Chapter Eight: "Like A Three Year Old Girl."

"YOU ARE INSUFFERABLE." Kim all but yelled at Zen.

"Get out of my face," He walked backwards onto the grass but Kim kept coming closer. "I can't deal with you anymore."

"You've been saying that for years." She almost screamed. By now they were attracting a crowd and some had taken their phones out to record what was happening.

"Yet for some reason I keep staying by your side."

"If you keep doing this than how about you get away from me?" 

"Get away? I've been that guy always by your side since day one. Why don't you find out the reason why you're always staying with me even though I'm a wreck?" Zen harshly whispered the last words out, rubbing a hand down his face.

"I know the reason why I stay with you." Kim's face had turned red and it looked like she was crying from my view.

"Why? What's the damn reason and it better be a goo-"

"I LOVE YOU OKAY?"

Zen's face morphed into disbelief. "What?" He whispered.

Kim broke down, blinking rapidly. "I love you. God why was that so hard to say?"

Zen walked over to her, cupping her face. "You think I don't love you? You think I watch you every day and I don't think why I would ever think this girl would love me. Me? I don't deserve love and I definitely don't deserve to hear that you love me back."

"But-"

"But nothing." Zen whispered in the quiet courtyard.

There was a moment of silence as he leaned in to kiss her and my eyes widened. No way.

Then Kim pushed him away laughing. Octavia stood up and clapped frantically. "That was amazing."

Everyone in the quad joined in the clapping before it quickly dissipated and Kim and Zen returned to our table. They made up. I don't know how but they had returned to our table a couple days ago back to their normal brother sister kind of friendship although he wasn't at school yesterday on the 11th. Eduardo and Zen weren't exactly on the best terms again but they were working on it.

"Okay Kim you should definitely switch from singing to drama that was amazing." Octavia said sitting down.

"And Zen you should go into acting." Mary Anne suggested.

Zen took a deep breath and shook his head. "That's not for me besides it was only for Improv class and I hate writing scripts. I am never doing this again."

"Wait so if Kim does singing, Mary Anne and Octavia are part of the drama department, Eduardo does dance and Sarah does art...Zen do you play an instrument?"

He rested his head on the table and shook it at the same time, gesturing to Sarah. Sarah glanced at me over her glasses. "So, here at Hamilton Academy of the Arts you would expect everyone to be a member at the arts. But no. There's a special program and Zen is part of it."

"What is it?"

"You see the people that control the lighting, the sound effects and that technical stuff of any performance? That's what Zen does."

Zen closed his eyes on the table. "It's a pretty sick job but Octavia will forever be calling me the ultimate nerd because of it."

"Because you are." She said with a grin.

I looked around the courtyard when I realized something. "Where's Lucas?"

She looked at me puzzled. "Cahill? Twin?" I nodded and she smirked. "He doesn't exactly eat out here but I'm pretty sure you'll find him in one of the art rooms on the East wing, near your locker maybe. Why?"

"No reason." I ended the conversation abruptly but Mary Anne didn't seem to get the idea of it being over.

"You like Lucas?" She whispered lowly to me in a surprised tone.

"No what the heck?" I wasn't even sure. Was it possibly to actually like someone after only being at this school for almost two weeks? Maybe but I didn't know.

"You're lying." Mary Anne whispered to me.

"No I'm not."

She stared at me for a moment before grabbing her bag and standing up. "Uh Sydney and I are going to her locker. We'll see you guys later."

She kissed Eduardo on the cheek before grabbing my arm and my backpack and pulling me out of the quad. "Whoa where are we going?"

She didn't say anything once we reached inside the school. The beautiful hallways weren't filled with that many people as someone were at their lockers, in the quad or in the noisy cafeteria. Once we started walking down the hall, she let go of my arm and handed me my backpack. "So?"

"So what?" I asked almost laughing as I slung my backpack over my shoulders.

"Lucas? Kind of quiet Lucas?"

