Thank you for the lovely reviews and I hope you like this new chapter. I'm going to try to update a new chapter every week. Let's see how long I can keep that up.

CHAPTER 13

Nathan looked around the house once more. He took a look at all the boxes lying around in the house. He didn't have much stuff as expected. He didn't even have to ask for help from Lucas or Tim for his move. He looked around once more and thought about how he ended up in this position in his life. He was leaving this house. Technically this is Haley's house so he lost the right to stay here since Haley left him. But that wasn't the only reason he was moving. There were just too many memories of him and Haley in this home of theirs. He just couldn't shake those memories off and that just hurt.

"That's it?", he was snapped out of his thoughts by the voice of his mom who entered the house and looked around. "I could've sworn that you had more stuff when you left" she smiled at him. That was another weird thing about moving. He was moving back to his old house with his mother. His parents were finally getting a divorce and his mom came up to him asking to try again. His dad had moved into the beach house permanently so he saw no reason not to move back to the old house. He never really had much animosity to spare his mom considering she was just a victim of Dan Scott just like him.

As Nathan and Deb started shifting the boxes into her SUV, his thoughts drifted back to the day he accepted that his relationship with Haley was over. He could remember that day like it was yesterday.

Flashback

He dialled her number once again not really expecting her to pick up but trying anyway. It had been two weeks since Haley left and he was miserable. He couldn't think straight and everything he did reminded him of Haley. He even slept in her room every day. He knew how pathetic he looked but he couldn't help himself. The person he cared about most in the world didn't give a shit about him. That wasn't something you get over very fast.

He had been calling her everyday and every single day, the phone would ring a few times before it would go to voicemail. As creepy as it sounds, he calls her these days just to listen to her voice before it went to voicemail. He called her again today expecting the same thing. He almost fainted when she picked the call and said 'hello' on the other line.

He didn't know what to say now that she finally picked his call. After a few moments of silence she repeated 'hello', now a little confused by the silence on the other line. "Nathan?" she said.

When she said his name, he seemed to snap out of his daze. "Haley..." he choked out. He couldn't believe he was finally talking to her after two whole weeks of her ignoring him. He had so many things to say to her and he didn't know where to start.

"How are you?" she asked timidly not sure how to start up the conversation with him. She had missed him terribly but she also felt extremely betrayed by his ultimatum. His words led her to think that maybe they weren't ready for such a big commitment.

Is she kidding me right now? How are you? Miserable lost confused take your pick. "why haven't you been attending my calls?" he asked with an edge to his tone.

"I had to sort things out Nathan. I wasn't ready to talk to you just yet"

"Well are you ready now?" he bit out sarcastically.

"Nathan don't do this I'm hurting too you know".

"Well that's a big fat relief", his voice was growing louder now, "your actions are excused since you are hurting too right?"

"What do you want me to say Nathan?" she said as a sob escaped her lips.

Nathan took a deep breath at her question. He had wanted to tell her this for two weeks and now was his chance. "I want you to tell me that you still love me", he waited for a few minutes but heard nothing on the other line so he continued, "that even though you are on tour with Chris Keller, nothing happened between the two of you and that when you come back from tour, you and I will go back to how we used to be".

There were a few moments of silence on the other line but then he heard her voice again. "How could you think that something was going on between me and Chris?" her voice sounding accusatory.

Nathan sighed at her question. Of course out of the things he had said, she had to pick this one out. "Oh I don't know, maybe it was the fact that you kissed him or that you left to go on tour with him".

"He kissed me and it's not his tour, it's a wreckers tour, he just happens to be in it!" she screamed into the phone. She was completely taken back by his indication that she had done something with Chris. She wasn't a whore! She even brushed off Chris numerous times when he hit on her until he finally gave up. She wasn't going to mention that to Nathan though since he's only going to take it the wrong way.

They both took a minute to calm themselves down before they ended in a screaming contest again. "I do love you" she almost whispered so softly that Nathan almost didn't hear her. But he did and he could feel relief wash over him at that.

"That's all I wanted to Hear Haley I-"

"But Nathan-"

"What now?" he asked dreadfully as relief started waving goodbye at him.

"I really don't know where we stand right now".

"What's there to know? You just said how you feel about me, you know how I feel about you what-"

"I feel like we jumped into this very quick and we haven't really figure out who we really are" she cut him off. It literally hurt to say this to him but after a lot of thinking this is the conclusion she came up with.

"Haley, stop talking like we were a mistake. I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have given you that ultimatum".

"And I believe you. But we are so young and..." she was interrupted by a voice calling out to her. He could hear her talking in the background to someone but he couldn't make out what they were saying. "I gotta go Nathan, my set is coming up".

