Hey, everyone. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, please keep them coming. :) Here's chapter 8, hope you enjoy.

Chapter 8

"How about 'Save the Last Dance'?"

"Do I look gay?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"Please don't. What about 'Lord of War'?"

"I don't like Cage. 'Just Like Heaven'?"

"A chick flick? Think again." Nathan said.

It was finally Sunday night. The previous night they had started to watch 'the Godfather' and had fallen asleep on the couch. At 9 am Sunday morning they woke with his arm around her shoulder and her head leaning against his shoulder. Surprisingly, they both acted normally around each other. None of that weird, uncomfortable vibe they had had the day after the lap dance incident.

For the most of Sunday Haley and Nathan had just hung out watching MTV reruns of the Real World. After 8 episodes and agreeing that Svetlana was a spoiled little brat, they decided to rent a movie. And that's where they were now, in a video rental store trying to come to an understanding. Of course, they could've just rented two movies but they both enjoyed their bickering way too much to suggest that.

"How about the new Harry Potter?" Haley asked.

"I haven't seen the previous ones."

"What? You haven't seen any Harry Potter movies?"

"Nope."

"But you've read the books?"

"Nope."

"That's it. We're renting all four Potter movies."

"Think again, James." Nathan said.

"I can't believe you haven't seen any Potter movies, Scott."

"Well I can't believe you hadn't seen any of the Godfather movies."

"I have now."

"Whatever. What about 'History of Violence'?"

"No!" she said frustrated.

"Argh, we're never gonna find one both will like." Nathan said annoyed.

"I just want some romance in it. Some love." She whined.

"And I just want some basketball." He said. Nathan's eyes stopped and he picked up a movie from the shelf. "Love and Basketball?" Nathan asked holding the cover of the movie with a smirk.

"Where did you find that?" she asked not believing their luck.

"It was right there." He said excited. "We're renting this, right?"

"Hell yeah!"

"That was a crappy movie."

"No, it wasn't. It was a cute movie."

"Not nearly enough basketball." He complained.

"Get over it." she said smirking and got up from the couch. She took the empty pop corn bowl and washed it quickly. She then took her books out and set them on the kitchen counter.

"You're doing your homework?"

"I'm a geek, remember." She said smirking. Nathan looked at her for few seconds.

"Oh what the hell." He said and took his books out too and sat opposite from Haley. "Might as well shock the teachers." Haley looked at him with a smile for a second before going back to math calculations.

They worked in silence for few minutes. Nathan's annoyed grunts broke Haley out of her concentration.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing." He said without taking his eyes out of the book. Haley shrugged her shoulders and went back to her homework.

Few minutes later Nathan groaned again and was about to throw the book across the room but Haley set her hand on top of his to stop him. The feel of his hand under her small one, made her forget everything she was about to say.

She stared at him her mouth open a bit without saying a word. Her mind was having a battle inside her head. God Haley, snap out of it! Say something and stop holding his hand! He thinks you're an idiot. See, he's already staring at you like you're crazy. God Haley!

Sure, Nathan was staring at her but not because he thought she was crazy. Quite the opposite, actually.

Nathan stared at Haley without saying anything. He was beyond shocked that any girl could cause him that kind of feeling. That tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach that he had only read about. God, could you be more of a pussy? Get a grip, Scott! She's just touching your hand. It's not like it's traveling down your chest slowly until it reaches the hem of your boxers. And it's not like it's still going lower, inside the boxers until it's starting to stroke your- Oh god, snap out of it, loser!

Almost at the same time they snapped out of their thoughts and fantasies. Haley quickly drew her hand back like it had burned. Nathan set the book quickly down and coughed uncomfortably. Neither of them had no idea why they were acting like that. Just last Thursday she had given him a lap dance and now a simple touch was driving them crazy and over the edge.

"What's wrong?" Haley finally got the words out of her mouth. Nathan had to use all of his concentration on trying to understand why she asked that. He then remembered his annoyance with his homework and quickly became irritated again.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing. Just been reminded yet again that basketball is my only option in getting a decent future." Nathan said and shut the book annoyed.

"Let me see that." Haley said pointing at the paper where Nathan had tried to do his math calculations. He gave the paper to her a bit embarrassed. He was sure she was going to laugh when she noticed all of his mistakes. Haley examined it for few seconds and then looked at him.

