Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for all the awesome reviews, you guys rock! Anyways, here's chapter 10. Hope you enjoy. :)

Chapter 10

"... and then Lucas said that he's never felt like this towards anyone else and he gave me this bracelet." Brooke said showing Haley her wrist.

"How does it look?"

"Looks great." Haley said not looking up from her notebook where she had been drawing circles all hour. She was leaning on her hand looking uninterested.

"You're not even looking." Brooke complained. Haley glanced at the bracelet and then back again at the notebook.

"Looks great." Haley repeated. Brooke gave an annoyed sigh and shut Haley's notebook.

"Ok, I want none of that broodiness. Apparently that's Nathan's job." Brooke said looking over Haley's shoulder at Nathan who was sitting on the other side of the room. "What the hell is the matter with you two?"

"What are you talking about?" Haley asked sneaking a glance at Nathan's direction. He was sitting low on his chair with his hands crossed over his chest looking bored.

"I'm talking about you and Nathan and how for the past few days you've been all buddy buddy and now you won't even look at each other."

"You're imagining things, Brooke." Haley muttered looking at her notebook.

Haley didn't want to talk about Nathan and most of all she didn't want Brooke talking about him. Because every time she heard his name, all she could hear was his voice in her head. 'Thanks for being such a good friend.'

The thought of him being nothing more than a friend was killing her but not even half as much as the thought that Nathan was okay with that.

"No, I'm not imagining anything and stop acting like I'm not even here." Brooke snapped. She was getting sick of Haley ignoring her. "Look, Haley." Brooke started with a softer voice. "Something obviously happened between you two and whatever it was, it doesn't look good."

"Brooke-"

"But you can fix it and I want to help you."

"Stop it, Brooke. Now you listen to me good 'cause I'm only gonna say this once." Haley started with an uncharacteristically rude voice. "Nothing happened between Nathan and I. Absolutely nothing. We're friends and that's the way it's gonna be. Now, drop this and don't mention his name again. Capiché?"

"Capiché! Jesus..." Brooke said with a small smile.

"Good." Haley said and then continued with a softer voice. "Now, tell me more about your 1-year anniversary with Lucas. Was the sex as good as you had planned?" She asked with a wink. Anything to get her mind off of Nathan.

"Oh, totally. You remember the eatable panties that I bought?"

"Yeah?"

"So worth the money."

"Good." Haley said and started to draw circles on her notebook again.

"Oh, you're no fun. I'm gonna go talk to Nathan." Brooke said and moved her desk next to Nathan's.

"What's up, buddy?" Brooke whispered to Nathan.

"Nothing." He grunted.

"Ok, I see you two both have the same grumpiness-disease." Brooke said sarcastically and was about to move her desk back next to Haley's because Nathan was obviously not in a talking mood, but Nathan grabbed her hand before she had time to move.

"Wait, I actually had to ask you about something."

"No, I don't know what Lucas is doing today." Brooke answered thinking that was what he was gonna ask.

"No, its actually got nothing to do with him."

Brooke immediately looked at him interested. It wasn't every day that Nathan wanted something from her that didn't involve Lucas.

"What's up?"

"I need you to tell me everything about last Friday." Nathan whispered so the teacher wouldn't hear.

"About the party?" Brooke asked.

"Yeah. Everything after the three of you split up."

"Well, I went to talk to Bevin while Peyton went to bathroom and Haley went to get a refill from the kitchen. After talking to Bevin I went to the bathroom and came out. I found Peyton who didn't know where Haley was. We saw Bevin who said that she had seen Haley and she had looked drunk. That's when we knew something was up cause we knew she wasn't that drunk. We tried to look for her and accidentally heard these frat guys talking about how some blonde guy had taken a girl to the basement and locked the door. We got one of the guys to open the door and we ran downstairs. She was... she was... she was lying on the couch passed out." Brooke ended.

"Then what happened?"

"Well, Peyton called you guys and I called the poison information center and then you guys showed up."

"Anything else?"

"No. Well we found his shirt and found the roofies from the pocket."

"Was there anything else in the pocket?"

"Umh, I think some money and a receipt or something."

"A receipt? To what?"

"I can't remember."

"Well, do you still have it?"

"No, flushed down the pills and threw the rest of the stuff in your trash can. Have you taken the trash out yet?"

"No. So it's still there?"

"Yeah, why are you asking all these questions?"

"No reason, just trying to figure out exactly what happened that night."

"Ok..." Brooke said. "Anything else?"

"Nope." Nathan said and turned to look at the teacher to let Brooke know that the conversation was over. Brooke nodded her head and moved her desk back to where Haley was.

