Hello everyone. Again, thanks for the reviews. There are only about 2 - 4 chapters left after this one…just wanted to let you know. :-) Enjoy the chapter and please review!
Disclaimer: I will never own One Tree Hill. Ever.
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 33
"Are you coming tonight with Lucas and Brooke, or with me?" Nathan asked as he and Haley walked back up to their condos from Whitey's office. They were going home tomorrow and had wanted to say goodbye to the man that they had both grown to love over the course of the summer.
Haley had cried when she hugged Whitey and said her goodbyes. Whitey had been almost like a surrogate father to her all summer, and now she was leaving, uncertain to whether or not she would ever see him again. After her, Nathan shook Whitey's hand. He would never admit to it, but deep down he knew that he would miss the old man. Whitey had been more of a father to him then Dan ever would be.
"What time did you say you were going?" Haley asked as they reached the top of the stairs.
"Um, in about an hour." Nathan smiled. He knew that there was no way Haley would be ready in an hour. "Tim and I have to stop and get more snacks, then we're heading over."
"Ok, well, I'm going with Lucas and Brooke then." She laughed. The day had finally arrived for the yacht party and Haley was beyond excited. She had never been in such a nice boat, she had never even been on a boat in the ocean before.
"That's fine, just tell them to hurry up because I'll be going crazy there without you." He whispered as he pulled her close and rested his forehead on hers.
"Well, I definitely don't want you to go crazy." She joked as she gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I'll tell them that we need to leave ASAP."
"Thanks." He responded sweetly as they stopped in front of her door. "I'll see you later."
"You too." She smiled as he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead before continuing on to his own condo.
Haley dug through her purse and pulled out the key for condo number 9. It was weird to use this key because for three fourths of the summer she had used the master key that Whitey gave her that opened all of the doors. That key had been returned when they said their goodbyes.
As she opened the door to the condo, she felt an overwhelming sense of sadness come upon her. Tomorrow was going to be the last day that she would probably ever see this condo. Summer would be over, and she would have to go back to attending Tree Hill high and working at Karen's.
At least I'll be a senior, She thought in an attempt to cheer herself up. And I'll have Nathan. The last thought brought a smile to her face. It was definitely going to be interesting to see the reaction of the rest of the school to their relationship. She was sure that it would come as a surprise to them that Nathan Scott, king of the school, would even look twice at Haley James, the average tutor girl.
"Haley, there you are! I need your help!" Brooke said frantically as she ran up and grabbed Haley's hand, dragging her into the bedroom that they supposedly shared. Haley had been sleeping in that room alone ever since Brooke and Lucas got together, so technically, it was her room.
"What is it Brooke?" Haley asked worriedly. Whatever it was sounded important. If there was blood involved, she was out. The one thing that Haley James could not do was blood. Sure, a paper cut here and there was ok, but massive amounts of blood, or anything that's supposed to stay inside the body for that matter, was just too much.
"I have a really big problem." Brooke said seriously. She was definitely going to need her friend's help for this one.
Problem? That seemed to rule out the possibility of any type of injury… "Oh my God, Brooke, please tell me you're not pregnant." Haley gasped.
"God no!" Brooke sounded almost offended. "What do you think I am? A slut?"
Haley gave Brooke a look to ask if she really wanted her to answer that question.
"Ok, well, I was a slut. But not anymore. And I am totally not pregnant." She assured her friend.
"Good. So what's this dire dilemma?" Haley sat down on the bed and watched Brooke pace the floor.
"My shirt, that I was going to wear to the party tonight, it kind of shrunk." Brooke was almost ready to cry. She had spent a whole day shopping specifically for the perfect shirt to wear to this party. Now it was ruined.
"It shrunk? How did that happen?" Haley questioned. Shirts don't normally shrink if you follow the directions of how to wash them.
"I don't know." Brooke dug through the closet until she found the shirt that was now small enough to fit on a 10 year old. "I washed it in hot water, like I wash all my clothes, and then I put it in the dryer on extra heat because I like it when my clothes are warm when I put them on." She explained. "None of my clothes have ever shrunk before."
Haley fingered the blouse until she came to the small tag that she was looking for. "Brooke, didn't you even look at the tag? It says wash in cold and air dry."
"I'm sorry! I've never had to do my own laundry before this summer!" Brooke yelled in her own defense. "Now I have nothing to wear."
"Oh please, you own like every top in American Eagle. I'm sure you have something." Haley said as she joined her friend at the closet and started going through clothes.
"But none of them are perfect like this one was!" Brooke sobbed.
Haley looked at her and tried to stifle a small laugh. It must be that time of the month.
"Tutor Girl, don't you dare laugh at me!" Brooke whined as she used a tissue to wipe away the tears that were falling down her face. Just then, the phone rang and Brooke jumped to pick it up. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"Hello to you too, Cheery." Lucas laughed. What put her in such a bad mood?
"Lucas, thank the Lord. Where are you? We need to leave in like 3 hours!" Brooke exclaimed. She hadn't thought of the fact that Lucas didn't need 3 hours to get ready like she did.
"I'm at the mall right now. I needed to get a new pair of shoes for the party."
Then, a light bulb went off in Brooke's head as Haley watched her curiously. Brooke's face had turned happy again whereas just a few seconds ago, tears were practically falling out of her eyes. "Broody, I need you to do me a favor." She said sweetly.
"This is going to cost a lot isn't it?" Lucas laughed as he left Payless with his bargain shoes.
