Shot In The Dark [Book 1]

3.2 - What It Seems

"Here you go." Koleton places the canvases in front of me along with a cup of paint brushes and basket full of different types of paints.

"Paint?" I look at him like he's insane and his smile falls.

"What? I thought it was a good idea. Don't knock it until you try it." He pouts and I groan.

"I don't paint. I don't even know how to paint, Koleton." I complain as he sits next to me and spreads the supplies out for us to have easy access to them.

"I'll help you. Its easy, honestly. Its not about being good at it, you just need to express yourself." He explains as I watch him get excited about the wide selection.

"If I don't like it, can I quit?" I ask and he nods, looking up to meet my eyes.

"Yes, but only if you really don't enjoy it. I think you will though." He exclaims the last part excitedly and I sigh, picking up the paint brush.

"Where do I start?"

———

"How was it?" Noelle asks, referring to my day that I spent with Koleton.

"It was fine." I respond quietly, not wanting to engage in conversation with her at the moment.

"He said the two of you painted for a few hours." She looks over to me as we sit at the dinner table and I push the food on my plate around.

"Yeah, we did."

"Did you enjoy it? I've never heard you talk about painting before."

"Can we not act like you didn't willingly let Jeff try to come in here and flip my life upside down? I know just as well as the next person that you would argue the paint off the wall if it was necessary. Why didn't you even try to stop him?" I pull my napkin off my lap and toss it onto the table next to my plate. "And don't try to use the fact that the two of you are siblings as an excuse."

"I didn't know how to, and I thought you wouldn't care since you were so upset when he first showed up." She shrugs and I pinch the bridge of my nose.

"That was when he first showed up, Noelle. I've gotten really close with him since then." I argue back and she raises her eyebrows.

"Yeah? Are you two hooking up or something? Because Ashton said that-"

"Ashton?! You're taking word about my life from some fucking drummer that you let bang you? What is this, the fucking Kardashians?!" I rise from my seat angrily, looking at her as my vision nearly goes red from all of the anger coursing through my veins. "Stop fucking talking about me to people that I don't even acknowledge anymore!"

I leave the dining room without another word and walk straight out of the house to notice that Koleton is back.

"Margo, what's wrong?" He looks at me, his face full of confusion as I ignore him. "Margo!"

I angrily storm up their steps and walk right into their house, not bothering knocking. I hear them talking in the kitchen and I take this at my sign to voice my real opinion.

"You." I point directly at Ashton as Calum moves away from me. Koleton runs into the house after me as I stomp up towards Ashton who looks as if he's just seen a ghost.

"Margo, hey! Long time no see-"

I smack him across the face, causing gasps to erupt from everyone followed by silence.

"The next time you want to fucking talk about me, make sure the person you're talking to won't fucking snitch." I spit at him as Koleton pulls me away. "That goes for any of you. Especially you, Hailey. I might be eight inches taller than you, but I'll still curb stomp you li-"