A/N: Hey, I got way more reviews for last chapter than usual. I should show Nathan's cheating scenes more often. LOL.

But seriously, once again thanks to everyone who keeps reading and especially those who review. As always your feedback is awesome. You guys are great… even if most of you are wanting Peyton to smack Nathan and Katie around. Haha, didn't know you all were so violent. LOL.

Hopefully everyone will like this chapter and not be too disappointed. But whether you like it or not, let me know. I love to know what you think.

Also, thank you everyone so much for the birthday greetings and wishes. You guys are the best. And my birthday was awesome. I had a great day.

Hey Leijona: step away from the scroll button…lol.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.

"Miss Sawyer," Dan greeted when he opened the door. "A little late for a visit, isn't it?" he said, checking his watch.

"Umm, yeah," Peyton replied sheepishly. "Nathan said it was ok."

"Did he now?"

"Yeah, I called him and…," she trailed off as Nathan bounded down the stairs, dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt. Relief swept through her at his arrival. She didn't feel comfortable with his dad questioning her on her late visit.

"I told her it was ok, Dad," Nathan said to his father.

Dan returned to his previous position on the couch, leaving his son to usher his girlfriend inside. He understood now why Nathan had practically pushed the other girl out the door. Not that his son ever let them stay – it seemed only Peyton held that privilege – but he didn't normally run them out of the house either.

"Nathan," Dan called, unable to resist a small amount of teasing. "I thought I heard the water running a little while ago. Did you take a shower?"

"Yeah," Nathan answered.

That's when Peyton noticed his hair was still damp. "Didn't you take one at the gym after practice?"

Nathan nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, but I was, uh, in the weight room, so I got kinda sweaty again."

"Yeah, he put in quite the workout. Didn't you, son?" Dan inquired with a smirk.

Nathan shot his dad an evil glare before taking Peyton's hand to lead her upstairs.

"Oh, Nathan?" Dan called again when they were halfway up.

"What?" Nathan asked irritably.

"I was about to do some laundry. Do you need your beddings washed?" he asked, barely containing his mirth.

"They're already in the hamper," Nathan replied, extremely annoyed with his father at the moment. He knew he'd just changed the sheets, blankets, and pillowcases. He'd watched him bring them down to the laundry room.

"Ok, if you're sure," Dan said.

Nathan just grunted in reply and continued up the stairs.

"Someone's grumpy tonight," Peyton mentioned matter-of-factly once they were in his room.

"Sorry, it's just my dad's annoying the hell out of me."

Peyton just looked at him. "By offering to wash your beddings? What's wrong with that?" she asked. He really did get irritated over the smallest of things sometimes.

"Nothing," Nathan conceded. "I just don't feel like dealing with him right now."

"Why? What's wrong? Has he been on your back again?"

"You could say that."

She nodded in understanding. She hated that Nathan's dad was always on him about something, mostly basketball.

"I'm sorry," she said sympathetically, as she wrapped her arms around him. "Just don't let him get to you, ok. You're so much better than he gives you credit for."

He pulled her into a tight embrace. "I'm glad you're here, Peyton," he said honestly. He may be lying about nearly everything else, but he could truthfully say he was happy to see her.

She smiled and reciprocated the hug. "But you know, the reason I called ahead of time is so you would answer the door and I wouldn't have to face your dad looking at me like I'm here for a booty call."

Nathan chuckled. "Sorry."

"And speaking of which, you knew I was coming over. How dare you take a shower without me? You know how sexy I think you look all soaking wet," she chided flirtatiously.

"Right. What was I thinking?" he responded.

"Your loss. You know how I get," she teased further.

"So you are here for a booty call," he teased. "Definitely my loss," he agreed, rubbing her back.

"Nathan Scott! You are such a cheater!" Peyton suddenly exclaimed, causing Nathan to freeze momentarily. Had he missed something? Did she know?

Pulling away from him, she went over to the television set and picked up the case for the movie he'd rented. "This is for English!" she said knowingly.

He grinned at her, relieved. "Yeah. So what?"

"So, you're supposed to read the book."

"Sue me," he replied with a careless shrug.

"You realize the book and the movie are never exactly the same, right?"

"Close enough," Nathan responded. "I just need to pass the test tomorrow, not ace it."

