Sometimes, Lucas really wishes he can just keep his big mouth shut. If he hadn't of dumped all of his feelings on Nathan, he'd be with him right now.
Instead, he's standing alone in Nathan's room, looking like an idiot with his clothes halfway ripped off.
Buttoning his shirt back up, Lucas starts to walk out of the room, wanting to be anywhere but in this house. As soon as he leaves the room he's stopped by none other than Dan Scott, looking overly smug.
"Nice, isn't it? Wishing I would've chose you over Nathan?" Dan asks, smirking.
Lucas is trying really hard not to deck him in the face.
"Spare me," Lucas spits, trying to walk past Dan.
"You can try to steal my son's life all you want, but you're never gonna have it," Dan says.
"And what would I get out of that? Having you as a father? I'll pass," Lucas says, shoving Dan as he walks by. Before he walks down the steps, he turns to Dan again. "You know, for the longest time I wished I could know who you were. I didn't feel like I was good enough. Now that I know who you are, I realize I was better off."
"You keep telling yourself that, champ," Dan says, chuckling to himself. Lucas doesn't respond, and walks downstairs. He sees Haley standing by the front door carrying a few white boxes.
"Hales?" Lucas calls out to her.
"Oh, hey Luke!" Haley says. "I'm not crashing I promise. Your mom called and said Deb needed a few cakes for the party."
He nods and gives her the best smile he can muster right now. She looks at him and raises an eyebrow.
"Hey, what happened? Are you okay?" She asks him.
"Long story, but I was planning on heading out, actually," Lucas responds.
"Well hey, I'll go set these cakes down and then I'll walk with you. Sound good?"
"Sure thing," Lucas says.
"Be right back," Haley says, heading into the kitchen with the cakes. Lucas sits down and runs his hands through his hair.
"Hey there, sexy!"
He looks up and sees Brooke stumbling towards him with a drink in her hand. Before he can respond she's in his lap with her hands wrapped around his neck, and Lucas can practically taste the alcohol on her breath.
"Hey… Brooke," Lucas says.
"What do you say we leave this snooze-fest and go to the real party at my house?" Brooke asks.
"No thanks," Lucas laughs.
"C'mon! There's a jacuzzi, and there's me, and then there'll be me naked in a jacuzzi," Brooke tries, trying her best to give Lucas a flirtatious smile, but instead looking like she just passed gas, and Lucas can't help but laugh.
"As tempting as that sounds, I'm gonna have to pass," Lucas says. The last thing he wants is to try and have sex again tonight.
"Man, you've been turning me down all night," Brooke says, pouting, "Wait, I know! You're gay aren't you?"
Nope, just for his brother, actually.
"Well damn, guess the cat's out of the bag, huh?" Lucas says jokingly.
"It's okay, Luke, your secret's safe with me. I won't even remember this in the morning," Brooke says, smiling at him and poking him on the nose.
Where the hell is Haley? Lucas just wants to be rescued.
Finally, he sees her walking towards him. Now he can get Brooke off of him and…
… on second thought, never mind. He sees Nathan walking right behind her. Lucas is sure that if he asks Brooke to suffocate him with her breasts, she wouldn't say no.
"Hey, sorry I took so long, Luke," Haley begins, "Me and Nathan were just talking. Have you two seen each other at all tonight?"
Lucas glances up at Nathan, who's awkwardly standing behind Haley and refusing to look at him.
"Nope," Lucas says coldly, the pain in his chest hurting even more now.
"Oh, hey tutor girl!" Brooke says, sloppily turning towards Haley with her hands still wrapped around Lucas's neck.
"It's Haley," Haley says, giving Brooke a very uncomfortable look.
"Aren't you two just the cutest?" Brooke says, pointing at Haley and Nathan. "Nathan's personal little care package. What was my favorite part? 'Believing you'll do well is half the battle.'"
"What are you talking about, Brooke?" Nathan spits.
"Oh you know, tutor girl's little love note you passed around earlier. The one that said 'call me if you need anything… at all.'"
Lucas is beyond confused. Did Haley write him a love letter or something? He wants to be jealous, but he sees the hurt on Haley's face and instead just wants to hit Nathan.
