Here's the next chapter. Hope y'all like it! Thanks for the review. So glad to see you guys like Panic! At the Disco and Fall Out Boy. Two of my favorites!

Second Time Around
Chapter 18

Haley awoke the next morning to that incessant wake-up call again. She sighed as she got up and got ready for her run, this time remembering her iPod. She followed the same path she has the last few times she has went for her morning runs, but this time a certain someone never joined in or even watched from afar. Nathan had already woken up and was dressed to impress in his black suit with blue shirt and black and blue tie, working at his office.

When Haley finished her run she headed back to her hotel room and took a shower. Before getting ready she grabbed her cell phone off the table and searched through her contacts for the number.

"Hey Hales!"

"Hey Brooke. I was wondering what you were doing today?"

"I have to go into my store to check on a few things, then I'm free. Did you want to get together for lunch?"

"Yeah. That sounds great. I just got out of the shower so I still need to get ready."

"Okay. I should be done in about an hour or two, do you want to meet at Karen's at like eleven?"

"Yeah. See you then." Haley got off the phone and finished getting ready. She curled her hair and did her make-up before putting on her distressed jeans with gold embellishments and a cream V-neck sweater. She put on her gold drop earrings and matching necklace and finished it off with her brown suede stiletto boots. She still had nearly a half hour before she needed to leave so she headed over to Jake and Peyton's room to find Peyton struggling with getting Jenny's hair done in the bathroom and Jake sitting on the bed watching the recap of last nights sports on the news.

"Hey Haley." Jake said from his spot on the bed.

"Aunt Haley." Jenny came running out of the bathroom with half of her hair in ringlet curls while the other half was a tangled mess.

"Jenny, get back her now. I'm not done with your hair."

"Let her come see Haley for a minute Peyt." Peyton walks out of the bedroom and sits on the bed next to Jake while Jenny sits with Haley on the couch that sat across from the bed.

"Fine, but the next time our daughter decides she wants to tease her hair to see if it will stand up like the Bride of Frankenstein, then you can try to fix it." Haley laughed as she looked over at Jenny's mess of hair. "So, I heard you've been seeing a certain tall, dark, and handsome lately,…so, tell me the dirty details."

"Peyton! Our daughter is in the room."

"Thank you Captain Obvious. It's Haley, Jake, if there's something Jenny shouldn't here, she won't say it."

"You two are so cute when you bicker. But anyways, back to Peyton question, yes I have been seeing a Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome lately. I'm guessing Jake has already told you about the other times that we went out because we know he gossips worse than a girl--"

"Hey! I do not." Haley and Peyton both laugh at his shocked face before Haley continued.

"But, yesterday we went out again. First he took me to the Record Store and I made him buy something other than his usual rap-crap."

"Oh, whatcha pick?"

"Panic! At the Disco."

"Good choice. Who knew Haley James would ever be able to pick out good music."

"Hey! Anyways, then we got ice cream and then he took me to a movie. He wouldn't tell me what movie, so I got kinda pissed and didn't talk to him cause you know I hate surprises. Anyways, it was Breakfast Club."

"Good choice. Maybe Nate could give Jake here a few pointers."

"Hey! Remember our anniversary last year?"

"How could I forget. You sent a dozen Calla Lillies, my favorite, to my office every hour. Then you had a limo pick me up and take me to the hotel suite where you had the red dress I had pointed out to you while flipping through a magazine months before with a card that said to get dressed and meet you at the hotel restaurant at 8:00. When I got down there you reserved the whole outside patio and there were candles all over it lit and you had them get a violin player. You were so handsome in your tux, but I think I liked it better when I got you out of that thing. That night was amazing Jake. I love you." Peyton had draped her arms over her shoulders while they were both starring love drunk into each others' eyes.

"I love you too." He kissed her lips.

"I love you more." She pressed a kiss to his lips.

"Nope, I love you --"

"Oh, would you two get a room."

"Gonna have to agree with the short one over here. I like it when it better when you two are bickering. It's much more entertaining. Anyways, back to me now, after the movie he took me to Little Italy, then we went to his beach house and took a walk on the beach."

"Very nice. I'm guessing your seeing him again today?"

"Yup, we're going out with Brooke and Lucas, but first I'm meeting Brooke for lunch. What are you guys up to today?"

"We were going to grab a bite to eat in the restaurant downstairs then maybe go out to the pool later."

"Well, I guess I'll catch you later cause I'm going to leave now to meet Brooke." After they all said bye to her Haley left for the café while the other three finished getting ready so they could go down and eat.

Haley parked the Cobra next to the café and went inside to find Brooke sitting at a booth on her phone.

"She just walked in, I'll let her know. …I love you too. …Okay, see you then. Bye." Brooke flipped her phone shut and looked over to Haley. "Hey. That was Lucas. I guess the four of us are going to eat together at Tric tonight."

"Sounds like fun. I still haven't seen him yet."

"He's still the same Broody."

"Yeah, I miss him. I missed all of you guys."

"We missed you too Hales." One of Karen's waitresses came over and took Haley and Brooke's orders and then returned with their drinks.

"Okay, so the other night I was talking with Nathan, and I almost asked him this, but I decided that I would just ask you instead. When you went to college, what was he like. Did he go back to his old ways and turn back into a player or what?"

"The first year he was pretty low. He partied all the time and drank like a fish, but he didn't have anything to do with girls. It shocked the hell out of me and Luke when we went to a party one time and saw him turning down the different girls that were throwing themselves at him. We didn't forgive him for what he did to you, but we saw that he was in a bad place. Luke started to try to get him out more. They would go to the gym and workout or play basketball and eventually he started to get better. He didn't drink so much but he still wouldn't go out on any dates. I think the first date he went on was Junior year with Stacey. She was a lot like you, really smart, on the Mock Trial team, she was studying to be a lawyer. They went out for a few months, but he broke up with her because he didn't have strong feelings for her and he felt bad."

"What about after that?"

"Not much. He immersed himself in basketball and his studies. He graduated with a 3.5 and went to work for his dad."

"Wow."

"You did a number on him Hales. Well not really you, it was his fault, but he definitely had a broken heart."

"I though for so long that he never even loved me at all, that it was all fake. That because I wasn't ready to have sex then that he looked else where. Maybe I should have come back, or at least talked to him."

"Don't blame yourself Hales. He did what he did, and he needed to pay for it, to learn from it." The waitress came and placed down the food in front of Haley and Brooke before going off the help some new customers. They both began eating their food, their previous conversation ending and topics turning to lighter things like the new summer fashions and the new plans for Brooke's store until they were both done and they went their separate ways.

-Leigh