Wow everybody! I'm really surprised how much some people seem to like this story. Thanks so much! Anyway, I have a feeling you guys aren't reading this just because of the Author's Notes, so here ya go…

Chapter 3:

Nathan still had yet to wake, and considering the night he had before, I wanted to give him plenty of rest. Today would be much worse, considering he'd eventually have to go home to receive his final judgment. No doubt Royal would yell, criticize, and denounce him in any way possible. Nathan's parents won't step in, Deb is scared to death of Royal, and Dan had already lived through Royal's torment. Dan of course, feels guilty about Nathan's situation, but would be powerless to stop it from occurring. It's an annual tradition, taking place when Royal and his wife May stop in to Tree Hill to check in on things.

I've never met Royal. Dan and Nathan are too protective of me to allow me to do so. Not that I've had much incentive for wanting do to so, the stories they've told of him have trained me to stay away.

There was one year when Nathan was shooting hoops in his backyard when Royal saw him miss a shot. One shot out of like thirty. So the next day, he woke Nathan up at the crack of dawn and made him run two miles with him, only to end up at the gym, pumping iron for three more hours. Nathan had come home completely exhausted. Later that night he was rushed to the ER due to dehydration. He ended up missing a few days of school because the doctor wanted him to recuperate.

So that's what will most likely happen. Nathan will go home and practically kill himself for the mere approval of his grandfather. I don't know why Nathan puts up with it. He's never gotten anything in return for his slow suicide. Never a "good job son" or an "I'm proud of you." Yet he continues to try.

There's a slight knocking on my door, and Rachel pops her head in. Eyeing the situation fairly quickly, she pulls her head out the door. "Oh! Sorry!" She says with a small blush on her face.

Once she closes the door, I can hear her doing a little happy dance. Quickly I remove myself from Nathan's arms, pull the blankets back over his body and head for the door. I can hear him readjusting his body as I open the door, where Rachel quickly pounces on me.

"Ha! I was so right! I knew you guys were going to hook up sooner or later." She says with an all-knowing smirk on her face. "Seriously?! What's with all the smirking around here?!" I think.

"Shut up!" I whisper. "We didn't hook up! He came over last night because he had no other place to go!" She doesn't believe me, and I shoot her a glare.

"Seriously!" I continue. "How many times do I have to tell you that there is absolutely nothing going on between me and-" I hear the door open and turn to see him behind me. "Nathan." I finish.

"Hey guys." He says, completely unaware of the conversation Rachel and I were previously having. "What's up?"

"You tell us." Rachel says suggestively. Glancing up at his face, she almost does a double take. "Damn Nathan. You look like ass! I didn't know Haley liked it so rough." I shoot her another glare, which does get noticed by Nathan. Walking towards the bathroom, she turns around and winks. Smirking, she closes the bathroom door as I flip her off. I turn back to Nathan, who is confused as hell.

"Hey. How are you doing?" I ask concernedly.

"Feels like I got punched in the eye by someone with a boulder for a ring."

"Hmm. Pretty close to it, I'd say, Mr. 1958."

He looks at me quite confused. Then turns towards the mirror in the hallway. "Damn! It left an imprint! Stupid fucker!" He spats angrily.

"Nathan!" I exclaim. Sure his grandpa is an ass, but he's still family.

"Hales! I'm so fucking sick of this shit. I'm killing myself for him, and he doesn't even notice! I'm never going to be good enough for him! It doesn't matter if I average 28 points a game, or if I lead the team to States, or if I get fucking MVP, if I miss a basket, I'm worthless to him!"

"Then let yourself be worthless, Nathan! He's not going to change! You can." I fight back. "Look at your dad! He's proud of your 28-point average! And all your teammates, do you realize how much they look up to you?"

Nathan looks shocked. It's not often that I have an outburst like this.

"Nice to see the fire in ya Hales." He smiles, and I soften up.

"I just care about you, that's all. I don't like to see you so defeated at two in the morning." I say, lowering my voice in sympathy.

He wraps me in a hug. "I know you care. I'm sorry about that, by the way."

"It's okay, you know that." I reply, and then slap him on the shoulder.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"That was for leaving the window open all night! And then stealing the blankets from me mister! I was freezing!" I say, moving my hands in a flourish to showcase my clothing of shorts and a tank top.

"Well, I was cold!" He moved his hands to showcase his clothing of only boxers. "You could've grabbed more blankets." He added.

"I did! You took those too!" I say, and he begins to laugh.

"I know! I was actually awake then." He smirks, and I slap him on the chest.

"Jerk."

"Whore."

"Ass."

"Skank."

"Bastard."

"Hooker."

"Jock."

"Nerd."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

And that's how our fight went. Weird right? Well, it became even stranger after we realized that Rachel had exited the bathroom in time to watch it. She clapped her hands and stood back from a distance to watch it. Nathan and I grinned sheepishly.

