Up Against The Wall

thanks for all of your fantastic reviews guys! Completely motivated. I'm so happy I have so many fans. I have about three whole pages of emails from fanfiction from monday night onwards lol. Actually maybe two. Oh well! Here's the next chapter of UATW :)

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"Where have you been?" Kaylob came up behind Haley and took her elbow in a vice grip. His face remained still to avoid suspicion. "It's not like you to skip class, Haley."

"I-uh." She bit her lip as his grip started to dig in and hit some previous bruises. "There's a very good explanation for that."

"Well tell m-"

"Tutor-girl!" Haley turned around and sighed in relief as Brooke came running towards her with her arm in the air to get her attention. Kaylob dropped his grip on her. Maybe telling people isn't a bad thing after all? "Am I late for our tutoring session?"

Haley shook her head. "No, of course not. I was just telling Kaylob why I wasn't in class all day."

Brooke paused for a second thinking Haley told Kaylob that she knew. But quickly understood. "You told him about you-know-what in the you-know-wheres?"

"No I haven't told him about the you-know-what's in the you-know-where's." She answered back.

Kaylob put on a confused face. "What?"

"It's a girl thing." Brooke answered calmly. "You don't need to know."

"Whatever." He shrugged, putting his lips on Haley's forehead. She shivered at contact. "I'll see you after school then?"

"No!" Brooke answered quickly for her. "I mean, I'm really failing calculus. We need extra sessions."

Kaylob went to speak but Brooke linked arms with Haley and ran off.

Haley said she was tutoring Brooke for Spanish...

"Thanks for saving me back there, Brooke."

"I told you I'd protect you tutor-girl."

--

Brooke looked at her new friend worriedly in the quiet library. She couldn't help but think about what Kaylob could do to her if he found out she knew. If he did something drastic, Brooke would blame herself. She eyed a bruise on Haley's wrist where the long-sleve t-shirt was pulled up while she wrote down her homework. The bruise travelled along it in a circular motion, and you could tell where it stopped were the fingers dug into her frail skin. She also saw that the once covered skin was pale. Meaning that that area of skin had been covered for a while.

"Haley." Brooke whispered to get her attention. She didn't look up. "Haley!"

"What?" She answered in a hushed whisper, looking up from her work.

"How long?"

"How long what?" She asked, but knew exactly what Brooke meant.

Hesitantly looking around, Brooke shifted her seat closer to Haley. "How long has Kaylob been... you know?"

She let out the air she had been holding and bit her lip nervously. Brooke urged her on with her eyes. "A while."

"How longs a while?"

She looked away from Brooke. "Eighty-nine days."

Brooke shivered. "How many times has he hit you?"

Haley took a deep breath. "Every punch; ninety-eight times. Every kick; twenty-eight times. Every time he pushed me against a wall; fourteen times..." She stopped for a moment and looked into Brooke's eyes for any emotion. She only found worry. "He hasn't done anything, you know – below the belt... but I guess it won't be long until that happens."

"What?" She said in disbeleif. "Haley, I'm not going to let that happen to you." She took a breath before continuing. "You need to tell somebody."

"No!" Haley almost screamed, but over time she had learnt to keep her voice under control. "He'll kill me Brooke. It's bad enough you found out."

"Then maybe you need someone else to find out, as well."

"Brooke, you know how Luke is... He can't read faces like you can. As soon as he sees a threatening bruise, he'll be on every boy in the school. But he'll never think Kaylob..."

"Then it doesn't have to be Luke." Brooke shook her head at her ignorance. "Haley you need to tell someone about you and Ka--"

"Brooke!" Haley hushed. "We're in a library. You need to be quiet or people could hear us."

"Fine!" Haley and Brooke both turned their heads to see none other than Peyton Sawyer and Nathan Scott fighting, again.

"Fine!" Peyton screamed back, quickly walking away.

"I don't even care!" Nathan shouted behind her.

"Well, neither do I!"

