2

"Nathan! What are you doing! You get your head into these drills or your gonna be so far down the bench you might as well not dress for the game!"

Whitey could be heard shouting from half way across the school. His idea of getting the team pumped was to shout at them until he was hoarse. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it only succeeded in making things worse.

"How's my head supposed to be in this! This is pointless! You have no idea what's going on in my life! No idea!" Nathan shouted. His words echoed off the gym walls and reverberated around the ears of everyone on the team. He turned his back on Whitey and stomped out of the gym slamming the door behind him. Whitey shot an angry look at Luke.

"I'll go talk to him coach." Lucas jogged out the door, letting it close gently behind him.

"Back to work boys!" shouted Whitey.

"Nate…Nate…Nathan!" Lucas yelled, Nathan stopped short and turned around, "what the hell's the matter with you? Going off on Whitey like that? What is with you man?"

Nathan dropped to the bench with his head in his hands. His shoulders slumped and his hands began to tremble like they always did when he thought about her.

"She's gone Luke," Nathan's voice cracked, as he struggled to suppress the tears he knew were coming, "and she's not coming back."

"Who, Haley? What do you mean she's not coming back…of course she's coming back. She's just gonna get this singing thing out of her system and she'll be back"

"No, she's not," repeated Nathan. With a sigh he stood up and opened his locker. After a moment of rummaging through his backpack he handed Lucas the letter. The folds were deeper and it was more wrinkled than two days before when he'd first ripped open the envelope. "I got this in the mail the other day, I've read it over about a million times, trying to get the words to sink in, but no matter how many times I read it, I don't think I'm ever gonna understand it."

"Nate, man…I'm so sorry. I…I…I don't even know what to say."

"There's nothing you can say, there's nothing anyone can say anymore." Except maybe Peyton he thought. Nathan grabbed the letter from Lucas' hands, slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out the door.

Lucas sighed as he watched his brother turn his back and walk out the door. He leaned against the lockers and wished there was something he could do to help.