Author's Note: Here to drop off a quick update. I don't like this chapter much, but oh well. What can I do? Anyway, thanks for all the reviews and I just wanted to let anyone know that's reading my other story; In Need of Saving, I'm going to start the update soon and it should be out early next week. I'm gonna try for Monday. Hope you enjoy this though.
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"Where the hell is Dick Head?"
The first week of school was finally almost over. It was Thursday night and Friday just couldn't come soon enough. Brooke, Haley and Nathan had made plans to meet at Haley's house that night to finally start working on their project on Lord of the Flies for English class. Haley had pretty much been dreading their little meeting all day, not knowing how well she was going to be able to handle having Nathan in her house. Hell, she hadn't even spend more than five minutes around him with less then two other people, so she was more than a little nervous about the awkward moments she knew they were going to have that night.
"Brooke, can you please stop calling him that?" Haley sighed from her laying position on her bed. She was staring up at the ceiling, silently telling herself to calm down over and over again. Brooke watched her from the computer chair as she tossed her friend's stress ball up and down.
"Why?" she asked, catching the ball with ease. "That's what he is, isn't he?"
"I guess," Haley mumbled, glancing at Brooke for a moment before looking back at the white tiling of the ceiling. Brooke had come by about an hour ago, explaining that she had nothing better to do. When Haley had suggested that they start on the project early, Brooke immediately shot that idea down, saying that they were not going to be doing any work when it wasn't necessary.
"You guess?"
"Okay," Haley sighed. She hated when Brooke didn't leave things alone. "He's the king of Dick Heads, but that doesn't mean that you need to remind me of that every second."
"Everyone needs a nickname, Hales," Brooke told her, tossing the ball back on the desk and rolling the chair closer to the bed. "You're a girl and you tutor people…"
"Hence Tutor Girl," Haley filled in, amazingly knowing exactly where this was going.
"Nathan's a dick and he has a head," Brooke continued, leaving the rest of her statement in the air. Haley rolled her eyes, but still didn't turn to face her friend.
"There's some Grade A logic for you," she mumbled under her breath."
"Haley, that's my thing, I give people nicknames," Brooke explained, jumping off the chair and plopping down on the bed beside her best friend. "Everyone has a thing, right, something that they're good at."
"Brooke…"
"Think about it," she continued, completely ignoring Haley's attempts at getting her to shut up. Brooke Davis stop talking if she had something to say? Never. She shifted her position, lying down beside her best friend on the bed. "I mean, you've got the whole singing thing, not to mention the books, Pey's got her art and her unhealthy obsession with incredibly horrible music…"
"It's not horrible music," Haley commented, knowing that it was pointless.
"The boys are busy throwing a ball threw a hoop, which apparently is an important skill to have in life." Was Brooke bitter at Lucas? Nah. "Mouth has his website, Lacy's good at … something, I'm sure, and Nicki's got the whole psycho stalker bitch routine down pat…"
"Whoa, wait," Haley interrupted, making sure that she was loud enough this time to actually get Brooke to stop her ranting. The other brunette closed her mouth and turned her head to the side, surprised to find that Haley had actually tore her gaze away from the ceiling to look at her.
"What?"
"Since when do you include Nicki in things like this?" Brooke looked at her blankly, completely confused at the tone in Haley's voice. If Brooke didn't know any better, she would say that Haley was a little jealous, but jealous of what, she wasn't sure.
"Things like what?"
"Well you were going through the whole gang," Haley explained, leaning up so she was resting on her elbow, looking down at Brooke. "You used me as an example, Peyton, the guys, Lacy, even Mouth, and then you said Nicki, like she's part of our gang now."
"Oh," Brooke answered back, mentally berating herself for being so stupid. She should have never mentioned her, but she just couldn't resist getting in a good jab at Nicki where it was possible. "Look, it's not like I want her to be, but she kinda is now, whether wanted or not."
"She is not!" Haley protested, upset that Brooke would even suggest that she was. Haley refused to believe that Nicki was going to be anything but a current annoyance.
