At The End of The Day

Authors Thoughts: There's a lot of getting into Haley's head in this one. We've had a lot of Nathan's point of view in this story so it was a nice change. Hopefully you can follow her train of thought and its not too confusing.

Chapter 14 "I think the hardest part of this whole situation is that neither of us know what's going on... neither of us know what each other are thinking and we are both trying to make decisions based on information we don't know..." –Unknown

In the coming weeks Nathan and Haley remained civil whenever they spoke to each other but they only spoke to each other when it was necessary. Whenever either was hanging out with people from the group the other never seemed to be present. Not that Nathan had much time for socializing anyways. Juggling schoolwork and basketball was an increasingly difficult task as the coursework this semester was less "Introductory" type classes and as basketball games became more frequent. There were more away games in this part of the season and so the team was often traveling. All of this left little time for Nathan to socialize but he still did so with the guys on the team and with Luke. Lucas and Haley were still the best of friends but he didn't discuss the falling out with Nathan. It'd become an unspoken mystery between the two of them. He'd tried to bring it up once because he knew Nathan liked Haley and he'd apparently gone from "like" to "freeze-out." But Nathan had avoided and changed the subject swiftly, and Lucas knew he was better off letting it drop. So they didn't talk about it. Lucas wanted to ask him more about it, if he missed Haley and things like that. She and Nathan were practically inseparable before that night outside the pizza parlor weeks ago. But since then they barely spoke two words, and for all intents and purposes it was like they were giving each other the silent treatment. Staying out of it helped Lucas to not have to pick sides or anything, not that he had much to go on. Haley was keeping it to herself too, whatever "it" was, and she wasn't giving details on what had been the reason for their broken friendship. There was so much Lucas wondered about, so much that didn't make sense, but he didn't have the answers, and apparently Nathan and Haley weren't willing to give them. That helped him not get caught in the middle.

Brooke was a different story though. She and Haley had been best friends from high school, and Haley was more willing to open up with her, although still not a lot. It was different though because Brooke had an idea of why Nathan was mad, she didn't know what Haley's reasoning was though. Today she was beyond curious, and she needed something to get her mind off of her own problems. She figured she'd give it a shot since once again they were studying in the same room, this time Haley's. It was their "thing" to alternate between them, since they didn't get lucky enough to share the same one.

Brooke sighed for the umpteenth time trying to get Haley's attention and finally Haley looked up.

"What is it Brooke, if you sigh one more time I'm going to kill you," she smirked.

"It's just Lucas and I are…well, we've barely gotten two seconds together these past couple of weeks with his basketball and all. I feel like I haven't seen him in forever, or Nathan for that matter."

Haley cocked her head to the side, "Ok that was the lamest, most-obvious, segway ever even for you."

"What?" Brooke put on an innocent face; "I'm talking about me and Lucas, if your mind is thinking of the other Scott that's not my fault."

Haley shot her a look, "Let it go Brooke. He made it very clear he was going to be too busy for me so…"

"What happened that night Haley?" Brooke asked her honestly.

Haley shook her head facing the book in her lap, highlighter fixated in her hand, "He just said some stuff and normally I'd let it go because he had a bad day or something but it was more than that. It was like he just decided I was taking up too much of his time and he wanted to drop it so I let him. I mean I wasn't going to beg him to be my friend. You know we'd become so close and for him to say those things to me was just…" she sighed and looked up at Brooke. "It hurt Brooke, and the worst part is he clearly meant them because it's not like he apologized the next day for taking whatever was upsetting him out on me. That means I was the upsetting part for him and it was just so out of the blue that I don't know…" she shook her head facing her book again.

"Haley did you ever get the feeling that maybe he liked you as more than a friend?"

Haley's head shot back up, "What do you mean as more than a friend? Haven't we been over this?"

"No, we discussed the idea of you liking him but not the idea of him liking you."

Brooke had already figured out that he did but she'd decided it wasn't her place to tell Haley. That didn't mean though that she couldn't discreetly lead her in the right direction.

Haley shook her head disbelievingly, "Why would he like me when half of the pretty blonde's fawn over him after every game?"

"Earth to James, you are a pretty blonde Haley."

"I meant the big-boobed, bimbo-like ones, but thanks," she smiled.

"Nathan clearly isn't into that type or he would have already gone there."

"Maybe he has," she shrugged, "I haven't exactly been up to date on him these past few weeks as you well know."

