First off, I'm hoping you guys like this story. I can't make any promises of day-to-day ud's, but I promise to try to UD at least once a week. Life can get pretty hectic, as I'm sure most of you know. If anyone needs anything cleared up, feel free to ask. I'm not gonna be picky about comments, but they are greatly appreciated, especially since they are greatly motivational, not to mention a total morale-booster to know that people are reading this story.
Secondly, I realize I didn't add a disclaimer to the first chapter…oops. Anyway, rather than type it every time, I'm gonna put it here, once and for all, got it? Good. hehe
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to One Tree Hill except for this story. However, if I did own James Lafferty, that spray can of whip cream from last chapter would've come in handy ;-)
Anyway, onto the story…
Chapter 2:
A couple hours later, Nathan and I are on the couch, still completely sticky since neither of us showered after our little whip-cream war. It was towards the end of Saw III, and I was not only completely grossed out, but also totally scared out of my wits. Nathan was lying on the couch, and I was sprawled out on top of him, my head buried into his chest after a particularly brutal moment. His arm was wrapped around me, along with a blanket, yet I continue to shiver. Glancing up at me, Nathan's eyes are teasing, but caring at the same time. His hand begins to rub small circles on my back, gently comforting me through this terror of a movie.
My head is still buried into his chest as I hear a woman screaming in the background. "Sweet Jesus, will this move ever end?" I think to myself, silently vowing to kill Nathan later for making me watch this. Cautiously, I peek my head out from under the blanket, turning back to face the TV, only to view another gripping scene of sadism. "Bad idea Hales." I think again, giving a soft squeak and pulling my head back under the covers into his chest. I can hear Nathan laughing at the random noise I just emitted, and lightly I pinched him in his side. He stopped laughing, but I could tell he was still smiling.
"How can you stand to watch this?" I ask him from under the covers.
"Hales, it's fake. The blood isn't real. The dead bodies aren't real. The evil doll on the tricycle isn't real." He laughs, but manages to wrap his other arm around me to embrace me in a hug.
"Dude you are so watching The Notebook with me next weekend." I warn, though we both know it won't happen considering the fact that I hate that movie. "God this is the creepiest movie ever." I whine. There is no way in hell I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Nate gently pulls on the blanket so that my head is uncovered. He softly kisses my forehead, reassuring me that I'll be fine. I squeeze him a little tighter before jumping a foot high in the air after glancing back at the movie.
Now most people would find the present situation odd. Once again, Nathan and I aren't most people. We are completely comfortable with eachother; there is no awkwardness between us, no matter the situation. It's actually uncommon to find me not sprawled out against him, or his arms wrapped around me. We have our own group of friends, consisting of the two of us, and our friends Peyton, Brooke, and Lucas, Nathan's brother. Rachel has her own group of friends, pretty much her fellow cheerleaders Bevin and Theresa. We're still pretty close though, even with our differences in friends.
Brooke, Peyton, and I are cheerleaders along with Bevin, Theresa, and Rachel. All the guys are on the basketball team, with Nathan and Lucas as co-captains. Being on the two winning teams in Tree Hill High puts us on a pretty high social rank. However, to my group of friends, it doesn't matter as much. Considering the fact that I tutor, I know a lot of other people too, despite what most people think.
Brooke Davis is the fashionable one. She's spunky, cheery, and totally optimistic, making her the perfect Head Cheerleader, despite the fact that she's had a pretty rough life. She belongs to one of the richest families in Tree Hill, but she doesn't allow it to go to her head. Like me, and a number of unprecedented students, her parents are never home either. Must be something about that generation. I think she feels like she's not good enough, because she's always trying to make her parents proud, though I doubt they would even recognize her if they saw her on a street. Just last year she was elected Student Body president. Among all this, she's wicked pretty, with dark brown hair and bright brown eyes. Even though she's had her ups and downs, she's still the perkiest person I know.
Which brings me to my next friend, Peyton Sawyer. She too is a bombshell, with blonde curls and green eyes. She's also experienced more pain than anyone I know. Her mother died when she was seven, and her father is always out at sea, trying to give the daughter the life she deserves, though personally, I think she'd prefer to have a dad than a monthly check. Peyton is very broody, which is reflected in her drawings, as well as the music she listens too. She's got a killer taste in music. However, she's probably the first person I'd go to for advice about life, other than Nathan of course.
Lucas Scott is Nathan's older brother. Or, older half-brother I should say. Nathan's dad Dan unknowingly got Lucas's mom Karen pregnant in high school, only to go to college and get Nathan's mom Deb pregnant. By the time he found out both girls were pregnant, Dan was in deep water. He chose to stay with Dab. But continued to be there for Karen every step of the way. Unfortunately, Karen died after childbirth with Lucas, so Deb adopted Lucas in as her own son, and Nathan was born three months later. Pretty complicated, eh?
Rachel's friends Theresa and Bevin are your stereotypical high school cheerleaders. Blonde, ditzy, and completely superficial .All this leads to plenty of drama. Rachel is constantly pulled into the drama with them, over guys and parties, but I don't think she minds so much. It's quite odd how predictable they are.