"Wow, brilliant. You guys had me tearing up inside." She joked. "Anyway, I'm going to the movies later. You guys want in?"

I turned towards Nathan. He did have to talk to Royal. But a little fun beforehand couldn't hurt, right?

"Yeah, we'll go. Just give us time to shower and stuff." I said, coming to the realization that I still had whipped cream on me. My arms were sticky, and my hair felt pretty stiff.

"Yeah, thanks for the mess in the kitchen by the way. Had a blast landing on my ass covered in cool whip this morning." Rachel smirked, raising an eyebrow towards us suggestively.

"What can I say? She couldn't keep her hands off me" Nathan joked.

I shot him a playful glare. "Bastard. We'll finish this later." Dragging him back into my room, I shouted to Rachel, "We'll be ready soon." Just as Nathan shouted, "See, what did I tell ya? She wants me."

After I closed the door, I slapped Nathan again. "Ouch! Rachel help she's abusing me!"

I could hear Rachel walking away. "You're on your own buddy!"

Nathan's jaw dropped. "Traitor." He muttered.

This time I smirked as I left my room to take a shower in the adjoining bathroom. That was one plus to having rich parents. Rach and I each had our own rooms and bathrooms, and more space than we could possible fill up. Mommy and daddy dearest also gave us two stellar cars for turning sixteen. Rachel got a yellow Aston Martin. I got a silver Porsche Carrera GT. Nathan however, totally took the cake when it came to sweet rides. For his birthday, his parents got him and Lucas each a Koenigsegg CCX. Lucas's is red, while Nathan's is black. Those cars are damn sexy. Talk about the luckiest kids in the world. I have no idea how his parents got so loaded. Then again, their dad does own car dealerships all over the state, while their mom is a manager for some of the top bands on the east coast. That explains it.

I turn on the shower until it's blaring hot, just the way I like it. Nathan once walked in the bathroom while I was showering, and claimed he got third degree burns in the process. What can I say? I get cold really easily! I mean, I once got goosebumps in a hot tub for crying out loud. And it's not my fault that my showers are super hot. His are super cold half the time…

Flashback:

"Nathan!" I called through the house, trying to find him. I searched the kitchen. No Nathan. Living room. No Nathan, though a basketball game was playing on TV. I ran upstairs to his bedroom. Once again, no Nathan. I didn't think that he had basketball practice this early in the morning, and I couldn't think of where else he might be, unless he was out with Lucas or something.

I heard the shower running down the hallway. Concluding that both Dan and Deb were at work, I had a 50 percent chance that Nathan was taking a shower. Still too much of a risk to check, God knows how embarrassed I'd be if it turned out to be Lucas. Plus, Brooke would totally kill me if I ever saw Lucas's package before she did.

I decided to check my emails on his computer while I waited for whomever it was to get out of the shower. It was there that his away message popped up, saying that Nathan was indeed taking a shower. "There's solid proof." I think in my head. I walk down the hallway and open the door, shielding my eyes just in case it does happen to be Lucas.

"Nathan?" I ask.

"Haley?" He replies.

"Ok. Thank God it was you and not Lucas." I let out a sigh. "Anyway, everyone's going to the movies today, want to come?"

"Yeah, I'll be out in a few." He answers. It's then I realize how cold the air is in here.
And I don't mean cold to my standards; I mean cold to everyone else's. In other words, normal people.

"Holy shit Nathan it's freezing in here!"

"Uh…yeah Hales." He answers.

"Dude, you should probably get out of there before the water gets any--" Reaching my hand into the shower, the freezing water bounces of my skin. "Colder! Why are in a freezing cold shower in the middle of February Nathan? Are you insane?!"

"Uh…hold on a minute." The water turns off and I see his arm reach through the curtain to grab his towel off the sink. A few seconds later he opens the curtain; the dark blue towel wrapped loosely around his hips.

"God he looks stunning." I stood, thinking to myself. My eyes quickly scan over his toned abs, and then back to his handsome face. Following me out of the bathroom, we head back to his room. He throws on some clothes; a high flyers t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts. He came on to the bed so that he was a few inches away from, mimicking my pose of lying on my stomach, my arms folded under my chest in front of me. Glancing over at me, he begins. "You still haven't figured it out? I mean, you aren't exactly the epitome of clueless Hales."

I shake my head, still not getting the simple concept. "Give me a reason a teenage guy would take a cold shower." He says. Suddenly, everything is clear.

"God Nathan, that's so gross!" I say, even though I'm smiling, and I push into him lightly.

"Hales! I'm a guy! It's not like I can control it!" But he's smirking, clearly enjoying my reaction to the realization.

"Yeah, but Nate, in February?! Come on, weren't you cold?" I asked.

"Uh yeah. Sorta the objective Hales."

"Wait…so when I walked in, were you…?"

"Yea." He answers proudly, and I shake my head. Unbelievable.

"What about while I was talking to you?"

This time he hesitates a minute, not answering me automatically. "Nathan…" I warn.