"Good!"

Haley's shoulders slumped as she watched Nathan shout at some freshmen who were looking at their fight. He sighed put his head in his hands. She bit her lip nervously.

"Go get him, tutor-girl." She bought her attention back to Brooke who was packing up her books. "I got to give a shoulder to lean on, anyway." She watched Brooke walk away but she turned back suddenly. "Oh, tutor session. Seven-thirty Friday night. School gym." She nodded in agreement. If only she knew that the tutoring session really was...

"What do you want?" Nathan asked glumly looking up from his palms.

Haley stiffened before sitting down slowly. "I saw what happened."

"Didn't everybody?" He looked around the area. "Where's Kaylob? Shouldn't he be attached at your hip or something?"

"Is that what you think all couples are like, Nathan? Because their not all perfect and you and Peyton were not the only misunderstood couple in the school."

He sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. "Are you implying something, James?"

"No." She answered almost immediately, which made Nathan's eyebrow raise. "Look, you don't have to be lonely alone."

Nathan furrowed his eyebrows and looked sternly at the brunette sitting across from him. He was deeply confused, was she showing that she cared about how he felt? He averted his gaze from her. "Whatever. When's the next session?" He said un-emotionally standing up and collecting his books.

Haley scoffed. "River-court. This afternoon."

He nodded. "Looks like we're breaking the rules. Doesn't Lucas hang out there a lot?"

"He has a shift tonight at the cafe." She shrugged.

"And what about his other little friends?"

"Who knows. They never play without him."

He nodded. "Alright then. See you then, James."

"Right back at you Scott."

--

"God, he's such an inconsiderate, incompetent, inconn-"

"I get the point there Sawyer. He is a sack of crap."

"Exactly!" Peyton said slamming her hands down on the vanity. "I'm so glad I dumped his ass."

"How long is it going to last this time?" Brooke said questionably, which resulted in a gaze from her curly blond of a friend. "All I'm saying is, your relationship is like a frigging yo-yo. It's all up and down..." She turned to Peyton and gave her a dimply smile. "sometimes backwards, maybe?"

"Brooke!" Peyton exclaimed, slapping her playfully. "It wasn't backwards. Only upside-down."

"Wow, who knew under all the brood there lied a kinky side in Peyton Maree Saywer?"

"I am not PMSing!" She shouted, before laughing at her own actions. "Maybe a little, but Nathan bought it on. I'll feel bad for the next heart he breaks." She gathered her stuff and exited the bathroom.

"Crap." Brooke muttered.

--

"Hey." Haley said sparking Nathan's attention. He nodded at her from the three-point line before letting the ball slide through his fingers and swish through the hoop. Running and picking up the ball, he stopped his game and sat down next to Haley on the picnic bench beside the court and put the ball on the ground.

"Hey." He finally replied.

She bit her lip nervously. She couldn't figure out if it was because she didn't know what to say or the fact he looked quite sexy when he sweats. "How are you feeling?" She said softly.

"Better," he said. "whenever I play basketball I can leave all my problems on the court. It's good like that."

"Really? Maybe I should take it up then." Haley said smirking and opening her Spanish textbook. "Is that why you like the game so much?"

Nathan raised his eye brows in surprise. No one has ever thought to ask him why he liked the game before, only Mouth and that was for a interview. "Partly. Whenever I'm on the court it's just me and the ball and nothing else. It always makes me feel whole again for that.. short amount of time."

"What's the other part?"

Is she actually interested? "It's something I'm good at. It's something where little kids go 'woah, I want to be just like you'. In the games, I'm every-body's hero, and I love play the hero in the story." He smirked thinking of his accomplishments, and Haley couldn't help but smile at him being happy. "Basketball changes my life, and at the same time it can change someone elses too."

"Wow." Haley said smiling. "You and Lucas have so much in common, Nathan. And you don't even know it."

Nathan's smile quickly turned to a frown. "We have nothing in common."

