Chapter 1
A/N: If you read my other story The Search For Something More then you might remember that I said that I wouldn't upload another story until I finished that one because I wanted to make sure it was complete but I figured that seeing as there's only one chapter left I would definitely be able to finish it so here I am.
This is the second story I've uploaded which means I'm still pretty new at this. It's also very different from what I usually write; it's a lot less fluffy and happy so I really don't know what I'm doing.
The story is basically about Lucas and Peyton's relationship from the ages of fourteen to seventeen but their parents and friends have a problem with them being together which causes problems for their relationship.
I hope the actual story is better than that summary I just gave.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill, it would be nice though...
What if this storm ends?
And I don't see you
As you are now
Ever again
"Just get the hell out, Lucas," she screamed at him, he left reluctantly but he was aware that if he didn't he would only cause more damage and he couldn't risk that, not anymore.
The tears were still running down her face as she collapsed on her bed from the exhaustion of an argument with the boy she was in love with and the fact that she was about to have the conversation with her dad that she never wanted to have... not yet, not at seventeen.
The boy she was in love with.
It sounded so perfect didn't it? But their lives were far from it, they'd been together for three years but at the same time they'd never been together, not with their parents and their friends ripping them apart.
Over the years she'd wished that he would just take her away, to that place she could only dream of where they could just be together without her father's overbearing presence and all the other problems that they were faced with.
Half of the time they were held apart but they found a way and it was worth it if it meant that they could be together, because at the end of the day they were destined to be together, no matter what their parents told them.
It's just a shame they kept breaking each other's hearts.
He walked with no destination, just walked to clear his mind. It was all too much, but at the same time not enough. He loved her so much but it never seemed enough. Enough to tell the world, enough to be free from the whispers of people, enough for the rest of the world to believe in them.
According to everyone else their relationship should never have even started, her dad and his mum had warned them that this would happen, that their innocent relationship wasn't so innocent and their new found romance would just end in heartbreak.
They were half right; there would certainly be a lot of heartbreak but this wasn't an end. This was an entirely new beginning.
She heard the front door close indicating that either Lucas came back to talk or her dad had come home, she hoped it was the first option but knew that she could never be that lucky.
As she opened the kitchen door she saw him there, just sat at the table reading the newspaper. When she was a little girl she hadn't even once thought that her life would be like this at seventeen, hell even a few years ago this wouldn't have seemed possible.
"Daddy, we need to talk about something," she informed him quietly, her hands restless and moving fast.
"Daddy? This can't be good." He attempted a joke but then he saw the seriousness of her expression. "What is it honey?" She took a deep breath there was no going back now,
"I'm pregnant."
3 years earlier
"Dad?" She questioned as she went into the house.
She'd just seen a moving van at the abandoned house just down the street and was curious as to who would buy it, ever since she was eight or nine years old she'd known that house to be empty, simply because the people who had lived there before had left town in a hurry and hadn't had a chance to sell their home. That was the story she'd always been told anyway and she had no reason to believe that there was more to it than that.
She remembered vaguely who had lived there before they had left; it was a boy the same age as her and his mum, she couldn't remember his dad. The mum was kind to her; she owned a café and was an excellent cook so she'd sometimes give Peyton treats she had left over. Then one day they just weren't there anymore although she couldn't remember them actually leaving, she guessed it was because her mum died around the same time.
"Dad?" She yelled again knowing that he was home for once.
"Peyton, you don't have to shout through the house when you know I'll be in the kitchen." He reminded her for the hundredth time.
She rolled her eyes at his familiar warnings and continued with her queries. "Is someone moving into the house down the road?"
"Actually Karen Roe and her son are moving back, he was about your age, right?"
"Yeah, I think so anyway, it was so long ago I can barely remember them."
"Just stay away from them, Peyton," he warned and she saw immediately that he was serious about it which made her curious.
"Why? We don't even know anything about them."
"Would you just do as you're told for once?"
"Whatever, I'm going out."
"No you're not."
"Well I disagree..."
"You know the rules; you're not allowed to leave the house unless I know where you are going, who you are going to be meeting and what time you will be home."
"Fine. I'm going to the park where I will meet Brooke and I won't be back any later than nine."
From the look her father gave her she begrudgingly changed it to eight thirty and set towards the door but before she could exit the prison her dad had one more thing to say.
"Peyton, you know I trust you, it's just the others that I can't trust."
She was sat at the rivercourt alone and not expecting any company except for her sketch book, it wasn't the first time she'd lied to her father and it certainly wouldn't be the last but she felt even less guilty about it this time. She couldn't understand how he could leave her for weeks at a time then return home and act like an overprotective father; she supposed it was out of guilt or something.
She heard the rhythmic thudding of a basketball behind her and turned around sharply only to see a tall boy with blond hair and blue eyes staring right back at her.
After what seemed like forever but was actually only two seconds she tore her gaze from him and turned back to her sketchbook hoping that her cheeks weren't as red as they felt.
