Chapter Seventeen

Nathan was late. It was Friday and that night he would have to go on his 'date' with Rachel. He and Jake had gone over the plan they had made at the station with some other officers from Tree Hill, but even though he had gotten permission to miss his last lesson from Mr. Durham the meeting had run on longer than expected. He had promised both Lucas and Brooke that he would be there at the auditions, but by now they would have been waiting without him for as long as fifteen minutes. Nathan just hoped that some good came out of it, and they didn't have a huge fight in front of everyone.

After parking the car, Nathan decided to take the back route to the auditorium since that way was shorter. He shut the car door behind him and locked it before jogging across the field. By this time of day Nathan expected everyone who didn't have auditions or a sports practice to have gone home so he was surprised to see a lone figure sitting on the patch of grass just outside the fire exit door. He was even more surprised when he realised the person was Miss James.

Nathan slowed down to a walk as he moved towards his destination so she didn't notice him. As he neared Haley, he took in her appearance. She was dressed in her usual outfit, smart shirt and trousers, but her whole body seemed slouched, like she was exhausted. Her hair was loose so it slightly blurred his view of her face, but the way she kept playing with the cell phone in her hands told him something was troubling her.

There was enough of a distance behind her for him to pass unnoticed if he moved carefully – if she was just having a moment to herself Nathan knew he probably should leave her alone. But, the truth was, he didn't want to leave her alone. There was something compelling about Haley James and he wanted to know her. If he wanted a moment alone with her then he wasn't fool enough to pass this up.

Once he was a few feet away from her he stopped and nervously cleared his throat. "Uh…Miss James?"

She looked up at him; the second Nathan saw the tears on her cheeks he wondered whether he should have just gone. "Nathan." She looked back down at her lap and with the back of her hand tried to brush them off her face. "C-Can I help you with something?"

Now somewhat uncomfortable, Nathan glanced at the auditorium doors not far away. He had no experience with crying women – he had never been the type of person you came to seek comfort from. It wasn't that he was insensitive; he just wasn't good at knowing what to say in that kind of situation. But he wanted to comfort Haley, even though he didn't know why or how. Nathan closed the distance between them by sitting down next to her. "Are you okay?" he asked, then inwardly cringed. She obviously wasn't and the question sounded so inadequate.

"I'm fine," Haley lied, keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Did something happen? Are you worried about the play or something?"

"No." Haley shook her head. "It's nothing like that. I just…"

"Just what," Nathan prodded gently.

"I…I got this call about my mom," Haley breathed.

"Is she alright?"

"Yes, she's fine," Haley said brokenly. "She just…she was in an accident. The doctor said she should be fine – I was just – I just got so scared," Haley told him. Tears brimmed at her eyes and Haley let out a deep sigh. "I'm overreacting; I'm sorry you had to see me like this, Nathan."

"Don't worry about it." Without thinking, he draped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him.

Closing her eyes, Haley relaxed the side of her body onto him. Her head lay against his collarbone while her hand was on his chest. Nathan just hoped that she couldn't hear how his heartbeat had increased.

They remained like that for a few moments, sitting there peacefully, as if they were the only two people in the world. Then, suddenly, Haley's whole body jerked away from him and she sat up straight.

"Miss James…"

"Er…I'm sorry about that," Haley said quickly, and tried to brush it off, both in front of him and in her mind as well. She gave out what she hoped sounded like a light-hearted laugh. "I must be a mess! I should go get cleaned up so they can start auditions."

"You don't need to."

"Huh?"

Hesitantly, Nathan's hand reached forward and pushed the hair on her face out of the way. Then, with his thumb, he brushed away the single tear that remained underneath her eye. "There," he whispered.

Haley stared at him for a few moments. "Th-Thank you."

Stunned by his own actions as well, Nathan replied, "You're welcome," for lack of anything else to say.

"I-I should – I have auditions."

Nathan nodded. Haley stood up and ran inside through the fire escape door.

"Where have you been?" Lucas was demanding minutes later when Nathan came into the dressing room where the students were supposed to assemble. He and Brooke were both standing side by side, which Nathan took as a good sign.

"Sorry, I got held up," Nathan told them.

"Busy with Miss James?" Brooke commented, attracting both Lucas and Nathan's attention.

"W-what?" Nathan stuttered.

"Well, auditions were supposed to have started already and she's late too so –"

"Oh, you know about the ice cream incident," Lucas realized.

"What ice cream incident?"

"The ice cream - at the supermarket – I thought that was why you said that," Lucas told her.

"I don't know anything about the supermarket; I know about the library," Brooke informed Lucas.

"The library? What was he doing with Miss James there?" Lucas wondered.

"Can you two keep your voices down please," Nathan requested. The last thing he wanted was for other students to hear them.

Ignoring him, Brooke continued talking to Lucas. "You tell me what happened at the supermarket first."

"The day before term started my mom sent us to the supermarket and we split up while we were there. Nathan went to get the ice cream and Miss James was at the freezer and since he didn't know who she was then he started flirting with her."

