Cheater ✯ Kovit x Nita ✯ Market of Monsters

3

Nita woke in the morning by the inconsistent sounds of drawers opening and closing. Fabricio scrambled around in front of the dresser, frantically looking for something.

"What are you doing?" she asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and moving her puffy hair out of the way.

He looked over his shoulder, pausing for a second, but turned back around to do what he had been doing. Nita rolled her eyes and pulled herself out of bed, ready to do her crazy hair.

As she wet her comb and gently pulled it through her hair, she thought of the deckhand from the other night. Se settled into a pattern as she tamed her hair and zoned out, revisiting the memories she just had.

She grabbed a pair of shorts and a tank top and threw them on. She didn't really want to do anything else with herself at the moment, the sun was out there. She grabbed her sketchbook and got out of the room.

The morning air was gently blowing on her, making the hair she had worked so hard to keep tame start to fly everywhere. A few people were out walking around on the deck in the bright sun.

She heard something about a breakfast bar and followed the couple down to the dining hall. It was sparkling gold and diamonds, the reflections bouncing off of the morning light. The light chattering and clanking of plates felt foreign to Nita's ears. It invaded her senses like a dull ache at your heel, she was definitely not used to it.

She ignored the invasion and walked up to the buffet table. It stretched out around 30 feet with food piled on platters and heated pans. Nita wasn't that hungry and walked down the buffet until she grabbed a plain bagel, taking a bite out of it as she walked back outside.

The sun hit her once again as she opened her sketchbook and flipped to the next open page. She started warming up her wrist by drawing shapes. The beginnings of a face were starting to take place unconsciously. The deckhand, Kovit flashed through her mind for a second but she shrugged it off.

It only took her five minutes to finish the sketch, scratchy lines weaving together somehow. It was messy, but it was called a sketchbook for a reason. Nita stared at the face she had summoned from her mind, finding something familiar in the shapes her wrists had made. It was him.

It was a profile. She hadn't studied the front of his face to draw it from memory but it seemed that she had stared at it long enough last night to do just that. She was so stupid, thinking about a boy, especially one she didn't need. She'd rather think about Fabricio. The thought of her fiancé made her draw a couple of af dollar bills. She chuckled to herself.

A little girl sat next to her, staring in awe at the creation in her hands. Nita couldn't really blame her, he was pleasing. But she was too close to her so she scooted away.

"Who is that?" the little girl asked.

"Nobody," Nita answered plainly.

"Can I name them?"

"No. Go away." The girl looked up into Nita's beautiful eyes, ready to cry. Nita rolled them.

"Go bother someone else." The little girl's lip trembled as she tried to keep the tears in.

An adult walked up to the child. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

The girl pointed at Nita, "She's being mean." The woman shot a look at Nita who only glared back and cast a frightful look at the child which scooted away slightly.

"That's no way to treat a child," she chided.

"She's in my space."

"So? She's a child she doesn't know any better."

Nita scoffed. "Well, she should, her parent should have taught her 'don't talk to strangers'. I don't know this heathen."

The woman gave a shocked and disgusted face, ready to tell Nita a piece of her mind but the little girl ran off, seemingly interested in something else now. She followed swiftly after the girl, giving Nita a glare as she left.

Nita let out a breath, happy that the two annoyances had left her space, and tucked a stray hair away from her face. She took another glance at the profile she had drawn and traced down his throat with her finger.

"Fuiste in poco maliciosa con la chica," Fabricio said, coming out of nowhere. You were kind of mean to that girl.

Nita shrugged. "No está muerta." She isn't dead.

Fabricio shook his head, exasperated. He noticed the drawing on Nita's pad and pointed to it lazily. "That looks really nice."

"Yeah," Nita agreed softly staring into the page of her sketchbook. Fabricio let out a deep sigh and looked up, squinting into the sun.

"Have you eaten?" he asked, turning back to face Nita. She whipped her head up as he asked the question, drawn away from the daze she was in.

"Enough." Fabricio raised an eyebrow and Nita only shrugged. "I'm not that hungry." She would probably be hungry later but she definitely did not want to go back inside that mess of a place.

"I can get you something."

"No need," she said dismissively, waving her hand. "Get yourself something."

Fabricio shrugged, "Suit yourself I guess," and walked away into the dining hall.

Nita watched as he disappeared into the room, zoning out after a bit. Her mind wandered to her future and she wondered what it would really look like. She didn't hate Fabricio, but she didn't want to love him. She had no intentions of falling in love with anyone but her studies and that contented her enough. She would be in a loveless marriage, she knew that much and she didn't much care.

When her mother had told her what was happening, she only saw her marriage as a stepping stone. Of course, her mother was thrilled with the setup, but she seemed to be the only one who cared about Nita and Fabricio's future together. She had promised that Nita would come to care someday, but Nita couldn't picture it.

"You two don't act like a couple at all."

The voice stirred Nita from her thoughts and she looked up to see the mysterious deckhand, clad in the white cruise uniform looking out where Fabricio had left, his hands loosely connected behind his back.