A/N: Guess who's back? :D yep its me! I finally got over exams and writers block. Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 11

"Because the things you're afraid of are usually the most worthwhile." – Chasing Liberty

"So we definitely on for the movies after practice?" Brooke inquired as she and the girls stood up from the bench.

"Sure thing Brooke." Jake said as the girls nodded and said their goodbyes.

Haley in particular avoided all eye contact with the deep blue pools that were practically begging her to look their way. As the girls moved off Nathan sighed and dropped his head on the table.

"Something the matter Nate?" Skills smirked.

"Shut up." He mumbled.

It had been a week since the first game – and the after party. A week since he'd got insanely drunk again after the latest "lovely" talk between him and his father. And a full blown week since he managed to make a big mess of his relationship with Haley.

The guys had great fun taunting him about it. They weren't being harsh, they just revelled in the fact that this was the first time ever they'd seen the cocky-as-hell Scott so torn up about a girl that he hadn't even kissed yet. It was great to be in that position for once, since usually Nathan was always chewing them on their crushes.

"Seriously though what happened dawg?"

Last time any of them saw, he and Haley had been full on flirting…and now suddenly it was like the heat had cooled before it had even started.

Nathan shared a glance with his brother, him being the only other person to know how he managed to stuff up. Starting the day after that drunken disaster…

Flashback:

Holy crap. Why did it feel like his head had been run over by truck?

"Urnghhh…" He murmured something unintelligible.

Trying to will away the insane throbbing in his mind, he rolled over trying to make sense of his surroundings.

Smooth sheets…his bed? How did he get there? All he could vaguely remember was lights, dancing, and drinking…lots and lots of drinking.

Pulling himself up and hating himself for doing so, he saw a figure come into his blurred vision. Blondish…slightly scrawny looking…Lucas?

"You look like shit."

Definitely Lucas.

"I feel like it too." Blinking his way to clarity he asked the dreaded question "What happened?"

Lucas snorted. "Man I'm getting a severe case of déjà vu here." On seeing Nathan's look and having heard the story first hand from Haley last night, Lucas decided to let it slide this time.

"I have no idea exactly what happened." He admitted, "I just got a call from Haley at midnight saying you were drunk off your ass and she'd dragged you all the way to your dorm room. God knows that girl's puny but she's gotta have muscles of steel..." He trailed off as Nathan looked suddenly pale.

Quickly grabbing a bucket, he turned as his brother poured his guts out. Literally, by the sounds of it. Sometimes I really hate my life…

"Holy crap." He groaned as Lucas passed him what looked like orange juice but tasted like vile acid.

"Damn…what the fuck is this Luke?" He fought the urge not to throw up again. The crap could burn a hole in his gut.

"Hangover cure." He shrugged, "It's a new one I got off Skills."

Skills, of course. He was always the weirdest one, the grossest one, the funniest one, not to mention the kinkiest one.

Ignoring Nathan's moans, Lucas went about disposing of the sick bucket and making sure Nathan knew exactly what he felt about having to handle his brother's puke once again.

"You know there's only so many times I can go through this Nathan! You can't let Dan drive you to drink every time…and then expect me to have to clean up after you every time. I mean honestly…a guy should never have to realise that his brother eats a seriously unhealthy amount of sweet corn, just because the amount of times he's seen it turn up in his vomit! And what the heck are these weird green sludgy things?..."

Blah. Blah. Blah. Man Lucas can go on! And what the heck was his brother doing inspecting his vomit? God that guy is SO weird. Forget Skills, Lucas just one the title for the most grossest.

"Geeze, god knows what crap you ingest!-"

"Lucas stop being such a prick and just get rid of the shit!"

He heard a flushing sound and was relieved to know that his brother had finally got rid of the nasty stuff. It probably won't be the last time today, but he didn't feel the urgent need to throw up again just yet, so he took that as a good sign.

"So, I take it your not up for…well anything now." Lucas raised an eyebrow at his brother's sorry state. "Good thing we had nothing planned."

