Troubled Youth

During the second semester’s time that Shannon spent sleeping rent free on Jared’s couch he found himself a girlfriend. He was out of the apartment a lot more often than before so Jared and Ella had quite a bit more time alone in his room. It seemed that Shannon had dropped his attempts to pull Ella from Jared’s bed because she hadn’t given in to him as easily as he’d hoped.
Jared was quite pleased that he again seemed to have Ella to himself. She didn’t act any different to him, like Shannon hadn’t really been anything she was that interested in. He was thinking about it too much, he knew that his mind was betraying him. That he was breaking the one rule he’d made for himself, don’t get caught up with her, don’t start to like her anymore than a friend.
About a quarter of the way through the second semester Jared told Ella he needed to talk to her about something after their class together. She could see it was something that might take a while just from the way he’d said it and from the look in his eyes so she asked if they could talk later that night. She had to go pose for Guy’s figure drawing class and wouldn’t be done until much later. Jared nodded and asked if there was a place they could go talk alone. She suggested going to her apartment sensing he didn’t want to be around Shannon when they talked.
Jared had never been to Ella’s apartment before. She lived about a five minute bike ride off campus from the art building, ten from his own apartment. She’d told him to come over around seven and she’d be outside waiting for him. He rolled up on his bike to find her sitting on the stairs, a burnt out cigarette next to her bare feet.
“Hey.” She said as he sat down next to her.
“Hi.”
“Your hair’s pulled back.” She tugged on the little ponytail at the base of his skull.
“Hey!” He swatted her hand away laughing.
“It looks cute.”
“I have it like that in class.”
“I can’t tell you that in class though. You might get embarrassed.”
Jared shook his head. “You can’t be affectionate in front of other people.”
“That was not affectionate.”
“For you it is.”
“Alright, I’ll give you that. So what’s up? What did you want to talk about?”
“Can we go inside? I don’t want to sit out here.”
“My roommates are in there.” She nodded backwards towards her front door.
“Not in your room.”
Ella sighed. “Are you trying to figure out my one rule?”
“What?” Jared asked confused.
“Nevermind. Let’s go.” She stood up and went to her door, Jared close behind.
As soon as they stepped in Jared saw three other girls sitting on the couch in what seemed to be an unbelievably cramped room. This looked like a small apartment, how could the four of them all live there? More importantly, what was Ella doing living with three girls when she said she couldn’t stand them?
“This is Lydia and Sandy, they’re fucking. That’s Clarissa, she’s single. We dated once.” Ella said making introductions, she pointed her thumb at Jared. “This is Jared.”
“Do you always have to make introductions like that?” Sandy sighed from the couch where her head was resting in Lydia’s lap.
“Yep, saves time and stupid questions.” Ella grabbed Jared’s wrist and started walking back towards her room.
“Oooh, Ella’s taking someone into her room. He must be special.” One of the girls called from the front.
“Shut your face if you want to keep it Lydia. We’re just talking.”
“Sure.”
Ella shut the door behind Jared and rubbed her eyes with a sigh before looking up at him. He was standing awkwardly in her room not knowing what to do. She motioned to her bed and he took a seat. She grabbed a bean bag from the corner and plopped down into it. Jared looked at the bed and then at the bean bag noticing that all her blankets seemed to be on the bean bag rather than the bed. In fact, the bed looked like it hadn’t been slept in, just made up and left.
“So why is it special for you to take someone in here?” Jared asked tracing a finger on the bed spread.
“What did you want to talk about?” She asked ignoring his question.
She didn’t want to tell him that if she took someone into her room, if she got into her bed with them then they meant something to her. She didn’t want him to know that he was dangerously close to that. He knew pretty well how to get her in the palm of his hand now and if he tried anything in here she’d give in to him. He’d end up special and she didn’t want that. That’s why she hadn’t sat on the bed with him.
“It’s about school really.” He looked out her window.
“I’m not tutoring you or sleeping with your teachers if you’re failing.”
Jared laughed. “No, it’s not that. I’m... I’m leaving.”
“Dropping out?” Ella asked.
“No, I’m transferring to New York. The uh... School of Visual Arts.”
“Painting program not good enough for you here?”
“It’s great here. I just... I don’t want to be a painter, not really. I kind of realized I want to leave that to my free time.”
“So what are you doing in New York then?”
