This is my take on this eppy. I know its movin kinda slow, but the next chapter gets better. R/R.
The Wrong Kind of Wrong
"I don't bite, you know." Her sultry voice floated from where she stood.
Lucas stiffened briefly, continuing to wipe down the counter of his mom's café. A small smirk played on his lips. "That's not what I remember."
Her mouth fell open in amused shock. "You know, those memories get old. You might want to refresh them some time." Her brow cocked as he turned to her, her invitation evident. "I was thinking…eight-ish?"
A face of plain regret, he shrugged sadly. "Sorry Brooke, I made plans with-"
"Let me guess. A redheaded bimbo?" His face said it all. Her eyes narrowed in disdain. "Okay Lucas," the grip that she had the brown leather purse over her shoulder tightened, "when I pushed you two together, I didn't actually mean for you to keep going out with her."
"I understand that Brooke. And it's nothing like you think." Tiredly, his hands went up in surrender. "She just wants to talk."
"Slut- talk is a whole different language, Luke." She informed with a tight lipped smile.
"You should know." Rachel stepped up behind her, dropping her hand on her hip.
With a roll of her eyes, Brooke turned to face her. "Well look what the ho truck drug in."
Rachel chuckled scathingly. "Brooke, Brooke, Brooke. Don't be jealous." Stepping closer, she crossed her arms over her scantily clad chest and gave her rival a mock look of sympathy. "Envy doesn't become you."
"It never has. But revenge does." Glaring, she turned her head towards Lucas but never took her eyes off the girl. "Later, Luke." With that, she clomped away with a confident stride.
Lucas met Rachel's eyes and sighed, wondering how good it was for his attempted relationship with Brooke to keep associating with this girl. Rachel just smiled, stepping up to the register and ordering a coffee. "We're still on for tonight, right?" She licked her lips suggestively.
Sighing and dropping his head to the side, he shrugged lightly. "I don't know, Rachel. I mean, this whole thing between you and Brooke-"
"Is exactly that." She cut in, leaning back on the countertop with her elbows. "Between me and Brooke." Grabbing the coffee that was being capped for her, she smirked at him again and winked. "See you later, Lucas." She walked away, purposely flaunting her assets.
Again, he was sighing and watching another cheerleader retreat.
She'd seen him coming from a distance and thought to herself how good he looked in his slightly oversized royal blue polo tee and light blue jeans. What she wouldn't give to just be able to walk up to him and kiss away all that unveiled sorrow on his face. Taking a deep, preparing breath, she walked from behind the pillar. "Hey Nathan." Haley had been waiting for him all morning. "Hi." She said nervously, pushing hair that wasn't loose behind her ear.
"Hey." He spoke evenly, as if trying to contain the urge to hug her in greeting.
"I just wanted to make sure that every thing was okay with us." She said, falling in a stride next to him. "You know, about the whole Chris situation."
"How's that going by the way?" He asked, truly interested. Though it killed him every moment he saw her and Chris together, he felt that he was doing the right thing. She needed her music and as willing as she was to give it all up for him, he didn't want her to do that anymore.
With a hesitant shrug, she sighed. "I guess it's going alright. Although every thing I write Chris thinks it sucks." She added thoughtfully. "I don't know. I guess I just need some time."
He stopped and turned to her, his thumbs looped through the straps of his backpack. "I don't want you to give up, Hales. I know the old Nathan might've wanted that, but I've realized that I don't want to limit you to anything."
"Well no offense, Nathan, but you're limiting me to you." She motioned her hands towards him. "One minute you're talking to me and then the next you're dodging me. I just…I don't know what to do sometimes. I don't know how to fix this."
He sighed and looked down at his shoes for a while. "Time will have to fix it then." He gave her one last fleeting smile before walking away.
She looked after him, wondering if she should call him back or not. She decided against it and shook her head, truly not understanding what it was men were going through these days. She looked around before finding a direction to head off.
"Fantasy basketball draft?" Brooke questioned from behind him. "You seem dedicated."
Lucas turned to her. "Hey."
"Hey." She smiled, gracing him with her impeccably colored lips and made up face.
