"Nathan?! Nathan, wake up!"

"Hm?" He answers. He tries to sit up but can't.

Holy hell; he feels like he's been ran over by a train. He tries to open his eyes, but the sun blinds him, making his headache worse.

"Nathan!" Peyton yells again. She's all the way at ten right now, and Nathan needs her at a two.

"What?! Christ," Nathan responds, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Where the hell is my car?" She asks. Nathan has absolutely no idea what she's talking about.

"Why would I know where your stupid car is?" Nathan responds.

"Because it's not here, and I know the only person stupid enough to take it would've been you," Peyton spits. She can yell all she wants, but he still doesn't know where it is.

In fact, he doesn't even remember what happened last night.

"Are you sure Tim didn't take it or something?"

"Tim?! Why would -"

"Look, I don't know, alright?!" Nathan says. "I just woke up; can you give me like five minutes to get my shit together before we start arguing?"

Peyton glares at him before finally leaving the room without saying a word.

Now that he's not getting yelled at by his psycho girlfriend, maybe he'll be able to concentrate hard enough to remember what the fuck happened last night.

He remembers the basketball game, coming to the party, getting really drunk, playing a home video of Lucas's mom to piss him off….

Oh my god.

Lucas.

All of a sudden the memories came flooding back. He remembers being alone in a room with Lucas. They were talking, and then..

.. Nathan kissed him.

He jumps out of bed and runs to the bathroom and starts throwing up; the memories after the kiss coming back to him.

Nathan frantically runs out of the bedroom after kissing Lucas. He cannot believe he just did that, and now Lucas will probably never speak to him again, and he's also probably going to tell everybody in school about it.

Can't say he blames him, though, the way Nathan has been treating him.

God, why did he kiss him?! It's his own brother, for Christ's sake!

He runs past everybody downstairs, heading out the back door towards the dock, where he sees Haley leaning against the railing.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Haley asks him."You look like you just saw a ghost."

"It's nothing," Nathan lies, still absolutely freaking out on the inside. He's trying to calm himself down but it's not working. "I thought you left after yelling at me."

"I tried to, but the stupid cab never came," Haley tells him.

"I thought you rode with…," Nathan begins, pausing for a moment before continuing,"… Lucas."

"I didn't want to interrupt his good time."

"I don't think he was having too good of a time….," Nathan says, remembering the look on Lucas's face when the video was playing, and how he was crying when Nathan went upstairs. He feels like the biggest jerk in the world right now.

And also the biggest idiot for kissing him.

"What did you do now, Nathan?" Haley sighs, folding her arms. "Were you being an ass to Lucas again?"

"Ass is pretty tame, actually," Nathan replies. "I deserve a lot worse than that."

They stood in silence for a few moments, before Haley spoke again.

"Hey.. about this tutoring thing, maybe we should stop," Haley says.

Maybe they should. If he can't pick his grades up, he'll get kicked off the team. If he gets kicked off the team, he'll be away from Lucas, which would stop him from ever having to look at his face again. After what just happened, he doesn't think he can.

However, Dan would probably disown him if he quits the team. He can't take that risk.

"I'm sorry for being such a jerk to him, Haley. I promise I'm done," Nathan says. "I still really need your help, though. I can't get kicked off the team."

"I just think it would be easier on Lucas if we stopped," Haley tells him.

"Please don't give up on me yet, Haley."

Suddenly everything that just happened finally hits Nathan, and he starts breaking down in front of Haley, sobbing like an idiot. She immediately wraps her arms around him.

"Shh, hey, it's okay," Haley says, rubbing his back. "I know this is hard for you, too. I promise I won't give up on you, okay?"

"Everything j-just sucks right n-now," Nathan gets out in between sobs. Haley must think he's such a girl.

"I know it does, but it'll get better, trust me. I'm sorry you have to go through all of this."

Being with Haley like this was strangely comforting to him. More comfortable than Peyton ever made him feel, anyway.

And also more normal than Lucas. Maybe Haley can be his way out from all of this. Maybe she can cure him of whatever disease Lucas has infected him with.

Regaining his composure, Nathan wipes the tears from his eyes, then looks at Haley and smiles.

"Forget the cab. Do you need a ride home?" He asks her.

"No, it's fine, really," Haley tells him, smiling.

"C'mon. We'll take Peyton's car, she won't mind."

Oops. So it turns out he does know where it is. Shaking his head, still crouched over the toilet, he continues to remember what happened.

"Please? It's the least I can do," Nathan pleads.

Finally, Haley nods, proceeding to Peyton's car while Nathan went inside to find the keys. Finding them on the counter, Nathan snatches them up without her noticing and heads to the car to join Haley.

The car ride was mostly silent. Nathan glanced over at her and smiled quite a few times, and she smiled back, much to his pleasure.

He doesn't like her like that yet, but he feels like he can. At this point, he's willing to do anything it takes to get Lucas out of his head, and Peyton isn't cutting it right now. Plus, Haley has one thing that Nathan absolutely loves.

She isn't a fucking blonde. Every time he sees Peyton's hair it reminds him of Lucas.

"This is my stop," Haley says as they pull up to her house. "Yeah, we're staying here while we renovate the mansion."

"I wasn't trying to show off," Nathan tells her, smirking.

"Isn't that your default setting?" Haley asks him, laughing. "Sorry."

