Chapter Nineteen: Nothing Can Compare

"Chris," said Haley, slowly approaching him.

"Haley," he said. He walked over to her and put his arms around her.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded, pulling away.

"I told you, with the band," said Chris in surprise.

"Chris, that was weeks ago. And the number you left me was out of order. Do you really think I'm just going to hang around waiting for you?" she asked in annoyance, trying to brush past him to get into the house. Nathan watched in irritation as Chris grabbed her upper arm and she stopped immediately.

"No. Of course not. I want you to come with me next time," he said.

"With your band?" she asked softly.

"Yeah. I've heard you sing. If you worked at it, you could really go places," he said. Haley smiled.

"If I worked on it?" she pressed. Chris, confident that he'd sweet-talked himself out of another breakup, took a step toward her.

"If we worked on it," he said, leaning down to cover her lips with his.

Nathan drove off in disgust. How was it possible that Haley James welcomed the kisses of gangly, unattractive Chris Kellar but wouldn't let Nathan Scott touch her? Nathan Scott, who had slept with any woman he'd ever wanted?

Haley took Chris' hand as they finished kissing and led him into the house. Her parents greeted him enthusiastically-they liked Chris, and guessed that he wouldn't knock her up and abandon her, or give her an STD. They were fairly sure it was because he wasn't getting any. At least, not from Haley.

Lydia James didn't protest as her daughter led her boyfriend up to her bedroom. After six kids, she knew it was useless.

"How messed up is it that my parents trust us in my bedroom alone together?" she asked, casually flipping over a copy of a tabloid containing incriminating photos of her and Nathan. Every time she wreaked havoc, she ended up regretting it.

But she never learned her lesson.

"I guess they know we're going to end up together, so it doesn't matter," he said smoothly.

"So where were you this afternoon?" he asked.

"At a hotel. Brooke cheated on her boyfriend. It's a long story. A lot's happened since you left," she said.

"Like what?" asked Chris, examining the photos that had been added to the ones pinned up on Haley's mirror.

"Jake slept with Davis Ryan, for one thing. Brooke fell in love with Lucas Scott," said Haley.

"What've you been doing?" he asked.

"Not much."

"So that wasn't Nathan Scott that drove you up?" prompted Chris.

"He's a jerk. Don't you trust me?" she asked.

"Shouldn't I? But I think it's time we made your Mom stop trusting us," he said, moving in to kiss her again. She turned her face away.

"I told you. I'm not ready," she said stubbornly. Trying to curb his frustration, he took her hand in his.

"Why not? I love you, Haley."

"I know. I love you too, but Chris…"

"No, you don't have to worry. It's nicer than the health teacher told us, I promise," he said. Haley cracked a smile, before a frown darkened her features.

"Wait. We've been together since grade eight. When have you…?" she demanded.

"Haley…" he said. She saw his mouth open to deliver smooth promises and lies. She yanked her hand out of his.

"Don't. I trusted you, Chris. I gave you all that I could give. And you...?" she asked.

"Are we really going to do this again? We both know how it's going to end," he said in annoyance.

"Yes, we're doing this. But you want to know something, Chris? You want to know the real reason I'm not going to fuck you tonight?" she asked. He took a step toward her, scowling darkly.

"Haley…"

"Shut up. It's because you don't turn me on. I used to think you were a really nice, sweet guy, but I always thought you were way too tall and you had stupid eyes and presumably a very small dick. And you know what else? You're aggressively not the only man I've ever wanted to have sex with. In fact, you're not a man at all," she said bitterly. As she spoke her last sentence, Chris reached the end of his tether. She gasped as he pulled his hand back and back handed her hard across the cheek.

Her tears dried instantly. Haley James had put up with a lot in order to stay with Chris, but this wasn't something she was going to add to the list.

"You know Chris, I hate to be cliché, but…" she stopped speaking as she tugged the silver ring of her finger. "Sometimes you're just asking for it."

Haley threw the circlet at him with all her might

"Now get the hell out," she said. Not waiting for him to apologize, or do whatever it was he wanted to do, she ran out ahead of him.

Haley ran past her mother and out of the house, stopping at her mother's car and unlocking it with the spare key she possessed. Her fingers shook as she turned the key in ignition and back out of the driveway, and drove toward the only guy she knew who was strong and not heartbroken enough to take out her ex-boyfriend.

Nathan looked up at her in surprise when she walked into his hotel. He'd gotten into the habit of seeing her and looking away immediately, to avoid staring, but when she came in with a noticeable bruise on her cheek he couldn't help but let his eyes linger.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Haley's face was tear streaked. Nathan knew something was wrong when she accepted his embrace willingly.

