A/N: Hey, I know I disappeared for a while, really sorry! School has been hectic and well honestly, my writing has been in a funk, I didn't push myself to write something and publish it knowing it was crap you my lovely readers deserve better so I decided to wait it out till my writing went back to normal. So here it is the very much anticipated (and delayed) chapter 5, read and enjoy. Comments are not necessary but very much appreciated.:) -Kate

Flashbacks and thoughts are italicized

Bolds are narrations/voiceovers (the ones like Lucas does on the show, with the quotes and stuff)

Bold italics are borrowed song lyrics (How to save a life-the Fray . . . the fray is freakin love!)

This is a kinda overloaded chapter, full of flashbacks, narrations and song lyrics so I hope you guys don't get overwhelmed and I hope you guys get it. (I'm trying to explore the different styles of writing) I'll happily answer questions regarding the chap and the story, so ask away :)

I'm open up to suggestions for the story, like Nathanlvr, who is totally awesome and suggested something to help spice up the story. Dearie thanks again for the suggestion, I'll be using it in this chap btw, so the jealousy thing is all Nathanlvr.

Haley's Point of View

You know as a kid you believed in fairy tales? The false notion of life and its perfection. The childlike fantasy of the damsel in distress in her white silky dress being saved by her prince charming who later carries her off on his noble steed to his kingdom. Oh if only it were that simple . . . and realistic. But one day you wake up, open your eyes and the fairy tales disappear, we drop the training wheels and the braces and something else sinks in to take its place . . . responsibility. We soon become acquainted with responsibility, of how its here to stay and how it won't ever go away--either we face it or someone makes us face it, bluntly put its here to stay.

"Excuse me?" she blurted out. It was the only thing that registered through her mind at the moment, well that or words appropriate for a girl like her to say. "Coz I thought I heard you ask me to pretend to be your girlfriend, and I obviously misheard you . . . right?" she asked uneasily. She stared at him praying he'd agree and laughingly shout, 'Yea you're right, got you there didn't I?' but instead she was met with silence. Heart pounding, nail biting silence.

He just sat there, unsure of how to react. This wasn't the most comfortable situation out there and it was definitely climbing his top ten. "Uh, actually, no—" he started before Haley cut him off.

"I knew you were joking," she let out a sigh of relief.

"No," he repeated more firmly. "No, you didn't mishear me."

This time it was her turn to go silent.

Oh God what has she gotten herself into now?

Remember when as a kid your biggest worry was if you were gonna get Barbie for your birthday or if you could stay in your pajamas watching Sunday morning cartoons? I'm way past those days. Past the pre-Barbie era, blasting from the toys to the boys, except that well I've never really been into the last bit. Like I was saying, adolescence is way, way over rated. And responsibility well it really does suck, big time. And the scariest bit of responsibility? When you screw up and know there's no turning back.

Haley James sat in the cafeteria lazily spooning through her lunch, grazing through her mac and cheese as she boggled with her thoughts. Across from her sat Lucas, who was busy rambling on about his history test but for her it was all nonsense. White noise. Unnecessary, unimportant matters. She had graver matters to think about.

"Hey, Hales are you getting me?" Lucas asked when he finally noticed his best friend's distant look.

"Oh, yea" Haley snapped out of her thoughts. "Mrs. Murray and the history exam right?"

Lucas affirmed and continued to go on with his story leaving Haley to zone back into her thoughts. She continued to play with her food, digging through it as if the mac and cheese could provide her with answers. Meanwhile Lucas who had finally finished his story realized Haley's distressed look.

Step one you say we need to talk
he walks you say sit down it's just a talk

"Hey buddy, are you ok? You haven't touched your lunch." Lucas pointed over to her tray which remained uneaten.

"That's actually politically incorrect," Haley stated, "I've been playing with it for the last ten minutes, so yea, I've actually touched it."

