AN; I was planning to update this story tomorrow night, or even Tuesday. But i am buzzing over all the reviews you guys are giving, so i couldn't resist!!

CHAPTER 3

Dinner that night at Karen and Lucas' was enjoyable for Peyton. Karen was a really nice woman and she was forever trying to make Peyton feel as comfortable as possible in their home. She was also very chatty, making up for any awkward silences that could have occurred. While Peyton was listening to Karen's talk about the café Peyton took a few sidelong glances at Lucas as he sat listening to his mom with a small smile on his face, as he ate. He was gorgeous, with sandy blonde messy hair. His face was chiselled and in perfect proportion. He also had a cute upturned nose which Peyton didn't fail to notice. But the thing she liked most was his warm piercing blue eyes. They were the nicest shade of blue she'd ever seen. He looked up to see Peyton's eyes on his and he smiled jerking his head slightly to his mother who was still rambling on. Peyton grinned, her defences falling away again with one look from the blue eyes.

An hour later and Peyton was sitting on the porch swing, a pencil moving swiftly over her pad. Lucas coughed and she looked up.

'Can I… join you?' He asked.

Peyton shrugged and Lucas smiled slightly, her defences had been built up again. He had decided earlier that she probably felt a little embarrassed about crying in front of him hours after they'd met. He didn't mind at all, however. As she'd sat in his arms the night before, he could have held her in his arms for hours. She just seemed to fit into them perfectly. He sat next to her on the porch swing.

'What'cha drawing?' He asked as he peeked over her shoulder to the pad.

'Hey, my drawings are private!' Peyton admonished flicking him in the forehead so he moved his head away.

'Ok first ow and secondly…' He swiftly forced the pad out of Peyton's hands and looked at the picture she'd drawn. It was a picture of Peyton, Haley and Brooke sitting at a table littered with food. He assumed it was from earlier today, and there was a thought bubble above Peyton's head that said; 'New friends?'

'This is really good.' Lucas said admiringly. 'Like really, really good.'

Peyton blushed slightly. 'Thanks.'

It was a rare thing that anyone took notice of her drawings, her friends in LA probably didn't even know she drew, but here was Lucas looking at the picture as if it was some sort of professional painting. He looked at her, his eyes full of praise.

'I didn't know you could draw like this.'

'Well you hardly know me at all so…' Peyton answered and Lucas nodded slightly.

That was something he definitely wanted to change, he wanted to know more about her.

'Have you ever thought of sending these into a professional, like, somewhere? I bet there are loads of places in LA to where you can send them.'

'My pictures are personal though, they are what I'm feeling at the moment and I don't know whether I'm ready to show them to the world. It'd just be weird.' Peyton shrugged.

'I suppose. When I was sixteen I joined the school basketball team, The Ravens, and there were a lot of people just waiting for me to fail, hoping for me to just make one wrong move. But basketball was what I loved so I just went with it and played the best I could. There was a lot of criticism about my first game but I just stuck it out and soon I wasn't known as 'Lucas Scott the outsider.' I was known as 'Lucas Scott, team player of the Ravens.''

'I bet that was hard at first though.' Peyton said looking back down at her drawing.

'Yeah, sure it was. I felt like giving up. But my mom pushed me to show them what I was made of and it paid off. But sometimes you just have to take a chance, that's what I'm trying to tell you and mine, luckily, paid off. Now, I'm co- captain, and I feel like I've really done something to make my mom proud.'

Peyton felt the corners of her mouth turning upwards. 'Momma's boy.' She muttered playfully.

'Yeah ha ha!' Lucas smirked pushing her slightly, 'I'm just saying that you have to take a chance and who knows where it could go, but you'll never know until you do something about it.'

Peyton nodded, 'Noted. God you're pushy.'

Peyton giggled and Lucas nudged her with his elbow.

'I swear, I'm never going to talk about anything serious with you ever again.'

'I'm sorry.' Peyton smirked.

'Yeah you look like it.' Lucas said looking at her and rolling his eyes.

'Ok.' Peyton looked at him deadly seriously. 'I'm sorry.'

Lucas wiggled his eyebrows at her and she burst out laughing, him joining in.

'So how was your first day?' He asked smiling.

'Good I guess. Brooke and Haley are kinda crazy but nice.'

'Haley crazy?' Lucas said chuckling.

'She got married at sixteen!'

'Yeah, to my brother.'

'So how come your last name is Scott, but your mom's last name is Roe.' Peyton asked her walls crumbling away once again and Lucas looked sideways at her, both sets of eyes connecting. Peyton suddenly felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach and quickly looked away.

'That's a good question.' He muttered.

'You don't have to tell me.' Peyton added quickly, sensing his discomfort.

'Dan Scott. He's my biological father. My mom found out she was pregnant at the end of high school, my 'father' left her alone to care for me. He didn't want anything to do with me or my mom. He went off and followed his dreams, a couple of months later getting another girl pregnant called Deb, he stuck by her though and they had a son. That's where Nathan comes in.'

Peyton looked at Lucas and saw that his eyes held pain at having a father that never loved him; she acted like he had the night before doing the only thing she knew how. She slipped her fingers through his and squeezed his hand. Then she withdrew pretty quickly as if it had been him to hold her hand. She had no clue what had just come over her, she'd felt like Lucas was an old friend seeking comfort.

'I'm sorry, I don't even know why I'm telling you this.' Lucas gave a hollow laugh.

'Sometimes it's better to get things out and talk about them, then you don't deal with the pain alone.' Peyton whispered and Lucas looked intently at her again, blue eyes boring into green. She broke the connection again, fearful of what might happen if she didn't.

'So how did you and Nathan meet?'

'Start of high school. I hated him back then; I blamed him for Dan leaving my mom. Really it wasn't his fault. He was such a jackass back then though, learnt from the best I expect. But I saw him slowly change, when Haley came into his life he changed into a better person. At first when they started dating, I was furious. Haley my best friend and Nathan my ass of a brother. But we put our differences aside for Haley and eventually ended up getting along properly, now we are like actual brothers and friends.'

Peyton listened as he told the story; she was enraptured by the conviction in which he spoke. Never had she thought in a million years that the boy she'd been introduced to only a day before could make her feel so calm. He was unlike any boy she'd met before, he'd had his fair share of heartache and he dealt with it. It was fair to say that now; Peyton Sawyer was just as intrigued about Lucas Scott as he was of her.

AN; I hope you liked it! Please review, they make me really happy!!