"Hey buddy!" Lucas yelled in Haley's ear while sitting down next to her in the bleachers. She was waiting for Nathan to get done with the practise.

"Hey, Luke. How was practise?" Haley asked smiling. She had missed hanging out Lucas.

"Pretty easy since we have a game tomorrow. How was tutoring?"

"It was ok. The dumbass is not so dumbass-y anymore."

"Good, who was the kid? I always forget who your tutees are."

"Today, like all the other Tuesdays along with Mondays and Fridays, I have Gregory Smith a.k.a. the most annoying jock in this state. The only thing he talks about is all the freshmen he's hooked up with and how stupid I am for not 'sexing it up' with him."

"He's really that bad?" Lucas asked immediately protectively.

"Even though I have told him every time that 'I have lost my number, can I get yours' –line, really doesn't work. Jason, another tutor, was supposed to switch his 'Sweaty Fisherman' for Gregory but backed out. Asshole…" Haley muttered.

"Do you want me to have a talk with Smith?" he asked seriously.

"No, he's been actually acting different lately. Hasn't made any annoying remarks. He's finally concentrating on the learning part."

"Good, so what about Wednesdays and Thursdays?"

"On Wednesdays I have Jorge Lopez."

"Who?"

"You remember the latino guy, Juan, who tried to rob that liqueur store and got that black girl pregnant?"

"Oh, yeah."

"It's his little brother. I swear to god Jorge's even worse than his brother and he's only a freshman. He's pretty much failing every class."

"Well, not when you're done with her." Lucas said reassuringly.

"Yeah, hope so. And finally, on Thursdays I have Justin Hoffman."

"Who's he?"

"A 300-pound-offensive guard. Plays on the varsity and the only thing he can count is the number or concussions he can afford to have." Haley said laughing.

"Yeah, I think I've read about him in the papers." Lucas said.

"Read about who?" Brooke asked walking towards them.

"Haley's tutee. Hey, babe. How has your day been?" Lucas asked before giving Brooke a long kiss.

"Wow, so much better now." She said stroking his face.

"Oh god, get a room." Haley said rolling her eyes. Brooke quickly stood up holding Lucas' hand.

"Tutor Girl's right. We need a room. Let's go." She said starting to pull him up.

"Umh, talk to later, Hales."

"Bye, Luke." Haley yelled after him laughing. She then turned back to her homework but didn't get much done because of being interrupted.

"Tutor girl." Haley looked up to see Tim running up the stairs. He sat down next to her.

"Whaddap, Smith." She asked and bumped fists with him when she realized what she was doing nowadays. Calling people by their last name, using the word 'dude' more than she should and bumping fists with jocks... Oh yeah, she was definitely one of the guys. With a smile she turned back to her homework.

"Whatcha do-oing?" Tim sing-songed. Haley looked at her calculus book and her calculator with a smile.

"Umh, homework?" she said raising her eye brow with an amused smile.

"Oh, yeah, that." He said realizing. "So, can you please just apologize to Nathan?" He asked. Haley looked at him confused.

"What?"

"Well, he's been in a pissy mood the whole day and it's starting to affect his game."

"Maybe you should take this conversation to him. I haven't done anything." She muttered.

"Sorry."

"And what makes you think he would be in a pissy mood because of me?"

"You kidding? You're the only one who has that affect on him. Even his dad who's the biggest asshole and the worst father in the state, doesn't have any effect on his game anymore."

"Great. So I'm worse than Dan. Perfect." Haley said annoyed.

"No. The exact opposite actually." Tim started. "You're the only one he cares enough about to let affect his game." He said. Haley looked at him with her mouth open.

"Well, I'm sure he cares more about Lucas. I mean, Nathan and I are just friends." Haley said quickly.

"You were never just friends." He said with a smile and stood up. Haley smiled at him fondly.

"You know, Tim. Don't let people treat you like you're stupid. You're smarter than most of us."

"Thanks but I don't think the world is ready for a smart Tim yet." He said and winked when Haley laughed out loud.

"Look, Haley." Tim started with a soft voice. "I don't know what's going on with you and Nathan but I hope you two can work it out. We're all rooting for you two." he said with a smile and patted her on the shoulder before leaving towards the locker room. Haley smiled after him before getting back to her homework.

Nathan was glaring at Tim furiously. He had just gotten out of the locker room when he had seen Haley in the other side of the gym sitting with Tim. Then to add more fuel to the fire, Tim had put his hand on her shoulder and said something. And then she had smiled. And to make matters worse, she had laughed. She had laughed with him, not at him.

That son-of-a-bitch pretend-to-be-your best friend motherfucker who will fuck your girl as soon as you turn your back. Asshole!

