AN: Hey guys! So sorry for the long wait, I was away for three weeks, but now I'm back and am going to update more frequently. Thanks to: Nathanlvr, JmQt831, ilvjameslafferty, and chelle2911 for all the great reviews and for sticking with me!

Chapter 19: The Kissing Booth

It was Wednesday, the day of the kissing booth. And although a million insecurities were going through Haley's head, she couldn't help but be excited for it. After all, it was supposed to be fun.

Lucas and Haley had been pretty much ignoring each other. They had done this many times before, fight and then ignore each other. Because they had been best friends since elementary school, they had gotten into a lot of fights. Normally, Haley would always feel bad and apologize, even if it wasn't her fault. But this time was different. This time, she was waiting for Lucas to apologize to her. Not understanding why she had to do the kissing booth was one thing. But basically saying Nathan was ruining her life? The was one thing that Haley wasn't going to let go.

Lucas knew he needed to apologize to Haley. He knew that he should have done it a while ago, but for some reason he just couldn't do it. He was about to walk up to her in the hall to talk to her, but right then Nathan came up. He figured he'd just wait for a better time.

xXxXxXx

It turns out there was no better time. The moment the lunch bell rang, Nathan and Haley already sat behind a table that they put in the gym, and already the lines were started to form in front of them. Haley tried to smile to Nathan, but he saw that she was nervous. He mouthed 'I love you' to her, and she seemed to relax a little, and mouthed it back. Some of the girls that had witnessed the seen in Nathan's line, gushed at how cute they were, and others just glared at Haley, but she didn't care. When the gym was almost full, Nathan stood up on his chair, and everyone shut up.

"Ok, everyone, listen up." Nathan shouted to the crowd. Everyone, of course, was already listening, but it just sounded like something he should say. "Alright, here's the deal: It's ten dollars a kiss. And when I say kiss, I mean peck." There were a couple unhappy groans in the crowd. "Haley and I are only going to kiss twenty people each, so if you're in line and you can tell that there are twenty or more people in front of you, than I suggest you do something else with your lunch period." A couple more groans here and there were heard. "OK, and then there's the basics: no pushing, shoving, name-calling, etc..." Nathan said this last part a little jokingly, but even if he had said it seriously he knew that they would have taken it as a joke anyways. "Ok, so, I guess that's all." He said, getting down and sitting on his chair. It took all the strength Haley had in her, not to get up right then ad run out of the gym.

xXxXxXx

A couple of minutes later, Nathan and Haley had already kissed about five people each, and had collected in all about a hundred dollars. Not bad for a couple of minutes. The people they had kissed, so far, were all pretty much strangers. But Haley couldn't help feeling a little twinge of jealousy when she looked over and saw random girls batting their fake eyelashes at Nathan, who acted like he didn't even notice and once in a while would flash a reassuring smile in Haley's direction.

Haley was brought back to reality, by someone putting down a ten dollar bill on the table under her nose. She looked up to see who the guy was.

"Lucas?" She asked, shocked and a little bit annoyed. Last she heard they were fighting. Why would he want to kiss her? Even if they weren't fighting... that would be like kissing your brother.

"I'll give you ten bucks if you just hear me out," He said looking apologetic. Haley didn't say anything, she just stared at him waiting for him to talk. "Look, I said some things... I don't know why I... I guess I just... I didn't mean..." Lucas said, stumbling with his words, amusing Haley a little, but she didn't smile, she was still mad at him an she wanted him to know that.

"I'm sorry," Lucas said finally.

"Hey, jackass," Said some guy in the line. "Some of us are waiting, here!" He yelled. Gosh, thought Haley, some people sure can be rude. She wasn't looking forward to kissing that guy.

"Yeah, one second," Lucas yelled back and then turned his attention back to Haley. "Look, Hales, all that stuff I said, I really didn't mean it. It just... I guess it just took me by surprise. I mean the old Haley wouldn't have done a kissing booth."

"I still don't see what's wrong with it." Haley said.

"Nothing," Lucas quickly said, "Nothing's wrong with it. I was just in shock, so I said a bunch of stuff that I didn't mean and that I feel terrible about now." He said honestly. "I think it's great that you're helping Nathan out. And I know that he's not getting you into trouble and all that. I know that what you guys have it... special and great, I'm really happy for you." He said. Haley wasn't sure what to think of this. She could tell that he really was sorry.

"It's just..." She said, "It's just hard for me, to have my best friend disapprove of my boyfriend."

"Hales, I don't disapprove!" Lucas said. "Look, I'll prove it to you. I'll... I'll hang out with him. If he wants to, obviously. We can play ball or something..." Lucas suggested. Haley thought about this for a moment. But she could never really stay mad at Lucas. She broke out a smile.

