Blind Love

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." –William Shakespeare

Chapter 1: Strangers

"Please Peyton?" Brooke pleaded to her best friend. "You haven't dated anyone since Julian, and it would be good if you go out."

Peyton sighed, "I do get out Brooke. I get out and go to work everyday."

Brooke snorted in disagreement. "Going to work doesn't count." She walked up to Peyton's desk and leaned on it. "Please come with me. It's just a family picnic at the Scott's."

"Brooke I don't even know anyone that's going to be there."

"Um, me, Haley, Nathan, Jamie. Do I need to go any further?" Brooke kinked her eyebrow teasingly.

"There's gonna be more people then that, and you know it." Peyton countered.

"That's so not the point. Please come?"

"No."

Brooke heaved out a frustrated sigh. "Fine. But I don't know how I'm gonna tell Jamie his best friend wouldn't come…"

Peyton stood up from the desk, "Oh, no. Leave him out of this. That's not fair."

Brooke smirked, too easy. "What's not fair? How I'm gonna tell Jamie your not coming, or how upset he'll be?"

Peyton groaned and leaned back against her desk and began to massage her temples with her pointer fingers. "Fine. I'll come." She heard Brooke squeal in victory. "But on one condition." She turned back to Brooke and watched her nod. "You can't set me up with anyone."

Peyton watched as Brookes smile turn to a frown. "Fine."

"What?" Peyton thought that was way to easy.

"Fine." Brooke said. She waved her hand around, "Okay, now that you're coming, let's go get some coffee."

They made their way out of Tric and down into town. They came in front of Brookes Cloths over Bros. "You can go ahead, I should check to see if Millie wants to come." She nodded across the street at Karen's Café, the very café they went to everyday for breakfast. Peyton nodded and made her way down the sidewalk, when her phone rang.

She looked at the caller ID and smiled. "Hey Mia. How's the tour?" She asked as she continued walking. "What? What do you mean they're canceling it?" She paused a brief second to make sure she was hearing right. "They would have called me." She continued walking. "It doesn't matter they just decided to do it this morning, they should have called me when they were thinking about canceling it." Peyton began to yell into the phone as she came to the intersection. "Put the manager on the phone. I don't care if he's busy."

She rolled her eyes as she brushed passed a person and stepped off the curb into the street, not even noticing the truck that came into the corner of her eye. She heard calls of her name, Brooke and Millie, off in the distance. Peyton turned slightly in the direction of the truck, and braced herself for impact. But before the truck could hit her, she felt a strong grip on her elbow, as she was pulled back onto the curb into the arms of a stranger. The trucks horn sounding off in the distance. She could see Brooke and Millie over the man's shoulder as she hooked her arms around his waist to steady herself. His bare waist.

"Are you okay?" He asked in a calming voice that made her breath hitch in her throat. She looked up at him expecting him to be looking at her, but he was looking in a completely different direction. He had sunglasses on, while he was shirt-less and wearing black shorts covering up his knees. He held a basketball in the one hand, along with a leash that was hooked to a German Shepard. He was still holding onto her waist when she started to back out of his embrace.

"Yeah. I'm fine now." She let out a breath trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. She wasn't sure if her heart was beating on pure adrenaline or because this half naked man still had a hand on her waist. Either way, she decided she liked the feeling.

"Good." He said, as he smiled down at her. He let his hand slip back down to his side as he heard rapid footsteps approaching. This gave her one second to look at him. Her eyes started at his face. His cute, but oddly shaped nose; luscious pink lips; clean-shaven cheeks, with a strong jaw line. Her eyes fell southward at his tanned, and toned chest. Her daydream got the best of her, as she started to fantasize about being pulled into his strong chest, and being hugged by such muscular arms. Her thoughts were interrupted when she realized she was starring at him. She glanced back up to see if he caught her, but he gave no indication what so ever.

"Peyton are you okay!?" Brooke said as she made her way over to her. Followed by Millie, who had the same look of concern sketched onto her face.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." She said still eyeing the attractive stranger. Before turning back to Brooke, but it seems her eyes were somewhere else at the moment.

"Good thing this nice man saw the truck coming." Brooke said teasingly as she checked him out. She turned back to Peyton and gave her a nod as if saying 'nice job'.