He watched the familiar looking blonde girl sat on the table at his favourite place in the world, the place he hadn't been in six years and it was all because of her, or so he'd been told. It was hard to believe that an eight year old girl would be the reason they left their home but he believed what he'd been told or at least he used to, he wasn't sure what to think anymore. Her beauty captured him like no one else, she seemed like an angel; innocent, slightly tortured and beautiful in every sense of the word.
How could this angel be the reason that their lives had been hell the past six years? She couldn't be the reason, she just couldn't.
When he realised that he'd probably been staring at her for too long he decided to play some basketball, the whole reason he came to the rivercourt in the first place. As the ball went through the net time and time again he resisted glancing over at the girl who had taken his breath away from the moment his blue eyes had connected with her emerald green ones.
She tried to continue sketching but as soon as she heard the basketball go through the net she felt inclined to watch the familiar looking boy, the way he moved fascinated her with his body twisting and turning in all directions - it was mesmerising.
Then he missed and the ball rolled at an impossibly slow pace to the table where she sat and as he came to collect his ball their eyes connected once more before he smirked at her, picked up his ball and walked away.
When he got home he found his mother unpacking a box in the kitchen before she looked at him with her tired eyes.
"How was the river court? Did you see any of your old friends there?" She asked, attempting to engage him in a rare conversation. He had spent the past six years brooding about what could have been if they would have stayed in Tree Hill, she didn't see the point herself, they had no choice but to move.
"No, I didn't see anyone but I had fun, it was nice to get back there after all this time," he said partially with bitterness. He understood his mother's reasons for their drastic change of lifestyle but he'd missed this place and the people in it.
"I'm sure you'll see them soon," she promised him guiltily.
"Whatever, mum, I'm going to bed."
"I'm sorry, Lucas, I just did what I thought was best."
"I know."
All night Peyton couldn't keep the blonde boy out of her head, he seemed so familiar yet at the same time completely different from anyone else that she knew. He'd captivated her at the rivercourt and she felt concerned that a guy could get her feeling like this without even speaking a word to her. Her lack of experience with these feelings left her confused about their unspoken connection, she didn't even know if he'd taken any notice of her but she couldn't help but feel like he had. She just wanted to know him, at least know his name.
The next day at school she got her wish.
"Hi I'm Lucas Scott, I'm new here."
Peyton lifted her head from her desk to see the boy from the rivercourt talking to her teacher; it was like some sort of twisted fate that he was in her class.
"Lucas Scott? Sit in the desk in the corner next to Peyton please."
Peyton cringed when she heard her name mentioned, of course it was obvious that she would end up sat next to him since the seat next to her was the only spare one in the class. She supposed that she should be happy that the boy she'd been thinking about constantly since he left the night before was so close to her but at the same time she knew that having someone with so much power over her was dangerous.
As he walked over to her corner she attempted to avoid his gaze, just like she had the night before but also like last time she couldn't peal her eyes from his piercing blue eyes. As he took his seat they locked eyes and he hit her with the same smirk from the night before but this time she also noticed something else in his eyes, it was almost painful as though he didn't know whether to talk to her or not. She hoped that he would.
She set herself up for disappointment however when they spent the whole lesson sitting silently next to each other, Peyton wasn't sure why he was looking at her like she'd done something wrong but she felt concerned that this boy who didn't even know her seemed to hate her with a passion she could only marvel at.
As Peyton was changing in the locker rooms for cheerleading practice she attempted to block the annoying teenage girl chatter from her mind. This was the part she hated the most about cheerleading; the other members of the squad and the worst part was that they all knew about this therefore she was excluded from most conversations. Her only real friend on the squad was her best friend Brooke Davis, she was probably the reason that Peyton joined the squad in the first place, well her and the fact that her mother had cheered when she was in high school.
Unfortunately today was the day that the other members of the squad decided to talk to her; of course it was only for their own benefit though.
"Hey, Peyton," Bevin called her from across the locker room.
Peyton glanced up, wishing that Brooke hadn't chosen today of all days to be ill.
"Yeah?"
"You sit next to that new guy, Lucas, in English right?" Bevin asked her with a fake smile firmly in place on her face.
Peyton returned a sickly sweet smile before answering her superficial question, "Yeah, I do but I don't know anything about him, he was really quiet the whole lesson."
"Really?" Rachel asked smugly, "We had biology together and he couldn't stop talking."
"You sure that wasn't you, Rachel?" she commented breezily, "I mean we all know that any guy who comes within five metres of you has to suffer from your flirting."
This caused a few of the other girls to start snickering which made Peyton feel both a sense of accomplishment and guilt, especially when she saw the embarrassed expression on Rachel's face.
"So you didn't talk to him at all?" Bevin asked Peyton who responded by shaking her head, "it's just that he's really, really hot."
Peyton then turned away from the rest of the cheerleaders and rolled her eyes but she felt something foreign in her stomach, it was almost jealousy. But she couldn't be feeling jealous about a guy she'd never even talked to, could she?
