#23 | Nathan Scott

chapter ten

"Look, I came to make sure there's no weirdness about that." Brooke says and Peyton looks over at Allie. "Me too, we're all best friends and we shouldn't let anyone come in between our friendship." She says.

Peyton smiles and looks back at Brooke. "Brooke, I'm cool with you and Lucas." "Are you sure?" Brooke asks Peyton who nods. "Yeah. I just... I just want to draw for a little bit."

The three girls smile at each other before Brooke holds out her fist. "Hoes over bros." She says, Peyton and Allie fist bumping her with a smile.

-

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

Walking into Karen's Cafe, she was greeted by Deb. "Hi Allie, how was school?' She asks while changing the coffee filter. "It was good, how's Dan doing? With the um, whole Nathan incident?" Allie asks awkwardly.

"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 groans in frustration and throws her phone in her jacket pocket in the kitchen.

"You okay?" She asks Peyton who was standing far away from Lucas and Brooke. "Yeah." She answers hesitantly. "Allie, your phone is ringing." She hears Deb call her.

She turns 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 groans and answers, "Hey, mom. How have you been?" Not a word from them since they left and now they want to call and check on her.

"Hi sweetie, just wanted to let you know that your father and I have to go to Switzerland for the next few months." Allie rolls her eyes, "Um okay." "Thanks sweetie, love you! I sent Ada the money around, there should be $5000 in there okay?" "Okay, I love-"

"I gotta go sweetie, bye." And just like that, the phone call ended. Allie sighs and dials Nathan's cell, hoping he would pick up.

"Jerk never called you back, did he?" Allie turns around and sees Nathan. She smiles and wraps her arms around him. "Trust me, you don't want to talk to him anyways." Nathan continues.

She pulls away from him. "What are you doing here?" Nathan sighs, "Look, I'm sorry." Allie shakes her head no and cups his cheek.

"No, it's okay. I just missed you, I'm glad you're back." She places 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 rubs his cheek and smiles. "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 asks her son as she walks in.

"We were keeping score mom, what do you think happened?" Nathan replies, rubbing Allie's arm for comfort. Deb scoffs, "Oh honey, I'm sorry, I should have known."

Nathan wraps his arms around her 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.