AN: Thank you for the wonderful reviews: TREEHILLADMIRER, jbacon, southerncoffeeaddict, OTHlover04, beachiegal, crazy4fiction, and Nathanlvr!

OK, here is the next chapter. Oh and the part in italics, is a flashback. Enjoy!

Chapter 11

After Nathan and Haley said their good-byes, Nathan left, but it was only five o'clock, so Haley decided to stay a little at Echo Park. She wasn't ready to go home yet. By now, her parents must have heard about Nathan's arrest, considering how fast the gossip circulated in Tree Hill. She just hoped that somehow, the fact that she was the one to bail him out would be kept from her parents and their nosy friends.

Haley felt someone tap on her shoulder, and for a second she thought that it might even be Nathan, but she thought too fast. And she was disappointed when she turned around, to see the last person she wanted to talk to right now, other than her parents: Jared Gabriel. The guy who she used to think was cute, until he revealed his jerky personality and spoiled side.

Haley tried to remember the last time they had talked. It was at one of the many fancy gatherings his father was holding at his house. She had been making the rounds like her parents always told her to do, talking to all their friends, stopping by to say 'hi' to all her father's business associates. Then there he was, in the corner, in an expensive-looking suite, talking on his cell phone…

xXxXxXx

"… Nah, I gotta stay here tonight… Yeah another one of my dad's kiss-ass parties… It sucks…Hey, I gotta go. Talk to you later, man." Jared hung up the phone the second he laid eyes on Haley. He recognized her, not just from these weekly big business dinners, but from somewhere else. She must go to Tree Hill High, he thought.

Haley knew who he was: Jared Gabriel. Everyone knew who he was. That spiky blonde hair, the designer sun glasses that he wore even inside. He was pretty good-looking, that was, until he opened his smart-ass mouth of his.

"Don't I know you?" He asked with a grin.

"Haley James." Haley said, extending her hand. She was always like this. Polite, composed. She didn't think she had ever said a come-back, let alone a witty one, in her whole life.

Jared took her hand but instead of shaking it, he just held on to it and wouldn't let go. "Do you go to Tree Hill High?" He asked, still not letting go. Haley started to get a little weirded out by this guy.

"Yeah," Haley said, plain and simple. This guy should really know her, she thought. She did see him at all these dinners and events and they did go to the same school. But no, this guy was so wrapped up in himself that he barely noticed others.

"Now, that's weird…" He said, and Haley couldn't help but tug a little to try to get her hand back, but failing. "'Cause I know I would have remembered a beautiful girl like you." Ah, never heard that line before, Haley thought sarcastically. But she would never say something like that aloud. Especially not to a Gabriel.

Haley really didn't know what to say, so she just stayed silent.

"Tell you what..." Jared started. "Why don't we get out of here? I know a bar downtown. You got a fake ID?"

"No," Haley said simply, she was not at all interested in that. It didn't really bother her that others would get drunk, have meaningless sex with some stranger, and then wake up in the back seat of a random car with killer hang-over, that was their problem, it just wasn't her thing. But she didn't say all that, and she had no idea why not.

"Oh, well that's not a problem, I can get you one." Jared said.

"No thank you," Haley said, not wanted to, but ending up having to pull her hand out of his grip with full force.

"Oh, I get it. You're one of THOSE kind of girls..." He said, smiling.

"And what is that suppose to mean?" Haley said, getting annoyed with this guy. Who did he think he was anyway? But if she really was mad at him, he wouldn't have been able to tell, since she kept her polite voice.

"It means you're actually one of those girls. Look, I know what your parents are like, probably the same as mine. They want to control you, drag you to all these boring events, never let you out of the house with a skirt that goes above your knees incase you might give a bad impression on the family. You are only to be friends with sons and daughters of the business associate's of your father's. But the weird thing is: you actually do everything they ask. They actually managed to raise you as their perfect little girl. You don't go to dances. Let alone parties. You don't drink. Do drugs. Break curfew, or break any rules for that matter."