Nathan just rubbed his temple continuously as though it would help stop the blurriness of his vision.

During those few minutes of silence as he let his brother adjust, Lucas took the liberty of making their room smell less like someone had just thrown up their insides. He traipsed into the bathroom hoping to find something of use in there.

Picking up the air freshener he found in the cabinet, he stopped suddenly. What the heck? Since when did they have air freshener? That being odd enough as it is, he read the label – Jasmine?

Sheesh, since when did they start stocking air freshener…and such a girly one at that? He looked over his shoulder seeing that his brother was still occupied. He looked around a bit which only seemed to confuse him further.

Jasmine soap, jasmine shampoo, jasmine conditioner…jasmine shower lotion?

Okkaayyy…feeling a little weird he made a u-turn and went right to the source of confusion.

"Hey Nate, when exactly did you lose your balls?"

"What?"

Seeing his brother's face he almost felt sorry for him. Not sorry enough to stop his inquisition though.

Holding up the air freshener can he pointed at the label. "Jasmine…and it goes with all the other things – jasmine shampoo, jasmine shower lotion, heck the damn soap is girly too!"

"Ok, Luke – 1. Don't insult my balls. Ever. And 2. The Academy got my order mixed, I didn't order jasmine."

"Oh" That made sense. Though he certainly wasn't gonna let it go. Despite how he got the stuff, fact of the matter is – he and Nathan now had girly stuff! They were gonna smell like…girls! Crap. Wait till the guys find out about this! It was not something they were gonna let go.

"So you gonna tell me what happened last night?" He asked.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing" Nathan said

"You don't remember anything?"

"I don't know. It's all kinda jumbled up." He frowned as he tried to concentrate on what had happened in the last 24 hours. "I remember the call from Dan…unfortunately."

Of all the things, couldn't he at least have forgotten that?

"Yeah, you got his call and then got drunk of your ass as usual." Lucas waited.

"I remember yelling at some guy, at the bar…the bartender?"

"Nothing new there."

Ignoring his brother he carried on delving further into his memories. It all looked so mixed up and confused. Closing his eyes, he really focused until something familiar stood out.

Or in this case – someone.

His eyes shot open, "Haley."

"Yeah, she was the one that called me last night; she must've been with you for a bit."

"She drove me home."

He remembered that part. He winced slightly remembering his moody and childish behaviour. Damn, that is so not cool. He wanted to impress her not act like a bratty, drunk kid.

Lucas chuckled, "Guess she got an eyeful of your lovely drunken side."

"Oh crap, I acted like such a moron." He held his face in his hands. This was so embarrassing.

"No arguments there." Lucas held his hands up in defence as Nathan glared at him.

"I think…oh shit!" Nathan's eyes widened as it started coming back to him.

"What?"

"Damn…I think I asked her to have sex with me!"

Nathan looked horrified while Lucas just burst out laughing. "Nice one man!"

"This isn't funny, I actually told her we should go at it right here in my bed."

"Oh god, can you imagine your drunk ass trying to seduce a frazzled Haley into bed. No wonder she looked freaked when me and Brooke got here."

"She was freaked? Crap…" Nathan's head hit his pillow again. Why did he always do this shit? Haley probably thought all kinds of things about him now, she saw a side of him that he never wanted her to witness. God, what must she think of him? Some drunken horny pervert! That was so NOT the impression he was trying to make.

He was so panicked in his thoughts that he wouldn't realise until later that he was actually worried about making an impression on a girl – and that was certainly a first for him!

"Is that it though?"

"Well lets see Lucas…I yelled at her like a crazy drunk in the bar…I whined and pouted like a bratty kid the whole ride home…I bitched continuously about Dan the whole time she carried my sorry ass up here…and then I tried to seduce her into having sex with me like some horny creep!..." Lucas couldn't stop shaking with laughter at his brother's predicament, "Quite frankly at this point I can't think of anything else I could've done on top of that to make the situation any worse than it already was!" He vented, annoyed with himself…and Lucas who wouldn't shut up laughing.

