The Forbidden and The Reckless - Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Lucas laughed, his fingers squeezing hers affectionately. “Very funny, Hales. Who put you up to that one, huh? Skills, Fergie or...” His words trailed off as his eyes took in the serious expression on her face which hadn’t faltered since she’d first arrived and he realised in that precise moment that she wasn’t joking.
“Oh God, please tell me this is some kind of sick joke,” he pleaded.
“I can’t,” Haley whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry? Why should you be sorry?” he asked, the sarcasm dripping from his voice. “It’s not as if you knew I’d be angry about it. It’s not as if Nathan Scott is the fucking devil who’s made my life hell these past few months, right?”
“Luke, I—”
“What? What could you possibly say that is going to make this any better?”
She wiped away the tears that were now furiously rolling down her cheeks, her eyes looking down at the carpet instead of at her best friend’s face. “I want to explain.”
“You want to explain,” he mocked. “Fine, explain to me how my supposed best friend came to tutor the little bastard who decided to torment me just because I joined his precious basketball team.”
Haley bit her lip to stop herself from reprimanding him for calling Nathan that. “The director of the Tutoring Center made the decisi—”
“No, don’t do that, don’t blame it on the school. You could’ve said no when they asked you, you could’ve told them any number of reasons why you couldn’t take him on but you didn’t. You were the one who decided to take on the dumb little fu—”
“Don’t call him that!” she blurted out, her hand covering her mouth as soon as the words had left her lips.
Lucas looked at her in horror as more of the puzzle seemed to fit into place and he felt sick to his stomach as he realised there was more to this than straightforward tutoring. “H-Haley... please tell me what I’m thinking is wrong, that I’m completely way off.” The urge to throw up overwhelmed him as he watched her slowly shake her head.
“I-I can’t.” Haley knew as soon as she had defended Nathan that Lucas would realise just why she’d done it.
“You’re not just tutoring him, are you?”
“It started off as tutoring but—”
“Just answer the question.” His voice was flat but he forced himself to keep looking at her; he needed to see the truth on her face as she confirmed what he had already guessed.
“No, I’m not just tutoring him.”
Turning his back on her, Lucas ran his hands through his hair. “How could you do this to me? To our friendship? I thought I could trust you.”
“You can trust me,” she told him. Her arms were wrapped around herself and she hesitantly took a step forward but stopped when he again spoke.
“No, I can’t. You broke that trust by going behind my back and agreeing to tutor him. And the fact that you’re... doing more than that now… It makes it ten times worse.”
“Luke, please let me ex—”
“There’s nothing to explain,” he interrupted. “You had to know I wouldn’t be okay with this yet you still agreed to help him and then you started something else. You do know that he’s just playing you, right? That he’s probably telling all his buddies about what you two do together.”
“He’s not,” she replied, her tone confident which actually surprised him judging by how his eyebrows suddenly lifted.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because he loves me.”
Lucas laughed and shook his head. “Loves you? Can you hear yourself, Haley? The only person Nathan Scott loves is Nathan Scott.”
“That’s not true. You don’t even know him, not really.”
“And I don’t want to know him, thanks. I can’t believe you’re falling for his BS... I thought you were smarter than that but it looks like I was wrong.”
“It’s not BS,” she stated, wiping away her tears and planting her hands firmly on her hips. “Do you really think I’d risk my friendship with you over Nathan if it didn’t mean something to me? I’m not some naïve little schoolgirl with a crush who melted just because the most popular guy in school smiled at me.
Look, I knew he and the other guys on the team were hazing you and when I found out I had to tutor him, I figured I could use it to my advantage and it worked. I told him straight that I’d only help him if he and the others stopped torturing you and he agreed to my terms. My one condition was that you didn’t find out about it.”
“Oh, I bet that went down well.”
Ignoring his comment, Haley continued. “It was obvious he was trying to use me to get to you… I wasn’t stupid enough to believe it was a simple coincidence that I was assigned to tutor him but I turned the tables on him.”
Lucas frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I took control of the situation. I was the one who told him how it was going to be and I made it clear that if you found out about the tutoring that it would be over. That he’d have to find someone else to tutor him.”
“Well, I guess that makes all of this okay then just ‘cause you told him how it was going to be?”
