A Lot Can Happen At Boarding School (One Tree Hill FF)

Chapter 33

Chapter 33: A Tree Hill Raven always knows when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to walk away, and when to run.

Nathan wasn't a good sleeper, but he'd never tell her that. They'd spent half the night talking. Stealing kisses between memories, between apologies, between the what-was and the what-if's. When they finally went to bed, the sun was coming up, and yet here he was awake and admiring the rise and fall of Haley perched on his chest, wearing nothing but his shirt. Her leg wrapped over his knee, pulling his calf just slightly toward her. She was nestled against him, in a way Nathan had never fit someone else.

He'd remembered how intoxicating Haley could be – the way she touches his face, the feathered kisses through his shirt, the way her eyes dance when he speaks to her; so reactionary and undivided. But a memory does no justice to the moment. Last night Nathan felt his heart race and his gut knot; his body moving involuntarily– a lean, a reach, a twitch – anything to be closer to Haley. And as much as that'd been simultaneously a high he'd been chasing and avoiding for years, it hits different with age.

Haley is a woman with curves and strength, lines and scars, from years of smiling through the unexpected and carrying a weight that should never have been hers in the first place. Every glimpse of something new – the perma-shrug of her shoulder, the noticeable curve of her ass, the freckle behind her knee – pushes Nathan further and further over the edge of reason. She was beautiful before, but this Haley baring her soul to him for the first time in her life, is enchanting. He needed to know every part of her.

It scares Nathan how easily he let his guard down – he's been hurt most of his life by his parents, by mooching friends, by the media, and those walls never waiver. It makes him wonder if he ever really had a wall up with Haley. Was he ever even mad? Maybe he was just so damn sad he had to box it away and never speak of it again.And as soon as the thought crosses his mind, the truth hits him like a ton of bricks. When he lost Haley, he lost himself, and he never came back. Walls went up, but against the world. If he couldn't trust her, he didn't want to trust anyone else, or set himself up for disappointment... again.

This morning though, he felt lighter. And as Haley begins to stir in his arms, Nathan squeezes her a little tighter.

"Nathan?" Haley asks, groggily.

"Hm," he answers, doing his best to seem equally asleep.

"Are you awake?" She asks.

"No," he laughs. She surprises him, biting lightly on his chest. "And I wouldn't do that."

"Oh," Haley says with a blush.

"I'm trying to be a gentleman," Nathan jokes.

Unable to stop herself, she glances down to find Nathan's bulging boxers, very, very awake. "Oh my god, why do you have the most woodiest morning wood I've ever seen. Where was he last night?"

"It's called whiskey dick! Even I get it," Nathan sighs. "And I've been up for a while with you in my arms. That's um, very pleasant."

Haley's eyes crinkle with adoration. "Is it weird if I think that's adorable?"

"Wasn't really going for adorable," Nathan says, swallowing hard.

"You never are," Haley laughs, snuggling into him. "But you are the most adorable person to me."

Nathan squeezes her, planting a kiss on the top of her head. Haley's eyes flutter closed, her favorite of all Nathan's kisses.

"Are you really here?" Haley asks, leaning her head up to look at him.

"I hope so," Nathan says with a smirk. Haley playfully smacks his abs.

"I just mean, this isn't me wishful thinking, right? You're here for more than a night," Haley says wearily. "Which, I guess, we're all only here for one more night. But you know what I mean. I guess I'm asking –"