Apologizing 101 (Chapter Four)

A WEEK LATER

Nathan Scott walked out of the school building and was surprised when he saw Haley James waiting for a bus to arrive. He assumed she would be getting a ride from Lucas. He honked his horn at her. At first, she flinched while waiting, but got back to reading the book she had. He honked again and stared at her. Another student nudged Haley. He said something to her. Her eyes widened a little and then she rolled them like she didn't believe the guy. Then, he pointed towards Nathan. Haley looked in Nathan's direction. Her gaze fell upon him and her eyes immediately narrowed in annoyance. She sighed as she went right back to the book she was reading. He honked the horn a few times in a row. She ignored him. Now, he was getting frustrated. No one had ever ignored him like that. "Haley James!" he shouted. She looked up at him and shrugged. He motioned for her to come over and she shook her head. At this point, a few of the students, including the ones waiting with Haley, were watching the scene unfold. A female student started talking to Haley, but since he was too far away, Nathan couldn't hear what she was saying. Haley shook her head at the girl and then pointed towards Nathan. Haley shook her head at Tina Lang.

"If you want someone to talk to Nathan, then, you go over there and talk to him," Haley finished saying. She pointed towards Nathan.

"I can't just go over there and talk to him. He wants to talk to you, so you should go over there," she said. Haley wrinkled her brow at her. She knew this was something of high school politics that she never really understood. She guessed that Tina meant that she can't just go over and talk to the popular guy if he didn't request her to and she also guessed that since Nathan, the popular guy in the scenario was asking her to come over and talk to him, Haley had some sort of obligation to go over and talk to him. Screw that. She was never one to conform to the insane rules of high school social hierarchy and she wasn't about to start now. If Nathan wanted to talk to her, he would have to get out of his car and come over to talk to her. But, that didn't mean that she'd talk to him, though. She'd gotten pretty good at ignoring him. Even Lucas had suggested that she give him a chance, but she knew he was only saying that so there'd be peace between him and Brooke. As well as the others when they ate at lunch, but since she never ate lunch with them, she didn't really care if there was peace. She smirked to herself as she saw that Nathan was getting impatient. He turned off his car and took off his seatbelt. He got out of the car and walked over to her. Patience always won out in the end. If she hadn't been patient with ignoring him, she'd never be able to see him squirm and she enjoyed it.

"What is your problem?" he asked as he came up to her. The others backed away. Chickens, she thought to herself.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, looking up from her book for a minute. He grabbed it from her. She reached for it.

"It's not polite to read while someone is talking to you," he said. She scoffed.

"I don't need a lecture on etiquette from you, thanks," Haley said. He put the book behind him and Haley shrugged. The bus had arrived. The other students were getting on it but Nathan wouldn't let her pass. "Grow up," she said, trying to get around him. She sighed as she turned around and started walking away.

"Where are you going?" he called.

"I'm walking home!" she yelled back.

"What about your book?" he called back.

"Keep it. You could probably benefit from reading a book that's not about sports!" she yelled. Nathan would've laughed at that comment if it weren't directed at him. He'd tried numerous times to get Haley to talk to him so he could apologize, but she never gave him a chance to get one word in. He had tried to talk to her at the tutoring centre a few times, but she'd either move to a different table or leave the room. If he saw her in the hallway, she'd turn around and go in the opposite direction. He was tired of Lucas bugging him about how Haley was acting around him so he decided that this little fight would end now so he could go back to getting along with his cousin and playing basketball without a care in the world, etc. He gave Haley a good ten-minute start, and then he got into the car and drove. He was driving on a country road, since their school was located on the edge of town. He finally caught sight of her. He stopped a few feet ahead of her and got out of the car.

"You walk pretty fast," he said as she neared him.

"Learn something new everyday," she said as she passed him. He sighed. Well, at least she was talking to him and not ignoring him.

"I'm sorry, ok?" he said loudly. Haley stopped walking. She turned around and walked back to him.

"I bet you are. You didn't think I'd hear what you were saying, did you?" she asked. He didn't answer. Haley shook her head in disbelief. "You know, everything people say about you is true: You really are a jerk," she said. She started to walk away, but he grabbed her arm and turned her around. A look of fear flashed in her eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. There was only anger in her amber-coloured eyes now.

He let go of her as he said, "What I said was mean. I know that, but…" Her eyes flashed.

"But?" she repeated angrily. He looked at her for a minute. "There's a 'but' in your apology? You're not really going to give me a lame excuse, are you?" she asked. He shrugged. "Let me guess. I didn't know what you meant or how about, 'I was only saying it because my friends were there'?" Haley asked. He didn't know what to say. She laughed.

"Look, do me a favour. The next time you feel the need to apologize to me, go on one of your dates that you have 'every once in a while' because I don't want your apology if it's not sincere," she said.

THE NEXT DAY (AT SCHOOL)

"So, I heard you ignored Nathan," Lucas said as he came up behind Haley. Haley sighed. She turned around.

"Luke, leave it alone. You're never going to get me to see anything but arrogance in him," she warned. Lucas shook his head.

"I don't understand why you won't give him a chance," he said.

"Why should I?" Haley asked.

"Because it's what you told me to do when I didn't get along with him," he said.

"What is it that you're so upset about anyways? People have called you a dork or worse before and he didn't even call you that. Why are you giving him a hard time," Lucas asked.

"He used me," Haley said simply. Lucas looked at him. "He was nice to me when I was tutoring him and then five seconds after I corrected the final assignment, he turned into the arrogant asshole everyone says he is," she said. Nathan, Brooke, Peyton and Jake all walked up to Lucas' locker.

"Hey, Lucas," Nathan said. He looked at Haley and said, "Tutor girl." He meant it as an insult, not as the nickname that Brooke had made up. Haley actually laughed.

"But not your tutor," she retorted before she left. Peyton laughed but when Nathan looked at her, she stopped.