Chapter 6

Friday night had come quickly and Haley now found herself sitting with her aunt and uncle in the Tree Hill High gym watching Lucas, Nathan, Tim, and Julian, along with the rest of the basketball team crush their opponents. Throughout the week, Haley had been tutoring Nathan every morning for as long as they could before heading to school together. She could tell that Keith, Karen, and Lucas were becoming suspicious of her early morning activities but so far none of them had mentioned anything to her. Haley had quickly discovered that her favourite part of the day was most often her sessions with Nathan. The more time they spent together, the more they got to talk with each other. Nathan acted differently when it was just the two of them together than when it was the whole group.

Along with spending time with Nathan more, Haley was also taking more time to hang out with Lucas' other friends. They had all expressed that they already consider her a part of the group and look forward to getting to know her even better. Even though she had only known them for about a week and a half, Haley believed their sentiments and felt like they were her friends too.

Monday after getting home from school, she called Jake for the first time since moving to Tree Hill and spoke with him about her feelings of guilt over being happy. He seemed excited to finally hear from her and tried his best to help quash her guilt. He ensured her countless times that her parents would want her to be happy and move on with her life. Deep down Haley knew her best friend was right and she expressed her love and thanks to him before ending their conversation.

Talking to Jake made Haley realize just how much she missed him after only a week. He promised her that he would try to make it out to Tree Hill for Thanksgiving or sometime sooner if he found the time. In her mind, the holiday that was a month away, could not come any faster. She couldn't wait to finally see Jake again and introduce her to her new world on the east coast.

Haley cheered loudly when she watched Lucas slam dunked the basketball roughly and hung onto the basket for a few extra seconds before jumping back into the game. No wonder they already had an after party planned, from what she was seeing it was hard to believe that Tree Hill high ever lost a basketball game. Haley's eyes then soon honed in on Nathan's running form. He was sweating profusely and his sculpted muscles were bulging in all the right places. The more time she spent with him, the more difficult it was becoming to remain ignorant to his charm and good looks. Just as she was drifting off into dreamland about Nathan, Karen spoke up form beside her.

"So are you going to this party at Deb's beach house after tonight's game with Lucas, Haley?"

"Yeah, I think it'll be fun."

Karen smiled. "Just make sure you don't drink too much, okay?"

"Don't worry Aunt Karen, I'm not a big drinker," she assured.

"You wouldn't lie to me, would you? You can tell me the truth Haley, Keith and I won't be mad."

"No, Aunt Karen, I'm not a liar either."

"So then you'll tell me the truth about what you've been doing when you leave every morning an hour and a half before school starts?"

"Just doing someone a favour," Haley shrugged and tried to pay attention to the game and end the conversation with her aunt.

"Who?" Karen asked intrigued.

Haley sighed. She knew her aunt wasn't going to stop until she knew what was going on. "Nathan."

Karen grimaced. "I know you're a smart girl, Haley and don't get me wrong, I love Nathan like he's one of my own, but I know the kind of boy he is. The last thing I want for you is to get sucked in by his charm and end up pregnant or heartbroken."

Haley's eyes widened in shock. She couldn't believe Karen was bringing this up at all, let alone at a basketball game with hundreds of people around. At the thought of sleeping with Nathan she began to blush profusely before she dove into denying Karen's assumption. "Trust me Aunt Karen; I do not plan on sleeping with Nathan. I'm just helping him with his school work. You know, like tutoring him?"

"Oh," Karen said and visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "Well... that is good to know then," she finished lamely, feeling foolish for making her earlier speech.

Haley nodded but remained silent. She allowed herself to tune back into the basketball game and attempt to follow what exactly was going on. By the time it finished, she had been quite unsuccessful, only understanding that the Ravens won by 27 points.

Haley filed out of the bleachers behind Karen and Keith and waited for Lucas with a scattered out group of other parents. After fifteen minutes, Lucas emerged from the locker room alongside Nathan. The two boys spotted them and walked over.

"Great game boys!" Keith said upon their arrival.

"Thanks, Dad,"

"Thanks, Keith," they both said at the same time.

"So you three are headed to the beach house for the night, right?" Karen questioned.

"Yeah, I already told Lucas that I can give him and Haley a ride and then I'll drive them back into town tomorrow."

"Well in that case, we'll get going. Have fun tonight, kids," Karen said with a smile and left the gym with Keith.

"Are you guys ready to go then?" Lucas asked once his parents had left.

"Yeah, let's go," Nathan said and the trio headed out to his car. Haley was silent the entire ride out to the beach. She had no idea what to expect of this party. From what she heard, almost everyone went to Tree Hill basketball parties and they had the ability to get pretty wild. She was just hoping that nothing got too out of hand.