“Filmmaking. I want to be a director. I applied there last semester for transfer and I got my acceptance letter over the break. I registered for classes and I’m going there in the fall.”
“Cool.”
“That’s it?” He seemed confused.
“What else should there be? I’m happy you’ve changed to do something you want to. I’m glad you’re following it. You should have fun.”
“Yeah, I think I will.” He nodded.
“Is there something else?” She asked leaning forward.
“No.”
She knew he was lying. Something was being kept from her and she wanted to know what. She had a suspicion as to what it was but she didn’t know how to approach it.
“Well,” she sighed, “I guess I should tell you something then.”
“What?” Jared looked up from his hands to her face.
She’d leaned back into the bean bag again content where she was. “I’m dropping out.”
“You are? Why?” He looked alarmed.
“I can’t afford it anymore. My dad can’t get me enough money and the stuff I saved is running out.” She didn’t look bothered at all. “Maybe college just isn’t my thing.”
“Ella.” His voice was soft, like he disapproved of what she’d said.
“There’s nothing that voice can do.” She shook her head with a smile. “You can’t stop me. I can’t keep going like this. I can’t take out loans. I’m done.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Dunno. Maybe I’ll hitchhike the country with your brother. He’s bound to go back to doing that pretty soon.”
“Are you finishing out the semester?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Depends on how I feel.”
“What about our class, we were going to do the final together.”
“The action painting class? Yeah, I can still do the final with you even if I drop out.”
“Ella.”
“What?”
“Just stay the semester. It’s already paid for. Get good grades. Then you can come back if you want to.”
“I don’t know Jared. I’ll think about it.”
“Please stay. Just so I can have a friend in the class.”
“Oh, you can’t use that on me.”
“Why not? You used it to get me into the class.” He smirked.
“You are a bad man.”
“I’m actually a good one. I’m keeping you in school.”
“Who said I’d finish the semester?”
“That smirk you’re giving me.”
“What smirk?”
“That one on your face. It means you’ll listen to me. I know.” He grinned getting off the bed to move towards her bean bag.
“Fuck you.” She put out her leg steadying it on his hip to hold him back.
The bean bag was hers and no one else’s. He grabbed her ankle trying to move it aside but she fought him. He was too strong and got her leg out of the way. This proved to be a mistake for Ella. He dropped to his knees still holding her leg underneath her thigh, her other leg was on his opposite side. He put his face close to hers.
“You know, an apartment in New York might be nice. There’s a great art scene there. I bet you would like it.” He kissed her nose. “You might need it.”
“I don’t need anything.” She pulled her head back, she didn’t want this happening here.
“Are you sure?” He moved to kiss her neck.
“Jared stop.”
“Why?” He growled in her ear. “You like it, your legs wrapped around me.”
He was right, she had done that without thinking. Just to make him wrong she deliberately unwrapped her legs and looked into his eyes. He smiled, that had been what he wanted because his hips sank lower so he was against her. His mouth was back on her neck, her left hand slid up his back towards his hair to pull out the ponytail.
“Come to New York with me.” He breathed against her skin.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’ll be too much like...” She paused as he bit down on her shoulder.
“Too much like what?” He grinned as she slid back in the bean bag so they were lying in it rather than half sitting. “Like friends trying to get a better price on a living space?”
“Fuck you.”
“Is that what you want?” He tugged her ear with his teeth, his hand had snaked under her shirt and was massaging.
“Yes.”
Deftly he maneuvered her shirt off and slid to kiss her chest. She threaded her fingers into his hair feeling him nip at her bra teasing. When his hand went to the side of her ribcage she arched her back so his hand had clearance to undo the snap. He popped it open and pulled it off her with his teeth. She loved that. She loved that he was getting more animalistic with her, he was figuring out what he liked.
“We shouldn’t, not here.”
“Why? This is as good a place as any.” He took a breath before kissing down her stomach to start undoing her jeans.
“There are three girls on the other side of this wall.”
“Be quiet then.” His eyes flickered up at her from under his brow as he kissed lower.
“Jared.”
“I know it’s hard, but I think you can do it.” He kissed back up her stomach as he slid her pants off.
She hadn’t yet made a move to take an article of his clothing off. Ella wouldn’t let herself. She didn’t want to admit that she wanted this, that she wanted him to take her on the bean bag. There had been a few dreams of it happening but it wasn’t anything like this. She’d woken up confused wondering why her subconscious was doing that to her. Now she couldn’t help but want it when she was awake and he was on top of her.
