Chapter Sixteen

Coming Together

Nathan

Just like Brooke promised, the 'empty' music room was a hotspot for horny teenagers. We open the door to find two freshman kids eating each other's faces. Haley starts blushing and I can't help but smirk.

"Hey," I say, loud enough for them to hear me over their groans. They jump apart, probably thinking I'm a teacher or something. "We need this room. Go."

The guy smirks, trying to be a hard ass in front of his girl. "Get your own room, we got ours."

In two steps I'm picking him up by his collar. "Maybe you didn't hear me. We need this room. Now go!"

The girl squeaks and as soon as I've dropped the boy down, they both run out. Haley steps aside to let them past and then walks in. I shut the door beside her and actually look at her. She has a bruise just above her temple, she must have got it in the pool.

"I…"

"I…"

We both stop and Haley lets out a nervous laugh. I don't. I can't even think about laughing, not when I know what some jerk has done to her.

"Are you feeling okay?" I ask. She walks over to a small table and pulls herself up on it, looking down at her hands.

"Yeah."

I lean against a set of drums and cross my arms. I don't know what to say. The fact that she's in the same room alone with me shows that she either doesn't know Lucas's little assumption, or that she does and she doesn't believe it.

I'm almost too scared tohope it's the second option.

Neither one of us speaks. Me, because I don't want to assume anything, don't want to open my mouth and swear to beat the crap out of whichever slimy jackass has done this to her like I want to, in case she turns around and says she thinks it was me.

Finally she speaks. "I don't think it was you," she says, like she's reading my mind. She still won't look at me though.

"I'm going to find out," I tell her. "I'm going to find out and I'm going to kill him."

"Why do you care?" she asks, her voice barely more than a whisper. I look down and realise that my hand has clenched into a fist. I don't think I've ever been this angry in my life and she's asking me why I care?

"Because it's wrong and…" it's you. The realisation that I'm getting so worked up about this because it's Haley is astounding. It hits me in the stomach and damn near winds me.

I haven't even thought about Peyton.

"Girl's get drugged all the time Nathan, why are you so bothered now?" Haley asks. She looks so small and vulnerable and I want to protect her from anything like this ever happening again. What's happening to me? I'm Nathan Scott for God's sake! I don't get worked up, I don't want to protect tutor geek's.

Except that I do. "You nearly died Hales, of course I'm bothered."

Haley finally looks up, and her eyes catch mine. Again the room is filled with a silence that nearly suffocates me. I pull my eyes away. It's unbearable.

"I'm Haley James," Haley whispers, more to herself than to me, but I get the feeling that I'm the person it's aimed at.

"What?"

"I'm your brother's girlfriend. I'm a tutor. I'm quiet and I dress casual as often as possible. I arrange my pencils in order of tallest. I pray every night before I go to bed and I love the rain. Why… why are you suddenly so bothered about my personal wellbeing?"

Now see, that's a good question. Why am I suddenly so bothered? I decide to answer as honestly as I can. "I don't know."

Haley gives a sharp intake of breath and then stands up off the table, heading for the door. I step forward. "Where are you going?"

Haley turns to face me, slowly, like it's a hard thing to do.

"I can't be here Nathan."

"Why?" I need to know what she's thinking. What she's thinking about me more than anything else. I don't know why that's so important but it just is.

"Why do you think?" she snaps, leaning up against the closed door and closing her eyes. A tear falls over her cheek. I step forward and wipe it away and her eyes open wide. "Don't…" she says softly.

"But I wanted to…"

She looks up at me, her eyes unreadable. "Yeah…" and then she does something really surprising.

She kisses me.

She reaches up and throws her arm over my shoulder, touching my lips with hers and leaning into me. Even more surprising than that, I kiss her back, circling my arms around her waist and pulling her closer. I want her closer.

She pulls away quickly, looking down at her hands. "I – I'm sorry, we shouldn't have done that."

I'm about to tell her that I wanted to, that I want to do it again, but the words won't come out.

"I've got to go," she says, and then she opens the door and runs off, leaving me alone and confused.


"Tim," I yell, slamming my locker as he comes into the locker room.

"What's up Nate?" He asks in his loud, slightly dozy voice.

I wait till he's right next to me and then I lower my voice. "I need to know if you know where I can get some Roofie's."

It's a long shot, but I need to take my mind off Haley and I need to track down whoever gave her that drug. If I just take my mind off the fact that I'm doing this for Haley then I'm practically killing two birds with one stone. I know it was a Roofie because Brooke told me that's what Peyton had in her drink.

Tim gives me a long look. "Nathan, I don't think that's a good idea," he says in the most serious voice I've ever heard from him. Tim may be a bit of a dick, but he's not a bad guy.

I consider telling Tim, but he's not really the guy to tell a secret to. In fact, he's worse than a girl for gossip. I shrug with a my best 'so what' expression. "Tim, come on…" The next words almost hurt to say, I have to choke them out. "It's just a bit of fun."

Tim still has that serious look on his face and his eyebrows are lowered. Finally he shrugs and says, "I hear Jesse Holloway has a bit of a collection. He's the man to go to. I still don't think this is a good idea Nate."

"Don't worry about it," I say. I look up and see Lucas enter the room. His eyes catch mine and he comes storming over. "Hey Tim, this is our little secret, okay?" I whisper to Tim. He looks unhappy but he nods. I know that the news will be around school by tomorrow, but I also know that Jesse Holloway will be beaten to a pulp and the school will know that too.

"What the hell did you do with Haley today?" Lucas asks. The image of us kissing comes unbidden into my head, only instead of feeling cocky and happy that I've got one up on my older brother, I feel kind of ashamed.

And then, I realise. I need Lucas to do this. Haley is his girlfriend and he deserves to know who drugged her. It's a hard fact to swallow, but it's a fact nonetheless.

I turn to him, ignoring the confused looks on everyone's faces. "Lucas, we need to talk."