He let out a chuckle. "Not exactly." His dog next to him groaned. "Well, I must be going. It was nice to meet you." He switched the basketball into in left hand, and tightened the dogs leash in his right. He just turned away when her voice stopped him.

"Wait, I never got to thank you." He turned back in the general direction he heard the voice from.

"You don't have to." He smiled gently.

"At least let me buy you a coffee or something." Peyton returned the smile.

"You don't have to do that. A simple thank you will suffice. Besides I have to get going." His dog began to pull him towards the street.

"Thank you." She said as he turned around to leave, but throwing a smile at her over his shoulder.

Brooke spoke up, "Can she at least have your name?" Peyton jammed her elbow into Brooke's side.

He turned back around in the middle of the street. "It's Lucas." He tuned back around and began to bounce the ball in his left hand as he began to jog away with his dog right at his side.

Brooke began to rub her side and gave Peyton a look. "I can't believe you just let him get away."

Peyton smiled sarcastically at her, and put her cell phone in her purse, forgetting about the conversation she had on it moments earlier. She began walking across the street and into the café with Millie and Brooke following her. They all took their normal seat at the counter. "I can't believe I'm still friends with you."

"Brooke cut it out."

"No. I saw you checking him out. You thought he was cute."

"Brooke-"

"Hi girls." Karen came up to them from the other side of the counter. "The usual?"

"Thank god you're here Karen. Peyton just let a perfectly good guy slip through her fingers. Please can you knock some sense into her?" Brooke turned to Peyton and stuck her tongue at her, and Peyton returned the gesture.

Karen's eyebrows rose. "Really? How did you meet?" She asked Peyton.

Millie spoke up. "He saved her from being mauled by a truck."

"That's romantic." She smiled at Peyton.

Peyton groaned, "I thought you were supposed to be on my side."

Karen smiled, "I don't do sides. What did he look like?"

"Well, he had blond hair that was pretty short, a very cute upturned nose, about six foot, wearing shorts….um, I don't recall if he was wearing a shirt…do you remember Peyton?" Brooke teased which caused Millie to chuckle, and Peyton to throw a sugar packet at Brooke's head. Brooke began to laugh. "What? You were the one starring at him for like ten minutes." She said pointedly.

"It was not ten minutes!" Peyton exasperated.

"Might as well be." Millie whispered, as Karen watched the girls amusingly.

Peyton rolled her eyes. "Yes. Fine. He was shirtless."

Karen kinked her eyebrows. "Peyton, did he have a basketball and a dog with him?"

Peyton looked at her confused. "Yeah, he said his name was Lucas. But I didn't get a last name…why?"

Karen mouthed a 'wow'. "Small world."

"Why?" Brook asked.

"He's my son." All the girls were starring at her in shock.

Brooke was the first to break the silence with a gasp. "Oh. My. God. This is perfect! Now you can get his number!" They all began to laugh. "I'm serious." Brooke pouted.

Karen looked at Peyton, "You know, if you wanted to get to know him better, I'm all for it." Karen watched as Peyton began to think about it. "But there might be something you want to know…"

"What?" Peyton asked. She knew she shouldn't get her hopes up, but there was something about him that made her want to know more.

"He might be a little…different then the guys you've dated before."

"Why? Is he crazy or something?"

"Peyton, she said different from the guys you dated…" Brooke tried to joke, but Peyton gave her a stern look. "Sorry, her words not mine."

"Anyway, what's wrong with him?"

"Oh Peyton, nothing is wrong with him. He's perfectly normal…he's just…."

"He's what?"

"He's blind."

A/N: So, this is going to be a rather short story, maybe 5 or so chapters. This was originally going to be a long one shot, but I didn't feel like writing it all out at once, I like to think things through. I know I haven't updated my other stories, but I promise chapter 3 of Placebo is almost done. I got the majority of it written, so I promise to have it up as soon as I can (which should be within the next week. I am shooting for this Sunday). My muse just works at really weird times, so who knows what story will be updated after that (I'm thinking it will be Insomnia). This chapter has some mistakes, so I may come back to fix it later.

PLEASE REVIEW! If you think I should continue it.