A/N: Big thanks to GottaluvNaley, l . bergin94(I'm sorry, FF seems to delete your name if I don't type it without spaces :/), bzmc, rocklesson86 for reviewing.

CHAPTER FOUR

Oomph!

Nathan winced as his toe hit the sharp edge of the coffee table. His head pounded miserably, making him sway back a little before plopping down on the couch from where he had woken up just a few seconds ago. His eyes shut on their own accord. Bringing his hand to his head, he tried to massage away that imminent headache. What the fuck happened last night?

Squinting forcibly, he assessed the condition of –what looked like – his living room. Red plastic cups were scattered everywhere; three bottles of booze stood on the T.V. table, and a number of those were strewn all over the carpet; a blinking sign that read 'GAME OVER' flashed on the T.V screen. And when he had dared to glance at the open kitchen in the left side of the room, he could see that the mess had spread well over there as well.

"Could have at least bothered to clean the place. Assholes," he muttered painfully, still reeling from the hammering hangover.

But who was he kidding anyway? It's not as if he had expected Tim or Damien or the rest of the team to clean once they had successfully thrashed the place after another one of – as Tim liked to call it – "the team's booze fests". Whatever that meant.

He groaned again. This time, because of his alarm blaring all the way from the bedroom. He decided against snoozing back on the couch, aware of the fact that his crap-shit of an alarm wouldn't let him sleep.

So he walked those grudging steps to his room where, fortunately enough, the after-effects of the party weren't detectable. Shutting off the alarm, he almost dropped on his very inviting bed when his mobile phone caught his attention. A reminder blinked on the screen. He opened it and was immediately tempted to throw his head against the wall.

This just keeps getting better, he thought as his reminder reminded him of his tutoring session with Haley. He could blow it off, and sleep out his hangover to his heart's content. But this was Haley, and he knew that she was counting on him to back out and once he did that, it was, ''poof! Bye-bye Duke''.

So, his decision was obvious. "Fuck." Ranting out the expletive over and over, he made his way to the bathroom. He had five minutes to get ready and rush to the docks before he blew his only chance. Nathan thought that was manageable until he turned on the shower. He yelled in frustration, "Fucking cold water."

Okay, maybe it was not manageable.

"You're late, and you look like hell," were the first words that came from Haley's mouth as she saw him approaching the table. Her expression was stern as she conspicuously checked her watch.

Nathan sat opposite to her, rolling his eyes. "Thanks," he answered.

"It's six-thirty. That's thirty minutes later than when we were supposed to meet."

He chuckled. "I'm not that bad at math, Hales."

"It's Haley." She emphasized, disconcerted by his blatant use of her nick-name. Only her friends got to call her that, though she ignored how naturally her name rolled off his tongue. Don't read too much into this, she willed herself. "And that wasn't the point. You were supposed to be here at six. Not after that."

Sighing, he looked at her. "I'm sorry, okay? Look, you said so yourself – I look like hell. Now that obviously means that I couldn't get ready...that I was already aware of my tardiness. And I'm sorry. But I'm here right now, right? So, can we start now?" His voice softened with each statement. "Please?" He added.

She looked at him, raising an eyebrow and dropping it a second later. She could see that he did try, and despite how good the fresh-messed-up-out-of-bed look suited him, it definitely meant that he had decided to not blow the session off. That's got to mean something when it comes to Nathan Scott, right? She judged.

Wordlessly, she opened her English book. "Tardiness, huh? Looks like you're not that bad at English either." Her lips curved to form a smile so that he knew that she meant it as a joke.

He met her eyes, surprised at the sudden change in her mood. He recognized her attempt, not for a second assuming that she was trying to demean him. As he grinned back, he felt a bit of the burdening stress sifting away, for the first time since he woke up that morning.

"Where do you want to begin?"

He shrugged, eyeing the pages warily as she pointed out a few pages. Despite doing this as a part of a deal, Nathan understood that he actually needed the tutoring lessons whether he wanted them or not.

"Alright," Haley began with a practiced tone. "We'll start with the chapter on which Ms. Blake is conducting a test next week."