"Well more power to them if they actually went for him," Brooke chose her words carefully. "I mean he's an eligible guy. He's single, he's gorgeous…"

"Don't you have a boyfriend missy?"

"Yeah so? I told you this the first day when we met him. The guy doesn't even look 18 he could pass for older. And he's in great shape because of basketball."

Haley didn't answer her; there was really no denying that.

"Why wouldn't they go for him," Brooke continued, "What's not to like?"

"I highly doubt Nathan was into me," Haley cut her off answering her earlier question.

"Why Haley come on! He could have the big-boobed ones as you say, but he hung out with you. He was one of your best friends. You told me he was there for you at Thanksgiving and during exams…"

"Friends do that it doesn't mean he had a crush on me."

"And you guys kissed."

"It was New Years Brooke we kissed and that was it," her tone of voice was beginning to rise fighting every word that came out of Brooke's mouth. It took energy for her to fight it.

"Did you like it?"

"What?"

"Did you enjoy the kiss?"

"That's neither here nor there."

"Actually it's very much here because maybe you allowing him to kiss you gave him some hope that you two could be something more and something must have set him off that you were against the whole thing," Brooke rolled her eyes showing she wasn't pleased at the thought of Haley being against him.

"Weren't we talking about you and Lucas?"

"Nice subject change smarty pants and I'll let it slide because you're getting all frazzled up," Brooke smirked. "Lucky for you I have to go, but think about it Haley," Brooke turned back as she opened the door, "Just think about it."

And as soon as the door closed that's what she did. Think. That was all she seemed to be doing these days. Think more and more about this Nathan situation. She couldn't get it out of her head and she couldn't let it go. It didn't matter how hard she tried she just couldn't forget the void in her life. The void that used to be filled by a sweet boy named Nathan who was now cold and distant. Haley pondered Brooke's suggestion. Was it possible? Had Nathan liked her as more than just a friend? She played back all her moments with Nathan. The times of laughter and watching movies and all the times he calmed her down from over-worrying. They had spent a lot of time together, more so than normal friends would. But that was why she thought they were more than just friends, they were best friends, and from her experiences with Lucas best friends spent a lot of time together.

Then again there were explicit differences between her relationship with Nathan and her relationship with Lucas. For starters she couldn't even begin to judge Lucas' "hotness" level it was just something that didn't concern her in the least, even before he was dating Brooke. But Nathan, it was hard not to notice for her. For a long time after that first day she met him she didn't think of it but when basketball season started and she watched him play, it was a very pleasing view. Nathan had a talent unmatched by any player she'd ever seen, and that was attractive. And that night at the New Years gala, she'd noticed how he looked in the suit almost as soon as she saw him. And the kiss? She had to admit it was really good. But she had been so sure it was a platonic thing, that Nathan and she had just done it in the moment. Had they subconsciously done it for other reasons? Had he?

It was all so confusing. She thought she knew where both of them were at during their friendship but now Brooke was infusing all these thoughts in her head and it was tripping her up. To top things off even if she could figure out what everything meant when they were friends, what did it mean for now when they weren't talking to each other? When they'd severed their bond she thought for sure she'd just move on. Haley made friends relatively easily and sometimes you just lost touch with some of them. Even though Nathan was related to Lucas, she thought they could just revert to an extremely platonic "I'll see you when I see you" type of friendship. But that wasn't the case. It seemed as though Nathan tried hard to avoid her and she thought about him every day. Every single day she was reminded of the fact that Nathan wasn't her friend anymore and she didn't know what to do with it.

She could be the bigger person and approach Nathan and try to talk things out, but where would she begin? He was the one who threw a hissy fit and stomped away like a petulant child. So what was she supposed to say? She didn't even really get what he was mad about or what had made him mad. And that's where Brooke's theory made some semblance of sense. If he had liked her and thought there was no chance he could cut himself off from her in order to try to forget her. But why make her mad at him in the process? Why make himself look bad in her eyes if that's what it was? He could have easily fazed out of the friendship in a slower manner, and taken himself out of her life bit by bit so that he didn't have to be around her. Nathan wasn't harsh; he wasn't the type to leave you high and dry. It just wasn't him. So as much as Brooke's theory made sense, it didn't make much sense at all.

It was just all so very confusing and if she could get into Nathan's head it would be so much easier.

If she could figure out where her own brain was at it would be so much easier.

In the end she had one question to ask and answer herself. If Nathan did like her as more than just friends, and if he had told her that, how would she have reacted? What if he told her that today what would she feel?

The question was…did she like Nathan back?