CHAPTER TWO.

I had always believed that if there was anything that the residents of Tree Hill held close to their hearts, it was basketball. Judging from the loud, pounding excitement that seemed to fill up the gym, I would say I was right.

I took my place in the third row, flanked by Karen on my right and some random enthusiastic supporter on my left. It was the annual championship between the long-standing rivals, Tree Hill High and Oak Lake Academy. The winning team would go on to play in the State finals – a feat that had been difficult for our home team to achieve in the past 18 years. Needless to say, there was a lot burdening the shoulders of our basketball team. Not that I was an avid basketball – or, for that matter, sports – fan, but I had a strong intuition that maybe today was going to be our day.

"It's a shame that Keith couldn't be here today," I heard Karen say. She leaned closer to my ear, trying to make herself audible amidst the cheers that erupted as soon as the players entered the gym.

I nodded. Keith had gone to Charlotte for some meeting regarding his auto-shop company. We waved at Lucas simultaneously and he smiled back in return. I sneaked a glance at Karen who looked every bit the proud mother. Her boisterous smile almost flustered Lucas, but it was evident that the mother-son duo didn't have any complaint when it came to familial support. I knew that despite the consequences of today's game, nothing would change between the two. Karen had always supported Lucas while he always tried to never deny her an opportunity to be a proud mother.

And almost involuntarily, I started to draw comparisons with another branch of the Scott family. My eyes raked the court before settling on a pair in the farther corner of the gym. I couldn't help but notice the stark contrast; Nathan stood with a hard expression, facing a very agitated Dan who was probably offering some last-minute advice along the lines of 'don't screw this up' or 'don't make me regret choosing you'. Yeah, Dan can be a heartless bastard; I had spent enough time with Nathan to gather that much.

I continued to stare at them, my heart breaking every time I saw Nathan nodding wordlessly. Nobody could see behind the charming, albeit arrogant, demeanour of Nathan Scott. People thought he had it easy. Little did they know that every time Dan berates him, an inch of that confidence falters out of place.

The ordeal seemed to be over as Dan walked away, leaving Nathan to pinch the bridge of his nose the moment he turned his back. Right then, there was nothing more that I wanted to do than run up to him and lead him away from this mess.

As I saw him making his way back to the rest of the team, I could see the smirk plastered perfectly on his face, as though he hadn't just been on the receiving end of another condescending speech from Dan Scott. He acknowledged every eye that met his...until they gradually met mine. My heart jumped a little in excitement when that smirk turned into a gentle smile.

And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, was exactly why I couldn't run up to him in front of everyone and lead him away from this mess. Because despite the circumstances I couldn't bring myself to let my relationship or whatever-I-had-with-Nathan get tangled in this mess. It was an escape for us...well, for me at least, since I had no idea what "us" meant to him.

Smiling back at him, I drew a comparison for the second time that night. A comparison between this game and the game that happened four months ago...the game where it all began.

.

.

.

Four months earlier...

Walking down the empty corridor, I grinned happily to myself. This was going to be Damien's last game in Tree Hill High, and though that meant that we wouldn't see each other as frequently as before, the prospect of a long distance relationship didn't rattle me in the slightest. He was moving to Oak Lake, and I was willing to do everything that was humanly possible to preserve the relationship with my first boyfriend.

I had two hours to kill before the game officially started, and I knew the perfect way to do that. Seeing Damien walk into an empty classroom few minutes ago, I had excused myself from the company of my friends and decided to spend some "alone-time" with him before the game.

Now, mind you, that wasn't a euphemism for anything sexual. At least, that wasn't what I intended to mean.

But turns out, that entering into an empty classroom very discretely was definitely a well-clichéd euphemism for sexual activities. Because when I finally opened the door to the classroom, I could only wish that I hadn't been so utterly naïve.

"What the hell is this?" I almost yelled, appalled at the sight before me. There, lying on the teacher's desk was a very naked girl with my equally-naked boyfriend and his dick inside her. (Yes, when I'm beyond angry, I'm beyond crude.)

The two seemed tongue-tied for a moment there, studying me (and, possibly working on their story). My hand on the doorknob gave me some semblance of firmness, because otherwise, I could definitely feel my body trembling with shock, fury, and betrayal.

"Well, Haley, I think you can see what this is." Damien smirked – smirked – at me, like I hadn't just caught him cheating on me. "Unless you are too much of a prude to understand that."

