At The End of The Day

Authors Thoughts: All right this chapter I'd say is a pretty big one. I hope its not too cliché or anything. It may seem silly that this one thing is what makes one of them realize stuff but you know how sometimes all these things are happening and you never notice and then one day the tiniest thing makes you open your eyes and it's suddenly all clear? Did that make sense? Maybe not. But hopefully it'll make a bit more sense in this chapter. You'll see what I mean hopefully. Enjoy!

Chapter 10

"She rolls the window down

And she

Talks over the sound

Of the cars that pass us by

And I don't know why

But she's changed my mind

Would you look at her

She looks at me

She's got me thinking about her constantly

But she don't know how I feel

And as she carries on without a doubt

I wonder if she's figured out

I'm crazy for this girl

I'm crazy for this girl" -"Crazy for this girl" Evan and Jaron

Despite the usually soft climate of the south, even the North Carolina air now had a chill to it. It was mid-December and even though it hadn't snowed yet this season, it was definitely cold. Not as cold as it got up in Connecticut, where Nathan knew by now there probably was snow on the ground, but it was still chilly, especially since he was coming out of a practice where the team had sweated buckets. They'd lost the last game and Coach had decided that the best celebration was tough practices all week. It was loads of fun. Really.

Shrugging his windbreaker jacket closer together and moving his gym bag from one shoulder to the other he walked quickly, head down, trying to make it to his dorm as quickly as possible. He had to work on studying for finals, which were quickly approaching, even though he was so tired he really preferred to just go back to his room and lie down. Turning a corner along the pathway he ran right smack into a familiar shorter figure, and quickly his arms reached out to steady her before she could fall to the ground.

"Haley? What are you doing running like that?"

"It's cold!" Her teeth clattered and the goose bumps on her arms were clearly visible.

"I can see that…why aren't you wearing a jacket."

"Because," she began to motion with her hands exasperated, still trying to catch her breath from running, and literally smacking into him, "I had this group project thing right? So I left the dorm at like 2 in the afternoon, the sun was shining, it really wasn't that cold, and I was meeting up with the team in one of the other girl's rooms. But then, we had to go way across campus to the library and we ended up working until we finished and I step outside and there's no sun and its COLD! And silly me didn't bring a jacket because…it wasn't all that cold but now it is and I'm totally freezing, so I was running to try to get back to my dorm as quickly as possible but that made the wind harsher and colder but it was all I could do so I was running and enter you…" she finally finished her rambling and all Nathan could do was roll his eyes at her and shrug off his jacket.

"You should always bring a coat Haley, it's December! The short-sleeved shirts should have been put away a long time ago!" He patronized her as he handed her his jacket.

"It's ok Nathan you don't have to do that you're only wearing a flimsy t-shirt that I assume is still sweat-soaked from practice."

"Haley," he shoved the jacket at her letting her know he meant business, "Put it on, now!"

"Yes sir," she teased taking the jacket from him and putting it on, "Aren't you a little young to be bossing your elders around," she laughed.

"Just walk Hales and next time bring a jacket, I can manage it gets much colder than this up in the Northeast."

"Oh right I forget that you've spent the last four years of your life up north dealing with all those blizzards."

"It's not like there's a blizzard every weekend Hales, but whether its Connecticut or North Carolina you should always bring a jacket Haley what's wrong with you?"

"Oh drop it already," she rolled her eyes at him, hearing his playful tone. "Look it's your dorm so you can stop complaining!" she said as they approached his dormitory. She began to remove his jacket but he stopped her hands with his own.

"Keep it, your dorm is still a little bit away."

She smiled at him, "But don't you need your jacket?"

"I have more than one," he returned her smile, and she stuck her tongue out at him. She knew it was a childish move but she was in a bit of a childish mood. She always felt so carefree around him, like she could just let go and be herself and know that he was there to catch her if she fell. She trusted him in that sense. "But if you want," he laughed, "You can just bring it to me in the morning."

