Chapter Two
Having searched Nathan’s usual haunts and not finding him at any of them, Haley decided to try one more place. Now that Dan was back living with Deb, the beach house stood empty and she had a feeling that maybe her husband was making use of it instead of being alone at their apartment. Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait too long for a bus and before she knew it she had arrived at her destination.
As she walked up the street, she pulled her jacket tighter to shield her from the sea breeze that was blowing. Finally, she reached the Scott’s house and she breathed a gentle sigh of relief when she saw that it was in darkness. At the back of her mind she had been concerned that she would find a party in full swing with Nathan in the thick of it, surrounded by all those girls from school who still gave him lustful, hungry looks despite knowing he was taken. Walking up to the front door, she knocked and waited for him to answer. She tried again a couple of minutes later when she didn’t receive a reply but again there was nothing. Going over to one of the windows, she cupped her hands around her eyes in an attempt to see inside but she didn’t see any movement.
She was all but ready to turn around and go home when she decided to take a look around the back of the property where it led onto the beach. As she did so, she remembered the time a few months back when she and Nathan had skipped school and he had brought her down to the beach and she had gotten drunk. She hadn’t been lying when she had told him that she had had fun with him. It had been nice spending time alone with him and doing something unexpected and unplanned, well that was until Dan had showed up and spoiled things.
Haley stood facing the rear of the beach house and that too was completely in darkness. It looked like she had been wrong in thinking Nathan would be here and she turned to leave but just before she did, she remembered what she had just been thinking about and she walked on a little further. When she reached the spot that she and Nathan had sat in that sunny afternoon, she saw a familiar figure sitting there and she once again breathed a sigh of relief at having found him. Carefully, she made her way down the sloping pier to where he was sitting on the sand and she stood in front of him and waited for him to notice her which he did a few moments later.
The shadow she created made him look up and his face bore a mixture of confusion and surprise at seeing her standing there. She couldn’t help thinking how adorable he looked but she knew whatever he was going say to her was not going to be adorable in any way, shape or form.
They looked at each other for a few moments more before she broke the silence and simply said, “Hi.”
“Whaddya want?” He asked, his voice slightly slurred, and it was then that she noticed the bottles of alcohol that lay beside him.
“I, uh, I came home…to be with you.”
“Ya shouldn’t have bothered,” he told her before taking another swig from the bottle of Jack Daniels he had clasped in his hand.
Haley bit her lip. Seeing him like this was horrible and she wished there was something she could say to make it better but there obviously wasn’t. It was clear that he had been hurting just as much, if not more so, than she had and knowing she was to blame made her feel sick.
“Don’t say that, Nathan.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not true. I came home because I love you and I want to be with you.”
He started to laugh. “That’s a good one. Funny, you didn’t seem to want to be with me two weeks ago. I told you if you left that we were done but you’re obviously not as smart as people make you out to be because here you are, back in Tree Hill.”
His words cut into her and she lowered her eyes from his face and stared at the ground. “I-I’m sorry.”
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. I gave you a choice and you made your decision. I guess I was stupid to think I’d come first in your life but hey, I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
“You do come first,” she told him vehemently. “You will always come first. I made a mistake, Nathan.”
Nathan shook his head. “The only mistake you made was coming back.” He raised the bottle to his lips again to take another drink but Haley was quick and grabbed it from him and flung it away to the side. “Hey, that’s mine!”
“I don’t care. We need to talk and you need to be sober.”
“What’s the point, Haley? Do you really wanna know what it’s been like this past couple of weeks with you gone? Huh?”
Being at eye level with him now, she noticed the redness around his eyes which matched her own and she felt her heart ache that little bit more. “Yes, I do. But I’m guessing it’s nothing worse than how I’ve been feeling.”
“Bullshit!” He shouted at her and took some sick satisfaction in seeing her wince. “I’m sure you’ve been having such a great time with Rock Star and your new friends that you haven’t given me a second thought.”
“You’d really like to think so, wouldn’t you? But let me set you straight. I haven’t slept since I left you, I’ve hardly been eating, I kept calling the answer machine at the apartment just to hear your voice on the outgoing message and when I’ve been on stage my eyes scan the crowd to see if you’re there.” The tears were rolling down her cheeks but she didn’t bother wiping them away. She wanted and needed him to see how much she had been hurting at being away from him. Breaking down into sobs, she finally covered her face with her hands and let herself cry properly without trying to muffle the sounds.
Nathan stared at his wife’s petite form shaking with the intensity of her crying and, for a split-second, he enjoyed seeing her fall apart but that quickly passed. The truth was he couldn’t bear seeing her cry regardless of who was to blame and why. So, pushing himself up into a kneeling position and then removing her hands from where they covered her face, he gathered Haley into his arms and rocked her back and forth. Having her back in his arms caused tears to come to his own eyes and he felt them trickle down his face. He buried his face into the nook between her neck and shoulder and let himself cry. His hands gripped her waist and he felt her arms slip out from between their bodies and wrap around his shoulders, holding him tightly to her.
For the first time in two weeks, both Haley and Nathan felt that they had a real chance of putting everything right and they both silently prayed that nothing or no one would interfere with that happening.