"Well this is gonna be interesting." Lucas couldn't wait to see how Nathan would handle it, and how Haley would react on seeing him later. The rest of them were used to Nathan's drunken actions, but she was new to the group and until now had shown some interest in his younger brother.

There were a few minutes of silence as he let Nathan come to terms with it, when suddenly he jack-knifed up in bed.

"What?" Lucas said on seeing his crazed expression. "Something worse happened?"

"Much… much… worse!"

"Well what?"

Nathan looked his brother in the eye and said, "I think I told Haley I like her."

End of Flashback

And after that everything went to hell.

He'd met up with Haley later that day, after an extremely lengthy and panicked conversation with Lucas about what the hell he was supposed to say.

All in all – he failed miserably.

He hadn't known how to excuse all his actions that night besides saying that he was drunk and had no idea what he was doing. But then if he said that he would basically be saying that he said he liked her but didn't really mean it.

Except he did mean it…and that confused him even more.

He'd never like liked a girl before. He knew she was different from the start, and he knew that she wasn't a one-night stand type of girl. No…Haley James was the type of girl that guys would want to be in a relationship with.

She was perfect…and he wasn't.

So what did Nathan do? He did what he did best. He got scared and ran the other way.

Scared of the idea that this girl could actually really make him commit; to something for the first time in his life that wasn't basketball. And that for some reason he could see now that if he had to pick between her and the game, he wasn't entirely sure that the ambition he had been working his entire life for so far would take precedence.

And that scared the shit out of him.

So, when he met up with her in the grounds later, alone, he tried to explain things. He told her that he was extremely sorry for however he acted, that he was drunk and stupid and that he hadn't wanted to put her in any kind of awkward position.

She'd accepted the apology with a sweet smile on her face which just made him feel even more crap.

And then he'd put that last nail in his coffin, he basically told her that he couldn't remember anything that happened the night before, he truly had no idea what he'd done or said and that when he gets drunk, he doesn't mean any of the things he does.

He remembered seeing the way her face fell and feeling like such a jerk after. She was completely understanding, and he was a complete chicken-shit.

He lied to her and he wasn't proud of it at all.

All things considered now Haley felt all awkward around him, and seemed to avoid at all costs to be around him alone. He wasn't sure what to make of that. As far as she was concerned, he didn't remember anything, so he didn't really understand why she wasn't able to hang around him or look him in the eye anymore.

He really needed to find out what was going on in her head. If he did, then he could find some way to fix this. This past week he found that watching her from afar wasn't enough, he missed her company. And he truly did like her.

"Hey, where you heading off to?" the brunette turned to her roommate.

"I've got to head over to the tutor centre, I'm tutoring Ryan for the next hour." Haley got her things together as she headed out of her last class.

"Ryan…as in Ryan Saunders? As in totally hot Ryan Saunders?"

"Yes Brooke I believe that is the one" Haley smirked.

"Omigod! Talk about bagging yourself a hottie Tutorgirl!"

"I'm not bagging anyone"

"Hello? He is totally Abercrombie and Fitch model type! What with the tussled brown hair…hot green eyes…damn great six pack…" she sighed dreamily

"Are you sure you don't wanna go instead?"

"Roomie what is wrong with you? That boy is HAWT with a capital H!" she said incredulous at Haley's indifference

"He's alright…" she trailed off thinking he was cute, but nowhere near the same league as Nathan.

"Geeze H. James, what's it gotta take for a guy to hook up with you around here?"

"A lot more than I'm sure it takes for them to hook up with you" she joked ducking to miss the pillow Brooke aimed at her head.

"Don't be jealous Sexually-Frustrated Girl" Haley just poked her tongue out in response. "Anyway as much as I'd love to debate with you on who you should hook up with…and soon might I add…I have to go find Lucas."

