Yes your eyes do not decieve you! THIS IS A CHAPTER UPDATE! pleasedonthrowthingsatme...

So this isn't a very good chapter update and I'm not really a fan of this story myself, but I feel that out of respect to my readers I should at least finish it! I actually finished this chapter a few weeks ago and completely forgot about it! (I was slightly drunk, and the next morning thought it had been a dream until I found it a few days ago... - I'm not even joking). But here it is!

I've not really read through it, but what I have read seems all jumbled up and confusing, but it's the best I can do! I'm gonna start updating more regularly and maybe start a CSI:NY and a new OTH one soon, so look out for that! This one'll be finished up quite quickly too! Enjoy!

Chapter 8

She was just about to buzz up to Nathan's apartment, where she was meeting him, when she heard her name being called from down the street.

Turning round, she saw Nathan running towards her, a paper bag with a logo she recognised as her favourite bakery in his hands. Her stomach erupted into nervous butterflies at the sight of him however. They were meeting to 'talk', and if she was honest, she had no idea how it was going to go.

"I thought you said to meet here?" she asked once he had caught up with her at the entrance to his apartment building. Trying to play it cool despite how nervous she was, she added "And there better be a donut in there for me," pointing at the bag.

With a smirk, he pulled a smaller package from inside the bag, handing it to her. "Grabbed us a snack. Thought could go for a walk?"

Everything felt so strange and awkward, almost foreign to their short, although very easy, new friendship. With a slight nod, she took a bite into her favourite donut that she'd unwrapped as he'd been talking, before starting to head down the sidewalk.

"Wait, Hales," he called her back, "Left my phone upstairs. Wait here and I'll run up and grab it."

Grumbling impatiently, she tried to ignore his smirk. "I'll just come up with me. Don't want anyone to think I'm just creeping about the streets."

Easing the tension slightly, he held the door open for her before heading over to the elevator, not noticing that she was following behind him.

"Can't we just take the stairs? With our track record we'll end up stuck in there again."

Laughing, he grabbed her hand, while pulling her into the elevator that had just opened and pressing his floor.

"Haley, you do realise what floor I live on, right?" Leaning against the elevator wall, he sighed when she jerked her hand out of his. "You've probably jinxed us to.

And of course, as he said it, they both felt the elevator come to a slow, nowhere near their stop, and the lights promptly shut off. However instead of freaking out, crying, or becoming hysterical, she started laughing, Nathan soon joining in as they both slumped against the elevator door, tears running down their faces.

He had actually been quite surprised when Peyton had phoned him. Since meeting her the week before, they'd been texting a lot, and hanging out as a group, but this was the first time she'd asked him to spend time alone.

She'd suggested going to see a movie, but Lucas, knowing how movie theatre in the middle of Manhattan could get, changed the plan, and was currently heading for a movie day in Nathan's apartment.

After Peyton buzzed him, he noticed the elevator seemed to be stuck at a floor, and prepared himself for the treck up to Nathan's apartment, thanking God that playing basketball regularly had helped him keep up his fitness. He definitely didn't want to turn up all sweaty and blotchy after running up a thousand steps.

He reached the floor, noticing Peyton standing at the apartment door, slouched against the doorframe. Damn did she look good. Dressed for a movie day she was wearing a pair of what looked like comfortable jeans and a signature band tee, which he recognised as 'The Cure'.

"Hope you didn't break a sweat there, Luke?" she smirked, something she had no doubt picked up from years hanging around his brother. "Nathan's away out for most of the day so it's just us. You better have brought some good movies."

"Course." He grinned confidently, and help up the bag in his hand. Leaning against the wall next to the door. "A Cure fan I see?"

She scoffed lightly, shoving his shoulder. "Course."

Moving past her to get into the apartment, he tried to his own smirk. "Really? I've always thought their music is kinda whiny…"

He flinched as she reached out to shove him into the apartment, closing the door behind her, shouting "You did not just call the Cure whiny!"

Meanwhile in the elevator, things weren't going as smoothly. After they had calmed themselves down, they'd called the technician who'd informed them they'd be stuck for at least a good hour.

That had been 10 minutes ago, and since then, both had sat at opposite ends of the elevator, much like the first time they met, making awkward small talk.

Having quite enough of it, Nathan decided to end the uncomfortable silence.

"We gonna keep doing this Haley?"

