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Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill or its characters…but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to. :)
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 5
"I can't believe a crab actually bit you!" Brooke exclaimed as soon as the three had re-entered their condo. They have left right after Lucas' little display.
"It didn't bite me, Brooke. It latched on to my freakin toe." Lucas removed his sandals and gently rubbed his red and swollen big toe.
"Did it hurt? I mean, what does it feel like to actually have a crab attached to your foot?" Haley said jokingly as she handed him an ice pack she had retrieved from the freezer.
"Ok, you two are having way too much fun with this. Don't you even care that I was completely humiliated?"
"Well, it was pretty hilarious." Brooke answered with a wide smile that showed her dimples. Haley always noticed when Brooke smiled this way because she only did it when she was with Lucas, but apparently Lucas never noticed.
"It was so far from funny. Did you see Nathan and his friends staring at me?"
"Why do you care what Nathan thinks so much?" Haley suddenly asked.
Lucas had to think about that for a minute, why did he care? "I don't." He said quickly. It was the truth, he really didn't care what Nathan thought, but somewhere deep down he did care what Dan thought. He had always wanted to show Dan what he missed when he abandoned Karen, sometimes unconsciously and sometimes openly. "I just don't like it when he stares at me and laughs."
"No, I think that was Peyton Sawyer. I saw her pointing and laughing." Brooke said simply.
"Yeah, well, I don't care if Peyton Sawyer wants to stare at me as long as I get to stare at her in return." Lucas joked.
"Eww, gross," Haley laughed.
"Why would you want to look at her?" Brooke asked a slightly more serious tone than Lucas and Haley would have expected. "I mean, she's all emo and she's a slut." She added with a grin.
"Wait, how do you know she's a slut?" Lucas questioned. Haley decided to stay out of this one, she knew that Brooke was just trying to cover her jealousy with insults.
"Um, because she's hooked up with like half of the guys at school." Brooke responded as if that were common knowledge.
"Oh, and how do you know that?" He laughed. Brooke's face flashed an expression of hurt for a moment before returning to the playful grin. Why did Lucas care so much about what she said about Peyton?
"Is your toe feeling better yet?" Haley asked, quickly changing the subject as Brooke gave her a thankful look.
"Yeah, a little. I think I'm going to watch some TV or something, but you guys can go hit the pool or something if you want to."
"Great idea. Let's go Haley." Brooke grabbed Haley by the arm and practically dragged her out of the condo.
"See you later." Lucas called as the door shut behind them.
"Ok, what the hell was that about Brooke?" Haley asked in a light and playful tone.
"I just needed to get out of there. It got all weird after he talked about Peyton, the queen of whores." Brooke said as the two girls walked down the hall towards the steps.
"When are you going to just tell him?" Haley asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Brooke said quickly.
"Yes you do. When are you going to tell Lucas that you like him?" Haley clarified as they started descending the first of three flights of stairs.
"Tutor Girl, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Lucas and I are just friends-" She stopped when she saw the look Haley was giving her, the one that said 'I'm not buying it'. "What am I going to do Haley? I mean, it's totally obvious that he doesn't think about me in that way, and I just don't want to ruin our friendship."
"I know Brooke, but what if you never tell him and then he falls for someone else, like Peyton?" Haley questioned. Truth be told, Haley didn't know what she would do if she were in Brooke's situation. Thank God she didn't love her best friend, at least not in that way.
Before Brooke could answer, they came to the large gate that surrounded the pool area. There were large bushes surrounding the fence that enclosed the pool and lounge chairs to provide privacy for the guests at the condos, a benefit that Brooke had been very happy about. Now she wouldn't feel as weird when sunbathing topless.
Haley reached out and pushed the gate open…
"Don't you dare," Peyton said without even looking up from her magazine. The group had made it up to the pool where Nathan and Tim had immediately started playing water basketball and Peyton had laid out on a nearby lounge chair to try and bring some color onto her snow white skin.
"I wasn't going to do anything." Tim said sheepishly as he stopped himself with his arm in midair from throwing the basketball at her.
Nathan took this slight distraction as an opportunity and effortlessly grabbed the ball from Tim's hand and tossed in into the floating basket. "Game," He proclaimed.
"Nate, come on man, that was so unfair!" Tim interjected.
"You snooze you lose, Tim. What can I say, I've beat you in the past five games, you are never going to win against me." Nathan responded as that famous Scott smirk crept across his face.
"Peyton, tell him that we have to have a rematch." Tim whined.
"I would if I cared, Tim." She said coolly.
"Hey, I'm going to run upstairs and get a drink, do you guys want anything?" Nathan asked as he got out of the pool, not even bothering to dry off with a towel because it was so hot out.
"Yeah, can I have a beer?" Tim asked.
"Tim, why do you have to be such an idiot? You can't drink out here where anyone can see. It's kind-of obvious that you're underage and if we do anything to get in trouble, we could get kicked out of the condo." Nathan said as he slipped on his shoes.
"Maybe that would be a good thing." Tim mumbled. "At least then Pucas wouldn't be living right across from us."
"Don't worry about him, we'll get him to leave, one way or another."
Nathan walked towards the big gate that lead to the condos and was startled when it swung open on its own and a petite girl ran right into him.
"Whoa, are you ok?" Nathan asked with a little laugh as the girl did the same.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm so sorry, I'm such a-" Haley looked up and her eyes, as well as Brooke's, got wider by the second. "klutz." She finished while pulling herself away from the strong set of hands that rested on her arms.
Peyton had finally looked up from her magazine and was now watching Nathan and Haley intently and Tim did the same.
A thousand thoughts ran through Haley's mind. Wow, he's gorgeous. I cannot believe I just ran into him, again! Am I blushing? Why am I blushing? Why is he looking at me like that?
Nathan couldn't take his eyes off of her warm chocolate brown ones, especially one a small blush started to creep across her face. Why did he keep running into her? How is it that she can look so sexy all the time? Why the hell couldn't he stop thoughts like this from running through his head? She's friends with Lucas! He felt like screaming it out loud just to get it through his own head.
"Sorry," She said again as she tried her best to maneuver around his large figure.
"No, it's cool." He said as he flashed his trademark grin, the one that could make any girl melt in her place and then hurried past her.
Melt is exactly what Haley James did. She couldn't think, she couldn't talk, and she definitely couldn't move. After a few seconds, Brooke had to literally pull her to a lounge chair.
Haley sat down on it trying to catch her breath and slow her heart rate, which had seemed to speed up when Nathan smiled at her, without Brooke realizing what an effect seeing Nathan had on her. Gosh, his smile was perfect. Whoa, did she just think that?
Peyton kept her eyes curiously on Haley. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that little miss sandcastle builder had a crush on Nathan. If that was the case, this summer was about to get very interesting.