Playing It Wrong
Chapter Four – Sexual Feeling


Summary:Haley James is at the top of her class and has everything she wants, a great boyfriend, tons of friends, and she's the captain of the cheerleading squad. Nathan Scott is recently injured and hating life. The only good thing he has is his girlfriend. However, when Haley and Nathan's "other halves" go behind their backs and get together, Haley devises a plan for revenge: Date Nathan Scott. Will it work or will she become too distracted along the way?

A/N: Again, thank you all for the lovely reviews! Please keep them coming. Also, in this chapter, in the first section, Haley doesn't answer Nathan's question and that isn't a mistake. It will be answered in probably chapter 15. Sorry! I threw a curveball in at the end. If you figure out what I'm up to, PLEASE do not say it in a review. I have had previous stories spoiled because people do that. And thank you to my lovely beta, again! This story has caused much writer's block and she's been great. Thanks and keep reviewing!

"And you wouldn't be bothered if we had a very close face-to-face conversation?" Haley became very nervous when Nathan leaned in and their lips were mere centimetres from each other.

"Uh..." She tried to say no, but she couldn't. Words were becoming very difficult to form and breathing was becoming very difficult.

"That's what I thought," Nathan said before closing the distance and kissing Haley. Haley didn't respond at first because she was so thrown off by Nathan's actions, but after a second she relaxed and kissed him back. However, the moment didn't last very long when they heard the door close. Nathan quickly jumped off of Haley and they both looked over the couch to see Peyton standing there with a huge grin on her face.

"I told you so," she said, looking at Haley, before going to her room. Nathan looked at Haley obviously confused.

"Told you so what?" said Nathan.

"Don't worry about it." Haley moved to the other couch and grabbed her Calculus book. "We should work on Calculus."

"Hales… We should talk about this."

"No we shouldn't. It was nothing, Nathan. We just got carried away and I pushed you so it isn't anything we should worry about." Haley wouldn't look at Nathan and continued to focus on her book. She could feel the butterflies flying around in her stomach. While she wanted to believe the kiss was nothing, she knew that wasn't true. Damn it Peyton. It was all her fault she had these damn thoughts occupying her mind, she could've just said nothing and kept Haley's mind at ease, but no Peyton Sawyer always has to put her two cents in. Even though Haley knew that Peyton was just trying to help she was still slightly annoyed at her friend. These stupid thoughts were torturing her.

"You know I was just testing you, right?" When Haley gave him a confused look, he went on. "I was seeing how you would react if I kissed you because if we're going to go through with this, it needs to look natural… not awkward."

Haley shook her head. "I'm not doing it."

"Why not?"

"I just don't want to anymore. I have no desire to do that." She shrugged. "Besides, I'm not going to sink to her level."

"Haley, it wouldn't be sinking to her level. What she did was shallow. What we would be doing is pretending to date to make them jealous and get them back."

"I can't do it, Nathan. Okay? It's not that I don't want to… I just can't."

"What do you mean?" Haley didn't say anything. "Haley?"

"We should finish this," she said pointing to her Calculus Book. "There's a test tomorrow and neither of us have studied so we should get to that."

"Will you just explain why you can't do it?"

"I don't want to talk about it," she said and looked down at her book. Nathan grabbed the book and set it down beside him.

"Haley, answer the question."

"Fine. You want to know why I can't do it. I can't do it because—" Haley stopped speaking when the front door to the apartment shut. Nathan and Haley turned towards the door and saw Brooke standing there. The three remained silent for about a minute before Haley turned back to Nathan.

"Can I please have my book back now?"

"Not until you answer my question."

"We aren't having this conversation right now. Got it?" She reached across him and grabbed her book. Haley noticed Brooke was still standing by the door. "Can we help you?"

"Huh? Oh, no. I'm just getting some things. I'll be gone soon," she said looking away.

"Already moving in with your new boyfriend?"

"No, actually I'm moving out and into my own place. Why don't you give it a rest?"

"Why don't you stop sleeping with other people's boyfriends?" Haley stood up and made her way around the couch. She hadn't gotten to punch Brooke earlier and wasn't going to let Nathan keep her from finishing what she had started.

"You know what, Haley? I said sorry and you didn't listen. I don't want you to forgive me right now. I just wish that you would understand that I made a mistake and I would give anything to take it back and have my best friend back."

"No you wouldn't because then you wouldn't be with Lucas. You love him and that's great, but you betrayed me and you betrayed Nathan. I can't talk to, let alone be friends with someone, who does horrible things to the people that she cares about. You know what my mom did to my dad and how much that hurt me and here you are following suit. You don't regret anything, Brooke, and you know it so stop pretending that you do."

Brooke had only taken about ten minutes to get all of her clothes and necessities and had said nothing when she left the apartment. Nathan and Haley were still sitting on the couch, only now they were actually studying, or at least Nathan was. Haley was still distracted from their kiss. It had felt so right to her and she was scared because she hadn't ever felt that way with Lucas, not even when they had first started dating. Haley glanced over at Nathan who was diligently working out math problems. Haley set her book down and got up.

"I'm gonna go talk to Peyton…"

Nathan looked up and nodded. "Okay."

Haley turned and made her way down the hall and stopped at Peyton's door. She could hear Led Zeppelin's 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' coming from inside the room. Haley shook her head knowing that Peyton was in one of her 'express my mood through my music' moods. Right now she was in a breaking up mood. Haley knocked on the door and waited. A few seconds later Peyton opened the door.

"Hey," she said and moved aside so Haley could enter her room.

"Hey. I just wanted to let you know that what you interrupted was nothing."

"It didn't look like nothing to me."

