There's Only One, Tree Hill (Nathan Scott)

Chapter 7: The Father-Son Game

Rae walked up the driveway of the Scott resistance, reaching to knock on the door her bag slid down her arm hooking on her ponytail. Her head tugged down as she tried to pull herself free.

" ow ow ow!" She exclaimed as the door swung open in front of her.

" Need help there?" Nathan says causing her to stop and pulling the tangled hair out of the strap she looked up seeing him standing in the doorway a smirk on his face.

" Nope I'm good, " she said with a flinch and made her way into the house slipping the bag back onto her shoulder. " Let's just get started."
"Okay..." He said and she could hear the chuckle in his voice as he followed behind her.

***

" The good news is you did better, the bad news is better is a D." She says passing over the practice test that she had just finished marking.

She places her elbows on the book in front of her and leans her head in her hands looking up at him.

"Yeah I guess I didn't put all my effort into it this time," he answered not looking up at her.

"Why's that?" She asked concerned.

"Well, you know how me and Peyton broke up right?" He says looking up at her.

"Yeah, and um Peyton and I." she corrects him.

"What she broke up with you too?" He jokes but she can see the pain behind his smile.

"Haha," she says sarcastically but a chuckle escapes her lips.

" Anyway, I didn't think it would hit her that bad but she freaked out on Brooke today at practice and I- I'm just really worried about her."

" Well maybe it wasn't even about that you know? She may have other things going on right now."

"Yeah that's true," He says looking off into the distance thinking.

" And well maybe you should have worried about her more when you were together." She says a little quieter.

"What." He says looking back to her annoyance filling his features.

"It's true."

"No! You don't know the first thing about Peyton and I."

"Me and Peyton." She corrects a little quieter this time trying to pass it off as nothing.

"Whatever." He says still annoyed.

Silence fills the room after that and it  stays that way until the end of the tutoring session.

***
Raelynn was again looking down at a practice test of Nathan's the next day her red pen moving across the paper.

" You still I'm denial?" She asked not looking up from the paper infront of her.

" What?" He asked his eyebrows furrowed as he looked up at her.

" Missing her, you are allowed to you know." She says looking up at him bringing the pen to her mouth.

" Wait, are you my tutor or my therapist." He says a little humor in his voice.

" Whatever you need," Rae says looking back down to the table, writing his score with a drawing of a flower in the top corner of the paper.

" I treated Peyton pretty bad, you were right with what you said yesterday. It was my fault. She had every right to walk away, I screwed up and I just wish I had a another chance." He says with genuine regret and guilt.

" Nice work." She says caping her pen before laying it on the table.

" Hey that was the truth." He says slightly insulted.