"Well, she is Lacy's sister," she pointed out, feeling bad that she was ruining Haley's already crappy night. The last thing she wanted to be doing is making a case as to why they should be considering Nicki their 'friend'. "Not to mention she's Jenny's mom, Jake's 'wife' and Nathan's…"
"Girlfriend," Haley finished for her, the bitterness clearly heard in her voice. "I know, thanks." She was not jealous; she would not let herself be.
"I was going to say whore, she's Nathan's whore," Brooke informed her, smiling slightly at Haley's behavior. She so wanted Nathan, and as much as Brooke hated that her friend wasn't over that ass, she thought it was kind of cute, in a masochistic kind of way. "But you're word works too."
"Whatever," she mumbled, silently cursing herself for getting caught. Fine, she was jealous. Are you happy now, Brooke? She let her arm loose and flopped back down on the bed with a sigh.
"I thought you didn't want him anymore." Brooke couldn't help herself. Maybe it has been wishful thinking on her part that had made her misunderstand her best friend's actions, but she was pretty sure that Haley made her feelings for Nathan perfectly clear when she turned down his offer to get back together.
"I'll always want him, Tigger," Haley admitted without a second thought. Brooke frowned at the slight longing in Haley's voice. This was not a good thing. "I just can't have him."
"Are you kidding?" Brooke asked. "That boy would give his left nut to get back together with you." Haley laughed slightly at her words and shook her head.
"I can't bring myself to be with him again, is what I mean," Haley corrected herself. Why were they having this conversation again? Haley sighed and turned on her side so she was facing Brooke, who mirrored her actions. "I get that he made a mistake, we all make mistakes, and I've even forgiven him for it."
"But you can't trust him, I get that," Brooke nodded, completely understanding where Haley was coming from. She would feel the exact same as Haley does if she was in her situation, but she probably wouldn't have been able to forgive him, she just wasn't as big a person as Haley was. "But, I mean, you want to start dating eventually, right?" Haley shrugged. "You can't stay single forever, Hales, especially with such a hot ass."
"I don't know," Haley answered honestly. She hadn't even thought of that. She was really having a hard time thinking of what it would be like to date someone that wasn't Nathan now. That would just be too weird. "I guess I'll deal with that when someone asks me."
"So," Brooke began, a devilish smile coming to her face, on that Haley recognized immediately. "You're saying that if a guy, let's just say Skills for the sake of argument, asked you out, you wouldn't say yes?"
"Skills has nothing to do with this." Brooke and Peyton had been bugging her since Monday to give them the dirt on her relationship with Skills, but she refused to tell them anything. Pretty soon Brooke was going to have to resort to asking Lucas about it, and she was willing to do just that, she was so curious.
"You just keep telling yourself that, baby," Brooke teased. She had always noticed the interaction, dare she say flirting, between the two best friends, but she had never thought anything of it when Haley was dating Nathan. Now that they were both single and she knew of their past relationship, she was seeing it in a whole new light.
"Shut up, Brooke."
"My point is," Brooke got back to her topic, sensing that Haley wasn't receiving the teasing very well. "If you want to move on, you're gonna have to start dating, and as much as it may kill you and make me gag, you're also gonna have to start embracing the new girlfriend."
"I don't got a problem with a new girlfriend," Haley defended. Brooke looked doubtfully at her. "Seriously, bring her on. It's the fact that it's Nicki that makes me sick. I mean, is it even possible to be that skanky?"
"Yes," Brooke answered automatically. "Trust me, I would know." Haley rolled her eyes and looked at Brooke sternly.
"You're not skanky."
"I used to be," she corrected. Though, there was a part of her that thought she still must be, if Lucas didn't want her anymore. She shook her head, chasing that thought away. This wasn't about her; it was about Haley. "It's okay, though, I have embraced my skanky past."
"Well I don't know if I can embrace the skanky of the future."
"And I can respect that," Brooke agreed. Haley smiled at her in thanks, glad that she wasn't going to push her into not hating Nicki. Brooke hated seeing her best friend like this. As much as she tried to play it off like she didn't hurt, Brooke knew her better than that. "It'll get easier, Hales, I promise. Soon, when you look at him, or even think of him, you won't want to kill yourself. You'll be okay."
"I know I will," Haley whispered, closing her eyes tight, forcing the tears to stay where they were. She was not going to cry, especially since Nathan was going to be there any minute. She opened them to meet the concerned eyes of Brooke and smiled helplessly at her. "Thanks, though."
