As Haley returned back to the James house, a sigh fell from her lips. The entire house was in darkness, and it became apparent that she'd spent a lot longer than she normally did chatting to Nathan once the custom within the café died down for the night. "Gee, thanks for waiting up." She muttered sarcastically, carefully closing the door and heading up to her room. Was it wrong to be thinking of Nathan as more than just her best friend? She never had in the past; he'd always been her best friend, her confidant, her unbiological brother. But now, they were growing up and she realised she had feelings for him more than she should for just a 'best friend'.

Now that she was sixteen, Haley knew she'd start to care a little more about boys, but did she really have to start feeling this way towards Nate? She recalled with perfect clarity that many a time both her parents, and Deb, had commented that they'd be married one day. She'd always just laughed it off, just rolled her eyes and acted like their parents were crazy, it'd never really occurred to her until right then that Nathan had never given the concept the brush off the way she had. As a matter of fact, he often seemed mildly offended when she acted like marrying him was not her idea of a good time.

When push came to shove, Nathan had always been there for Haley, ever since kindergarten. As the sixteen-year-old sat down upon her bed, memories came flooding back, and she was reminded of a day several weeks after they'd become friends. Even in those days, they'd become quickly inseparable, and spending time away from him had seemed odd. The inevitable had come one day though, and without Nathan around she'd sat on the swings, watching, waiting. To this day, she still wasn't sure who'd pushed her to the ground, but it'd been one of the other girls, shoved her off the swing for no reason other than pure malice. Amazingly, as the five year old hit the ground and cut open all of her knee, she didn't cry.

Haley had never been the type to cry; she simply stood up and looked at her bloody knee in distaste. That had been when he'd come along, all brave and heroic. "What did you do that for?" He'd demanded, but all the girls had, of course, acted completely innocent. "Do it again and you'll regret it."

That was the first of many times that Nathan had saved her, and cheered her up without even trying. He'd lifted her from the ground, and taken her inside to clean the blood from her knee. Had they been any older when she'd met him, the instant connection probably would have occurred as more than just a friendship, but it hadn't. They'd known each other forever, falling in love with him would almost be wrong – Almost, but not quite.

Carefully, Haley pulled the cell phone from her back pocket and typed a quick text to Nathan. 'You never did answer my question, you know. I was thinking about that day not long after we met, the first time you saved me. You're always there for me. Never stop, okay?' It was more long winded than she'd intended, but hitting send she leaned back, satisfied.


Feeling his cell phone vibrate against his leg, Nathan sat up. He'd been lost in a daydream; thinking about her once more. It seemed he was obsessed lately, which he knew probably seemed wrong considering she was his best friend; the closest thing he had to a sister. "Like I fucking care." He unintentionally muttered aloud, before reading the text, his heart slamming against his chest as he saw it was from Haley. 'That's because I didn't want to freak you out.' He typed the words, staring at them wondering whether he should keep them in or not – In the end he decided, that yes, he should, and continued. 'I'll always be here for you, you know that. Whether it's because you've been pushed off a swing, and hurt your knee, or because some jackass hurt your heart.' He was so tempted to end with 'I love you' but refrained.

Friendship was a beautiful thing; especially the friendship of Nathan Scott and Haley James, and he didn't want to go and ruin it with three foolish words, like 'I love you'. And nor did Haley, when the text came through, she knew he felt something for her and knew that deep down it was reciprocated, but she couldn't allow feelings to surface. As far as she knew, he was interested in Brooke Davis, and she was certainly no Brooke Davis, that was for sure. 'Freak me out? Well, I'm going to bed. Goodnight.' It was over that quickly, and Nathan found himself craving to see her. He hadn't yet made a fool of himself with Haley, but now they had the whole weekend to themselves, and he didn't want to think about how many ways he could ruin this for the both of them. Switching off the light, he stared into the darkness, wishing, beyond anything, that one day, Haley would realise that he was the one for her.