The Release

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Warning

*Sexual Assault*

In art class the next day, we had a review assignment. Students were instructed to create a piece of art of something that we care about. We could do it using any supplies.

"Is that a patch of grass?" Anna was over my shoulder. I shook my head and wiped my hands clean of oil pastel smudges.

"It's a meadow," I corrected. It doesn't mean anything to me, it's just simple. I'll get an easy A. I looked at her painting. "Is that a triangle?"

"Uh, it's a diamond. My birthstone."

I glanced at what Dom was working on. It was a peacock with eccentric detail. Every line planned out perfectly in black sharpie. A turquoise watercolor was painted over the patterns; the color of Ruby's hair.

"That is beautiful, Dom," I complimented her work. All she could do was blush. I envy their relationship.

I looked over my shoulder and met Wayne's eyes. Almost instantly, his head dropped to his art. He worked idly with a red colored pencil.

I spun on my heel and put my hands on his desk, leaning over it.

"Anderson, what are you draw-" Shock interrupted my sentence.

It was sliced strawberries on a cutting board.

Each fruit was a blushy pink. They were round and fresh, like they had just been picked. Wayne was surprisingly good at making the highlights and shadows for every berry.

The layout looked familiar.

"Woah!" Anna and Dominique's voices startled me, but my focus never shifted from the paper.

"Did you draw that?" Dom asked.

"That has to be a tracing," Anna insisted.

I met his gaze. My breath quickened subtly and his lips turned up. Wayne's eyes shined with innocence. My mouth was slightly agape, I looked him up and down and swallowed.

There was meaning behind his art, and no one knew it but us.

~

"Bethany, I have a problem."

Anna wore long black basketball shorts with the school's logo in the bottom left hand corner. They went all the way past her knees.

"You got dress coded?" I looked at her in disbelief. We walked out of math and down the hallway.

"I had on shorts that are 'short'," she explained, "but my arms are also long, so they were 'inappropriate'." Anna pulled them up and adjusted the jaw string.

"They shouldn't be allowed to do this," I protested. Anyone who has a brain knows how stupid every school district's rules are.

Anna shrugged. "I was thinking about going into the bathroom with a pair of scissors and making these a distraction."

We snickered at her boldness. I have no doubt that she will skip the rest of her classes just to roll those shorts up tight enough to shove it up the school board's asses.

Wayne caught my attention as he passed me in the hall. His chocolate eyes locked on mine, briefly, before he arrived at his locker and I had done the same.

I turned the knob six times left, ten times right. I opened it, slid off my backpack, and threw it in.

"What happened to you?" Rogue walked up to us, noting Anna's outfit.