A/N: Sorry for the wait, but school has really been tough lately, however I'll try my best to update as regularly as I can! Again, thanks for all the reviews!! This chapter is a little longer than the others, and well I hope you guys like it! Reviews motivate me, so if I happen to get a lot of reviews, I might update sooner, so please review!
She was back again in the city. She loved New York, although she had only been once before, she had fallen in love with this place. Oh how she would love to be able to live here, in fact she had thought of applying for colleges here, but despite how much she would like to live in New York, her dream had always been to study at Stanford. She must have been around 8 years old when her family decided to take a look at the universities on the west for her older sister Quinn, and one of their stops had been at Stanford. Since the day she had set foot there, she knew that she was going to go there someday; she just felt that she belonged there. She had worked very hard throughout her high school years so far so that she would hopefully get accepted, and she was not going to give up her life-long dream at this point.
Earlier today her mother had insisted on them going shopping for new outfits for the dinner party they had tonight. To be honest, she absolutely hated those posh business parties, she felt as if she didn't belong there, being surrounded by fake people who all they seemed to care about was who had the most expensive outfit, or the latest gossip in their elite circle. Haley knew her family didn't belong in that circle, and despite them being wealthy, they were no were as near as rich as those people. Sometimes she even felt as if they were looked down upon just for that reason. However business was business and her dad was here to represent his law firm in the sealing of a new partnership with another firm located here in NYC. Despite how much she hated the thought of having to attend tonight, she knew this would really advantage the law firm where her dad worked at back in L.A.
She was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts as she heard her mother, clad in a red cocktail dress while standing in front of the changing room's mirror, ask her; "Haley honey, do you think this look good enough for tonight?"
It was always about being good enough. Why couldn't her mother understand that they were good enough? They didn't need to compete with the others, because to her, their family had always been good enough, even 10 years ago when they were still living in a 3 bedroom home in tree hill with 6 kids.
But then again, she had been obliged to answer with what her mother wanted to hear.
"Yes mom, it looks great! It really flatters you're figure, but this is the 8th dress you try on, so can you please make your choice already and buy the dress?"
"Well someone's getting cranky. What's the matter, I thought you liked shopping?"
She did like shopping. But definitely not with her mother, who usually would take hours to make up her mind on what to take.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'm pretty tired, and I really want to get back to the hotel as soon as possible." She lied.
"Ok, well…fine I guess, I'll take this dress. I promise after this we'll just quickly head to the shoe store downstairs and I'll get the pair I told you I was going to get for tonight, and then we can go straight to the hotel."
"Oh God, now the shoes?" She thought as she inwardly groaned to herself, however as usual she had to plaster a fake smile on her face as she replied,
"Sounds good, thanks Mom."
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"Luke, what the hell, can we just go back to the hotel?"
"Dude, I told you I'm just looking for some new shirt which I need, so shut up and quit whining!"
Lucas didn't seem to be in the best of moods, so just for this time Nathan thought it would be better so kept his mouth shut. He strolled along as he followed Lucas along the crowded shopping mall where they were currently at. He hated malls and he hated shopping, unless it involved getting the newest pair of trainers at adidas or nike, or getting new games for his brand new play station.
Ever since yesterday's event, he had been pretty distracted. He couldn't stop thinking about her. He constantly looked around the mall, as if he expected to suddenly see her somewhere "She's not here! She isn't in NYC, she lives in L.A., so stop thinking that you'll bump into her!" he mentally scolded himself, however despite how much he tried to convince himself, he couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach that they were going to bump into each other.
He had been so caught up with his thoughts, that he didn't notice when Lucas had halted, and he walked right into him.
"What the--? Dude watch where you're going ok?" Lucas snapped angrily as he turned towards Nathan.
"Geez, no need to get so aggressive little brother!"
Lucas didn't reply, but instead just turned back towards the elevator they were facing. Great, now they had to ride some crowded elevator just so that Lucas could get his precious shirt which was 2 floors up.
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As the elevator doors opened, and people walked out of it, Haley and her mom walked in, wanting to get as fast as possible to the ground floor where the shoe store was. However despite it being the faster way since the escalator was way at the other end of the floor and walking over there would take ages, she didn't exactly feel like riding an elevator with 20 other people.