Seeing Haley's quirked eyebrow and hearing her "really?" she stopped her roommate's train of thought right there.

"He just called saying he had some of my stuff to give me, that's all" but Haley didn't miss the resigned tone in her voice.

"Tell you what, after I've finished with my session, how about we go grab some ice cream from Patty's and then head over to the gym?"

"Yes to the ice cream…HELL no to the working out"

"We're not working out Brookie"

"Then, why?"

"The male gym, I hear ice cream goes nicely with hottie spotting" Brooke's eyes lit up at the suggestion.

"You have been spending way too much time with me Roomie"

"Tell me about it!" Haley responded good-naturedly. Their evening had already been freed up since Jake called and said that movie night wouldn't be so great for him tonight, and after getting similar calls from Skills and Mouth they dropped it the idea. It was a good thing though, since her roommate could clearly do with some cheering up.

"Alright its settled, you go do your thing with McCutie, I'll go deal with the Dick, then we'll meet up for our date!" Brooke grinned feeling slightly better.

"So now it's a date?"

"Well you're bypassing all Hot Guy Potential that comes your way…you gonna pass up a date with my sexy self too?" she pouted with such a forlorn look on her face that Haley couldn't help but laugh.

"I could never pass up a date with you Davis," she grinned smacking a kiss on her cheek and running out the door.

"Don't be late!" Brooke yelled after her, about to close the door before adding, "And don't forget to get me flowers!…I like orchids!"

Right Brooke get yourself together. She was not looking forward to the meeting she was about to have. Heading over to the Scott brothers dorm room, she steadied herself outside the door before knocking briskly.

Hard brown eyes met nervous blue ones. Soft "heys" exchanged as he let her in. She surveyed her surroundings smirking slightly. There were so many differences between the Scott brothers, it was obvious to anyone that they were as different as night and day. And observing their room only served to prove her point. You had one side with the bed neatly made, shelves stacked high with way too many books in her opinion, as well as others arranged sporadically around the bed, and the rest of the occupants things all arranged in an organised manner. No doubt that was where Lucas Scott made himself at home. And then there was Nathan's end of the room which couldn't be more different. Bed completely unmade, clothes thrown over the back of his chair, an empty pizza box on the floor, and all sorts of basketball-related items - Sports Illustrated magazines, jerseys, playbooks, gym bag and the inevitable basket ball itself.

"So how you been?" Lucas broke the silence.

"Well things haven't really changed this much since this morning," she smiled indicating how long it'd been since they last saw each other.

He chuckled. "True that."

He gazed at her, having not seen her amongst his regular surroundings in so long. He couldn't help but think despite the obvious awkwardness how right she seemed to fit there, he opened his mouth to say something but she beat him to it.

"So what exactly did I come over for?"

Straight to the point. That's all she ever was like with him nowadays. Not that he could blame her.

"Er well…" and things were about to get a lot more awkward. "I kinda have some of your stuff, from back when…erm…"

"When you were secretly screwing my best friend behind my back" she put bluntly.

"Right," he hated how her voice was devoid of any emotion. It was times like this when he felt he had no hope of getting her back.

"So get on with it Lucas, I haven't got all day," she said all business-like.

He pulled out a box from his closet and handed it over, not liking the overbearing sadness he felt as he did. By keeping her things around him he could almost pretend it was like she never left. Returning them now was like cutting the final tie of their relationship.

She examined the items in the box.

Tickets. From their first concert together, some weirdo rock band called Travis.

A locket. He gave to her on their three month anniversary, ironically the two pictures she'd put inside were of him and Peyton.

Nail polish. Whenever he got zoned into one of his books she'd sit their contently colouring her nails. She even got him to do them at times - not that he'd admit it to anyone.

Pink cami. She'd wear it whenever she slept over.

Cheer skirt. She almost blushed seeing that. She'd wondered where her last one went and it was clear that it had stayed at Lucas' after that night they won a game against the Wildcats. He'd practically ripped it off her as soon as they got through the door.

