Hello again. I really don't have too much to say other than thank you to everyone who reviewed! I always get excited when I get home from school and read them. hehe. Anyway, enjoy chapter 26!
Disclaimer: I'm running out of ways to say the obvious, I don't own One Tree Hill.
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 26
"Nathan, we are lost, we need to call someone." Haley said matter-of-factly. They had been driving for almost 20 minutes with the other car following them. Eventually, Nathan had pulled onto a trail through the woods and followed it until there was a space big enough for him to turn around. The only problem was that once he found that space, neither of them had any idea where they had come from.
"Hales, we're not lost. In fact, I know exactly where we are." Nathan said smugly.
"Really? Then where exactly are we?" She questioned sarcastically. Ugh, men and their egos when it comes to driving and asking for directions.
"We're in the middle of the woods." He stated simply, earning a small smile from the girl in the passenger seat. "Ok, I think I found the road." Nathan proclaimed as he started following a new path.
"Nathan, you do realize that you said the same thing 20 minutes ago." Haley pointed out with a small laugh.
"Yeah, I know. But this time I'm sure." He said confidently. "We'll be out of here in no time."
"Whatever you say," she smiled. She really didn't mind being lost with Nathan, he was actually kind-of cute when he was frustrated.
"Ha! I told you this was the right way!" He gloated good-naturedly when they saw the road ahead of them.
"Yea!" Haley clapped her hands excitedly. "Now we can get out of these creepy woods."
"Uh oh, not so fast, Hales." Nathan said as he tapped a gage on the dashboard.
"Great, what is it now?" She groaned.
"I don't really know." He replied as he stopped the car. "It says that my back right tire has very low tire pressure, whatever that means."
"You've got to be kidding me." Haley mumbled with a small chuckle as Nathan got out of the car. A flat tire? What more could go wrong?
Crap, Nathan thought when he saw the deflated tire on the back of his SUV. "It looks like we've got a flat tire." He said in a slightly apologetic voice.
"Ok, I can probably fix it." Haley said as she too got out of the car to look at the tire. "I've spent lots of time with Lucas at your Uncle Keith's body shop." She explained when she saw Nathan's unconvinced look.
"I don't think so, I can do it myself." He said indignantly. There was no way he was going to let his girlfriend, or any girl for that matter, change the tire of his car. He could do it better anyway, he was sure of it.
"Ok, but I'll help you if you need me to." She offered with a smile. Again with the male ego.
"Thanks, but I'm sure I can handle it." He smirked as he pulled her close to him. "I wouldn't want you to get all dirty."
"Nathan Scott! Are you implying that I'm too much of a girl to get dirt under my fingernails?" Haley put on a pouty face and watched as he tried to cover for himself.
"No, I just know that you can't even unclog a toilet, so what makes you think that you can change a tire?" He laughed as he remembered her trying as hard as she could to unclog that toilet and still being unsuccessful.
"Ok, just watch me." Haley said confidently as she bent down to look at the tire. "Get me a jack." She commanded as Nathan let out a small chuckle. Was she really going to do this?
He opened the trunk of his car and pulled out the jack. "What else do you need?" He asked in an amused voice when she took it from him and started turning the crank.
"Um, yeah, can you get the spare tire out for me?" She asked sweetly.
"Of course I can." He responded in an equally sweet tone as he walked back to the trunk again, lifted up the covering on the floor, and pulled the spare tire out with little trouble.
"Ok, now I can do the rest by myself." She assured him. She knew how to change the tire, the only hard part was going to be physically moving them
"Really? If you're so sure of yourself, then I'm just going to sit over here and watch." He smirked as he sat down on a dry patch of grass.
"That's fine with me, because I'm not going to need your help." She threw him a smile as she went back to taking the flat tire off.
"Good, because you're not getting my help." He said playfully. "I want to see you do it all by yourself and prove me wrong."
"I will." She huffed without looking up at him. A few minutes later, the old tire was ready to be replaced with the new one. "Nathan," She said in a charming and innocent voice. She always used that voice when she wanted him to do something because he knew that he couldn't say no to it.
"What is it?" He asked with a laugh, knowing that no matter what she asked him to do next he would end up doing, even if he had just promised her and himself that he wouldn't help. He couldn't turn her down when she used that voice.
"Can you get this old tire off for me? It's just so heavy that I can't do it." She was now batting her eyelashes and giving him her puppy dog eyes. If he was anything like his brother, he would cave after one look at them.
"Maybe…" He responded coyly as she walked over to him. "But I'm going to need something in return." He already knew that he was going to move the tire for her, but this way he could get something out of it too.
"Ok, what do you want?" She sat down on his outstretched legs and gave him a flirty smile.
"Um, how about this?" He leaned forward and captured her mouth with his as her arms went up around the back of his neck and his rested on her hips to keep her steady. Yeah, this was definitely a fair trade…
"Luke? Yeah, sorry, we're about 2 hours behind schedule." Haley said into her cell phone as she and Nathan got back onto the expressway.
"Why the hell are you 2 hours behind?" Lucas asked in a worried tone. "What did Nathan do?"
