Lucas, The Bastard, is standing not twenty yards away, with his friends. With Haley James. Nathan would probably ignore them now, but she’s there with him, and she captures his attention.

He hasn’t solidified his plans yet. But he knew they would involve her somehow. Because he wanted them to now that he’d taken the time to notice her. Always so happy, always touching Lucas or laughing at something he said. He’ll take that away, from both of them. With a smile on his face.

“Yeah whatever,” she mumbled waving him away. She glanced up to make sure he was good and gone before turning back to examine his page a little closer. My god he looked good. Wow….he was freakin’ hot! Who would have thought the guy she’d been talking and laughing with for almost the last year was the same guy that was smirking back at her from the pages of a magazine. From the first time he’d walked through the door she’d thought he was good looking - fun to talk too and completely full of it. But she had no idea he could look like that.

“Humm…something tells me his dating field just got bigger,” she mumbled to herself tossing the magazine back on the counter going back to rolling the silverware.

"Let me at least refund all of this. I'm sorry again. I didn't even see you and then..." her voice trailed off as she looked up, newfound money in her hand. Their eyes locked and Haley felt her stomach launch it's way into her throat, nearly choking her.

She'd barely gotten a glimpse of his face before, unaware of it's familiarity, until now. And the sight had her stopping in mid sentence. Her eyes went wide again, her heart sped up.

Clearly unaffected by this, the guy scoffed, eying her unamused. "Miss?" he questioned and when no reply came, merely rolled his eyes. "Alright. Well listen, don't worry about refunding me, it's fine and I don't need your money...probably wasn't going to eat it anyways," he murmured.

Haley remained silent, staring back in wonder and hardly moving. Finally she shook her head and let out an ironic laugh. "Nathan Scott," she stated, her voice flat.

“You heard me. You told me the woman you wanted involved in this deal had to be different from those that you usually date, well Haley is different. You couldn’t get someone more different from your usual type.”

Turning in his seat, he watched the petite brunette as she wiped down the countertop and when she just happened to glance up at him, he saw her blush again before quickly turning away from his gaze.

“Yeah, she’s definitely different.”

Her thin strapped pale green top had a v in it that hit low enough for her full breasts to peek up from behind the edges. The silver circle on her long necklace lay nicely at the apex of her more than adequate cleavage. And the edge of that top stopped just shy of the low waist on her fitted jeans. The small silver heart dangling from her navel twinkled at him causing an appreciative increase to his already growing smirk. Her large dangling earrings jiggled a bit as she pulled her sun glasses off and set them on the bill of her cap. Half blocking the street or not, she pushed the car gear into Park resting her hand over the top of the steering wheel, giggling lightly at the way he was so overtly sizing her up.

“You don’t remember me do you?”

He chuckled rubbing a hand across his chin a bit embarrassed that he was having a hard time remembering such a beautiful girl…but he was.

It wasn’t always like this though. Once upon a time, the three of us were actually good friends. In kindergarten all the way ‘til about the seventh grade. We were practically inseparable; the boys brought me along on their fishing trips in the pond down by Inyart Park, and I was once able to convince them to join one of the little tea parties I threw for my stuffed animals (of which, I swore never to speak of in public, and Lucas declares it a myth to this day). Any girls from our school that they liked, I was forced to befriend to see if they had a chance at all with them. Any boys that I liked, they would ‘check out’ for me, but not before I would make them promise the three no’s: no threats, no hitting, and no bullying. Nathan and Lucas were fiercely protective of me, and we were always together.

Until basketball happened.

“Where did you get that?” He pointed to her ring finger.

Glancing down she noticed for the first time the at least six carat princess cut solitaire with a platinum band encased with diamonds. That didn’t confuse her as much as the other ring adorning her finger. It was a platinum band with princess cut diamonds all around it. If she didn’t know any better it looked like a wedding band. Quickly she snatched his left hand and found a platinum ring on his left ring ringer with four small diamonds in the band.

“Oh s hit!” Both their voices screamed in unison.

“At least you’re laughing now. Listen, I was thinking about out little prom dilemma last night. Seeing as how my bimbo date so graciously gave me more warning than your ******* date gave you. Why don’t we go together?”

“Uhhh…”

“Before you say no,” holding his hand up to her, “think about it for just a minute. I already have a tux, you have a ‘hot dress’ that’s begging to be seen, why deprive Tree Hill High of the sight of the best looking couple in the school waltzing in together? We’d never be forgiven! What’d ya say Hales? Will you be my prom date? Please!”

“I’d love to go with you Nathan,” her eyes tearing up as she pulled him into a tight hug. “I love you, you’re the best.”

“I love you too. You’ll have a great time,” he whispered. “I promise.”

“Oh god – umm yeah that’d be great,” she stammered visibly shaking her head of her previous thoughts. “Thanks. I seem to have said that a lot to you in the last five minutes.”