"Did you watch it yet?" she asked him curiously.

"Part of it. I was gonna go back to it later."

Peyton chuckled. She couldn't understand watching only part of a movie. "Why wouldn't you just watch it all at once and get it over with?"

"Because I was ready to fall asleep," he replied quickly.

"Is it that boring? I heard it was pretty good."

"It's not half bad I guess, for a school novel. I was just tired."

"So, let's watch it before you fall asleep."

"Seriously? You want to watch it?"

"Yeah. I mean you have a test on it tomorrow, so you can't exactly postpone it. So break out the popcorn, dude," she said clapping her hands twice. "Chop chop."

"Alright," he agreed. "I'll go get the snacks."

"The extra butter kind if you have it," Peyton requested.

"Extra butter it is."

"Oh and salt and vinegar chips. And some jelly beans."

"You hate jelly beans," he reminded her.

"For you, so you stay out of my chips," she teased.

Nathan couldn't help laugh. For such a lightweight, the girl could definitely eat. She would sit there with a big bag of chips and slap his hand away if he reached for a few. Eventually she'd give in and let him have some, and then proceed to finish off the entire bag, complaining that just a few more would have completely satisfied that little empty spot in her stomach.

"Anything else, Your Highness?" he asked.

"That'll be all for now, Alfred," she answered in amusement.

Nathan laughed at her reference to Batman's butler. She was too cute sometimes.

"What seems to be the hold up?" she asked when he didn't budge. "That popcorn's not going to pop itself. Let's go! Get those feet moving!" she added as she pushed him toward the doorway.

"You have no idea how much you sounded like Whitey just then," he remarked lightly.

"Hey, whatever gets you motivated," she replied. "Now hustle!" she demanded in the deepest male voice she could manage.

He left the room and went downstairs, an amused grin still pasted on his face.

He put a bag of popcorn in the microwave and gathered the rest of the snacks as he waited. In addition to the chips and jellybeans, he also grabbed a box of cookies, two chocolate bars, a bag of sunflower seeds, and four sodas – two for each of them.

Dan watched his son collect everything and quirked an eyebrow. "Energy food?" he joked.

Nathan shook his head in annoyance. "We're watching a movie."

His father nodded and stood up, coming to stand directly in front of him. "Ok, all joking aside," Dan said seriously. "I do want to talk to you a little bit about these girls that you're either bringing in or they're stopping by."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Do you have to?"

"I think it's time," Dan answered him.

"Fine," Nathan replied. "What about them?"

"Well, first of all, tell me you're using protection. Because if any of them got pregnant, or worse, had some kind of disease…"

"Dad, don't worry about that," Nathan interrupted. "We've had this talk before, remember? I told you I use condoms."

"Every time?"

"Yes. I'm not stupid."

"No, but you can be very foolish at times."

Nathan frowned at his father's comment but didn't respond.

"Take Miss Sawyer, for instance," Dan said further.

Nathan's head shot up. "What about her?"

"Well, it's obvious you care about the girl since she's the only one you bother to keep around."

Nathan nodded to confirm his father's words, but again he made no response.

"And yet," Dan continued, "you're so caught up in the act of sex, with a multitude of partners, no less, that you can't remain faithful to her for more than a few weeks at a time."

Nathan rolled his eyes again. "I'm not caught up in anything, Dad," he denied. "Just because I like sex doesn't mean I'm being swept away by some tide or something."

"Ok. So you're just a horny kid then," Dan concluded.

"I guess," Nathan answered irately. "Look, can we talk about this some other time?" Nathan asked, as he took the popcorn from the microwave. "Peyton's waiting for me."

"That was a close call tonight, huh?" Dan stated, ignoring his son's request.

Nathan shrugged. "I knew Peyton was coming. She called me."

"Good thing or she'd have caught you in the act. What would she have done then?"

Nathan couldn't suppress a chuckle at that. "Probably beat the hell out of us both," he said in amusement.

Dan just looked at his son in wonder, noting he felt no remorse for his actions, and worse than that, he could actually find humor in what his girlfriend's reaction would have been. "Go on upstairs, son. I was going to give you some advice, but even though you're plenty old enough to hear it, I can see you're nowhere near mature enough to listen to it."