Haley's head quickly snapped up from where it had been examining the stained floor. Her eyes locked with his, and all she could see was the confusion and hurt. She didn't mean for it to be so awkward, but she couldn't help it. All she had thought about since it had happened was how he kissed her. She'd never been kissed like that before. Ever.

It didn't help either that all she wanted to do was pin him up against the wall of the elevator and repeat the experience.

However, she could also remember the pain and hurt she'd felt when she'd remembered about his girlfriend. Even when she found out Peyton was just a friend, it still hurt to know that Nathan hadn't thought to tell her about the girl from home. His best friend. She knew it wasn't fair, as she'd kept most of her life to herself, and there were things she hadn't opened up to him yet, But she'd told him everything she knew about Lucas.

Lucas. Another problem with this attraction between them was that it would hurt Lucas. He and Nathan had only started to make that connection that they should have had at birth, to really become brothers. She couldn't take that away from him, by entering a relationship with Nathan. Make Nathan's appearance all about her rather than what it was actually for. Plus, if they didn't work out, what then? It would put strain on their relationship, as well as hers and Lucas's, and make everything so awkward that she knew she couldn't let that happen. She cared too much about both of them for that. They deserved the chance to be brothers.

Plus she was pretty sure it would seriously weird him out if he knew the kind of thoughts and dreams she'd been having, all starring his brother. It would be like her when he admitted to having a sex dream involving her sister Taylor when they were 15. Gross.

However the main factor had to be that she simply couldn't trust herself into another serious relationship. She promised herself that moving to New York, becoming herself again, she was going to focus on her career, her friends. Entering something with Nathan, this man she could barely control herself around as it was, would be too difficult. And she knew that if anything happened between them, it'd never just be something casual. She'd seen the way he looked at her, and she knew she looked back at him the exact same way. It way not have been fair to him, but for herself… she couldn't risk opening herself up like that.

"We should probably have that talk, huh?"

To say she'd been avoiding him since he'd text her would be an understatement. She wasn't sure what he was going to say, but she knew she wouldn't like it. She'd came up with excuses every day up until now on why she couldn't meet up with him, and even she knew how lame they sounded. She just knew that whatever he said would be difficult.

The most likely reason he wanted to talk was to tell her that that night in her apartment had been a mistake. That he shouldn't have kissed her, and that he didn't want to make anything of it. She should be relieved to hear something like that, so that they could go back to the new friends they were beginning to come, but she knew it would break her heart into tiny pieces. As well as cut deep into those insecurities she held inside her heart.

The other thing he could say to her would be that he went every moment of it. However she didn't let her hopeful heart even think it. Even if it was the case, she knew what it would mean. Although, she wanted him more than she had ever wanted anyone before in her life, she knew what would happen if they did get together. All the hurt it would inevitably cost. And so it would be up to her to break his heart, to see his warm eyes fill with great hurt, and the scary thing was, she was sure if it came to it, she wouldn't be able to do it.

"Why have you been avoiding me?"

Not even just for the past week neither. Even since they'd gone apartment hunting she'd been avoiding him, but she'd got more crafty with her excuses the past week.

Since the night he'd introduced Peyton to his new friends, and he asked her if they could talk so he could understand why'd been so hot and cold, she'd found some way to completely avoid him.

The first night, she'd said she was going out with her colleagues. For the day following that she had a pile of marking to do. The next day she was shopping with Brooke after work and would be too tired. The day after that she was feeling ill. The excuses had kept on coming, until he was pretty sure she had run out. He'd eventually had to go through Lucas, who he knew could smell Haley talking bullshit a mile away, to ask her, knowing full well she wouldn't be able to say no to him.

Not that Lucas really understood what was going on. He'd been kind of quiet and secretive the past week, smiling at his phone every time he got a text. It had been kind of annoying, but at least that distraction, whatever it was hadn't allowed him to see what was going on between the two friends.

Haley glanced cautiously at him, taking her time to answer him, weighing out her options. Tell the truth, or make up another excuse.

"I haven't been avoiding you Nathan," excuse it was then. The truth was too hard. "I've just been really bu…"

"Cut the crap Haley. After living with Dan for most of my life, I kind of know when someone is lying to me." The hurt she could see in his eyes in that moment cut straight to her soul. "What did I do? We were getting along great and then, bam, you're all hot and cold."