Lucas rolled his eyes; this was so Haley, always dodging the subject. Besides it wasn't like her to not eat her mac and cheese, it's her favorite dish! "Hales you love mac and cheese, even if it's for five year olds so this is so unlike you to not have finished it by now."

"So, I'm taking my time eating it." Haley reasoned out.

"You haven't even taken a single bite." He retorted.

"And yea you noticed while you were ranting on about your history exam?" Haley snapped back.

"Ok, what is up with you today?" Lucas asked surprised by her last remark. "I get to your house this morning surprised to find you still asleep, which is irresponsible and so unlike you. And now you've been distant and cold all morning . . . What's up Hales?" he tenderly asked, concern showed on his face softening his features.

"So are you up for it?" he asked her challengingly. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

His voice rang in her head, his words echoing the walls of her mind. Hauntingly taunting and coaxing at the same time.

And she wanted to confide in him, she really did but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't just blurt out, 'I made a deal with your brother so now I have to pretend to be his girl friend', yea that'd be a nice one, real good laugh there.

Let him know that you know best
cause after all you do know best
try to slip past his defense
without granting innocence

"Nothing," Haley shook her head. "I'm fine, really."

Denial.

"Just an off day."

Out goes another lie.

"If you say so." Lucas forfeited.

He smiles politely back at you
you stare politely right on through

Haley forced a smile further leading her best friend on.

You hide behind the smile.

And he smiled right back at her, oblivious to her schemes.

But the thing is no matter how grown up we are we can't fully let go of our fairy tale fantasies. We still wish that when we open our eyes in the morning our fairy tale ending will come true. We all hang on to this bit of hope, with faith that better things will come. Faith can be funny at times, it gets you when you least expect it and it'll surprise you. Coz you see people step up, they step up when you least expect it and in the bleakest of situations.

"Hey," he said taking a seat beside Haley.

"Hi," Lucas replied dumbfounded.

"This seat isn't taken is it?" he asked noticing Lucas's shocked face.

"No, no." Lucas hesitated; he wasn't sure how Haley would react to this. He shot her a glance, watching them sit beside each other, expecting heated words to be exchanged . . . yup any minute now . . . right about now . . . but instead he was met by silence.

Deafening silence.

Between the lines of fear and blame

And you begin to wonder why you came

"What are you doing here?" Haley asked him, finally breaking the silence.

He pondered the question, what was he doing there? Truth is even he didn't know anything anymore.

"Ok, I'll do it, I'll be your girlfriend." She conceded after giving it much thought.

He shrugged, "Just here to eat my lunch."

Again, silence. The three went back to their lunches, taking solemn bites. Lucas eyed the scene before him, his best friend and half brother eating lunch together. No cocky remarks, no rolling eyes . . . For him this was just plain weird. The two hated each other, usually he couldn't even get them to stay in the same room and now they were sitting next to each other, eating lunch without a trace of anger. The site of the two, for some reason bothered him.

"Nate, what are you doing here man?" he reiterated Haley's question. Curiosity of the situation got to him. "I mean, I'm happy you wanna eat with us but dude you and Haley, well you two never really got along." He had a feeling there was more to this scene then what met the eye.

And he was right.

Haley looked up from her lunch after hearing Lucas. This was it, the moment of truth, to tell or not to tell. She looked at Nathan anticipating his answer and secretly hoping he'd make the right one.

The ball was in his court.

He will do one of two things

He will admit to everything

Or he'll say he's just not the same

"Like I said, I'm just here to eat my lunch." Nathan answered simply.

Haley shot him a meaningful glance, she wasn't quite ready to owe up to Lucas about their deal. She gave Nathan a grateful smile before going back to her lunch.

People do step up when you least expect it and all you can do is let them take you by the hand and trust in them . . . And once in awhile, they might even take your breath away.

