A/N: Hey, thanks for the reviews. Yes, I did post this on the RC for those of you who wondered.
The One Left Standing
three.
"I fully support making a late entry," Brooke started again, "but we're going to miss dinner if you don't get moving soon." Her tone was joking and playful, but it was in a quiet whisper and clearly laced with sympathy. Haley James did not need sympathy. She needed an escape.
He used to be her escape.
She continued to stare at the white wall, pondering the reasons her life went from a real-life fairytale to a spinning vortex of misery. Had it been just one decision that had killed her happiness, or was it a combination of many wrong turns that had spit her out at this dead end? If it were the latter, was it possible to take a detour or call for a tow truck? She desperately needed some direction, or even better, someone to yank her out of the rut that her life had become.
"Let's go, Hales!" Nathan hissed, waiting impatiently outside the girl's restroom door. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and shot a sideways glance to the table of boys nearby. They were talking about his favorite subject, basketball, and he really wanted to get over there before they started talking about the newest Tree Hill gossip: the strange high school Algebra teacher, Mr. Tucker was spotted with the pristine and married second grade teacher, Mrs. Kelp.
Haley emerged from the bathroom, frowning and tugging at her new red, white and blue sun dress. "Why are you in such a rush? The fireworks don't start for a few more hours, and your mom said-" She was interrupted by his hand clasping around her wrist and tugging her through the hoards of people that had come out for the Tree Hill Fourth of July Festival. "Nathan!" She shrieked as she almost tripped over a stray chair, but he was unresponsive to her shout and kept forging through. Then suddenly, he stopped and she found herself in front of a table of unfamiliar boys.
They looked up at the newly-arrived twosome and gave them looks of confusion. "Who's the girl, Scott?" One of them asked and Haley tried to hide her shock. She knew him, well, she knew his name. He was Robby, and they had sat next to each other when their class went to art. She waited for Nathan to introduce her to the table, but it never came.
Instead, he glared at Robby and told him to just shut up; Robby listened, but he didn't stop eyeing Haley warily. Nathan took the last available seat at the table and made no movement to help Haley grab an extra chair. Instead, he provoked the boys back into talks of basketball and left her to stand there, helplessly. For a while, she stood awkwardly, waiting for someone to address her, but that, too, never happened.
She spotted Lucas over in the elephant ear line, and she quietly removed herself from the group to join the line with her friend.
"Hey, Hales." He grinned easily. "Want an elephant ear?" He offered, holding up the twenty dollar bill he had been given to pay for it. His eye glinted mischievously, "My dad's paying."
Haley nodded eagerly, anticipating the taste of the warm, sugary dough on her tongue. "Yes, please!" She gazed around the festival, "Where is your dad?"
Lucas shrugged, "He was over at the dealership's booth passing out magnets, but he wasn't there when I passed by a few minutes ago. Where's Nathan?"
Haley's face turned stony, but she indicated to the table at which Nathan still sat. "He's over there talking about basketball and ignoring me."
Lucas looked angry on her behalf for a moment but then changed his demeanor and slung an arm around Haley's shoulders. "Well," he started. "You can hang out with me. I'm going to hang with the guys soon, but you know most of them anyway."
Haley smiled at her buddy, Lucas, who was like another older brother to her. She took the elephant ear from him and they started walking down the town's main street. Before she realized it, Lucas had led her to empty table much like the one Nathan, Robby and the other jerks were sitting at.
Thankfully, she couldn't see or hear those mean boys, nor was she even sure they were in the same area. She spotted a boy at the ring toss booth who looked like Nathan at one point which only made her dwell on the promise she made to Nathan that she would watch the fireworks with him. But then she remembered his promise not to leave her alone at the festival and kept talking with Lucas.
"Hey, guys!" Lucas shouted to the group of boys walking by their table. They shuffled to a stop and looked at Lucas with confusion. "You all remember Haley, right?" He asked when they got closer. The boys nodded their heads to confirm and some gave her a small smile.
"Hey, Haley." Said a sandy brown haired boy she remembered to be Jake as he took a chug of his water bottle. "Where's that annoying kid you're always with?"