Tim opened the locker room door and walked in. Nathan, who had gone back inside to wait for him, grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him roughly against the wall.

"What the fuck was that?" Nathan asked angrily.

"Dude, I'm sorry I didn't give my 100 at practise but the game's tomor-"

"I'm talking about Haley." He cut him off impatiently. Tim tried his best to hide the smirk that was forming on his lips. He lightly pushed Nathan away from him and started to walk towards his locker which was somewhere in the room.

"Where the hell is my locker?" Tim mumbled while looking around for his locker.

Ever since the previous fall when the school board, led by Dan Scott, had decided that the boys' locker room needed to be bigger and the reconstruction had started, the whole place had been a mess. The left corner of the room had some benches were the team usually sat at half time. The rest of the room was now filled with rows of lockers and single lockers scattered in every direction making the whole place seem like a maze. Thank god all the lockers had numbers because it was impossible to find your own any other way.

Tim looked around trying to remember where his locker was. He then spotted his locker 85 between 24 and 112 by the showers.

"So, what were you and Haley doing?" Nathan asked following him through the maze of lockers.

"We were just talking." Tim said with a smile. Seeing Nathan so worked up over a girl was priceless. Tim smirked while opening his locker.

"About what? Do you like her? Did you ask her out? What did she say?" Nathan asked going from angry to worried in less than two seconds.

"We have a date tonight." He said taunting him.

"What!" Nathan asked his eyes narrowing in anger. His fingers curled in a ball and he was more than ready to beat his ass.

"Yeah, the classic dinner and a movie. She wanted to pick out a crappy movie though so there wouldn't be many people in the theatre, if you know what I mean." He added with a wink. He knew he was playing with fire but he couldn't help but tease him a bit.

"Tim, you have exactly 3 seconds to get out of here before I break your arm." He said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, I'm going." He said. "With her." He said with a smirk but instantly regretted it when he practically saw fire behind Nathan's eyes when he heard his remark.

Nathan took a fast step towards him and swinged his hand back and then towards him. But instead of hitting Tim's face, he hit the locker behind him.

"Goddammit, Tim!" Nathan yelled. "That's Haley! My Haley! She's off-limits!" he yelled furiously.

"But I thought you two were just friends." He said trying to sound as calm as possible. Truth to be told, Nathan had scared him. He had never seen him so angry and Tim had seriously thought for a second that Nathan was going to hit him.

"We are but that's different." Nathan said uncomfortably. "Haley and I... she is... I... She's just off-limits!" he finally said annoyed.

"Chill, Nate." Tim said and took his stuff from his locker. "I was kidding."

"What?"

"We don't have a date." He said with a smile and closed the locker door.

"Why would you lie?" Nathan asked.

"The question you should ask is why would you care so much if I did go out with her." He said and Nathan looked at him. "Which I'm not doing." Tim added quickly just to be safe.

"Sometimes I don't get you, Nate. You've never liked any girl as much as you like her but you're also never been so distant from any girl either."

"She's not just any girl." Nathan muttered.

"No, she's not. She's really cool. Are you afraid of hurting her? After what she's been through it's no wonder you wanna protect her." Tim said. "But now you're both just hurting."

"But how can I be sure if she likes me or not?" Nathan asked. He couldn't believe that he was asking Tim 'T-Dawg' Smith for advise on girls.

"Well, first of all you could take the blind fold off since you're obviously stupid enough to not see it. But if you need to know, ask if she wants to see a movie but decide the movie yourself."

"What? How does that help me at all? We watch movies all the time, anyways."

"But you always make the choosing part into this whole nauseating flirting-marathon where she deliberately picks chick flicks and you pick action or horror movies just so you can bicker and flirt the hell out of each other."

Nathan had a sudden flash back to that time they were at the video rental store picking a movie. It had taken them about 45 minutes and over 40 turned down chick flicks and action movies to finally decide on 'Love and Basketball'.

"Maybe... But I don't see how that has-" Nathan started.

"So, this time cut the whole flirting part off and just watch a movie. If she thinks your nothing but a friend, she'll be more than happy to watch any movie but if she declines, it just shows that she's more interested in the flirting back, which proves she likes you." Tim explained to him like it was the most obvious thing.

"Dude, that almost makes sense." Nathan says.

"I know. Trust me, she'll turn you down on that offer so fast it'll make that blind folded, idiotic, little head of yours spin."

"Hey! Since when did we reverse roles? You're actually insulting me." Nathan whined.

"Oh, it's always been this way, Nate. You've just been too stupid to realize it." he said with a smirk. "Kinda like with Haley." He said and started to walk out of the room. Nathan followed him and looked at him with newfound respect.