A few other bits of jewellery were lying here and there. She noticed Lucas was watching her closely as though gaging her reaction. She wasn't going to give him the benefit of seeing any emotion from her, so straightening on a mask of indifference she thanked him for the box.

"I should be going now."

"Oh right, you got any plans?" Knowing she didn't considering their movie plans were cancelled earlier. Maybe I could convince her to stay and…well…getting her to stay at this point would be good enough.

"Yeah I do." Wait, what?

He frowned as she adjusted the box in her hands and headed for the door. How could she have plans already? Who were they with? What kind of plans exactly? He was annoyed as a bunch of scenarios went through his head, mainly of her and some random idiot guy.

"Anything special?"

She froze at his questioning tone. Facing away from him she smirked. Did he think she had a date? She turned to look at him and noticed the slight irritation in his features. Oh yeah, he definitely did. She could have fun with this.

"Actually yeah it is" She had to keep from smiling at the increased frowning on his face. What right did he have to be annoyed anyway? He didn't want her!

"So you have a date." He concluded, not knowing how far off he was. Brooke though didn't bother denying it, the way she saw it Haley had called it a date anyway. "With who?"

"You know what Lucas. I really have to go. Need to get ready and all" she sent him a small smile and left the room.

What the hell?

That was so not the way he envisioned her visit. He wasn't naïve to believe that he could've won her over or anything. But he figured that he could of at least gotten to talk to her a bit. Properly. Without everyone else around, jut one on one so she didn't have a chance to put her walls up. Maybe reminisce on some of the things in the box, giving her a chance to remember all the good parts of the relationship too. He noticed the quick blush on her face on seeing the cheer skirt. And he also noticed how quickly she got rid of it.

But this? This was SO not what was supposed to happen. She wasn't meant to waltz in, take the damn box, not give a crap, waltz back out and mention she was on a date with someone else! Who the hell was this guy? And why was he after HIS girl. Not that she knew she was his. But she was, and she is. He just had to remind her.

Dammit!

He was so frustrated he fell back onto his bed. He had no idea how long he had been lying there feeling sorry for himself and envisioning Brooke with a number of different guys, but a while had passed when he heard his phone buzzing beside him.

"Hello," he didn't bother hiding his depression.

"Hey Luke? I need your help!" he sat up at the panicked tone...hearing the situation from the voice down the line he answered, "Alright I'm on my way" as he left the room.

"Alright so as long as you use this formula, you'll be able to get it all done quite easily."

He looked up and smiled charmingly.

"Thanks Haley, you make it seem so easy."

"Well good, the easier you think it is, the better it makes me look" She joked.

"Oh right, far be it from me to tarnish your fragile reputation" he answered smoothly.

"Glad you understand," she smiled back at him. She found it surprisingly easy to talk to him. Might have something to do with his good looks and laidback manner. "But trust me, nothing about me is fragile…" she smirked as his eyes widened slightly.

It took her about 5 seconds after that to realise that she was flirting. With Ryan Saunders. As in, not Nathan Scott. Where had that come from? Sure the guy was hot and easy to talk to, but up until now she'd always pictured Nathan on the other side of her flirty innuendo.

But Nathan Scott doesn't like you remember? She really hated that voice in her head sometimes. The very thing she was trying to forget but was constantly reminded. Nathan Scott admitting that he had no clue what he said/did while he was drunk. She remembered as soon as the words came out of his mouth, the rejection she felt hit her instantly.

"I didn't mean anything I might have said or done. I was just really drunk and out of it."

Then he smiled and asked her if they were cool. She was so not cool. But its not like she could say that, so she smiled and agreed.

And then avoided him like the plague.

She knew he'd noticed, he kept trying to meet her eyes, but she just couldn't do it. She feel embarrassed, and unimportant. She knew it wasn't his fault, he didn't have to like her. She just assumed with all the looks, the talks, the flirting - there was something on both sides. But yet again, Haley puts too much emphasis on something that was never there to begin with. She'd known Nathan's reputation, he was a natural flirt. She intrigued him for a few seconds because she was new. The novelty had most certainly worn off by now.

