Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, I wasn't able to upload this yesterday.
Thanks for reading and reviewing the last chapter!
And thank you to Viea for pointing out that spellcheck had failed me. Or I just clicked "Ignore" one too many times.
"Nathan…Nate…please come pick me up." Lucas whined into his cell phone.
"What's wrong?" Nathan sighed.
"They made me come with them."
"Huh?"
"The wedding stuff."
"Oh no, they roped you in?"
"Yes. I managed to miss the dress shopping a few days ago, but now they're looking for shoes."
"And you volunteered to come?"
"No. Brooke and kind of were in an awkward situation this morning when my mom came in. She said she's fine with it but she has the eagle eye on us for the time being. I told her I would come on one wedding thing."
Nathan smiled for the first time that day, and suddenly burst out laughing.
Lucas could hear muffled laughter over the phone.
"Nate?"
"Wh-what awkward situation?" Nathan managed to say
"Making out on my bed."
"Lucas, you slut." Nathan laughed.
"Shut up."
"Okay. Well I've got like 20 more minutes of practice, then I'll come save you." Nathan said.
"Nathan!" Lucas heard Whitey yell.
"Oops. Gotta go. Hang in there." Nathan said quickly and hung up.
"Lucas, what do you think of these shoes?" Brooke said, shoving a pair of high heels in his face.
"They're…nice?" Lucas said weakly.
"Come on, I want to look nice."
"I don't know Brooke, they're shoes." Lucas sighed.
"What's wrong?" Brooke asked, putting down the shoebox and sitting next to Lucas.
"I'm shoe shopping."
"So?"
"Lucas, are you bored?" Karen asked as she walked by.
"Just a little. Is it okay if Nate comes in like 20 minutes to pick me up?"
"We might already be done by then." Karen said.
"Wanna bet." Lucas mumbled.
"Crabby." Brooke smiled, kissing his check and getting up.
"Yes coach?" Nathan sighed, his temporary good mood disappearing.
"I know sometimes I mumble, but I do think I clearly said go get a drink, not go get on your cell phone." Whitey snapped.
"Sorry." Nathan mumbled.
"Just for that, you can stay after and do a few extra drills."
"What? I have to go pick up Lucas."
"He can wait a few extra minutes."
"But I promised him. I'll do it next week." Nathan insisted
"Yeah you will, if you keep giving me lip like this."
"Whitey. Please."
"Scott, you are lucky to be on this team, I can't believe you are already losing sight of that. I'm giving you a huge second chance here, and I don't want you to waste it. Now if you're serious about this, then your time with Lucas can wait 20 minutes. Now, are you going to practice or are you going to go cuddle with your brother on the couch and watch your future pass you by?"
"I'm going to practice." Nathan mumbled.
"That's what I thought." Whitey said, turning and walking away.
Nathan bit his lip, getting angrier by the second, and then spoke again.
"Then I'm going home, and hanging out with my brother, who by the way almost died less than a week ago. In fact, his heart did stop. So if I want to spend some freaking time with him, I don't think I should be punished or ridiculed for that." Nathan snapped.
"I didn't ridicule you."
"Cuddle on the couch?" Nathan raised his eyebrows.
Whitey inhaled sharply, but didn't say anything. He knew Nathan was right.
"Yeah. So I'll do whatever the hell you want. I'll be the best damn player out there, but I would appreciate it if we didn't talk about our personal lives anymore." Nathan said, jogging out to the court.
"You okay man?" Jake asked as Nathan ran by.
"Never better." Nathan muttered.
Nathan practiced as hard as he could, and stayed half an hour after practice doing drills while Whitey watched silently.
Then without a word to Whitey, he walked out.
A few minutes later, he pulled up to the address Lucas had given him. He was still livid about everything that happened that day.
Lucas walked out, looking exhausted, and immediately Nathan's expression softened. He had to keep his frustrations in check. Lucas already had enough problems
"Nathan, where the hell have you been?" Lucas complained.
"I'm so sorry Luke. Whitey was being more of a hardass than usual." Nathan sighed.
"It's okay. Everything alright?"