“No problem,” he chuckled rummaging through his bag for the shirt. “Here you go.”

“Tarheel basketball?” groaning as she read the front of the shirt. “You like basketball huh?”

“You could say that,” laughing at her obvious disgust. “Not a basketball fan I take it.”

“Umm no…no it’s okay – I guess. Listen…I really need to go. I’ll get it back to you. Thanks,” suddenly seeming distracted as she turned and hurriedly moved down the hall.

Damn that’s one weird girl, he mused as she walked away. Nice ass though, smiling appreciatively as he watched her go. Definitely a nice ass.

Nathan walked over to where she stood by the door and he placed his hands on her shoulders forcing her to keep still. Moving one hand to her chin, he tilted her face up so he was looking into her eyes and he said, “I swear I won’t breathe a word of this to anyone. But please Haley, just tell me what it is because my mind’s going crazy here.”

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and nodded before whispering, “Okay.” The next words out of her mouth though sent him into a tailspin. “I...er...I want you to...um...teach me about sex.”

"I don’t know if I can do this," she cried. "How can I pretend that what Nathan and I had didn’t exist? How do I look at him without giving my feelings away? How do I handle him looking at me that way?"

"What way?"

"He looks at me like I’m a stranger Luke." Another sob escaped her lips. "You know, Nathan and I have been through a lot and I handled it all. We handled it all. And we did it because underneath it all, we had our feelings for each other. That was our rock. . .our touchstone. Now we don’t even have that." She looked up at him with anguished eyes. "I went to see him the other day and for an instant, I thought he knew me, but then I realized it was just because he recognized me from my prior visit. He doesn’t know me Luke!"

“Oh,” Nathan paused the video tape and came over to her, a sheepish grin on his face. “First,” he said, enveloping her in his arms and bringing her close to his body. “Hello.”

On autopilot, Haley’s arms circled his neck as she looked up into is piercing blue eyes. “Hi,”

He kissed her neck, causing a warm flush to course through Haley’s body. Nathan then proceeded to grab her earlobe between his teeth and tugged while mumbling, “How was work? I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” Haley returned somewhat breathlessly as Nathan cut her off and placed his lips on hers. “Mmmm, Nathan.” She shook her head. “Wait! No distracting me! What is all this?” She nodded her head towards the college memorabilia and posters littering the room.

“Oh, you noticed that huh?”

“Uh Yeah! She replied. “A little hard to miss.”

Nathan laughed as he ducked his head into his shoulders apologetically and bit his lip. “I uh, March Madness is coming up Haley! I have to get in the swing, feel the frenzy! It will only be up here for a few weeks and then I promise I will take it all down.”

I swear, everything was fine up until two weeks ago. At that point, I had no major complaints about my boyfriend of three years. Yeah, he leaves wet towels lying around and he thinks it is funny to distract me with sex when I’m trying to study, but I can live with the first and kind of love the second. And he’s never been so aloof, and he hasn’t spent this much time partying since our freshman year, before we started dating.

I’ve known Nathan forever. We grew up together. He, Lucas, and I were inseparable until I discovered I was a girl somewhere around the age of fourteen and started hanging out with Brooke and Peyton. I was still friends with both of them, but after that, it wasn’t quite the same. Then, when I was sixteen, I realized that I had a crush on the unattainable Nathan Scott, with whom I was decidedly stuck in friends mode with.

All he had to do was be nice to this girl, smile at her some more, and maybe befriend Karen a bit- he would be in in no time. He was about to thaw the ice with miss Haley James- he was about to burn the building down, and it would be fun. She would be fun.

Nathan cocked his head to the side, and smiled. “You know, you should really be more grateful Heidi, I only came down here to help you,” he replied innocently, snatching up the box that held the large metal door open. Walking forward a few steps, he let the door snap shut behind him. And came into the room setting the box on the ground, as if helping her move that box was his most charitable deed.

What he then noticed was Haley move as if in slow motion, bursting passed him and screaming, “NO!”

Nathan gave her an odd expression as she barreled toward the now closed exit. “Actually I was expecting more of a ‘thank you for your help Nathan,’ but...whatever.”

Haley meanwhile, frantically pulled on the silver door knob, trying with all her might to get it to open. Short heavy breaths escaped her mouth. When she finally gave up, and turned toward her enemy, pure hatred radiated from her eyes.

“I can’t even.....this isn’t happening...no...no.....I-I....You,” she seethed, settling on his face, unable to move.

Scratching his head in confusion Nathan looked to her, “Excuse me?”

“The door. The one that you just let close behind me. Only opens from the opposite side! Which means---”

“Which means we’re locked in,” he finished, his eyes wide and glassy.