"Okay." she said.

"Okay?" Lucas asked, making sure everything was cool.

Haley nodded and said, "You're not going to... kiss me or anything... are you?" She joked and made a face.

Lucas just laughed and walked away. Haley smiled as she heard a couple "finaly"s from the line of guys in front of her.

xXxXxXx

Nathan was surprised to see Brooke and Peyton arrive in front of him together and each slap down a ten dollar bill on the table. He gave them a weird look. They were his close friends, and they both did have boyfriends. Before he could ask what they were doing, Brooke spoke.

"OK, Nate," She said, "Twenty bucks for the real reason for this kissing booth."

"What?" Nathan asked, confused.

"Oh please..." Peyton said, "You don't expect us to believe that 'we need money for rent' thing, do you? What's the real reason?"

"Look, you guys, it's kind of-" Nathan started.

"Hey, if you don't tell us, we'll just have to believe that rumor that you got arrested and have to pay a fine." Brooke said in a tone that told Nathan that she already knew that that was the truth. Nathan didn't say anything and Brooke and Peyton took that as a confirmation that they were right.

"Oh, Nate," Peyton said with a sigh, and shaking her head, "What are we going to do with you?"

"Look, it was a completely innocent, victim-less crime," Nathan said, defending himself. "And, where did you hear about that?"

"It's kind of... all around school." Brooke said, not sure if he would be mad about this or not. It's not like the people in the school were really shocked by the rumor; it was a typical Nathan-like thing to do, getting arrested. Nathan sighed.

"Oh well..." He said. He didn't really care that it was out there, he was just worried that Haley would. "Thanks for telling me. And... sorry for not telling you guys." He said. Brooke and Peyton nodded and walked off.

xXxXxXx

Right when Haley was thinking that this whole kissing booth idea wasn't so bad, and she was telling herself that everything was going well, she realized that she had thought too soon. She saw Jared approaching, pushing his way though the crowd and completely cutting everyone in line and ended up right in front of Haley. He had some girl on his arm who was chewing bubble-gum unnecessarily loudly.

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

"This is so cute," Bubble-gum girl said, in an annoying high-pitched voice. "I mean, it's like a cute... kissing booth." She said, making Haley wonder if people could really be that stupid, or if she was just faking.

Haley looked up at the huge sign above them that read 'KISSING BOOTH' and then back at the girl, "Hmmm," She said, "I hadn't noticed." She said sarcastically, although the girl didn't seem to notice her sarcastic tone.

"I mean, it's so sweet how you're still willing to help him out, after he got, you know, arrested." She said, saying 'arrested' in a whisper. Haley tried not to act shocked, but she really was.

"How do you know about that?" She asked, before she even realized that she was with Jared. The guy who had arranged for Nathan to get arrested in the first place.

"It's all around school," said Jared. Haley almost yelled It's WHAT? but she contained herself, and tried to act like she didn't care.

"I mean," the girl said. "You must be such a great girlfriend to do all this for him. And you don't even mind that there are so many girls that give him so much attention. I mean, they're like obsessed." She said, making Haley nervous. Girls were obsessed with Nathan? "I didn't even know you guys were together." Bubble-gum girl continued, "I mean, I don't really hang out with you, but with Nathan, it doesn't really seem like he's taken. I mean, he doesn't really act like he had a girlfriend." She said in a way that made Haley just want to slap her.

This was one of those times where Haley wished she was one of those people that could think of witty comebacks to say right away. But, unfortunately, she wasn't one of those people. She was more of a stutter as you speak, or just don't speak at all types of people.

"What do you mean?" She said, not bothering to hide her annoyance from her voice.

"Hey, don't get mad or anything. I was just saying..." said the girl. Haley concluded that yes, this girl, was just that stupid, she wasn't faking. I mean, look who she was with.

"Whatever," Haley said, not wanting to deal with these people right now. "You guys are holding up the line. So, if you could just-" She couldn't say another word or do another thing before Jared crashed his lips to hers, hard but not long, not long enough for Haley to push him away. Before she could say anything he just slapped down a twenty dollar bill on the table and walked off with the girl, who was laughing. (Haley didn't know why, the guy she was with had just kissed some other girl right in front of her. What a bimbo.)

"Hey! It's only ten dollars!" Haley yelled after him, but he pretended not to have heard her. "I don't want your charity!" She yelled. But she kept the money anyway.

xXxXxXx

AN: OK, I hope you guys liked it! Again, so sorry for the long wait. Please review!