Juggling (Chapter Two)
A DAY LATER
Lucas and Haley were in his mom's café and Lucas was sitting on one of the stools that were pulled up to the counter while Haley stood behind it at the cash register. "Thank you for coming to Karen's Café. If you take a seat, your food will be with you shortly," Haley said. The girl and guy smiled gratefully and went to find a seat. Haley yawned as she wrote down the number of the table the couple had chosen.
"You seem tired," he said. Haley smiled while she was still yawning. She had stayed out half the night with Nathan and had to wake up early to go to the tutoring centre before school started. Then, she had to come straight to the café for work after school. She was looking forward to the end of her shift when she could go home and just plop right into her bed.
"I am tired," she said. Lucas laughed.
"Long day?" he asked. Haley laughed as she nodded.
"You have no idea," she said.
"So, I was thinking," he said. Haley shook her head.
"Uh oh. This is never a good thing," she said. He laughed and swat her on the hand.
"I was thinking that we haven't had a lot of time to hang out in the past week," he said. Haley smiled.
"Whose fault is that? You and Tigger have been spending every waking moment together. I'm surprised she's not here right now," Haley said.
"Just wait until you get a boyfriend, Hales. You're going to want to spend all of your time with him and I'll never see you," he said, laughing. Haley shook her head. Though she did want to spend time with Nathan, she could never imagine spending all of her time with him. Haley rolled her eyes. "By the way, when are you going to get yourself a boyfriend?" he asked. Haley narrowed her eyes at him.
"Why so interested?" she asked. He smiled and shrugged.
"I don't want you to be alone, Hales. You deserve to have someone to spend your time with, someone who'll love you. Someone who you love too. Like me and Brooke," he said. Haley laughed.
"I don't think I'd be comfortable dating a guy who likes to shop and who takes me with him like Brooke does," Haley teased.
"Very funny," he said. Haley nodded.
"I thought so," she said.
"I'm serious," he said.
"Lucas, don't worry about me. I like the way my life is right now," she said.
"Even though you're all alone?" he asked. Haley laughed.
"I'm hardly all alone," she said, hitting him with the dish rag in her hand.
"Well, you hang out with me. Who else is there?" he asked. Haley's mouth dropped open in shock.
"I love you and you are my best friend, but you're not my only friend," she said.
"Such as?" he asked.
"I'm friends with the people I tutor," she reminded him.
"You mean like Nathan?" Lucas asked sarcastically. Haley shrugged on the outside, but she was smiling on the inside.
"Sure," she said. Lucas stiffened.
"Haley, you shouldn't be friends with a guy like him," he said. Haley smiled.
"I appreciate that you want to protect me but I have three older brothers for that," she said.
"I just don't trust him. Nathan would take advantage of you," he said. Haley shook her head.
"Calm down, Luke," she said. Lucas took a deep breath.
"Okay. So, what was I talking about before?" he asked.
"The fact that we haven't seen much of each other in the last few days," Haley reminded him. Lucas nodded.
"I thought we could hang out tonight," he said. Haley groaned.
"Do we have to?" she asked. Lucas looked surprised.
"Not if you're going to act like that, no," he said. She smiled.
"I'm sorry. I'm just really tired. I think I'm just going to go to bed when I get home," she said.
"How about tomorrow?" he asked. Haley stopped to think for a second.
"I suppose I could clear my schedule to hang out with you," she said. He laughed.
"I appreciate you going to so much trouble just for me," he said. Haley laughed.
"What do you want to do?" she asked.
"I don't know. Hit a movie?" he asked. Haley shook her head. "Just hang out," he suggested. Haley pretended to think it over.
"Okay, but if you ask me to help you with another assignment that you forgot to work on, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you," she said.
"One time I did that!" he exclaimed. Haley laughed. "Are you going to hold it over my head for the rest of our lives?" he asked.
"No, no. Til the end of the week. Tops," she replied. He rolled his eyes.