By now the movie is over, and I turn my head to see the credits rolling. "Thank God." I sigh. Nathan smiles and moves to turn on the lights. I glance at the clock. "11:37. Are you staying here tonight?" I ask, stifling a yawn in the process. Nathan shakes his head. "I would, but my grandparents are in town for the weekend so I should head home to see them." He replies, his voice sounding anything but excited. Nathan's grandfather Royal Scott is 100 dedicated to basketball. He had never had a problem criticizing Dan about his game as he grew up, and now it seems the tradition had been passed down to Nathan.
After turning on the lights Nathan came back over and settled onto the couch. "Want me to stay with you until Rachel comes home?" He asks, and we both know he's doing it for himself just as much as he's doing it for me. I'm scared of the movie, and he's scared of his grandpa.
"Of course." I smile and gently move to put my head on his shoulder. Eventually my breathing began to slow and I could feel his becoming deeper when I heard the rattling of keys outside my front door. Moments later, Rachel stumbled in half-drunk, moving past the couch as she mumbles a high and goes up to bed. "Wow. I'm going to be so comforted after watching three terrifying movies tonight." I grimace. Noticing that Nathan had fallen asleep, I gently shake him awake.
"Nate…Nate…" I persist, and slowly his eyes open again. "Are you gonna be able to drive home?" I ask.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." He answers, and begins to gather his stuff. I walk him to the door and give him a brief hug. "Good luck." I whisper into his ear, and he embraces me a little tighter. He softly kisses my forehead before leaving. I shut the door behind him and lock it. Turning around, I decide to leave everything right where it is, rather than clean it. "I'll pick it up tomorrow." I think to myself. Turning off the light, I head upstairs to my bedroom.
I push open the door and collapse on the bed. For some reason I'm too tired to even slide underneath the covers, let alone even change my clothes, I end up passing out on top.
I wake up to the noise of my bedroom window opening. Without opening my eyes, I know who it is. Nathan. Yet another one of our Dawson/Joey traditions. If we're ever having a rough night, we'll head over to the others' house and stay with them. For me it's if I'm ever lonely, and for him, it's if he's gotten into a fight at home. Not with his parents, hell no, his parents are amazingly nice. But whenever his grandparents are in town, that's another story. I wish Royal would just lay off him. Lucas isn't criticized for his every move…in fact; Lucas is completely ignored by Royal. Since he isn't Deb's son, Lucas is just a bastard to him, not worth his time or his "good advice." Funny how it turns out, Lucas actually has the better end of the deal in this situation.
Turning over in my bed, I move just in time to see Nathan pull his leg in. I always worry he'll get hurt climbing up the huge oak tree by my window, but he navigates it perfectly in the dark.
I get out, or off I guess, my bed and move over to him. "Nate…are you okay?"
It's then that he turns his face towards me and I see the huge black and blue bruise formed on his right eye. It's pretty swollen.
"Omygosh! Nathan what happened?" I asked worriedly. I bring my hands up to cup his face, my small hand grazing his cheek. His eyes are sad. And tired.
"He hit me. I got home, and the lights were all on. Usually my parents are in bed. But I go home, and everybody's awake: my dad, my mom, my grandma, and Royal. His eyes subconsciously flicker when he mentions his grandfather.
"So I walk in, and everyone is sitting in the living room. The TV isn't on; nobody's talking. They're just sitting. I walk up to my grandma and greet her. Ya know, say hi to my dad, my mom. Then I go to greet him, my hand raised to shake his, "The proper way to greet a man." he mocks, and what does he do? Sends a fist straight for my eye. It happened so fast."
"Oh Nate." I sympathize, even though I know there is going to be plenty more to come.
"So he goes, "Nathan Lee Scott, what in the hells name are you doing home this late?" And of course, I naively think that this is the part where he'll tell me how my parents were so worried, or that the streets are dangerous or something. But no, he says, "The season is about to start, what are you doing slacking off on sleep? Your jump shot is hell enough already; it's not going to magically get better by knocking a few beers back. When are you going to grow up and be a man you weak ass son of a bitch?"
"So at this point I turn to my mom. I tell her I was here. She nods, I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that half the time I'm with you anyway. So the bastard decides to cut in, shouting about how I should focus on my free throws rather than fuck some stupid ass bimbo." He pauses for a minute, and glances down sorrowfully towards me. "I'm sorry Hales."
I'm silent for a minute. Royal didn't even know me. But honestly, I'm not that surprised. What Nathan said next did surprise me though.
"So I hit him. Before he could even finish dissing you, I punched him right across the face. He shook it off, saying how a girl could punch better, even though there was a small trickle of blood oozing from his nose. I could hear my parents mutter something in the background as he hits me again. Same eye, only this time, he used his other hand. His Tree Hill Class Ring of '58 hits me right above my eyebrow. I mean, can you believe he still wears that? A constant reminder of his fucking glory days."
I move his head towards mine, and softly kiss him on the cheek opposite of his injury.