Haley balled up some of her dress and then released it, repeating this many times. "Nathan is with his boy friends."
A shorter, chubbier boy snorted and swatted at Lucas, "I always figured Nathan swung that way."
Lucas groaned then smacked the back of the kid's head, "Junk, shut up." He scooted his chair closer to Haley so the other boys could pull up more chairs. "Haley, don't listen to anything these guys say. Their moms didn't teach them proper manners."
"Yo, Luke." One boy said. "Don't be talking about my momma because she'd come beat yo sorry butt. She taught me manners just fine."
Jake swatted at the boy's stomach, "Skills, your mom is like a foot shorter than all of us, she wouldn't be able to beat anyone." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bouncy ball. He made it ricochet off the table and bounce towards Skills.
Skills' face took on a very serious look as he turned the ball over in his hands, "My momma is scary when she mad though, man. You ain't seen her like that before."
"Yeah, sure man. Whatever you say." The boys suppressed their laughter and Haley found herself laughing along at the thought of a boy being so afraid of his mother. They began to talk animatedly about something that Haley was extremely glad wasn't basketball, leaving Skills to sulk and mutter things about how scary she was and how they couldn't understand.
Haley stretched out on the wooden folding chair to listen and tore pieces off of her elephant ear. The sun began to set over the river, and she counted the minutes it took for it to disappear beyond the horizon. She knew the fireworks would be starting within the next half hour and that Nathan was probably looking for her or maybe he was still with the boys, she thought, letting the bitterness settle in.
Nearby, a few teenagers were playing acoustic guitars under a tree and she watched people drop various coins and dollars into their collection hat. The oldies cover band that the city had hired to play at the festival had packed up sometime before and she could now hear the soft music that floated from the guitars. Lucas laughed at something Jake said and Haley smiled along, enjoying the breeze that wrapped her up in summer's warmth. Her eyes fluttered close when she rested her head on her hand.
"Haley! Oh, we were so worried." Karen's voice sounded near to her and she forced her eyes to open. "Lydia, she's over here! She's fine, she's with Lucas and his friends."
Haley gulped anxiously as she watched her mother rush towards her. "Haley James, you know better than to run off in crowds! Thank goodness Nathan found us when he did, otherwise you could have been kidnaped or worse!"
For the first time, Haley noticed Nathan standing behind his mother, almost using her as a shield. Haley sent a glare his way for a great number of reasons, mostly for charming his mother so deeply that he could do no wrong in her eyes.
"Mom," she moaned as her mother thanked Lucas for watching over her and dragged Haley away from the table, "I was with Lucas the whole time!"
"Yeah, well, now you are going to be with us until it is time to go home." Lydia stated, making sure to dot the end of the sentence with an air of finality so that Haley understood she had no other options but hang out with the grownups and the last person she wanted to be with, Nathan.
They came to another clearing with tables set up and her mother led her to a table where her father and Mr. Scott sat talking with a large group of important looking people. The group swivelled their attention from Mr. Scott to them when Nathan's father spoke clearly, "Ah, this is my lovely wife Karen and our youngest son, Nathan. And that is Jimmy's wife, Lydia, holding onto their youngest, Haley. Haley, you certainly worried us when you wandered off by yourself."
Lydia directed Haley to the seat across from her father and next to Nathan, which Haley scowled at. "She was with Lucas, Dan. He's such a sweet boy."
Karen cooed over her complement, launching into a story about how Lucas was such a gentlemen at their last dinner party that the Henderson's had ended up buying two new high end cars from Dan, which only Lydia listened to, as the others were swept back into conversation by Dan. Haley's father leaned over the table and eyed the two nine-year-olds. "You mom was really scared, Bub. If you promise not to venture away from Nathan and you two stay relatively close by, I'll let you go watch the fireworks."
Haley's face alight with the joyful thought of escaping the business and mom talk that currently enveloped the table. She glanced at Nathan who shrugged and nodded his agreement to Mr. James's rules. Having to keep near him would be an annoyance, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make. Nathan's irritated voice muttered in her ear, "What are you waiting for, Hales? Come on, let's get out of here!"