"Fine. It's a deal. I'll go and call Brooke," he said. The door swung open and Brooke, Peyton, Jake Tim and Nathan all walked in with a few other guys from the team.
"No need to. She just walked in," Haley said, nodding towards the door. He turned around and smiled as Brooke skipped over and kissed him.
"What are you and tutor girl doing?" Brooke asked a few seconds later. Lucas smiled.
"Just hanging out," he replied. Haley scoffed and laughed.
"I'm working," she commented. They all started gabbing. Even Nathan and Lucas seemed to be acting civil towards one another. Haley turned to the people in line and started taking their orders. Then, Nathan sat down and started looking at her. He smiled at her. "Hi, Nathan," Haley said civilly. He nodded and smiled.
"How are you doing today?" he asked softly. She held up one finger to show him that she would answer his question in a minute.
"Hi, can I get you anything?" Haley asked. The customer was a girl from their school. Haley recognized her but had no idea what her name is.
"Uh, yeah. How about a coffee to go?" she asked. Haley smiled. The girl told her how she took her coffee and Haley turned around and started making it. The girl turned her attention to Nathan and smiled at him. "Hi, Nathan," she said.
"Hey, Rachel. How are you doing?" he asked.
"Fine. Glad that game is finally over. You did awesome, by the way," Rachel said. He nodded appreciatively. Haley came back with her coffee and put a lid on it.
"Here you go. That'll be $4.25," Haley said. Rachel reached into her purse and grabbed a five dollar bill.
"You can keep the change. I'm a generous tipper," Rachel said smiling. Haley frowned. It wasn't what she said that offended Haley, it was the way she said it. She acted as if she was being so generous by tipping Haley seventy-five cents. Haley swallowed her annoyance and smiled appreciatively at her.
"Have a good day," she said in a sarcastic sing-song voice. When Rachel left, Nathan chuckled. She looked at him. "What's so funny?" she asked.
"You're pretty amazing, you know that," he said in a casual tone just in case the other people at the counter had heard her.
"How's that?" she asked.
"The way you handled yourself with Rachel," he said. Haley looked at him in confusion. "She short-tipped you and acted like she was being so generous but you just put on a smile and even told her to have a nice day," he said, smirking. Haley shrugged.
"It's called good service," Haley said. He laughed.
"I don't envy you, Haley. Putting up with all of the people who come in here day after day," Peyton said.
"Especially people like Rachel," Brooke added.
"That's nothing compared to some of the people she's dealt with," Lucas said.
"What are you talking about, Luke?" Haley asked.
"You've told me about some of the customers who come in here late on Friday nights," he reminded her. Haley's nose wrinkled in disgust as she nodded.
"They're the worst. Drunken pigs," she muttered in annoyance.
"And all the other waitresses come to you for help to deal with them and you're the youngest," Lucas pointed out.
"Don't remind me," Haley said. She looked at Nathan. He had his face turned away from the others, but Haley could clearly see the expression on his face. It was full of worry. Now, Haley was worried.
"Nathan, I need to talk to you about that math test coming up on Monday," she said, looking at him with a message in her eyes. She hoped he got it. First he looked confused, but then nodded in understanding. "Come in the back with me," she said, flipping the top of the counter so he could come.
She brought him to where all of the sugar and coffee beans were kept which was in a small storage room. He leaned against the wall. "Are you ok?" she asked, coming closer to him. He looked down at her and sighed.
"What did Lucas mean? What do the customers do?" he asked. Haley smiled.
"Oh, some of the guys are drunk and they kind of get a little carried away. It's nothing," she said.
"Does that mean they hit on you?" he asked.
"More like proposition me. A lot of them are in college or in their early thirties," she said. His hand went into a fist.
"Do they hurt you?" he asked. Haley chuckled.
"No, of course not," she said.
"So they don't grab you or anything?" he asked, looking at her carefully.