"So hey, what I said back there, I really did mean it. I need you, Haley. Without you, I'm off the team. Basketball is the only thing I'm really good at, and it's about to get ripped away from me. Not to mention it would crush my dad, too."

"Don't worry. Like I said, I'm not giving up on you," Haley responds. "Alright, I gotta go before my mom has a conniption fit. Thanks again for the ride."

She smiles at him before getting out the car. Waiting for her to get inside, Nathan speeds off to the nearest liquor store. He needs to drink his memory of tonight away.

He goes to Tree Hill Liquor and Spirits, finds the biggest bottle of vodka he can, flashes his fake id to the cashier, and takes a couple shots before even pulling out of the parking lot.

On his way back to the party, he switches the radio on, only to hear Peyton's shitty music blasting through the speakers. He scowls and turns to try and find something decent to listen to in the backseat.

"She has to have something good in this car," Nathan says, not paying attention to the road at all.

Finding a CD, he turns around and realizes he's heading straight for a car parked on the side of the street.

"Whoa!" Nathan yells, swerving to the right as quickly as he can. He was too slow, though, because he still scraped the side of the car, taking it's mirror off. Then the car swerves out of control, veering right into a tree.

Peyton is going to kill him.

As he's sitting there, he sees a familiar truck pull up behind him: the Keith Scott Auto Body truck.

This has to be some sort of sick joke.

"Peyton! Peyton, are you okay?!" Lucas asks, jumping out of the tow truck and running towards the wrecked car. Nathan stumbles out, liquor in hand, trying not to look at Lucas's face.

"She's fine, but her car isn't," Nathan answers.

"Nathan? What the hell are you doing with Peyton's car?" Lucas asks.

"Liquor run," He answers, still not looking Lucas in the face.

Fuck this, he's going to just walk back to the party. He doesn't want to be anywhere near Lucas right now, because he's even more drunk, and he won't stop at a kiss.

Nathan turns and begins to walk away from the scene.

"You can't just walk away from this!" Lucas yells after him.

"Watch me," Nathan responds, taking a swig from his bottle.

"I'm not just talking about the car, Nathan," Lucas says.

Nathan winces; he knows exactly what Lucas is referring to. He turns to face him and sees Lucas is crying again.

Damn it.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit," Lucas spits.

"Look, nothing happened, okay?! And if you go around telling anybody otherwise, I'm going to make sure I tell everyone you wrecked Peyton's car."

"What? No one is going to buy that shit, Nathan," Lucas responds.

"Really? But I was with Tim all night, and that's exactly what he'll say if anybody asks," Nathan says. "So, it's our word against yours. How do you think that's gonna go down? Because all I see right now is a wrecked car… and you."

And with that, Nathan turns and resumes walking back to the party.

Why? Why does this have to be so fucking hard?!

Nathan hates being the cause of Lucas's pain. He should be comforting him, not making him cry, but they can't be together like that. Ever.

It isn't fair.

One thing's definitely for sure, though.

Nathan is never getting drunk around Lucas ever again.

—-

Typical. Fucking typical.

Lucas is gripping the wheel of the tow truck so tightly right now that his hands are white.

Nathan's the one that kissed him and now Nathan's going to act like nothing happened. Not only that, but he's also leaving Lucas to clean up the mess he made.

Good thing for Nathan that Lucas still wants to kiss him, otherwise he would freaking strangle him right now. Not only does he have to face his Uncle Keith (who's pissed at Lucas for not calling the cops), but he had to take the blame for the car that Nathan sideswiped, leaving a note and saying it was his fault.

As for the kiss… all it did was confuse Lucas even more. Yeah, it was fucking fantastic, but it just left him with questions. Does Nathan feel the same way? Was he just drunk? There is no plausible answer he can come up with, and then he also feels bad about Peyton. It isn't fair to her at all.

"Damn it!" Lucas yells, slamming his hands on the steering wheel.

He arrives at Keith's shop and sees a very angry Keith standing right in front of the garage door.

"Hit and run, huh?" Keith asks, walking towards Lucas as he gets out of the truck. If a glare could kill, Lucas would be dead right now. "Just beautiful. I could lose my license for this."

"I didn't know what else to do," Lucas defends. "He just walked away."

"What is it with you and him, huh? You're willing to break the law for him? No one is worth that," Keith says.

"He's my brother; even if he's an ass I don't want to see him thrown in jail," Lucas says. Nathan better be glad he's defending him right now.

"And what about the guy's car he hit? Does he just get screwed over?"

"I left him a note saying I did it, and told him to come here and get it fixed," Lucas answers. Keith snorts out of anger.

"Well that's just great, Lucas. You know I'm already having trouble pulling in customers as it is," Keith spits.

"Look, I'll do all the work myself, and even pay for the materials!" Lucas says.

"Damn right you will," Keith says before rubbing his forehead. "Boy, your mom is gonna love this." Lucas blinks like someone shined a flashlight in his eyes.

Nope, it was just his life flashing before his eyes.

"You're not gonna tell her, are you?" Lucas asks, the panic in his voice very audible.

"No, you are. And if you don't, then I'll tell her, because you're not getting away with this scot free," Keith says. Finally, his anger subsides a little bit, and he pats Lucas on the shoulder. "C'mon. Cover the car and I'll give you a ride home."

Lucas nods, going to cover up Peyton's car. Before he does, he notices a very familiar green hat lying on the passenger seat.

Haley's hat.

—-