"Well, it wasn't anything so if we could just not talk about it or ever mention it again, that'd be great."

Peyton shrugged. "Or we could talk about how you like Nathan and you're too scared to admit it because you just broke up with Lucas three days ago. You didn't punch Brooke because she slept with Lucas." Haley furrowed her eyebrows. "You punched her because she hurt Nathan."

"That's not true. She deserved what she got."

"And I'm not saying she didn't. I wanted to punch her today in the gym because of what a bitch she was being. But Lucas isn't the reason you fought with Brooke and you know I'm right and you may as well stop arguing with me because you're not going to win. You like Nathan. End of story. What you choose to do about it is your own decision, but stop acting like it's not true because everyone knows it is. Why do you think he kissed you? He knows you like him. Nathan's not as stupid as you would like to think. Hell, even Brooke knows. Why do you think she said all those shitty things to you in the quad? She wanted to piss you off and see how far she could get you to go."

Haley sighed and sat down on Peyton's bed. "What do you think I should do?"

"I think you shouldn't do anything. You and Nathan just got your hearts broken and aren't ready for something serious. Try and be friends. You two suck at that so you should work on that before you decide to try and date or whatever."

"Did I tell you about the crazy plan I came up with?" She laughed at the thought.

"No, you mentioned it, but didn't explain in detail."

"The morning after the whole blow up, I thought it would be great idea to ask Nathan if he wanted to pretend to date so we could make Brooke and Lucas jealous and get them back. Well, Nathan was being a big sissy about it and said no so I decided, and keep in mind I had just woken up and was still out of it, to try and seduce him to make him agree."

"Like… Naked seduction?"

"Close enough. I was wearing panties and a bra."

"Haley James! You little slut. Who knew you had it in you." Haley smacked Peyton on the arm.

"Hey! I am not Little Miss Inexperienced."

"Having sex with your boyfriend of three years doesn't mean you're experienced with seduction and how to make a man squirm. Sorry, but it's true." Haley glared at Peyton, who in turn shrugged.

"Have you talked to Jake?"

"Yeah. We broke up today actually. Right after I talked to you, we had the talk and it was over."

"I'm sorry Peyton," Haley said giving her friend a hug.

"I'll be fine."

"Well, I'm here for you no matter what. I can't say the same about Brooke. She's too busy moving in with my ex-boyfriend. She moves quite fast."

"Haley, she did get her own place. Just thought you might like to hear it from someone else."

"Oh."

Nathan sat on the couch thinking about what had happened in the past week. A week ago, he had been happy and in love and sure that Brooke was the one for him. Now he sat there thinking about the kiss he had shared with Haley and why he hadn't agreed to date her in the first place. He wasn't scared of the consequences. If anything, rather than getting Brooke back, he could grow closer to Haley and possibly have something come out of it. Instead, he had run from his problems and any solutions because he was hurt. He didn't want to be hurt again and even though he knew Haley couldn't hurt a fly— unless the fly's face looked like Brooke's— he didn't want to get involved and have people talk.

When he had kissed Haley, he felt something and knew that his feelings for her were more than friendly. He hadn't felt that way with Brooke in months and he missed it. He had complicated things and was now scared that he had scared away Haley and things would be awkward from now on. He wanted so much to take back the kiss, not because he didn't want to freak out Haley, but because it had confirmed his feelings for her and that was something he had been trying to avoid. Nathan let out a long sigh.

"What have you done, you idiot?" he muttered to himself.

Nathan had left the apartment over an hour ago and had walked around Tree Hill not sure of what to do. He wasn't surprised when he ended up where he was standing now. It was the apartment he and Brooke had looked at a few months prior and he wasn't surprised to see her car outside of it. He had been avoiding her for the past few days and decided he may as well talk to her and get it over with.

Nathan walked up to the door and knocked. Brooke opened the door about thirty seconds later and a frown instantly appeared on her face.

"Nate. Come to yell at me?"

"No."

"What are you doing here then?" She moved aside to let him inside.

"You wanted to talk," he said entering the apartment. It was bare except for a few boxes in the area he assumed to be the living room.

"Uhm, yeah. I would offer you a seat, but I don't have any furniture, yet."

Nathan shrugged. "I can stand. I don't plan to be here very long."

"Alright. I should probably get straight to the point then. I'm sorry. I know you may not care or even want to hear that and you probably don't even believe me, but I am so sorry. I just… I stopped loving you one day and I know that's a really crappy thing to say, but it's the truth and I'm not going to lie to you. I want you to know that I truly am sorry and I was a coward. I couldn't bring myself to break up with you because I was afraid of breaking your heart, even though I obviously did that. The last thing I wanted was to lose you and Haley, and I deserve to have you two not talk to me and I guess I can live with that."

"Why Lucas?"

"He was there for me. We were having so many problems and he listened to everything I had to say and he was there for me and eventually it turned into something. I wish I hadn't gone to him for help, but I'm happy now. I hope you understand that."

Nathan nodded. "I do. I can forgive you, Brooke. I wasn't there for you and I tried to ignore the voice in my head telling me that the other day, but it's become louder and I know that I wasn't a great boyfriend. I just wish you had been honest with me… and with Haley."

"Thank you for listening." She gave Nathan a hug and then quickly let go because it was more awkward then she had imagined.

"No problem, but I gotta go. I need to go talk to someone." Brooke nodded.

"Yeah. I'll see you around." Once Nathan had walked out the door, Brooke closed it and turned around.

"I don't like lying about this…" she said to Lucas.

"It's for the best right?"

TBC. Be kind. Review.
PS. The writer's strike may be ending soon and then we can have 22 episodes instead of 12! Yay!