23 | Nathan Scott

chapter nine

Allie woke up in Nathan's arms and smiled before snuggling closer into his neck. "So, if Haley comes into my room, I'm pushing you off my bed and out my window okay?" She joked with him. He laughed and ran his hand up and down her arm.

"Look, I think I should get back to the madness." Nathan says which makes Allie whine and cuddle him even tighter. "But, hey, if I could, I'd stay like this all day." He says and grabs her chin to make her look at him. She laughs and quickly kisses him before getting up.

Nathan was putting his shoes on but before he could get up to leave, Allie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss again. She pulls away and places one last kiss on his lips, "Bye, Nate." He laughs and gets up, "Bye, Alles."

-

Allie was walking around campus with Lucas when a semi argument between the two occurred. "Brooke's honest, she's not afraid to be herself. And plus, she's not covered head to toe in issues." Lucas says which makes Allie scoff.

"You know, Peyton just had a hard life alright. Cut the girl some slack." Allie said and sat next to him. "You know what, if you're happy, I'm happy." Lucas stared at her and frowned. "Are you happy?" He asks her. She nods her head excitedly. "Yeah, I am."

-

A couple of hours later, Allie and Peyton were painting signs for the school. "Hey, you okay?" She asks the latter. "Yeah, just... I went over to Lucas's place last night and Brooke was there." Peyton says. Allie sighs, 'Yeah, they've been spending a lot of time together. I'm sorry Peyton." She says and rubs the other girl's shoulder. "It's okay, I'll be fine."

Before the conversation could get any further Brooke walked up to the two girls. She smiled and crouched down next to Peyton. "Hey, I wanted to talk about Lucas." Allie took that as her sign to go somewhere else and excused herself. "I'm gonna go grab some water."

Walking around she saw Nathan, "Nate!" She said and walked over to him. She could see the frown in his face. "What's wrong?" She asked, grabbing his face to look at her. "Whitey cancelled practices." He answered her before grabbing her hand and placing a kiss on it.

"I'm so sorry Nathan." She said and rubbed his cheek. "It's okay. Hey, I'll uh, catch you later okay?" He says and kisses her on the lips quickly before leaving. "Okay, bye." She says and walks back to Peyton who had a sour look on her face.

-

Allie was on her way to work when she ran into her sister on the street. "Hales, what are you doing?" Haley looked at her. "Oh, uh Deb agreed to an open mic night to attract more buzz to the cafe. I'm heading over to Peyton to help create flyers." Haley said and walked off. "Bye! She yelled and Allie waved to her.

Walking into Karen's Cafe, she was greeted by Deb. "Hi Allie, how was school?' She asked while changing the coffee filter. "It was good, how's Dan doing? With um the whole Nathan incident?" Allie asked. "Well you know Dan, he's trying to handle it but can't." Deb laughs which causes Allie to awkwardly chuckle. She grabs her apron and ties it around her waist before grabbing her notepad to take orders.

A few hours later, the cafe was filled with so many people from Tree Hill. Allie had been trying to get a hold of Nathan, but every time she called he would hang up with a "Not a good time, I'll call you back." Allie groaned in frustration and threw her phone in her jacket pocket in the kitchen.

"You okay?" She asked Peyton who was standing far away from Lucas and Brooke. "Yeah." She answers hesitantly. "Allie, your phone is ringing." She heard Deb call her. She turned towards Peyton, "I'll be right back." Peyton nods her head and Allie goes to grab her phone.

Hoping it's Nathan, she quickly looks for it, only to find that it's her mom calling. She groaned and answered, "Hey, mom. What's up?" "Hi sweetie, just wanted to let you know that your father and I decided to extend our trip, we'll be home in about three weeks okay?" Allie rolled her eyes, "Uh yeah that's fine, I'll tell Hales." "Thanks sweetie, love you!" And just like that the phone call ended. Allie sighed and dialed Nathan's cell, hoping he would pick up.

"Jerk never called you back, did he?" Allie turned around and saw Nathan. She smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "Trust me, you don't want to talk to him anyways." Nathan continued. She pulled away from him. "What are you doing here?" Nathan sighed, "Look, I'm sorry." Allie shook her head.

"No, it's okay. I just missed you, I'm glad you're back." She placed a quick kiss on his lips. "Yeah me too. It's like... every time I'm with him, I just get caught in this riptide. The harder I try to get out, the harder it is for me to keep from drowning." He admits to her. She places her hand on his cheek and rubs it. "Maybe you just need to steer clear of the water for a little while."

"Hey Nate, I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow. What happened?" Deb asked her son as she walked in. "We were keeping score mom, what do you think happened?" Nathan replied. Deb scoffs, "Oh honey, I'm sorry, I should have known."

Nathan wraps his arms around Allie's waist and shrugs. "It's okay, I'm used to it." Allie gives Deb a smile before they both walk out to the front to finish watching Jake's performance.