She grabbed a blanket from the pile at her father's feet and followed him to an open space of grass. She laid the blanket down and they both settled themselves down onto it. They sat in silence for a while, waiting for the first firework to be set off, occasionally swatting at mosquitos that landed on them.
Then, Nathan broke the silence with, "I'm sorry."
"For ratting me out to my mom or ignoring me?" She bit back, anger spreading across her features. He sighed and his brow furrowed.
"Both," he admitted honestly, "but I couldn't find you and your mom was the first person I saw. I was scared because I didn't know what happened to you, even though I knew it had to have been partly my fault." He paused for a moment, and she was quiet, too, though anger still coursed through her veins like a bad disease. "You know," he swallowed and cautiously turned to her, "they say that I like you."
"Well, of course you do." She scoffed, rolling her eyes at the stupid basketball boys who she cared very little about. "We're best friends."
He remained silent, looking down at his hands with a very odd expression, like something had been irritating him for a long time and he couldn't get it to go away. When he spoke again, his voice was stern, and his jaw was clenched. "No, Haley. You don't get it."
"Then what-?" She started to ask, confusion replacing her anger.
He interrupted her with a strained yell, "They think I like you, like you!" He emphasized the first like so that she understood what they were taunting him with.
He had shocked her into silence, which was marred only by the crackle of the first firework going off and the oohs from the crowds. She looked over at him, her brown eyes not quite meeting his blue ones. Could he see her blush in the dark? "Oh." She responded simply.
"What if they're right?" He spoke softly, so that only she could hear even though no one payed them any attention. "I mean, what if we really do like each other and this whole time we have been totally clueless because we're such good friends?"
She thought about that for a moment, thinking about how her older siblings sometimes did the same things she and Nathan did with their boyfriends and girlfriends, about how maybe if Nathan thought this, maybe it was true after all. "Well, maybe..." she let out a breath, "but how would we know?"
He swallowed again and their eyes finally met. She was surprised to feel that her heart sped up a little at the uncertainness of this conversation. "Well, I was thinking that we could kiss."
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise at his words, but her face remained serious and steady. "Okay." She barely spoke, but knew that he had heard her, despite the booming gunpowder exploding in the background.
He nodded and licked his lips;she mirrored him. His head dipped slowly toward hers, and his lips made contact with hers. They paused with their lips together for a moment, and she tried to survey how she felt. She couldn't really focus on anything but the sensation in her lips, and when they pulled apart she could still them tingling from the contact.
"How do you feel?" He whispered, a slightly worried tone in his voice. They both were still oblivious to the fireworks show, even though the explosion seemed to get larger and louder, as if angry they weren't paying attention.
She gave him a weak smile, "Kind of the same, I guess."
He released a sigh of what she thought was relief and copied her smile, "Oh, good. Me, too." He turned his body over so he was laying on his back and motioned for her to do the same. Together, they watched the rest of the fireworks lighting up the night sky and remained blissful unaware of their turbulent future. "Happy Fourth, Hales."
The bed sagged slightly under Brooke's added body weight. Haley, who was lying on her back, cut her eyes to notice that Brooke had turned on her side and was staring down at her with big brown eyes. She tucked a lock of Haley's hair behind her ear and spoke softly, "I know this is going to be especially hard for you, but there are going to be a lot of us doing the make-believe-that-you're-happy skit tonight, so don't feel too alone, okay? And if it gets too unbearably stifling, you come find me, and we'll leave. I'll fake menstrual cramps or something."
She allowed a laugh at that, though it died in her mouth and sounded remarkably like another sob. Therefore, she wasn't surprised to find tears running down her cheeks again. She leaned her head into Brooke and let her forehead rest on hers. "Thanks, Brooke. Just give me a few minutes to retouch my make-up, and I'll meet you downstairs."
She positively beamed down at Haley before skipping away, lingering only for a moment in the doorway to call out, "And Haley, you better look bitchin' because we've got to make a lot of people jealous tonight!"
Oh, she was sure people would be jealous tonight. She was also sure it wouldn't be of her.
