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Disclaimer: One Tree Hill does not belong to me…

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 17

The sound of a lamp crashing to the floor woke Nathan from his peaceful slumber. What the hell? Nathan thought as he slowly regained consciousness. He internally sighed out of relief when he heard Tim swearing and picking up the pieces of the lamp that were undoubtedly scattered all over the floor.

Then, he felt the small warm body beside him move a little and was quickly wide awake. Haley had not woken up when the sound of a breaking lamp echoed through the condo, she had only stirred a little and buried her face deeper into the strong arm that her head rested on.

Nathan smiled, he could get used to this. God, she looks beautiful, he thought. Her hair was in a messy bun, she was wearing a t-shirt and soffe shorts, and she had absolutely no make-up on, but she still looked gorgeous.

He tried to decide if he should wake her up or not, it was already 10:30 AM. In the end, he chose to let her sleep. Just after making this decision, a loud door slammed outside and Haley woke up anyway.

"Hey," She said groggily as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Good morning. You seem to have gotten a good night sleep." He responded and then noticed that his arm was still wrapped around her and quickly pulled it back to himself. "Sorry."

As his arm left her side, she immediately felt a little colder. "No, it's fine. I probably grabbed onto it anyway. Brooke always gets mad at me because I, like, hug her arm all night. I don't know, it's just a habit. Sorry."

Nathan laughed a little, even after just waking up she could ramble on and on. She was right though, he had lost count of how many times she had snuggled up to his arm and held onto it for dear life. He hadn't really cared though, it just made him smile, and surprisingly enough, he had slept better than he could really ever remember sleeping.

Haley couldn't remember the last time she had slept so well. Sure, the pillow was a little rocky, but other than that, she had no complaints. The only word she could think of to describe the way she felt both last night and this morning was "safe". She felt completely safe.

"I thought you said you were going to go out on the couch." She said playfully.

"Sorry, I fell asleep. Maybe I would have left if someone wouldn't have insisted that I get under the warm blankets." He joked.

"It's ok. I felt better with you in here." She admitted.

"Does Nathan have a girl over?" Tim whispered loudly right outside the door.

"Tim! Get away from there! God, just give him some privacy!" Peyton whisper-yelled as she contemplated throwing a pillow at him. She knew that Nathan did in fact have a girl over, and she also knew that that girl was Haley James. How did she know that? Well, she may have 'accidentally' walked into his room on accident when she finally got home at about 2 in the morning.

Nathan chuckled when he heard a thump from outside of the door and knew that Peyton had thrown a pillow at Tim's head.

"I should probably go home." Haley smiled as she sat up and pulled her hair into a neater ponytail.

"Yeah…" Nathan mumbled as he watched her.

She pushed the warm blankets away from her body and forced herself out of the bed as Nathan did the same. Haley grabbed the blanket that she had brought over the night before and then looked over to see Nathan slip on a Duke t-shirt. "Thanks." She whispered once they got to the door and were on their way out of Nathan's room.

"Hey, it was no problem at all." He assured her softly, his face inches from hers. "Feel free to use your key and wake me up whenever you need to." He added in a joking but still serious tone.

"Thank you." He really had no idea how much it meant to her that he had just said those words to her.

"So, what happened after you went to Nathan's?" Brooke asked as she nibbled on a pop tart. Haley had gotten home about a half an hour ago and had decided to take a shower once she realized that neither Brooke nor Lucas were awake yet. She also wished that she could erase the fact that she had noticed that Brooke was not sleeping in the bed that they shared…

"Brooke, I already told you. I went over there and fell asleep. Like I said in my note, I planned on coming back in a few hours, but I was sleeping." Haley was a little frustrated since Brooke had already asked that same question, only in different forms, 3 times.

"Tutor Girl, you know what I mean! Stop avoiding the subject and give me the details! Did you sleep in his bed? Where did he sleep? Oh my God! Did you guys sleep together?"

