Chapter Seventeen

Play The Game

Lucas

"Lucas, we need to talk."

I think maybe I'm hearing wrong. My little brother is staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face. My little brother, the one I hate. The one who hates me.

I think maybe I've been drugged.

Tim steps forward and looks strangely at Nathan. "Whoa, are those Roofie's for you?" He asks. "What are you on?"

The noise of the locker room suddenly becomes a roar in my ears as Tim's word's seem to sing to me. those Roofie's.

Nathan whacks Tim around the head and then he looks at me, his hands held up like he's surrendering to something. All I can hear is the word Roofie's over and over again.

It was Nathan. It must have been. Why would he want Roofie's now if he hadn't used them before?

"You asshole!" I yell, my voice deciding to work. Nathan steps forward.

"Look, you've got it wrong, it's not like that, I was…"

He doesn't get a chance to finish as I swing my fist into my jaw. I knew he was a jerk, but I never honestly believed that he was so cold-hearted. How could I? He's my brother.

Nathan lands against the locker, a loud clang as he hit's it and then falls onto the bench. "Will you stop hitting my jaw!" He yells. I don't listen as I go to swing for him again, but Nathan is faster than me. He reaches up and grabs my fist. I prepare myself for a blow to the face but it doesn't come.

"Look, will you just… calm down? We need to talk." He lets go of my fist, but I haven't really taken in a word he's said. As soon as my fist is free I swing it round and it connects with his chest. He looks at me for a second and then he seems to decide that he's had enough of holding back. He jumps on me and we both land to the floor, a struggle to be the one with the upper hand. All I can see is Nathan, and Haley's lifeless body. I feel a blow to my stomach and then I hear a whistle. The roaring around me stops and Nathan is lifted from on top of me.

My vision clears and I see an angry-looking Nathan with a cut lip and more bruises on his face. Whitey is holding him by his jersey and looking at us both with what can only be called disgust.

"You're like rabid dogs!" He yells. "Consider yourselves banned from practise, d'ya hear?"

Nathan doesn't say anything, he shrugs Whitey off him and walks over to his locker. I stay where I am on the floor. The way I'm feeling now, I don't think I'd be much good at practise anyway.

"Now the rest of ya, get out onto that gym and run until you puke. Out!"

The gym clears and there's only me, Nathan and Whitey left. Whitey looks at us both. "You two'd better sort out your family issues, 'cause the court ain't a place for them. Until you two can come in holding hands and makin' merry songs with each other, you ain't playing on my team."

Nathan stands up at that. "But coach, we got our first game tonight!"

"I don't want to hear it Scott. Maybe the both of ya should sit down and talk it over, hmm?" With that, Whitey stalks out of the locker room, leaving a disgruntled Nathan and me on our own. That wasn't smart.

I jump to my feet and stalk over to him. "Did you drug her?" I ask. Nathan grits his teeth and stares at me, right in the eye.

"No. I would never…" He lets out a long sigh. "Nice to see that my big brother has such a high opinion of me."

"Don't give me that crap Nathan. Like you've ever cared."

Nathan shrugs. "I guess I haven't, but still… It's not like I'm sad and desperate enough to use drugs. I would have thought that was more your area of expertise."

I shot Nathan a sharp look. I'm about to say that I have Haley, but I don't know if I have anymore. I'm losing her bit my bit, and the worst part of it is, I'm losing her to Nathan.

"I was asking Tim about Roofie's because I'm trying to track down the person who gave Hales them."

I look up and see Nathan looking down at his hands. For some reason that I can't quite describe, I believe him. Actually, maybe I can describe it – we're brothers. We may hate each other, but we have a bond whether we want it or not.

"And Peyton," I add, trying my hardest to ignore the fact that he's just called her Hales. It seems so intimate. When I called her it she corrected me straight away. I wonder if she does that to Nathan.

"Yeah." He looks up at me and I can read the sincerity in his eyes. "Look, I said I wanted to talk earlier because I think you should come with me, to see the supplier because… you're Haley's boyfriend. You deserve to know."

He kind of chokes the last bit out, and for probably the first time, it occurs to me that Nathan may actually like Haley. Not just as in want to get her into bed, but actually like her. The thought hurts me way more than if he'd just wanted to screw her.

"Are you sure you don't just want to paint a picture of solidarity for Whitey so you can play tonight?" I ask somewhat bitterly. Nathan's eyebrows knit together and he looks confused.

"What's painting got to do with it?" he asks, and I can't help but laugh.

"So who's the supplier?"

"Jesse Holloway. I think he's in my Algebra class, if we sneak into the admin office we can find out where his locker is and find him before school ends. What do you say?"

I survey him. I think this is the closest to a conversation me and Nathan have come in our lives. "I say get dressed, let's go."