"I left after that. I passed Lucas coming down the stairs on my way out. No doubt he heard the commotion. Our eyes connected, and he shook his head. "I'm sorry man."
I just storm out of the house the shouts between my dad and Royal still reverberating off the walls in my house, got in my car and drove here. Sorry for waking you up." He adds, looking at the clock. 1:49 am.
I wrap my arms around him and embrace him as my head rests on his chest. "It's okay Nathan, you know you can come here whenever." I say, looking up at him. "Do you need ice or anything?" I ask, glancing at the cut once more.
"Nah, I'm fine. A real man takes the pain as if he doesn't have any." He says, quoting Royal from a fight they had a few years ago. Silently I lead him to my bed, and I get under the covers. He moves to the other side, and reaches up to pull his shirt off. In the moonlight through the window I can see his smooth, chiseled chest and my breath catches in my throat. He's just so damn beautiful. He takes off his jeans so that he's only in his boxers, and slides in next to me. He wraps his arms around me and I snuggle up close to him. It's how we always sleep. My head rests against his chest as he slides one hand from my hair down to my lower back. His touch alone drives me crazy.
Nathan is the only one I ever open up to. And vice versa. Our friends know half as much about us as we know about the other person. I'm the only one, other than Lucas obviously, who knows how hard Royal is on Nathan. How pressured he feels. I'm so glad he opens up to me like he does.
It's pretty weird. Nathan is such a man when Royal isn't around. He's good to his parents, polite, and half the time trying to perfect his game. But then Royal comes to town, and criticizes Nathan so that he feels worthless. And Nathan puts up with it, or at least he did till tonight anyway. He still tries to be perfect for Royal, to make his grandpa proud. And it never works.
Nathan shifts a little in the bed. "Stop worrying about me Hales." He whispers lightly into my hair. "I'm fine." It's pretty creepy how he can tell I'm feeling before I can even vocalize it out loud. We're just that in tune.
I move my head back, and glance up at him. "Really?"
He gazes his eyes into mine. "Yeah. Positive. I don't want you to worry. I'll be fine." Softly he kisses my forehead and I move back up against him.
"I love you Hales." He says, a few moments later.
"I love you too, Nathan." The words being one of the truest things I've ever said.
The next morning, I woke up before Nathan did. Rather than wake him up, I took the time to look him over. The bruise did look bad, but you could already tell it was beginning to heal. In one part of it, I could see a tiny imprint of the number 1958. "Oh, if I could kill Royal." Not only for damaging this boy's perfect face, but also for crushing him blow by blow mentally whenever he had the chance to.
My eyes traveled down to Nathan's lips. Yet another perfect part of him. I often caught myself staring at them when he wasn't looking. God, I have to stop that. It's not like he'd ever like me anyway, nor would I ever make my feelings towards him known. If something were ever to happen so that we'd break up, I wouldn't be able to handle not being around him afterwards. No, everything is much better this way.
My gaze furthers even lower down to his chest, where I can visibly see his nipple ring. He got it when he was 14, and his parents almost killed him for it. Yet he never got it removed. He said something along the lines of, "The ladies love it." It sort of surprised me how many people didn't know about his nipple ring. Not that Nathan was a player or anything, but he's definitely been around. He's had two relatively serious girlfriends, and quite a few hookups, but I'm always surprised that if someone mentions it, how many people didn't know he's got one.
Brooke is the only soul in the entire world that knows my feelings towards Nathan. And even then, it's not like I'd told her on purpose. It all happened last summer at a beach party.
Flashback:
Brooke and I were walking along the beach, both of us totally wasted from numerous drinks. Time Smith, the bartender, had raided his parents' liquor cabinet for the party, and was now mixing anything and everything he possibly could.
We had stumbled away from the party, for some odd reason that I don't remember today. We sat down on the sand and just stared at the waves crashing into the beach.
"God. Today was perfect." Brooke said laughing, tossing her head back and accidentally tipping towards the sand. Did I mention how drunk we were?
"Not as perfect as Nathan." I said, not even realizing that I'd said it out loud, not in my head as I had imagined.
"What did you just say?" She asked laughing uncontrollably. Not at my confession, Brooke always laughs her ass off when she's tipped a few too many back.
"Nathan. He's perfect. I mean, he's smart, funny, he's got a killer body." I say, then suddenly gasp and cover my mouth with my hand, my eyes shocked.
Brooke looked just as surprised. "You like Nathan? Wait, why am I so surprised? It should've been obvious judging by how close you guys are.
"Does he know?" She asks.
"Of course not!" I scream. "And he, nor anyone else, is ever going to find out, got it?" I glance at her threateningly, and then we both began to laugh again. Brooke knows how to keep a secret.
"It's alright. I like Lucas." She confessed, and it was my turn to by semi-shocked.
"Really?"
"Yeah. That boy is amazing." She nodded, her glazed eyes becoming reminiscent.
"Those damn Scott boys are too damn irresistible."
End of flashbackSeconds later, we'd been attacked by both Nathan and Lucas. Luckily, they hadn't heard anything. And to this day, not a soul knows our feelings for those damn irresistible Scott boys.