"I'm just…no, I'm okay. I'll tell you later." Nathan said quickly.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Long day."
"I understand."
"So one of the guys on the team, I think its Mike, is having a party after the game." Nathan said after a few minutes of silence.
"Keeping the tradition going." Lucas nodded.
"I asked Theresa if she wanted to go with me."
"Really." Lucas said, surprised.
"Yeah."
"I was kind of expecting that your talk with Haley would've gone a different way."
"It's just…not right. With all that's happened, it's not right at the moment. I just want to be a high school senior, not a husband."
"Do you think it will be? Ever?"
"Maybe. If it's meant to be, it'll happen." Nathan said firmly.
"Ooh, how romantic." Lucas said in a girlish voice. Nathan swatted him on the arm and turned into the driveway.
"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then." Nathan said.
"You bet. You sure you don't wanna talk about what's bothering you?"
"Not right now. I'll call you later or something."
"Sounds good. Later, little brother." Lucas said, getting out of the car.
Nathan started laughing again. Lucas leaned back into the car.
"What?"
"I'm just trying to picture your mom freaking out this morning."
"BYE." Lucas laughed and slammed the door.
Later, Nathan walked up to his room and took a piece of paper from his pocket.
Nathan,
We need to talk. Please meet me, before practice. I'll be at the tutoring center right after school. I know you don't want to, but please do this one last thing for me.
Haley
Slowly he folded the note back up and slid to the floor, thinking about what actually happened that afternoon.
"Nathan!" Haley called as he walked by the tutoring center, hoping she wouldn't see him.
"Oh…" Nathan said.
"Didn't you get my note?"
"Yeah, I did. I had to get to practice."
"Practice doesn't start for another 20 minutes."
Nathan sighed, knowing he was trapped. He tried to think of an excuse to leave, but then he remembered what Lucas said. He needed to do this.
"Sorry." He mumbled.
"Were you trying to avoid this?"
"No…" Nathan said quickly.
Haley stared at him for a moment.
"Okay, fine. I was."
"It's okay, I've been dreading this."
"Me too."
"So, um…"
"I don't really know what to say."
"We need to decide things."
"Like what?"
"What do you mean, like what? How about everything about our marriage?" Haley said, frustrated.
"Don't yell at me, I was just asking." Nathan said.
"We need to decide where we stand, once and for all. I'm sick of this, Nathan."
"You told me you were willing to wait."
"Well this is a ridiculous amount of time."
"This whole thing is ridiculous." Nathan muttered under his breath.
"I'm sorry being married is something you find to be ridiculous." Haley snapped.
"We're too young for this. I mean, we're so easily sidetracked from taking care of any marital problems, we're just kids."
"So what? It's all over then?"
"I want to be a kid, Haley. I want to go to school, play basketball, hang out with my friends, go home and play videogames with my brother, stuff like that."
"Where does that leave us?"
"I…want to date. I was planning on asking Theresa out." Nathan said slowly.
"So that's it then."
"I don't know. Maybe." Nathan said sadly
"Wow." Lucas said, listening to Nathan recount the conversation later that night.
"Yeah, I don't know. I just completely lose my mind when I talk to her lately."
"Sounds like it."
"Yeah, but I do just want to date, be a kid."
"I understand."
"I'm just used to what things are like now."
"Yeah but Nate, you can't forget about this."
"I know." Nathan sighed.
"So tell me about practice."
"Whitey gave me a bunch of crap for being on the phone, blah blah blah I'm not taking this seriously, and then made me do extra drills."
"That sucks, man."
"Yeah. So are you going to be there when I get back from practice?"
"Most likely. I'm packing my stuff up now."
"Good."
"Yeah."
"Hey Lucas?"
"Yeah buddy?"
"Life sucks."
Lucas laughed.
"Yeah, sometimes."
Teeheehee.
Okay, since I took so long with this chapter I'll give you some spoilers about what I've already got planned for the next chapter.
-Haley takes what Nathan said in their talk and uses it to her advantage
-There's going to be a party at Tric
-Some relationships are going to be strained. Oh yes, they will. –evil laughter-
-Nice father/son talk
Please read and review!