❝Your secret is a painting?❞ I took a few cautious steps; the hairs on my arms stood on end.
❝Not just any painting.❞ Dorian approached the easel, shadows on his face as he touched the cloth protecting it. ❝It's a dark object, the manifestation of m...
I left, heart-sore from heated words exchanged over the chef's paella and poached pears. Back home, I slammed the front door behind me, tossed my purse to the floor, and slid against the door with my face in my hands. Mom and Jeff were devastated that I had missed the speech but all I cared about was who Opal would hurt next - and where Dorian could possibly be.
Too angry to cry, too sad to paint, I ran a bubble bath and spent the rest of my night eating chocolate and feeling sorry for myself. Of all the girls to get caught between Dorian and Opal, it had to be me.
The next morning, after hitting snooze three times too many, I flew out of bed and into the shower. My first class at Harbor Village University was eight a.m. sharp; I made it to government by the skin of my teeth, sliding into my seat next to Vanida as Professor Yarlagadda began her lecture on American politics at the turn of the century.
"Long night?" Van signed, dimples flashing as she offered an empathetic grin.
"The longest," I mouthed. "Any results?"
"Still cooking. I'll let you know."
We pulled out our notebooks but Van was the only one paying attention. Disregarding Professor Yarlagadda's teachings, I used my pages as a sketchbook, drawing a creepy, beautiful face peering back at me from the water.
"It had a flat nose and green teeth," Van signed, smiling at my work.
When the picture was complete, I tore the page from my book and passed it to Van, who stored it lovingly in the back of her textbook.
As Professor Yarlagadda rehashed government's basic principles, I returned my pencil to the page, this time sketching the face I saw every time I closed my eyes. Who could forget lips that dripped refinement, hands so warm and solid, and eyes that only saw you.
The end is never really the end...
"Is that him?"
I nodded at Van.
"He's gorgeous."
"Gorgeous is an understatement," I whispered back. To anyone with eyes, Dorian was breathtaking.
Realizing my pencil was getting dull, I reached in my backpack for another, gasping in shock when my eyes returned to the page. Dorian's face had changed. His lips were pulled back in a smile I hadn't drawn, his vacant gaze now zeroed on mine...
Heart thudding, I slammed the sketchbook shut, earning startled looks from my classmates. I pushed the sketchbook away, as far as it could go without falling off the desk. But I was the one on edge.
Dorian was bad for my health.
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After classes, Vanida and I caught up with her boyfriend in the parking lot. Daniel Begay was a senior studying criminal justice at HVU. Sparkling with mystery, Danny's brown eyes were as dark and shining as the straight locks falling down his back. A silver hoop glinted in his nose, and the tan skin exposed by his Kiss t-shirt was mapped in stunning tattoos of wildlife and nature. Danny was attractive, but more than that he was loyal and fierce, his devotion to community affairs the only rival to his passion for Vanida. Secretly, I was jealous. Vanida had found someone who loved her completely, and asked for nothing in return.