As she moved back a little, she felt her back hit a hard muscular chest. She froze as she felt this. This sensation had immediately brought memories of her past with a certain boy. As she turned around a little to see who it was, she realised it was actually a blond boy with brown eyes, who seemed to be in a trance-like state while listening to some loud music on his ipod. As she turned back round, she thought to herself, "if only it were him"
She heard the elevator bell indicated they had stopped, however they still had one more floor to go. She suddenly felt more space as some people started exiting the elevator; however this space was soon replaced by a new crowd walking in. As the elevator doors closed and everyone moved back, she felt someone step on her toe and Haley had to bite her lip to refrain from screaming.
"Note to self: Never, ever wear flip flops on a Sunday to a mall."
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"Could this get any more boring?" Nathan thought to himself as they waited for the elevator. However, suddenly something caught the corner of his eye. It was a video game store, and there on the display on the window, they had the newest version of NBA live! He had been looking for it everywhere, and without even meaning to, he had come across it. He immediately took Lucas by the arm and attempted to drag him away from the crowd waiting for the elevator, and towards the video game store.
"Nathan, let go! You're gonna make us miss the elevator!"
"Dude screw that, you see what's there? The newest version of NBA live! You know I've been looking for it everywhere man! I have to get it now!"
Lucas had known how much Nathan wanted that video game. Honestly, he had never gotten the point of video games, instead he would rather spend his time reading a good book, or watching a movie, but for Nathan, despite being THE Nathan Scott, king of tree hill high, when it came to video games, he could act just like a little kid.
"Fine, whatever, but after this we're going to get my shirt."
"yeah ok man..." Nathan replied as he walked off towards the video game store, just as the elevator bell had sounded."Well, there goes 15 minutes of my life wasted waiting for that elevator" Lucas thought to himself as he followed Nathan.
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The elevator bell rang, and the doors opened.
"Finally, out of this stuffy place!" Haley said out loud while exiting the elevator with her mother. Not only did she feel sweaty, but her toe was now killing her.
"This is definitely not my day" she said out loud.
"I'm sorry about that dear, and well as I promised, we can to the shoe store, and then will take a cab back to the hotel. So come on Haley-bub" replied her mother as they walked towards the shoe store.
As they walked along, they passed a video games store, and Haley noticed that they were selling some NBA video game. She briefly stopped for a moment as this suddenly reminded her of that time...
Flashback:
"Haley pleaseee just one more game!" said a 12 year old Nathan as he played some video game against his friend Tim Smith.
"yeahh Haley, it's fun you know?" Tim added.
"But I hate video games, I don't get what's so great about them!" replied an annoyed Haley.
"How could you say that?!? Well maybe that's cos you're a girl, and girls are into weird girly stuff like painting their nails and listening to your pathetic music" an amused Nathan shot back.
"Hey! I do not listen to pathetic music, and you know girls don't only paint their nails, we do a lot of other stuff too! But you know what, fine, if it makes you happy, I'll wait for you guys to finish one more game, but last one, promise?"
"Really? Yay, you rock Hales. Promise it's the last game, after that we can go get some ice-cream" replied an excited Nathan, as he flashed his trademark smirk. That same smirk which not only made her want to slap him at times, but also the one made her feel butterflies in her tummy.
End of Flashback.
"Haley, what is wrong with you today? You keep on zoning out! Is something wrong?" asked her mother in a worried tone as she interrupted Haley's thoughts.
"I'm fine mom, don't worry, again I'm just a little sleepy, that's all"
"Are you sure dear? Is there anything you want to talk about?"
She wasn't about to spill her heart out to her mother, they did talk regularly, and she knew she could trust her, but she definitely didn't feel like revealing her thoughts to her mother right now.
"Mom, really, I'm fine! I promise!" she replied as they continued walking.
Oh how she missed those days. When everything was simple and life was easy. Those days, before Nathan had morphed from you're regular, sweet boy to an arrogant jerk. "But I guess times change, and people change..." she thought to herself as she sadly just walked on.
However little did Haley know that not only had she just barely missed bumping into Nathan at the elevator's entrance, but also that Nathan was inside that very same video store which she had just stopped outside at a few seconds ago, and that had brought her back that memory.