"Well…yes." Brooke smiled although she knew Lucas couldn't see it. "Go into Aéropostale and buy the shirt that is on the first mannequin to your left. It's yellow. I need a medium." She instructed.
"Brooke, Aéropostale is all the way on the other side of the mall!" Lucas complained.
"Broody, if you don't do this one little thing for me, so help me I will make you go this party by yourself and you will wake up very alone tomorrow." Brooke warned.
"Fine, I got it. The yellow one, size medium, hurry up." Lucas laughed.
"Thanks, love ya!" Brooke hung up and excitedly clapped her hands together. "Looks like I get to wear my shirt after all!"
"See? I told you that everything would be fine." Haley smiled as she patted Brooke on the shoulder. "I'm going to hop into the shower."
"Ok…Wait!" Haley took off running into the bathroom and closed the door just as Brooke slammed into it. "Haley James! You knew I wanted to take a shower first!"
"Sorry, Brooke, you snooze you lose." Haley laughed as she turned on the hot water.
"Just hurry your little ass up." Brooke yelled playfully through the door.
"So, what all do you think we need?" Tim asked as he and Nathan walked into Wal-Mart.
"It's your party, Tim." Nathan reminded him. "What do you want?"
"Beer." Tim said honestly before grabbing a cart and directing it towards the refrigerated section. He filled the cart to the top with beer cans.
"Tim, do you seriously think that they are going to let you buy all that?" Nathan laughed.
"Yeah. My hot date from the other night works here." Tim shrugged.
"Wait, the girl you bailed on me for works here?"
"Yeah, she'll totally let me slide." Tim winked. "I showed her a good time if you know what I'm sayin'."
"So all you're getting is beer?" Nathan questioned incredulously.
Tim nodded his head as if Nathan should have already known that answer. With that, Nathan grabbed a box of 12 cans of lemonade and added it to the cart.
"Dude, we don't need that stuff. No one's going to drink it." Tim laughed as he pointed to the lemonade.
"Haley will." Nathan pointed out, slightly put off by Tim's inconsiderate nature. "And she told me that Brooke doesn't like beer either."
"My bad. 2 people will drink the lemonade." Tim said as he dramatically threw his hands in the air. "What do you think, pretzels or chips?"
"Both." Nathan replied as he added a bag of Smartfood to the cart along with some pretzels and Lays Wavy potato chips.
"Nate, why the hell do we have to buy Smartfood popcorn?" Tim whined.
"Haley likes it more than pretzels and potato chips." Nathan explained.
"Does it make you smarter?" Tim asked with a confused look on his face. "I mean, is that why they call it 'smart' 'food'?"
"You're kidding, right?" Nathan laughed. Did Tim seriously just ask that question?
"Yeah, man, I was totally kidding." Tim laughed nervously. They grabbed a few more things that they needed for the party and then headed to the check out line.
"Tim, don't forget that we have to go to that girl you went out with." Nathan reminded him as they got into one of the lines.
"I know. This is her register." Tim assured him as they moved up in the line and came face to face with a large girl with a weird assortment of facial hair above her lip. "Hey Ima, what's up?" Tim winked.
Nathan quickly looked at Tim to see if this was really the girl that he had gone out with. First of all, looking at her nametag, Nathan noticed that her name was 'Ima Pigie', second of all, she had a mustache!
"Oh, I'm good Timmy." Ima snorted. She rung them up and as Tim predicted, she did not card him for buying a total of 20 packs of 24 cans of beer.
After they were safely out of Ima's earshot, Nathan turned to Tim. "She was your 'hot date'?"
"Yeah." He said evenly, not even realizing that his date looked like an elf.
"Hey, you're here." Nathan said excitedly a few hours later as he pulled his girlfriend into a hug.
"Yeah, we made it." Haley smiled as she looked back at Brooke and Lucas who were standing behind her. Both were staring at the magnificent boat in front of them. "You guys go ahead; I'll catch up in a few minutes."
Lucas and Brooke obeyed and walked past them and onto the yacht that was filled with loud pop music, nodding in acknowledgement to Nathan as he did the same.
"You're here earlier than I expected." He said as he left a soft kiss on her lips.
"I did my best to hurry them up." Haley smiled.
"She's heading onto the boat." Tom whispered into his phone when he watched Haley walk onto the yacht. "She's with the guy from the miniature golf place, but his back is to me and I can't see who it is."
"That's ok, it doesn't matter." Dan assured him with an evil laugh. "The plan is going to work perfectly. You're in position aren't you?" Sometimes Dan wondered how he himself could be so evil. He blamed it on his lapse in the taking of the medication that his psychiatrist had prescribed.
"No, but I will be in a minute." Tom left his hiding spot behind a few cars and ran over to a small motor boat with a large crate in it. "Ok, I'm in position."
"And what time does the boat leave? Did you find out?" Dan asked impatiently. It was so hard to find good help these days.
"Yeah, uh, it is set to leave in a half an hour."
"Excellent. Be ready, I'll call you when it's time." Dan hung up the phone to see Deb staring at him. "What do you want?"
"Who was that?" She inquired. It sounded like Dan was up to something, something bad no doubt.
"None of your business. If I can't get any privacy in my own home, then I'm going to my office." Dan spat out as he hurriedly made his way to the garage, got into his car, and took off for Dan Scott Motors. There was no way that he would let Deb ruin this, his son's only chance at happiness, by messing up his perfect plan. He was so close to finally getting the revenge that Nathan deserved…