"I don't like him. We're friends." I told her, recalling in my mind when he had said that.

"You two have talked? Like more than one occasion?" she prodded, trying to get information.

"Yeah but the feeling I get off of him is kind of what you guys said, he's... reserved."

"Good because now that I know you like him you can get to know him more."

I shot her look. "I never said I wanted too."

"What happened to Isaac?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. I swear everyone in my life can do the eyebrow thing and I can't.

"Um...I don't know. We've been practicing our duet for the showcase and he's been wanting to talk about but I dodge the subject all the time."

"Why? Why don't you just straight up tell him no."

"I-I don't know." I honestly told her.

"You know what forget Isaac. Here's your chance at Cahill."

What is she talking about? That's when I realize that she has already opened a door and pushed me inside, shutting it behind her. I stare at the closed door with my jaw dropped. Did she honestly just do that?

I heard a sound behind me and I whip around, almost feeling a bobby pin that was holding my curly thick hair coming out of place. There were cases where I absolutely hated my hair. A lot because of how thick it was and I had to listen to tons of people complain about how thin their own hair was. But at this moment I wasn't exactly focusing on my hair problems.

I faced Lucas who stared right back at me with a small paintbrush in his hand that dripped black on the floor. He licked his lips, looking at me intensely as he put the paintbrush in a clear cup on the table beside him.

The fumes of paint distracted me enough to tear my eyes off of Lucas and look around the room. The room was painted a bright green but on top of the walls were different canvases. Lucas stood on top of white sheets that were laid on the floor, some places were already splattered with paint.

A red beanie was on the table beside the clear water and it had a bomb with a smiley face on the center. My eyes traveled to the colors-lack of colors- on his easel.

It was a flower.

A dark, depressing flower.

I could see the colors-shades- contract against the white background but the flower represented in the image of a sunflower was dripping too almost symbolizes that the colors could come off but it wouldn't any time soon.

All I saw was grey, black and more grey and black but even yet he managed to make that look beautiful. And despite the darkness I could see enhanced in the image it was still beautiful.

When I looked back up at Lucas, his eyes were observing me. "What are you doing here?" His tone wasn't cold. He sounded...confused.

"Um...n-nothing just-"

"So Mary Anne just decided to push you into a room I'm always in and just close the door quickly?" He dropped the paintbrush in the clear water, walking over to the table opposite of me and leaning against it.

"Um...yeah?" what was I saying?

Lucas made a sound that sounded halfway through disbelief and through laughter. My hand went to my arm, having something to hold while I felt nervous around his presence. He went over to the other table, grabbing his beanie and putting it on his head. He pulled up a chair near the table I was standing beside and sat in front of me, leaning back in the chair. "I'm not going to ask why you are here but while you are here you're in the showcase on Saturday right?"

I nodded a little too quickly for my liking. "Yeah."

"You mentioned a duet and a trio...who's in the trio?" He asked lowly, looking down at the ground. For some reason the sudden shift in his voice made my heart thud loud enough to hear in my chest.

"Um...Ravi-the one with the really long eyelashes and Eduardo."

"And the duet?" He looked up at me this time and I tore my gaze away from him quickly.

"I-Isaac Crow."

Lucas snorted and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. "Shit sorry I didn't mean to do that."

I bit back a huge laugh. It was strangely cute. "Um, it's okay."

"It's just that Isaac with you? Matilda is not going to like that. I'm surprised she hasn't thrown a tantrum like a three year old girl over it."

I knitted my eyebrows in confusion. "Why?"

"You can't tell," He questioned as I let my hand off of my arm. "She's practically been in love with him for years. Word got out that she asked him out at a party and he flat out said no. She apparently doesn't remember that night but the internet does."

"Wow." I said and Lucas stood up, nodding as he went over to his backpack and pulled out his earphones and a different iPod nano than he had last time, this one was the color blue. "Um, can I ask something?"

Lucas' eyes flickered over to the painting them back to me. "You're going to ask about that." I nodded silently. "What do you think about it?"

