Painting Sky (8 page)

He was in the attic for the next few hours and I didn’t want to even knock, so I did the same as he’d done yesterday: I wrote a note.

‘Sorry. Cody isn’t better than you. You’re just different. S.´

Before I lost the courage, I snuck it under the door. Just then I realized I had signed as Skylar. I had never in my life referred to myself as Skylar. I groaned to the almost empty house and went to my room.

Of course, he couldn’t let it go. The next morning, he entered the kitchen, smiling like it was Christmas Eve.

“Morning, Sky.” He made a point in rolling my name off his tongue.

“Morning, Keith.” I tried the same tone, but I came out sounding like a spoiled child, which made him laugh. “You’re happy this morning. Did some chick come over while I was sleeping?”

His smile faltered, but he quickly composed himself. “Nope, no chick. It’s Sunday. What’s there not to be happy about, Sky?” I rolled my eyes at him, but a smile was tugging at my lips. “What are you going to do today?”

“I was thinking about going to another town to get those damn supplies, but I don’t want to. I need to work on my drawings.”

“What supplies?” he asked, before biting into a piece of toast.

“Art.” I groaned involuntarily.

“You have Elizabeth, right?” He laughed at my face. “Of course you do.” He shook his head.

“Elizabeth? Really? Are you that intimate?”

He faked indignation and disgust, but smiled again. “Sure—rolled in the hay,” he said, rolling his eyes at the same time. The woman was not old or ugly enough for him to be surprised at my question. There had been rumors at our high school that he had slept with a teacher. “She’s a friend. I was her best student, so, what’s not to like?” Keith stretched his arms out.

“Best student? Does she have one? She critiques everyone—no one’s ever good enough. I’m at the bottom, of course.”

“You? Really?” He did sound surprised and my ego inflated a bit, until I remembered he’d never seen my work.

“Yeah, me. I suck completely at her class. She makes a point to show everyone how bad I am.”

“I do believe that: she likes to pretend to be mean. You are good, though. Maybe you just need something pointed out. Elizabeth likes to make the students she thinks have potential suffer.”

“Did she make you suffer?”

“Nah,” he answered, laughing. I was starting to think he was kind of cute when he laughed. “She tried a couple of times, but gave up. I don’t let people bully me around. You, on the other hand…”

“I was never bullied by anyone, but you and my brother.” I crossed my arms stubbornly.

“You let us affect you. You have to grow some calluses, or life will destroy you, like now, with Elizabeth.”

“You could talk to her. She’s your friend, and all.” I flirted, playing with my spoon, and eying him like I saw girls do all the time. This time, his laugh surprised me and made me jump. This was not the reaction other girls received.

“Are you trying to flirt with me?” He threw his head back and laughed again. Maybe his laugh was not cute.

Feeling stupid, I leaned forward, resting my weight on my hands. “Well, I’m sorry I’m not very good at convincing you I want to jump in bed with you to make you do something nice for me. I am not blonde, nor do I have fake boobs.”

I got up and threw the bowl in the sink, not bothering to wash it. I just wanted to run the hell away and hide my hurt pride.

He leaned on the stool when I went past him and grabbed my arm, pulling me so strongly that I crashed into his chest. I had to steady myself with one hand on his chest and the other on his knee. His mouth was near my ear while the hand that wasn’t holding my arm grabbed the back of my neck.

“I never said you weren’t good at convincing me to jump in bed with you.” His rough voice startled me and I couldn’t move. Something like dread mixed with excitement ran over my spine. He wasn’t hurting me, but he had a firm hold. “But I’m not talking to Elizabeth. You are going to learn how to stand up for yourself. I can, however, help with your work.” He let me go and stormed out of the kitchen. I was so dumbfounded that I sat on his stool for some time, gathering my breath and trying to understand what the hell had just happened.

I avoided Keith the rest of the day by locking myself in my room. I worked on a couple of sketches and started to dread the next day. I was going to be drawing naked people for the first time. In fact, I was going to be seeing naked guys for the first time in my life. How much more pathetic could I have been?

Cody got home sometime around five and we talked for what seemed like five minutes before he said he was so tired that he needed to crash. For the time he spent studying, he should have been getting As in every class.

The next day started as badly as it could have. I missed the alarm and dropped toothpaste on my shirt, which forced me to change and be late. Cody had already left, so I had to run to the bus stop. I arrived to class sweaty and tired.

The other students were already in their places and I hurried to mine. Before I could set the sketchpad on the easel, Keith strolled into the room, wearing only a robe.

M
y world came to a stop right there. Keith looked at me, not surprised at all to see me. He smiled that hundred volt smile, which made the other girls in the room sigh.

I gulped and tried to take my old pencils out from the wrong side; they went rolling to the ground and every head turned in my direction. If my face wasn’t red enough by then, it became so hot that I knew I was sweating again. I couldn’t even come up with an apology, as my throat had closed up.

While I was on the floor, focusing on the pencils, I saw a pair of bare feet approach me. Not here. Please, not now.

“You forgot these at home,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, and dropped a plastic bag on my lap. Some girls even groaned. At this rate, I wouldn’t make any friends. He went back to the middle of the room, leaving me speechless and more embarrassed than I’ve ever been.

“You can sit on that table, Keith. Maybe we can start from a sitting position—and cross your legs, for now. I don’t want them to be distracted.” Professor Collins rolled her eyes at him, before she settled on my still-red face. This was making her day, I was sure.