The day following the kiss, the Scotts and Haley ventured to the beach house to spend the remainder of the holiday weekend, even though it rained the entire time. She and Nathan acted as if the kiss had never happened, simply going back to playing adventurers in the beach house attic, which was loaded with weird stuff Nathan said Mr. Scott had accumulated over the years from thankful clients or Christmases with Grandpa Royal.
The rest of the summer went by with a whirl of sand castles, flashlight tag, and of course, basketball. Before Haley knew it, her mother was dragging her and Taylor to the mall to buy back-to-school clothes. As she tried on uncountable jumpers, sweaters, skorts and turtlenecks, she wished profusely that Nathan was suffering with her but mostly hoped that they had been placed in the same fourth grade class. They had been in the same class since they met and she wasn't too keen on letting that tradition die.
Normally, the class lists would be mailed out a week or so before the start of the term, but a computer glitch this year had prevented that from happening. Instead, anxious students had to wait until the dreaded first day of school to find out their placements. She heard Taylor complaining on the phone that she couldn't possibly pick out her first day outfit if she wasn't sure if she had the cute soccer player in her class or not. But Haley had bigger problems than fashion choices. What if Nathan was placed in a different class and got a new best friend? What if that new friend was Robby who made sure Nathan never spoke to little Haley James again? Or what if he suddenly made friends with an all new person and became a bad seed like her sister, Vivian's, old best friend did?
All these terrible thoughts swam around in her head for the next two days and only intensified when she didn't see him at all during those two days. She had went over to his house once, but no one answered the front door and there was no one in his backyard. So she went blindly into the first day of school, clutching nothing but her backpack and lunchbox. Her dad took her to school for the first time since her mom was dropping off Taylor and making sure Eric actually drove to school. Her cheeks flushed when she passed by a group of girls who eyed her and her father skeptically. Her dad had never been, to put it nicely, the most formal guy, and he picked this day to wear an ancient grey band tee, khaki shorts and beat up sandals. "Oh, there's Karen and Nathan."
Her eyes swivelled frantically in the direction that his father indicated and caught sight of Nathan just as he saw her. They hurried toward each other, both launching into stories of their three total days apart. Nathan explained that his aunt, uncle and cousin were in Charlotte briefly so they stayed the night there to visit them, and Haley informed him about how horrible it was to be cooped up with Taylor.
The bell rang and together they walked into the school, leaving their respective parent behind. They waited in the back of the crowd as students checked the class lists which were now posted on the lobby bulletin board. Nathan gave Haley's hand a reassuring squeeze, though his face looked just as worried as hers did.
When the mass of students and stray parents dissipated, they made their way to the board. Haley gave Nathan a nudge and whispered, "You do it."
Nathan flashed a weak smile and then found the fourth grade lists. He first searched solely for her name, but must have missed it and when he went back through, he spotted his name first. The words Nathan Scott - Mrs. Wormat shone at him and he called out his class to Haley who smiled, "Oh! Eric says she's nice!"
Then he continued looking for Haley's name which he still couldn't find. It didn't even occur to him that the list was in alphabetical order until he had gone through the list at least three times. But her name was right there, wedged between Jackson, Elizabeth and Janney, Tyler. He held his breath as moved his finger across the page from her name to the teacher assignment column. When he read the name Mrs. Wormat he let out a gasp of happiness. "You're in Mrs. Wormat's class, too, Hales!"
She grinned at him, all thoughts of new best friend scenarios exiting her mind. He gave her a short hug before they rushed over to Mrs. Wormat's fourth grade class line. From there, the day blurred by in a frenzy of issuing new books and getting permission slips to sign, and by the end of the day, Haley and Nathan were tired and ready for a quick dip in the pool. Mr. Scott picked them both up and they piled into the backseat. They talked enthusiastically about how this year was going to be awesome and about a hundred other positive adjectives. Nathan mentioned he'd finally get to start playing in little league basketball, and Haley chattered about how nice Mrs. Wormat really was. Neither anticipated that their idyllic fourth grade year would soon be mixed up with a little bit of chaos.