“I’ve never had sex in public,” he tells her, his voice low and husky with want and need, in turn kindling the want and need in her. “And since I know you haven’t either,” he continues, his smoldering gaze igniting warmth within her, “We could share this first together.”

Reluctantly breaking her eyes away from the heat of his gaze, she glances around, shaking her head fervently as she takes in their surroundings. “No. No way, hell no. Niet. Nein. Not happening. No way, Jose.”

Her lips moved down to claim his, her tongue licking at his lips. She rocked her hips, moved circularly against his, and he moaned low and long.

“Hales.”

Fever.

Building. She could feel it. The fire within her. She burned, burned for him, for only him, and she wanted him to push her past the point of reason, past the point of recognition, where love and lust danced forbiddenly and they were free.

Fever.

It was a weird thing, this being so physically close to him. She’d dreamt about it for nearly half the school semester, imagining what it was like to kiss him, to touch his warm skin and feel his breath against her cheeks. And when it actually happened for the first time, just outside in her front lawn, he’d blown her away. Nothing in her head could have ever prepared her for the way that he tasted and the way that he felt. For the way that he made her feel.

And now, those kisses were happening nearly every time Nathan had the chance, it seemed. And Haley loved that, she really did, but she still wasn’t sure how to handle it.

Their eyes met for a brief moment, before his hands found their way to the rim of her shirt and he began to lift it over her head. It was half way over her breasts when she realized what they we’re doing, and brought her hands back around to still his, and bring her shirt back down. He backed off immediately, both taking in short ragged breaths, trying to compose themselves.

“Sorry.” He mumbled, tightening his towel again, and wiping at his kiss swollen mouth.

She sighed, “Me too.”

After a minute or two of silence, he began to head out of the kitchen. “I’m gonna go get dressed, then we can get something to eat or something,” he turned back to her, “okay?”

She nodded, “Okay.”

I tried to reason with myself that I came to this specific tattoo parlor and sat down in this specific chair with the intent to actually permanently mark my body, just as Haley had permanently marked hers. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. I had thought that this was what I wanted, but now I wasn't so sure. In fact I was feeling kind of nauseous to tell the truth. That uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach wore into me until little droplets of sweat began to pool along my hairline at a faster pace than I could wipe them away. And as I felt my face begin to flush, one solitary drop fell off my forehead and straight into my eye.

Son-of-bitch, that hurt.

“Good morning,” he whispered, dropping a soft kiss of her lips. He pushed the covers down a bit, lifting her shirt enough to watch his long fingers move over her. He leaned down leaving light kisses on her bare stomach, unable to stop the smile at the way her eyes drifted closed an almost inaudible moan escaping. The goose bumps immediately popped up on her skin, her nipples much more apparent under her shirt. “You like that?” his deep morning voice just further beating down her resistance.

“Hey, you’re not the one carrying the next Scott basketball superstar,”

“And you couldn’t look more beautiful,” he added, grinning crookedly at her while leaning against the door frame. She made a face at him and then beckoned him back to bed.

“Give me my ice cream already, suck up!” she giggled once again at his facial expression.

“You don’t think I’d fall asleep when I get to spend the whole night with you, do you? Especially when you’re wearing that to bed.”

Blushing, she lowered her head and let her hair form a curtain around her face. “Nathan…”

“What? You look hot and that tattoo of my jersey number? Major turn-on, Hales.”

Nathan stood rocking the baby as the nurse made her way over to Haley to take her pulse, temperature and provide her with her pain pill. He thanked her as she left and turned to Haley, beaming, his self satisfaction evident. He held the baby out slightly showing her the blanket that he had swaddled around him. “See Hales, he is a little baby burrito!”

“Taco Bell would be proud Nathan.”

“You know what,” He growled, nipping harder at her neck. It was so going to be a turtle neck to school tomorrow, she thought ruefully.

“Hmmm, nope.” She placed a finger on her chin and pretended to look pensive. “Not ringing any bells. Give me a clue.”

“Three words. Eight letters. The most important thing anyone has ever said to me.”

“Ohhh. That.” Haley giggled. She gently directed Nathan’s face to hers. “Hi, baby.” She smiled.

Sighing, she gave up and grabbed the box of cookies she saw on the counter. Yummy!

Haley was halfway through her fifth cookie when she squealed loudly, feeling Nathan’s arms wrap around her middle and lift her up a little.

“Nathan! Put me down!” She tried to not spew the contents of her mouth as she was laughing. “Hey, that tickles!” She giggled louder, feeling him put her down and smooth his hands down her stomach, soothing her.

“Sorry babe, I just couldn’t resist.”

"What are you thinking?" I find myself asking her softly.

She turns to face me and I feel my heart beating rapidly. She bites her lip and shrugs.

"Oh, you know me. I am thinking about everything. Life, love and everything that includes."
I cannot help but smile, this girl never ceases to amaze me.