Miss Random-Bitch started giggling at that; she was downright giggling. His smirk stayed arrogantly placed on his face. Neither of them bothered to move from their position as they continued to snicker at me. Now it was my turn to stay tongue-tied, but for a different reason altogether.

Never had I ever been this humiliated. Tears pricked my eyes; I prevented them from making their presence felt in front of those two. My dignity couldn't handle that.

But that didn't prevent the heartbroken voice to make its presence felt. "Why?" I whispered, pathetically. Wasn't I good enough? I added mentally.

What happened a second later served as the final blow to this heartache. He laughed. And not a pleasant one at that; it was the kind where you understand that the joke's at your expense. He laughed.

"Why? Well, Haley, you didn't think that this wouldn't happen, did you?" I stayed silent. "Oh, you did?" He offered in a mock-sympathetic voice.

"Baby, I think she did." Miss Random-Bitch offered her two-cents and giggled again.

"You couldn't expect me to actually settle for your prudishness. You weren't giving me any, so I went out to get some. It's quite simple really." I bit my lip to keep those tears at bay as he talked about sex like he was talking about buying groceries for the week.

I had been with him for three months, and in those three months there had been at least three instances per month where he pressed on the sex issue – at times, I admittedly felt trapped, but I didn't give into his persistence. Never did I think that this would be a consequence. I thought he understood.

"You are a heartless jerk," I spat out.

"And you are a naïve goody two-shoes. So, I guess we're even then?" He shrugged, visibly bored by my presence.

I should have stopped there, preserved my dignity and bolted the hell out of that asshole's vicinity, but I couldn't stop the word-vomit. "I trusted you."

"Ugh, get a hint." Random-Bitch muttered under her breath.

"Well, you learnt something today. I mean, you do like learning a lot, don't you?" he snickered, obviously proud of his little jab.

I couldn't bear the insults anymore. Fury had replaced most of the shock now. But I had yet to deal with the betrayal and the teenage heartache. So, without letting him have the last word, I enunciated my next sentence, clearly and with a deep hatred. "Fuck you. And, congratulations to you two for contracting a possible STD on a desk that had a dead rat placed on it." With that, I turned away and stormed out into the corridor.

So, maybe there wasn't really a dead rat placed on the desk. And maybe, that was an extremely childish and foolish statement to make. But the loud shriek that suddenly came from behind the closed door gave me a tiny bit of satisfaction.

I walked out into the back of the building, leaned against the brick wall and closed my eyes. The cool early evening air filled up my lungs and only then did I begin to finally let the outburst of tears take over. My body shook as I came to the realization that I had just been "played". To be honest, I actually did think that I could make this work. I met him while tutoring. Two months later, he asked me out. And I agreed to it. We'd been together for a little over five months (if you included the tutoring sessions). Lucas and Peyton had expressed their concerns – but you could say that I had been blinded by the whole teenage-infatuation thing.

I replayed the past few minutes in my mind – not that it did me any good. This entire situation felt like the time when I realized Rihanna's Shut Up and Drive wasn't about cars, at all. Once again, my innocence came in the way of my comprehension of reality. And, believe me, nothing sucks more than that.

"Haley?" A voice broke into my pensive thoughts.

I opened my eyes slowly, hoping it wasn't Lucas. As much as I love him, I couldn't deal with his questions now. Please don't be Lucas, please don't be –

"Nathan?" My forehead crinkled at his sight. Okay, now I wish it had been Lucas rather than his half-brother.

"Well, now that we've affirmed each other's identities, wanna tell me what's going on?"

Suddenly aware of my disorganized state, I wiped away the snot and tear-tracks with the back of my hand in a very unappealing way. This was not how I thought I'd be having my first conversation, after six whole years, with Nathan.

"Nothing." I shook my head.

"Doesn't look like nothing." He studied me over before turning his head in either side to look for...something that I had no idea of.

"What are you looking for?" I shifted on one leg.

"Nothing. Are you sure you're okay?"

I was becoming irritated with his stupid, persistent questions. After six years, he decides to ask me of my well-being? What was he doing here anyway? I thought no one came around this part of the school campus. I didn't see nor hear him arriving; disturbing my inner berating conversation. So. Why. Was. He. Here?

"I have snot running down, eyes puffing up, and my entire face turning a blotchy color. I'm sure that I resemble quite a disgusting mess right now, all thanks to my boyfr – no, my ex-boyfriend. To top it all off, a person whom I haven't spoken to in a long, long time suddenly takes sudden notice of me. And let me tell you, Nathan, with all these raging, confused emotions, I am, sure as hell, NOT okay. Okay? Happy?" I most nearly yelled the last few statements.

