Alright! Quiet down!" Whitey yells from the front of the school bus. "This is our first away game. For those of you who don't know, just sit there with your mouths shut and focus. I'll choose the music."
Whitey holds up a cassette tape and smirks. This can't be good.
"Tonight's theme is defense," Whitey says, putting the cassette tape in the music player. Some terrible classical music starts to play.
Groaning, Lucas grabs the mix cd Peyton made him for being there for her during her breakup with Nathan (even if she's not the one he wanted to be comforting), pops it in his cd player, and puts his earbuds in. Glancing over at Nathan, Lucas notices he's doing the same.
Turning to look out the window, Lucas scowls when he remembers that Nathan invited Haley to come watch the game. He's really trying to be happy about the fact that his best friend has a crush on somebody, but he just can't. Plus, if Nathan invited Haley, that means he might like her, too.
Sighing, Lucas grabs his copy of Of Mice and Men out of his bag, hoping that a book will take his mind off of everything.
It doesn't.
About an hour later, they finally pull up to Pickerington High. Glancing around, Lucas feels like he's in an episode of Dukes of Hazzard. His teammates weren't kidding when they said the Pickerington Pirates should be called the Pickerington Hicks instead.
Walking through the hallways of the school, Lucas hears a couple of the Pirates boys shouting insults.
"Awe, look, if it isn't the Tree Hill Ravens!"
"We're gonna make these little birdies caw tonight, aren't we boys?"
"Hey, don't you guys have a pig pen to play around in? I hear those are the type of women you hicks normally go for," Nathan yells back from behind him.
Hurrying into the locker room before they get beat up, they all change and take to the court. When they get there, Lucas sees Nathan give Haley a nod, and Haley smiles and waves back.
This isn't going to be an easy game for him. Not only does he have to put up with seeing those two eye fuck each other, but Brooke won't stop ogling him from the sidelines, and it's really beginning to creep him out.
The Ravens take the lead pretty early on in the game, completely crushing the Pirates by the start of the second quarter. Everything seems to be going fine until Nathan smacks the ball out of another player's hands. The referee blows his whistle; it's a foul.
Suddenly Nathan is right in his face.
"Hey, it's called defense, why don't you try it out sometime?" Nathan spits.
"Why don't you try not getting fouled?" Lucas retorts. He's the one that just fouled; why the hell is he coming after Lucas?
Amidst their bickering, the Pirates score a basket. Goddamn it, Nathan.
"Hey, are you gonna talk or are you gonna play, daddy's boy?" Lucas yells. Nathan turns and smirks in response.
"Haley's looking pretty fine tonight, right? Can't wait to get with that," Nathan says.
Lucas is going to kill him.
The referee throws the ball to him, which he chucks at Nathan, hitting him in the back. Nathan spins around and tackles Lucas. They accidentally knock Brooke over in the process, landing right on top of her leg, causing her to yell out in pain.
So this is what it's come to, the two of them fighting each other during a basketball game. Lucas has no idea how it's gotten this bad.
Before he has time to think about it, Nathan socks him in the face. Lucas punches him back, the whole right side of his face now throbbing with pain.
"Hey, cut it out!" He can hear Whitey yell over the referee's whistle. The ref comes over and pulls them apart.
"You two, you're out of here!" The referee yells at them.
Great.
"You're throwing them both out?! They're on the same team!" Whitey yells at the ref, but the referee wasn't backing down. Left with no choice, Lucas and Nathan head back to the bus, sitting as far apart from each other in complete silence.
Okay, this is starting to get way out of hand. Either they're going to talk about the thing that happened between them, or things will never get better.
Turning around to look at Nathan, Lucas tries to talk to him.
"Hey Nate, look - " Lucas begins, but Nathan cuts him off.
"Don't talk to me," Nathan says, looking out the window with his arms folded.
"Come on, man," Lucas tries again.
"I said don't talk to me," Nathan spits, still not looking at Lucas.
Well, he tried.
And so they sat in silence. Even when the team and Whitey got back on the bus, nobody said anything. Hell, Whitey wouldn't even look at him.
About thirty minutes into their ride home, the bus jerks to a stop. Lucas glances towards the front to see what's going on and sees Whitey get up from his seat.
This can't be good.
"Lucas Roe and Nathan Scott, on your feet!" Whitey yells. Lucas has never heard Whitey this mad before.
He and Nathan reluctantly stand up.
"Congratulations boys, because in all my years of coaching, this has got to be a new low. That little stunt you pulled almost lost us our winning streak! Now I don't give a didlee-squat about your daddy issues or your girlfriends. In fact, you two can hate each other until hell freezes over for all I care, but when you're playing on my team, you're going to learn to work together."
