It wasn't until he looked around and saw the time that he remembered freshman orientation. With classes due to start in another week, there were a variety of activities this week to acclimate freshman to the campus and college life. Lucas grabbed his robe and stuffed his feet into his slippers. He rummaged through his top dresser drawer where he kept his toiletries. He supposed that Nathan was already in the shower. He seemed to have a thing for being ready on time. The floor was relatively empty since most of students wouldn't be returning until the end of the week. A few shower stalls were in use but from what he could tell, Nathan was not there. 'Maybe he went for breakfast,' Lucas assured himself. A rising fear that the jock was somewhere telling everyone he'd met that his roomy was queer began to bubble in the pit of his stomach. He'd read about incidents like that in the online newsletter he subscribed to. One guy had been viciously attacked by a gang of jocks after such an incident.
Lucas fought hard to swallow down his fears. He quickly left the shower, returned to his room and dressed. By the time he was ready to leave, there was still no sign of Nathan. Lucas stopped by Haley's room and knocked but there was no answer. He hurried across campus, this time to the Harriman building. He located the main auditorium and walked in looking around to see if Haley and her roommate Brooke were there. A small hand waving frantically confirmed this. He jogged down the side aisle to where they were sitting. To his surprise, Nathan was sitting there too on Haley's right side, Brooke was on her left, leaving Lucas a seat next to the cheerleader.
"Why didn't you wake me?" Lucas leaned across the girls to ask.
"I thought you were hungover," Nathan apologized, "I know I was. I don't remember a thing about last night."
Lucas stared at the boy incredulously. Nathan could scarcely hold his gaze. 'So that's how you want to play it,' he thought bitterly. At that moment Lucas decided two things, the first was to be more choosy about who he slept with and the second was to get as far away from Nathan Scott as possible. The latter would prove more problematic since they happened to be sharing a dorm room.
During the morning break, students milled around the dining hall sipping coffee and juice and eating donuts. Most were reconnecting with people they'd met at last night's mixer. Since making a reconnection was not on Lucas' agenda, he stood by himself as even Haley, led away by Brooke joined a group of what he assumed were sorority wannabes. He was so busy feeling like an outsider that he didn't notice the figure that walked up to him until a cup of coffee and a powdery donut were shoved in his face.
"Here," Nathan said, "you missed the refreshments they served this morning."
"Thanks," Lucas said grudgingly. He had no intention of even speaking to the jerk now standing before him.
"I could drink four cups of this," Nathan said, raising his coffee cup "and it wouldn't do any good. I swear my head is pounding and last night is a complete blank. Man, I must have been totally wasted."
Lucas felt his anger bubbling up inside of him.
"So you told me," he answered tersely.
"What's that supposed to me?" "I don't know Nathan, last night was a blur for me too. Is that what you want to hear me say?"
"Lower your voice. Your acting like a girl."
"And you're acting like the prick I met yesterday morning."
Lucas tossed his coffee and donut in the nearest garbage bin and left the dining hall hastily. He knew he couldn't do it, stay there and pretend nothing happened the way Nathan wanted him so desperately to. He hurried across the quad back to his dorm taking the steps two at a time until he reached his floor. By the time he got to his room his chest was pounding and he felt dizzy. He fumbled with the lock and entered in time to grab his medicine.
Haley walked up to Nathan who stood shell shocked by Lucas' outburst. "Is everything okay?" She asked gently.
"Yeah. Sure. I'm just the biggest jerk to ever walk the face of the earth," he said, dumping his refreshments and exiting the hall as well.
"Nathan wait up," Haley called after him. Nathan slowed just a little, allowing the girl to walk by his side.
"What's going on? Did you and Lucas have a fight?"
"Something like that."
"Was it about the party?"
"Why would say that?" Nathan asked defensively.
"Well, he didn't seem to be having a good time and we were all drunk so..."
"Oh. Well...yeah....something happened and now he's mad about it.," Nathan answered trying to be as evasive as possible.
"Look, I know you two didn't hit it off well..."
"He told you that?"
Haley shut her eyes momentarily. She hadn't meant to let him know they'd talked about him.
"Well there was some obvious tension between you two so it wasn't hard to guess."
"Well now you can say there is even more tension but it's no big deal. Our living arrangement is temporary. My dad is sort of a legend around here and in a couple of weeks I'll be in his old fraternity. Till then, I'll just have to keep my distance."
"Sorry things aren't working out between you two," Haley offered sympathetically.
"Why? You're his friend not mine. Why should you care how I feel?"
Haley briefly thought Lucas was right, this guy is a jerk. But something told her their was more to the jock then his brash exterior. She willed her self to not judge him too harshly.
"Look, Luke would kill me if I told you this, but he's sort of been a loner since he was a kid. He never knew his father and the only thing that gave him a sense of identity was basketball."
"He plays basketball?"Nathan asked in disbelief.
"He used to and he was pretty good at it. Almost got a scholarship here to play."
"So what happened? Injured knee?"
"He has ..." Haley bit her lip wondering why she was about to confide intimate details about her best friend to practically a stranger.
"Does it have something to do with the meds he's taking?"
Haley stared at Nathan in disbelief. She never figured on Lucas sharing his medical problems with someone he thought was a jerk.
"He told you about his heart condition?"
The confusion on Nathan's face made Haley realize she'd blundered again.