“No, that’s… that’s not what I meant, Luke. It’s just… I did it for you… This started as a way of helping you with what was happening with the team. I knew th—”
“Don’t you dare lay this at my door,” he shouted. “I didn’t ask you to do any of this… You made the decision to tutor him and it doesn’t matter that you were the one in control because you knew how I’d feel about it. Do you really think I’d want you anywhere near him even if it did make things better for me with the team?”
“Lucas, I—”
“You did this for you, Haley! Stop kidding yourself. You’re always playing the martyr and this was the perfect opportunity for you to do that yet again.” He paused, running his hands through his hair, looking anywhere but at her. Just knowing that she was spending time with that little bastard made him want to puke.
“How can you say that?” she said, taking a step towards him and flinching when he took a step backwards away from her.
“Because it’s true. Everyone thinks you’re so perfect and yet you’re not… you’re just like the rest of them; only in it for yourself and to make yourself look better than everyone else.”
Haley shook her head, a confused expression etched upon her face. “I don’t understand.”
Raising his eyes to meet hers, he fixed her with an angry glare. “Okay, here’s an example for you. When we first met you told me and my mom that we needed you more ‘cause it was just the two of us whereas you came from a big family. There you were, trying to make us feel better that we had you now when, really, it was you who needed us ‘cause you kind of got lost in the crowd that is your family. Even though it’s just you at home now, your parents are always off visiting your siblings instead of spending time with you.”
“No…” she said, her voice quiet. God, she knew he’d be angry but she hadn’t quite envisioned him being this cruel. He knew how she felt about her parents often being away and for him to be throwing it in her face like this…
“Admit it, Haley.”
“I love you and Karen… You both mean so much to me and yeah, I needed you just as much as I thought you needed me but it was never about me spending time with you just to make myself feel good. I-If that’s what you think of me, then…” Her voice trailed off as she tried to swallow the lump in her throat.
“Then what?”
“Then maybe you don’t know me as well as I thought you did,” she choked out.
“Yeah, that’s sounding about right.” Lucas watched her out of the corner of his eye, taking in how much smaller she suddenly looked, her arms wrapped around her waist in what he assumed to be some kind of attempt to protect herself from his words. Right now he didn’t care. Just the thought of her spending any time whatsoever with that… him made his skin crawl and she had the audacity to pin it on him. He never asked for her help… she’d made the decision all by herself so she could deal with the consequences.
“So, I guess now I know all about your dirty little secret that I’ll be seeing him all over you from now on?”
“He won’t be all over me,” she mumbled despite having a strong feeling that Nathan would at the very least be trying to be all over her. She knew how much he hated not being able to talk to her at school or walk her to class so it was a given that he’d be trying to make up for it now that Luke knew about the two of them.
“Yeah, right,” he scoffed before adding, “You do realise that as soon as he gets you into bed you won’t see him for dust, right?”
Haley’s face flushed bright red and her eyes immediately left his and stared back at the carpet.
“Haley? No… Please tell me I’m wrong… That you haven’t done that with him.” Her silence gave him all the answer he needed and he again ran his hands through his hair as he began pacing in front of her. “How could you? I thought you were waiting until you were married, that you were waiting for the right person. I just… How—”
“He is the right person!” she blurted out, her eyes meeting his again. “I didn’t plan on sleeping with him… it just happened but I’m not sorry. The only thing I’m sorry about is that I’m hurting you.”
“He’s the right person? Please, don’t make me fucking laugh. The guy is using you and you’re either too blind or too stupid to see that. I just hope you’re not expecting me to stick around and pick up the pieces when he breaks your heart which he will.” Closing the distance between them, he gave her a hard look and continue, “God, I can’t believe you’re being so naïve about him, Haley. You know the type of guy he is, you’ve seen what he’s done to me these past few months and you’re willing to let all of that go just because you’re screwing him. Tell me, are you doing that for me, too?”
Without thinking about what she was doing, Haley brought her hand back and slapped him across his face. Her eyes filled with tears and she took several steps back as the enormity of what she’d just done threatened to overwhelm her. She was too scared to look at him, too scared to see the hurt and maybe even hatred she was sure was etched upon his face. “I-I’m sorry, Luke… I’m so sorry,” she cried before turning and fleeing from his room, from the house that had been like a second home to her for so many years.
Lucas stared after her, his hand rubbing his stinging cheek as a heavy weight seemed to settle on his chest. He couldn’t believe he’d just lost his best friend to his bastard half-brother.
How the hell had that happened!?