In Color. {l.r.h.}

him

If you wear sunglasses and a snapback, no one will recognize you at the park with no kids, fumbling around aimlessly in search of a girl you met for five minutes.

Or at least that's what Luke told himself as he shuffled his feet through Central Park.

He was probably the most naïve nineteen year old on the planet. He still watched Disney channel and he still danced in the large mirror that hung in his bathroom and he still believed in love at first sight. But he was also the most cynical. He thought his band would never gain success and his brothers would never take him seriously and no girl could ever love him. It was a strange feat, a walking contradiction with blue eyes and callused fingers.

He'd never been so torn in all his life. His heart ached to believe that Halli was somehow sitting there waiting to jump into his arms, but his brain yanked him into the track that she was long gone and there to stay. It was like a tug-of-war between the two things chugging him onward, but his feet just kept moving forward on the dusty path.

If someone recognizes me, I'm claiming a kid as my niece and sprinting home.

His head was low, and he stared intently at the ground to keep his body from plunging into the concrete like his lack of sleep threatened to cause. He almost turned around and went home. If "almost" means a complete 360 turn back to where you originally were, then yes, he almost turned around.

Until he saw her.

And she was as radiant as the golden sun clearing away the clouds. The blind girl with no last name and mismatched clothes. There she sat drumming her fingertips on the very park bench where they met. He nearly started running towards her, until he realized that he was still in public.

He was out of breath by the time her reached her, but nothing could've dragged him away from this moment. He stood stone still, careful not to make a single sound. Say something, you idiot. Anything.

"Uh... Hi."

Oh my God, you ruined it. Back out now. Abort mission. Abort!

Halli looked perplexed for a moment, then softly murmured, "I know you."

She knows me! "Uh, yes. Yes! I'm Luke."

"Oh, Luke! I'm sorry, I guess I just have a lot on my mind. I should have remembered that."

His face flushed red. "No, it's okay. Really." He was like a lovesick little boy on the playground.

"So is your nephew having a back-to-back party or something?"

"What?"

"Why are you here?"

Here? Why am I here? Think, Luke! "For... For you. I'm here for you, actually." He knew he blew it. Nobody had to tell him. This was a new level of creepy-sounding for him.

Halli simply chuckled and waved it off. "Quite the charmer."

That gave Luke a slight ego boost. And if there's anything worse than Luke Hemmings trying to impress a girl, it's Luke Hemmings confidently trying to impress a girl.

He leaned back on the bench. "That's what I do, babe."

Halli scowled. "Easy there, big boy. I'm not your babe."

He nearly jumped out of his skin. "I am so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking." His words all began muddling together. "I'm just this scrawny kid and you're intimidating and you called me a charmer and I don't quite know what that means and Calum said--"

"Relax, Luke, you're going to have an aneurism."

"I'm sorry."

"You said that. You don't have to be sorry. It's not a big deal."

"It is to me," he muttered.

Her eyes met his, and even though he knew she wasn't looking at him, he felt like she could see everything like he was an open book for her to read.

"Do you... Oh, this is weird," she muttered. "Especially coming from a blind girl."

"Go ahead," he encouraged the words out of her.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?"