His expression turns into a sheepish one. "Yeah."I bury my head in my hands. "You're serious! Oh my gosh, that's awful Nate!" I say, but I'm also laughing uncontrollably now, so I doubt he's taking me too seriously.

"Hey, it's not my fault you walked in! And wouldn't it have been worse had I just turned the shower off? At least I finished the job!" He says, trying to justify his actions, placing his hand on my shoulder.

I took comfort in the embrace until I realized what that hand had been doing 15 minutes prior. "Ugh! Gross Nate!" I say, shrinking away from his embrace.

"Aww come on Hales! My hands are clean! That's just raunchy!" He says, making a face at me.

After a few minutes I forgive him, but he begins to laugh. "You should've seen your face." He laughed. I swatted at him, but he ducked. Moving to get off the bed, I say, "I'll be downstairs waiting, don't take too long perv."

Thirty minutes later…

Nathan and I were in the car on our way to pick up Lucas and the rest of the gang. The ride had been pretty silent, minus the few quiet moments of laughter one of us had when we thought about what had just happened.

"How often?"

I asked, during a particularly long period of solitude.

"Honestly?" He asked, glancing over at me.

"No. Lie to me." I say sarcastically.

"Um…for me, like two out of three showers."

"Seriously? That often?" I asked, definitely surprised. This was one of the perks of having a best friend of the opposite sex; Free access to tons of information without being too embarrassed.

"Uh Hales. Pretty much every other morning I wake up with a pitched tent."

"A wha-? Oh. Nevermind." I say again, and he begins to smirk.

A few more minutes of silence…

"Wait, so is that why sometimes when I wake up you're already in the shower?"

He shoots me an embarrassed look. "Yeah."

"But…"

"Would you rather wake up to that situation?" He asks, and I shake my head wildly, but I'm smirking.

"So in my shower you…"

"Ye-"

"Wait, don't answer! I don't want to know!" I joke, and he shakes his head at me, a smirk on his face.

After a few more minutes…

"Hey Nate?"

"Yeah Hales?"

"Who was it?"

"Who was who?"

"Ya know…the person who caused…" At this point the car swerved a little on the road. Nathan turned his whole head in my direction.

"Oh hell no!" He shakes his head. "No way am I answering that."

"C'mon Nathan! We tell eachother everything! I mean, you can tell me that you jerk off in my shower, but you won't tell me to whom? That is so not fair!" I whine.

"Hales there is no way in hell that I'm ever answering that question!"

"Oh my gosh! It's someone we know, isn't it?!" I shriek wildly, clapping my hands excitedly in a very Brooke-ish way.

A small tinge of pink to Nathan's cheeks told me everything.

"C'mon Nathan! You have to tell me! It's someone we know, right? Tell me! Pleassssseeeee?!" I ask.

He shakes his head.

I use the infamous sad-eyes-pouty-lip face on him. He never resists that.

Looking me dead in the eye, he smirks, and shakes his head no. He knows how much this is driving me crazy. And he's enjoying it.

"No fair." I pretend to pout, folding my arms across my chest in an attempt to look like a five year old.

"Think about it from my perspective Hales. If I caught you brooking yourself, would you tell me who you were brooking yourself to?" He asks, amusement clearing shown across his face.

"Hell no!"

"My point exactly."

"I meant hell no to the fact that you think you'd ever walk in on me brooking myself. I can hide it better than that"

"Wait, so you've done it?!" He asked, his mouth dropped, completely shocked as the car swerves again.

Now it's my turn to blush. "Yeah. So what? Don't you dare go all double standard on me now Nathan." I joke. "And keep your damn eyes on the road!"He shakes his head and continues driving.

Glancing over at him, I notice he's smirking. "What now?" I ask.

"I could tell you what I'll be thinking about the next time I shower." He smirks at me, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh shut up!"

He speaks again, under his breath, but still loud enough for me to hear, "Tutorgirl getting her freak on."

Needless to say Nathan was covered in bruises by the time we picked up the others.

End of Flashback

I lathered up my hair and rinsed it out. "Screw repeating", I thought as I turned off the shower, getting out, I wrapped a towel around me, wrote "Hey Nathan!" in the steam on the bathroom mirror, and left the bathroom so I could get changed.Nathan was on the bed watching TV when I walked in. "Damn you're lookng hot Hales." He says.

"Uh. Thanks…I think." I say, thinking it's some sort of joke, but inside my heart is jumping up in down.

"No, I meant that your face is all red, but yeah, you're hot in the other aspect too." Nathan smiles as I shoot him one. As I reach into the closet to get clothes for the day, Nathan lays motionless on the bed.

"Aren't you going to shower?" I ask.

"In a minute, I'm enjoying the view right here." It takes me a minute to realize what he's saying then suddenly I turn around.

"Perv."

He simply smirks in response. Finally getting up from the bed, he heads for the bathroom. "I am only human!" he replies before he shuts the door.