“Please tell me again, why am I letting you do this?” David sighed, trying to stay still. The light was pouring in from the window in Y/n’s dorm room, filtered only by the thin white curtain, and illuminating David’s features as, across the room, Y/n sat with her legs crossed and a big sketch book, tracing the way his jawline curved at his chin.
“Well, Jeff, we are doing this because you want to get into my pants and you know the only way you’ll be able to do that is if I pass this class. Therefore, you are letting me sketch you so we can both be happy.” She smiled behind the sketchbook, her pencil not leaving the paper.
“Fine” David squinted his eyes “But, I want to see your paintings once we are done”
Y/n thought about it for a long moment, no one had ever seen her work, not even her closest friends. It just always felt too personal. She sighed and said “Fine, we’ve got a deal. Now stop moving.”
As she observed him he took the time to closely observe her. Her hair was up in a lopsided bun that had strands of hair and pencils poking out. He smiled internally at the way she stuck her tongue out as she focused on the drawing. His attention then shifted to her lips and the way she would bite on them when she was unsure about how a certain detail was turning out. Finally his eyes dropped to her legs and he admired how they seemed to curve softly. At that point she said “I’m drawing you, what’s your excuse?” as she noticed his obvious stare. He could see her cheeks were flushed slightly as he focused back on her face.
“I’m sorry.” He chuckled, guiltily and a bit embarrassed of being caught. “Go on, draw me like one of your french girls” He quoted, making them both laugh. “Can we answer some questions while we are at it?”
“Sure, go for it” She giggled.
“We were on question 18. What is your most terrible memory?”
David watched as her eyes darkened and the pencil almost fell off her hand. Her lip quivered slightly, she closed her eyes and sighed before replying. “One… one of the times my sister was hospitalized, it must have been like the third or fourth time. It was pretty ruthless. We didn’t know if she was going to make it… my parents cried for days and days straight. My youngest sister was too young… she had no idea what was going on. Definitely not a time I like reliving.”
The room went quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for your entire family.” David whispered.
“It was. What’s yours?” She said wanting to change the subject.
“Probably the same as my most treasured one. Flying here on my own.” He replied before asking. “If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?”
“I don’t think so. I would like to keep doing what I love, which is making art, learning and reading a lot. I would also not want to be a burden on my family and I would want to help with their debt as much as possible so I wouldn’t quit working. If anything I would try to spend more time with my loved ones and maybe try to show my work at a gallery or something. What about you?”
“Hmm… I don’t know. I think I would want to just spend time with my family, my hometown friends. I really don’t know…. Question 20: What does friendship mean to you?”
“Friendship means everything with the right people and nothing with the wrong people. I can have great chemistry with someone but if they’ll bail on me when I need them the most then they aren’t real friends. I think valuable friendships are rare and that people use the word too lightly. What about you?”
“I would be nowhere without my friends. I think friendships are a huge part of my life and I’ve had the same friends since high school and I know we would all be there for each other if something were to happen.”
“That is so cool that you have such great friends! I wish I was still friends with people from high school, sometimes life just stands in the way of that” She shrugged. “What’s next?”
“What roles do love and affection play in your life?”
“Hmmm… let’s maybe find that one out later” She said with a wink, lightly biting on her lower lip.
“Sure” David’s voice broke, making Y/n giggle. He cleared his throat before asking “Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items.”
“So… Jeff, I like how funny you are, I like how attentive you are, I like your hands… a lot actually, I like your smile and above all I love how honest and true you are as we answer this questions”
David felt that familiar pang of guilt stinging at the base of his stomach, even more noticeable than ever before. He looked down embarrassed.
“Oh, come on don’t act humble now. I know you have a huge ego and you are breaking your pose” Y/n chuckled.
“Sorry” David said, going back to his pose.
“Wait, that is not it.” Y/n crawled across the room to where David was sitting. Her soft hands quickly adjusted the way his head was tilted. Then she focused on making his hair look like she wanted it for the portrait. As she finished she looked into his eyes for a moment, making sure every detail was right. “Perfect” She let out in a breath before leaning in and softly kissing his lips. “Now don’t move”
She crawled back to her sketchbook and said “You still owe me five compliments.” as she got back to work.
“Right,” David agreed with a smile. “Y/n, I like your lips and the million ways they seem to change with every expression your face makes, I like your eyes, I like how thoughtful and caring you are, I like how straight forward you are and I like how every hour I spend with you seems to last a minute and yet I feel like I could stay here with you for days just talking and looking at you.” The whole scene seemed very intimate, Y/n’s eyes left the sketch before her and focused on his, trying to read whether he was being honest, she felt her lips curve up into a small smile and the heat rising up to her cheeks.
They were silent like that for a moment until David cleared her throat and said “Right, next question, How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?”
Y/n looked down and kept sketching. “The short version, yes we are very close and no, I feel like my childhood was average. Lots of good things and some bad things. You?”
“I feel like I could be closer with my family and… I feel like my childhood was great but not necessarily happier than most.” He shrugged “How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?”
“Pretty solid, she is like my best friend” Y/n smiled. “And you?”
“I love her. I should probably tell her that more, but she is great.
“I’m nearly done. One more question?”
“Make three true “we” statements each. For instance, “We are both in this room feeling …””
“Okay. We… are both kind, we both like romcoms and we both like fast food way too much” Y/n giggled.
“We are both feeling comfortable with each other” Y/n nodded. “We both like spending time together.” She smiled and nodded again. “And we are both falling for each other” David said, making it sound more like a question. Y/n smiled for a long moment and then nodded, a little sparkle lighting up her eye.
“It’s.. it’s done” She said a moment later. David crawled to her side and looked at the picture. He loved the way she had captured the light coming from the window and his expression as he smiled carelessly. It looked like a really good candid photograph. She was definitely very talented.
“This is amazing! I want to see the others” He exclaimed excitedly. Y/n sighed, bracing herself and showed David a bunch of sketch books and full on paintings she had stashed under the bed.
David looked through them, at the way she captured lightning, at how the portraits showed emotion and thought at how it seemed like every single brush stroke had a purpose. “These are all amazing, like gallery levels of amazing. You should be proud of this, you should be showing them somewhere.”
Y/n smiled and looked down “You have to say that because you care about my feelings. I’m not ready for the kind of criticism that comes with that kind of exposure. They feel too personal”
“I get that. Putting your stuff out there can feel… scary. And people aren’t always nice… but you are really talented. You shouldn’t feel nervous about what others will say. Art is subjective, isn’t it? The right people will know to appreciate it.”
Y/n smiled up at him. “Thank you, Jeff. For everything. I have a hard time opening up to people and I with you it just feels… easy”
David leaned down to kiss her but as he did he could taste the poisonous guilt on her lips.
Later that night as she swooned about him to her sisters he tossed and turned knowing that the truth might set him free but it would also make him lose the girl he was falling for.
