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

A/N: Hey everyone. I want to say thanks to all of you who are reading and yeah, especially those of you who take the time the review. It means a lot. Love you guys and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

Nathan and Peyton didn't speak much – or at all – in the two weeks that followed. She'd attempted another apology the next day, but again he'd refused to hear her out. He was still too angry with her and anyone who knew Nathan knew that when he was angry, there was just no talking to him.

He'd started taking his lunch hour – when he even bothered with school – in the gym with some of the guys. And she had started to spend hers in her car or with Lucas and Haley.

Much of Nathan's free time was spent drinking, partying, and hooking up with random girls. When he wasn't doing that he was arguing with his parents; his mom because, well she was playing the mother act, pretending she gave a shit, which irritated him to no end, and trying to tell him what to do by setting all these 'guidelines' that he'd made clear, both vocally and by action, that he had no intentions of following. And in fact, often times he would deliberately worsen his behavior to get a rise out of her, which he found quite entertaining, and also to show her that she had no control over him and that he wasn't fooled with her fake motherly concern.

As for his dad, he was, as always, on him about getting back on the team. He hounded him about his grades and how long it was taking to bring them up to the required minimum to play basketball again. His marks had been gradually and steadily improving until the past few weeks where all the progress he'd been making suddenly went downhill. For good reason. These days, he just wasn't up for studying – not that he ever was but even less so now – and was generally hungover during tutoring sessions, making it that much harder to concentrate, therefore more frustrating, not only for himself, but for Mouth as well. However, their newfound friendship continued to grow outside of tutoring and Nathan had even brought Mouth partying with him and their gang this past weekend. Mouth had gotten drunk on one beer, which Nathan and the guys had gotten a kick out of.

There was another thing Nathan had gotten himself into in the past while and he hated it because it made him feel weak and vulnerable. But nonetheless, the last two Friday afternoons he'd found himself standing in a line up to purchase the latest issue of Thud Magazine – a magazine he'd never been interested in and still wasn't. Except that one fucking comic strip. It infuriated him that he was so compelled to go out and buy it. After all he'd been doing lately to try to push his bitch of an ex out of his mind, after dropping off all her crap on her doorstep to get rid of any reminders of her, he had to go bring more in. If it weren't for that, he'd be halfway to forgetting she ever existed. Or at least, that's what he tried to convince himself. And still, he bought it. No matter how many times he told himself all week that he wouldn't, by Friday there he was purchasing the next issue. Idiot that he was, he'd even bought the one featuring her comic strip debut – the very one that had sparked all this rage. How was that for torture? Every time he looked at it, which surprisingly was quite often, the anger burned inside of him all over again and he'd remember her words in that driveway. 'Payback's a bitch, isn't it?'

And then he'd go in search of a distraction.

Peyton spent most of her free time getting to know Ellie. They'd grown close rather quickly in the two weeks since they'd met. Sure, it had been strained in the beginning, but every time they spoke, it seemed they'd find another thing they had in common. It was odd for Peyton to take to somebody so fast, but Ellie was so open with her about everything that it was easy to feel a connection with her. And though Ellie was not Anna – nor did she try to be - Peyton found herself revelling in that mother/daughter bond that was quickly forming. Strange that it should happen in such a short time, especially since Peyton didn't normally allow herself to feel easily, but happen it did. And she wasn't about to question it.

Her father had gone last Monday for his final travelling gig and was due back in two weeks time, where he'd only be taking local calls just as he'd promised. She couldn't be happier about that. For so long she'd been on her own and now she would have two full time parents. Ok, so maybe not in the same household, but in the same town at least. Ellie was a freelance writer and was already looking for work in Tree Hill. In one way Peyton's world was coming together.

In another, it was falling apart. She was still filled with regret over her first piece to Thud, but she didn't have a clue how to fix it. Nathan wouldn't let her apologize. He wouldn't even look at her. So she'd racked her brain for the next two segments to come up with a sketch that would convey how truly remorseful she was for that first one, but had come up empty and been forced to submit some other random drawing. Not that it mattered. It's not like Nathan would even see it. She was sure he'd never look at another sketch of hers again.

To make matters worse, she knew what he'd been up to lately, with the girls and the drinking. It didn't surprise her. She'd expected it really. Nathan would never go without sex. And alcohol had always been an escape for him. That and basketball. It was little wonder that with one taken away he'd turn to the other. Plus he was always up for a party, even in the best of times.