Of course, he wouldn’t make this easy on me. He did sit, and he did cross his legs, but he turned to face me. I had no doubt he would be staring at me the entire time. If I thought seeing and drawing naked people for the first time would be difficult, this surpassed all my expectations.

“So, I assume you all have the required supplies for today?” The professor’s tone was clear: if you didn’t, you could leave. I was going to open my mouth when I saw Keith’s subtle nod toward my lap.

I opened the bag and there it was: all the material required, and more. It wasn’t new, but it was all in decent condition. I lifted my head to Keith and he gave me a small smile—one that didn’t make me want to kill him on the spot.

I mouthed “thanks” before remembering that he would be posing naked for the next three hours and had never bothered to tell me yesterday. Of course he’d already known—maybe this was exactly why he’d teased me.

One of the boys in class didn’t have the required supplies and Professor Collins did exactly what I’d feared: invited him to leave. I thanked God that Keith wasn’t that cruel.

I focused my drawing on Keith’s face for almost an hour. It was completely wrong of me to start detailing a part and neglect even the basic lines of the rest of his body. Professor Collins couldn’t go by my stool without embarrassing me. This time, what bothered me the most was Keith’s presence. He would see my humiliation firsthand.

“What do we have here? What are you, a nun? Why are you shading his face when you haven’t completed the rest of the body? Are you that shy? Don’t you live with the guy?”

My fading blush rushed back. I couldn’t even lift my eyes from the drawing.

“It’s time to change positions,” she said to the class. “This time, stand up, Keith. Stay facing this direction. If you don’t draw everything, you will leave this class and I’ll have to think about letting you come back.” The last part was meant for me. I could hear some girls giggling.

I felt tears threatening to spill and it took me almost two minutes to lift my gaze to Keith. I could do this. I wouldn’t give anyone the satisfaction of watching me give up on this class.

Keith was still looking at me, but, instead of the smirk I expected, he was frowning—almost pitying me. I didn’t need his pity any more than I needed his rudeness, so I focused on the rest of his body. Professor Collins said to ignore the tattoos, but I hadn’t even lowered my eyes to finally see what they were.

His body looked exactly as I’d expected: every muscle in his stomach ripped through his skin. The tattoo formed a dragon, which wrapped all over his upper body. The head came around his shoulder with its mouth open to sink its teeth into his skin. The body draped down his torso to his lower abdomen. It was expertly done and the scales of the dragon were so realistic that they almost shone under the room’s light. I took that time to look at the rest of his body. I’d never seen a guy naked, but, according to the occasional sighs that broke the silence, he was gifted. His legs were pretty toned, as well, but not as much as his upper body.

I started outlining and kept thinking that, if I didn’t look at his face, I could pretend I was drawing a statue. It was just the color that was off.

After another long hour, the professor came back to my stool, stating that Keith could change positions before she saw my work. I took a second to realize I had drawn his face from memory and that it wasn’t as perfect as my first drawing.

“Now that you took your time appreciating his body, you forgot his face. How predictable you girls are.” She went to her table without further comment, which I thought was, somehow, positive. Other students laughed at me, but this time I didn’t even get flustered. I’d done it and was pleased with myself. I changed the page, not wanting to see his body again, and started the third and last drawing of the day.

I didn’t acknowledge him on my way out and he didn’t try to stop me. I was still mad as hell. He had deceived me again, and this time it had messed me up in a class he had offered to help me with.

I stopped at a vending machine to buy a bottle of water and studied the inside of the classroom through its windowed door. Keith was frowning at Professor Collins and she shook her head at him. Trouble in paradise? I hurried down the hall to my next class before he could come out.

After class, I texted Ryan to know if he could drive me home. Cody would be in one of his study dates and I didn’t want to face Keith so soon after this morning. The sky was threatening rain any second, and I didn’t want to arrive home drenched. Ryan texted back that he would take ten minutes to get me. I decided to walk to the main road so he wouldn’t take as long to get me. I sat on a bench and pulled the coat closer to my body, the temperature was dropping every day.

A dark van slowed down in front of me and the passenger window was lowered.

“Hi.” The man inside the van had a red cap over his head and eyes.

The situation was making me nervous. I looked up and down the road but the cars passing through were few and far between.

“Can you come here? I need some directions,” he asked. The uneasy feeling intensified.

“I’m not from around here.” I said, pulling the backpack closer and deciding if I should run. A car slowed down on the other side of the road and I pretended that I knew the driver by smiling and waving my arm in the air.

The man took off just before the girl drove away, too. My brother pulled up soon after. I decided to keep the concern to myself. I could’ve been making a huge deal out of something inoffensive.

“How were the classes, sis?” Ry asked, as soon as I got in the car, erasing my dark thoughts. I smiled and reassured him that classes were fine. I sure didn’t want him knowing about Keith.

“I have something for you, it’s a belated birthday gift. Being the last one to give you a present means you’re likely to remember it most!” He nodded at the backseat while I chuckled at his logic. I picked up the wrapped present. It looked wrapped by a five year old and that just made me laugh harder. I knew one would be a book by the shape but there was something else. A mug. I turned it around to read ‘World’s okayest sister’. I laughed so hard that my eyes glistened with tears. The book was about web design.

“Thank you, best brother in the world.” I joked.