Hey everyone! Thank you so much for the reviews! They always put me in a good mood and make me want to update faster. So, here's chapter 4. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing…although I wouldn't mind owning James Lafferty
Summary: Nathan Scott is the most popular guy in school and Haley James is just an average girl who happens to be friends with Nathan's half-brother, Lucas. What happens when each of their groups of friends end up staying next door to each other all summer?
A Summer to Remember
Chapter 4
"Lucas, we're going to the beach. Do you want to come?" Brooke asked hopefully. By this time, all three of them had thoroughly unpacked.
"I don't know, Brooke. I think I might just stay up here for a while." He responded as he flipped the channel on the TV to the Duke vs. UNC game.
"Is this about Nathan? Luke, you can't just stay inside and avoid him all summer." She pointed out.
"I can try." Lucas mumbled as Brooke gave him a disapproving look. "Brooke! The guy is a nightmare! You can't honestly think that if we just talked we would become best friends."
"I don't. I just think that you can't let him ruin our whole summer." She said simply. "Please come with us to the beach, Lucas." Brooke pleaded as she unleashed her puppy dog eyes. "We need you there in case some of those hot shirtless lifeguards start to get inappropriate."
"Oh, so I'm nothing more than a bodyguard for you?" He joked.
Brooke laughed as she searched through her beach bag for her designer sunglasses. "Please? I'll be your best friend."
"Brooke, you already are one of my best friends." He laughed in return as he picked her sunglasses up off of the table and handed them to her.
"Thank you. And you will so not be my best friend anymore if you don't come with us." She pouted.
"Brooke, are you ready to go?" Haley asked as she finally emerged from the bathroom after taking 20 minutes to apply her sunscreen.
"I'm ready, but I don't want to go if Broody isn't going." She replied coyly.
Lucas sighed and threw his hands up in the air. "Fine! I'll go. Just let me change."
"Yea!" Brooke clapped as Lucas retreated into his bedroom and shut the door.
"Wow, I'm impressed. You got him to leave the condo even with big bad Nathan on the loose. Nice work." Haley picked up her beach bag and threw a towel over her shoulder.
"It's all part of my charm." She winked.
"Man, I hate the beach." Tim proclaimed as he, Nathan, and Peyton walked the worn path between their condo and the beautiful blue ocean that lay beyond.
"What are you talking about idiot? How can you not like the beach?" Peyton asked, annoyed. All Tim ever did was get on her nerves.
"Think about it. I have to walk on the hot sand, and it burns my little toes," Nathan and Peyton stopped walking and gave him weird looks. "And there are a bunch of hot girls prancing around in bikinis, but we're not allowed to even look at them for a long time or we'll be, like, sent to jail."
"Whatever, Tim." Nathan said as he flashed his famous Scott smirk.
The group finally reached the end of the secluded trail and walked out into the open air and hot sand. Tim immediately dropped his towel and ran into the water. "Loser." Peyton mumbled.
Nathan's eyes scanned the beach to make sure a certain person was nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, a certain girl caught his eye. She had her back to him and her soft blonde curls fell just above the strap of her light blue bikini. Nathan was momentarily mesmerized by this girl he had never seen before, and Nathan Scott was not the type of guy to be mesmerized.
After a few seconds the girl turned around and Nathan's breath caught in his throat for two reasons. This was undoubtedly the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, but she also happened to be Haley James, his brother's best friend. Nathan quickly looked away as thoughts ran wildly through his head. If she's here, where's Lucas? How could I actually think she looks good? Why have I never noticed her before?
Nathan was torn from his thoughts as Peyton tapped him on the shoulder. "Look who's here," She pointed over next to Haley to a pretty brunette laughing hysterically about something and the blonde guy sitting next to her. Lucas.
"Great. Let the fun begin." He responded sarcastically.
"I know this is, like, weird for you, Nate, but maybe if you ignore him, he'll ignore you?" She suggested as she removed her slightly tacky yellow cover up to reveal her black one-piece with a skull and crossbones on it.
"I don't think so. Wow, nice bathing suit." He said playfully.
"Shut up! It was on sale at Hot Topic!" She defended herself as she watched a dark-haired guy about her age helping a little girl build a sandcastle. He seemed somewhat familiar and Peyton caught herself staring when Nathan waved his hand in front of her face to regain her attention. "So, do you want to build a sandcastle?" She said suddenly.
"What? Are you serious?" Nathan was a little confused.
"No." She said, slightly annoyed that he practically made fun of her for just wanting to build a freaking sandcastle. It was a beach for God's sake, what else was there to do?
"What's taking you so long?" Tim yelled as a wave crashed down on his head.
"I'll race you in." Nathan said as he pulled off his Duke t-shirt.
"Ok, last one in is a rotten egg."
"Fine, on your mark…" Nathan began. "Get set…" Before he got to 'go' he took off running towards the ocean and was already next to Tim by the time Peyton arrived.
"That is so not fair! You cheated you ass!" Peyton joked as Nathan dunked her under the water.
"I can't believe that that son of a –" Lucas began before Haley cut him off.
"You mean Nathan?"