He put to halt posting the posters and smiled. "Look, about earlier…"
"It's fine." She waved him off. "I was just…" From the distance, she could see two of her fellow cheerers exchanging what looked to be pretty fowl language towards each other before they began swatting each other. Raising her brows in surprise, she threw him a quick glance. "Excuse me." She marched over towards them. "What! What is the meaning of this?!" She broke them apart, glaring at them as if they were children being scorned.
Rachel appeared behind her. "I guess they're following in their captains footsteps."
Brooke eyed her scathingly before turning her attention back to Bevin and Ashley. "What are you two doing?"
Bevin glared at Ashley. "She likes Skills and I like totally saw him first!"
"Did not!" Ashley challenged.
"Uh, yeah I did!" Bevin swung her hand towards the other blonde.
"Oh my god, like, stop it!" Brooke screeched, stomping her feet for emphasis. "Cheer meeting! Now!" She pointed towards the door. "Go!" All of the girls followed as ordered.
Haley grinned as Brooke said the words, then she frowned in confusion. "What's a Fantasy Boy Draft?"
Brooke smiled deviously. "At the end of the day, we'll all pick our fantasy man."
"And then what?" Peyton queried, her interest piqued.
"That's totally up to you and your fantasy man." Brooke grinned, looking at every girl in the room. "Choose wisely, girls. They'll be a meeting in the locker room after school to determine what order we'll be in."
"And we can pick any guy we want?" Rachel stood, her bare midriff exposed.
Brooke met her gaze challengingly. "Yep. With the option of mixing and matching, switching and trading, if desired."
Rachel gazed around the room before sitting again. "This should be fun."
Brooke caught her eyes. "It should." Picking up her purse, she gave the girls one last glance, namely Rachel. "Tonight we'll meet at my house and determine who belongs to who, understood?"
"Clearly." Rachel smirked.
"Meeting over girls." She announced half way out of the door.
Walking leisurely home, Haley clicked open and shut the compact with her given number on it. She had chosen number four, and she so wanted to pick Nathan. She wasn't sure how he'd feel about that, but she wanted to, and she was. She decided. She would.
"Practicing today?" Chris strolled up beside her, sticking his hands in his pockets.
She eyed him warily. "I guess so, why?"
"Nothing. I'm just looking forward to spending more time with you, that's all." His grin was casual, with a hint of something else. "You know, we have a lot of work to do."
"So you've said." She rolled her eyes and finally closed the compact, putting it in the pocket of her jean pants. "I'm beginning to think you're just saying all of my songs suck so we'll be forced to spend more time together."
He gave her theory a thought. "No. They just suck." He smiled at her. "See you in an hour?"
"Unfortunately." She smiled wryly, speeding her pace up to get away from him.
"Haley?"He stopped walking with her and just stood there.
She reluctantly turned to him, a tired look on her face. "What?"
He raked his eyes over her navy blue spaghetti strap top and tight blue jeans. His eyes lingered on her chest for a moment too long. "You look incredibly hot today." He winked.
Haley grimaced. "Ew." She turned on her heel.
He laughed, letting her walk away. "Haley James." He said softly before jaywalking across the street. Not knowing that a dark haired Ravens teammate had watched him.
Nathan didn't know if his violent wave of jealousy was all just jealousy. Maybe it had a little something to do with the way that Chris looked at Haley. The way he smiled down at her, watched her hips sway before he even approached her. He tried to push away his second thoughts about this whole thing and got into his car. Maybe he was seeing things. Him and his jealousy, he thought to himself. He had to get over it.
She glanced at her watch for probably the one hundredth time. "Okay, I really have to go. I have a cheer meeting in like, fifteen minutes."
"What's up with that anyway? You're cheering for the overrated Tree Hill High Ravens, now?"
"It would appear that way." She stood up to put her guitar away.
He watched as she bent to close her guitar case. "So who's your pick for the fantasy boy draft? Hopefully you're in the same room with him."
She glared over her shoulder at him in disbelief. "In your dreams. I'm picking Nathan."
"Maybe not. I heard Peyton and Brooke talking after school and it would seem that Peyton has her eyes set on your man." Standing up with a rakish smile, he motioned to himself. "Don't worry. I'll be your rebound."
She grabbed her guitar and threw him an even look. She was disturbed by the news but intended to ignore it. "No thanks. I'll figure it out for myself." She told him in mock reassurance, walking to the door.
"I'm always here Haley." He reminded as she left without a second glance.
