Author's Note: To those of you that reviewed last chapter, thank you so much. Everyone has been leaving long, in depth reviews and they are just making me want to write, write, write. Katie, I love you! Hehe. Anyway, enjoy this. We get a glimpse of someone we haven't seen in a while.

Movie Script Ending

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Haven't Thought of You Lately At All

His head was bent in concentration, his eyes focused on the sketch before him, Nathan didn't hear the door of his apartment open. His eyes did not leave the rough drawing of the apartment complex he was going to pitch to the board of directors of the Hill Group, a large company that owned many developments and spaces. If he could just get them to accept this proposal, he would be making millions. Tree Hill was rapidly becoming a large community, and for what he had planned for this building, the Hill Group would need this building. He hadn't taken years of schooling in architecture for nothing. He knew this was a good plan, and he knew he was good at what he did. The only thing was that many companies didn't exactly see him as a catch, seeing as how he'd never really gone to a truly accredited university.

Either way, he'd never been more excited for a project. And sure, maybe he was going out on a limb to do this. After all, he had no idea that it would be accepted, and here he was spending tons of money. But it didn't matter. He had a feeling that this would work. It was a great plan.

He heard someone clearing their throat behind him, and he snapped his head up, tearing his eyes away from the drawing despite his instincts. His fire could burn out at any point, and he really couldn't afford to stop.

When his eyes landed on the person standing just inside his small apartment, they widened sufficiently.

"Haley," He said hollowly, looking over his ex-wife, wishing she looked worse than she did. Her hair was lighter, he noticed. She had colored it. It was shorter too, now reaching just below her shoulders. In her arms she held a closed box.

"Hi," Haley said unsurely. "Uh, sorry to just come in. I knocked, but you didn't answer.."

"Right. Sorry. I didn't hear it. I guess I was concentrating really hard." He wanted to beat himself for sounding so damn stupid. He was concentrating really hard? This was so awkward, so strange. He had not seen Haley since New Years, and then he'd been really upset with her for drinking during that final game of I Never.

"Well, the door was open, so," She said lamely, and then she shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I just came by to drop some of your stuff off. This box has been sitting at the apartment for months, and I'd heard you lived here now, so I thought I'd bring this over."

"Oh, thanks." He stood, suddenly feeling kind of stupid in his old gym shorts and wife-beater with his hair gel-free. Haley had seen him like this millions of times, so he didn't know why he felt like it was the first.

"This is nice." She bit her lip, rolling her eyes at her own comment.

"I guess. It's small."

"Not much smaller than our - I mean, my - place." They both caught the slip and it hung in the air awkwardly, the tension having grown so thick it could be cut with a knife.

"Yeah well," Nathan cleared his throat. "What's in this anyway?" He gestured towards the box.

Haley shrugged. "Uh, some clothes, a couple of your old trophies, CD's, just things like that."

"Oh okay."

"I'll just.." She gestured towards the table in his living room/study/dining room, walking slowly towards it and placing the large box down in the center. Her eyes were lingering on something, Nathan noticed, but it took him a moment to find what exactly she was looking at.

On the couch, directly in front of the table where Haley had just placed the box of his things was a leopard bra that belonged to Brooke. Earlier that week, when he'd finally allowed her to come over to his apartment, they had been throwing clothes around all over the place, and the bra had landed on the couch and never left.

Haley turned slowly to look at him, wiping her hands on her jeans, as if the box she'd just hold had held some disease, or maybe ten pounds of dust. "So.." She began.

"Thanks," He interrupted her, hoping she would not dwell on the subject of Brooke's bra. "For bringing the stuff over."

"Uh-huh," She nodded, and for a moment he was sure she would drop it, when she said, "So, have you been seeing anyone?"

His eyes flickered over to the bra once again. God, this was strange. Haley didn't know it was Brooke's, but what if she did? What if he let her in on this little secret of his that was eating away at his insides so badly that he was sure he was going to die soon? What if this would turn into some cheesy porno where Haley would ask to join in with him and Brooke, and then Lucas found out and wanted in too? He wanted to throw up at the thought of the second one, but then figured it would be better than his actual life. Anything would be better than his actual life.

"On and off," He tried to say casually, and when that did not seem like explanation enough, he said, "Nothing official. You?"

Haley was staring at him now, hurt evident in her eyes. She hesitated for a moment before shrugging. "Nothing official." She parroted.

She had no right to be hurt. After what she'd said at Tim's party, she had no right to be jealous or to be upset with him for moving on. He wanted to tell her this, but instead Nathan nodded. "Well, I should probably get back to.."

"Right, right," She was at the door in a flash, and she turned slowly to look at him. "Well, it was nice seeing you."

"Yeah."

As she closed the door behind her, Nathan blinked, looking back over at the bra on the couch, strewn so carelessly.

God, him and Brooke were getting far too sloppy. What if that had been Lucas and not Haley? He would have probably recognized the bra as Brooke's. Or if he didn't, he would certainly question Nathan on who it belonged to. And what would Nathan do? Lie? It was hard enough not to tell Lucas, but directly lying to his face? Could he do that?

He would probably have to at some point, he realized. Lie, that is.

Nathan was sick of this. He was sick of all the lying. He was sick of hurting Lucas. Maybe Lucas didn't know what he was doing to him, but Nathan knew, and that was enough. This guy had been a brother to him since he was sixteen, and this was how he was repaying him? It was just ridiculous. Lucas deserved better. He deserved so much better. But every time Nathan told himself that today was the day he would finally end it with Brooke, stop it once and for all, he always found that he couldn't. She would kiss him and he'd forget the entire reason he had called her over.

He just wasn't sure if his heart could take all this lying anymore.

It was going to be the death of him.

With a heavy sigh, Nathan looked back over at the design for his apartment building. He had lost inspiration of course. And that had been the one thing keeping his mind off of this whole situation.

He groaned and then punched air with his fists, wishing that it was himself he was hitting. Wishing that he was air.

-

It took everything in Haley's power not to run down the stairs of Nathan's apartment building. She knew that if she did, she would most likely end up tripping. Once she hit the ground, she'd be a sobbing mess.

Did she have a right to be jealous that Nathan was seeing someone? No, of course not. She had treated him terribly at Tim's party, and she was aware. She didn't know why she had done it, but she had and there was no going back.

She didn't know if she loved Nathan anymore. When she'd seen him today, she hadn't felt what she had for him months ago. That anger had disappeared and that ache and longing for him had gone with it. Now she felt just a pang of jealousy when she thought of that bra on his couch.

Leopard. God, who wore leopard bras?

The only person she knew that even owned one was Brooke, and -- her eyes widened as she looked up from her car windshield towards Nathan's apartment.

There was no way that that had been Brooke's bra, right?

Well, it would certainly be convenient. Nathan moves in with Brooke and Lucas, and Nathan and Brooke have an attraction, and -- no, no, no. That would never happen. There were tons of girls that owned bras probably exactly like the one Brooke owned. And she hadn't even gotten a close enough look at it to see if it was even the same exactly texture or pattern.

She shook her head and started the engine of the used car she had been forced to purchase just a month before, when Nathan had gotten their car in the divorce settlement.

"You're just being crazy." She told herself, not looking back at the apartment building as she drove off.