His teeth sank into her left breast and she moaned. On the other side of the wall all three girls looked at one another and smiled. They could hear what was going on, the walls were pretty damn thin.
“It’s not the bed.” Sandy said. “You can’t hear it squeaking.”
“Floor?” Clarissa wondered.
“It’s the bean bag. I’m pretty sure.” Lydia said looking at the wall.
“Shit, the bean bag? She never lets anyone on that thing.”
“At least he was cute, whatever his name was.”
“Jared? I think.”
“We’ll find out soon enough. She’s not good at keeping quiet.”
Jared had pulled his own shirt off and moved her hands to his waistband. “I’m not doing all the work here.”
She looked at him from under her brow. He didn’t understand what that meant, she seemed like she was somewhat upset about his statement. Really she didn’t want to have to make a move on him. She didn’t want to have to admit to herself that she wanted this, wanted it here in her room on the bean bag that no one else had ever been allowed to share with her.
He lowered himself and started kissing her neck as she slid her hands to the front of his jeans and unbuttoned them. Ella only managed to get them to his knees before he slipped in. Obviously he hadn’t wanted to wait. With her still sock clad feet she tried to slide his jeans off but his movements and the hand he was using rendered her helpless. She was stuck beneath him moving her hips against his, her head fell to the right giving him room to kiss and bite while she moaned for more.
She came first and he fell right after her. Both of them laid panting for a while, he was still on top of her. Her nails dragged slowly up and down his back and he occasionally kissed her neck. Jared had been expecting her to push him off and get up to leave the room but she made no move. He wasn’t about to point that out to her either.
He pulled out of her kissing her lips softly as he did so. She smiled at him kissing back.
“Do you want me to leave?”
“No.”
“Do you want me to get off you?”
“No.”
“Okay.” He nuzzled his face into her neck giving it another kiss before closing his eyes.
Her nails still dragged across his back but she was staring at the ceiling thinking. Jared knew there was something going on in her mind but he kept quiet. He figured she was having some sort of internal battle and shouldn’t be interrupted.
“I hate missionary.” She said quietly.
“I’m sorry.” Jared kissed her neck again.
“It’s alright. That was good.”
“I’ll pull you on top next time.”
“It’s not my favorite, but it’s better.”
“What’s your favorite?” He asked picking his head up to look at her.
She turned her eyes to his. “Doggie.”
“Really?” He smirked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s funny.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Just is.”
“Shut up.”
“Wanna go get something to eat?”
“No, I don’t want to go out there.”
“Why?”
“They’ll give me shit for this.” Ella sighed.
“Why?”
“Are you ever going to stop asking questions?”
“No.”
Ella smiled and shook her head kissing him.
“What do you want to do then?” He asked pushing his nose against hers. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Just...” She paused looking at him not sure if she wanted to voice what she was thinking,, “lay behind me for a while. Just lay here with me.”
“Okay.”
Jared moved off Ella and let her roll onto her side so he could cuddle up behind her. This was something very obviously different than any other time he’d been with her. Sensing the moment was fragile he kept quiet only pulling a blanket over the two of them and wrapping his arm around her waist. He kissed the back of her shoulder and nuzzled his nose against it.
“Ella?”
“Yeah?”
“I just want you to know I really care about you.”
“I’m coming to New York with you.”
Jared smiled against her skin and pulled her arm tighter around her. “I’d worry about you every second if you didn’t.”
“It’s for your sanity.” She sighed. “And mine.”

Neither of them spoke of that day after it happened. It was as if once Jared left her apartment later that night it was off limits. He knew something monumental had happened between them, she’d stayed in bed -or in bean bag- with him for a few hours. They’d fallen asleep spooning there.
This, at first, had been so frustrating to Jared. He felt like after that they should be more than friends. That he should take her out, kiss her when he wanted to, tell her she was pretty. None of these things happened. They acted just as they had before. He’d found that frustrating but eventually he learned to let it go. Other things were worth worrying about and they soon blocked out his struggle with Ella.
Towards the end of the semester Shannon had more or less lost his love interest. He’d realized he was in a relationship and that it was on the verge of becoming something to tie him to a specific place. He ended it as kindly as he could and went along as before. As he still planned to stay with Jared until summer, he continued to live on the couch. Ella would still flirt with him when she came around but it wasn’t like before. Jared could more easily see they were playing and nothing hidden seemed to lurk between them.
