Nathan's life went downhill after Haley left. Suddenly the glue that held them together was gone. One night Tyler wouldn't stop crying and Nathan lost it. He was out of diapers and the fridge held nothing but a half-rotted orange and a jug of sour milk. Every table surface was littered with pizza boxes and trash. He couldn't walk because the floor was covered with Tyler's toys. Nathan snatched up Tyler, still crying, from his crib and drove to Karen's.
He shoved the baby towards Karen. She took one look at the red-eyed baby who was now gasping for breath after his fit and took him immediately. "Nathan –" Karen began.
"Can you just watch him for a little while?" asked Nathan, desperate. Karen slowly nodded. "Good." He handed her Tyler's cup of juice and his blanket before shoving his hands in his pockets and walking briskly back down the sidewalk. He sped off in his car and didn't stop until he reached the liquor store.
By the next morning he was thoroughly wasted and feeling much better about himself. He almost crashed his car twice on the way to school but managed to stumble into Biology only ten minutes late.
"Okay, so we're going to pick up where we left off, discussing the process of mitosis," the teacher was saying when he arrived in the doorway. "Well Mr. Scott, long time no see." Nathan glowered defiantly as he took a seat.
"About time you finally pulled yourself together." Lucas leaned forward over his desk and spoke over Nate's shoulder to him.
"Whatever," replied Nate. "I'm only here 'cause my Playstation broke."
"Mr. Scott, do you have something you'd like to share with the class?" demanded the teacher.
"Yeah, actually." He pulled a can out of his backpack and popped it open loudly. Nathan then pulled a second can from his backpack and placed it on a fellow classmate's desk.
"Are you crazy?" hissed Lucas.
"Okay, please tell me you're not drinking beer in my class," stated the teacher.
"Technically, it's malt liquor." He was beyond the point of caring anymore.
"Nathan!" the teacher cut in sharply.
"It's not like biology really matters anyway," decided Nathan. "I mean, biology is all about finding a mate and having kids, right? But my wife left me and I've already got a kid. So I don't really need to be here." The class gasped in unison at Nathan's words. Tyler was still a well-kept secret in the town of Tree Hill. Lucas shaded his eyes, not quite believing what he was hearing and amazed that things had progressed to this point. His brother was hurting, he knew, and Haley was the only one who could help him.
The teacher snatched the drinks away. "Come with me, please." Even with a please her statement left no room for argument; Nathan collected his things and stood, but not without a snide comment.
"That's a nice skirt, Miss Hann. You know, I bet if more teachers dressed like sluts, attendance in this place would skyrocket."
"Funny. Principal Turner's going to love that one."
Nathan received a suspension for his drinking and belligerence. Lucas called Haley that night, but he only got the answering machine. "Hey, Hales. I know I've left a few messages already, but call me back, okay? Nathan's in a bad place right now, Hales. I don't think he can go on without you. He was drinking in class and then he outed Tyler in front of the entire Biology class. He needs you, Hales. We all do." Lucas hung up and sighed. He lay back on his bed with his hands sandwiched between the pillow and the back of his head. It was going to get ugly, especially after Nathan's drunken slip at school.
Dan barged into Nathan's apartment without knocking. Deb followed close behind, trying to calm him down. Lucas, who had been sitting across the street for the last hour debating whether to go inside, jumped out and dashed across the street to shadow Deb into the apartment.
"What the hell, Nathan? You know what I heard at the dealership today? And from Tim's father, no less!" yelled Dan furiously.
"Oh, Nathan," said Deb, sadly, looking at the state of the apartment. Toys and dirty dishes were scattered everywhere and there was a stench of sweat, alcohol, and dirty diapers.
Nathan glanced up from the couch where he was sprawled gulping down the contents of the beer bottle in his hand. "Do you have something to add, too?" he directed to Lucas.
" Nate…" he trailed off.
"Yeah, whatever, man." Nathan took another large sip of his beer.
"Nathan!" Dan again. Nathan was getting tired of all this drama. "I did not raise my son to become a screw up!"
"Still about you, Dad, huh? Your son, your dreams. Maybe I don't want to play your games anymore."