"Nathan flirted with Miss James!" Brooke squealed.

"No! I didn't! We said barely two words to each other, there was no flirting –"

"What happened at the library?" Lucas asked.

"I saw them going behind the make out stacks. And you know what everyone does there," Brooke said with a wink.

Lucas' eyebrows rose. "Nathan!"

"She needed me to get some books down for her!"

Brooke rolled her eyes. "No one goes back there for books. That's why people make out there."

"Maybe teachers use those books, Brooke," Nathan said.

"What teachers?"

"Lit teachers!"

"Maybe," she accepted. "But my version of the story is much more exciting."

"I agree," Lucas pitched in.

Nathan was saved from further mortification by the entrance of Miss Sawyer into the dressing room. "Hi everyone. Sorry about the delay; auditions will start now. We'll be going in the order of when people signed up; the list is on the wall over there," she pointed it out to them. "You don't have to wait in this room the whole time, but please make sure you're here and ready while the person before you is auditioning. Once you've auditioned you can leave. The cast list will be up on Monday. Good luck," she added.

A tall dark-haired girl with glasses started up. "Don't say that!"

"Er, right. Sorry. Break a leg," she shrugged and went back.

Brooke rolled her eyes at the girl who had spoken. "Ok-ay."

"I wonder when our turn is," Lucas stated.

"We're fourth," Brooke said. "Well I'm fourth, which means you're fifth. I remember from when I signed us up."

"Oh…that's really soon…" Lucas frowned.

"I think it's actually better going sooner rather than at the end because by that time your nerves will really build up. Anyway, I'm going to go freshen up now so I'll be ready by the time I have to go onstage. And, Lucas?"

"Yes?"

"You should probably keep an eye on Nathan. Who knows what he'll try to get up to next," she teased.

Lucas laughed in agreement, while Nathan just made a face. "Come on, man, we're only joking," Lucas told him when he noticed.

"We'll it's not very funny. And people could hear you and think something was actually going on."

Lucas laughed. "Okay, okay. But, hey, that was the first conversation Brooke and I have had since – well, you know – where we were just talking normally to each other without being really awkward. I think things might be looking up."

"I'm very happy for you," Nathan said, only half sarcastically. He was happy that Lucas and Brooke were talking again – he just didn't want it at his expense.

The minutes flew by and soon it was Brooke's turn. There was a curtain separating the side of the stage from the dressing room so Lucas and Nathan couldn't see her audition, but when she came out she seemed pleased.

"It's your turn then, now Lu-Lucas, are you okay?" Brooke said when she looked at him.

He was staring wide-eyed at the curtain before him, starting to sweat slightly and Nathan could have sworn that his palms were shaking.

"You're up man."

Lucas nodded briefly and stepped forward, opened the curtain then suddenly turned around and came back again.

"Lucas, what are you doing?"

"Did you see how big that auditorium is?" he said.

"Luke, you've been in the auditorium before," Nathan reminded him.

"Sitting in the audience. Not standing on that – that…"

"Stage?" Brooke offered.

"Yeah. It's huge!"

Knowing a case of stage fright when she saw one, Brooke set about to rectify the problem. "It's okay, Lucas. Just breathe," she told him calmly and put her hands on his shoulders. "Stop worrying. There are only three teachers in that audience, that's it."

"But on the day of the play, it'll be packed!"

"Lucas Scott!" a voice called out from the audience.

Brooke turned to Nathan. "Can you just tell them he'll be a minute?"

"Me?"

"Yeah."

"Er-okay." He opened the curtain and stepped onto the stage. As he observed the auditorium, he realized Lucas was right: it really was huge. Thank God he wasn't auditioning! He looked at the seats and saw Miss James sitting in the front row, and two teachers were sitting in the row behind her. Her eyes opened wide when she saw Nathan. "No, I'm not auditioning," he said when he realized what she was wondering. "Lucas is here he's just…having some problems. He'll be out in a minute."

"Okay," Haley replied meekly, embarrassed as she remembered what had taken place between them just outside.

As Nathan walked off stage he noticed with a start that the two teachers sitting behind Haley were Miss Sawyer and Jake. He was surprised since Jake had never mentioned that he would be at auditions. Nathan noted that he hadn't told Jake he would be here either, but he had informed him that he was doing backstage a while ago, whereas Jake hadn't even said he was involved. However, Jake didn't notice Nathan, as he was fully engrossed in his conversation with Miss Sawyer. It occurred to Nathan that Jake might not have mentioned it because he might not even be involved in the play.

With a final glance at them, Nathan walked off the stage and back to Brooke and Lucas. Brooke seemed to have finally calmed him down as she was telling him, "You're gonna be great."

Lucas nodded and returned her smile. He turned around and was about to go on, before he half-turned back again. "But what about –" he started to say before Nathan pushed him forwards so that he stumbled onto the stage and had no choice but to start his audition.