"Yeah, that's exactly who I'm talking about, Hales. It's one thing to ruin my summer by staying in the condo right across the hall from me, but to come to the beach at the same time as me just to get under my skin, that's just annoying." Lucas fumed.
"Luke, I seriously doubt that Nathan purposely came out her just to get on your nerves." Brooke laughed.
"Well, I wouldn't put anything past him. Remember that time freshman year when he pushed so I fell into the toilet and then told everyone that I peed in my pants? Or the when we were sophomores and he told the whole school that I slept with Ms. Eknem, the lesbian anatomy teacher, and that I was the reason she 'switched teams'? Oh, and what about the time-"
"Lucas, we get it. Nathan has done some pretty awful things to you in the past." Haley rationalized. "But you've done some harsh things to him too."
"Yeah, like the time you wrote a sappy love note to Peyton, signed Nathan's name, and then had it read on the announcements." Brooke chimed in as Lucas laughed a little at the memory. "And the time you stuffed his locker with tampons, and when you-"
"But Brooke, he starts it every time! Everything I do to him is just revenge!" Lucas said defensively.
"Luke, we're not saying he's a good guy, because he's not, we're just saying that this chain is going to have to end sometime. Maybe you should just take the high road and ignore one of his childish pranks, then maybe he'll stop." Haley said as she applied yet another coat of sunscreen onto her face.
"Hales, we've only been out here for 10 minutes and you are already putting on more sunscreen?" Brooke asked.
"I have delicate skin!" She defended herself. "Well, I can't go into the water for another 10 minutes, so, who wants to build a sandcastle?"
"Are you serious?" Lucas asked with a little laugh.
"Of course I am. Who doesn't like to build sandcastles?" She responded enthusiastically.
"Me." Brooke said as she raised her hand slightly and received a soft shove from her friend. "But you two, go ahead. I need to work on my tan anyway."
"Will you please help me Lucas?" Haley asked as she stuck out her bottom lip and imitated the same puppy dog eyes Brooke had used earlier.
"Why do you guys keep using those things on me?" He more than a little frustrated that they both knew that he couldn't stand it when anyone looked at him that way.
"Because it works." Brooke said as she laid down on the towel that she had just unfolded.
"Fine, I'll build a stupid sandcastle with you."
"Yea!" Haley said as she clapped her hands excitedly. "Now, go fill this with water." She handed him a little pink bucket that was obviously meant to be carried by a 5 year old.
"Why can't you do it?" He whined.
"Because of my sunscreen," she replied simply. That was a dumb excuse, but she didn't want to be the one walking around with a tiny pink bucket, she hated the color pink.
"Ugh, the things I do for you." He said dramatically before walking away.
As he approached the light blue water of the ocean, he saw Nathan, Tim, and Peyton out diving through waves. Just don't look at him and maybe he won't notice you, Lucas told himself. If Nathan saw him with this little pink bucket, his life would be officially over.
Lucky for him, Nathan seemed to be thoroughly engrossed in his game of 'push Peyton under the wave' and didn't seem to notice that his half-brother was only a few yards away. Lucas quickly filled the bucket up and started to retreat to where Haley and Brooke were waiting. Home free, he sighed in his head.
Just then he felt a sharp sting on his big toe and looked down to see a large red crab attached to it. "Oh my God!" He yelled as he ran out of the water and started shaking his whole leg furiously in an attempt to get the creature to let go.
Nathan looked up at the commotion to see his wimp of a brother doing some kind of a dance on the beach while clinging to a little pink bucket. Wow.
"Oh my God, is that Lucas?" Peyton said loudly after emerging from below a wave to see a blonde-haired boy running around like crazy while carrying a pink bucket that she was pretty sure her 3 year old cousin owned.
"Yup," Nathan said smugly. He always enjoyed when Lucas was completely humiliated.
"Why the hell is he carrying that little girl bucket?" Peyton asked with a laugh.
"Hey! That is not a girl bucket, I have the same one." Tim said as a large wave knocked him over and dunked him under the water. Peyton just rolled her eyes.
"Oh my God! He's making a sandcastle with his little friends." Peyton taunted. She felt a bit hypocritical about saying that since she had, in fact, wanted to build her own sandcastle, but she also wanted to make Nathan laugh. He was like a big brother to her and she often found herself wanting to impress him.
Peyton continued pointing and laughing at Lucas and his 'little friends' but Nathan was focused on a girl, Haley James. At that moment she was filling a bright yellow bucket with sand and creating a large hole in the process. Normally, Nathan would have made fun of a 17 year old building a sandcastle, that's how he got to be king of the school, boosting himself up while putting others down, but not this time. He almost found it endearing the way she seemed so carefree and innocent.
What was wrong with him? Nathan Scott didn't think things like that, and he definitely didn't think them about Haley James, his brother's best friend.
"Yo, Nate, I think I'm getting a rash from all of this salt water, lets go up to the pool." Tim said as he forced Nathan from his thoughts.
"Yeah, whatever." He replied mechanically, never taking his eyes off of Haley. He just couldn't figure her out, she seemed so different from every other girl he'd ever met, or even seen. He followed Tim and Peyton out of the water, passed a dead red crab, grabbed his t-shirt and towel, and walked with them up to the pool that the condo complex owned.