Nodding she reached up to plant a quick kiss on his cheek and hurried off in the direction of her own dorm. Nathan watched her head off for a bit before turning to walk the path up to his door. He tried to bite back his smile but he simply couldn't. Every time he saw her he walked away in a good mood, she always had that effect on him. Not to mention that she always had something going on that caught his attention. Every time he was with her she revealed something new about herself that allowed him to learn more about her. Like just now, he already knew she could ramble with the best of them, but her explanation…he had actually had to fight to not laugh. She could always make him laugh, and it felt good. The ridiculousness of her not wearing a jacket though caught him off guard. Responsible, organized, never-break-a-rule Haley was wandering around in Mid-December with short sleeves and no jacket on. That girl could still surprise him. Every time he thought he had her all figured out there was something new captivating him about her.

That scared him a little bit.

Lately, he'd caught himself thinking about her a lot. Not to mention hanging out with her everyday. They were definitely great friends, best friends even. Lucas was spending a lot of time with his girlfriend and he seemed to have taken over the best-friend role in Haley's life. Not entirely of course, because often they all hung out as a group. Adding on to that the fact that Kevin and Haley hadn't been doing much hanging out together anymore he supposed it probably made more sense to say he'd taken over Kevin's role in her life. He knew it bothered Haley, that Kevin had distanced himself to a point, but she didn't seem to be worrying about it too much and he was glad about it. That girl could worry with the best of them. She could literally work herself up into knots over anything. Like last week, she started freaking out about finals even though they were still a couple of weeks away. She practically had a panic-attack when she thought she'd lost her planner, so much so that he helped her look for it and found it under her pillow. She'd fallen asleep planning. Figures, that was such a Haley thing.

Haley was full of little quirks like that. Like how she loved, and claimed she could live off of, Mac & Cheese. And sure enough there was always a box of it somewhere in her room in case she needed a midnight snack or something. Or the way she had a folder for every class where she kept all her papers neatly in order. He always thought he was an organized, neat person, but Haley took organization to a whole new level. He was pretty sure it took her longer to organize and plan when she would do her work then it actually took her to do the work. But she claimed she couldn't do it any other way. And he understood that since getting her work done was extremely important if she was going to keep up her GPA, and thus her scholarship. She loved school that was for sure. She told him that once when they were just starting to get to know each other but he remembered her telling him that. He remembered how she liked eating white rice with ketchup on it. Or how no matter how many of his and Lucas' games she went to (which was all of them) she was still pretty clueless about how it worked. Or how she liked cold or iced coffees a lot better than a hot steaming cup of coffee, even in the winter. Or how she wasn't fond of science classes even though she got A's in them…or how….

Oh crap.

Why did he know all of that about her? Lately he caught his brain doing that a lot, racing-off in a million and one thoughts about Haley James. Truth was, he never knew as much about a friend as he did about Haley. Hell he didn't even know what Lucas' least favorite color was. Haley's least favorite color was orange.

Oh crap.

Did he like her?

No, no of course not. Haley was like his polar opposite. He liked orange, not to wear or anything, but it was the color of a basketball. And he didn't psycho-organize like her, and he didn't care if his bed wasn't always made. And he was hardly fascinated with Mac & Cheese.

But she was a really nice girl; there was no denying that. But plenty of girls are nice it didn't mean he liked them all. And yes she had nice honey-colored hair, almost blonde, and blonde chicks were normally his weakness but so what? That didn't mean he liked every blonde on the planet. No of course not, he was just confusing having a great female best friend with other feelings because he'd never really had one before. But Haley was definitely just a very, very good friend. A pretty friend, yes, but he'd thought she was pretty from the first moment he saw her. It didn't mean anything. No not at all.

"Hey Luke!" Haley smiled at her friend when he opened the door to his room the next morning. "Ready for English?"

"Almost," he motioned for her to come in. Walking over to the computer desk she took a seat on the chair and looked up to see Nathan making his way out of the bathroom and crawling back into his bed.

"You ok?" she laughed slightly at him, "You don't look too good…oh and here," she stood up and placed his jacket on the foot of the bed, "Brought you this back, thanks for letting me borrow it."