So why was she flirting with Ryan now? Well as Taylor once told her, "there's plenty of hot guys out there who want you" And Ryan Saunders was interested, that was obvious. She had to stop focusing on the guy who didn't want her and start focusing on the one that did.

Having gone off in serious thought she was startled by Ryan waving a hand in front of her face.

"Haley, you still with me?"

"What? Sorry…yeah I'm still here." She shrugged slightly embarrassed.

"Good, it's not exactly ego-boosting for a guy such as myself to have a pretty girl focus on something other than him." He said it with a cute grin on his face that let her know there was no arrogance behind the words.

"A guy such as yourself? And who might that be?" She was too busy listening to his response that she didn't hear the door to the tutor room open as someone entered.

"Like you said I'm hot, charming, funny…sexy." He winked, "what's not to like?"

"I'm sorry, when exactly did I say this?" She grinned playing along.

"Well you were definitely thinking it. And don't try and deny it, I saw you checking me out when I walked in."

"You might wanna get that eyesight checked then Saunders,"

"And you might wanna give me your number James,"

He was forward.

She liked it.

"I guess you're gonna need it if you need an emergency tutor session at some point," she scribbled it down on the paper he handed her.

"And if that session happens to be in a restaurant, with a great view, my charming company and a hot dress on you, then so be it." He sent a smirk her way, it had nothing on Nathan's but he wore it well regardless.

"I'll see you later Ryan."

She smiled as he got up and gathered his things.

"I'll call you later Haley."

And just like that he left.

Woah. She'd just given her number out to a hot guy. A hot guy who wasn't Nathan. Woah indeed.

Packing her things into her bag she didn't hear the footsteps come up behind her. Too deep in thought she strung her bag over her shoulder and turned around…right into a wall.

Or well, Nathan's chest.

"Nathan?"

"Haley." She looked at him wondering what he was doing here. He seemed a little weird. His face looked emotionless, and the way he said her name, he sounded…irritated.

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you." There was that edge to his voice again. What was that about?

"Oh?" Seeing he wasn't going to add anything she continued, "Well you found me…is there something you need?"

"What? I can't come and see you without having to need something?" he all but barked at her face.

What the hell?

"Nathan what the hell is wrong with you?" she saw his face, full of emotion now - anger mostly. And she may have been crazy but it seemed to be directed at her. "Is everything ok?"

He chuckled dryly, his face becoming emotionless again. "Oh its just great Haley. Everything is just great." His tone implying it was anything but. "In fact I'm great Haley."

Ok…is he drunk again?

"And how are you today Haley?" He crossed his arms and stared her down.

"I'm fine."

He snorted. "I'll bet you are."

"Excuse me?" She was getting annoyed right now. She didn't know what his problem was, but he was taking it out on her and she was not going to stand for it.

"I mean, I guess I would feel pretty fine too if I was handing out my number to random guys I barely knew" he practically spat as he walked right up to her, his edgy tone belying the stone cold look on his face.

"You saw that?"

"Yeah I did." He glared at her, "See I'd ran into Brooke on her way out of my dorm room, and I asked her where I could find you, so we could sort out…whatever the hell it is we need to sort out so we can be us again! And when I finally do find you, to try and figure out this relationship, you're practically throwing yourself on some random guy!"

That's it. She felt her temper rise - how dare he accuse of her of such a thing! She was not like that and he of all people should know that by now.

"I was not throwing myself on some random guy!" He was startled by her sudden increase in temper. "If you must know I was tutoring Ryan and he needed my number so we can arrange to meet up for future sessions."

"Oh right, forgive me" he snarked while towering over her, "you were just tutoring. And I supposed all that flirting was just part of your lesson plan?"

"What you're spying on me now?" her anger spiked, and she moved right up to him, "how long were you standing there?"