"I don't see that happening, Whitey," Nathan says.
"Is that so?" Whitey responds. "Well, in that case, you have about thirty miles to figure it out." They're on a secluded road that's surrounded by trees in the middle of nowhere. Whitey can't possibly leave them here…
… is what Lucas thought until he's standing with Nathan on the road, watching the school bus pull away.
Apparently Whitey can leave them here.
"This is great, just friggin' great," Nathan says, pacing back and forth and doing everything to avoid looking at Lucas.
"Will you calm down?" Lucas tries.
"You calm down, man! My phone's on that bus! My wallet's on that bus!"
"My stuff's on there, too!" Lucas says.
"Well… well what do we do now?" Nathan asks, now looking directly at him.
"Start walking, I guess," Lucas says. Nathan nods, and they start walking towards Tree Hill.
Finally, the two of them can agree on something.
They walked along in silence for a few minutes before Nathan starts up again.
"This wouldn't of happened if you hadn't joined the team," Nathan says. Not this again…
"No, we wouldn't be out here if you weren't such an ass about me joining the team," Lucas retorts. "Why do you care so much, anyway?"
"I.. have my reasons," Nathan answers, looking down at the ground.
"And those are?" Lucas asks.
"Just reasons, okay?" Nathan says, looking more uncomfortable by the second. Lucas guess's he's not really good at talking about his feelings.
"Would those reasons have something to do with why you kissed me?" Lucas asks him.
"Look, would you just stop bringing that up?" Nathan says, grabbing Lucas by the arm and pulling him to a stop. "I was really drunk and caught up in the moment."
"Is this you finally admitting that it happened?" Lucas asks, smirking.
"No, I'm… shut up," Nathan growls. Lucas can tell that he's blushing. Maybe he really does feel the same way.
Before Lucas can find out, an old dirty blue colored car pulls up on the road in front them.
"Hey Ravens, you need a ride?" A boy from the car yells at them.
Nathan looks at Lucas and shrugs, and then starts walking towards the car. This has to be some sort of trap.
"I wouldn't take that ride if I were you," Lucas tells him.
"Well, you're not," Nathan responds. Suddenly Nathan gets pulled into the backseat. Damn it, Lucas knew this was a setup. Running to the car, Lucas sees Nathan sitting between two members of the Pickerington Pirates.
"Two little Ravens for the price of one," the one nearest to Lucas says, smirking. "Get in or the superstar dies."
Touch him and you'll die.
Left with no other choice, Lucas climbs into the backseat, sitting next to Nathan in between the two Pirates. The car speeds off. They drive for about ten minutes before pulling up to a gas station.
"Well, this is my stop. Thanks fellas," Nathan says. Lucas nudges him with his leg to get him to shut the hell up. He's gotten them into enough trouble.
"This one's funny, Thing. Let's kill him last," the guy next to Lucas says to the driver.
"Wait, your name is Thing?" Nathan asks the driver.
"That's right; Thing," Thing responds.
"And I'm Thing One," The guy next to Lucas says.
Looking over at the guy next to Nathan, Lucas says "And let me guess, you're Thing Two?"
"Nope. I'm Thing Three, because I'm the third," Thing Three responds.
They've managed to get themselves kidnapped by a bunch of morons.
As Lucas starts to chuckle, Thing is pointing a gun at them.
"Whoa dude!" Nathan yells, putting his hands up.
"Take your clothes off," Thing orders. "You have some shopping to do."
Correction: they've managed to get themselves kidnapped by a bunch of perverted morons.
"You can't be serious," Lucas says.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Thing says, pointing the gun directly at Lucas's face.
"Easy man," Nathan says. "We'll do whatever you want, okay?"
"That's what I thought. In your boxers, now," Thing says sternly.
Lucas and Nathan both remove their clothing while Thing starts writing something down on a piece of paper. As if things weren't uncomfortable enough being smashed right next to Nathan, he's now in his boxers right next to Nathan… who is also in his boxers.
If Lucas gets a boner, he might throw himself into traffic.
"Here you go girls," Thing says, handing Lucas the piece of paper; it's a shopping list. "Now hurry up, we have some beer to drink."
Climbing over Thing Three, Lucas and Nathan proceed into the gas station, getting plenty of creeped out looks from the other customers. Lucas is trying extremely hard not to check Nathan out right now.
Damn he looks good without a shirt on, though. Normally Lucas doesn't care for nipple piercings, but Nathan pulls his off.
Shit, he has to stop before he gives the entire gas station a show.
"Okay, first thing is… hemorrhoid ointment," Lucas says, reading off of the list. Nathan sighs.