"Haley, look, I -" Nathan begins.
"Stay the hell away from me," Haley spits, turning and running out the front door. Lucas throws Brooke off of him and chases after her, glaring at Nathan as he runs past him.
"Hales, wait!" Lucas says, chasing after her out the front door. He finally catches up to her and tugs on her arm. She turns to him, sobbing uncontrollably. Lucas pulls her into a hug.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Lucas says, stroking her hair. "What was that about, anyway?"
"It was just a note I wrote wishing him luck on his big exam," Haley whimpers. "Just this once Luke, I deserve an 'I told you so.'"
"Well you're not gonna get it from me," Lucas tells her.
"I just started to believe that he wasn't a terrible person and he just goes and proves me wrong. Once again tutor girl is just really stupid."
That makes two of them. How can one person possibly be the cause of this much grief?
"Hey, you're not stupid, okay?" Lucas says, wiping the tears from her face.
"Thanks," Haley says, sniffling and smiling up at him. "Well, uh, at least things are working out for one of us. Seems like you and Brooke were getting cozy in there."
"Brooke?" Lucas laughs. "No way. She's been trying it all night, but she's not the one I want. The one I want turned me down pretty harshly tonight."
"Peyton?" Haley asks. Lucas shakes his head no. "So then who is this mystery girl, huh?"
If only you knew.
"No one," Lucas lies.
"What happened to telling each other everything?" Haley asks, smiling and raising an eyebrow.
"Trust me Hales, it's not going anywhere anyway. It would be kinda pointless to tell you," Lucas says.
"Fine," Haley says. "Well hey, what do you say we blow this popsicle stand?" "Absolutely," Lucas says, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, the two of them leaving Dan's house behind them.
Maybe things are better this way. Just the two of them, without any stupid boys to come in and complicate things.
Except Lucas knows that no matter how hard he tries, he's never going to be satisfied with that.
He needs Nathan in his life.
—
Nathan rolls over in bed and groggily rubs his eyes.
Damn, did he fuck things up last night.
Not only did he screw things up with Lucas, he screwed things up with the one person who could've potentially saved him from Lucas. He didn't even know that Haley put a note in the box she gave him until Brooke said something about it, which means that she was going through his shit without his permission.
Now he's just left with an aching heart and nobody to patch it up for him. He wanted to be with Lucas so bad last night, but then Lucas just started going on about how he wanted them to be together and Nathan got scared. Sleeping with each other is one thing, but actually being together with Lucas? No, he can't do that. If he lets Lucas inside, there's no turning back. If he gives Lucas his heart, he knows that it'll be over.
That's the damn problem. He wants everything Lucas does, really, but he's just too afraid to man up and do something about it. In a perfect world, he and Lucas wouldn't be related, and they would be free to be together with no strings attached.
But, here they are in this fucked up thing called reality.
Nathan puts his face in his pillow and screams. This is all just one giant suckfest.
He has to make things right with Haley. She's his only chance at having a normal life. Without her, he's just going to keep giving in to his feelings, and that can't happen.
Nathan grabs his phone, determined to talk to Haley and set things right.
—
The day after the big party fiasco, Lucas and Haley are trying to spend time together to get their mind off of everything that happened the night before. Haley proposes they go to the CD store so she can drown herself in music.
"I need to find something that makes me want to dress in all black and never leave my room," Haley says, scanning the myriad of CDs in front of her.
"Damn, and you call me broody," Lucas jokes. "Didn't we come here to cheer ourselves up?"
"What? I am cheery. I can slash my wrists with a smile," Haley says.
"Shut up, Hales," Lucas says, laughing at her.
Suddenly he hears the bell from the door ringing, and looks over and sees Nathan walking in. He thinks about throwing the cd he has in his hand at Nathan's face, but instead settles for scowling at him. Nathan still won't look at him, and instead he looks right at Haley.
So apparently they're back to acting like the other person doesn't exist. Fantastic.
"You okay?" Lucas asks her. She nods, and he walks to the other side of the cd rack to leave them alone.
