Little White Lies

Hard Day's Night

Haley

"Haley, we have nowhere to go," Nathan says as I drag him out from the park. "And if any one sees us like this, holding hands, what do you thing they're going to think? We're supposed to be broken up."

"Broken up people don't get jealous," I say with a smile, heading over to Karen's Café.

"Actually, they do. You can't just switch your feelings off Hales, and also, how do you know I was jealous?" Nathan asks, still letting himself be dragged along.

"Oh please!" I say with a laugh. "You were glaring at Sam so much, I though fire was about to pop out of your eyes."

Nathan doesn't say anything for a couple of seconds, and then: "Okay, so maybe I was a bit jealous. But I mean come on! You're my wife and there you were, strolling arm in arm with some guy that I've never seen before!"

"You have seen him, he went to our school."

"Oh, well that's okay then. Seriously Hales, what were you doing with him."

I stop in the street and face Nathan, letting him read my eyes again. "I wasn't there with him, he just popped up out of nowhere and when your jerk of a father came along he stuck up for me. I was actually hiding behind a tree waiting for Dan to go away so I could speak to you."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you when we're somewhere more private." I start dragging him along again.

"But where? My house is off limits because Lucas and my mom will be there, and pretty soon my dad will be too. Peyton's is out of bounds because of Brooke and Peyton, so where else is there?"

"Here."

We look up and 'Karen's Café' looks back at us.

"Here? Haley, have you lost it? My mom works here, the rest of the gang are always here."

"Just, trust me, okay?" I ask, leading Nathan round to the alleyway where I know there's a fire escape leaving up to the roof. No one ever uses it anymore so it's locked off from the inside, but me and Lucas used to play up here when we were kids. We even talked about getting a mini golf course set up before Karen upped sticks and ran off to Italy, leaving Lucas to Dan and the café to Deb.

"This place is a mess," Nathan says as we reach the top. Admittedly, it couldn't win any health and safety awards, but it does serve the purpose of giving us some privacy, seeing as nowhere overlooks it and the walls are quite high.

"Oh stop complaining," I say, and twist around so that the two of us are facing. I reach up on my tip toes and start kissing him, soft and gentle to hard and passionate. Nathan's arms encircle me and I fall into them, kissing as if we haven't kissed for years. "I'm missing you," I say, in between kisses.

"Mmm, I'm missing you too," Nathan mutters, moving down to my neck.

"I think we should tell everyone the truth," I say, in between moans of pleasure. The kissing stops.

"What?" Nathan asks, looking up at me, his eyes filled with confusion. "Why? It's going okay. I even got Lucas to come out for drinks with me tonight, testing out my fake ID in Charlotte."

"Nathan, I miss you!" I say, and feel tears spring to my eyes as my throat thickens. "I'm sick of pretending! I'm sick of not being with you all the time. .I was telling the girls what our fight was about - about me hanging around with another guy too much and having feelings for him - and I hated it! I could never have feelings for anyone other than you, and this is… it's just too hard! I love you, why do we have to run from that?"

Nathan stares at me for a while, at a loss for what to say, and then he reaches up and wipes the tears from my eyes. "Shh," he whispers, pulling me into a hug. "We're not running from anything, we're just… playing a game that has nothing to do with how much I love you."

"I can't even remember why we're doing this," I whisper, clutching onto Nathan with all my strength, scared that if I let go he'll be gone again.

"So I don't get disowned, so that when we go back to college we can spend all our time together without my dad messing things up for us. Lets face it Hales, money isn't the only motivation here. Dan Scott is evil. He'll pay someone to doctor your grades, to make it so that I never get the ball, or get put on the bench all the time. He can ruin anything. We need to keep this up Hales, just for a little while and then we can make a big show of getting back together, okay?"

I let go of Nathan and wipe my tears. "Fine," I mutter. I know he's right, but I so wanted to end this that the disappointment is crippling me.

"Hales, please don't be like that…"

"Like what? Like my husband wants to pretend he's not my husband?" I know I'm being unfair, but I can't help it. My throat thickens again and I curse the God of tears.

"Hales, it's not like that! I love being your husband, just… I can't be. Not while we're here. Not now that we've gone this far."

"The funny thing is, it was me who started this, but it seems like you're the only one enjoying it."

"Enjoying it? Haley, are you kidding me? When I got here, my friends looked at me like I was a bug! My own brother wanted to disown me! Yeah, this is a laugh-a-minute Hales!"

I bite my lip and take a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I'm just… I'm tired! And we haven't even been here a full day yet!"

"I know."

"Also, um… I've kind of got a date with Sam tomorrow night…"

Silence, then "What?"

"It had nothing to do with me!" because it didn't, not really. "We met on the bus down from Charlotte and when we got back Brooke invited him to join us for coffee here and she arranged this whole date! What could I do?"

Nathan's eyes have heated up again. "You could have said no!"

"I tried," I protest, because I did. "Brooke said I needed to get out there and get over you!"

Nathan turns his back to me and paces. "God, I can't believe this! My wife is going on a date! My wife!"

I reach out and grab Nathan's arm. He stops pacing and looks at me. "Look, it's not as if anything is going to happen. In fact, we'll use the phone system!" I say, amazed at my brilliant plan. Well, okay, so it's not that great, but it's better than Nathan worrying about me all night.

"The what?" Nathan asks.

"You know, about twenty minutes into the date you give me a ring and pretend to be a friend in an emergency. The gorier the better."

Nathan narrows his eyes but doesn't say anything. Then he shakes his head in this really annoying way, like he's ashamed of me or something.

"Well, I could just sit the whole date out," I tell him. "Sit for several hours with this guy who is, lets face it, a little bit attractive…"

"You think he's attractive?"