"This is such crap," Nathan says. "And these guys are way too dense to kill anybody. I bet it's not even a real gun."
"Let's just play their stupid game so we can get our clothes and get home," Lucas says. Nathan nods, sighing and grabbing the ointment off of the shelf in front of them.
"Okay, next on the list is two bottles of spring feminine cleansers," Lucas says.
"So the hicks have a sense of humor," Nathan says, grabbing them off the shelf. "What's next?"
"A case of beer and we're out of here," Lucas says.
"My fake's in my wallet. How the hell are we gonna pull that off?" Nathan sighs.
"Dude, would you card us? Honestly," Lucas jokes.
"Good point," Nathan responds, chuckling.
At least Lucas got him to smile, if nothing else.
As he suspected, the cashier didn't check for their ids. Handing the cashier the cash, he and Nathan walk back to the car and get inside. Thing snatches their bag and rifles through it.
"Awesome, they scored the beer," Thing says.
"Where's the porn?" Thing Three asks.
Correction number two (or three by the Things' logic): horny and perverted morons. Lucas is starting to get really annoyed by these idiots.
"Okay, you had your fun. Can we have our clothes back now?" Lucas asks.
"Yeah, I'm done with these clowns. Let's go get waisted," Thing One says.
"With no porno mags?!" Thing Three asks, sounding extremely disappointed.
"Sorry, they didn't have Playgirl," Nathan quips. Thing Three looks like he's about to say something but stops, listening out the window.
"Shit, it's the cops. Move, move, move!" Thing Three yells. Thing turns the car on and peels out of the parking lot. They can see the flashing lights coming up behind them. Suddenly Thing swerves onto a side road that's surrounded by a bunch of trees. Everyone ducks, and the police fly by, not noticing them.
"Hell yeah, baby!" Thing yells.
"Whoo, yeah! Alright! Yahoo! Give us back our clothes," Lucas says. If he doesn't get out of this car soon he's going to go insane. He can feel his IQ going down every second he's around one of these morons.
"Don't they say 'please' in Tree Hill?" Thing asks, pointing the gun at Lucas again. Suddenly Nathan snatches the gun from him and points it back in his face.
"He said give us our clothes, you fucking hick," Nathan snaps. All three Things start laughing. Nathan studies the pistol a little and then sighs. "It's a starter pistol. I knew this stupid thing was fake."
"Yeah, but our fists aren't," Thing One says.
"Look, we'll give you guys your clothes back, and even give you a ride home. But first, you have to do something for us," Thing Three says.
"And what's that?" Lucas asks.
The Things drag them out of the car and shove them forward. They all sit down on the hood of the car and cross their arms.
"Since we don't have any porno mags, we're gonna sit back and drink our beers while we watch you two make out. Then, you're gonna blow us," Thing says.
They can't be serious.
"You guys can go screw yourself, because there's no way in hell we're gonna -"
Lucas can't even finish his sentence before Nathan pulls him into a kiss, trying to tongue his way into Lucas's mouth. Caught off guard, Lucas's lips don't budge, but soon he grabs onto Nathan's waist and pulls him closer, meeting Nathan's tongue with his own. Nathan moans and then starts to gently nudge Lucas in the direction of the car.
"Now this is what I'm talking about," Thing Three says. The three of them move from their spot on the hood.
Nathan pushes Lucas against the car, careful not to break their lips apart. Suddenly he picks Lucas up by the legs and slams him onto the hood. Lucas wraps his legs around Nathan, and Nathan starts grinding against him, causing Lucas's dick to go hard in an instant.
If this is a dream, Lucas doesn't ever want to wake up.
This goes on for a few more seconds before Nathan suddenly jumps up and snatches the keys out of the ignition.
Oh, so that's why he started making out with him. Is it bad he's slightly disappointed?
"Morons," Nathan says, holding the keys up for the Things to see. Lucas gets up and stands beside him, and notices…
Holy shit, Nathan is hard, too.
"Now give us back our clothes," Nathan says.
"Fine," Thing says, throwing them a sock.
"Oh, so you wanna play games? Okay then, let's play one. It's called keys for clothes. You give us a piece of our clothes, and we'll give you a key," Nathan says.
"Forget it," Thing says.
"Fine. We were walking anyways," Nathan says, arching his arm over his head like he's going to throw the keys.
"Wait, wait, wait!" The Things yell.
"You got yourselves a deal," Thing One says.
"Perfect. Now give him his sweats," Nathan says. Thing One grabs Lucas's sweatpants and throws it to him.
"That's worth a house key," Nathan says, chucking a key in their direction while Lucas pulls his sweatpants on.
