When Haley left practice that evening, Nathan was waiting for her outside in what he'd worn to school that morning—a pair of blue jeans and a short sleeved white button up shirt—his back against the brick wall. One of his legs was bent at the knee and his foot was resting on the wall, his hands in his pockets.

"Hey," Haley said when she spotted him.

Nathan pushed away from the bricks and immediately fell into step beside her. "What's going on with you?" he asked in a concerned tone.

Haley sighed and tugged the strap of her practice bag higher on her shoulder. "I don't like the attention," she told him.

"You're a starter on the basketball team," Nathan reminded her. "There are hundreds of pairs of eyes on you every time you're on the court."

"This is different," she said emphatically.

"How?" Nathan inquired.

"It's not…attention because I betrayed my best friend," she reasoned with a wince. "I mean, my word! Was it on the six o'clock news last night?"

"You didn't betray him, Hales," Nathan said softly.

She stopped in her tracks and focused on Nathan's face. "How can you say that? Of course I betrayed him! I've been lying to him since the first day of this school year!"

"Because you were scared!" Nathan said, already his first instinct to protect her.

"It's not an excuse," she said, shaking her head and resuming her pace. "I'm practically an adult. I should have been straight with him from the beginning."

"Well, then he betrayed you, too."

Haley laughed sarcastically. "How did he do that?"

"When he found out that you weren't perfect, he bailed," Nathan said.

"I hurt him," Haley said, her gaze straight ahead. She wouldn't look at him now.

"He hurt you."

Haley shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she said miserably.

"Of course it does," Nathan disagreed.

"But why?" Haley asked. "Why does it matter so much to you?"

"Because it matters to you."

Haley lifted a hand and ran it through her hair. "Why do you have to be so darn perfect?"

Nathan laughed and grabbed her free hand, pulling her against his side. He wrapped his arm around her neck and kissed her temple. "I'm not perfect," he whispered, making a show of looking around. "But keep it on the down-low."

Haley laughed, choking on a sob. "I love that you can make me laugh no matter what."

Nathan grinned. "Well, then I'll save my dancing for when you're really down," he teased.

777

"Oh, my God!" Brooke said, annoyance dripping from every word. "I am so sick of hearing about Haley, that I'm not even sure I like you anymore," she told Lucas, glad he was at the other end of the couch. She'd never gotten violent before, but she sure was considering it now.

"Brooke—"

"No!" Brooke said firmly. "I have never been jealous of a woman before unless the guy I'm dating has actually slept with her. This is just ridiculous!"

Lucas cocked an eyebrow at her. "You're jealous?"

Brooke crossed her arms and tilted her head at him, giving him a dirty look. "Don't try and get all cutesy now, Lucas Scott. It's too late."

"Cutesy?" he said, his grin widening. "I'm not playing ring-around-the-rosy."

"No," she agreed. "You're playing frickin' stubborn!"

"Well, here's an idea," Lucas said, moving to the middle cushion on the couch, closing the distance between them. "Let's let the subject of Haley and Nathan drop altogether and get on with what this night was supposed to be."

Brooke sighed and pushed him away, then stood up, narrowly escaping his reach. "Well, I can't now! Now I feel like I have to defend Haley again! And Nathan!"

"Brooke—"

"He's a lot like you, you know," she said.

"I don't believe that for one second," Lucas said flatly.

"But out of the two—you're more stubborn. Which is a huge surprise to me!"

"I don't want to hear this," Lucas said.

"And you think life without a father is bad?" Brooke scoffed. "Try life with Dan Scott. It'll sober you up pretty quick. It's made me feel thankful many times. Absentee parents and all."

"What are you trying to do, Brooke?" Lucas asked, agitated.

"I'm trying to make your brother more real to you," she said.

"Oh, trust me, he is real to me," Lucas said. "A real pain in the ass!"

"Nathan was having a party one night, everyone from the basketball team and all of the cheerleaders were there. Anyway, it was at their beach house and the cops ended up getting called. It was a pretty rough party. When Dan got there, he literally kicked Nathan's ass all the way to the car, Lucas. Can you imagine how embarrassing that was for him? In front of all of his teammates and the entire squad."

"Yes, well I'm sure his mommy was there to smooth things over for him," Lucas said without any sympathy.

"Well, you'd be wrong. The only parent on the planet who is more absentee than my mom is Deb Scott. She's typically nowhere to be found. At least in this zip code anyway. And that story about Nate and Dan? That's one of the mild ones, Lucas."

"This isn't making me like him any more," Lucas told her.

"Sweet Lord, Lucas Scott. Is there ice coursing through your veins?" she asked.

Lucas leaned forward and snagged her wrist, pulling her onto his lap. "Ask me that in another half an hour," he told her.

Brooke frowned. "Only half an hour? Really?" she said in dismay.

Lucas threw his head back and laughed. "The first time," he told her. He shook his head and gave a fake shudder. "But, ooooh, the second time…" he trailed off.

Brooke grinned. "The second time?" she asked in excitement.

"The second time," he confirmed, a promise in his words. He pulled her to him, his hand at the back of her neck holding her in place. He started placing a string of kisses along her throat.

"Lucas," she said weakly. "You remember where my room is, right?" she asked.

"Is there something wrong with the living room floor?" he asked, pulling his mouth away from her throat just long enough to ask the question. He quickly went back to work.

