Chapter Twenty Six

"Nathan. Nathan? Nathan!" Lucas' repeated calls combined with him poking Nathan's shoulder finally managed to wake his cousin up after he fell asleep in their biology class a few days later.

Nathan's head shot up and he blinked his eyes a few times to make sure he was awake.

"Did you get any sleep at all last night, Nate?" Lucas wondered. "You even slept through the bell."

"So…class is over?"

"Yeah, but I kind of have a favour to ask you."

"Shoot."

"Brooke asked me to meet before her next class because after school she's doing this project and I have basketball practice so we won't see each other."

"And how can I help?" Nathan asked as he started packing his bag.

"Mr. Bateman just asked us all to clear up our tables before we leave, but if I stay I'll be late and –"

"You want me to clean it up by myself? No problem," he said when Lucas nodded in response to his question.

"Thanks, man." Lucas quickly collected his books and left.

Looking around, Nathan could see that, as usual, most people in his bio class had dumped clean-up duties on their lab partner so there weren't that many people left in the classroom with him. Normally he let Lucas take care of most of the work, so he wasn't sure where everything went. That added to his sluggishness after a mere three hours of sleep for two nights in a row, having got home late both previous days due to working with Jake at the station, meant he was the slowest person in the lab, and consequently the last person in the room.

As he picked up the final few beakers from the table, he mused on the dream Lucas had woken him up from. He had been in another classroom, but it had been a lot more interesting than this as it had involved someone who'd become a feature in his dreams lately; the –

"Hello?"

Nathan spun around at the sound of a voice coming from the door and, when he saw who it was, accidentally dropped the beaker in his hands.

Haley had just been about to say she'd realized she was in the wrong class when she saw the glass shatter to pieces. She put her books down on the front desk and came over to Nathan who had bent down to start picking them up. "Are you alright?" she asked. "I'm sorry if I startled you."

"No, it's okay. It's not your fault. I should have been paying more attention to what I was doing," he told her. As they picked up the pieces and put them on the table, he wondered, "Were you here to see Dr. Bateman? Because he left –"

"No, I was here for a class, but I mixed up the labs."

"Labs?"

"One of the chemistry teachers is absent so I'm just covering her lesson, but since I never go to the labs I got confused as to which one I'm supposed to go to," Haley explained.

"Oh, okay." Nathan nodded. "You know, I can clean up the rest."

"Are you sure? You'll be late for your class."

Nathan shrugged. "It's okay. I can take care of it."

"Okay, then." Haley gave him a small smile as she stood back up. She walked towards the door and picked up her books, before she turned back to look at him. "See you tomorrow… in class, I mean," she added unnecessarily.

"Bye."

Lucas managed to find Brooke before the second bell so they had a few minutes together.

"Hi, Broody!" She smiled when she saw him and gave him a quick kiss. "So, what are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing; why?"

"Do you want to come over?"

Lucas grimaced. "I don't know…" The day before he would have eagerly accepted – which he had done – but Brooke's housekeeper had walked in on them in her bedroom and had all but chased Lucas to his car, taking his jacket from the coat rack and throwing it at him, before banging the front door shut.

"I'm really really sorry about that," Brooke apologized once more, trying not to blush from embarrassment as she remembered the previous night. "But I wouldn't have asked if I hadn't found out last period that my housekeeper not going to be home tonight."

"She's not?"

Brooke shook her head. "She sent me a message about an hour ago saying one of her daughters just had a baby a few weeks earlier than expected, so she's leaving to California this afternoon and she'll only be coming back next month."

"Next month?" Lucas asked hopefully.

Brooke nodded. "Uh-huh. And I doubt my parents will turn up anytime soon so you can come over a lot between now and then," she told him, a knowing grin on her face.

"Okay; I'll see you tonight then," he said, just as the second bell rang.

She kissed Lucas goodbye before smirking at him. "Who knows," she whispered in his ear, "maybe you'll get past second base."

"Er, Nathan? Can I talk to you for a second?"

Nathan had been looking out the window in the room that was his during his stay at his uncle's house, but turned around when he heard Lucas calling him from the door. "Sure. Come on in." Lucas complied, and closed the door behind him. Noticing, that Lucas had changed his clothes since dinner, Nathan asked, "Going out?"

"Brooke asked me to come over."

"What did you want to talk about?" Nathan wondered.

"Er…I…This is kind of weird," Lucas said finally.

"Okay…Do you need advice about something?" he guessed.

"Sort of. I, um…I'm asking because I need to talk to someone who's older, you know," Lucas explained.

"And you don't want to ask your parents?"

"God, no! No," Lucas repeated calming down. "This is not something I can talk about with them.

"Okay. Well, tell me. I can't help you out if you don't."

"Right…Okay, so today," Lucas began, "when Brooke asked me to come over she kind of said something."

"What did she say?"

"That maybe I'd get past second base," Lucas said quickly.

Nathan grimaced. "Well, I'd have preferred not to know that, but okay…So, what, you feel like she's moving too fast? Since you guys only started dating a few days ago?"

"Not exactly."

"Then what?" Nathan prodded, slightly afraid of the answer.

Lucas took a deep breath before he finally admitted, "I've never been past that."

Nathan's eyes widened and he was certain that if he had been drinking something he would have spat it out. "So you've…never had sex?"

Lucas looked at the ground and shook his head. "No."

"Okay…so…you don't want me to tell Brooke for you, do you?"

"No! No, I just…do I really have to tell her?" Lucas asked.

"Well, yeah! Of course you do."

"We couldn't just avoid it for a little while?" Lucas hoped.

"This is Brooke, Lucas. She'll start jumping to conclusions if you move away from her every time she tries to take your shirt off."

"Hey, I didn't say I've never been –"

Nathan held up a hand to cut him off. "I don't want to know the details. Just tell Brooke. Hell, she may even find it endearing."

Lucas snorted. "Right. Well, I guess I better go then."

Nathan nodded. "And tell her quickly. Otherwise she might think you're trying to tell her something else…like you're gay."

"You're a real riot, you know that."

"Come on, it'll be fine."

"Okay, okay. See you."

"See you."

"Hey…" Lucas stopped at the door. "You don't think it's weird, right? That I haven't…"

"No," Nathan jumped in, realizing Lucas' meaning. "There are lots of other people your age who haven't."

"Right." Lucas nodded. "Had you?"

"Me?"

"How old were you?" Lucas asked.

Nathan shrugged. "That doesn't matter."

"Come on, tell me."

"Er…14," Nathan confessed.

"Thanks…That makes me feel so much better."

A/N: First of all, I apologize for the delay with this chapter but it was not my fault! I was going to post it on Wednesday but my computer crashed that morning and I only just got it back. Luckily, most of my files - including all my story files - were not lost so I can update now. There's Jeyton in the next chapter and there'll be lots of Naley very soon.