Doodle Heart | ✓

chapter six: stolen

a/n: this will be a tiny bit shorter than the last chapter, but I'm also planning for the next chapter to be pretty long? I haven't finished the next chapter yet, sooo... hopefully I don't screw anything up ^ ^

S I X : STOLEN

MAE CRASHED ONTO her couch. For the first time in forever, she was tired—tired of thinking. She could only imagine how much worse it was going to get when Parker got even closer to uncovering her identity. She needed to throw him off; he was too close today, literally and figuratively.

Just as her heavy eyelids were falling in time with the setting sun, the door to her dorm bursted open. In rushed a hyper-looking Icelyn, a black book clutched tightly to her chest. She had a wolfish grin on her face and pride rolled off her in waves.

"Mae-Bae, I did it!" She squealed, tossing her backpack onto the kitchen counter before hopping onto the couch next to her best friend.

Mae wiped her droopy eyes and ignored her drowsiness. "What?"

Icelyn beamed brighter, shoving the book into Mae's hands. As Icelyn explained what it was, Mae flipped through the pages, only to come face to face with her own face. And body, to be exact. Actually, it was Snow. Over and over and over again. There weren't any other sketches of anyone else. It was just Snow. But on the back of one of the most recent drawings of her alter ego, Mae found a sketch of an outline of her face leaning into the touch of his palm.

That sketch was very recent, she realized in horror. "Lyn, how and when did you get this?" When Mae had left Dustin's place only half an hour ago, Parker was still there. That sketch was also a depiction of what happened earlier... right?

"Okay, so the story is crazy!" She began. "I actually wanted to go pick you up from Dustin's place, and I had my car and everything. That was, until I realized you texted me about coming home fifteen minutes before. So there I was, just outside of the gates to his house and I get this fantastic idea!"

Icelyn's look of glee creeped Mae out, even having been best friends for as long as she could remember.

Icelyn, nonetheless, continued. "I scaled the gate—"

"Wait, WHAT?!" Mae screeched in horror.

"Take a chill pill, Mae," Icelyn mused. "As I was saying... I scaled the gate and then searched for the window to Dustin's bedroom, naturally. Luckily, the three boys were in there when I hoisted myself up to the second floor. Now that I think about it, they should really get better security or something." Icelyn frowned slightly, but shrugged it off.

"Anyways," she sang, "I climbed through the open window that one of them had stupidly left open. I hid under Dustin's huge bed and waited for Parker to put his damn sketchbook down and go join his friends at the TV. Finally, he set his pencil and sketchbook down on the floor next to his backpack. Unfortunately for me, it was very close to where they were all situated.

"But don't worry—lil' ol' me was way too stealthy for those buffoons. I snuck over to the couch and pressed myself directly up against it and shimmied over to his backpack. And HUZZAH! The sketchbook was in my possession. Luckily, I was able to get out of there before they could call the fuzz on me."

Mae groaned loudly as Icelyn wrapped up her action-filled tale of the Sketchbook Heist.

She fingered the neat pages slathered in grayish lead, and ran her finger gingerly over the sketch as if it would disintegrate under her fingernails.

As much as she'd love to find ways to hate him, Parker was a phenomenal artist. She just wished she would've found out about this strictly-her sketchbook in a different situation.

Mae glanced back at her best friend who was peering over her shoulder at the drawing, too. "So you stole this." It was less a question and more of a statement.

Icelyn nodded, apparently calmer. "Mhm. And don't tell me to return it because one, it would be hella funny watching our 'bad boy' freak out about a little, lame sketchbook. And two, I would feel pathetic giving it back to him."

Mae sighed, running a hand down her face. "Okay, I totally agree to the former. But we are going to return it to him." To prove her point, she slammed the book closed with her hand and thrust it deep into her backpack.

Icelyn groaned loudly. With a pout, she whined, "But Mae-Bae! Do I have to come, too?"

The painter glared at her. "Fine. I'll give it to him as Snow—"

"YAY!" Icelyn exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. "Thanks Snow-Mae." She then proceeded to kiss the painter on the cheek and Pat her shoulder.

Mae was left to contemplate her decisions in life.

"OH MY FUC—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Parker!" Lewis chided from across the hall, his fingers raised like a mother scolding her child.

Dustin shuddered dramatically when the trio met at the intersection of the hallway. "Jesus, Lewis, that just gave me such a nightmare. My mom would chide me like that, but hold up the paddle of a rice scooper threateningly... worst memory of my life."

Lewis cackled, fully amused. Parker, however, was running out of patience.

"Did you guys steal my sketchbook, because this really isn't funny," Parker asked, practically snarling. His teeth were gritted and his jaw was tensed up like concrete.

Lewis and Dustin halted their shenanigans. "What do you mean?"

Parker huffed annoyedly. "Don't play this game. I couldn't find my sketchbook after I went home from your place last night. I would've called you, but you were asleep when we left, remember?"

Dustin rose his eyebrow. "Maybe you left it in the Sketch Studio?"

"Checked there," he quipped. Lewis opened his mouth to suggest another place, but Parker really believed the sky was falling down. It would be an embarrassment if the book fell into the wrong hands. "I'm gonna go keep looking. If any of you catch a single tip—and I mean anything—call me. Trust me, I'll pick up this time." With that, Parker strode down the hall swiftly and to the right and out of sight.

Lewis sighed, turning to Dustin. "I can't believe he'd answer our calls for a book, but he'd ignore it for just us."

Dustin sniffled and feigned wiping a tear from his eye. "I know, right? I feel like... he doesn't even, like, love us anymore."

He let out a bad, fake sob, before Lewis punched him in the shoulder to cut his terrible acting. Dustin simply grinned in response.

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