their thoughts on love

art is subjective

Noah watched in anticipation as one of her best friends spoke to her crush. She held her head in her hands, tilting as she watched the girl flirt and twirl her hair, occasionally jokingly hitting him when he said something Noah guessed was funny. She didn't know, she was sitting too far to hear anything since her friend didn't want her to hear their conversation.

Someone else tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up to see her teacher, who didn't look happy.

"Noah, where's your homework from the past week?"

Panic set in when she realized that she had completely forgotten to do it in the first place. "I've been really busy..."

The teacher raised her eyebrows, "This isn't a new thing, honey. You've had late work throughout the entire school year. I need you to get on top of it. Your grades are dropping and they shouldn't have to get so low. You're creative, you should be doing better than most of this class."

Noah sighed and pretended to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear so she could rub the side of her now aching head. "I'm sorry. I'll try my best."

The teacher that she couldn't remember the name of only gave her a disappointed smile before walking away.

She looked back at her friend, who was sneaking glances back at her as well. Noah smiled encouragingly, so that her friend would pay more attention to the guy she's been trying to get with for the past few weeks.

She pulled out her sketchbook as the somewhat strong breeze ran through her hair and started flipping the pages. She slapped her hand down to stop it from moving any more, and was too embarrassed to look up when she heard laughing, presumably at her. Forcing herself to move on, she pulled out her pencils and started to sketch the scene in front of her, only changing the scene and the people into a couple at a masquerade ball. The girl seemed to be more mischievous and taller than the guy she was talking to: a smaller and more flustered man.

As she was still sketching the masks on their faces, someone grabbed her sketchbook from where she was drawing on it. "Wait-"

"What is this?"

She looked up to see her friend now standing in front of her, holding the book in front of her. The guy was nowhere to be seen.

"It's just a sketch. It's odd now but it'll look way nicer when it's done, promise."

The girl held it closer to her face. "Is that..."

"I was using you as inspiration," Noah said excitedly. "It was cute, you know, the way he had to look up at you. I wanted to draw it."

Noah's friend scoffed, slammed the book shut, and threw it at Noah, hitting her in the forehead with it before it fell onto the floor. Noah sat there in shock, too confused to notice the pain. "Wha-"

"I don't get it. You always do this to me. You always try to act like you don't know anything while you ruin everything for me. Your eyes are always unfocused too. I just don't understand."

Noah looked back up at her and saw her friend's eyes water.
"I'm sorry," Noah apologized sincerely. "What did I do?"

"Here we go again. Here we go... again. You keep making me seem crazy, you... you whore. You're an attention whore, always trying to get everyone's attention all the time and acting clueless afterwards. Every single guy I like, all the teachers, they all somehow end up looking at you. There's no way that's a coincidence."

Noah watched her friend flail her arms and tried to understand what she was talking about, but she had no idea. "But he was looking at you. I drew it, too."

"Oh my gosh. Can you just shut up a minute and listen to me instead of talking about your stupid trashy art?"

Noah stared at her as she felt her head start to spin and her eyes sting with tears, her cheeks burn, and her arms go numb. "What?"

"Yeah, your art sucks. I said it. And stop getting me off subject. This is you and your manipulation tactics. I'm done with it. Screw this and screw you. We're done."

"No, wait-" Noah went to jump out of her seat, but instead tripped over her bookbag that was on the floor in front of her, banging her arm on the side of a desk. "Wait-"

She reached up and touched her forehead where she was hit with her sketchbook earlier. Looking at her hand and finding blood, she scrambled to her feet and held where she was bleeding before running to the door to follow the girl. However, when she looked both ways out of the door, she found that the girl was gone. The only person that was left in the hallway was a boy nodding his head to his music. She watched him silently, in a daze from what had just happened.

He must've felt her eyes on him because he looked in her direction, and his eyes widened for half a second before he sped up and walked over to her. She blinked back to reality and saw him coming towards her and backed back into the classroom, but he still came all the way in.

"Is that blood?"

She brought her hand back down and looked at it. "I think so."

"Are you okay?"

"Uh huh..."

He looked her up and down before walking over and grabbing her bookbag and sketchbook off the floor. "Let's get that cleaned up, okay?"

She nodded and followed him, now trying to process what was currently happening in addition to before.

She looked up at him, with his wavy black hair, bright green eyes and cheerful demeanor. He had a pep in his step, and almost seemed to bounce with each step. All in all, he was stunning. She wondered how she had never noticed him before.

"What's your name?" he asked, turning to her as they walked.

"Noah."

"Hi Noah, my name is Maverick, but you can call me whatever you want."

"I like your eyes, Maverick. They're a beautiful shade of green."

He smiled and seemed to blush, his cheeks turning a light shade of red. So that confidence hid a shy side?
"Thank you, I love the blue in yours. They remind me of the sky."

"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to me."

He tilted his head towards her before pulling her into a side hug. "You're cute, I like you. You remind me of someone I know."