Forever and A Day | one tree hill

thirteen.

"You've been distant."

"What?" Valentina asks as she looks up from her textbook.

"You've been distant," Haley repeats as she writes in her notebook, "Ever since Nathan quit the team. I feel like you've been avoiding me."

The truth was that Valentina had. Every time she was with Haley, she thought of Nathan, and then she thought about the fact that he had quit the team and their dad had officially moved into the beach house and Valentina just couldn't help but feel guilty, as though she'd played a role in Nathan's misery.

"I have," Valentina confesses, and Haley looks up at her, placing her pencil down.

"Why?"

"Nathan," Valentina answers.

"Nathan?" Haley asks her.

"He's going through a lot, and I am contributing to that by dating the girl that he likes," Valentina says, "And I know that is no fault of our own, but I feel guilty."

"So being with me makes you feel guilty?" Haley asks and Valentina sighs because she knows that she's going to go about this extremely wrong.

"Yes – I mean no. I like being with you Haley, but I also recognize that being with you means that I am indirectly hurting my little brother and I know Nathan's an asshole like seventy percent of the time but he's also my baby brother and I've never seen him like this."

"So, what are you saying?" Haley asks, "That we break up?"

"No," Valentina says instantly, "I don't – I don't want to break up."

"Well, I don't know what else we can do," Haley states, "Because what you're saying to me is that being with me makes you feel guilty and that you don't want to hurt your brother but you're okay with hurting me."

"Haley," Valentina says, "I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm going to give you two options. Me or Nathan. Pick," Haley says as she closes her notebook, shoving it into her bag before walking away. Valentina stares after Haley and rests her head in her textbook.

Basketball practice was terrible. Valentina missed all of her shots, dropped every pass that came her way, and ended up tripping over her own two feet. She was embarrassed but she was also trapped in her own thoughts.

"Are you okay?" Kirsten asked her after practice.

"Yeah please tell us you aren't going to quit too," Sophia says as she closes her locker and looks over at Valentina.

"I'm not," Valentina says as she slams her locker shut and throws her bag over her shoulder, "It's just that Nathan's shit is becoming my shit and it's throwing me off."

That's all Valentina says as she heads out of the locker room. She's walking to her car when a car starts backing up, almost hitting her. Valentina reacts slowly as the car instantly brakes and she looks over to see Peyton's Comet.

"Val! I'm so sorry," Peyton tells her.

"You're fine," Valentina insists, "I should have been watching where I was going."

Peyton puts the car in park as she gets out, "Hey are you okay?"

"Fine," Valentina replies.

"Are you sure?"

Valentina rolls her eyes, "No I'm not sure. My brother is miserable, and I can't help but feel like it's partially my fault. My girlfriend wants me to decide between her and Nathan and I missed every shot I took at practice. Do you know how embarrassing that is? Me missing? I'm the best shooter in Tree Hill history."