It was only his first day at Tree Hill High School and he already hated it. After sitting next to the girl from the river court he'd seen the day before in English then ignoring her the whole time, he then had to put up with some redhead constantly asking him questions in biology but the worst event of the day was when he talked to Whitey, the basketball coach. It wasn't so much the talk actually as the confrontation with his 'brother' who decided that if Lucas was going to join the basketball team then he would make his life a living hell.
He knew about Nathan, during one of the fights he'd had with his mum over the past few years it had all come out about how she met Dan and then he left her when she got pregnant then got some other girl pregnant just months after her. He knew his half-brother's name was Nathan Scott but that was it. He didn't know about his life with Dan pressuring him to be the best constantly, he didn't know that Nathan's mum was never around but he certainly knew that Nathan Scott resented him.
As Lucas walked out the door of the school he bumped straight into a mass of blonde curls.
"Hey, watch where you're..." She turned to yell at him but when she saw his face she seemed to forget the rest of her sentence.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you," he apologised while trying to keep his voice level. Here she was, the girl that ruined his life all those years ago yet he was sure that they were connected through more than just that.
"It's okay," she whispered while brushing a curl behind her ears.
There was a moment of silence where he considered the situation, he knew that talking to her was playing with fire yet at the same time he felt that it was worth it.
"So are you waiting for anyone in particular?" He asked her looking down at his shoes, still unsure as to whether he should talk to her or not, he didn't even know if she would want him to talk to her.
She appeared to be shocked that he was talking to her but she smoothed her expression after only a small moment, "Well I was waiting for my dad but he just called me to tell me he couldn't make it, I was just about to start walking."
"Oh, well do you want some company? I'm walking too," he offered only thinking of the consequences when it was too late, why couldn't he just stay away from this one girl? He could have an acceptable relationship with anyone else in this school yet he had to be drawn to the one girl that would cause disapproving glares and whispers on the street.
"So you're a cheerleader?" he asked unnecessarily after they had been walking in silence for a few minutes.
"Yeah, but on days like today I wonder why," she admitted while looking down, she didn't want to get lost in his eyes again; they held so much power over her.
"It's funny; I'm thinking the same thing about basketball." He let out a breathy laugh while looking forward, since they'd started walking he hadn't looked at her once and it bothered her more than she'd like to admit.
"Not the best first day?" she asked him sympathetically.
"Not exactly, no." He paused and took a breath, "What about you? I thought cheerleaders were meant to be cheery?"
"Well you're looking at the exception to that rule," she laughed despite herself; "If you want cheery then you'd be looking for my friend Brooke or pretty much any other girl on the squad."
"Who said that's what I'm looking for?" he asked her which only intensified her curious gaze.
She laughed sarcastically, "It's what all guys are looking for."
"You know you shouldn't judge people like that," he said slightly irritated.
"You're one to talk," she pointed out, "You've been judging me ever since you saw me."
"No, I was trying to figure you out."
"How's that gone so far?"
"Not too well," he said with a small smirk present on his face. "You're not what I expected."
"What do you mean?" she asked, confused about why he'd expected anything of her.
"I never expected Peyton Sawyer to be a cheerleader," he clarified although she could tell he wasn't telling the whole truth.
"How did you know me?"
"We lived on the same street until I moved a few years back, and now we live on the same street again, we moved back in a day or so ago," he told her simply, but inside his mind was whirring. How could she not know who he was? Had her father not told her all of the nasty details? He assumed not since she was still talking to him.
"You're Karen Roe's son?" she asked and Lucas could swear that he saw a momentary flash of panic cross her eye. Maybe she wasn't as naive as he thought.
"Yes." He nodded, "Is that a problem?"
They stopped in front of Peyton's house and she turned to face him.
"No, I just didn't know that's all," she defended herself even though it was a lie but she didn't even know this guy so what was the point in telling the truth if it would only hurt him.
"You seem like a good guy, Lucas," she commented as she turned to go to her house but she as she did so she could see her dad watching her from the kitchen window so she quickly decided to teach him a lesson.
She turned back abruptly and hugged Lucas softly while whispering in his ear, "Just go with it."
When she moved away from him again she turned around to see that her dad had stopped watching her and she smiled in accomplishment.
"Thanks, Luke," she said before blushing when she realised that she'd shortened his name automatically.
On his face was the smirk that she'd been simultaneously loving and hating since the first time she saw it.
"Anytime, Peyt."
I just wanted to let you know that this isn't going to be a story about Peyton's pregnancy, it's mostly about what leads up to it but I will go back to the pregnancy storyline later. Also I'm not really sure whether I'm any good at writing this type of story so if you could give me things to improve on or tell me that I'm doing okay then I'd really appreciate it.
The title of this story comes from the song The Lightning Strike by Snow Patrol, great song by the way. Also if you translate the lightning strike literally into French then it's le coup de foudre which also happens to be the way to say love at first sight.