Body Art

6 | you and me

dedicated to my girl dirtytrbl

***

A week has passed since Taz first made me a canvas. Most of those following days had gone by without incident and the number of times he'd bother me decreased significantly. When I saw him in class or in the halls, our conversations were short and nothing to linger on. Nothing at all like how endearing and curious he's been before. It made me wonder if he actually was mad at me.

For the last two days, he hadn't even been in school. I wanted to ask Connie if she'd seen him, if he was just avoiding me, but she was just as answerless. I wasn't really worried and tried not to focus on his absence, but seeing his chair empty bothered me more than it should've.

At the end of the week, I was home. Any plans I'd had weren't major and fell through, so I decided to enjoy a night on the couch with my family. It was just a regular evening at home. I'd just finished eating dinner and was washing my dish when I heard a knock at the door. My mom was braiding my sister's hair in the living room so I got it before she could get up.

"I got it, Mom!" I wiped my hands on my jeans before reaching for the knob, and my eyes nearly jumped out of my face when I did.

His dark hair was parted and somewhat sticking to his forehead, usually fair cheeks now flushed and rosy. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on his high cheekbones, and I had to wonder what the heck he'd just been doing. Based on the hoodie and loose shorts, it looked like he just came from the gym. Despite all that, he was still just as handsome and easily knotted my stomach without even trying.

Taz grinned at my bewildered expression, that childish twinkle in his brown eyes present once again. Under my porch light, he may as well have just been glowing.

"Hey," he said casually, as if it were totally normal for him to just show up at my house at seven in the evening on a Friday. "You're not busy, are you?"

"No, but... Taz, what the heck are you doing here?" I stepped onto the porch and quietly shut the door behind me. Though I wasn't technically busy, all of my family was watching TV in the living room and the last thing I needed was for my mom to catch a glimpse at Taz and start chatting him up. "How do you even know where I live?"

"It's in the school directory. I was going for a jog and figured I'd stop by." He shrugged as if it were totally normal to just look up your acquaintance's address and then follow through with showing up out of the blue.

"That doesn't mean you just show up out of nowhere," I hissed, trying to keep my voice down. "Going for a jog... You live around here?"

"Yeah, I live on Cedar Lane," he answered with a smile.

"...That's like twelve blocks from here."

"My route is five miles long, this was on the way."

I still didn't get it. "But why are you here?"

"To see you, of course."

Damn my inability to keep from blushing around this guy. "You see me at school."

"So? Am I not allowed to see you outside of school?" He chuckled while crossing his arms. "Do you turn into a werewolf at sunset or something?"

I couldn't help but laugh as I shoved his shoulder. "Yeah, and I eat annoying teenagers who interrupt my prowling."

He gasped. "Who are you calling annoying?"

"You!"

He brought a hand to his chest, taking an appalled step backwards as he gasped louder. "How dare you! And here I was about to offer you ice cream!"