He was letting his anger control him, and had jumped up to start pacing in the small confined space. He hated this. He hated it so much. He raked his brain as he thought of what he could have done wrong. I mean, sure he'd kissed when he probably shouldn't have, but she was just as into it as he was. She wanted it just as much as he had. Hadn't she?

Knowing her fiery personality, he expected her to jump up and put her own bit in, and so was surprised when she stayed seated, almost whispering.

"Why do you always ask "what did I do?"

Looking down to her, he saw not anger, but sad concern in her deep, brown eyes.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, why do you always ask what you did? You always assume it's your fault."

Had she done this to him? Had it been her who had made him always assume it was him in the wrong? He had done nothing wrong. She supposed he had kissed her, but somehow, as much as she knew it shouldn't have happened, and how it couldn't happen again, she couldn't describe it as wrong. Nothing wrong could surely feel that good.

"I don't know… It usually is me that messes everything up."

She could see him try to smirk, but looking into his eyes, those blues that looked right into his soul, all she could see was sadness.

"Nathan…"

He shrugged nonchalantly, looking right into her eyes. "I grew up with Dan. I guess feeling like a failure is an old habit."

Slowly standing up, she tried to reach out for him, but he quickly shrugged her off. He knew what she was doing, and he wasn't having any of it.

"Stop changing the subject Hales." Even once the engineer fixed it, they weren't leaving this damn elevator until they talked. Until he found out what was wrong with her.

"I don't even know where to begin…"

They stood in silence, only inches apart for what felt like hours. She was so close his fingers were itching to reach out to her, but he knew he couldn't. He was pretty sure that was what started this whole mess in the first place.

He had prepared himself for the fact she probably didn't like him the same way he did. The irony of it: the one woman the self proclaimed playboy could ever see himself falling in love with is the one woman he can't have. Damn Lucas for having such amazing friends. He had accepted the fact now, and more than anything he wanted to be her friend. He could handle, well almost handle not being able to kiss her and love her the way she deserved to be loved, but there was no way he could handle not having her in his life at all.

He was jealous of Lucas. He'd been able to grow up with a stable family, a mother who actually cared, and a father of sorts who actually supported him. And to top it all up he had this great network of friends, and the girl. He seriously thought there must be something wrong with Lucas or something. How had he not even tried dating her at one point? Even he'd tried dating Peyton, though just thinking about it brought a bit of bile up his throat.

Sure he had had Peyton growing up. But they'd had a strange relationship from the start. They'd fought even more that they liked to kid on, but were close too. They'd become each other's home, and he'd shared most of his life with her. But even Peyton didn't hold a candle to the way he could open up to Haley.

So why was it so hard for her to open up to him?

"You're Lucas's brother."

That put an end to his trail of thoughts. What?

"Yeah…"

He looked at her to continue. Where was she going with this and what did his brother have to do with them?

"And you turned up after years of nobody even knowing you existed."

She wasn't sure if even she knew where she was going with this, but she went with it.

"You know that wasn't my fault… I didn't know he existed either…"

He treaded carefully, curious of where she was going with this.

"Okay scrap this, I have no idea what I'm getting at."

She smiled at him, and even though he was now even more confused that he had been all week he smiled back at her.

Haley herself had become even more confused. She couldn't think of a logical way to express what she was feeling or thinking, or at least express it in a way that would make sense to Nathan. No wonder men always said women were confusing.

They remained in an awkward silent for another few minutes, neither really knowing where to look in the small enclosed space they were trapped in. She was just about to ask him what else was in the paper bag he'd left on the floor of the elevator, merely in an effort to break the silence, when he beat her to it.

"I'm sorry I kissed you."

Her heart sank, even though, in a round about way it was what she wanted to hear. Instead of letting it go, hopefuly along with all their awkwardness, she couldn't stop herself from asking why. And it was in that moment that he threw her a huge curve ball.

"Because you're sorry I kissed you."

Flabergasted, she wasn't really sure what to do. One side of her wished he'd just ended whatever weird chemistry they had, and made it clear there was no way anything was going to happen between them. It would at least have let her relax around him. However the other side of her exploded into butterflies. Did that mean he had wanted to kiss her as much as she had wanted him to? It was this side of her that made the other half completely forget about the past, and completely forget how wrong all of this was. Lucas's brother or not, she wanted this man. Maybe she'd regret not agreeing with him a few days from now, but right now she didn't care.