...Oh fuck.

Please tell me I didn't just bare my heart out to him. Please.

I saw a couple of expressions lighten up on his face as he finally made sense of my breathless rant.

Yeah. I definitely just bared my heart out to him.

At that moment, I found the staircase to my right quite interesting. Trying to avoid confrontations with Nathan had always been my thing. Sparing a fleeting glance at the evening sky, I didn't notice that it was beginning to turn dark, which meant that the match was nearing. Two hours sure passed by quickly.

"Haley," he began.

"Damn it, Nathan. I don't want to talk."

He inched forward. "Look, all of these –"

"I said I don't want to talk. So you can pretend this never happened and go back to ignoring me. It doesn't matter." I shifted my eyes on different spots on the ground.

"It does." I found my chin being inched upwards and slowly found his face placed really close to mine. "I don't know where to begin."

I would be joking if I said that this sudden change in his behaviour, in this conversation, in this whole situation didn't surprise me even in the slightest. I couldn't help but wonder and think at the oddity. Ten minutes ago I was crying my eyes out, chiding myself at my naivety, and now...Nathan Scott was beginning to – gasp! – transport me back to that ten-year old phase of mine.

And, then everything shifted.

"Don't say no." I whispered.

He looked puzzled. "What?" he whispered back.

"I'm going to ask you something. A favour. But please don't say no. Don't reject it. One rejection is enough for a day."

He shoved his hands back inside his pockets. Very faintly, I could make out the sounds of the people arriving to watch the match. I had to make this quick.

"What?"

Here goes nothing. "Can you...can you, um, you know, um...?" Don't linger on it, Haley. "Can you...can we...just once...sle..." This attempt was worse than my previous one.

"You aren't really making much sense."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." I winced immediately. Not a good way to begin a request. "Sorry, I just don't know how to say it."

"For starters, let's put one coherent word in front of the other, shall we?" He grinned in amusement.

That helped me gain a wee bit of confidence. I smiled back. Here goes nothing (again). "Can you show me? Just once?"

He opened his mouth again to, what I believe, utter another 'what'. But fortunately (or not), he inexplicably understood what I was talking about. "Sex?" he blurted.

This can't get any worse. My cheeks flamed with embarrassment as I nodded unsurely.

"What?" There comes the 'what'.

"I'm tired of being the 'prude'." I air-quoted the word. "I'm tired of being mocked at. I'm tired of being berated for being so out of the place with this stuff. So, please, Nathan, I just –"

"Okay." He shrugged.

...Hold on. He agreed? Readily? Almost instantly? But I had mentally prepared a list of possible justifications for my favour. Or not.

"That's it?" I asked in bewilderment. "You're not going to question me further?"

"Last time I checked, you asked me to agree to a favour. Here I am, doing that."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"Why?"

"Because."

I looked at him, confused. So, maybe I just threw around the idea. Maybe my recently got-cheated-on fuzzy mind couldn't process clear thoughts which resulted in me asking him...what I just asked him. But what I couldn't understand was how - and why - did he readily agree to it?

Sensing my befuddlement, he offered a pretty much straight-forward explanation. "You get the knowledge, I get the sex. The way I see it, it's a win-win." His smirk was in full prominence now as I could see him already stepping back. He didn't give me the time to respond – not that I could with my mind still trying to wrap around his agreement. So, I did the next best thing: I nodded, still unsure, still excited about the proposition.

He turned and jogged out of my view. Glancing at back one last time, he winked at me. "Hope you remember the address."

...

For the rest of the match, I felt the jittery nervousness invade into every spore of my body and mind. I was excited, and anxious, because for once, I didn't plan my life. Revenge sex with Nathan Scott was definitely not what I had in mind when I woke up this morning.

Present time...

But, as I smiled softly at him now, revenge sex with Nathan Scott had definitely brought me to where I was today. Whitey yelled at his players to get ready in position; and ten seconds into the game when Nathan scored the first shot of the night, I knew that revenge sex was clearly not the sex that I'd have with him tonight.

-x-

...So, I really hope this chapter was better. Sorry for the long wait, guys. Oh, before I forget, I apologize if there's some inconsistency in the basketball terms used here. Let me know if I messed up anything...I'm more of a football (the European kind) fan. ;)