Hey everyone, the reviews are awesome...as always. School is starting back up this week, so I'll try to continue updating as frequently as possible. I'm not going to promise an update every day, but I'll try my best... anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy and please review. :-)
Disclaimer: One Tree Hill doesn't belong to me. Not even a little.
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 25
"I didn't call her." Bobby repeated.
"So, you are claiming that you did not call Miss James?" The defense attorney questioned with a smile. He was so going to get a big bonus for this. Ok, so he hadn't gotten Bobby off of everything, but he was well on his way to proving that he was innocent of harassment which would have been an extra 10 years or so, given his history.
"Yes."
Haley was more than confused right now. It had to have been Bobby on the phone, who else would have called and said something as cryptic as 'I'm coming for you'? No, Bobby had to be lying.
"If that is the case, then why were you reportedly saying something about going to visit your niece when you tried to steal the taxi?" The tall lawyer inquired.
"I wanted to tell her that I'm sorry." Bobby said sincerely as he locked eyes with Haley.
What did he just say? Haley felt a shiver go up her spine. She couldn't believe anything that came out of Bobby's mouth, but that last statement had been the most sincere thing she could ever remember him saying.
Nathan looked down at Haley, trying to gage whether or not she was believing this. When she looked up at him, her face said that she wanted to believe him, but she couldn't.
The trial moved on with questions about his actual escape from prison and about where he had been as he hid for a week, but Haley didn't hear any of it. She was lost in thought. Could Bobby be telling the truth? There had been something about the voice on the phone that sounded familiar, but maybe she had convinced herself that it was him when deep down she knew it wasn't? Now her head hurt a little.
Ok, let's assume that it wasn't Bobby, She told herself in order to wrap her head around the situation a little better, then who else would it be? Of course, there was always the possibility that it had actually been a prank call, but she couldn't deny the fact that something about the voice didn't sit well with her.
The more she thought about it, the more she doubted herself. Maybe I only thought it was Bobby because he was the logical suspect? She tried to remember the call as best she could, she remembered feeling a little shocked and a little disturbed, but she also remembered not being able to place the voice until her mom told her that Bobby had escaped, it was only after her mother's call that she had assumed it was Bobby.
Stop it, Haley, She told herself, the only reason you are even considering this is because of what Bobby said. Stop tricking yourself into believing it. After thinking this, she realized how weird it was that she was talking to herself, in her head, in second person.
Before she knew it, the hearing was over. The jury had left to go and make their decision, Bobby had been taken away, and Nathan had grabbed her hand and led her towards the front entrance where her parents were.
"Haley Bub, you did a great job up their on the stand." Lydia beamed. "I was so proud of you for not crying like you did that one time when Taylor pulled the head of your favorite Barbie off and then hid it under Vivian's bed."
"Mom…" Haley only smiled at her mothers rambling and Nathan did the same. So this is where she gets it from…
"Sorry, what I meant to say was that you were very mature up there and we were both proud of you." Lydia leaned in and gave her a hug.
"Thanks," Haley responded as she hugged her mom and looked down at her watch. "Oh my gosh, um, Nathan and I really need to get going if we want to make it back at a reasonable time."
"Ok, we'll keep you posted." Jimmy said in his usual good-natured tone. "Bye Nate."
"Bye Mr. and Mrs. James, it was a pleasure to meet you." He said politely before he and Haley walked out into the parking lot and got in the car. Luckily, the rain had let up somewhat so they weren't soaked when they got in.
"So, you and my dad are on a nickname basis now, I see." Haley joked as he started the engine.
"Yeah, I guess he likes 'Nate' better than 'Nathan'." He laughed as they pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards the beach that they had come from. "Are you ever going to tell me?" He asked suddenly after a couple of minutes.
"Tell you what?" Haley looked up and him and knew immediately what he was talking about. She just didn't know what to say yet.
"What you're thinking, you know, about what Bobby said. Do you think he could be telling the truth?" His voice was soft and void of any attempt to pressure her into answering. He knew that this was probably a very sensitive subject for her right now, but he wanted to know what she thought about it so he would know how to help her handle it.
"Honestly? I'm not even sure anymore if it was Bobby that called." She looked out the window in an attempt to figure out what to say next to make him understand what was going on in her head. "I was so sure it was him, but now, maybe I was just imagining that it was? Part of me thinks that if it was him, I would have recognized his voice immediately, but the other part is telling me how easy it is for someone's voice to be unrecognizable on the phone… I just, I don't know what to think anymore."
He looked over at her for a second and could tell that she was immensely frustrated by not being able to figure this out.
"You know what? It really doesn't matter who it was that called. Because if it wasn't my uncle, than it was just a stupid prank call. And if it was him, he's back in jail now so it doesn't matter." She said, suddenly full of confidence. Who cared who it was that called?
"Peyton, are you ever going to stop hanging out with this Jake guy?" Tim whined as Peyton put on her make-up in the bathroom.
"No." Peyton replied bluntly.
