Working it Out (Chapter Five)
Peyton smiled at Haley's retreating form. She had quite the mouth on her and Peyton was impressed that she had the guts to talk to Nathan like that. Even Peyton herself had never dared to insult Nathan Scott when she first met him. But Haley obviously didn't care who Nathan was. Lucas glared at Nathan. "You know, you could make an effort," he said to him. Nathan scoffed.
"I did make an effort to apologize for the last week. I'm done that. If your friend wants to be a little bitch to me for no reason, that's fine by me. I'm done walking on egg shells because poor little Haley James got her feelings hurt," Nathan said. Lucas shook his head at Nathan in frustration.
"Why should Nathan be the one to apologize now?" Brooke asked. Lucas sighed.
"I'm not saying that Haley shouldn't apologize for the way she's been acting and the things she's said to you, Nate. I'm just saying that you could be the bigger person for a change and apologize to her first," he said.
"I did and she threw it back in my face," Nathan reminded him. Peyton looked at him.
"Did you try to excuse what you said by any chance?" she asked. Nathan stiffened. Peyton knew him way too well. He looked at her and nodded. She shook her head and smiled in amusement. She walked over to him. "Nathan, Nathan. You're never going to learn, are you?" she said putting her hands on his shoulders and laughing.
"What?" he asked.
"You can't make excuses if you're apologizing," she said.
"Why not?" he asked her.
"Because if you do, it's not really an apology," she explained.
"Well, I'm not apologizing again. I'm perfectly happy just ignoring her," he said.
"You're not ignoring her," Brooke pointed out.
"You're insulting her every time you see her," Jake added.
"Kind of like how when we were younger, you use to pick on the girl you liked," Peyton said. Nathan glared at her. Lucas started smiling.
"Is that it, Nathan? Do you like Haley?" Lucas asked. Nathan shook his head.
"Of course not. I think she's stuck up and looks down on everyone because she thinks she's so smart," Nathan said.
"Uh, she is smart," Brooke reminded him.
"And Haley's not like that. If you actually said that to her, I'm not surprised that she's being so mean," Lucas said.
"Whose side are you on here? We're family," Nathan asked.
"I'm not on anyone's side, Nathan. And, besides, Haley's my best friend. I'm just looking out for her," Lucas said.
"What did you mean when you said you wouldn't be surprised?" Peyton asked curiously. Lucas yawned for a second.
"Haley's been a tutor for a few years now and she takes those kinds of comments very personally," Lucas explained. Nathan shook his head in annoyance.
"How would you feel if someone accused you of taking steroids and then said that that's the only reason you're so good at basketball? Or that you're riding off of your dad's success as a kid?" Lucas asked. Nathan gave him a death glare. Peyton laughed. "See? You don't like that. Haley's been tutoring people for over three years now and she knows that people learn at different paces. She also is probably one of the most patient tutors in the school," Lucas said. Peyton looked at him.
"How do you know?" Brooke asked.
"She tutored me in ninth grade," he admitted.
"I never knew you had tutoring. I assumed you were always smart," Brooke said.
Lucas laughed as he said, "No I couldn't understand math to save my life in grade nine. Haley helped me through it, but she always waited for me to get it on my own. She didn't blast me or anything. If I didn't understand one part of a problem, she'd explain it step by step. That's how she is," Lucas said. Jake nodded.
"She tutored me for History one semester last year. I had a big project due and she helped me do research for it and helped me write the proper bibliography for it. She even edited everything for me," Jake said. Peyton looped her arm through Jake's as she drew him close.
"I didn't know you had tutoring. We were dating in tenth grade. How did I not know?" she said.
"I didn't want to tell anyone that I needed tutoring. I was ashamed," he explained.
"Even you can't deny that she's not a good tutor," Lucas said to Nathan. Nathan had to agree with him on that subject. He had had a professional tutor before in tenth grade and it was always sitting at the kitchen table doing problems and then giving them to the tutor who would mark them all wrong without telling him where he went wrong and he failed that class and had to make it up in summer school. Haley had helped him with his English paper by sitting down and having a normal discussion. It was the easiest paper he'd ever written. He remembered her saying that his paper was really good even when it had about a hundred grammar and spelling mistakes in it. Now, he felt bad. Lucas looked at him and smiled. "Starting to feel a little guilty?" he asked. Nathan nodded. He shook his head in defeat.
"Where did she go?" Nathan asked.
"Tutoring centre," Lucas replied, pointing down the hall. Nathan walked away from them and headed towards the tutoring centre. He walked in and was surprised to find that Haley was the only one in the room.
She looked up and said, "What do you want?"
"I wanted to talk to you," he said. She scoffed and looked at him incredulously.
"Yeah, right," she said.
"I'm serious. I just want to talk to you, I swear," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. She nodded. He walked into the room and closed the door. He sat down at the table she was at. She put her book down and looked at him.
"Well?" she said.
"Look, I wanted to apologize for what I said about you that Saturday," he said.
"I'm listening," she said. He smirked.
"I don't have an explanation for why I said what I said, or at least not one that you're going to like, so I won't try to explain. All I'll say is that I'm sorry and that I was wrong about you," he said. She nodded.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" she asked. He actually laughed.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"That's all I wanted to begin with but you made it seem like it was so difficult. If you had just said that the day you followed me home, it would've ended there," she said.
"I wasn't really sorry then," he said.
"What changed?" Haley asked.
"I got some sense knocked into me," he replied. Haley looked a little confused, but smirked.
"Now, it's your turn," he said.
"My turn?" Haley said. "To apologize," he said. Haley laughed.
"What do I have to apologize for?" she asked.
"Well, for starters, that you were wrong about me," he said.
"No, I wasn't. You were a jerk," she said. Nathan rolled his eyes. "But I'm sorry too," she said. He laughed.
"Friends?" he asked, holding out his hand. Haley looked at him closely for a second and then hesitated before she put her hand in his and shook it.
"Friends," she clarified.