"You forgot to divide this part." She said quietly and gave the paper back to him. Nathan looked at the paper, then opened his book and looked at it before turning back to look at her.

He took his pencil and made the corrections and then turned to look at Haley.

"Did you get 42?" he asked quietly. Haley flipped few pages back and checked her answer.

"Yeah, I did." She said smiling. Nathan smiled to himself and started to work on the next exercise.

"What did you get for number 7?"

"85,3."

"Really? Me too! I'm smart!" Nathan said and cheered.

"Sorry to break this to you, but that's pretty basic stuff. We still have a long way ahead if we want you to get a better grade."

"We?" Nathan asked smirking.

"Well, since I'm living here for another week and I am a tutor, I might as well tutor you." She said.

"I'd like that." He said and looked at Haley. They stared at each other for few seconds not saying anything. Haley blinked before she started to get the same thoughts of him in her head. She looked at the clock on the wall.

"Oh, look at the time. We should get to bed if we want to get up early." She said.

"You can have the bed. I'll sleep on the couch." Nathan said. First Haley looked happy and excited but then her smiled faded and it turned into a scowl.

"No thanks, the couch is fine." She said coldly.

"What?" he asked confused.

"The couch is fine." She said not looking at him.

"Sorry for trying to help." Nathan said holding his hands up in defence.

Nathan walked into his room still confused why she didn't want to sleep there. It's not like she hasn't slept here before, he thought remembering her sleeping there the night after the party. He took his shirt and sweats off and went to lie on his bed wearing only boxers.

She was mixing her drink in the kitchen of the dirty frat house. Rum and coke. The loud noise from the speakers in the living room blocked any other sound. She turned around to put the rum bottle away. She then turned back and took a sip from the drink ignoring the fact that the blonde guy she had just greeted was standing abnormally close to her drink.

She took another sip and quickly became dizzy. Suddenly she was being escorted to the basement by the same blonde guy.

Soon she was lying on the couch trying to get away but her body wasn't responding to her efforts. Her whole body felt like it weighed thousand pounds and her thoughts were incoherent. All she knew was that she needed to get away, fast.

At 3 am, Nathan woke up when he heard muffled sounds coming from the living room. He opened his eyes and tried to listen what the noises were but they were too faint and distant. He got up and walked slowly towards his door.

Soon he realized the noises were coming from the living room, from the couch. He walked towards her and sighed when he saw that she was having a nightmare.

She was fidgeting and mumbling something under her breath. Even though it was almost pitch black he could tell that she had a painful look on her face. He kneeled down in front of her, took a hold of her shoulders and started to shake her lightly.

"Hey, wake up." He whispered but Haley didn't respond. She was still turning in her sleep.

"No, no, don't." She mumbled under her breath while twisting and turning. Nathan shook her a bit harder.

"Wake up, it's just a nightmare." Haley started to turn in her sleep even more and her mumblings got loader.

Suddenly she opened her eyes, sat up quickly and started to scream and hit him as hard as she could.

"No, don't! Stop! Get off me!" Nathan took a hold of her wrists forcing her to look at him.

"Hey, it's me. Calm down, it's just a dream." He said. "It's Nathan, calm down. You're safe." He said over and over until she started to calm down.

"Nate?" she asked her body still shaking from the dream. Her eyes were big and scared. She had sweat drops on her forehead and tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, it's me. You were having a nightmare." As soon as she realized it was Nathan in front of her instead him, she flung herself towards him and hugged him fiercely while trying to muffle her sobs. He instantly wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to calm her down.

"It's ok. It was just nightmare, Hales." He whispered when she was still shaking few minutes later.

"A nightmare." She said finally understanding that she wasn't sleeping anymore and that she was safe. She slowly unwrapped her hands that were tightly around his neck. She leaned back on her pillow and stretched her legs to their full length on the couch, which wasn't much, as Nathan noticed smiling a bit.

"You ok?" he asked turning to look at her concerned.

"Yeah." She whispered.

"Was the nightmare about...?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah." She said. Nathan sighed and stood up. Haley looked at him confused, even worried that he was leaving. But he wasn't planning on leaving. He lifted her short legs, sat down on the couch and placed the legs on his lap.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked softly drawing soothing circles on her legs without even realizing that he was doing it. Haley looked at him and shook her head in denial while trying to swallow back her tears that were dangerously close to falling down her cheeks. Brooke and Peyton were right, Haley thought, she was nowhere near being ok with what happened to her.