Peyton told herself not to get upset over the girls in particular, that she knew he would do that, that she'd broken up with him so therefore had no right to be angry if he went for others. Still, it got to her. With every girl she saw him flirting with and each new 'rumor' that came out, it got to her. But she was getting pretty good at hiding it. Brooke was finally happy in a new, solid relationship and Peyton didn't want to ruin that by dumping on her. She wasn't up for any more of Rachel's brutal honesty at this time so talking to her was out. Lucas and Haley were great but she didn't want to burden them with her problems. So she had everybody fooled into thinking she was fine. Or so she thought. In reality she wasn't fooling anyone, but none of her friends wanted to pour salt on the wound by bringing up Nathan's dirty deeds.

Teresa was the exception to that. She was currently put off with Nathan for dragging Tyler to 'guy's night' two weekends in a row. Peyton argued that it likely hadn't taken much convincing. The dark haired girl had agreed, but still stressed how much she hated Nathan's influence on her boyfriend. 'Don't get me wrong. I like Nathan,' she'd said. 'But he needs to understand that even though he's single right now, Ty's not.' Peyton had responded, rather snarkily, that perhaps she should be ragging on Tyler for that instead of blaming Nathan. Yes, Nate could certainly be persuasive, but the guy had his own mind. And Peyton, though she knew she shouldn't, couldn't help feel a tinge of satisfaction that Teresa and Tyler – the couple who seemed to sail through their relationship without any problems or even so much as an argument – were finally about to face some high waters. It was about damn time. She shouldn't take such pleasure out of that, but she'd always seen them as the ideal, perfect couple – such a far cry from her and Nathan – and she'd often found herself switching from admiration to resentment of that sureness they shared – the love, the trust, the complete devotion to one another. It was kinda refreshing to know they weren't so perfect afterall.

––––––––––––––––––

"Do you want to tell me about him?" Ellie asked as she and Peyton sat across each other, both of them sketching. "Or is he too sore a subject?"

In two weeks they'd discussed everything from art to music, school, work, parents, friends – she'd already met Brooke, Rachel, Haley, Lucas, and several others – but they had yet to broach the one topic Ellie was sure was foremost on Peyton's mind and heart. The boy reflected, in one way or another, in every one of her sketches.

"Who?" Peyton asked, though she could guess.

"Ok, so it's the latter," Ellie replied knowingly.

"Ellie…" Peyton began, fearing she'd offended the woman.

"Hey, it's ok, I understand," the older blonde said earnestly. Some things were just too painful to talk about. And their relationship was still so new that she didn't expect Peyton to open up about every single aspect of her life. But hopefully one day she would.

"He's just really hard to talk about. I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. I hate talking about my exes too," Ellie said reassuringly. "You hungry?"

Peyton nodded. "I could eat."

"All right, let's hit Karen's Café then. My treat."

–––––––––––––––––––––––––

The next morning, Nathan turned his head away from the blatant way Maggie Howell ran her tongue over her lip from the seat beside him. Clearly the redhead hoped to evoke a sexual response from him, but he'd already had her last night and felt no desire for a repeat. And he couldn't say why. The sex had been good. But, for some reason, he just wasn't into it like he used to be. And not just with her either – with all of them.

He didn't know what the hell was wrong with him. Not so long ago he lived for this – making it with all the hot chicks in school and receiving the customary praise and envy from the guys. But now he was just…bored. He was nailing a different girl every night and he was fucking bored. That didn't make sense to him.

Minutes later, the teacher dimmed the lights to put on a slide show and Nathan welcomed the opportunity to close his heavy lidded eyes. He was nursing a colossal hangover and would have gladly just skipped school altogether if his dad hadn't found out how often he'd been doing that lately and busted his ass for it. Still, this was a good time to catch a nap.

He cursed under his breath when the first image upon closing his eyes was that of a certain curly haired blonde, but he was past trying to fight that. It was a waste of time since it never worked.

Flashback

They were supposed to be watching a movie, but instead they were sprawled out on his couch at the beach house, him overtop her, kissing passionately. He was rock hard when his left hand deftly reached between them to slide up her skirt, caressing the smooth flesh of her outer thigh.

"Baby, I want you so fucking bad," he whispered hoarsely as his fingers glided over to her inner thigh.

She froze as his words and hand placement penetrated the sultry haze of her mind. "Whoa, stop, stop," she said hastily, her hands reaching up to his chest to halt his movements.

He took her lips again instead and moved his hand over to the warmth of her center.

