Start Today
A girl in an oversized green hoodie under a black umbrella before an almost empty café with a cup of coffee in her hand. A slender girl in a red evening dress, wearing red high heels and blood red lipstick on her perfect lips, posing for a photo before big, white stairs. A slender, blond girl shopping in New York. A slender, curly blond girl, hand in hand with a guy with black hair walking through the streets of Chicago. A slender, curly blond girl with green eyes standing in the middle of four guys on a big stage. A slender, curly blond girl with green eyes, and if you looked close enough, you could see a scar on her leg, just where her jeans skirt ended, kissing a boy with black hair, a lot of tattoos on his torso and black eye shadow, the water of the sea was playing around their feet, wetting the sand of a Californian beach.
A blank page. An article fell on it. 'Pete's girlfriend exits Fall Out Boy-tour.' A slender girl with blond curls and green eyes tries to avoid the paparazzi while she walked through the streets with several bags in her hands.
"Peyton." The name, for no reason fell off his lips, his fingers traced along the figure of the pretty girl, just like he could feel her soft skin under his hands.
"Peyton." Longing, her name poured from his lips.
In a few days, it would be two years ago that Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer left her hometown, Tree Hill, North Carolina.
She just left, leaving everyone behind, her friends and dad. She even didn't finish high school, she just went away to be with her new boyfriend, Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy.
Lucas felt himself pathetic when he glued another article of Peyton in his 'Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer – book'. He started the book just after she left and he found an article in the paper of her, since than, he collected everything he could find about her. He was almost too obsessed with her, he was aware of it if he had one of his clear moments, but they didn't came around that often anymore, and that really worried Karen who had noticed the unnatural obsession from her son.
Lucas had become a ghost of his past since Peyton left Tree Hill to go to Pete in Chicago. He was somehow restless and lifeless, all his enthusiasm was sucked out of him. Especially since Brooke and he had broken up last year, after Peyton left Lucas couldn't give Brooke anymore what she longed from him. Now she is with this guy called Chase Adams, he is a good guy for Brooke so Lucas could accept it, he wanted Brooke to be happy and she was that with Chase, she deserved it.
Without a woman in his life, Lucas was lost, now he paid all his attention on his little sister Lily Roe Scott.
Lily was Lucas' weak spot, he protects her with his life, if you even looked a little angry at her, you could make him almost furious. If anyone would ever try to hurt her, he or she would be dead. He wanted Lily to grow up in a safe and happy world, held her back from the cold reality as long as possible. He couldn't risk that anything or anyone would hurt her, her father died before he had the change to know she would be there and she almost lost her mother.
One time, in a very weak moment, Karen wanted to go to prison to visit Dan with Lily. Through all he had been there this time when she was pregnant and they had a few good times, and she believed he deserved a chance to see Lily when she grew up. When Lucas discovered what she was about to do, he had scooped Lily out of her arms and locked himself and Lily up in his bedroom for more than three full hours.
Three hours long Karen had tried to talk some sense into her son, or at least his wooden bedroom door. She'll never forget those three hours, it was the most serious fight they both had every experienced.
"Lucas Eugene Scott! Unlock that door now and give Lily back to me, how bad can it be that I take her to Dan for once, she'll not remember, she's too young Luke!" His reply had been her truth. "You know that once is going to be twice mom, and you'll keep visiting him, and Lily will get memories of that son of a bitch. What if she asks who it is, what are we going to tell her? That he is my father and also the man who killed her father?! I won't hold back the truth for her, he doesn't deserve to be in her life or my life or your life! For me he doesn't exist and it will be the same for Lily as long as I live! Why don't you hate him as much as I do? You've hated him for years and years, and now you know he has murdered Keith, the one you were going to marry with, the one who is the father of your daughter, why don't you wish him dead, like I do?" Karen was speechless, she couldn't answer his questions.
Karen thought it was wrong from Lucas to overprotect his sister and spoil her as much as he did. But she was the only highlight in his life. He was her big brother and he tried his best to take the father-role too, also Karen didn't agree on that one. Keith was Lily's father, even if he wasn't here, she needed to know that Keith was her father and Lucas was her big brother, nothing more and nothing less.
Lucas didn't go to college like his friends. He worked by a garage, he was glad with everything Keith had learned, he already had so much knowledge about cars that it really had surprised his boss, after his work he looked after Lily, in the weekends he worked at the café. He was writing a book in the meantime, also he tried to keep it a secret for the world, but Karen had discovered it. It's not smart to leave documents open on your laptop while you're away and your mother is cleaning your room.
Actually she wouldn't have looked to his laptop if Lily wasn't slamming on the keyboard. Karen had always wanted to have Lily near to her, so when she went cleaning his bedroom she had sat her daughter on her son's desk. From the one moment to the other Lily had been slamming on the keyboard of the laptop and Karen wanted to take her away from it when the endless flood of words on the screen caught her attention.
Lucas' life was busy and regular. Karen felt sorry for him, this should be the best years of his life and he was spending them by replacing Keith. Once Karen had scold him about spoiling Lily too much and his answer had been: "Keith would do the same in my place, if he was still here." And she knew somehow he was right.
Lucas' eyes flew over to article he had out of a magazine. He really checked every single magazine and paper he could get his hands on, just looking for Peyton and news from her.
He hadn't spoke her in almost two years, he had sent letters to her, but she travelled around with the band all the time, she never stayed long enough to receive his letters, they all ended up by Lucas again. He hadn't her e-mail or the number of her cell phone, how hard he tried, he couldn't contact her, and even he desperately wanted it.
It was so frustrating for him, not Haley or Nathan, not even Brooke had searched contact with her again after she left, they barely talked about her, just like she had never been there at all. It irritated him, and the fact she didn't know anything about their lives anymore. In his letters he always wrote the most important things, but she never got them, she didn't know about his little sis Lily, or about his nephew James, or about his father in jail … .
He realized he was losing her every day a little more, his memories of her became so vague. He needed to stop this progress, interrupt it and do something to bring to an end to it.
He looked down at the article. Just to say it in a few lines, Peyton exited the Fall Out Boy tour for an unknown reason, normally she would come home with the boys over two weeks after they finished the promotion for their latest album. Now she was in Chicago, the band always stayed in Chicago when they didn't tour, so actually she was at 'home' now.
Lucas knew how Peyton was, if something was up, something big, she closed herself off and excluded everyone around her. He also knew she loved Pete very much, otherwise she would be here and not so far away from Tree Hill. It had to be something huge, if he looked at her face in the picture, Lucas saw something unsettling, he had to know what it was what scared her and automatically him.
This strange, burning feeling grow in chest, around his heart. The feeling forced him to stand up, leave his bedroom, leave his house, walk through the streets of Tree Hill, walk into his mother's café. She stood after the counter, talking to one of the costumers, Lily in her arms.
Lucas walked up to them, Lily immediately recognized her big brother, out of a million people she could recognize him, even she was so young. She threw her little arms at him. "Lu-ca-s!" She chirped and her big eyes looked at the boy in front of her. "Hey Luke." Karen said and tried her best to control the wrestling girl in her arms. "What are you doing here, I thought …" Lucas interrupted her, he had this look in his eyes, this typical Lucas Scott look, the look in his gorgeous blue eyes when he cleared up a troubled inspiration.
"I'm going to Chicago."