I can't help but smile. "Not at all, I just wanted to shock you so that you'd stop giving me that look. Will you give me the phone call?"

Nathan takes a deep breath. "Yeah."

"Oh tutor girl, that dress is not flattering. It makes you look hippy."

I roll my eyes and discard the third 'unflattering' dress that I've tried on. As if going on a date with some guy wasn't bad enough, Sam got us reservations at a really posh restaurant, so I can't even go in jeans and a sweatshirt. No, I have to dress up. This sucks so bad.

"I kind of like the black one," Peyton says with a shrug, while Brooke throws her a death glare.

"The black one was 'mumsy'. No bust, no waist, no legs equals no second date, okay?"

"I don't want a second date," I whine, flinging myself on Peyton's bed with my 'hippy' purple dress. "I don't want a first date. Can't I just ring and say I feel sick?"

"Haley, this isn't school, okay? You can't 'ring in sick' to a date."

I cross my arms across my chest and glare into space. I rang Nathan again when I got back in last night, and I think Dan actually congratulated him on his strong punch, though said that defending an ex was 'weak'. Nathan's been punished with extra training. By the time he goes back to college, he's going to be unable to walk, let alone play basketball.

"Look," Brooke says now, with a softer voice mistaking my thinking for moping. "I know that Nathan hurt you bad… well, you hurt each other, but the trick is to get back out there! Get back into the game now, or you'll end up a lonely old spinster with millions of dogs."

"Isn't it cats?" I ask.

Brooke pulls a face. "I like dogs better. Now come on, try the red dress on, that one's cute."

An hour later I'm sat at 'The Red Room' trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with my 'cute' red dress which is digging into my rib cage, my long hair twisted up into a tight chignon which is acting essentially like a face lift, and 'subtle' make-up that makes me feel like a clown. Sam has said how great I look about fifty times which is actually, believe it or not, not making me feel that great.

"So… uh, how's college?" Sam asks, attempting small talk while we look over out menus.

"Oh, it's great. I love it. Me and Na… uh, my room mate Gwen are having the best time. How about you? Where do you actually go, because I don't think I've even asked yet."

Sam smiles at me and rubs his brow. "I go to Sanford. I got the plane down to Charlotte and then the bus to here."

"Stanford? Really?" Wow, that was my dream school for the longest time. "I used to really want to go there!"

"Really, why didn't you?"

"I wanted to be with Nathan."

Sam pulls a sympathetic face. "So, you regret going?"

"What? No, not at all."

"But, now that the two of you have split up, it must be kind of awkward. Don't you ever wish you'd just gone to Stanford instead? Went somewhere because of you and not him?"

Whoa there boy! Slow down. I want to punch him for saying that, but in a way he kind of has a point. Because of Nathan, I changed a lot of my life plan, but I wouldn't want it any other way. "It's not like that," I say. "To me, it was more important to be with Nathan than to go to a certain college when I could learn the same thing at Duke anyway."

"So, why didn't Nathan go to Stanford? Wasn't it as important to him that the two for you were together?"

"Yes," I snap, because Sam's probing is starting to annoy me. I mean, surely it's not normal to be this personal on a date? I wouldn't really know, I've never actually had one. With Lucas we were friends so long before we dated that there was no point in going out for a date. With Nathan, there was the whole drama thing and the closest we got to a date was a trip to the arcade. "Yes, it was as important. He was willing to go to Stanford too, but in the end we chose by picking the name out of a hat."

Sam raises his eyebrows. "Wow, what a way to pick your future." The way he says it has me wanting to smack him over the head with my menu. I look at my watch and frown when I realise I've only been here ten minutes. Maybe Nathan could ring early? Maybe his guilt will eat away at him so much that he'll ring in the next minute.

… Or the one after that.

"Can I take your order?"

The polite tones of the waiter bring me back into this restaurant where I'm having my stupid date with stupid Sam. And I don't care that I'm being unfair. I want Nathan.

"Uh, are we getting starters?" Sam asks, interrupting my thoughts once more.

"Yeah, sure," I say, thinking that a starter is all I'll be able to manage in the ten minutes until Nathan calls me. "I'll have the Prawn Cocktail…uh, thingie."

Sam smirks - sorry, smiles - at me and orders something with duck.

"And for the main course?" The waiter goes on. Damn, I forgot you have to order them at once. I open the menu quick.

"I'll have the Coq au Vin," Sam says, and I roll my eyes at how pretentious he sounds.

"You wouldn't have mac and cheese, would you?" I ask sweetly. After a blank look from both Sam and the waiter, I decide my order should probably be altered. "Okay, um… I'll have Lasagne."

"Lasagne Al Forno?" The waiter asks and I resist the urge to roll my eyes again. Seriously, what is the difference? Ugh!

"Sure," I say with a sigh. The waiter takes the menus and scuttles off. I look at my watch again.

Sam smirks - sorry, smiles - again and leans over the table a little. "God, I hate how pretentious everything is here," he says with a slight laugh in his voice.

"What, like you?" I ask, and then realise how rude that sounded. I put my hand to my mouth and wish I could rope the words back. "Oh God, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean that!"

Sam, surprisingly, doesn't look remotely offended, but instead starts laughing at me. "Yes you did. I admit it, these kind of restaurants always bring out the worst in me. If I didn't want to impress you so much I probably would have took you to McDonalds or something."

I laugh. "Ah, see now we have a problem, because I'm a Wendy's kinda gal."

"Well then, I think you should leave right now," Sam jokes. Despite myself - oh dear Lord, despite myself - I'm actually beginning to enjoy myself. To be honest, I'm not even looking at this as a date, more of a 'friends' kind of deal.

"Oh crap," Sam whispers, looking over my shoulder.

"What?" I ask, starting to turn around.

What is he doing here?

"I don't want to ruin the night, but your ex is here."