wanted more than friendship, she knew she couldn't give him that. Brooke loved her friend and even noticed that he was handsome, but she knew they could never be a couple.
Nathan had yet to figure out if he actually wanted his best friend, who he thought of as his little sister, or if he was just lonely and in need of something more, and she seemed so available. And she was gorgeous, even he knew that. Her wavy dark hair, her characteristic face, her laughing brown eyes. Perfect figure, ready laugh. Nathan never regretted their friendship but if he did, it would be because if they hadn't grown up together, nothing would keep him from her.
Finally Whitey, the varsity basketball coach, told the team to hit the showers, but instead Lucas turned around and sat on the bleachers to watch Haley, his best friend, Jake, faithfully following.
He couldn't help but grin as his girlfriend demonstrated the cheers to 'her' squad. As she twisted and bent, went down into the splits, he couldn't help but feel turned on and wish that her practice could end sooner.
He sauntered over to her when she saw done and put his arms around her.
"You ready to get out of here?" he asked, trying to keep the eagerness out of his voice.
"I have to clean up. You need a shower," she said. Her fingertips grazed his hardness through his basketball shorts. She rose onto her tip toes to whisper into his ear, and lightly licked his earlobe: "And apparently a cold one."
"She's something else," said Jake, as the two of them walked off.
"What?" asked Lucas, laughing.
"She's so original. It can be annoying, but it's refreshing," said Jake, smiling.
"Tired of cheerleaders?" asked Lucas, in mock sympathy, as the stripped off their sweaty jerseys and made their way to the showers.
"Not my thing," he said briefly.
"Peyton…" Lucas began.
"That's over," he said shortly. There was evidence to suggest that he missed her still, but the two had split amicably a year previously.
"Whatever you say, man," said Lucas, awkwardly turning away as the moment became too personal.
"MOM?" yelled Haley into her large home. "DADDY?"
Neither of them expected the two to be home. Her father, Robert James, spent most of his time at his insurance firm and her mother was a workaholic lawyer. Haley wasn't close to her parents, and it made her home the perfect location for the wildest parties.
Haley and Lucas fell onto the couch, kissing heavily. Lucas' hand slowly made his way under her shirt and up toward her breast, and she obligingly undid her sweater.
As she did, her thoughts plunged suddenly to Brooke and that boy-what was his name again?-making those snide comments about her. Suddenly turned off, she removed her hand from her and frowned.
"What?" he asked.
"I was just thinking of Brooke, and that stupid guy," she said.
"You're thinking of him now?" asked Lucas, looking pained. Haley slapped his shoulder in annoyance, peeved that he'd perceived her so incorrectly.
"Shut up. Since when are you territorial?" she demanded.
"For God's sake Hales, we've done nothing but bicker for months. Don't I have a right to worry?" he asked. She levelly matched his stare.
"You could screw my best friend and I wouldn't care," she said evenly. He sighed in frustration and remembered how perfectly their relationship had worked out in the beginning.
"Should you think better of me by now?" he asked, standing over her.
"You did once, I've made sure it won't hurt me the second time," she said, a grain of grief in her empty voice.
"And people think we have this perfect relationship," he moaned.
"It's what comes of going at it like rabbits during school hours," she guessed.
He paused for a moment, and stared at her. Once upon a time, she'd seemed so spontaneous and incredible to him. Now she seemed so lonely.
"I love you," he said eventually. She almost laughed.
"No you don't," she said.
"I do. I've wanted this for as long as I can remember," he said.
"Luke, I knocked down a castle you were making out of blocks when we were six and you didn't forgive me until we were ten," she said.
"For better or worse, you left an impression," he said, smiling, sitting down and easing her onto his lap. He relaxed when she didn't protest.
"I'm good at that," she agreed.
"You," he said, playfully poking the tip of her nose, "are good at everything."
Author's note: Just in case you're confused, I'm going to spell out the situation better now.
Haley and Brooke share the same father, in a Dan Scott like situation. Haley and Lucas have been together for about a year, Nathan and Brooke have been friends all their lives. Lucas and Nathan are not related. Lucas' parents are Keith and Karen Scott, Nathan's are Deb and Dan Lee. This takes place in their junior year and is obviously completely AU.