"He has a heart condition," Nathan said slowly. It was more a statement than a question..
"If you didn't know, how did you know about his meds?"
"I guess I was snooping." The jock's face flushed with embarrassment.
"Look, I'm going to go find Luke," Haley said, barely controlling her anger over his last statement, "you go back to the orientation. Maybe you can fill us in later."
"Haley wait, I think I should go."
"I think you've done enough already," she fumed.
"You don't understand. Something...happened last night. I need to talk to him."
She watched Nathan nodding at her as if he was waiting for her to understand something. The problem was what she thought he was implying couldn't be possible, not after the things Luke had said about him.
"Alright, you go." She was about to give him the classic warning about hurting her friend when Brooke called down the hallway.
"Hey there you two are. Where's Lucas, the next session is about to start?"
"He wasn't feeling well," Haley and Nathan said in unison. Something about it made her trust the guy just a little more.
"I'm going to go check on him," Nathan added. "Take good notes," he called over his shoulder as he jogged down the corridor and disappeared out the door.
"He's probably hung over," Brooke humphed, dragging Haley towards the auditorium by her arm.
The door was opened when Nathan arrived. He knocked first just to warn his roommate he was coming in. He felt the blood drain from his face when he saw the blond laid out on the floor, pills scattered everywhere. He rushed to the boy's side grabbing him up in his arms. He didn't appear to be breathing and his lips were turning a bluish color. Nathan wasted no time. He fished out his cell phone and dialed 911, calmly giving as much information as the operator asked for. He pushed down th desire to curse her out for asking so many questions. That would be something his father would do. He realized the more information he gave, the better prepared the paramedics would be to help Lucas when they arrived. He read off the medication to the operator and gathered as many of the pills as he could. He cursed himself for not bothering to ask Haley what type of heart condition Lucas had.
He called security to alert them to what was happening to insure that the paramedics were sent up without delay. Security told him they would also contact one of the medical personnel on staff. Nathan just prayed that someone would get there soon.
"Just hold on and I'll make everything right." He held Lucas close in his arms.
It seemed like an eternity before anyone showed up and then the room was abuzz with paramedics, one of the school nurses and the dorm monitor plus on lookers who skipped out on the freshman orientation. Lucas was floating in and out of consciousness as they loaded him up on the stretcher. Nathan rode with him to the hospital. It wasn't until he was asked to step outside of the treatment area that he remembered Haley. Hoping that she hadn't turned her phone off, he stepped out of the ambulance bay into the sunlight and dialed her number.
"Haley, thank god," he sighed when his new best friend answered.
"What's going on?" Haley asked, heading out of the auditorium to better hear Nathan.
"It's Lucas. We're at Kensington General."
The stress of all that transpired finally took its toll on the teen and he found himself barely keeping it together as his voice threatened to break while he relayed all that had happened.
"I couldn't help them. I don't know his mom's name and number or what type of heart condition he has."
Haley told him about the HCM and then told him she would call Lucas' mom.
"Hang in there Nathan. I'm getting Brooke and we'll be there shortly."
"I don't even know where this hospital is."
The teen sounded so lost to Haley, that was the quality in him that made her feel compassion for him earlier.
"Don't worry, I'll find out where it is. Just sit tight, we'll be there soon."
Haley clicked off and called Karen, Lucas' mom. Not having money enough to book a flight on such short notice, Karen picked up the phone and dialed the one man she never thought she would.
"You're son is sick, I need a ticket up to his school."
When Dan insisted on flying out with her, Karen had no idea why. Dan had never acknowledge that Lucas was his son. He even refused a paternity test to prove it. 'Maybe he's softening in his old age,' she thought before chucking that notion aside. In any event she agreed to let him come with her.
Dan was pretty sure Karen wouldn't deliberately send her son to the very same school his son was going to. The fact that she didn't object to his coming along made it almost clear that she had no idea Nathan was there. Nathan was about six months younger then Lucas. Dan had opted to marry the well off woman he knocked up shortly after refusing to own up to his responsibilities with Karen. He'd heard that Lucas had been sick and that was why he didn't graduate a year earlier. Though their sons went to different schools, Dan made it his business to keep tabs on Karen and her son. He couldn't figure out how he'd missed this vital piece of information.
While he believed Karen thought it was a nice gesture on his part to fly to the school with her, he actually wanted to talk to his old pal Dean Whitey Durham and see what he could do to insure that Lucas Roe would not be returning for another semester.
Lucas' condition was stabilized but the doctors were going to keep him overnight for observation. Brooke seemed totally bored to have to spend the rest of her day hanging out in a hospital so after receiving the news that Luke would be alright, Haley gave her the go ahead to leave which she did without hesitation. Karen had called to say she was flying in and would be at the hospital within the next two hours. Haley had given her the doctor's name and all the information they knew. The staff had been reluctant to update them since they weren't family until Nathan blurted out that Lucas was his life partner.
After convincing Nathan to leave Lucas' side so he could rest, the two walked over to the cafeteria for coffee. As soon as they were settled by a window near a secluded corner Haley started in.
"So what's all this about you being Luke's life partner?"
"We needed information and they were being pricks."
"You could have said you were brothers?" Haley offered.
"I doubt they would have believed me," Nathan said, staring down into his coffee.
"Why?"
"Because when he woke up...I sort of...kissed him."