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Chapter Twelve

That night Haley walked out of her bedroom, having changed after her shower and was greeted with the aroma of just cooked pasta. "That smells nice."

"Thanks," Peyton replied, but as she turned around she couldn't mask the guilty look on her face.

"What is it?"

"What makes you think there's something to be 'it'?"

"Well for one, that look," Haley counted on her fingers, "and, two you made mac and cheese. Clearly you are trying to bribe me. If it helps the prospect of mac and cheese is working so far."

"We're kind of having a guest for dinner."

"Jake?" Haley guessed.

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

"When's he coming?"

"Probably less than a minute. I already buzzed him in," Peyton explained. "He called when you were in the shower and he wasn't doing anything so I asked him to come over. I meant to tell you once you got out of the shower."

"Which you just did."

"I guess. Is it okay?"

"I don't mind. Jake's cool and he's your boyfriend now," Haley said with a grin, "but if you want I can go somewhere else."

"Oh, no, you don't have to do that."

"I don't want to be a third wheel," Haley admitted.

"But you won't be! It'll be three friends having dinner together." The door bell rang, just as she finished her sentence. "That's Jake. You can't leave now or he'll feel bad."

"Well we can't let Jake feel bad," Haley laughed.

"Please Hales. I'll feel bad too," Peyton pouted.

"All right, I'll stay. But when you too want to make out and I'm sitting right there I'll be saying 'I told you so'."

Peyton giggled. "Okay. I'd rather you than Mrs. Martinson"

"Nathan, Lucas!" Deb called from the bottom of the staircase. "Dinner's ready."

Obediently, the two boys came out of their rooms and trotted down the stairs, just as the doorbell rang. Deb left the kitchen to answer the door so when Lucas and Nathan arrived only Keith was there.

"Can you set the table please Lucas?" Keith asked. Lucas grudgingly obliged as Nathan took a section of the paper that Keith wasn't looking at. "How's work going, Nate?"

"It's okay so far. We've –"

"Lucas! One of your friends is here," Deb announced as she returned to the kitchen with a petit brunette in tow.

"Brooke!" Lucas exclaimed.

"Hi Lucas. Nathan."

"Hi," Nathan replied.

"Hey. Oh, these are my parents," Lucas pointed out Deb and Keith.

Keith put his paper down and smiled and Brooke smiled back. "I just came to return your book. Thanks for letting me copy the notes."

"That's okay," Lucas replied as he took the book from her. "You could have just given it to me tomorrow."

"But you need it for the homework."

"Oh, right," he remembered. "Thanks."

No one said anything as Nathan, Deb and Keith watched the pair in front of them. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Brooke rung her hands and said, "Well, I'll see you guys at school tomorrow."

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" Both Lucas and Brooke looked up at Deb who had made the offer. "That is, unless you're doing anything with your parents."

"No, my parents aren't home. But, I don't want to intrude."

"Nonsense; I've made enough. It's fine. Isn't it, Lucas?" Deb added.

"Yeah." Lucas nodded eagerly. "You should stay."

"Okay then," Brooke relented with a smile. "I'll just call my housekeeper and tell her."

"The phone's this way," Deb came forward to take Brooke to the next room. Brooke turned to follow her but Lucas was in the way.

"Sorry," they both muttered. Lucas moved to the right to allow her to pass just as Brooke too moved right. "Sorry," Lucas said again and moved left so that Brooke could finally follow Deb out of the kitchen.

Ignoring Nathan and Keith's inquisitive looks, Lucas put his attention back to the dining table as he now had another place to set.

"What was that?" Keith asked.

"Nothing."

"Oh, I disagree. There's definitely something there. And if you don't tell me then I guess I'm gonna have to rely on Nathan for information."

Grinning, Nathan replied, "I'm just as in the dark as you. He won't talk about it."

"There's nothing to talk about!" Lucas protested, but the smile on his face as he sat another place at the table said otherwise.

Jake was surprised at how well dinner had gone. He had been somewhat reluctant to turn up so suddenly and he could tell that at the beginning Haley seemed to look like she would rather have been somewhere else – to tell the truth so had he – but they had ended up having a nice dinner sitting in front of the TV watching Seinfeld reruns. That's probably what he would have done at his apartment had he not come over, but it had been a lot nicer with Peyton snuggled up next to his side.