"Oh, ok. Hey, me and Nate are having a party on a yacht in like…" Tim held up his fingers to count before continuing, "4 weeks."
"Ok…" Peyton trailed off as she applied her lip gloss. Was there a point to that statement?
"I wanted to make sure you and Jake are coming." He clarified as he turned on his Playstation 2.
"Well, I'll have to check with him, he might have to take care of Jenny that day." She said simply. "Wait, how long have you known that you are going to have this party?"
"I don't know, a little over a week." Tim was already engrossed in his game and was really hoping Peyton would shut up. He had only mentioned it to her because he was hoping that she would offer to cover the cost of drinks or something.
"Ok, if you've known that you and Nathan are having a party for over a week now, why didn't either of you tell me?" Peyton fumed, she used to be consulted on decisions like this.
"You weren't here, you were with Jake." Tim said flatly.
"I've been here…some." Peyton defended herself. Ok, maybe she had been spending a lot of time with Jake lately, but she had been back here every now and then…
"Peyton, most of the time you don't even come home at night." Tim pointed out without even looking up at her from his game.
"Well…just because I'm not here every night doesn't mean that you guys should just stop telling me things!" Peyton retorted. Why were guys such jerks?
"We didn't stop. I just told you about the party, didn't I?" Tim defended himself. "If anyone stopped telling you stuff it's Nathan." He mumbled.
"Where is Nathan anyway?" Peyton asked, suddenly noticing that her friend was missing. She knew that he didn't have to work today, so where was he?
"He's in Charlotte with his girlfriend." He replied coyly, deliberately using the word 'girlfriend' instead of 'Haley'.
"What?!" Did Tim just say 'girlfriend'? Since when does Nathan have a girlfriend? "Who's his girlfriend?"
"I told you that you haven't been around!" Tim taunted as he paused his game and looked at her.
"Shut up Dim. Just tell me who his girlfriend is!" Peyton pleaded. Maybe she had been spending a little too much time away, she didn't even know that one of her best friends had a girlfriend!
"Ok, I'll tell you…it's…nah, you don't really want to know." Tim joked. He loved to get on her last nerve.
"Just tell me who it is." Peyton said in an annoyed tone as she reached into her purse. He was going to drag this out as long as possible.
"Her name is…never mind." Tim was now laughing at Peyton's irritated face.
"That's ok, you don't have to tell me." She smirked as his face fell. He loved to have information that she wanted, and playing this little game with her was not fun when she didn't care.
"Fine, then I'm not telling you." He said simply.
"Fine." Peyton pulled out her cell phone and dialed Nathan's number before Tim realized what she was doing. "Hi, Nathan, it's Peyton."
"Oh, hey Peyton. What's up?" Nathan responded casually while sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the expressway.
"Peyton, you cheated!" Tim yelled.
"I was wondering who your girlfriend is?" She said playfully as Nathan started laughing.
"Tim told you?" He guessed.
"Yeah, I can't believe you didn't tell me! Now who is it?" She demanded.
"You mean Haley?" Nathan questioned with a smile when Haley looked at him inquisitively.
"What? Shut up! Haley James? As in our neighbor and Lucas's best friend? I can't believe this!" She was so excited for him, she knew that they had feelings for each other and had just been waiting for them to act on them.
"Yeah." Nathan confirmed as Haley's expression became more confused. "Hey, I'm sorry, I gotta go. We're stuck in traffic and I think I'm going to try and find a shortcut." He explained as he pulled onto the clear exit ramp.
"Ok, well, I'll talk to you when you get home." She smiled. She still couldn't believe it, Nathan Scott, her Nathan Scott, was going out with Haley James. Life can be full of surprises.
"Bye." Nathan hung up the phone and laughed when Haley gave him the 'what did she say' look. "She didn't know about us yet." He explained.
"What? How could she not know? Does the girl live under a rock?" She joked.
"Basically, yeah." He responded playfully. "Where the hell are we?" He questioned when they passed a small store that had a sign out front saying 'Grandma Betty's Manure and Fertilizers'. They definitely didn't have stores like that in Tree Hill.
"I have no idea. Did you take a wrong turn?" She questioned as she looked at the map that had been stashed under her seat.
"No, this is the shortcut." No wonder no one was getting off at this exit, He thought.
"Ok, well, get back on the expressway, we'll just wait it out." Haley suggested.
"I can't do that." Nathan said simply. It was only then that Haley realized that they were on a one way road with large ditches on both sides. Great.
"You're right, where the hell are we?" All civilized places at least had enough sense to leave the sides of the road level in case someone needed to turn around. Wherever they were, it was totally archaic!
"It's ok, I'll just drive in reverse until we get back to the-" Before Nathan could finish, he heard a loud horn from behind him. Someone was obviously mad that they had stopped to figure out where they were, and was honking furiously because there was no way to go around them. "Never mind. I guess we're going to keep going." He said as he put the SUV back into gear and started moving again.
We are going to be so lost, Haley thought as she smiled and shook her head.