I hiked my backpack on my shoulders as I slipped past Lucas, taking steps closer to the piece of art. I slowly walked over until I stood in front of it. "I-I think that this is expressing something."

It could be expressing the dark, twisted idea of someone's mind but I didn't think Lucas acted like that. The only person I knew who possibly could have an idea of that was my old friend, Jane. And she sang the theme song of Insidious at least once every day.

"Like what?" His voice was close now, practically hovering behind me. I could smell his cologne near me, something masculine yet different to just be him. I liked it a lot. More than I should have.

I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Like the person this represents is going through something. Either that they feel depressed or like there is darkness in their life and they can't get out of it."

"How did you figure that out?" His deep voice was low, almost whispering.

"B-Because of the way it looks like the flower is melting-no almost as if the color is draining but it'll never wash away. It makes me think of many different people that..."

"That are what?"

"That are going through depression or something hard and they don't think they can get out of it. That's what it makes me think." I didn't know if Lucas was represented through this or if he was trying to express what others are thinking in life but it was a painting strong enough to be something.

"Anything else?"I could barely hear his voice but I strained my ears loud enough too.

I nodded. "What you made is considered to be an..." I trailed off.

"A what?"

"An allegory." I finished just as Lucas stood beside me. He was possibly two or three inches taller than me but it was clear that his presence can tower over people.

He reached over and grabbed the paintbrush out of the clear water, making sure it wasn't as wet as he stroked it over the rim. On the easel along with the black and gray paint was a dark color of red. He dipped the paintbrush lightly in the paint before taking it out and handing it to me, "Here."

I took it carefully, avoiding the chance to make contact with his hands. I was scared at what I would feel if that happened. I could even feel his body heat seeping through his clothes as his touch was near mine.

I stared at the painting before reaching out with my shaky hand that held the paintbrush and putting a strip of the red on one of the top petals. That was all I did and I stepped back looking at the artwork.

"What did you just do?" He asked. It didn't sound like I did anything wrong. It sounded like he wanted me to explain what I had done but not like I was in trouble.

"I-I just created..." I didn't know how to explain it. How a dark, depressing picture and one slash of color made it seem as if the painting had brightened up. And with this image of the color forever draining, it showed light. It showed light for some people in the world.

"Hope," Lucas murmured and I turned my head to find him already staring at me. "You created hope."

I didn't know what to say as we just looked at the painting for a couple more seconds before the bell rang, signaling that our lunch was over. Lucas backed away, grabbing his backpack and hiking it on his shoulders. "We should get to class."

"Yeah...but what about the painting?"

"It's unused this semester." Was all he said about the class and I nodded as we exited the classroom, him putting his earphones so that they hung over his ears but not inside his ears. "Wednesday."

"Pardon?" I asked, looking at him.

"You're coming over on Wednesday," He expanded his thought a little. "You can tell me things."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Tell you what things?"

He did not respond instead, he reached up and with his index and thumb fingers, he held a strand of my hair, feeling the texture of it. "I like your hair." He said and I almost scoffed if my heart didn't race faster than it had been before. His hand was so close to my face.

"Uh, I don't why. I hate it." I murmured and Lucas stopped walking as he stood in front of me.

"Why?"

"I mean it gets tangled a lot and it's hard to comb so I don't even comb it basically. I mean it's different when some people say they have curly hair like it's not the same as their type of curly. I shouldn't even be talking about my hair I have a cousin from my mom's side who as she says she has 'African hair' and her hair is honestly the hardest thing to comb in the world and holy shit I'm ranting." I stopped myself, looking down at my black ugly shoes that went with the uniform.

I waited a second before I heard Lucas chuckle. "It's okay. I like it when you rant,"

My eyes moved from the ground to look at his brown eyes. I saw the smile on his face, the one that didn't fully show his dimples but I could see the indent of them either way. That's when I realized I liked his smile.

"I still like your hair." He said with confirmation before stepping inside the classroom.