"Hey," Nathan interrupted from the door before Brooke had a chance to respond to her friend. The two girls quickly began to sit up on the bed. "Sorry I'm late. Matt didn't show up on time so Gary needed me to stay until he got there. I didn't have my phone with me."
"Whatever," Brooke dismissed him, being careful not to use her favorite new nickname for Haley's sake. "Let's just get this started shall we?"
"Hey, Nate," Haley greeted him softly, trying her best to look at his face, but avoid his eyes. She would never be able to hold herself together if she caught sight of his gorgeous blue eyes. They got her every single time.
"Hey, Haley," he greeted back, carefully not to look at Brooke. He could practically feel her hatred in the room. As much as of a pain in the ass her and Peyton's hatred could be, he had to admit that he was kind of glad that Haley had them looking out for her.
"We should probably move downstairs to work on this," Haley suggested, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the room. She noticed Brooke's death glare and she could clearly see that Nathan was quickly becoming uncomfortable with it.
"Okay," both Nathan and Brooke agreed at the same time. They looked at each other, equally upset that they actually agreed on something and started moving. Nathan left Haley's room without another word, already making his way to the living room.
"I want you to play nice," Haley warned her friend as they got off the bed and started to gather the things that they would need to work on the project. Brooke grabbed her bag and stood up straight, sending Haley an innocent smile.
"When am I not nice?" Haley clenched her jaw, eyeing Brooke, letting her know that she was being serious. The last thing that she needed was to be caught in the middle of a screaming match between Nathan and Brooke.
"Brooke."
"I'll be on my best behavior," Brooke promised herself, holding up her right hand in a sign of honor. "Girl Scout's Honor."
"You got kicked out of Girl Scouts for making out with the Den Mother's sixteen year old son."
"He was hot," Brooke answered with a shrug and moved towards the door and out of the room with Haley right behind her.
"You were thirteen." They burst out laughing at the story and Haley continued to tease her until they reached the living room to find Nathan seated comfortably in the leather reclining chair, looking quite at home. The girls calmed down and plopped themselves down on the couch. Once they were seated, Nathan decided that they should start talking about the reason they were there.
"So, which one of you did what?" he asked. Haley and Brooke looked at him like he was stupid. He looked confused for a moment until he remembered who he was talking to. "Right, of course. Brooke how was the movie?"
"I haven't watched it yet," she admitted, knowing that they were going to be angry with her. She had promised them that she was going to rent it and watch it before they got together so they could start figuring out the differences between the movie and the book.
"Brooke," Haley whined, not knowing why she was even surprised. She should have known. She loved Brooke to death, but she just wasn't the reliable type, at least not when it came to schoolwork, anyway.
"I'm sorry," she told her. "But I've been really busy getting ready for cheerleading tryouts and everything."
"That's not an excuse," Haley told her.
"Come on, Hales," Nathan cut in, not believing that he was actually doing this. "I think you should cut her some slack. I've seen how busy she's been all week in the gym with Peyton getting everything ready." Brooke and Haley both looked at him strangely, surprised that he was helping Brooke out.
"Thanks," Brooke threw at him quickly, not wanting him to think that she didn't hate him now. He needed to do a lot more than that to get back into her good graces. She turned back to Haley. "When's this whole thing due again?"
"Presentations start on Monday," Haley told her. "Alphabetical order, so depending on how long they are, we'll probably be going on the first day, Davis."
"Looks like we'll be busy this weekend then, huh?" Brooke tried to lighten the mood. She could tell by the look on Haley's face that she was not amused. "I should probably go get the movie so we can watch it tonight, shouldn't I?"
"I think that's a good idea." Brooke nodded, quickly scrambling to get off the couch and over to the door. She slipped on the closest shoes; not even checking to see if they were her's and jetted out the door, leaving Nathan and Haley alone.
"Looks like it's just us for a bit, then," Nathan pointed out. Haley jumped slightly at his voice, having actually forgotten that he was still there. She quickly whipped her head around to look at him. He had a slight smirk on his face.
She really should have thought this one through.
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That's all. I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought. Peace.