After their first date, still only a few days ago, Peyton had suggested that they continue to date, but keep it quiet. She had wanted to avoid all the gossip among students that she had seen and heard when other teachers dated, including Haley and Chris, and he didn't mind agreeing. If they weren't publicly dating then it was unlikely Nathan would find out about it, which was how Jake wanted it to stay until he told Nathan about it himself. Nathan was his best friend, so he had decided he was going to tell him before the case was over even though it was technically against the rules, but he wanted his relationship with Peyton to be better established first. If they broke up soon and it turned out to be nothing then he would have argued with Nathan for no reason. Once that was taken care of he had to face the other problem: telling Peyton about his real profession. But he liked to keep that as far back in his mind as possible.

Closing the bathroom door behind him, Jake was about to go back to the kitchen when he heard a voice exclaim, "You're such a druggie!" Jake nearly fell back against the door in shock.

"Not so loud, Pey! Jake will hear you"

So that was definitely Haley. Which meant Peyton had called Haley a…No way! Jake told himself. They sounded like they were laughing about it – they couldn't possible be serious! They couldn't joke about it if she really was…unless they both were! And they were getting high or – no!

"Speaking of…Jake?" Peyton called out to him. "How do you want your coffee?"

"Erm, just milk – no sugar!" Pull yourself together man!

"Okay."

Jake composed himself before he slowly walked back to the kitchen, stopping in his tracks when he saw Haley lifting a spoon covered in a powdery white substance to her mouth. She put the spoon in her mouth, but when she saw him a blush spread across her cheeks as if she had just been caught red-handed stealing candy from the grocery store.

Peyton turned around and smiled at Jake. "Your coffee's ready."

"Er-thanks." Jake hastily stepped forward and joined them, and Peyton placed the steaming mug in his hands and then casually draping her arm around his waist. "So, um, what are you girls doing?" he asked, suspiciously eyeing the opened container half-full of the white powder Haley had just consumed, lying on the table for everyone to see.

"Well, I've been making coffee while Haley here has been taking her drugs," Peyton said seriously.

Haley rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to her, Jake. It's just coffee-mate."

Jake nearly spat out the coffee that was in his mouth. "What?"

"You know what coffee-mate is, don't you?" Peyton wondered. "The creamer? I put a spoon in your coffee just now because we're out of milk."

Jake sniffed his coffee and then looked back at Haley who was still holding the spoon. "But you just ate a spoon of it?"

Haley blushed again and Peyton giggled. "You know how some people have weird taste in food?" Peyton began. "Haley likes to eat coffee mate."

"You eat it?"

Haley nodded sheepishly. "It really does taste good. Do you want to try some?" She held the container up and offered him some.

Jake quickly shook his head. "No, thanks."

"She always tries to make me try some too," Peyton told him as Haley put the box away and licked her spoon, "but I never have either."

"You guys don't know what you're missing."

Jake smiled, relief washing over him. But there was just one small thing… He turned to Peyton. "Um, why did you call her druggie?"

"That was Haley's nickname in college. When one of our friends found out that she used to eat it we used to tease her about it and say she was addicted."

"It wasn't funny," Haley wrinkled her nose. "One of our professors walked by when you were calling me druggie and he never looked at me the same after," she whined.

"That's actually true," Peyton confessed between giggles. "It was hilarious!"

"No, it wasn't," Haley pouted. Peyton kept giggling and shook her head as if to say, 'Yes, it was'. "Well," Haley told them, "I'm going to go to my room. See you kids tomorrow."

Taking another sip of his coffee, Jake put his cup down after Haley closed her bedroom door, the remains of a smile lingering on his face. "What?" Peyton asked when she looked up at him.

"Nothing…I just…I heard you two talking when I was coming out of the bathroom…"

"And? Oh my God!" Peyton suddenly realized. "You thought Haley was seriously a drug addict?"

"No," he lied.

"Oh my gosh, you did!" Peyton burst into giggles. "Haley is like the last person who would ever take drugs. I mean…" Peyton couldn't continue as she started laughing again.

"Can we please talk about something else?"

"But I like teasing you."

"But, now that we're alone," Jake punctuated the word by raising his eyebrows, "there's a lot more interesting things we could do."

"Oh, of course." Peyton lifted her mug and held it up to him, feigning innocence. "More coffee?"

As Haley settled down onto her small desk in her bedroom she heard the other bedroom door open and then slam shut. Smiling to herself, she hoped in passing that the walls were soundproof, as they had never been in a position to tell before. Getting back to her work, she looked at the pile of essays she had started marking and then stopped when she went for her shower. She took the last essay she had marked, which had gotten an A, off the top of the alphabetical pile, and started to read the next essay, by Nathan Scott.