134, that's his locker, this Jesse Holloway's. It's last period and everyone is rushing around the halls. A tall lanky blonde guy heads straight for us. He looks about twelve

"Nathan and Lucas Scott," he bellows when he sees us, a broad smile across his face that makes him look even younger. Maybe ten. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Nathan, who has a seriously scary look on his face turns slightly to me. "Well, I guess you can see why he needs the Roofie's. I smile despite myself. I don't want to smile at Nathan's attempts at humour. The thing is though, I can tell how angry he is. It emanates off him like body heat. He's angrier than me, and it was my girlfriend who got drugged.

Jesse carries on towards us, and just over his shoulder I see a sway of glossy brown hair. Brooke. I pray that she doesn't come over, not when me and Nathan are trying to pummel this guy's head into his own locker.

Unfortunately, she sees us. I shake my head softly, hoping she'll take the hint but she doesn't, she starts towards us.

"Wow, my two favourite guys, together. Who would have thought it, huh?" she calls out. Nathan and Jesse both turn to her, and Jesse has a huge grin on his face. Something twists in my stomach at the thought of this guy drugging her, of turning Brooke – the bubbly drama queen – into an unresponsive person, just waiting to be… I can't think any further, Haley's lifeless body comes into my head and I imagine her in this guys bed. I grab Jesse by the shoulder and swing him into his locker. Nathan looks surprised and Brooke stops in her tracks, as does everyone else in the hall.

"Whoa, what's this about," Jesse asks, his head beginning to sweat and his eyes opened wide enough to see the whites.

"Lucas," Nathan says in a warning voice. I turn to see the principal walking down the hall. I drop Jesse quick.

"I'll tell him," Jesse yells out. "Who do you think you are, huh? Thinking you can manhandle people like me just because you're in the basketball team?"

The principal is gaining on us.

"Okay, go ahead," Nathan says. It flashes briefly in my mind that this whole thing could have been a set up, but then Nathan narrows his eyes and lowers his head to Jesse's. "And then we can tell him about the little drug's business you're running up here."

Jesse's eyes widen again and he whimpers. The principal walks over to us.

"Is everything okay here boys?" he asks, his bald head shining under the lights. Nathan shrugs and Jesse attempts a brave smile.

"Everything's fine sir," he says, looking like he's about to cry.

"I was just asking if he could help me with my algebra homework," Nathan says, putting his arm around Jesse who visibly flinches. The principle lowers his eyebrows, but seems to decide that it's not worth the bother to talk some more to us.

"Okay, okay, move along people, have none of you got homes to go to?" he yells.

The hallway disperses slowly. Brooke looks at me with confusion in her eyes, but I smile at her, trying to convey that she should get out of here.

We turn back to Jesse.

"Now, how about you tell us all about your little business empire?" I ask. Jesse swallows loudly and then opens his locker. He shifts aside a folder and behind that, are three bags of white pills and a brown pill bottle. He pulls out the bottle.

"My dad's a doctor, and he's refusing to help my Mom out with my college fees. This is my way of paying for college," he says.

Nathan nods at the bottle. "They Roofie's?" he asks. Jesse nods.

"See, my girlfriend and a friend of hers where drugged at a party last night, you wouldn't know anything about that would you?" I ask. Jesse flinches.

"Who's bought these in the last week?" Nathan asks.

"Um… the party you had last night? Where there any geeks there?" he asks. Nathan and me look at each other. What?

"What kind of question is that?" I ask. "Are you messing about with us, because…"

"No! No, I'm not it's just that, I only really sell to the school geeks. They're the only one's who know about me."

The thought of Haley being groped by someone like Jesse revolts me. I have to look away.

"That Nose guy was there…" Nathan begins, but I silence him with a look.

"Mouth would never do that. He's mine and Haley's friend. Their's got to be someone else."

"Umm… Their was an exception," Jesse says, looking almost scared that he'd even mentioned it. "He made me swear not to tell anyone, said he'd make my life hell if I did…"

"Who?" Nathan asks.

"If I tell you, it won't get back to him, right?" Jesse asks.

"Oh no, see this is all just for fun. I'm going to find out who spiked my girlfriend's drink and then we're going to ignore him… Of course it's going to get back to him! We're going to make him pay!" I say, my emotion getting the better of me.

Jesse gulps again. "It was someone on your team…"

Nathan's eyes open wide like he can't believe it. "Who?"

"Rob Klein."

I look up at Nathan. Rob Klein hangs around with him. My mind goes back to that That in Karen's Café, when Nathan came in. I overheard something, something that never bothered me then, but it's maiking my skin shiver now.

"You know, She may be a dork, but have you ever seen Haley James in gym class?"

"I don't like her, just saying she has a great pair on her"