Nathan smirked. "Good, so we can save the speech for a few years then?" he asked, not taking the bait.

Dan sighed. "I suppose. I will say this though; being cheated on by someone you love, is one of the worst feelings in the world. Believe me, I know. Now I've made plenty of mistakes in my life, and I'll take the blame for a lot of the problems your mother and I have, but our relationship only started going downhill after she had that affair."

"Really?" Nathan taunted. "I thought it was because she found out you had another son you never told her about."

"That was a whole other matter. One we'd resolved. Like I said, I've made mistakes and have my share of regrets, but it's that affair that really tore us down. Our relationship hasn't been the same since. If you had any idea how that felt, you'd think twice before putting your girlfriend through it"

"That's different though. Me and Peyton aren't married."

"But you're in a relationship," Dan pointed out.

"So what? It's not like we made any vows like Mom did," he said in contempt. "Whenever we do, unlike Mom, I'm not gonna cheat on her. You should have divorced her, Dad."

Dan couldn't help the feeling of satisfaction that his son's words gave him. Everyone always thought he was the bad guy, but at least Nathan knew the truth. He wasn't perfect. He knew Nathan hated when he pushed him in basketball, but the boy just didn't see the bigger picture. At least his son didn't hate him, as he seemed to hate his mother.

"Divorce is not always the answer, son. And don't kid yourself either. You get in the habit of cheating on Peyton now, it'll continue throughout marriage as well. That's assuming she stays with you long enough to marry you."

"She will," Nathan replied confidently.

"Keep screwing around on her and before you know it, you may find you've lost her."

Nathan shook his head. "That's not gonna happen. Peyton always forgives me."

"I know she always has in the past, but one of these days she just might say enough is enough. Think about it, son. Is casual sex with random girls really worth losing your relationship with Peyton?"

"I'm not gonna lose her," Nathan insisted. "She loves me."

"Love's not always enough. Trust is just as important, if not more," Dan stressed.

Nathan sighed and crossed his arms impatiently. He didn't want to hear this. His dad didn't know anything. He'd never lose Peyton – not for long anyway.

Seeing as he was getting nowhere, Dan motioned with a tilt of his head that Nathan was excused. "Oh and Nathan, be up by 5:00 tomorrow. We're going for a run."

Nathan nodded, even though the idea of getting up that early didn't appeal to him. He really should be used to it by now.

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"Finally," Peyton said when Nathan returned carrying all their junk food. "I was about to send out a search party."

"Sorry," he said, dropping the bags and boxes, but handing her a couple sodas. "My dad decided to go all Dr. Phil on me."

Peyton giggled. "About what?"

"It doesn't matter," he replied, shaking his head. "He doesn't know what he's talking about anyway."

Peyton took his lack of response to mean he didn't want to talk about it so she didn't push the issue. "Oh! Sunflower seeds!" she blurted out excitedly. "Now if you start falling asleep, I can spit the shells at you."

"You think that's gonna wake me up?" Nathan asked with a chuckle.

"No, it's just you won't let me do it if you're awake," she joked. "Besides, I have other sure fire ways of waking you up," she added flirtatiously.

"Ok, well just make sure it's before 5:00 if you do, cuz after that I'll be out running with my dad," he said with exaggerated enthusiasm.

"Really? You're not gonna get much sleep then. It's already almost 11:00 and we haven't even started the movie yet. Plus you have another practice after school tomorrow, don't you?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding his head. "Two hours."

"You're going to be dead on your feet."

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

"You know, telling me not to worry won't actually stop me from worrying."

"I know, but it'll be fine. I can handle it. I'll just come home and crash afterward."

"Ok," she said. "But whatever you do, do not wake me up at 5:00," she added threateningly.

"I'll try not to," he responded with amusement.

Nathan started the movie and joined Peyton on the bed, immediately wrapping her in his arms and pulling her over to lean against his chest. However, she sat up, explaining she couldn't eat that way.

"Fine, if your snacks are so much more important," he joked.

Once she'd had her fill, she repositioned herself the way he'd had her and that's how they watched the remainder of the movie.

–––––

"That wasn't bad," Peyton said when it was over.

"It was boring as hell," Nathan contradicted. "Now I better pass that fucking test or I'll have just wasted two hours."

