An Intimate Conversation

Haley was still standing on the same spot in the hospital waiting room on which she had been standing for more than 10 minutes now. Brooke, Lucas and Peyton were very nice, but they were kind of crowding her. The only one that seemed to give her some space was Nathan, she glanced over at him and gave him a small smile, which he politely returned. She didn't know why, but he made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Euh, I really appreciate everything you guys are doing for me, I am. You're more to me than I deserve, so, thank you." Haley finally said, smiling at everyone.

"It's no trouble Haley, really, and it's everything you deserve. I know that." Peyton said, besides talking to Haley once, she didn't know her that well except for the things she knew that Lucas had told her. Haley simply nodded, she didn't often hear that she deserved good things such as amazing friends, she was only familiar with the term 'deserve', when her father told her she deserved a beating for being a bad girl.

"Hales, are you okay ?" Lucas asked as he saw she was drifting to a bad place in her mind. Haley came back to reality when she heard Lucas' voice, she was gratefull for him.

"Yeah, yeah, I eum... Could we get out of here please ?" Haley asked, letting out a sigh at the end of her sentence, she couldn't stay in the hospital another minute, she would go crazy. Being in that place reminded her of everything she just wanted to forget, even if just for one hour.

"We can get something to eat at Karen's Café (the café Lucas' mom owned)." Nathan offered, the first time he spoke since Brooke said he liked Haley.

"I don't know, what won't Karen think of me ?" Haley asked, she was scared Karen would realize why Haley got those beatings, because she was a bad child that needed to be disciplined, and she loved Karen, she had always been able to talk to her when she used to be friends with Lucas. She just didn't want Karen to hate her.

"Hales, you know my mom loves you, she's missed you almost as much as I have these past two years. You were always like a daughter to her." Lucas said as he looked at Haley with much grief, sorrow and guilt in his eyes, also anger, she saw that clearly, not towards her, but towards her parents. She could always read Lucas like a book, after all this time, that hadn't changed.

"I guess that would be fine, I am hungry a little, I think it's because of those painkillers they gave me, cause I feel better than I have in days. I just hope I won't spill my food, since I can't really see much of anything right now." Haley said, she sounded very lighthearted and even happy, one would think. But it was all an act, honestly, she wanted to crawl into a dark corner, someplace safe, and cry, just cry her eyes out.

"It's okay, I'll help you. Do you wanna ride with me ?" Nathan offered, he had driven himself as Peyton and Lucas had come in their car, Brooke obviously came in her car too, since she had driven Haley.

"Okay, sure, I want to talk to you about something anyway." Haley said, she had thought a lot about what Nathan had said about getting emmancipated. And since they were bound to take her away from her parents now, she didn't have much choice, go into the system, or go and live on her own, that last seemed much more appealing than the other.

They all began to walk outside, when Brooke called for Haley, Haley stopped in her tracks as Brooke cought up with her. Brooke had to try her best not to fall apart as she looked at Haley. Haley didn't even look like a person, her face was still black and blue and very swollen, not too mention her leg and arm, but yet she was so brave, braver than Brooke could ever be in that situation. But she didn't want to talk about that right then, she wanted to talk about something else.

"I just wanted to warn you about Nathan." Brooke whispered as she now continued to walk to the cars with Haley. she loved Nathan, she did, but this girl deserved to know what she got herself into when it came to Nathan, she had been through too much too deny her the truth.

"What ?" Haley said, she didn't have to whisper, she wasn't talking so loud anyways, her throat was still a little soar.

"I think he likes you, I'm not sure, but I think so. But the thing is, Nathan never likes anyone, he uses them and then ditches them, that's just his m.o." Brooke said, Haley had heard rumors about Nathan, but she didn't think they were true, not if Lucas was finally friends with him, but appearantly she was wrong.

"Maybe he likes you, if he does, you've got nothing to worry about. But if he doesn't like you, then I'm just warning you to be carefull, you've been hurt enough already." Brooke whispered before saying goodbye to Haley and walking to her own car, Haley looked around and saw Nathan standing at his car, smiling at her, she couldn't help herself, she smiled back. She didn't know if it looked like a small by the state her face was in, but it was meant as one.

She was a little thrown by Brooke's warning, but since Brooke had done so much for her these past hours, she figured she could take the advise and be cautious around Nathan. It wasn't like she was planning on throwing herself on him, she didn't like him that way, and besides, even without Brooke's warning, she would be cautious around him, that's just the way she opperated now, being carefull around people, trying not to get hurt.

Nathan helped her in the car, then got into it himself and began to drive, Haley had forgotten all about the emmancipation questions after Brooke warned her about him.

"Can I ask you something ?" Nathan suddenly asked, Haley nodded, she knew he saw it because he just happened to be looking at her because they were standing at a red light. She was a little uncomfortable around Nathan, but she wasn't scared of him, that was one thing she wasn't around him, scared, never when he was around.

"Why didn't you tell Luke ? I mean, he's a great guy and I know from experience he would do anything to help friends and family, and he considers you as his baby sister, he told me so himself, so, why not tell him ?" Nathan asked as he had begun to drive again once the light had turned green, Haley sighed. She had an answer to that question, but it was complicated and she had never told this to anyone, ever. Why she decided to tell him, she didn't know.

"When I was around Luke, he gave me hope, when I had none, and he didn't even know it. I... I couldn't stand that hope anymore because I had lost all hope, ever bit. It just hurt too much to be hopefull around him and be hopeless without him. So I pushed him away and didn't tell him anything. I know it's weird, but my mind is a little complicated." Haley admitted, she sighed, she had no idea what Nathan would think of her now. He would see how weird she was now and how that was just another reason she had deserved the beatings.

"It's not weird at all. You chose no hope over meaningless hope that didn't do you any good. It's perfectly natural what you did in your situation, how your heart reacted to it. You were just trying to protect yourself from getting hurt even more by having hope and then having to loose it over and over again." Nathan said, Haley was shocked, he understood perfectly what she had felt at the time. She had this feeling as if he would be the only one who would ever completely understand her. It was strange, but then again it was very comforting...

TO BE CONTINUED