Pulling up into the paved driveway of the large beach house, Haley was immediately taken aback. She could hear the loud music pumping out of the house. She saw a few people already passed out on the front lawn, while some others were making out heavily around the property. Haley's eyebrows rose in surprise at the scene, but also that Lucas and Nathan seemed completely unfazed by what they saw. She shook off her shock quickly and followed them in exiting the car.

Entering the beach house, Haley saw what had to be almost the entire school gathered in one lavishly decorated home. The high ceilings and expensive furniture made Haley gape as she tried to fathom how expensive everything in this house likely was. Tearing herself away from the decor, Haley realized that the occupants of the house were cheering and gathering around Nathan, Lucas, and by association, herself as well. Everyone was trying to clap the two boys on the back and she was becoming just slightly claustrophobic.

"Thirty two points, fifteen assists, and twelve rebounds! You're the man, Nathan!" someone from the crowd yelled.

Nathan smirked and continued walking alongside Lucas and Haley. The crowd soon dispersed after fawning over the two stars and they found themselves in the kitchen. They each grabbed a signature red party cup off the counter and filled it with beer from a keg located in the corner of the room. From there, they were quickly able to spot the rest of their friends in the next room talking and laughing in a corner. It appeared Brooke had gotten the idea to dance on a table in the centre of the room, much to Lucas' chagrin. Many of the boys in the room and gathered around her and were cheering for her to keep going.

Lucas' jaw tightened when one of the guys dared to try to touch Brooke. He marched over to the table and shoved his way through the group. Grabbing Brooke's hand roughly, he pulled her off the table and over to the safety of their group that was laughing hysterically at the scene. Upon seeing Lucas, the guys eyeing Brooke immediately backed off and slinked into other rooms around the house.

"You're such a party pooper, Luke! I was having fun," Brooke exclaimed and started to pout.

"Find some other way to have fun. Preferably one that doesn't involve a bunch of other guys," Lucas told her.

Brooke stuck her tongue out at him defiantly and turned her back to him, starting up a conversation with Peyton about how annoying he was. Peyton laughed at her friend, obviously not drunk enough yet to join in on hating Lucas.

"Hey, why don't we play Never Have I ever?" Julian suggested out of the blue and everyone agreed enthusiastically.

Peyton smirked deviously. "Alright I'll go first. Never have I ever gotten caught streaking across the quad," she said looking pointedly at Brooke.

Brooke shrugged unabashedly and took a sip of her drink. Next to her, Lucas also took an embarrassed sip of his beer. "It was her idea," he claimed pointing at Brooke.

"Shut up," she smacked him playfully. "You know you wanted to do it just as much as I did!"

"Yeah, that was until Whitey showed up!"

Everyone busted at laughing as Brooke grimaced and nodded quickly. "That was bad," she agreed soberly.

"I'll go next," Julian said after they had spent a few minutes laughing at Brooke and Lucas' demise. "Never have I ever worn a dress."

Unsurprisingly, Brooke, Peyton, and Haley all drank. However, Tim took what he thought was a discrete drink. They all stared at him laughing. "What the hell, Tim?"

"Oh come on, it was my sister's fault! She wanted me to play dress up!" he defended.

Everyone was still laughing and shaking their heads. If they thought about it, Tim wearing a dress wasn't really a surprise. That boy had got into all kinds of crazy situations over the years.

"Alright then, moving on, Lucas said. "Never have I ever-"

"Oh my God, you guys are playing I Never? I love this game!" a shrill voice exclaimed. "Can I play?" the blonde girl asked as she approached the group with Rachel at her side.

"You can play, Bevin, but that whore can't," Brooke answered. Bevin was on the cheerleading squad with Brooke and Peyton. She was known to be a ditz and hung out with Rachel a lot. Despite her poor choice in friends, Bevin was a nice girl that got along really well with Brooke and Peyton, and also had a bit of a thing for Tim.

"Please let her play, Brooke? I don't wanna ditch Rach."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "I don't need her permission to play," she said and took a seat as close to Nathan as she could be. Bevin ignored the comment and sat next to Tim.

"Well, I was just about to go, but one of you two can instead," Lucas offered.

"I'll go," Rachel volunteered. She looked around the group and locked her eyes on Haley. She smiled fakely at her. "Never have I ever had my daddy be so drunk off his ass that he wraps his car around a telephone poll and then have my new family hate me."

The whole circle was silent. Rachel smirked at Haley and nodded at her. "Drink up."

Haley stared her down. As hurt as she was by the comment and as much as she wanted to breakdown and cry, Haley wasn't going to let the red head win. "Never have I ever been such a vindictive bitch that everyone in the entire town wants me to get hit by a truck," she said and stood up. Haley placed her drink down on the coffee table in the centre of the circle the group formed, spilling some of it. Imitating the red head's action, Haley nodded at her. "Drink up." She turned and walked straight out the back door of the beach house and down the dock onto the beach.