Haley sat quietly in the middle of the huddle of girls. Peyton had been eyeing her strangely all day and if she didn't know any better, she'd think that the girl was going to sabotage her by picking Nathan first in this whole fantasy boy draft thing. She narrowed her eyes at the blonde-haired woman, briefly wondering why she had so much animosity towards her. It wasn't like she had that major of a part in her and Nathan's affairs anyway. She crossed her fingers. Hopefully, the girl was just trying to scare her.
Brooke winked at Haley, surely trying to secure the agreement that they'd come to earlier. She'd pick Lucas and Brooke would pick Nathan, that is if Peyton didn't do it first, then they'd switched. It was a way to help the both of them. Brooke would get who Rachel wanted and Haley would get who Peyton obviously wanted. She sighed as Brooke cleared her throat in front of the group.
"Attention girls." Standing before the huddle, she smiled. "It's time to name decisions. Peyton?" She turned to the blonde. "I believe you got the first choice. Who did you chose?"
Staring pointedly at Haley, Peyton smirked. "Nathan."
Low mumbles of praise bubbled in the room and Haley rolled her eyes, lulling her head back . "Bitch." She muttered. Raking her hands through her hair, she quickly composed herself after sending a malevolent glare in her direction.
Looking apologetically at Haley, Brooke held up her compact bound with the number two. Shifting her eyes to Rachel, her look changed to devilish. "I pick Chris Keller."
Looking up at Rachel, Bevin shrugged. Obviously, Brooke had picked one of her picks. "Skills, I guess." She looked away from the redhead, knowing of no plan B. Rachel struggled to hide her disappointment.
Brooke looked to Haley knowingly, her puppy dog eyes playing in action. Unenthusiastically, Haley took a deep breath. "Lucas."
Brooke jumped up, clapping her hands in glee. "Ha, bitch!" She pointed to Rachel.
Rolling her eyes in defeat, Rachel sighed and looked out the window, where she saw Mouth staring in. She smiled. "Mouth." The crowd laughed as he yelped happily. Eventually, the rest of the girls picked their picks and were on their way home when Peyton came to stand in front of Haley.
"I wouldn't suppose you'd want to trade." Peyton smiled evilly.
Haley gave her a cautious look and stood up. "I wouldn't suppose you would either, seeing as how you've been on my case since I came home."
"Ah, I guess you're right." Cockily snorting, she moved past her to leave. "See you tomorrow, Brooke." She called before walking out.
After seeing all of her guests out, Brooke hopped in front of Haley. "Haley, I owe you my life! Thank you!" She hugged her happily and backed away. "Did you see the look on that skanks face?!"
"Which one? Rachel or Peyton?" Haley half joked, moving to go to the kitchen. "I'm stuck with Chris Keller, huh?"
"It's nothing new." Brooke reassured her with a lopsided shrug. "You're stuck with him on a daily basis anyway."
"Don't remind me." Sitting at the breakfast nook, she dropped her head down. "I really wanted Nathan."
"What more can you want?" Brooke attempted to cheer her up, sincerely feeling bad for her. "You're married to the man."
"Barely. He hardly even talks to me." She whimpered exaggeratedly, stomping her feet from the barstool she sat on. "Brooke, could my life get any worse?"
"Cheer up, Rock Star." She patted her shoulder. "Look, I'll do a little spying and see where Nathan and Peyton are going on their date…and maybe you and Chris could coincidentally make an appearance…" She hinted with an amused eyebrow raised. "And I'll give you a to-die-for makeover; Nathan won't know what hit him."
"We tried that before didn't we?" Haley spoke dolefully. "It ended in me falling to the floor in an embarrassed heap of too much make up and ridiculous hair."
"That was a costume party. That was totally different." Brooke guaranteed, pulling her friend from her seat. "We'll have to go shopping for this. You're going to look so hot."
"What happened to looking less attractive around Chris?" She asked, being drug to the bedroom.
"Haley, Haley. When will you learn? That only applies to one-on-one interaction. This is in the spirit of making your estranged husband jealous." Brooke plopped on the bed, pulling Haley down with her. "Bear with me?" She pleaded.
She lulled her head back with an exasperated sigh. "Fine, but if this turns out to be a disaster, I'm going to kill you myself."
Smiling victoriously, she lifted her head with a wayward grin. "Brooke Davis doesn't do disasters."