Love Letters to Write Before I Die

Katie, Nathan’s close friend at school, also attended the event wearing a lovely LBD that hugged her figure and flowed around her whenever she moved. She had a charm and elegance that most girls would kill for and to top it all off, she was the kind of person who can recite the numbers of pi and made it look as if it was the easiest thing to recite in the world. While it did seem that she was intelligent, she honestly lacked common sense.

And after Haley saw past that, she finally realized that the so-called ‘charm’ that Katie seemed to possess was nothing more than naivety. And even though Haley just knew her for half an hour or so, it scared the crap out of her. Haley felt as if she needed to keep Katie away from the wolves out there.

When they walked out of the restroom and passed the elevators, Haley somehow wanted to glance towards the closing doors. It was the first mistake she did that night.

“Haley?”

“Huh?” Haley said, her heart pounding as the doors pinged shut.

“It may not seem like it, but Nathan and Ryan can be pigs sometimes. They might steal things off of our plates.”

“Right,” Haley said, smiling.

When Katie started to talk about the time when she almost took a spiked drink from a complete stranger at school, Haley looked behind her shoulder cautiously, wondering if her eyes were relaying all the wrong images to her brain.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“What’s on your mind?” Haley asked Nathan. They were the only ones who were sitting at the table. The others were dancing and Nathan’s parents stopped by to say hi for a while until they were pulled away by some grim looking lawyers.

Nathan rubbed his face. “I don’t know whether to laugh or to feel sorry for that clown right now. Seriously, the kids here are volatile.”

“Look at the bright side, it’s not everyday you see people hitting the clown with poodle-shaped balloons and such.”

Nathan chuckled, rolling back his sleeves and standing up.

“Where are you going?” Haley asked.

To her amazement, Nathan winked and motioned to the dance floor.

“I can’t dance,” she replied, feeling panic swirling in her chest. But she welcomed it. The anxiety, the nerves – anything to replace the awful feeling in her gut ever since she left the restroom earlier that evening. She welcomed it.

“From the person who wants me to have fun tonight? Really?”

Nathan led her to the dance floor, their fingers intertwining. For some reason, Haley had an uncomfortable feeling that she was the only one who was too aware of how close they were being when he pulled her into his arms, her body pressing against his as he placed her limp arm on his shoulder.

And when he spun her with a playful grin on his face, she should be happy that he was having fun. That Nathan Scott was finally having fun but she just couldn’t.

When his arms wrapped around her again, Haley found herself clutching on the front of his shirt silently. She pressed her ear against his chest, trusting her bangs to obstruct Nathan’s view of her face. She wanted to show him that she was happy that he invited her along, that it was an honor. But all she wanted to do was to run back home.

Ugh, curiosity killed the cat.

“I want to go home,” she whispered, her voice quivering.

They stopped dancing, a couple of minutes before the music stopped.

“What?”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Haley pushed her way through the crowd. Nathan maneuvered through the crowd too, following her closely behind, trying not to lose sight of the suddenly distraught girl that stood in front of him just moments ago.

When they were out at the lobby, Nathan jogged up to her. It was quite easy, since she was wearing heels and he was not.

“Nathan,” she said, sighing. “Just go back to the party, I honestly don’t want to ruin your night.”

“No.”

“Nathan.”

He seemed to be in a struggle for a while before finally running his fingers through his hair. “It won’t be fun if you weren’t with me in the first place. Let me at least send you home.”

Haley gave up. She didn’t want to argue with Nathan anymore because from her experience, Nathan had a knack of putting up a fight as shown in his letters.

“Okay,” she said, turning away from him and walking briskly towards the exit. She needed to go home. She needed to know what the hell was going on. And she hoped and prayed that her 20/20 vision was failing her.