"I'm not sorry."

Why was she doing this? Nathan was getting pretty bored of it. One minute she was cold, the next she was saying things like that? He didn't know how to act around her. He was pretty sure he'd completely blown it with the way she'd been the past couple of weeks, and now she was saying she wasn't sorry he'd kissed her?

"I'm not sorry you kissed me."

She could see him processing her words, looking confused as hell, and she didn't blame him. Though, she repeated her statement more for herself than anything. To prove there was no going back.

The look he gave her then she would remember for the rest of her life. Never before had someone looked at her with such longing, such want, And in that moment she didn't see him as the new guy, or as Lucas's estranged brother. She didn't even see him as that fun guy she may have been attracted too but didn't want to admit. She just saw him as Nathan.

What happened next was neither one's fault, and neither knew who leaned in first.

Haley's stomach erupted into butterflies as his lips hit hers, and her arms automatically wrapped around his neck, her hands threading through his hair.

Nathan's hands gripped her hips as he moved the short distance to press her up against the elevator wall. He felt, rather than heard her moan as he slipped his tongue into her mouth to tangle with her own. Ever since that night in her apartment, he'd been dying to kiss her again, and now that he was, he wasn't sure how he'd ever survive a moment not kissing her. She was addictive.

The kiss was fast, and passionate, and nowhere near sweet. They were pouring weeks of frustration and confusion into it. So consumed were they that they barely noticed the voice through the intercom telling them that the elevator had been fixed, or they just didn't care as the elevator starting to move up the floors to Nathan's apartment.

Nathan's lips left hers once they had both ran out of air, however they simply travelled down her neck, nipping and sucking there. She let out an embarrassingly loud moan when he found her 'spot' just under her ear, and with a chuckle he started putting more pressure on it, determined to mark her as his own. Haley herself had always found hickeys trashy, but the way he was making her feel she didn't care. So long as he didn't stop.

The elevator doors 'binged' open, and he lifted his lips from her neck with a smirk.

"Guess we got a little carried away there."

Too focused on the way his body was pressed up against her, instead of answering, she simply grabbed his hand and all but dragged him out of the elevator and down the hall towards his door. There was no way she was finished with him. She could regret it in the morning, but at that moment, she knew what she wanted.

Nathan could hardly believe what was happening. That morning he was sure Haley was going to suggest something like them not spending as much time together. He had thought he had ruined it the other night. He still didn't know why she had acted so weird the past few weeks, but he knew she wanted him, so who was he to question that now? He would find out later, that he was sure of as he wasn't just going to let it lie, but right now all he wanted was her.

He pressed her up against the apartment door, taking the same position they'd had in the elevator, however instead of her arms just staying around his neck, they started to roam his body. Allowing his mind to clear a little, he wanted to make sure they were on the same page. Once they entered the apartment everything would change, and he wanted to be sure she knew what she was doing. Although his history would disagree, he wasn't going to take advantage of her, or what had been bothering her. She was too special for him to do that.

"Once we go in there we can't just go back to hanging out and pretending to be friends. Are you sure you want this?"

Taking her hands away from where they had been spread against his chest, she brought them up to hold his face. The husky and slightly out of breath voice had enlightened something that had been brewing since that night in her apartment, and she knew her decision.

"I want you."

Never before had she been so bold, but something about Nathan made her brave. Made her confident. And it was something she liked.

It was all Nathan needed to claim her lips again, pressing every inch of her body against his while he pressed her against the door. He was vaguely aware of her hands dipping into his back pocket and taking his keys, before she had opened the door, sending them both flying into the apartment.

After a second of them steadying themselves, she took her chance to be in control and pushed him up against the once again closed door, moaning as his tongue forced it's way into her mouth, while his hands reached down to grip her ass, pressing her to his.

Both were so consumed in each other that neither noticed the other couple sitting inside the apartment, though it was safe to say the blonde couple had noticed them.

Haley's hands had been just about to move under his shirt and up his body when she heard someone clear their voice from the living room end of the apartment. Both of them sprang apart as if electrocuted, their eyes first meeting each other's in shock before racing around the apartment for the intruder, finding Peyton and Lucas sitting on the couch in equal shock.

So there it is! Please review (though I don't deserve it)! Hope you all haven't just given up on me!