Before I fall

I didn’t get much sleep last night considering I cried the whole night. Once I finally started to drift off, my alarm blared. Yeah, my sister has that affect on me.

I walked into the class and I ran into Shane.

”Hey,” He said with a small smile.

“Hey,”

“You look tired.”

“Couldn’t get much sleep,” I sighed rubbing my eyes. “I look that bad.”

He gave me a sympathetic look, “You don’t look bad, but it’s obvious you’ve had a rough night. But don’t stress it, you look beautiful either way.”

I know he only meant it in a friendly way, but it made my heart jump out of my chest, “Thanks, but as my friend, it’s your job to sugar coat.”

He grinned, “You really know how to cheer someone up,”

“You were sad?”

He sighed, “It’s Scarlett, and she’s making things complicated.”

I bit my lip, “What happened?”

He shrugged, “Everything, something’s been stuck up her butt the last few days.”

“But you guys just had your one year anniversary.”

“Exactly, that’s when she started to get complicated. I mean, she brought up the situation with Riley again-“

“You only hugged her, right?”

He gave me a look and I put my hands up, “I’m only trying to make sure…”

He ran a hand through his hair, my heart thudded against my chest. It was a wonder he couldn’t hear it, “I should go look for her,”

“You should.”

He smiled before walking off and I rushed to my first period class.

♣♣♣♣♣

First period was a blur, and before I knew it, I was getting comfortable with a new canvas.

“Hello there,”

I looked up, of course, Blake.

“Good to see you,” I said when a weird sense of relief washed over me. Maybe I needed the company?

“Is that so?”

I nodded, “So… I have a question. I just don’t want to embarrass myself so I need this to be confirmed-“

“Yes, I asked you out on a date.”

“Oh.”

He smiled, “I figured you’d ask sooner or later.”

“It’s just… I didn’t think you’d be interested in me… I heard you had eyes for someone else anyway.”

“You did?”

“Yup,”

“Must’ve been someone I don’t know so well.”

“Well, actually, when I asked you, you said you were interested in one or two people.”

“So?”

“I guess I know one of them is me, who’s the other?”

He smiled, “Why’d you make a gray sunset.”

“So you think this is a game?”

“I think everything’s a game.”

“Wrong thing to say, bud.”

He looked as if he were in thought before saying, “Yikes, I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I knew something was fishy about you from the day you had those girls trailing behind you,”

“Hey! That wasn’t my fault-“

“I’m kidding, Blake.”

He fell silent before finally saying, “I knew that.”

“Of course you did.”

“So,” He sat down by his canvas across from me, “Any ideas as to where you’d want to go?”

I dipped my brush into pink, then made a few strokes on my canvas, “You’re suppose to know all of this,”

He shrugged, “I don’t want to take you somewhere you won’t like.”

I looked up at him, “Be creative, I like things artistic.”

He furrowed his eyebrows before his face lit up.

“I’m guessing you figured something out?” I asked.

He grinned, “Yes, yes I did.”

“Great for you,” I said squinting my eyes, I was trying to add details to it, but I wasn’t exactly succeeding.

“What’re you painting now?”

I looked at him, “Something.”

“Something like…?”

“If I painted a portrait of you, would you mind?”

“What? No! I’d be more than happy to be your puppet.”

I rolled my eyes, “No one said anything about being a puppet.”

He shrugged one shoulder before turning to his canvas, “I have my own interpretation of things.”

♣♣♣♣♣

“We broke up,”

I froze; my pizza in mid air. I stared at Shane in shock, “You guys broke up?!”

He looked at me, “It was to be expected.”

“What…what happened?”

“We got into an argument, and some things were said. Then finally I just said to hell with it and dumped her. She said she was waiting for me to do it anyway. She said she has many others in line.”

I bit my lip and dropped my pizza, putting my hand over his that was resting on the table, “She…she…” I couldn’t say it. Scarlett was my friend. But then again, we wouldn’t be friends if she hadn’t started dating Shane. “She’s not worth it,” I said instead, “Just… let her go.”

“I don’t…” I saw his face start to crumple right in front of me and I squeezed his hand, “I don’t think it’ll be easy… to let her go, I mean.”

I shook my head slowly and said, “No one said it would be.”

He sighed, “Enough about me, tell me about you and Blake,”

I shook my head, “Nuh-uh. There is no way you’re turning this around to be all about me.”

“Brooke…”

I sighed, “We’re fine.”

He arched an eyebrow, “fine?”

I smiled, “Well, we haven’t went on the date yet, so there’s not much I can tell you.”

He nodded slowly, “Understandable.”

I dropped my gaze and realized me and Shane’s hands were still interlocked over the table.

I cleared my throat, “Gabby and Nathan… definitely unexpected.” I said with a grin.

His face sort of lightened and I felt proud of myself, “I actually thought at first he was seriously asking you out. That would have been… shocking. And it would’ve pissed Blake off.”

I ran my free hand through my hair, “Why would it… oh.”

“He likes you, B.”

“I figured.”

“And you like him too.”

“This is exactly why we’re going on a date.”