Shannon would even leave the two alone when they slipped into his room together. Most of the time they were just hanging out but Shannon still left them alone in case it turned into anything else. He figured if they wanted to hang out with him then they would come out of Jared’s room.
“What are we going to do for that final? It’s due in two weeks.” Jared sighed running his hands through his hair to pull it off his forehead.
“Dunno. It’s supposed to be about the figure right?” Ella leaned back on his pillows and crossed her legs. “An action painting about the figure.”
“How ‘bout that.” Jared leaned back putting his hands behind his head.
“You know, we could get some kids paint.”
“Why kids paint?”
“It’s nontoxic. Won’t hurt anything if it gets anywhere...”
“Ella, what are you talking about?”
She sat up and looked at him with a huge grin on her face. “I’ve just had a brilliant idea and you haven’t caught on yet.”
“Mind telling me?”
She bit her bottom lip looking at him with a smile. “So it’s an action painting, right?”
“Yes.”
“And what can we do that involved a lot of action?”
“Throw paint?”
“Jared, everyone is going to throw paint. That’s obvious.”
“Slide in it?”
“Interesting thought, but not quite what I was thinking.”
“Then tell me.” He reached out to grab her wrist.
“So we clear a space, strip down, throw paint at each other, then lay down on a canvas and paint.”
“You mean fuck on the canvas?”
“Yeah.”
“Best idea yet.” He nodded.
“Admit it, that’s the best idea anyone will have in that class. We’re doing it.”
“In more ways than one.” Jared smiled.
“Okay, don’t make jokes. We know you’re bad at them.” Ella pushed Jared’s face.
He reached out and grabbed her arm pulling her to his chest. “So when do we do this?”
“Got time this weekend? I’m not working. It’s a magical event, we should celebrate.”
“Okay. One question.” He pulled her closer.
“Where are we going to get a canvas big enough?”
“Buy it by the roll, roll it on the floor, use what we need, cut it, and then stretch it onto a frame before it dries.”
“Might work.” He nodded.
“It will. And if the paint flakes, we’ll call it performance art. Oh God, if we could do it as performance art!”
“They’d never let us get our shirts off.”
“Maybe we’ll just leave that for New York then.”
Jared shook his head.
“I’m gunna go see what Shan’s up to. He’s been on his own for a while. Probably got his hand down his pants or something.” Ella said sitting up.
Jared wouldn’t let go of her wrist. “Maybe we should practice a little before this weekend.”
“Maybe, but not now Jared. I’m tired. Honest.”
“Alright. Let’s go see what he’s doing.”

Ella had been in Jared’s apartment going on twenty four hours. She’d shown up the night before and in the morning he’d left for class and come back to find her still there. She was sitting with his pillows behind her back propped up against the wall reading a book. She’d told him she didn’t much feel like going to class when they were eating breakfast. He suggested they both hang out all day but she made him go to class.
She hadn’t been idle while he was gone though. Once he had left she picked up her bag and put on her shoes to set off looking for the supplies they would need on their final project. She’d found the paint and a roll of canvas. Now it was down to finding wood to make a frame -Jared said he had tools to put one together and Shannon would help- and a space to do it in.
When Jared walked into his room he shut the door and tossed his backpack on the ground. Ella hardly even nodded at him to acknowledge his presence. He leaned forward dropping to a crawl on his own bed and moved towards her. She still made no move.
Since she’d been back in his apartment she’d taken her pants off and was sitting on his bed in nothing but a t-shirt and her panties. Jared reached her raised knees and paused extending his hands to hook his fingers into her waistband. She lifted her backside when he started to tug the panties off but did nothing else that showed him she was paying attention.
Jared tossed the panties on the floor and grabbed one of her knees. He pushed it to the side. Ella only raised her book from the resting position it had been in on her thighs. When he glanced up to see if she was watching him he was met with the spine of his history textbook. He had wondered where it had gone to.
Not caring all that much because he planned to make her drop that book in a matter of seconds he leaned forward, hands grabbing her hips. He started kissing her thigh moving inwards towards her center.
“Jared, quit it. I’m studying.” She said moving her thigh away from his face.
“It’s my book you’re reading. Besides, you’re dropping out. Remember?”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t st- oh God. Higher.” She’d been interrupted by Jared’s mouth.