He just secretly wishes Nathan came there to talk to him instead of Haley.
Acting like he's really looking at the CDs, Lucas eavesdrops on their conversation.
"I called your mom and she said you were here," Nathan says.
"Cool. I'll be sure to lie to her next time," Haley says curtly.
"Look, I didn't even know Brooke read that note. In fact, I didn't even know there was a note until later. I wouldn't do that to you."
"Okay," Haley says, nodding and turning to look at the CDs in front of her.
"Great, so.. are we cool?"
"Oh, most definitely not," Haley says.
"You do believe me, don't you?" Nathan asks her, his voice rising.
"I believe you're sorry. But look, this whole tutoring and hanging out thing, it's not working. So let's just stop it," Haley tells him, turning over and looking at Lucas. "Hey Luke, I'm gonna head home. Call you later?"
Lucas nods, and Haley storms out of the shop, leaving Nathan standing dumbfounded. As much as he hates seeing Haley upset, Lucas hopes that she eventually stops liking Nathan, because the thought of those two being together is too much.
He's about to say something to Nathan, but then his phone starts going off in his pocket. Pulling it out, he sees Brooke on the caller id.
"Hello?" Lucas answers, turning away from Nathan.
"Hey, it's Brooke."
"What's up? You're not drinking again, are you?" Lucas asks her.
"Funny. No, I'm actually calling to apologize. I was a real bitch to Haley last night."
"That's putting it lightly."
"Yeah, I really screwed things up for her and Nathan didn't I? That's actually what I'm calling about. Do you know where I can find her?"
"She should be heading home right now, actually."
"Perfect! Text me her address. I'm gonna set her and Nathan up on the perfect date tonight to make it up to them. Thanks, Luke!"
"Wait, Brooke!" Lucas tries, but she already hung up. Perfect.
Sighing, he turns to find Nathan but sees that he already left.
Guess he has no choice but to sit back and watch as Nathan is slowly being ripped away from him.
—
After Haley totally blew him off at the CD store, Nathan retreated back home to sweat all of his frustration out.
At least, he was trying to until Brooke came up to him in his yard.
"What do you want?" Nathan spits, resting the weights and sitting up to look at her.
"To apologize for what I did to you and Haley last night," Brooke answers. Nathan has to be imagining this. Brooke Davis, apologizing? Maybe there really is a person underneath all of that makeup.
"You're apologizing?" Nathan asks her, surprised.
"Weird, right? I'm just trying to appease the Gods, so.. I'm sorry."
"Whatever. Drunken high school girls are bitches. It happens," Nathan shrugs
"I know I had that coming, but I'm trying to make things better here," Brooke says. "And get you and Haley back on track." Were they ever on a track, anyway?
"She made it pretty clear this morning that that's not going to happen," Nathan says.
"I'm gonna take care of it, promise," Brooke says, winking. "Plus, I have to get Lucas back in my good graces somehow."
So that's what this is about.
"Lucas?"
"He doesn't exactly like me right now, either. Maybe if I make sure Haley's happy with you, he'll be really happy with me, if you catch my drift," Brooke says. Nathan can feel the jealousy slowly taking over him.
Damn it, he needs to keep it under control if he wants this to work. If he ever wants to get Lucas out of his head for good, he needs Haley. And if Brooke has to have Lucas in order for him to have Haley, so be it.
"I'll call you later with the details!" Brooke says, smiling at him before turning and walking away.
This better work.
Sighing, Nathan goes back to lifting, trying to get the image of Brooke and Lucas together out of his mind.
Damn it, Luke.
Nathan spent the next few hours nervously pacing in front of the phone until finally, he sees Brooke's name pop up.
"What did she say?" Nathan asks, snatching the phone off of his dresser.
"You're meeting at Karen's Cafe at seven."
"I could kiss you, Brooke," Nathan says, smiling.
"Save that for Haley, would ya? Well I gotta go, me and Peyton are heading to a college party tonight. You two lovebirds have fun!" *Click.*
Nathan cheers and goes to the bathroom to shower and get ready.
There's still hope for him to be normal, after all.
—-