The rest of the week went by without anything major or noteworthy happening. So I won't bother you guys with the boring stuff.

It was Friday night and the girls were sitting in Haley's room discussing their plans for the night.

"Soooo Hales, what are we going to do?"

"We could go down to rivercourt and hang out with Mouth and Skills and the rest of the rivervourt gang."

"I guess, but what about the guys?"

"They're at some basketball thing with Dan and Keith, remember ?"

"Right, right. Do you even think they'll be down there?"

"They're always down there Peyt."

"They used to be, but when was the last time we had an actual conversation with them Hales? Sometheing beyond basketball? It was...what Freshman year?"

"Yeah I get it, we've been horrible friends to them recently. How about we change that?"

Brooke and Peyton nodded their heads in agreement.

"That sounds perfect. Let's go."

Brooke got up and was getting ready to leave.

"Brooke...we should probably get dressed..."

"Right..."

Peyton and Haley shook their heads at Brooke's antics.

After they got dressed they made their way down to the rivercourt. And to none of their surprises, the guys were down there.

"Well well well, look who we have here. It can't be. I must be dreaming." Mouth said, still using his announcer voice.

"Shut up. We're sorry we haven't really been talking to you guys much. We've just been busy."

"Three years is a long time to be busy."

Haley looked down in shame, comtemplating what to say next. Brooke and Peyton just stepped back, they knew this was more Haley's fight than it was theirs. Finally Haley looked up.

"Look guys we're sorry, okay? But it's not like any of you made an effort either. This isn't a one way street."

"Yeah, like we stood a chance against Nate, Luke, and Jake."

That statement shocked Haley.

"This isn't about them. This is about us."

"But it is about them. They come to town, and they're the basketball Gods. So you befriend them and we get replaced."

Haley felt like she had been punched in the stomach... Was that really the way they felt?

"You guys weren't replaced! But it was hard after everything that happend. It was hard for things to go back to how they were!"

"We tried Haley! We tried to be there for you but you shut everyone out!"

"So you guys just gave up?"

"No, we got replaced."

"We didn't replace you! We wanted to be you're friends but you guys knew too much."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you guys knew too much. I wanted to forget. But you were there! And you saw it! And I saw it everytime I looked into your guys' eyes!"

She didn't wanna discuss this right now, or at all for that matter. She just wanted to forget.

"Brooke and Peyton saw it too!"

"But they have been through everything with me. Dead parents, parents who don't care. Meeting Peytons real parents only to have them taken away in the blink of an eye. My parents deciding i'm big enough to take care of myself, and so they go traveling around the world. Brooke's parents trying to prove their love through money. And this. They didn't just see it. It happend to them too. We worked hard to get where we are now. We're happy. No longer have that dead look in our eyes."

"So because we didn't go through all of that, we get shut out?"

"I shut them out too! It was all my fault! We all could've died, and it would've been my fault!"

It was true. At least thats what she thought. It was all her fault. And nothing anyone said could change that.

"None of it would've been you're fault! We told you that!"

"Yes it was. I never should've went in the first place. I barely knew him."

"But he seemed trustworthy. We all encouraged it."

"Just forget it. The point is that we never replaced you guys, we could never. We just had to move on. We needed to forget and if we constantly saw it reflected in your guys' eyes how could we forget?"

"Haley..." They all jumped at the sound of the voice. Haley spun around. There standing in a line with confused looks on their faced stood Nate, Luke, and Jake.

Haley quickly wiped the tears off of her face.

"Hey Nate.."

He stepped forward.

"What's going on?" He asked reaching out.

"Nothing." Haley said subconciously stepping back. All this talk of the past made her afraid again.

"Haley..." Lucas said.

"I thought you guys were going to that game.." Haley barely whispered, trying to change the subject.

"It got concelled. Now what the hell is going on." Asked Jake looking at Peyton and Brooke who looked like they had been crying to.

"Nothing." Skills, Mouth, Junk, Fergie, Haley, Brooke, and Peyton all said.

"Haley obviously it's something. Just tell us." Nathan said stepping forward grabbing her arm. Not too rough, but not exactly gentle either, causing her to scream.

"Get off! Help me ! Someone help me!" In an instant the guys had Nathan off of Haley and the girls were crouching down by her.

"Haley? What the hell?" Nathan asked, he was pissed off.

"Get him away from me. Brooke no! Peyton! Stop they didn't do anything!" Haley was back in that room.

"Hales..breathe.. Hey look at us. We're fine. Haley snap out of it. Come here. We're okay. Take a deep breath. Calm down." Brooke and Peyton said trying to get Hazley out of this unwanted flashback.

Finally Haley snapped out of the trance she had been in and looked up at Nate. She jumped up, tears still streaming down her face.

"Oh God. Nate. I'm sorry. Nate please let me explain..." He just gave her a blank expression.

"Haley...maybe we should all go back to your place and talk about this. This isn't the place to do it." Brooke suggested.

Haley just nodded.

"Nate..." Haley said reaching out. He jerked away.

"Don't be an ass Nate." Peyton snapped.

"Yeah. Don't jump to conclusions. Don't shut her out without knowing the truth. You may be surprised." Nate looked at his girlfriend trembling in the arms of her best friends and his face softend. But he was still mad. Another thing his girlfriend didn't tell him. Add that to the list after 'I kissed Chris Keller' Maybe he was paranoid to still not really trust her, but he just didn't want to get hurt.

When they got to the house they all got situated and Haley stood in front of everyone.

"It was after me and Chris broke up. This new guy had moved to town, and he was charming and sweet and he seemed so trustworthy. He had been in town for about a week and he invited us all to a party. He asked me to be his date...

