AN: Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews to: JmQt831, OTH.daddy'sgurl.06, chelle2911, Nathanlvr, Hera Agathon (I think it's really cool that you're not a big Naley fan but that you still enjoy this story, thank you so much!), and mistydm.

Our Little Corner Of The Universe

Chapter 26

Today you said you were leaving,

Couldn't let you see me cry

You can take what you want to

But won't let you take my pride

As Nathan walked away, he felt soft tears roll down his face. He hadn't cried since his father had died. That was over ten years ago, and he had forgotten what it was like. To be reminded of your pain with every tear drop that falls from your eyes. He couldn't imagine how awful it would be. The only person he truly loved to not be in his life anymore. How torn up he would get to see Haley everyday at school and not be able to feel her in his arms.

There was no one else like her. No one else that was good for him. No one else that made him feel the way he did, just by receiving a smile from her perfect lips. His heart ached thinking about it, but he could think of nothing else. So this is what's it's like to have your heart broken, he thought, wondering if his heart would ever mend.

Here I lie watching the cars on the highway

You're one of those lights that's driving away

Suddenly it hit him. How he had lost her. Was he just going to give up so fast? So easily? Is this how it was all going to end? He needed her in his life, and he wasn't going to go anywhere. She needed to know that. He needed to tell her. He stopped dead in his tracks. And with a drastic change from his slow walk, he turned around and started sprinting back to Echo Park.

He ran faster than he had ever ran before. His feet barely touched the ground, he was going so fast. He knew that he would probably be unbelievably tired once he got there, but he had to get there before Haley left. He had to tell her. He didn't want to leave things the way they left it.

He saw the park in the distance and he didn't think it was possible, but he somehow ran even faster the rest of the way there. He struggled to catch his breath as he looked left and right only to realize his greatest fear. She was gone. Nowhere to be seen.

I'm standing in the dark wondering where you are

I'm leaving my heart here in Echo Park.

He collapsed to the ground, so exhausted. The running had taken his mind off of everything else, but now as his world came crumbling down on him, he started crying once again. He felt the grass under him, so soft and he felt like just staying there. Dying there. Would anyone even notice?

And the cars look smaller from here

And the sky looks bigger from here

And now that everything is clear

Everything falls apart...

---

"Haley, honey, what's wrong?" Haley's mother had said. But it was more out of surprise than out of sympathy. Haley had come home in tears, sobbing harder and harder, instead of calming down. She was sobbing so hard, that even if she wanted to talk to her mother, she wouldn't have been able to.

She just ran up the two sets of stairs to her room. She didn't make it all the way to her bed. The second she closed her door, she collapsed against it. She slid down against it and sat on the ground leaning back and sobbing into her knees. How could this happen to her? One second she and Nathan were happily in love, overcoming every obstacle life through their way. And now it was over? Haley couldn't bring herself to accept that. It was something she was never going to accept. Never.

Somehow, she managed to bring herself together just long enough to call Brooke, who called Peyton. She tried to force herself to calm down. Which she did a little bit. She took several long breaths. Washed her face a couple times and tried applying make-up, but decided it was useless. She knew that when she retold the story to Brooke and Peyton, she would just start bawling again.

---

Haley, Brooke and Peyton said they would meet up at Brooke's house, which wasn't too far from Haley's since Brooke lived in the rich part of Tree Hill, as well. Before Haley could knock on the door, Brooke opened it fast and pulled her into a tight hug. Which was just what Haley needed. It made her feel great that she had friends there to support her, that she could talk to.

Haley and Brooke walked into the living room, where Peyton was already sitting there. Peyton jumped up and ran over to hug Haley soothingly. But when Brooke and Peyton asked her to tell them what was wrong, Haley started sobbing once again. After she had calmed down a little she was able to start talking. She was still shaking a little and had to pause once in a while, while telling them the story. The story made both Brooke and Peyton ache for her, they wanted to cry themselves, but they pulled it together for Haley's sake.

"Haley, babe, come here," Brooke said at the end of it, and the three of them joined in a group hug for a while.

"I just... I don't see... why," Haley said being interrupted every other word by her sobs or sniffs, "why it has to... be either... my parents or N... Nathan." She finished.

"Shhh, I know, I know," Brooke and Peyton said trying to get her to calm down. There would be plenty of time to talk about this later. Right now it was important to get the sobbing out of her system. To just let it out.

---

Ten or so minutes later, Haley had calmed down. Brooke and Peyton exchanged glances, silently agreeing that now was the time to talk about what had happened.

"What do you think's going to happen now?" Peyton asked.

Haley shook her head and shrugged. Her eyes were still puffy, but she had stopped crying. "I don't know... I really don't... I'm still living with my parents, but I'm not about to just give up on Nathan. I mean, why doesn't he understand why I have to do this?"

"I don't know, Hales. But don't you think that maybe he just said those things because he was scared?" Brooke asked.

"What is he scared of?"

"Losing you," Brooke said simply. Those words resonated in Haley's mind. Had he lost her?

"He won't lose me," Haley said softly. "I won't let that happen. He acts like my parents are going to push him away or something."

"Well, I hate to be the one to ask this, Haley, but someone has to," Peyton said, looking uneasy, "But did you ask your parents if they were okay with you seeing Nathan?"

Haley looked at her. She bit her lip and closed her eyes. After a while she reopened them and spoke softly. "They said that things were going to be different."

"Haley-" Brooke said. She was going to tell her, that that didn't necessarily mean that they would acknowledge Nathan as her boyfriend, but she was interrupted.

"They said that they wanted me to be happy," Haley protested.

"But Haley, you know that that doesn't mean-" Peyton started.

"I know," Haley whispered. She hung her head low and let the tears fall once again. "What have I done?" Brooke and Peyton figured that was a rhetorical question. Haley continued, "We were supposed to be a real family again," She said more to herself than to her friends. She looked at the ground. "I was supposed to be happy," she said.

They spent the rest of the day talking, eating ice cream. But Haley was barely paying attention. She couldn't get over it. What was she going to do if her parents didn't let her be with Nathan? It would be the whole thing she had already gone through with them, all over again? And now Nathan was mad at him. And although she didn't think so before, she now saw that he had perfect reason to be.

---

AN: Hey, sorry if that wasn't that interesting. don't worry, the next chapters will be. NEXT: a day at school! Naley confrontation. What will happen? Please review! Thanks for reading!

Song Credit: Echo Park, by Ryan Cabrera