"Want me to call Luke?" he asked. Haley shook her head in denial without saying anything.

"He would like to be here for you." Nathan said. He knew that Lucas would do anything for her.

"I know." She said quietly. "I just don't want to worry him." She said and then suddenly thought of something.

"What is it?" he asked when he noticed the change in her.

"It's just that... The nightmare made me remember a bit more about... that night." She said.

"What do you remember? Do you remember who he was?" he asked in a tight voice. He had sworn the moment he saw her lying on that couch to find the guy who did that and break his neck.

"The whole thing is kind of a blur. I remember the kitchen, the basement..." She said trying to go back to her dream.

"You remember what he looked like?" Nathan asked hopefully.

"His face was blurred but I think he had blonde hair. I think he had a tattoo or something on his chest... At least in my dream he has. The whole thing felt really odd and off and I can't quite place why. I don't know, it was all very blurry... I guess my subconscious is trying to block it out." She said.

"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll get the bastard." He said.

"Thanks..." she said smiling weakly. "And I'm so sorry for waking you up. I know you have a big game tomorrow, well actually today, and you must need all the sleep you can get." She said feeling guilty.

"Hey, don't worry about that. That's the least of my worries." He said looking at her intently.

"You're playing against Verona, right?" she asked wanting to change the subject.

"Yeah, they're pretty good so it's gonna be a tough game." He said rubbing his neck.

"You're gonna be great, don't worry." She said with a smile.

"Thanks." He said sincerely. There was a short silence which Nathan spent studying her face while she was looking down at her hands.

He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed how beautiful she looked with her hair up in a messy bun, wearing those cute pyjama pants and that top. Although when he looked at the tight baby blue top on her, 'cute' was not the word that came to his head first.

Nathan snapped back to reality when Haley turned to look at him with a cocky smirk. She had totally caught him checking her out.

"Were you just looking at my boobs?" she asked.

"What? No! Of course not! Not that there's anything wrong with them." he added quickly with a smirk. "Miss Black Lace." He said under his breath knowing that she could hear him.

"Shut up." She said but couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips. Nathan mentally patted himself in the back for getting her to smile.

"You know, you may not be as awful as I thought you were." Haley said suddenly while playing with the hem of her shirt. Nathan let out a smug grin.

"Oh, is that so?"

"I said maybe." She said laughing.

"Well, I'm glad you think so. And you may not be as big of a bitch as I thought you were." He said with a smile.

"Thank you." She said still smiling.

Nathan stared at her smiling face for a second.

"I know that you've got Luke and Brooke and Peyton... But I'm here for you too, just so you know." He said seriously. Haley smiled at him and reached to give his hand a small squeeze.

"I know." She said. "Thank you for that." She said letting her hand stay on his.

There is it again, Nathan thought. Don't get all girly now. Stay focused. Ask something! Say something! Fart if nothing else!... Ok, don't fart. Just open your mouth, you girl.

"So, I've been thinking." Nathan started.

"Oh uh." Haley said laughing.

"Funny." He said smirking but then his smile faded a bit. "I know why you didn't want to sleep in my bed." Haley immediately looked down with a serious face.

"Oh, yeah?"

"You think I feel sorry for you, that I pity you. You think that's why I offered the bed." He said.

"Well, isn't that true?" she asked quietly.

"No, I mean yes, I feel bad and yes, I would change what happened if I could. But no, that's not the reason."

"What is then?" she asked almost scared to hear the answer.

"This past week with you has been..." Nathan searched for a right word.

"Hell? Insane? An absolute pain in the behind?" Haley offered with a smile.

"Different." Nathan said with a smile. "Ever since I moved out of San Quentin, I-"

"From where?"

"My dad's house."

"Oh, ok."

"Anyways, ever since I finally got to move out, I never expected to actually enjoy living with someone. Especially someone who manages to drive me nuts faster than anyone else." He said with a smile.

"What can I say? I have a talent." She said breathing warm air on her nails and then rubbing them against her collar bone as if being proud.

"Yes, you do." He said laughing at the expression. "But you've gotta know that I've totally changed my mind about you during this week."

