Chapter 3- Breaking Up is Hard to Do

"Call me when you get home." Jeff told Haley as he walked her to his front door. Brooke's mom was waiting in the driveway for her and Brooke, they had gone over to Jeff's to watch a movie.

"Sure, no problem." Haley leaned in and kissed him good bye. She was a little worried about why he wanted her to call him, he had been acting weird all night. Shaking it off she walked towards the car with Brooke.

When she got home she went right to her room with the phone and climbed out of her window onto the roof. Haley's bedroom window went right out onto the roof over the garage, that was her special spot. She would go out there when she wanted to talk on the phone later than her parents allowed or when she wanted to ensure that her sisters wouldn't hear her conversation. Nervously she dialed Jeff's phone number and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello."

"Hey it's me. I just got home, what's up?"

"I don't think that we should see each other anymore." Jeff felt bad to say it but he knew it was best.

"Why? I thought that everything was going good?" Haley was confused, she kind of knew it was coming but wasn't sure why.

"It just seems stupid for us to stay together for the rest of the summer when we both know that I will be moving to Florida in like a month and a half. Why get any more attached than we already are?"

"Sure, whatever. Have a nice life." Haley hung up the phone. She couldn't believe him, he was supposed to be older and more mature, but he hadn't had the guts to break up with her to her face when she was at her house earlier.

Crawling back through her window into her bedroom she walked over to her dresser, put on some pajamas and got into bed. Haley laid in bed just thinking. She tried to avoid it, but her thoughts kept drifting back to Jeff. What a jerk. She wasn't even sad, she had known that they would break up before he went away to school, she was just so mad at the way he handled it.

Trying to shift her mind away from the anger she thought about what she had to do tomorrow. She had to work from 12-6 at Food Lion, it was the Fourth of July so it would be super busy, then she was going on a picnic with her family. Working was going to be the last thing she would want to do tomorrow, she knew that she would be in a terrible mood and still really pissed off at Jeff. Then her thoughts of work drifted towards Nathan. She hadn't seen him since before he went away on vacation. Their paths hadn't crossed in weeks. Maybe he would be there tomorrow?

ooooOoooo

The next day Haley walked into what could only be described as pure chaos at Food Lion. The lines were ridiculously long and no one looked particularly happy about it.

"Haley, thank god you are here. You can go and open up on register 5." One of Haley's supervisors, Rhonda, barely even stopped as she barked out the order.

Haley made her way over to the register and was pleasantly surprised to see that Nathan was on the register right next to her. Things were already looking up.

After about half an hour things hadn't settled down at all, a short and awkward looking guy strolled up to Haley's register and started bagging for her. "Tim, what are you doing here?"

"Hey Haley, I work here. I have for a while, I started a little while after my best friend Nathan." Tim pointed to Nathan. "Have you guys met?"

"Yeah, we have worked together a few times." Haley was surprised that they two were best friends, Tim was so, well, different. Different was the only word for him. He was definitely not like anyone Haley had ever met. Nathan seemed so cool and together and everything, the exact opposite of Tim. But hey, some people wondered what it was that tied Haley, Brooke and Peyton together.

The hours passed more rapidly once Haley had Tim to talk to. It took her a little bit to realize, but she was pretty sure Tim was flirting with her, in his own awkward way. She actually found it kind of flattering, Tim had never showed interest in her like this before. Haley began to loosen up and flirted back a little bit.

Nathan kept looking over at Tim and Haley, they sure were having a good time together. Tim seemed to be trying to get his game on. Nathan started to get a little jealous. Then he realized that he hadn't let on to Tim, in the least bit, that he was interested in Haley. Hell, he wasn't even sure that he was. All he knew was that she was beautiful in a different way than the girls he usually hooked up with. He also knew that she intrigued him, he wanted to know more. It seemed like they were so different, and that made him want to know more. He wanted to know if that was really the case. Well, now definitely wasn't the time, it was busier than anything else and he knew he would get in trouble if he started yelling across the registers to Haley.

Haley glanced back at the clock and was relieved to see that it was almost 6. She started to shut things down when Tim did something really unexpected. "Hey, Haley. Would you maybe want to go and see a movie sometime?"

Haley had to think about it for a minute. She glanced over at Nathan feeling a little guilty, but then again he really hadn't shown any interest in her. Haley hadn't even figured out if she felt anything for him yet anyways. "Sure, why not? When is good for you?"

"What about Wednesday night, I only work till 6, so maybe we could go and see a 9 o'clock movie?"

"Sounds good, I work till 7 so that will give me plenty of time to get ready. We can work out the details that day." Haley figured that if all else fails she would at least have some good laughs, Tim was pretty funny. "I'm out now, I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, bye Haley."

As she walked by Nathan's register she gave him a little wave, "Catch you later."

Nathan's eyes followed Haley out the door, when he turned back around he saw that Tim was now at the end of his register. "Guess who has a date with Haley Wednesday?"

"What, seriously? You are going to take her out? I thought you said that she is a goody goody. Anyways, I thought she had a boyfriend?" Nathan was surprised, he was actually a little jealous. Jealous of Tim, now that was definitely a first.

"Yeah well that goody goody thing is kind of a turn on. She is actually kind of hot. And she just broke up with her boyfriend, last night." Tim looked pretty proud of himself.

Nathan felt bad and knew that there really wasn't any great future for Tim and Haley, she was way too good for him. "Good for you man, I am sure you will have a good time." With that Nathan turned his focus back to his customers. He had to just shake it off, he wasn't going to let Haley James get under his skin like this.

ooooOoooo

Wednesday night Haley was finishing up her shift and getting ready to head home and change for her date with Tim. She walked over to her supervisor, "If there isn't anything else I can do I think I will head home a few minutes early, if that is okay with you."

"Why, hot date tonight?" Rhonda, her supervisor teased. Rhonda was an older woman but she was always joking around and was super nice. Haley and her had bonded right away, it was more of a mother daughter type bond than friends, but whatever it was Haley was pretty happy about it.

"Actually, I am going out with another employee, we are going to go and see a movie."

"Nathan or Tim?" Rhonda gave Haley a look.

"Tim of course, Nathan isn't interested in me. I am not his type of girl." Haley was surprised at the way Rhonda had responded.

"That's a laugh. Both of those boys have a crush on you. Don't let Nathan fool you, I saw the way his eyes bulged out of his head the first night he saw you. I see the way he looks after you when you leave for the day. He definitely likes you, he just isn't as obvious about it as Tim."

"Well, I hate to disagree with you, but I am pretty sure that Nathan Scott doesn't like me." Haley was secretly thrilled to hear Rhonda say this, but she knew that the woman had to be jumping to conclusions. Boys like Nathan didn't fall for girls like Haley, it just didn't happen.

"Keep telling yourself that honey, but just keep in mind, both of those boys have the hots for you. Whether you can see it or not doesn't make it any less true."