*Flashback*

"Brooke are you sure I looke fine?" a nervous Haley asked

"Haley he is not going to know what hit him. Trust me. You look more than fine." Brooke assured, and Peyton nodded her head in agreement.

"So the guys are meeting us at the party right?"

The other two nodded their head.

"Then let's go."

When they got to the party they guys were already there. They spent most of the night together dancing and drinking. They were all pretty drunk.

"Haley come here. I wanna show you something!" Adam, which was the new guys name, said.

Haley just giggled and nodded breaking away from her group of friends

"It's just this way." He said leading her up the stairs.

"Why are we going up here? The party is down there goofy. Come on lets go." She may have been drunk but she knew that this was not good. At all.

He grabbed her roughly by the arm and threw her into the first room they came across.

"Adam what the hell? Let's go back downstairs."

"Come on Hales. You can't dress like that and not expect us to fuck."

"Adam. No. Let me go." He responded by pushing her on the bed and kissing her roughly. He tore her top off of her and did the same with her skirt.

"Stop it! Someone help me! Adam stop!"

By now her friends were wondering where she went. They all seperated to go look for her. Brooke went upstairs and herd someone screaming so she walked into the room.

"Oh my God. Adam get off of her!" Brooke said running up on him trying to pull him off of her. He turned on her and threw her to the wall and kicked her in the stomach. And beat her head repeatedly against the wall and hit her in the face til she was unconsious.

"Adam stop! Leave Brooke alone! Stop..." Haley whimpered. Adam turned back to her.

"That should teach her not to interrupt us. Now where were we."

"Stop Adam. Get off!"

"Oh my God." Peyton screamed when she walked in.

"Peyton run! Get help! Go!" But it was too late he had already turned on her and threw her next to Brooke.

"God Haley, what is it with you and your friends." Adam said.

"Adam no! Leave them alone. They didn't do anything. STOP!" Haley managed to get out before fainting.

The guys, and half of the party, who had heard the commotion ran into the room.

"Adam get off of her!" Skills yelled. Adam turned.

"You have got to be kidding me!" He yelled. He quickley turned and grabbed an unconcious Haley and put a gun to her head.

"No one move or she gets shot."

"Adam its you against all of us, just let her go." Mouth said.

"No. All of you leave us alone!"

By this time Brooke and Peyton were coming to conciouness. They mustered all of there strength and jumped on his back before falling into unconciousness again. He stumbleded and fell to the ground, dropping the gun. The guys quickly rushed to grab it, and one of them called the cops.

They went and got the girls and layed them on the couch downstairs. They covered Haley with a blanket, and they all sat on egde waiting for the poilice to arrive hoping that the three unconcious girls were going to be okay.

*End flashback*

By this point the three girls were crying, and the guys, the ones who had been there, just sat there tense.

Nathan shook his head and stood up.

"Were you ever going to tell me Haley?"

"What?" Haley asked wiping the tears off of her face.

"If the game hadn't got canceled and we hadn't walked up on your guys' conversation would you have told me?"

"I don't know...eventually Nate."

"You can't keep these kinds of things from me Haley!" Nathan was beyond pissed and no one could figure out why.

"Nate its not something I like to talk about. So yes I didn't tell you right away but I would've told you eventually."

Haley was beyond confused, she didn't know why he was so mad. She figured he'd be all comforting but now she was confused. She didn't understand what was going on. So she didn't tell him right away, but she would've told him. She didn't understand.

"Haley you don't understand!"

"No Nate, obviously not. Please explain it to me!"

"You didn't tell me! How can I trust you if you keep things from me all the time."

Haley could feel her heart breaking, were they back on this trust thing again?

"Nate..."

"Its Nathan. I've got to go." With that he walked out, leaving Haley wondering where they stood.

"Did he just break up with me?" She asked looking around at everyone.

"I think so Hales...Guys go to the store and buy all the Ben and Jerrys there. Then go and rent all the chick flicks at the movie store." Brooke said.

Haley sat there just staring out into space, she didn't know how to react. She didn't even know if they had really broken up.

They guys were on there way to the store when they saw Nathan sitting on a bech at the rivercourt.

"Nate what the hell?" Luke said.

"Go away."

"No. What was that Nate? 'It's Nathan' Were you breaking up wit her? Because if you weren't you might want to go tell her that because she thinks that you did."

"I was." The guys just looked at him like he was stupid.

"Nathan what is your problem? This was the first time she has talked about it since it happened." Mouth said.

"She should've told me. That's that."

"Nate we have been on your side for everything, even when you were obviously wrong. But we can't back this up. We cannot agree with you on this, do you get that?" Jake said trying to get through to him.

"Whatever. Go be with HER. Not like she cares about any of us anyway."

"Excuse me?"

"If she cared about any of us she would've told us, and she wouldn't of shut you guys out. The only ones she cares about are Brooke and Peyton." Nathan said like it was nothing. But he was trying to convience himself that he did the right thing more than trying to get them to see his side.

"Would you listen to yourself?" Luke said. Nathan just shrugged.

"Come find us when you're not being an ass."

"She told me that..."

"What..?"

"When we got in the fight about Chris she told me to call her when I wasn't an ass..."

"Maybe you should take notes then. And stop being an ass."

Nathan just shook his head and got up and walked away.

"She's not worth all of this." He called out over his shoulder.

And as he walked away he knew that everything he said was a lie. He wasn't breaking up with her, she did care about every single one of them, and she was worth it. This was just one more dent in their reletionship. Their friendships. It was all falling apart and there was nothing they could do about it. Six people pulling away from each other when thet shouldn't. Because when the truth finally comes out they are all going to need eachother, and none of them are going to be there.