"Haley please don't leave this like this", he pleaded because he wasn't ready to end this conversation yet.

"I really think we should figure out who we are before we get into this so much", she paused once more when someone called her again, "I really have to go Nathan I am so sorry for all this" and then she cut the call.

"Haley wait-" but there was just a dial tone on the other line.

That night he barely had a wink of sleep. He kept repeating her words over and over in his head. Was she asking me to wait? Obviously not! She certainly wanted to end it! As that thought entered his head he felt a surge of pain in his heart. He couldn't believe this is how it is ending. He knew it was time to accept the facts. He wasn't ready but he sure will try!

Four days later

Nathan was at the river court practicing. The y had lost the championship but he still wanted to keep in shape since in a few days he would be going to high flyers. It had been a more than a week since he spoke to Haley and after that phone call, he seemed to be in better control of himself. He still loved her but he also knew that he needed to bring his life back to focus.

"Nathan", he heard a very familiar voice call his name, but it couldn't be, he thought. He turned around and sure enough his mom was standing behind him. He didn't know how to respond since the last time they spoke didn't go very well. He noticed that she looked a lot better than she used to, almost like she's happy now.

"Hey what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I heard about you and Haley" she said in a sombre tone.

"I guess you're happy about it then" he bit out frustratingly.

"Nathan I am not your father", she said, "although I miss you like crazy I will never blame Haley for you leaving. She's a wonderful girl and I really am sorry about what happened between the two of you".

Nathan nodded, not knowing what else to do. "I got into High Flyers" he said, after all his mom needs to know, "for the whole of summer" he added.

"Oh! Nathan that is great" she said as a smile formed on her face, "you deserve this Nathan.

Nathan just smiled back at her.

"That brings me to the reason why I came here", she got a little nervous all of a sudden, which seemed silly considering this is her son she was talking to, "I want you to move back into the house... after you come back from High Flyers of course".

Nathan was a little taken aback by her offer. It's true that he was searching for a new apartment because he needed a place once he came back from High Flyers, but he certainly didn't want to get back to the madness that is his family. "Mom I'm not-"

"Your father won't be there Nathan" she explained, "it'll be just the two of us".

""Where's dad?"

"He's staying at the beach house" she said "we're getting a divorce. Your walking out of the house was my wake up call. I want him out of our lives too but please don't shut me out of your life Nathan. You're my son" she got a little teary eyed.

Nathan sighed to himself. He was not against considering Dan won't be there in their lives. His mother deserved another chance by all means but he still felt like they would never get rid of his father. "You're sure that we will be free of him from now on"? he just needed to be sure.

"Yes. I already filed for divorce and it's all in process. I want you back in my life Nathan and it kills me to know that Dan was the reason why all this happened between us. I know I haven't done this before but this time it's different. I'm going to protect you from him I promise" she said with determination "so what do you say?"

Nathan was surprised to see her being so firm in her decisions regarding Dan. She never acted this way all these years he had known her. He was happy that his mother was finally breaking free. As for moving back to that house, that was something he needed to think about.

End of flashback

Now here he was packing up all his stuff. He's going to High Flyers tomorrow morning but before leaving, he wanted all his stuff moved to their old house. He didn't want to undergo any strain of moving after he came back from camp considering senior year started the very next day.

Once all the boxes were brought back to his old room he started unpacking. His mom was very excited to say the least. He noticed that she had bought some extra stuff to put into his room. Personally he felt his room looked a little girly but he wasn't gonna complain and spoil her mood. At least she was trying.

She cooked dinner for them that night and they had a pretty silent dinner. The atmosphere was kind of thick. Deb kept trying to bring up conversations with him and Nathan always responded with one word answers. It's not like he wasn't interested but he really had no idea how to have a normal mother-son chat. They haven't had this kind of atmosphere in a while. It felt quite relaxing.

They were cleaning up the table when they heard the door bell ring.

"I'll get it" said Nathan when he noticed that his mom was about to leave cleaning the dishes to get the door.

As soon as he opened the door and the saw person on the other side, he felt like pinching himself to check if it was all a dream. Standing right in front of him was Haley, THE Haley who ended things for good, the Haley who was looking utterly gorgeous standing right before him with a nervous expression.

At that moment he felt relief wash over him and he suddenly had the urge to kiss her. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he chastised his mind. His walls came up around him as anger overpowered the love he felt for her. "What are you doing here?" he hoped he didn't sound too harsh but couldn't help the edge in his tone.

Haley winced slightly at his tone but didn't let that fail her. "I want you back Nathan. I left the tour".

Please review and share your thoughts do you like it? Don't like it? Let me know! And I know the story has been going on pretty much the same as the show for so long but now that Haley's back, I'm going to bring in the real changes.