Ok, so maybe all the things he's saying is true, Haley thought, but he made it sound like it was a bad thing.

"The bottom line is," Jared continued, "You don't have any fun."

xXxXxXx

This memory was vivid in Haley's mind. She remembered it very well. She knew that she was all those things that Jared had said she was, but she had never had it just laid out in front of her. When she heard someone else say those words it seemed like her life was sad and empty. Which, maybe it would be if she kept living by her parent's rules. But ever since Nathan came into her life, she was no longer that girl that Jared had described. She was a whole new person. And on Friday she would go to her first high school party. And she would have fun.

She was brought back to reality by Jared waving a hand in front of her face.

"Hello? Haley?" he said.

"What do you want, Jared?" Haley asked, really not in the mood to talk to him.

"Wow, cranky. What? You and Nathan having problems?" He said, with a grin that Haley just felt like slapping off of his face.

"Actually, no, me and Nathan are doing great." Haley said, starting to walk to her house. But Jared followed her.

"Oh, speaking of you and Nathan... Hmm, you're parents must not be too thrilled about that. Last I heard, they were pretty set on us being together." Jared said.

"Yeah, well, just because my parents are blind enough to like you, doesn't mean I am." Haley said.

"I'm just saying... It'd be a shame if somehow your parents found out about you and Nathan being together. I mean, the guy was just arrested." He said with a laugh that made Haley actually want to run away from this guy, but she knew that that wouldn't help. "They would be very disappointed..." Jared said.

"You wouldn't" Haley said.

"Maybe, you don't know. And frankly, I don't really care. I'm just enjoying the fact that now, I have something to hold over you, and I can just let it somehow slip to your parents innocently... Who knows?" He said and then he walked off.

Haley was stricken with a sudden sense of panic. If her parents found out that she had lied to them and was actually dating Nathan, poor, ex-convict, they might just kill both of them. Especially if they found out from one of their friends. No, she had to tell them herself. Before Jared got to them.

xXxXxXx

"Mom! Dad!" Haley called out when she entered her house, or mansion. She found her parents in the living room, sitting down on the couch and staring up at her.

"Haley, please sit down, your father and I have something to discus with you," Lydia James said, motioning towards an arm-chair. Haley did as she was told.

"OK, but first, I need to tell you something," Haley said.

"I'm sure it can wait, Haley." Haley's dad said. "This must be discussed now." He said emphasizing on that last word. Haley just nodded.

"I was just, ironing some clothes and then I got a call from Mariella," Mariella was one of Haley's mom's friends, who was very wealthy but also very nosy, loving gossip. "She said that she was just taking a stroll outside this afternoon, you know, around that park a couple blocks away."

Haley froze, she knew where this was going. Her parents had found out. And it wasn't even Jared who told them. Oh Great, this is it, I'm done, Haley thought.

Haley's mother say Haley's expression and could tell that Haley knew what she was talking about. "Haley, I specifically told you not to see that boy anymore. And you gave me your word. You said you would no longer see him. But I am obliged to have this conversation with you." She sighed. "You're grounded. No more tutoring. You are to go straight to school and then straight back and not to leave the house otherwise. Do you hear me?" She said.

Haley didn't say anything. Not a yes or and no. She started to get watery-eyes but she didn't let herself cry, not here, not now.

"Oh, honey," Lydia said, in a fake-sympathetic voice. "It's for your own good. That boy-"

"Nathan." Haley corrected her.

"Yes, Nathan. He's from a different world than us, sweetie. You and him, you just can't go together. He is in a whole separate world." She said.

"No mom," Haley said, no longer able to hold it all in. "We are in a different world. Nathan and me. You could never understand it." She said raising her voice and running up to her room.

xXxXxXx

AN: OK so I promise that the party will be in the next update! I swear! And more Naley too! Sorry for not putting any in there! please Review! THX!