"Nathan…" she protested, pulling her mouth away.

"Baby, come on," he pleaded, his voice thick with desire and his fingers pressing harder against the thin fabric of her panties. "You're so wet. I know you want this too."

Her body shook involuntarily. His hand action was nearly her undoing, but the passion he elicited within her was suddenly overpowered by a surge of anger at his persistence. "Nathan, I said no!" she reeled, pushing him off her.

He sat up with a disgruntled sigh as she stood and smoothed the wrinkles from her clothing.

"You know," he said through gritted teeth. "It'd be great if you could say that from the start instead of letting me feel you up for twenty minutes first."

Her jaw dropped in shock at his comment. "It'd be great if it didn't take you twenty minutes to take no for an answer!" she shot back. "You are not the one who should be mad here. I told you when you first asked me out that I wasn't ready for sex. And you said you were fine with that."

"That was two months ago," he fumed. "How much fucking longer do you need?"

She crossed her arms angrily and glared at him. "Does it matter?" She waited for a response but none came. "I'll take that as a yes," she concluded, snatching her keys and storming out the door.

–––––

He was sitting on the hood of his car, waiting for her when she pulled into the school parking lot the next morning. He was by her vehicle before she'd even pulled the key from the ignition.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely.

She stepped out and slammed her door shut. "You should be," she replied coldly as she attempted to sidestep him.

"Peyt…"

She turned around to face him. "I'm not doing this, Nathan. I won't be with a guy who can't accept that I'm just not ready. A guy who puts a time limit on how long it should take and who thinks after two months it's already long past due. I won't be pressured into it."

Nathan's gaze fell to the ground. "Peyton, I know…"

"I get that it's probably frustrating as hell for you. I do. And I understand that you're not used to waiting, but I was upfront about this from the beginning. You didn't come into this relationship oblivious to where I stand. Sex is a big deal to me and I haven't made that a secret."

He nodded in agreement. It was true that she'd been straight with him from the start. "Look, I screwed up, ok. I was a jerk. I know that. And I wish I could tell you I had a good reason, but the truth is, I was just horny. It's just…I want you so bad sometimes and…" He stopped and shook his head. "But I know that's no excuse. I'm really sorry, Peyton. It won't happen again. I promise."

"How do I know that for sure?" she questioned doubtfully.

"Because I'm telling you," he answered like that were reason enough. "Come on, say you forgive me. Ok?"

She smiled sweetly and nodded, not knowing at the time that this would be the first in a long line of broken promises and apologies down the road.

End of Flashback

Nathan jolted awake as he felt somebody nudge him. He opened his eyes to Brooke staring back at him.

"If I have to stay awake, so do you," she told him before winking at him and turning over to face the front again. To Nathan's surprise, the slideshow was already over and the teacher was in the middle of instructing the students on their next assignment.

"Now, it's not going to be an easy one," he was saying. "Because I believe easy leads to boredom and I want to challenge you…."

Nathan tuned out the rest of his speech. He'd already missed what the assignment was supposed to be on anyway. But the one part of the lecture he'd heard caught his attention. Easy leads to boredom. That was it. That's why he was bored with all these girls – because they were so easily accessible to him and always willing to please.

Peyton, on the other hand, had been a challenge. She hadn't given him what he wanted as soon as he wanted it. And while that had been frustrating at times, it had also intrigued him. That's what was missing now. That challenge.

When class ended, he exited the room with Brooke. She rebuked him for falling asleep – not because he'd missed the lesson, but because she'd held a note behind her shoulder for five straight minutes, waiting for him to snatch it from her, before finally realizing why he wasn't taking it.

"It's not funny," she whined when he laughed. "I was bored and you were having nap time. Not to mention my arm is totally dead thanks to you."

He smirked at her. "Well, you shouldn't be passing notes during class anyways," he joked.

She shot him a playful glare, but her face lit up when Chase joined them, skateboard in hand. He greeted Brooke with a quick kiss and Nathan with a fist bump and the three began to banter casually until Shelly approached the group to remind Chase of the clean teen meeting scheduled for that evening.

"Yeah, I'll be there," he assured her.

Nathan watched as she walked away, an idea springing to mind. As he'd told Brooke before, that Shelly chick was hot and he was pretty sure he could sway her from her little club.

He needed a challenge and what could better fulfill that than a born again virgin? He smiled to himself. It would almost be like the beginning with Peyton again.

And that was a challenge he couldn't pass up.