"Long enough"

"Clearly. And so what if I was flirting with him! What's it to you Scott?"

"What?"

"What's. It. To. You." She emphasised each word with a poke to his chest. "Huh? How is it any of your business if I flirt with Ryan, or any other guy?" He should tell her the truth, the way she was looking at him right now, her golden waves disarrayed from running her hand through them, her chocolate brown eyes sparked with anger, an intensity in them he hasn't quite seen before, but nonetheless finds directed his way now.

She looked hot as hell.

But he still couldn't tell her that the real reason he was so pissed off was that he couldn't stand the thought of her with Ryan, or any other guy. His fists clenched at the mere thought.

"Hey, I was just looking out for you. I could see the way that guy was looking at you Haley, he just wants in your pants. The way he was staring at you, it was like a dog in heat!" she flinched, "And you were just making it way too easy for him, is that what you want people to think Haley? That you're easy?"

Did he just call her a slut?

"What? Of course not! Goddammit Nathan! That is NOT what was happening and you know it!" God he was making her see red. She threw her bag to the side. "And how DARE YOU say I'm a slut!"

"I didn't say you were a slut!"

"You sure as hell implied it!" she snorted, "and coming from the Man-Whore Extraordinaire himself, a little hypocritical don't you think?"

He visibly flinched. She knew one of the things he liked about her was that she didn't judge him based on his reputation. She knew that saying that would hit a nerve. But he freakin well started it! Nobody got away with calling her a slut.

"Well from the looks of it that seems to be what you go for." He raised an eyebrow, "But Ryan Saunders? Honestly Hales, the guy was practically drooling and begging you to give him your number. You're obviously desperate but you could at least have standards." He smirked as her face tinged pink with fury. He knew he was being a jackass but he didn't care at that point. The scenario between her and that prick, flirting outrageously, like she had been doing with him not so long ago was still fresh in his mind.

What. A. Jackass.

She was seriously considering kneeing him in the groin for that comment.

She moved right up into his space. Looking him dead in the eye as he gazed down at her. "Let's get one thing straight Nathan Scott," she said in a dangerously edgy tone, "What I do and don't do with any guy around here is none of your business. And if you ever try and make it any of your business, I will personally make sure you will never be able to reproduce in the future." He gulped slightly at that, "I don't know what the fuck your problem is, but you are not going to tear me down to make yourself feel better. I am not a slut, I am not a whore, I do not throw myself onto random strangers, and if you seriously think any of that about me then I don't even know why we're friends in the first place."

"Haley-"

"And" she cut him off not having finished, "You can trust me on this…" having his undivided attention, "Ryan Saunders may be a lot of things, but if I was to go out with him it wouldn't be because I was desperate or because he wanted in my pants…it would be because he genuinely likes me, and he actually has the balls to admit it."

She then backed away, and went to pick up her bag.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He was so damn frustrated at this point.

"It means what it means Nathan, Ryan has one thing you don't. He's got determination, he goes after what he wants."

His mouth dropped open at that. Was she seriously saying that to him? She was telling him, Nathan Scott, that he doesn't go after what he wants? The absurdity in that statement alone had him stumped.

"He goes after who he wants." She added softly.

Then it clicked.

And she started walking away.

"Haley!"

She stopped at the door, facing away from him.

She heard the footsteps this time, until they stopped right behind her. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

"You can trust me on this…" he mimicked her words from before, she could feel his mouth by her ear.

"I always go after what I want."

Fuck, she could practically feel her heart flip out of her chest.

"And I always get what I want."

His breath made her skin tingle. But dammit, she was not going to back down.

Turning to face him, with practically no space between them, she glared at him, "Really? Like when?" she stared him down, her chin jutting out daring him to prove it.

He stared intensely at her face, his gaze lowering to her lips. Full. Luscious. Pouty. Lips.

And all and any restraint he had broke.

"Like now." he growled, grabbing her by the waist, he shoved her up against the door and crashed his lips onto hers.