Nathan's POV

Nathan stuffed his hands in his pocket, making his way through the hallways of Tree Hill High. It was relatively an easy task seeing as classes had been dismissed an hour ago and most of the student body had already left school, and for that reason he was grateful. He appreciated the silence; it gave him room to think. Being the most popular boy in school definitely had its perks but the attention got to him sometimes. For them he was Nathan Scott, star of the Tree Hill Ravens and nothing more, no one really knew him. Nathan continued walking towards his destination, his footsteps echoing through the deserted halls. As he neared his destination, laughter could be heard. Closer and closer and the laughter grew steadily louder. His curiosity grew, who had fun at the tutor center? Well obviously Haley, she was the reason he was going there in the first place. Finally he arrived and still laughter could be heard reverberating from the room. He glanced inside surprised to see a raven haired guy with Haley. They were standing in the middle of the room and all he could see was Haley's back turned to the door as she was facing the stranger. The two were laughing and his hand brushed against Haley's right arm causing the two to laugh even harder. Nathan stood there uneasily, this wasn't right, he wasn't supposed to be touching her. He stood there unsure of what to do, all he knew was that a sweeping sensation suddenly swept through his body. He had to act.

"Hales," Nathan approached her and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Oh hey Nate, what are you doing here?" Haley looked up surprised by Nathan's action. "This is James; he's new here so I'll be tutoring him and helping adjust." She said referring to the dark haired stranger.

"Hey man, I'm James." He smiled as he extended his hand out to Nathan.

"And I'm Haley's boyfriend." Nathan retorted not even bothering to take James's hand.

James let out a nervous laugh as he pulled his hand back. "Funny she never mentioned you."

Pang.

"Well I'm mentioning it now." An edge could be heard in his voice.

"James didn't you have to go now?" Haley interjected sensing where this was going.

James shrugged, "Yea, guess I should."

Haley let out a sigh of relief, Close one.

"So I'll see you next Wednesday?" he asked Haley as she escorted him to the door of the tutor center.

"Yea, next Wednesday dismissal time." Haley affirmed.

"Actually she can't" Nathan butted in, "I kinda had something planned for us."

Haley shot Nathan a puzzled look, he had never mentioned anything to her before.

"But I'm sure we can get someone else to tutor you, say like Erica." Nathan continued avoiding Haley's gaze.

"But I kinda wanted Haley." James reasoned out.

"Well she's taken man." Nathan said ending it. Somehow they weren't talking about tutoring anymore and both of them knew it. "Erica's pretty good as well."

"Yea, whatever." James surrendered. "I'll be going now" he said one foot out the door.

"Ok, bye." Haley smiled apologetically. God men and their egos.

"Yea, see ya." Nathan smirked.

"What was that about?" Haley said as soon as James was in the hall and out of earshot.

"He was flirting with you."

"No he wasn't." Haley denied, she was blushing and didn't know why. She and James were only talking after all . . . right? Ok so what if she was into James, its not like she would have done anything anyway.

"Yes, he was and you were flirting back." Nathan persisted.

Haley scoffed, "Oh so I talk to a guy and I'm a slut while you on the other hand, you shove your tongue down a girl's throat and its nothing. Besides who gave you the right to start going off on me?"

"Haley, it wasn't like that and you know it."

"Yes it was . . ." Haley stopped mid sentence as her eyes grew larger, "Oh I get it."

"Get what?" Nathan asked confused?

"You were jealous!" Haley exclaimed.

"No I wasn't!" Nathan exclaimed growing defensive. "Me, jealous of him? Look at the pipsqueak, he's so tiny. He's nothing compared to me."

"He plays football Nate."

"Football is for sissies."

"It's a contact sport!"

"And so is basketball." Nathan dismissed.

"Whatever," Haley forfeited. She rolled her eyes as she said, "The Scott ego."

Nathan smirked and she couldn't help but smile back.

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.

A/N: Like it, hate it, or whatever? Should I or should I not keep James? Feedback greatly appreciated :)