Twice before he’d gone down on Ella and thought he knew what to do to her. Just as he had planned she dropped the book and her head leaned back against the wall. He grabbed her hips tighter and pulled her down so her back was flat against the bed. This made it easier for him and he knew she liked it better that way.
Ella gave him a few more suggestions as to what he should do but pretty quickly she wasn’t saying words, just making sounds Jared found beautiful. He’d slipped two fingers into her feeling what he’d done so far, she moaned in appreciation. This was something he found he was naturally very good at, a lot better than he was at sex.
He gave her no break until he felt her tighten around his fingers, until she came with a loud moan. Then he took his hand away and kissed up her stomach and chest, though she still had a shirt on. He made it to her neck before Ella spoke.
“I was learning about the second world war. I like that stuff. It’s interesting.” Ella said running her hand up Jared’s back and threading it into his hair to pull his head back.
“We won. That’s all there is to know.” He grinning liking what she was doing.
She picked her head up and kissed his Adam’s Apple. “Not really.”
“Well you can go back to studying, I’m done now.”
“No you’re not.” She lowered his head continuing to kiss his neck. “Your shorts are pretty tight.”
“Mmmm, that they are. Think I should take ‘em off?”
“Maybe. Don’t want to cut off circulation.” She paused letting him kiss her neck. “Or you can wait a moment and we can set up our final project. Throw some paint on each other and then relieve you of your problem.”
“Takes too long. Let’s relieve it now, get some dinner, then do the project.”
“You’re greedy today.” She grinned slipping his shorts and briefs off at the same time. “I kind of like it.”
Jared grinned as he grabbed hold of her tightly and rolled so she was on top of him. Ella didn’t miss a beat tugging her shirt off as he did his own. She grabbed a condom from his bedside table and slipped it on him. He tugged her bra off not wanting to leave any article of clothing on and she lowered herself onto him.
They were well used to one another that not a lot of commands to be given to one another. Ella could pretty much read on his face what he was thinking during sex. His face showed everything he was so expressive. His hands also did a great deal of guiding her. Even though she was on top of him he was still dominating what happened and that interested her. She’d never met a man able to do that. She knew she was right about Jared, that he was a freak on the inside but didn’t know it yet.
Just as Jared had suggested they left his room to get something to eat. Ella thought about where they’d have enough space to do their final project but all she could think was one of the painting classrooms in the art building. When she suggested this Jared seemed a bit apprehensive. They could get caught.
She reminded him it was night and no one but the building monitor was there. The monitor only walked around once every hour and didn’t look into the rooms if there was a class in session sign on the door. Still a little worried about it, Jared agreed to her plan seeing no other possible space.
They went back to his apartment, grabbed the canvas and paints, Jared picked up his tools to build the canvas frame and they headed for the art building. They were both giggling like idiots when they slipped into a painting classroom and locked the door with the sign on the outside.
Ella rolled out the canvas and Jared took a look at it thinking for a moment. He decided they should just build a frame first and that way they could get the canvas on the frame before the paint dried. Ella agreed and they slipped out of the room to run across the street to the one hardware store in town. Jared bought the thin pieces of wood they needed and then headed back to the classroom. Ella helped him build the frame and then they stepped back to look at it and each other.
“You ready for this?” He smirked.
“Are you? I’m going to be rough.”
Jared pulled his shirt off and looked at her challenging her to do the same. They started pulling their own clothes off staring each other down; it was a bit like a challenge and a tease. Jared grabbed the first bottle of paint and started unscrewing the cap. Ella did the same with another bottle.
There was a moment when they were standing facing one another, open bottles of paint in their hands, just watching for the other to move. The corner of Jared’s mouth twitched with a smile, this was like a stand off in a western movie. They both started moving towards one another at the same time. Paint started flying and they were laughing. It didn’t matter that paint went everywhere in the class because almost every surface was covered already.
For good measure they threw some paint on the canvas itself and then Ella dragged Jared down onto the floor with her. She pushed him down on his back giving him no time to recover when she lowered herself onto him. He groaned gripping her hips. They tried to move around and change positions as much as possible. He found his animalistic side that night. He was trying to be a rough as he could without hurting her –they were on a concrete floor. Ella hadn’t expecting him to give her so much but was pleased with it deciding she could be rougher with him.