"You're just saying that 'cause you don't wanna be mean 'cause Lucas would kick your ass if you were."

"No, that's not the reason. Besides, he could never kick my ass." He said with a smirk but then got serious. "You remember me being nicer even before the party, right?"

"How were you nicer?" she asked intrigued.

"I gave you the night off, remember." He said and then grinned. "And I commented on your boobs." Haley looked at the floor blushing when she remembered the bra incident.Hal

"Yeah, thanks." She mumbled trying to hide her blush.

"Hey, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. Breasts are a very beautiful thing and every woman should be proud of them." He said with a serious face patting her on the shoulder. He got a big smirk when he saw her blush even more.

"Oh, don't be embarrassed, Haley. You have awesome boobs and-"

"Let's not talk about my boobs anymore, ok?" she said cutting him off with an embarrassed voice.

"Yeah, sure. No talking. I'll much rather watch them anyways." He said with a grin and raised his hands in front of his face to defend himself from the attacks coming from her way.

"Pig." She said after getting a few good hits his way. She smiled a little though. "Thanks for being nice."

"No problem. It would be kinda heartless to not be nice to you now." He said and watched in confusion as Haley's smile fell again. Damn that girl has mood swings, Nathan thought.

"You don't have to be nice just because you feel that you have to. I don't want people to see me as some poor little girl." She said leaning further away from him.

"What are you talking about? I don't feel forced." He said defending himself. "I'm just trying to help."

"I don't need that!" Haley said frustrated. She could feel the tears starting to well up again.

She loved that Nathan was being nice and she wanted nothing more than for that to stay that way but she couldn't help but fear that as soon as things went back to normal, he would go back to being an ass. And it was something she wouldn't be able to handle so she didn't want him to be nice at all, if he wouldn't always be.

"What do you need then? You've been bitching and moaning for months how mean I am and now when I'm trying to make an effort, you say you don't need that. So, what do you need, James?" he asked frustrated and Haley responded with an equally emotional voice. The tears were now very close.

It was amazing to both of them how quickly they were able to go from being nice and sweet to hurt and upset.

"What do I want? I want things to go back to the way they were! I need to forget about everything and I can't if everyone keeps acting different around me! I need to go back to normal!" she said with tears in her eyes.

"You can't just try to convince yourself that nothing happened." Nathan said finally understanding her motives. "It doesn't work that way."

"Well, how does it work then?" she asked swallowing the lump from her throat.

"You need to deal with the pain and everything. It won't just go away." He said softly.

"I just-" she started with an even shakier voice. "I just feel like if I let myself do that, I'm gonna completely break down." She whispered the last words.

"Well, that's what your friends are for. To help you get through that. You're not supposed to do it alone." He said. Haley listened to him carefully and quickly wiped her eyes.

"I just don't know if I'm strong enough." She whispered and this time didn't wipe the tear that fell down her cheek.

Nathan felt his heart drop when he saw the tear. He wanted nothing more than to hold her and not let go. He couldn't understand how anyone could've done what they did to her.

"Hey, come here." He said quietly and took a hold of her hips. He carefully pulled her closer so she was sitting on his lap. Haley wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head on the crook of his neck while trying her best not to fall completely apart but couldn't help the small sobs that escaped her throat every now and then. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, stroking her hair silently, mumbling soothing words.

Haley woke up the next morning to find herself lying fully on top of Nathan. She was lying on top of his chest, her head resting on his shoulder so close to his head that her lips were almost touching his cheek while enjoying the fact that Nathan's arms were still around her waist.

She opened her eyes and for few seconds just took in the wonderful, new feeling. The feeling of being safe and peaceful. She snuggled her nose on his neck inhaling his scent. The action made Nathan mumble something in his sleep and tighten his hold around her waist.

After few blissful minutes Haley leaned back a bit to look at Nathan's face. The movement made him mumble something again and slowly open his eyes. He stared at the brown pair of eyes in front of him.

"Hey." She said with a small smile.

"Hey." He said still keeping his hands wrapped around her.

Suddenly Haley's happy, peaceful look changed into a panicked one.

"Oh my god! What time is it!" she yelled and stood up quickly. Haley looked at the clock on the VCR and shrieked.

"7.55! School starts in 15 minutes!" she yelled in shock. "We overslepped!" she yelled not really understanding the sentence. Haley James never overslepped. It was like a cosmic law, it just didn't happen.

