Clarity
Chapter 2
Lucas still wasn't entirely sure what to think of his new neighbor. He'd never met a girl like Peyton Sawyer, someone who wasn't concerned with popularity or status and who seemed to generally like the person that he was. He was completely fascinated by her. Lucas had spent so much time with his nose buried in text books he had never really paid much attention to girls, and girls didn't pay much attention to him. It was too early to start thinking about what kind of relationship could develop out of the whole thing, but Lucas could see himself growing close to Peyton.
All those things were on his mind as he knocked on her front door. He hadn't been entirely sure that Peyton's offer to go see a movie would still stand the next day, but she called him that afternoon to make sure everything was still on. Larry Sawyer answered the door and was surprised to see Lucas standing on his front steps.
"Hi Lucas."
"He's here for me dad." Peyton called from behind her father, as she traipsed down the stairs to meet Lucas.
"You two must have had a good time last night." Larry smiled.
"We'll be back later." She kissed her father on the cheek and grabbed a black backpack from the ground near the front door. She turned towards Lucas, "Ready to go?"
He nodded and followed her down the walkway.
"I thought we were going to the movies?" he questioned from his seat next to Peyton on a bench in the middle of the mall.
"I changed my mind."
"So what exactly are we doing right now?"
"We're people-watching Lucas." She turned to look at him and saw a puzzled smile creep across his face. "Why do you have that look on your face?"
"No reason, I just don't picture you as the type of girl who would sit at a mall and observe people."
"So what kind of girl do you think I am?"
"I don't know yet." He answered with a grin. His eyes trailed down to the black bag at her feet. "So what's in the bag?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
They sat together for a few more minutes. Lucas was watching Peyton more than the people milling around them. When she was ready, Peyton unzipped the backpack and pulled out a crimson red book. She held it tightly in her hands trying to work up the courage to hand the book over to Lucas.
"You shared something extremely private with me last night, now it's my turn to share something with you." She handed Lucas the book, which he opened with great care. "I realize it doesn't compare with your familial issues but I've never shown anyone what is inside this book. You're the first and only person to see these sketches."
Lucas turned the crisp white pages gingerly, amazed at the work he was seeing. He began to understand her fascination with watching people. Her book was filled with pencil drawings of a random mix of people. Each sketch was better than the rest, each face was as detailed as a photograph. Lucas was surprised to see that the last sketch in her book was of him.
"When did you do this?" He couldn't pull his eyes away from the drawing. It was like he was staring into a mirror. She had even remembered the small scar near his eyebrow, the result of some boyhood antics.
"I've been trying to sketch from memory, that's why I was staring at you like that during dinner. I was trying to memorize the lines of your face. Plus I think you're cute." She smiled as Lucas' cheeks turned as red as her book.
"These are incredible Peyton, I've never seen anyone with so much talent. But why do you keep these a secret from everyone?"
She gently shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know why. It's just the way I want it."
Their attention was soon turned to an older man who had come to sit at a bench across from them. Peyton took her book from Lucas' hands and opened it to a blank page and after grabbing a pencil she began to sketch. Her lines were scribbled furiously onto the paper as he watched her, completely fascinated by what she was doing. As she worked everything else faded away, her tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth. Lucas was amazed at how quickly she worked; her sketch was finished in a few minutes and she closed the sketchbook before he had a chance to look at what she had done.
"Let's get something to eat." She said standing from her spot on the bench and stretching her legs.
While they sat together in the food court, minutes later, sharing a basket of fries Peyton pulled her sketchbook out again. "There was something else to the sketchbook I didn't show you, and you have to swear that you aren't going to laugh at me."
"I promise I won't laugh."
"Everyone who gets drawn in the book also gets a story." Lucas gave her a puzzled look. "That older man I sketched earlier, I had his whole story worked out in my mind as I drew him."
"Tell it to me." He leaned forward and rested his chin in his hands.
"His name is John, he's a widower. He taught high school science in the city for twenty-five years and moved to this small town after he retired. Since his wife died he spends most of his time alone, so he comes to the mall on the weekends to be around people and for a few hours he doesn't feel so alone."
"That's a pretty sad story."
"Not every story has to be happy one."
Lucas reached over and took the book from her hands. He flipped back to the page with his drawing and handed it back to Peyton. "What's his story?"
"His name is Lucas. He's a bit of an overachiever trying to prove something to no one in particular. He doesn't have many friends, only because people don't take the time to realize what a great guy he is. And he secretly feels like life has dealt him a really crappy hand but he doesn't dare complain because he doesn't want to hurt his mom."
"I'm a bit of an overachiever?" he asked with eyebrows raised.
"But I mean that in the nicest sense of the word." Peyton smiled.
"You seem to know all this stuff about me and I really don't all that much about you. So when do I get to hear your story?"
"Sorry only people in the book get their stories told."
"Well I can solve that problem." He snatched the book quickly from the table and started to draw with it pulled close to his face so she couldn't see what he was doing. He smiled mischievously as she watched him with curious smirk. When he was finished he handed the book back to her.
"What is this?" she laughed at the stick figure he had drawn complete with a head full of curls.
"That's a picture of you and it's in the book, so now I get to here the story."
"I've been tricked. But those are the rules, and I suppose I have to follow them." Lucas noticed that there was a bit of sadness behind her smile, as she thought about her past. "I lived in this small town in South Carolina for most of my life but my dad's job brought us here. It's been just the two of us since my mom died. I was nine and she was on her way to pick me up from school when she ran a red light and got hit. So I grew up without my mom and you grew up without a father, I bet you didn't think we had so much in common."
It had been during that moment of honesty from Peyton that Lucas had seen a different side of her. In the short time he had known her, Peyton seemed like she always had a smile on her face. He hadn't realized that her smiles were a way for her to hide her pain in the same way that he hid his pain in his schoolwork.
Peyton had been right, they did have a lot more in common than he had thought.