"Yes, you do, and it's ridiculous that I'm the only one that can see it."

"You don't know me at all." Nathan growled. "We've spent about four hours together in our entire lives."

"And I still know that you and Lucas are alike."

"No Haley!" He shouted, which caused Haley to jump back almost falling off her chair. She got her bad reflexes from Kaylob... "The only thing we have alike is the fact we have the same ass of a father."

"Alright, fine then Nathan. Maybe your nothing like Luke. But maybe your nothing like your father, either." He looked in her eyes to read her emotions and found out she was being serious. "I know what your thinking, 'I'm Dan Scott's son, boy toy, a jock, I can't have a heart.'" Nathan put his head down. That was what he was thinking. "But you don't know that because you haven't tried searching for it, have you?"

"No." He muttered softly. "But what's the point anyway? What am I suppose to prove? No one will care if I change, they'll still be all over me because I'm Dan Scott's son."

"The point is you need to show yourself you can find the real you because if you can't, then how do you think your suppose to go through life?"

"Scoring three-pointers?" Nathan asked dumbly, earning himself a stare from Haley. "I mean... horribly."

"Exactly." Haley smiled taking a pen and opening the notepad. "And now I know that you have a heart someone inside there."

"Your something else, James." Nathan said, smirking. "I know you have problems."

"What?" Haley asked shocked. What did he know?

"Yeah, when I said basketball makes me feel better, you said 'maybe I should take it up then', which basically means that you need to find yourself too."

"I know who I am." Haley shrugged.

"But do you like it?" He asked her, Haley dropped the pen from her hands onto the book. Did she like it? "Think about it, have you ever had a dream that you've never told anyone before? I mean, there's got to be something in there other than teaching."

"Maybe there is." Haley replied softly. "But I don't need it."

"But do you want it?"

Haley looked at Nathan for a moment, before grinning. "Your something else, Scott." She said mimicking his words.

"That's what they say." Nathan turned his head and looked at the basketball next to him, before getting an idea. Taking the basketball, he quickly stood up from his seat and climbed on the table so he was standing on it. "I'll make you a deal."

She kinked her eyebrow. "I don't like this."

"If I make this shot, then you have to find that girl you want to be. Then, after me, you can take a shot and if you get it in, I'll find that boy I need to be."

"So, basically the rest of your life is in my hands?"

"Yupe." He agreed smiling.

"How tempting." Haley said, stroking her chin evilly, earning a laugh from Nathan. "You know I'm going to ruin your life, right? Wheather I try to make that shot or not."

"Well, if it's meant to be it's meant to be." Haley shrugged and watch Nathan effortlessly make the shot. "Well, looks like I just made you a super-star, Haley James."

"A super-star?" Haley questioned standing on the seat and stepping up onto the table. "Who says I want to be a super-star?"

"Every girl wants to be famous." He stated handing Haley the ball and stepping down onto the court. "Now, give me a heart damnit!"

"Alright, alright." Haley said, biting her tongue and closing one eye to take aim. Nathan couldn't help but find her sexy at her attempt... "Let's hope fates on your side Nathan."

Haley made a little jump before stretching out her elbows and letting the ball through her tiny fingers. The ball barely made the court, but before it could touch the ground Nathan grabbed it and quickly turned on the spot to shoot and get it in.

He turned back with a cheesy grin. "Looks like it is."

--

"Hey man." Kaylob said bumping fists with Lucas when he entered the unusually deserted cafe. "No customers?"

"Just crazy Pete over there." Lucas answered pointing to the old man in the corner. "Where's Haley?"

"I was hoping you could tell me." He replied, calmly. "It's my shift now, right?"

"Yeah, I think." Lucas said checking the timetable under the counter. "Yeah."

"Cool. I'll take over from here." Lucas smiled gratefully and took off his apron, taking the basketball from behind the counter.

"Rivercourt, here I come."

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more obsessive reviews please (: you know what they do to me, ha.