Chapter 39

The walk of shame. Well in a sense anyway. Only, Haley was not at all ashamed of what the previous night had led to for her and Nathan. No, shame was definitely not her first choice of description. The terms heavenly, hot and perfect, did, however spring to mind. Feeling Nathan inside her and being as close as any two people can be had been bliss. Bliss after 15 years of abstinence, bliss after 15 years of not having Nathan. She knew that they were moving quickly, but technically, they had been married 17 years, and she still loved him as much, more probably, than the day they said their vows in among the purple flowers and then made love for the first time.

Back near Nathans room, from the hall Haley could hear the shower running. They had woken up within moments of each other and just sort of lay there watching the other for a while. Panic, however had set in pretty quick. Both realized they had to be at work in under an hour, and Haley remembered she didn't live there; she had her own house that she had to get back to, to get dressed. For now though, she was dressed in a shirt of Nathans, and yesterday's pants.

As she headed down the hall, her head was up and away with memories of the previous night. So far away, that she didn't even see someone come out of a room into the hall.

"Haley?" the person asked. "What are you doing here?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin and just stared like a deer caught in the head lights.

"E… Ephraim," she smiled uncomfortably, blushing furiously. "I thought you weren't home."

He fought back laughter; it was clearly quite awkward for her. "Yeah I got home quite late last night." He told her, but then couldn't resist, "You must've already been in bed."

Haley could've died. Getting caught slinking from a house after spending the night, by the surrogate son, who also happened to be one of her students, of the man she had spent the night with. More than a little embarrassing.

She pulled herself together as best as she could. The least she could do was act un-embarrassed. "Well, I better go. Don't want to be late for work. I'll see you in class."

"Bye," he smirked as she hurried away.

"Hi," she smirked as she hurried toward him.

Kaleb broke out into a grin and opened his arms, "Hey" he replied, giving his girlfriend Ollie a soft kiss.

She smiled and grabbed his hand. They began walking toward the school, hand in hand.

"Guess what?" she asked chipperly.

"What?" he prompted lightheartedly.

"I told Jess about Haley." She told him.

He looked at her surprised, as far as he knew; she didn't tell people about her mom. She had told him, but only because at the time, there hadn't really been much of a choice. Telling her friends though, he knew she had been a bit wary about that.

"How'd it go?" he asked

Ollie smiled, "Good. I stayed at Jess' last night. She wanted to know all about it." She rolled her eyes.

He laughed, "Do you think she'll keep it to herself?"

She shrugged, "I doubt it. But, now that Haley and dad are together, it'll probably get out pretty soon anyway."

"Well no one will hear it from me."

"Better not" she threatened jokingly, leaning in to kiss him again.

She couldn't get enough of him. They were only young, and had only been together for a short time, but Ollie felt such a connection to him. With the way she felt about Kaleb, after such a short time, she could in no way see how her parents had managed to be apart for so long. For now, she couldn't see ever ending things with Kaleb, but if she had learnt anything from her mom, it was that sometimes there's no choice. She just hoped nothing like that would happen to her and Kaleb.

"Whoa," called an approaching male voice behind them, as they locked lips.

They both whipped around. Seeing who it was, Ephraim, Kaleb adjusted his glasses nervously. It wasn't that Ephraim had ever been violent toward him, he had actually always seemed quite cool about him and Ollie, but Kaleb was still cautious. Over the years, Kaleb had had a fair amount of beatings. First, years ago, from the primary school bullies, who seemed to think he was the perfect puny little kid candidate to cough up lunch money, then later, from the lacrosse jocks at his old school who had seen him as the perfect puny teenager and even more recently, from his mother's boyfriend. When he came to Tree Hill, it had been to leave all that behind. Girlfriends over protective sort – of – brothers, put him a bit on edge.

Luckily though, when it came to Ephraim, Kaleb didn't need to worry.

"What is with you Scotts today?" Ephraim asked jokingly.

Ollie blushed, "What're you talking about Rai?"

He shrugged annoyingly.

Ollie rolled her eyes, "What do you mean?"

Ephraim grinned at Kaleb, "Well you know, you and Kaleb all over each other. Haley sneaking away down our hallway this morning. Nate being in bed so early last night."

Kaleb snickered, but Ollie still just looked confused.

They both smirked at her as the realization of what Ephraim had said dawned in her. Her expression went from one of incomprehension, to twist in amused disgust.

"Aww Ephraim," She groaned, burying her head in Kaleb's shoulder, "That's gross."

"I thought it's what you wanted." He teased.

"Yeah," she glared at Ephraim, "I didn't want to know about it though."

"Oh, well sorry." Ephraim said simply and abruptly, knowing all to well, that that answer would annoy her so much more than if he were to defend himself.

Immediately, she responded as he expected. The evil squint, and the 'I'm about to hit you face'. He shook his head, he knew her far too well.

Ephraim smirked again, "Come on Ollie, I'm sure you two can use it as collateral sometime."

Ollie whacked Ephraim softly on the arm, blushing furiously, as was Kaleb. It was pretty clear to both of them what Ephraim was implying, a topic, the couple hadn't even discussed yet.

Rai rolled his eyes at the two love birds squirming uncomfortably in front of him.