Nodding a coughing fit suddenly overtook him and Haley's face quickly etched with concern. "Nathan? Are you alright?" Moving closer to him she placed a hand on his forehead and felt the heat radiating off of it. "Nathan! You're burning up!"

"Yeah I think I'm sick," he mumbled.

Bringing both her hands to his face she felt the heat on his skin and saw the puffiness of his eyes. Looking over her shoulder she saw the jacket and it hit her. "Oh my God Nathan I told you, you shouldn't have let me borrow that jacket. You were all sweaty from practice weren't you?"

He was quiet and his eyes remained closed.

"Lucas!" Haley yelled and turned to the blonde boy when he walked out of the bathroom.

"I'm coming, I'm coming Haley hold on."

"No," she waived him off, "Yesterday did you guys leave practice really sweaty?"

Lucas laughed at the wording of her question, "Yeah we always do, but yesterday the heat was turned up really high in the gym for some ungodly reason and we came out of there drenched," he winced at the memory, before going back into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

"And you," she turned back to Nathan who'd opened his eyes, "Were only wearing that flimsy t-shirt and walked around in the cold like that what were you thinking!" She smacked his arm and he pulled away from her.

"Ow Haley! I'm sick over here!"

"I know and it's totally my fault," she ran her hands through her hair sadly and worriedly, "You shouldn't have given me your jacket," she whispered. "I'm never walking outside without one again!"

He chuckled out a laugh, "Haley it's ok! This is probably not just about walking around without a jacket I probably caught something from somebody, and it's probably just a 24-hour thing anyway."

"But still…" she ran her hand through his hair again and he didn't fail to notice how nice that felt.

"Haley I get to miss classes and practice it's really not that bad of a deal," he smiled at her before sneezing uncontrollably.

"Oh ok, ok," she spoke hurriedly, "I have one class today and as soon as I get out I'm coming to take care of you."

"You don't have to do that."

"Yes I do," she pulled the covers up and snuggled him in further. "As soon as I get out of class I'll pick up some medicine and bring it over."

"Medicine?" He made a face, "Gross, no."

"What do you mean no?" He gave her his best sick-puppy dog look and she couldn't help but smirk, "Don't act like you're five Nathan, get some sleep and since it's my fault that you're sick I'll be your personal nurse today."

He raised his eyebrows at her, "Do I get a sponge bath?"

She smacked his arm again as that familiar pink hue that he thought was adorable crept over her cheeks. "Ow Haley! You're hitting me again? What part of I'm sick don't you get?" he smiled at her slightly before another cough overcame him.

"I think you'll be ok," she smirked knowingly, "Get some sleep ok?" She kissed his forehead and he nodded his head obligingly.

And that was the thing about Haley James. She could smack him around and then smile at him and he liked that. The way she got all concerned and worried over his health was just one of those many things that made Haley, Haley. She didn't act preoccupied just because she felt like she had to. She was genuinely worried and upset that he got sick because he let her borrow his jacket. Even though he didn't feel too good right now he'd do it again because or else it could be her lying in bed instead of him, and she hated missing class. She probably would get up and go anyways whereas he gladly took the day off. It was one of those things that made her different from him and that he liked in her.

"You sick?" Lucas asked his cousin leaving the bathroom and gathering his things. At Nathan's nod he went over and patted his shoulder, "Feel better ok? Come on Hales we're going to be late."

Lucas walked out the door and she turned to follow Lucas before stopping and turning back to Nathan, "I'll bring you some tea too ok?"

"Only if…"

"It has honey in it, I know, tea needs honey because otherwise it's just horribly flavored hot water and coffee is so much better," she laughed recalling one of their many conversations where they came to a consensus that coffee was better than tea. Even though she liked tea just the same, he would only have it if there was honey in it and she remembered that. His heart warmed at the fact.

She waved bye to him, "I'll see you in a little bit," she whispered, closing the door behind her.

Groaning he turned around on his side and buried his head in his pillow.

Crap. He liked her.