This goes back and forth for a while until the only thing they're missing is Nathan's shirt. Lucas glances and sees Nathan has only the car key left.
"Last key. Give me my shirt," Nathan orders.
"Give us the key and you'll get your shirt," Thing says.
"It's whatever, I can live without it," Nathan says, smirking. He turns and chucks the key into the woods. He and Lucas take off running in the opposite while the Things start running towards the keys. Then Nathan yanks on Lucas's arm and pulls him down to the ground, probably to make sure the Things don't see them.
"I can't believe you just kissed me again," Lucas says.
"Hey, it got us out of there, didn't it?" Nathan responds. Lucas can tell how red his face is getting even in this darkness. Noticing Nathan is shivering from the cold, Lucas takes off his hoodie and hands it to Nathan.
"Here," Lucas says.
"Thanks," Nathan says, pulling the sweatshirt on.
"So what's the master plan? Are you going to hotwire the car?"
"We won't have to," Nathan says, holding up the car key and smiling.
This clever bastard.
"C'mon. I'll drive," Nathan says.
The two of them get up and run back towards the car, climbing into it as quickly as possible. Nathan starts the car, and right after Lucas can hear the Things yelling.
Shit, they must've heard the car start.
"Hurry! I think they heard us," Lucas says. Nathan slams on the gas, but all that does is make the tires spin out. Lucas looks out of his window and sees the back tires are completely submerged in mud.
So, they're stuck. Fantastic.
Lucas can hear the voices of the Things getting closer.
"Bail?" Lucas asks, turning to Nathan.
"Bail," Nathan nods, and the two of them jump out of the car and run back into the woods. They find a spot to hideout and lay down on the ground. Guess they just have to wait until those morons get bored and go home.
About an hour goes by, and still, the Things won't give up.
"Ravens! Come out and play!" Lucas can hear them yelling.
Beside him he can hear Nathan shivering from the cold. He was getting pretty cold, himself.
"Hey, come here," Lucas says, motioning for Nathan to cuddle up next to him.
"No, thanks," Nathan responds, still shivering like crazy.
"You're gonna freeze," Lucas says.
"Oh well."
"Just come here Nate," Lucas says. Sighing, Nathan wiggles his way over to Lucas, pressing his back against him. Lucas wraps his arm around Nate and pulls him in closer.
"Thanks," Nathan says.
"So are we ever gonna talk about this?" Lucas asks, nuzzling his nose in Nathan's hair. God he smells amazing.
"What?" Nathan asks, moving himself closer to Lucas.
"Whatever this thing is going on between us," Lucas responds.
"Whatever it is, it's totally freaking me out," Nathan says, laughing.
"Ditto," Lucas laughs. "So, what do we do about it?"
Nathan turns and looks at Lucas. "There's nothing we can do about it, Luke. We're brothers. It's not like we can just start dating each other."
"It isn't fair," Lucas sighs. Nathan leans in closer and gently kisses Lucas on the lips.
"No, it's not. But it doesn't change how I feel about you," Nathan says, smiling.
"And how's that?" Lucas asks, smiling back.
"I don't know, I'm still figuring that part out," Nathan laughs. "I do know one thing, though. I really, really like kissing you."
Nathan pulls him into another kiss, this one more passionate than the last. At this point, Lucas can care less if he ever makes it back to Tree Hill.
"Hey Luke, do you hear that?" Nathan asks, perking his head up.
Lucas tries but can't hear anything.
Wait.
He can't hear anything. The Things finally left!
Smiling, the both of them get up and run towards the road. Finally, they can start walking back home.
"Thanks for keeping me warm back there," Nathan says, looking at Lucas and smiling.
"Anytime," Lucas responds.
Suddenly Lucas can see lights coming from behind them. Turning around, he can see a car coming right in their direction.
"Shit, they might be coming back," Lucas says.
"We can take 'em. I'm sick of running," Nathan says.
As it gets closer, Lucas notices it isn't the Things' crappy car.
It's Brooke's Beetle. What the hell is she still doing out here this late?
The car stops in front of them and Lucas can see Peyton is driving, Haley's in the passenger seat, and Brooke is sitting in back. The three of them are looking at Lucas and Nathan with extremely puzzled looks.
The both of them run up to the car, and Peyton rolls down the windows.
"What the hell happened?" Peyton asks.
"It's a long story, but can we have a ride?" Lucas asks.
So all in one night, he got in a fight with Nathan, got kicked out of the basketball game, got dumped in the middle of nowhere, got kidnapped by idiots, had to go into a gas station in his underwear, almost got raped by said idiots, and finally found out Nathan has feelings for him, whatever they may be.
Yup, Lucas is really glad Whitey kicked him off the bus.
—