"Well, some of them do, but it doesn't hurt," she said. His jaw clenched. "Besides, like Lucas said, I know how to handle them," she said. Nathan put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her close to him. They stood there for a minute, just enjoying the feel of each other. Haley was the first one to pull away, but he gently pulled her back. "Nathan, come on. They're going to start wondering where we are," Haley reminded him. He nodded.
"Just one more minute," he said, folding his arms around her again and holding her close. Haley relaxed and smiled.
"Okay," she said simply and leaned up and kissed him.
TWO MINUTES LATER
Nathan and Haley joined the rest of them in the actual café. Haley groaned when she saw the line-up. Nathan laughed. "What took you so long?" Brooke asked.
"I needed a little advice on the trigonometry section of the test," Nathan replied simply. Brooke nodded.
"Say no more. I had math last semester," she said. Nathan laughed.
"So, what are we doing tonight?" Lucas asked Brooke.
"Don't you have plans with her?" Brooke asked. Lucas shook his head. "Well, I already made plans with Peyton," Brooke said.
"It's ok, Brooke. If you want to go on a date, go ahead. It's not like I don't have a boyfriend that I can spend my time with," Peyton said. Jake came over and put his arms around her. Brooke smiled.
"Thanks, P. Sawyer," Brooke said. Then she turned around and looked at Lucas. "I guess we could go see a movie," Brooke said. Lucas looked at Haley and smiled.
"Now, why didn't I think of that?" Lucas asked Brooke, but it was a pointed comment to Haley for turning down his suggestion of going to see a movie. Haley rolled her eyes and gave him a sarcastic sympathetic look.
"Well, we'll see you later, tutor girl," Brooke said, getting up and going towards the door.
"I'll be counting down the minutes," Haley called after her. Brooke laughed. Haley and Brooke weren't bitter enemies or anything, but they weren't close friends either. They had nothing against the other one. It was more that they didn't have a lot in common other than the fact that they both cared about Lucas. They talked to each other and a lot of their conversations involved harmless little jabs at the other one. Haley turned around and was surprised to see Nathan still sitting down.
"Nathan, see you later," one of the team mates called. Nathan nodded.
"Have fun, guys," Nathan called.
"You're not going with them?" Peyton asked quietly. Nathan smirked as he shook his head. Peyton looked at him carefully for a second and then shook her head. Then, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned around and was surprised when it was his half-brother, Lucas.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" he asked. Nathan rolled his eyes.
"No, not really," Nathan replied.
"Well, go find somewhere to be and stop bothering Haley," Lucas said. Nathan smiled. If only Lucas knew the truth.
"Luke, it's fine. He's not bothering me," Haley said.
"This is a restaurant. Maybe I'm hungry," Nathan said.
"So go somewhere else," Luke said. Nathan turned around on the stool and shook his head. He was about to tell Lucas off but he stopped when he saw the expression on her face. Before they started dating and she was just tutoring him, she had told him how annoying it was to play referee between him and Lucas. So Nathan sighed. He was about to get up and leave, but Haley got out from behind the counter and walked over to Lucas.
"Luke, calm down. I asked Nathan to stay because I'm going to put him to work on some math problems," Haley said. After Lucas, Brooke, Jake and Peyton had all left, Haley went back to work. A few minutes later, Nathan smiled at her. She caught him. "What's with that look?" she asked.
"You said you hate playing referee with me and Lucas," he reminded her. Haley laughed as she nodded.
"So?" she asked.
"So I was just about to leave, but you walked over to Lucas and told him to calm down. You played the referee when you didn't need to," he said.
"Well, you were going to leave," Haley said. He looked at her in confusion. "Well, that's why I did it," Haley said simply. Nathan smiled at her.
"You didn't want me to leave so you resorted to doing something you hate in order to get me to stay?" he asked, smiling in amusement.
"Don't be cocky," she warned him.
"I'm not being cocky. I'm flattered," he teased. Haley came over to him and leaned over the counter.
"You didn't want to leave and you know it," she said, smiling. She took his left and in her right hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.