"Whoa! Calm down, ok." Haley said dramatically. "Yes, I slept in his bed, and yes he slept in the bed too, but no we didn't sleep together. Get your mind out of the gutter. I know it's hard for you to imagine, but sometimes people sleep in the same bed without really 'sleeping together'." Haley joked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't really know what that's like, to sleep next to a guy but not sleep with him? It just doesn't make any sense. It's a waste to me." Brooke laughed.

Haley could only imagine what that meant about last night…and she wanted to throw up. Brooke was not in her bed this morning which meant that she was in Lucas's…ew!

Brooke noticed the disgusted look on Haley's face and decided to confirm her assumption with a smirk and a nod of the head.

"Brooke! Oh my Gosh! Can you please not tell me things like that? I don't want to imagine my two best friends hooking up!" She seriously felt like she was going to throw up, that was just too much information.

"Sorry." Brooke giggled.

"What's going on in here?" Lucas asked as he joined the two in the kitchen with messy hair and his shirt was suspiciously absent.

"I'm going to go puke now." Haley said dramatically as Lucas kissed Brooke lightly on the head.

"You're the one who slept with Nathan." Brooke joked as Haley exited the room and Lucas gave her a questioning and disgusted look. "I was kidding." She clarified.

Those 3 words were music to his ears. The thought of Haley, his best friend, with Nathan, his ass of a half-brother, was absolutely repulsive.

"So, what was up with Haley this morning? Did you finally get her in bed?" Tim asked as he and Nathan played NBA live. Nathan only shook his head in response; Tim could be such an ass sometimes.

"Oh yeah, have the police caught the creepy uncle guy yet?" Peyton asked in a sort of uninterested way as she flipped through the songs on her iPod, looking for one to listen to as she cleaned her room.

"Not yet." Nathan answered as he beat Tim, yet again, at the video game.

"Nate, you totally cheated!" Tim shouted as Nathan set the controller down and walked into his bedroom looking for his keys. He really wanted to get out and clear his head.

He really didn't know what he was feeling. His mind was so confused. Part of it was telling him that Haley was a friend and could never be anything more because she was Lucas's best friend, but the other part was just screaming at him to just kiss her.

The day had passed quickly because she had been busy, but now that Haley was getting ready for bed in silence, Brooke was already sleeping soundly, her nerves started to get the better of her again.

I'll be fine. Brooke and Lucas are both here tonight, she told herself.

As she climbed into the bed, she couldn't help but notice that Nathan's bed was quite a bit softer. She also noticed that she felt considerably less comfortable without Nathan's large body sleeping body next to her.

What are you thinking? Just go to sleep! She scolded herself as she turned over and grabbed an extra pillow to hug. This pillow feels nothing like Nathan's arm…

A few minutes after closing her eyes and seriously trying to go to sleep, she began to hear noises again, like the night before. She tried to ignore them, but after another 15 or 20 minutes, she couldn't take it anymore.

She considered waking up Brooke or Lucas, but deep down, she knew that it wouldn't realty help. Only one person made her feel safe when she was scared like this…

Nathan had said that she could come over whenever she wanted… She quickly got out of bed, grabbed her pillow, and walked across the hall.

She unlocked the front door and walked in, immediately noticing Tim snoring on the couch. She really hoped that she wouldn't wake him up.

Haley quickly and quietly made her way over to Nathan's room and softly knocked on the door.

Nathan had been awake, he had had some trouble falling asleep, and instantly knew who the person on the other side of the door was…again. "Come in, Hales." He whispered as she appeared in the doorway. He patted the bed next to him, and she willingly walked over and plopped down there.

"Sorry." She whispered apologetically. "I thought I heard a noise or something."

"It's ok. I see you brought your own pillow tonight." He joked as she smiled at him.

"Yeah…" She was really tired and already fighting the sleep that threatened to overtake her at any moment.

"Go to sleep." Nathan soothed, as he slipped his arm over her waist and succumbed to sleep himself.

For the second night in a row, they both slept peacefully.