"No," she said, and then whimpered when she felt his tongue on her neck. "Lucas," she said pleadingly, threading her fingers in his hair. When he pulled her closer to him, she could feel his arousal through her cotton pants and instinctively tightened her grasp.

"Geez, Brooke!" Lucas said when she tugged at his hair.

"I'm sorry," she said breathily, clearly not meaning it.

He growled. "It's OK," he assured her. "Rough is…good."

She nodded. "I think so, too," she managed to get out between her gasps. "And so is hard," she said, pulling away from his kisses and reaching for his belt buckle.

777

"I am not a ball hog!" Haley said, grabbing the French fry that was in Nathan's hand and popping it into her own mouth.

Nathan shrugged and put his hands out to his sides. "I'm just saying…"

Haley laughed. "Well, you're wrong! I am a great passer!"

"Maybe," Nathan said, clearly humoring her.

"What do you know?" she asked.

"Right. Because the captain of the number one basketball team in the state couldn't possibly know anything," he said mockingly.

Haley grinned. "That's right," she said, ignoring his tone and agreeing with is words.

Nathan laughed. "You are something else, Haley James."

"Nathan?" she asked her tone suddenly serious.

He looked up from his strawberry milkshake and met her eyes. "Yeah?"

She sighed. "You never told me what happened with your dad after he picked you up at my house the other night," she told him.

He shook his head, looking down at his food. "Nothing," he told her.

"Nathan—"

"He went into Dan Scott mode," he told her. "Berated me a little bit, asked me if I wanted to knock you up before I'd even gotten a scholarship and have a little Lucas on my hands. That's all, Hales."

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely, still amazed at how a man could try and condition one of his sons to hate the other.

"For what?" Nathan asked. "It's not your fault."

"I know it's not my fault, but I don't like to think of that happening to you."

"Then don't," he said fervently. Reaching over, he took one of her hands and threaded their fingers together. "I'm used to it," he told her with a shrug. "His words don't hurt me anymore, Hales. I hardly even hear them," he promised her, kissing her hand on the knuckles.

Haley took a deep breath. "That makes it even worse," she said. "To think that you're used to that."

Nathan laughed hollowly. "I said that to make it better, not to make it worse."

"Well, it had an adverse effect," she told him.

"I see that now," he said softly.

"Have you heard from your mom yet?" she asked him.

He shook his head, and then took a bite of his burger, washing it down with his milkshake. "I left her a message, but she never called me back."

Haley's eyes welled up with tears as she thought about the fight she'd had with her mother. All because she was too overbearing. After what she was hearing from Nathan, Haley suddenly felt silly for the angry words she and her mother had exchanged. She decided that the first thing she was going to do when she got home was apologize and beg for her mothers trust again.

"Hales?" he asked.

She forced her tears back and cleared her throat, trying to lighten the mood.. "So, you do realize what this is, don't you?"

Nathan looked confused.

"No?" Haley asked.

"No," he confirmed.

She grinned at him. "This is our first official date in Tree Hill," she said, enlightening him.

Nathan groaned.

"What?" she asked, her tone teasing.

"I brought you to McDonalds," he said dryly.

"What's wrong with McDonalds?" she asked.

"Not a great story for the grandkids," he reminded her.

Haley laughed at that.

"And…what if we ever decide to get married?" he asked.

Haley shrugged. "What if?"

"Well, if I wanted to refer back to our first date, I'd have to purpose under the Golden Arches," he said, shuddering for effect.

Haley laughed. "Well, if you did it after dark, we'd already have mood lighting," she teased.

"Your glass is always half full, isn't it, Haley James?" he said, standing up and grabbing both their trays.

Haley giggled again. "Look at the bright side."

"What's that?" Nathan asked absently as he threw their food wrappers away.

"If we had gone to Burger King, that scary man in the King suit would have been officiating the wedding ceremony," she said.

Nathan grabbed her hand as they walked out of the restaurant. "Well, we really side-stepped that land mine," he said jokingly.

"I'll say," Haley agreed as they headed for Nathan's vehicle.

Nathan opened the door for her, and then backed her up against the vehicle. "You know what I like best about you, Hales?" he asked, moving close enough so that she was flush against him.

"What?" she asked breathily, her eyes locked on his.

"The way you taste," he said the second before his lips touched hers.

She opened her mouth and his tongue sought hers. It was only a second before they found each other, and Nathan's hands moved from her waist down to her thighs, pulling her against him. She wiggled her hips, trying to get even closer. He immediately broke the kiss, his breathing ragged. "What in the hell are you trying to do to me?"

Haley grinned at him and climbed into her seat. He leaned in and gave her another kiss on the forehead before closing her door.

He came around to his side of the car and got in, then left the parking lot.

"I'm gonna do it," Haley said emphatically.

"Do what?" Nathan asked, looking over his shoulder to make sure the way was clear before he changed lanes.

"I am going to walk into that school tomorrow with my head held high," she told him. "Because, regardless of what is going on with Lucas and me, what we have is amazing. And I'm not going to let anyone ruin that for us."

"That's my girl," Nathan said, reaching for her hand and once again threading his fingers with hers. He stopped at the red light and waited patiently for it to turn green.

"And if people want to stare at me, and to judge me, what do I care? I don't know most of them anyway."

Nathan nodded. "That's right," he said, stepping on the accelerator as the light changed.

"And if…Nathan!" Haley screamed just before a truck running the red light hit her on the passengers' side.

That was the last thing he heard before everything went black.