"Nothing," Haley laughed. Lucas could be so overprotective. "We were in traffic, then we got lost, then we had a flat tire."
"Ok, well, what time do you think you'll be home?" Haley heard a small giggle in the background and concluded that Brooke was doing something that she would be glad she was not there for.
"Um, I'm not sure…" She looked at the clock and then at a nearby road sign. It was already 7:30 and they were at least 2 hours away from the beach. "Nathan, what time do you think we'll be home?"
"Um, 9:00." He said as he took a quick look at the clock.
"9?" Haley whispered as she held the phone to her shoulder. "We're 130 miles away. That means that we'd have to be going close to 90 miles an hour!"
"Well, no one's even out here. We might as well go 90 if there's no one here to see." He said mischievously as she rolled her eyes with a smile.
"We'll be back at about 9:30." She said into the phone as Nathan shook his head and chuckled.
"Ok, we'll be waiting." Lucas answered before hanging up.
Haley closed her phone and put it back into her purse. However, as soon as she set the purse back onto the floor, the phone rang again. I should really start turning this thing off… "Hello?"
Nathan glanced over at her when he heard Lydia's voice booming through the speaker.
"Yeah…ok…um hum…thanks mom…love you too…bye." She hung up again and this time promptly turned the phone off before putting it back into her purse.
"What did your mom say?" Nathan asked as he quickly changed lanes and sped around the slow poke in front of him.
"The jury already came to a decision, Bobby was found guilty of escaping custody and attempted theft, but not guilty on harassment charges." Her mind was now spinning around in circles. Did this prove that Bobby really hadn't called her?
"Did he get life?" Nathan hoped to God that the idiot was locked away for life…
"Yeah…Nathan, can I ask you a question?" She responded suddenly as she turned in her seat to look at him.
"Yeah, what is it?" He became a little concerned at the seriousness of her voice. Does she want to have the relationship talk right now? While we're driving? Nathan had always hated having the 'relationship talk', the one where he had to discuss where the relationship was and where it was going, it had always seemed pointless to him, but somehow, he wasn't dreading having that discussion with Haley…
"Do you think I'm crazy?" Her voice was soft so Nathan decided against laughing at the ridiculous question.
"What? Of course I don't. Why would you think that?"
"I could have sworn that it was Bobby on the phone. You know? But what if it was all in my mind? What if I just, I don't know, hallucinated that it was him?" She looked over at him, hoping to find an answer.
"Hales, you are not crazy. We don't know for a fact that it wasn't Bobby." Nathan pointed out sincerely.
"Maybe you're right…" She said doubtfully as she looked out the window again. She had to be crazy to think that someone called who didn't, didn't she?
"Hey, would I go out with a crazy person?" Nathan asked in a reassuring voice.
"I don't know, would you?" She responded with a little laugh. The thought of Nathan going out with anyone crazier than her was a little laughable. Actually, the thought of Nathan going out with someone as crazy as her was amusing; she never would have imagined him with her before this summer.
"Hell no." He answered. "And that, Haley James, is how I know you are not crazy." He concluded with a smile.
"Well, I guess I can't argue with that logic." She grinned, he always made her feel better.
"No you can't." Nathan laughed. He took a quick glance at her and noticed that she looked considerably happier and less confused. "By the way, I don't think I told you yet, but Tim is having a yacht party at the end of the summer. I'm supposed to go down and meet this Felix kid with him Monday afternoon so it looks like you'll be on your own with the chores for a couple hours."
"Are you sure that you have to go with Tim and you're not just trying to get out of cleaning?" She teased.
"I would never do that!" Nathan pretended to be hurt by her accusation and then broke back out into a smile. "You know I would always pick spending time with you over going to some gorgeous marina to look at big expensive boats."
"Really?" She laughed. "Because I would probably pick the boats."
"You know, you're really funny." He said sarcastically and with a grin. "You're just lucky that we're driving right now and I can't tickle you for that little comment."
"Dan, how many times do I have to tell you to keep your crap out the bedroom?" Deb questioned seriously as she saw a big folder on the nightstand. She walked over to it and slowly started to open it to get a look at its contents.
"Sorry, I'll take that." Dan said quickly as he snatched the folder from her hands and retreated down the hall to his office.
"Freak." Deb muttered before entering the bathroom to get ready for bed.
Once Dan was safely in his office, he closed the door and locked it and then sat down in his large leather swivel chair. Effortlessly, he picked up the phone and dialed a series of numbers as he opened up the folder on his desk.
"Hi Tom, I just wanted to get an update from you on the progress of the case." He said in a low voice to ensure that Deb wouldn't hear. He knew that his wife would definitely not approve of his latest scheme.
"Well, as far as I can tell, the phone call really didn't have any lasting effects." Tom replied apologetically. "I really thought that it would have worked."
"That's ok, we'll just have to think of something better." Dan laughed sinisterly as he looked down at the picture of Haley James in his hand that he had taken from the folder. There was no way that the little diva was going to get away with making his son's summer miserable, he just had to think of an effective way to either get her to leave, or make her pay.