As soon as she had disappeared, Brooke leapt from her seat. "You're a bitch."

Rachel stood up laughing. "What are you gonna do about, Brookie?"

In a heartbeat Brooke had thrown her drink on the girl. "That is for being a bitch." Brooke swung her arm back and slapped Rachel across the face. "And that is for trying to upset my friend. Now I think it's time you get your insecure, skank ass out of this house, right now!" she yelled and pointed to the door.

Rachel stared at her in shock. She shook it off quickly and glared at the girl. "I'm not going anywhere," she said and walked off with Bevin following her meekly.

"Haley..." Lucas trailed off as he suddenly remembered that his cousin ran out.

"I got it, Luke," Nathan said and followed the path she took out of the house. It didn't take him long to see a lone figure sitting on the beach with her head in her hands. "Hey," Nathan said and sat down next to her.

Haley sniffled twice and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Don't try to act all strong in front of me, Haley," he told her. "By the way, if it makes you feel any better, Brooke threw her drink on Rachel and bitch slapped her."

Haley laughed softly. "That actually does make me feel a little better."

Nathan laughed as well and wrapped an arm around her when he noticed her shivering. "I can't believe she said that about my dad," she whispered.

"Hey, you and I, and everyone in your life that matters know that is the farthest thing from the truth. Don't let what other people think affect you, okay? If we did that, we'd all hate ourselves."

"And what about what she said about Karen, Keith, and Lucas?"

Nathan scoffed. "Don't give me that, Hales. You know for yourself that that isn't true at all either. You can't honestly sit here and tell me you don't know that Karen and Keith already think of you as a daughter and Lucas as though you're his sister."

Haley shrugged. "I know, but sometimes I can't help but question it. Realistically they don't have to do anything for me. They could go to whoever it is and tell them I'm too much to handle and I'd be shipped off somewhere else just like that."

Nathan rubbed her arm soothingly. "That's never going to happen, I promise," he whispered reassuringly.

Haley nodded in acceptance and rested her head on Nathan's broad shoulder. He pulled her in a bit closer to him. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"Thank you, Nathan."

"You don't have to thank me for anything I do for you, Hales. I'm doing it because I want to."

After sitting closely in silence for a few minutes, Nathan noticed Haley was shivering even more and promptly stood up, pulling her with him. "Come on, let's head back in."

Haley obliged and followed him back up to the house. When they reached their friend again, everyone rushed to Haley to make sure she was okay still. Haley assured them she was fine and smiled at Nathan discretely in thanks. He smiled back at her and made sure to not leave her side until Brooke and Peyton insisted she dance with them. At that, he grudgingly let her go and started downing drink after to drink to quash his questioning thoughts over why he had felt so fiercely protective over Haley. He didn't quite understand why he felt the need to tell her he wouldn't let anything happen to her or why he felt uneasy watching her dance with guys around her. Nathan merely continued to drink for the rest of the night and tried to lose himself his surroundings.

The party had finally wound down now. Most people had gone home or passed out somewhere in the beach house now and Haley found herself alone again. She had seen Lucas and Brooke go up to bed together, a regular occurrence according to Peyton. Peyton had gone off somewhere with Julian a while ago and she hadn't seen either of them since, but she really didn't want to think what her two friends were doing. As for Nathan, after he came to talk to her on the beach, he hadn't been around much after she went to dance with Brooke and Peyton, trying to talk with his other teammates and socialize with the other partygoers.

Haley wasn't really tired yet and had decided to clean up the house a bit to save whoever was responsible for cleaning up the mess tomorrow a bit of time. She was throwing empty cups in a trash bag when she heard a loud thud come from the hallway.

Curious as to what it was, Haley walked in the direction of the noise and immediately wished she hadn't upon rounding the corner. She saw Rachel and Nathan pressed tightly up against each other, making out heavily. Nathan was pinned against the wall as Rachel ran her hands all up his chest. She heard Nathan grunt and watched as he began feeling Rachel up.

"I know you think I'm sexy, Nate," Rachel panted. "Take me upstairs and have your way with me."

Nathan grunted again and pulled her closer to him. Haley saw that his eyes opened and locked with Haley's brown ones. He stared at her for what felt like hours before looking away and closing them again. He hoisted Rachel up in his arms sloppily and carried her up the stairs to an empty bedroom. Haley stood still as her eyes started to water. She couldn't believe that Nathan was actually going to sleep with that bitch after what she had said to Haley earlier.

Had Nathan just said those things on the beach to make her forget what Rachel said? Did he even care at all? Haley was so hurt and confused over what she had just witnessed; she didn't know what to do. What she really wanted was to go home and never talk to Nathan again. Instead though, she dropped the garbage bag on the floor and shuffled quietly up the stairs and to an empty bedroom where she fell into a fitful sleep.