“I’m going to ask you to do something.” Ella said between breaths underneath Jared as his hips rocked against hers. “Don’t freak out.”
“What?” He groaned.
“Choke me.”
“What?” He paused looking down at her.
“I said don’t freak out. Choke me. Not hard, just do it.”
“Ella.”
“It’s fine Jared.”
“Okay. Give me a safe word.”
Ella thought for a moment. Jared rocked his hips against hers a little waiting. She found it a little hard to think with him sliding in and out of her slowly like that. “Carrots.”
“What?”
“Carrots.”
“Why?”
“It was the first thing that I ate at your apartment. Carrots.”
“Okay.”
His hand tentatively slipped through the paint on her body, over her left breast, and up to her throat. She nodded at him when he left it sitting there but not squeezing. He tightened his grip starting to rock against her again. She bit her lip squeezing tight with her thighs around his hips. Jared could see this was good, that she liked this. He started to find that he liked it too, the way it put him in total control, the way she was submissive to him. Very quickly he was comfortable with choking.
When Ella made it back on top of Jared she slipped her hand through the paint on his body to his neck. She looked into his eyes still working but waiting to see if he was okay with this. He nodded gripping her hips tighter because he was nervous. Seeing the slight terror in his eyes she leaned forward kissing him very gently to reassure him. He slid his hands up from her hips to her cheeks keeping her there, keeping the kiss going as soft as he could. This was the closest he’d come to feeling like they were in a relationship. The look in her eyes when she pulled back, the soft look, could have killed him. Three words popped into his head at that moment but he dared not speak them.
Her hand tightened around his throat and he closed his eyes. Back and forth they went trying to exert lasting dominance over one another. They were loud, their teeth sank into each other’s skin, and they had a hard time breathing. When they laid down panting trying to catch their breath Jared looked over at Ella, her paint covered chest heaving with the ability to suck in air uninhibited.
She got up first and looked down at the canvas with a smile. Jared got up and joined her. He stood behind her and put his arms around her waist. A few times he kissed her shoulder and she started leaning back in his arms. He had no idea what was going on with her today, she was more like that girl he’d been with on her bean bag, the one that wanted him to stay with his arms around her.
Without a word they picked up the canvas and stretched it onto the frame stapling it into place. They leaned it against the wall where the other class paintings were and looked at it for a little while longer. They pointed things out to each other about it, like where an ass print was visible, the hands and footprints. Jared asked if they could take it to New York with them and hang it up in their apartment. She agreed liking the idea.
Then Ella took Jared’s hand and pulled him over to the one couch in the classroom. They stopped in front of it and she faced him looking up into his eyes. Again he could see in her eyes that something big was going to happen between them again. Something big like the bean bag she never let anyone else on but him. She pulled him close and stood on her toes kissing him as gently as she had when she was reassuring him nothing bad would happen before she choked him.
His hands were on the small of her back pulling her in, keeping her close. She started to sink down to sit on the couch. He followed her and let her lean back so she was lying on its length. Slowly he crawled on top of her resting his hips between her thighs. They were still kissing gently, touching each other with only their fingertips. He lifted his hips so he could slide into her knowing this was what she was waiting for.
Quietly she moaned his name when he started rocking against her. This was different than all the other times they’d been together, different even from the time at her apartment. It was slow, fervent. Jared knew the three words that had popped into his head before were right to have been there. He was in love with the girl beneath him and he hadn’t even felt himself falling for her. This wasn’t fucking, this was making love. Never had he felt this way about anyone.
The paint on their bodies had dried and started flaking off with each touch, with each movement. Ella’s hand was curled tight into Jared’s hair and he knew she was getting close. The way he’d been touching her, kissing her, looking at her, it had all been so much for her to take. No one had treated her like this, no one really meant it when they told her they cared about her. She knew she was getting into dangerous territory but she couldn’t stop herself from running into it. She came harder than he’d ever made her before biting down on his shoulder to muffle the sound. He fell right after her biting into her neck.
After, they pulled their clothes on and picked up their supplies. Jared moved the painting into a cubby and then walked back over to Ella. He slipped his hand over hers lacing their fingers and together headed back to his apartment. They took a shower together rinsing the paint off each other and kissing against the wall as gently and fervently as they had on the couch in the painting classroom. They didn’t have sex again but Ella did climb into his bed to fall asleep there.