"You know, you're pretty smart." Nathan said laughing.

"Yeah, people keep saying that." He said remembering Haley's words from few minutes ago while walking through the basketball court. He stopped once they got to the other side of the gym where Haley was sitting.

"So, let me simplify this for you so your small brains will understand it." Tim said with a smile. "She likes you and you like her. Don't be stupid." He said quietly so Haley wouldn't hear him and left.

Nathan stood there looking after Tim with a smile.

"What's up?" Haley asked coming down the bleachers to where he was.

"I never thought Tim was the smart one." He said.

"Well, he is almost the only one along with Lucas in the team that doesn't need tutoring." Haley pointed out while making her way towards the parking lot.

"So, what do you want for dinner?" Nathan asked while opening his apartment door and holding it open for her to get in.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that question?"

She had no idea how she was supposed to be nothing but friends around him. Every time she looked at him she could feel the butterflies waking up in her stomach. Actually, every time she even thought of him, she could feel them. And now she was supposed to live there for the rest of the week? Haley sighed at the thought.

"Yeah, I guess." Nathan muttered. "I'm gonna take the trash out!" he announced and went to get the two trash bags, one plastic and one paper.

Once he got outside in front of the trash cans, he quickly looked around to check that no one was watching. He opened the first bag and looked inside disgusted. Before starting to dig in, he decided to check the paper back first. It was full of paper.

"Oh, thank god she recycles." He muttered and started to go through the papers.

"Bingo." He said with a smirk when he finally found the small receipt. He looked at it and smiled before throwing the rest of the trash away and getting inside the apartment.

Haley was sitting by the kitchen counter not really doing anything. She turned to look at him when he got inside and once again there was an uncomfortable silence between them.

"So, wanna watch a movie? I was thinking of 'Terminator'." Nathan finally asked.

"I think I'll pass." Haley said and Nathan did his winning dance in his head. He then concentrated on Haley who was looking around the apartment everywhere but him.

"We can skip the movie. You ok?" he asked and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Whoa, yeah! I'm just gonna go make some dinner." Haley shook the hand off like it had burned and headed quickly to the kitchen.

"You need some help?" he asked.

"NO! I mean, no thanks. I'm good. Just watch some TV or something." Haley said and turned her back on him to start the dinner.

Nathan looked at her back with a longing gaze. Being nothing more than friends was the worst idea in his life, and that was a lot coming from the guy who had stolen a school bus and almost died because of steroids, to name a few. Tim's words had made an impact on him. Even a blind person could see that Haley was feeling uncomfortable about the whole just-friends situation they were in now.

He knew he either had to let her go or tell her how he felt but that living together/flirting on and off -friendship they had was killing them both, especially her. Nathan was better at hiding his feelings so even though it was killing him too, it was easy to pretend to not have any other feelings for her besides friendship.

Nathan went to sit on the couch and turned the TV on. He tried to watch the TV but just couldn't concentrate.

He had to do something.

"Dinner is served." Haley muttered while bringing the plates of food into the living room. She had stopped trying to get him to eat in the kitchen early on and had learnt that living room was his sanctuary and that he did everything there. He probably would have had his fridge there if it were possible.

They ate few minutes in silence looking at the TV but not really watching it.

"What's on?" Haley asked.

"Scrubs." he mumbled while chewing.

"Reruns?"

"Yeah, second season." He said not taking his eyes off the TV.

Both of them were now concentrating on the show.

That one doctor, JD, was standing outside his colleague's front door with a bunch of flowers in his hands. His colleague, Elliot, was crying when she opened the door. Haley vaguely remembered the episode being something about the girl losing all of her stuff and JD having a crush on her. Haley concentrated on the screen again.

Elliot took the flowers from JD and let him in. There was a voice-over from JD: 'Cos even if it breaks your heart to be just friends, if you really care about someone, you'll take the hit.

End credits started to roll but neither Haley nor Nathan made any effort to change the channel.

Haley looked at the screen with her mouth open. That JD guy was right. If she really cared about Nathan, she would be a friend for him like he wanted.

Nathan took a deep breath. He had to tell her how he felt. But before he had time to say anything, Haley turned to look at him with a friendly smile.

"How about that movie?"

Nathan looked at her happy face and suddenly realized that she was ok with being nothing but friends. Nathan quickly hid his disappointment.

"Yeah, sure. Let's watch a movie."

"That's what friends do."

I know, I know... I keep going back and forth between the whole "let's be friends, let's not be friends" thing but just bare with me. Love is never simple. Especially in my stories. :)