"You'll pass," Peyton said confidently. "Unless, of course, all the questions are based on whatever wasn't in the movie, but was in the book."

"Better not be," he grumbled. "But I can definitely see Mrs. Peters doing that."

"Me too," Peyton agreed. "Now you should get some sleep. Five o'clock comes early."

He nodded and leaned back into the pillows. Peyton turned off the DVD player, along with the TV and the light, before snuggling up to her boyfriend. She was so glad she'd come tonight, that she'd been wrong about her earlier misconception over his whereabouts last night. "I love you," she said softly.

Nathan ran his fingers through her hair, as was his habit. He loved playing with her hair. It was always so soft and silky. In the daylight, he would often entertain himself by taking a few strands, pulling them straight and then letting go. He found it quite amusing to watch them immediately spring back into their original curls. "I love you too," he replied, kissing the top of her head.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––

Katie Sanders sat on her bed, sulking over the night's turnaround. This wasn't how tonight was supposed to be.

Earlier in Nathan's bedroom

"You have to go," Nathan said, almost coldly, as he put his phone down.

Katie sneered. "Let me guess. That was Peyton."

He nodded. "And she's on her way over so, like I said, you have to go."

"Couldn't you have told her you were busy?

"I could have," Nathan admitted. "But I didn't want to."

"Nathan," she whined.

"Katie, don't start," he said, gathering her clothing and tossing them to her. "Get dressed. Hurry up."

"This isn't fair," she complained. "It was supposed to be me and you tonight, not you and Peyton."

"Actually, I planned a night alone," he told her, reminding her that he hadn't invited her over. "But plans change."

"Yeah. Always according to precious Peyton's moods and schedule," Katie replied sourly.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "You know we're not together, right? Me and you?"

"Yeah," she replied dryly. "Peyton's your girlfriend and I'm just your fuck buddy."

He gave a small nod of agreement.

"But we could change that, Nathan," she suggested hopefully.

"Yeah, we could," he replied coldly. "In fact, let's change it right now."

She knew that he meant they were done, just as she'd known it would happen sooner or later. He never held interest in any girl for long. Except Peyton.

But Nathan hadn't really lost interest in Katie. She was still fairly new so he could have kept up their fling for probably a few more weeks, at least. The problem was she was already giving out hints of a relationship between them, even though he'd make it clear that's not what he wanted. He hated when they did that. It was better to end it now. He always had other options.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Nathan!" Dan hollered as he pounded on his bedroom door. "If you don't get your lazy ass out of bed in the next five minutes, I'm coming in. You hear me?"

Peyton instinctively pulled up the covers even though she was decent, and elbowed her boyfriend. "Nathan, get up," she ordered groggily, only to receive no response. She hit him harder and he jolted up.

"What the hell?" he asked in a daze.

"It's five," she said, turning over and going back to sleep.

He grumbled in complaint, rubbing his tired eyes. All he wanted to do was sleep, but he knew his dad wouldn't allow that, so he stood up. He didn't bother changing since he was already in workout clothes. He just went in the washroom, did his business, brushed his hair and teeth and headed downstairs.

"About time," his dad said, looking way too energetic for such an early hour.

Nathan's only response was a grunt as he put on his shoes.

–––––

When they returned from their run, Nathan was feeling much more energetic and awake. He went into his room, where he thought Peyton was still asleep, grabbed some clothes and headed to the washroom for a shower.

He closed his eyes as the steaming water poured over him.

–––––

Peyton undressed, intent on joining Nathan in the shower this time. She wasn't kidding last night about him being sexy when wet. Not that he wasn't always sexy, but with muscles bulging and skin glistening, he was especially so. Peeling off the last of her clothing, she licked her dry lips in anticipation. She wanted him already and she wasn't even in with him yet.

He jumped when he heard the shower door open, but hardened the second she hopped in and stood in front of him. "Think you can get away with showering alone when I'm right in the next room?" she teased with a smile. However, her smile instantly faded as her gaze fell upon his chest and stomach, and her eyes took in the red marks that covered a good portion of them. She wasn't stupid. She knew what those scratches were and what had caused them.

Fingernails.

A/N:So? You guys aren't overly disappointed I hope. Let me know.