"No," she mumbled into his chest, breathing in the scent of his aftershave mixed with his sweat.

"Chris did this," he stated eventually, when she didn't elaborate.

"Yeah. I need you to kick his ass," said Haley, looking up at him.

"Okay," said Nathan comfortingly.

"And if you want, you can tell him we had a lot of sex," continued Haley.

"Okay," agreed Nathan again.

"Okay," she said, echoing his words as she pulled a tank top out of her purse. "I just need to change if I can. I got this out of Lucas' room."

Haley locked eyes with Nathan while she pulled off the shirt she was wearing, leaving her in her bra in the middle of his hotel room. She was rewarding him, he knew. He desired greatly to keep his eyes off her, to let her know that he wanted more from her, but he couldn't quite manage. His eyes fell.

Chris was waiting on the front steps of Haley's house when they pulled up, his long legs stretched down several steps, his elbow's resting on his knees with his chin resting in his hands, obviously waiting for Haley. Obviously bored.

Nathan scowled at Chris' knowing smirk when Haley's car pulled up. The look changed to a frown when Nathan climbed out of the driver's seat and Haley came walking around from the other side of the car dressed in a skimpy tank top, her hickey clearly visible, showed proudly.

"Who the hell is this?" asked Chris.

"I'm Nathan Scott. And I'm about to kick your ass," said Nathan simply. The smirk reappeared on Chris' face. For an instant, Haley reflected on how much time both of them spent smirking. But the dark scowl on Nathan's face was more serious than any she'd ever seen.

"Are you?" asked Chris.

"Sure. Haley needs someone to do her dirty work," said Nathan.

"And why should that be you?" asked Chris. Nathan smiled, showing Chris all Chris needed to know. But Nathan, being Nathan, couldn't help but elaborate.

"Let's just say Haley and I have been doing many things dirty recently," he said. Chris surprised both of them by ramming his fist into Nathan's face, causing Nathan to take a step back. But it only took Nathan a few seconds to recover and beat the taller, younger man into a bleeding wreck.

After doing the first semi-decent thing she'd ever seen him do, Haley figured she deserved to be just a little bit nice. So they sent Chris home in a cab and entered her house.

Nathan looked around in interest. The walls were covered with childlike artwork and pictures of a small hoard of children doing various things. Nathan picked Haley out of a group playing basketball, having a water gun fight, swinging on a set of monkey bars. There was a long row of pictures of Haley and her sisters posing with their respective dates on prom night. Nathan smiled hugely at a picture of Haley, Brooke, and Peyton on Hallowe'en, dressed as the three Charlie's Angles, with Jake standing awkwardly on the edge of the picture, obviously having been coerced into doing so by Peyton. And a picture of the three of them dressed as witches, their faces heavily made up. He didn't hear Haley enter.

"We were Charlie's Angels this year, and the witches in grade nine when we had been studying Macbeth. This is my favourite," said Haley, indicating a picture of seven year old versions of Haley, Brooke and Peyton dressed as Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Supergirl, respectively. He picked it up from the mantelpiece.

"You guys really get into Hallowe'en," he commented.

"Yeah. We've been doing group things since Peyton moved here. That's the first one we did, when Peyton first came," said Haley, glancing down again at the three of them dressed as superheroes.

"Jake and Chris hadn't come into the picture yet?" asked Nathan.

"No. Jake comes in here," she said, pointing to a picture of the three girls dressed as the Powerpuff girls when they looked to be about ten with Jake, dressed as a Ghost. Nathan's eyes swept the row of photos again. Chris wasn't present in any of them.

"What's this one?" he asked, pointing to another, taken when the three of them were in high school.

"Mean Girls. I got to be Lindsay Lohan," said Haley proudly, pointing out her dyed red hair.

"Lucky you. One year I dressed up as Batman and Mom made Luke be Robin," said Nathan. Haley frowned at the image of Lucas Scott in the yellow tights.

"That's a nice story. I'm going to miss all this when we go away this year," said Haley wistfully.

"Something tells me it's going to be okay," he said. She smiled and handed him the ice pack she'd been holding since she walked in.

"Here. For your eye," she said.

"Sure you don't want it for yourself?" he asked, tilting her chin upward to examine the bruise on her cheek.

"That's okay. I'll survive," she said. He frowned.

"He's done this before, hasn't he?" asked Nathan, suddenly looking stern.

Haley shrugged, and avoided his eye, but once again didn't protest when he folded her into his arms and held her close.

Author's note: So this was naley, since I feel like I've been neglecting them lately and next is baley (platonically, I promise) since I've been neglecting them even more. Thanks for reviewing!