"We have a test?!" He groaned. His phone rang immediately before Haley could respond.

Nathan glanced at the caller ID. Dan. Ah, just what I needed to complete the crapiness of this morning. Switching off the phone, he decided to deal with his father later.

She watched his actions with a confused expression – the phone was placed in her near vicinity, allowing her to read the caller ID as well. But she wasn't going to ask him why he suddenly turned tense, or why he looked so inclined to shout at the caller, or why he was staring at her now with an irritated expression.

So, instead this is what she settled for –"So, this chapter essentially describes the relationship..."

Peyton Sawyer walked towards her usual table, carrying a tray of inedible cafeteria food. She noticed only one occupant who was engrossed in reading a book. "Woah, Hales. Careful there. You don't want them to think you're some nerd," she drawled out the last word in her best mock-conspiratorial voice.

Said 'nerd' looked up at her friend and the both of them erupted in a messy giggling fit as they mocked the inane high school presumptions.

"Where are the others?" Peyton asked after the giggles ceased.

"Well, Whitey wanted to talk to Lucas, so he's probably with him. And Jake –"

" – had to stay at home because of Jenny's fever." Peyton blushed as Haley knowingly smiled at the sentence completion.

"So, how did the session go?"

Haley put her book down and bit her lower lip. "I haven't really told you the entire thing; about who I'm tutoring."

Peyton looked surprised.

"I'm tutoring Nathan. Before you ask, Lucas knows about this, but he is obviously not pleased. Truthfully, we haven't really spoken much since yesterday evening after I told him. And not because we're at a Cold War with each other or something because I thought that's something only us girls did with each other. I mean, not that Luke and I hate each other now, or at least that's what I think. But I'm not too sure 'cause it's Nathan that we're talking about and you know how it is and –"

"Stop rambling." Peyton halted her speech. She smiled, as Haley looked flustered and nodded in understanding.

"Wow. Nathan, huh?"

Haley nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm sure Lucas would get over it."

"I'm hoping for that. I really don't want this to be problem for us." She leaned back in her chair.

"It won't." She took a bite of her sandwich, made a disgusted face, swallowed it down with water and pushed the tray away. "Don't eat that. You're just tutoring him, right?"

"Of course." Haley failed to understand the rhetoric. Peyton noticed this but chose not to comment on it.

Instead, she said, "There's no harm in that. Lucas has no reason to worry."

"You know, it's good to see Nathan finally asking for help." She spoke of her ex-boyfriend. Her ten-months-old relationship with Nathan had been anything but steady. It had been effervescent, passionate but effervescent. When she finally gathered the courage to end it, she felt relieved. Her relief was greatly extended when he didn't harbor any resentment towards her after the break-up, realizing that the decision was better than that of them staying together. They had managed to be friends – not as great as him and Brooke, or her and Lucas, but it sufficed.

"I doubt that. Seems more like Principal Turner slapping him with an ultimatum – either raise or grades, or say good-bye to basketball," Haley mused.

"Unlikely. But who knows?" The two of them fell in a comfortable silence before Peyton asked, "So how was it?"

Haley replied in confusion. "How was what?"

"Er – the session?" Peyton held back the smirk as Haley looked flustered again.

"Oh, right. Ha." She chuckled, wondering why on earth she was so out of her composed self today. "He was late, and –" She hesitated as she wondered whether or not to tell her friend about Dan calling him. Peyton must know more about Nathan's relationship with Dan; she would have probably been able to answer Haley's previous questions too. Finally, she decided not to pry into his matters. "And then we studied for an hour or so." She shrugged. "Anyway, what's new with you today?"

Peyton regarded the change in topic. She answered Haley, giving her a detailed account of a hilarious prank that some kid played in her History class today that made the two of them burst out in another giggling fit.

But in the back of her mind, Peyton made a note of two things – first, the topic of Nathan seemed to fluster Haley a lot more than usual; second, if this was the result of the first day, then she would have to soon take back her words because in the very near future, Lucas would get a reason to worry. A very, very significant reason.

What do you think?