"Shit!" he yelled while getting up.

"I need to take a shower, eat, make our lunches, go through my homework, coffee. Oh my god, I need my coffee!" Haley said panicking while looking around not knowing where to start. "I need something to wear and where the hell are my books-"

"Hey, James!" Nathan said taking a hold of her shoulders. "Calm down." She stopped running and looked at him. "Forget about the lunch, we'll buy some. There's no time for a shower or a coffee so forget about those too. And what comes to checking your homework, don't bother. They're always correct. So just change your clothes and get your books!" he said sternly.

"We're never gonna make it on time! It takes like 15 minutes to drive to school." Haley said.

"I can speed." He said. Haley's face changed from panicked to stern.

"You're right, Scott. We're not gonna be late. Haley James has never been late in her life and she's not gonna start today. So get your shit together, we're leaving in 60 seconds. We're so not gonna be late." She said and started to get her books.

"Roger that, ma'am." He said saluting her with a laugh and started to run around the room to get his stuff. Haley turned around and grabbed her clothes. First pair of jeans, a shirt and a bra... She gathered them in her arms and headed towards the bathroom to change but noticed that it was occupied by Nathan.

"No time." She mumbled and turned around so her back was towards the bathroom and quickly stripped down to her underwear. Right after buttoning her jeans, Nathan came out of the bathroom.

"Ok, I'm rea-" he almost choked when he saw her naked back. She quickly put her bra on, twisted her hands on her back and clasped it.

"Ok, good. I'm almost done." She said and turned around to look at him. Nathan gulped when he saw that she was wearing the hot, black bra.

And suddenly his head was filled with a new fantasy. For the past few days it had been Haley straddling him and giving him a lap dance. Now the fantasy was slightly adjusted. A shirtless Haley giving him a lap dance

"What are you-" she started but then looked down and realized what he was looking at. Haley sighed annoyed and snapped her fingers a few times to get Nathan's attention. He blinked and looked at her with an embarrassed face.

"Hey, eyes up here buddy." She said annoyed and pointed her index and middle finger between her and Nathan's eyes.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Nathan mumbled while coughing embarrassedly.

"You got your basketball stuff? You have the game at 5, right?" she asked while quickly putting a shirt on.

"Yeah." He said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Vamos!"

"Faster, Scott!"

"Hey! I have my basketball stuff, my school bag and your school bag which reminds me that you should tell your geography teacher-"

"I don't take geography."

"-tell your geography teacher that it's really not fair that you have to carry ROCKS TO SCHOOL! I mean, Jesus Christ how many books do you have!"

"Stop bitching, Linda. We only have a minute left." She said with a smile.

"Hey, I thought you had forgotten about the whole calling me girls' names." He pouted.

"Oh, get over it, Scott."

"Much better." He said with a smile that made Haley roll her eyes laughing.

She quickly opened the front door of the school and held it open for him. They ran the empty hallways as fast as they could towards their math class. They jumped inside the room right when the bell stopped ringing.

"Yeah!" they yelled at the same time between catching their breaths. The teacher turned to look at them annoyed.

"Mr. Scott, Ms. James." They high fived each other while leaning their palms on their knees to catch their breaths when Brooke and the rest of the class stared at them with an interest.

"Please take your seats."

Nathan grabbed their bags and they both headed towards the two empty seats that were in the back of the class. Nathan took the one close to the wall so Haley could sit between him and Brooke.

"Told you we wouldn't be late." Haley whispered to Nathan who just smirked back. Brooke looked at the two with a wide grin until Haley saw her.

"Why are you smiling?" Haley asked.

"No reason." She said innocently.

"Okay..." Haley said. "God, I didn't have my morning coffee. This is the second Monday in a row." She paused and then turned to look at Brooke with a grin. "Hey, speaking of Mondays..."

"Oh yeah, you ready?" Brooke asked.

"Always."

"It's actually related to the topic."

"Nathan?"

"Actually, I meant the coffee but since you're already thinking about him, you can apply it to him too." She said with a wink.

"Just spit it out." Haley said but couldn't hide the blush.

"Ok, here we go: Men are like coffee. The best ones are hot, rich and can keep you up all night long."

"So true." Haley mumbled glancing at Nathan quickly. "So true, indeed."

So, that was chapter 8. Any thoughts?