"You're destroying your life, Nathan! It's not worth it, pissing your life away for some girl."
"Some girl?" cried Nathan, jumping up outraged. "She's my wife, Dad!"
"Really? Well, someone might want to tell her that," responded Dan with a smirk.
Nathan reared back and landed a right hook on his father's jaw. "Hey, come on!" yelled Lucas, grabbing his brother before he let his rage and inebriation get the better of him again. Behind the couch on the floor, Tyler began to cry. Everyone's heads swiveled towards the baby that Dan, Deb and Lucas hadn't realized was there. Nathan went over to pick him up, rubbing his back soothingly to calm the little boy.
"So Tim's father was right. This is the kid, huh, Nathan?" Dan's previous smirk had turned into a dark scowl. The ominous look on his face was made even more threatening by the blood running down his chin from his cut lip.
"Dan," warned Deb, placing a hand gently on his arm.
"Don't Dan me! He screwed around and now he's got a kid! A kid he forgot to mention to anybody, by the way!"
"Nathan," Lucas broke in, "Let me take Ty. He's getting scared from the yelling." Both boys looked at the infant, who indeed had his head buried in his father's shoulder and his fingers twisted in the dark curls at the nape of Nathan's neck.
"No," countered Nathan. "He's my son. I've got him." He pushed past his father, grabbed his car keys from the shelf by the doorway, and walked out the door. Nathan drove down the dark streets, not knowing where he was going until he ended up at his parents' beach house.
He walked down the beach with his young son snuggled in his arms. The ocean waves lapped at the sand, creating a soothing lull that had Ty's eyes drifting sleepily shut. A gentle breeze made Nathan shiver; the night was fairly warm but it was still only the end of February. It was ironic, really, that he had ended up seeking solace at the same place where it had all begun. The ocean had always been his favorite place. When he was little the time spent at the beach was the only time he was allowed to make sand castles and splash in the waves and just be a kid rather than have to practice free throw after free throw until he could do it in his sleep. As he got older, he would come down to the beach when his parents were fighting, or later on when the pressure his dad put on him got to be too much. Even now, the solitude made him feel at peace and calmed his fragile nerves. He had hit his father. He had come close, so close, to becoming him. The apartment was trashed and he hadn't been stone cold sober since Haley had left. Nathan looked down at his son in his arms and knew that he deserved better. He deserved someone who didn't just love him, but could care for him and give him the life Nathan had always dreamed of.
"Nathan, honey, I'm home!" called his mother from the entryway. She walked into the kitchen and set the groceries on the island counter. "Did you have fun going fishing with your father?"
Eight-year old Nathan looked up from his Playstation and grinned at his mother. "Yeah, Mom. I caught an eighteen-inch tuna and me and dad cooked it up and ate it! He helped me gut it and I grabbed the guts out of it with my hands! And then we made a fire just like I learned in Cub Scouts!"
"That's lovely, Nathan. It sounds like you had a great time."
"Yup. It was awesome! Dad said maybe next weekend we could go back!"
Nathan smiled at the memory. That week he had discovered that he had a brother, Lucas Scott, and his parents had gotten into a long, heated argument behind their bedroom door. His mother had left early the next morning for a business trip, or so she had said, and the talk of another fishing trip had been dropped. That memory was probably of one of the last times he had truly enjoyed hanging out with his father. Somewhere along the way, the pressure to succeed at all costs, the intense competition initiated by a man who lived in the past, the struggle to achieve dreams that were never his in the first place blinded them to the reason that they had started playing ball in the first place. They had loved the game.
And Nathan realized that he would have to be a better father to Tyler. He wanted his son to have good memories of his childhood, like he did. He wanted him to find something he was passionate about and stay true to his heart. He wanted Ty to dream and to achieve all of those dreams. But most of all, Nathan didn't want to become his father. He wanted his son to be able to be proud of his father, like he once was proud of Dan, a long time ago. Nathan lay down on the sand with his son asleep on his chest. He could stay like this forever, just him and Ty, stretched out by the ocean with the blue stars watching from overhead.