Aquarelle [h.s]

fifteen

Then there was the exhibition.

It came around way quicker than I'd expected, barely giving me the time to finish everything I had to get done before it. I completed my last painting just the day before, and I promised myself to never put myself in such a situation again, because it was crazy to think that the artworks I'd made in just a couple of days were about to be part of an art exhibition.

The day of the exhibition, though, I was way more stressed out than I'd been before. Everyone that mattered had decided to show up, Nicholas, Louis, Liam and Violet, and my parents. The only one missing was Harry, but it wasn't like I could've done much about it. Mrs Haynes had said it would've been best if he didn't show up, and so he didn't. It would've been a lie if I'd said I didn't miss him, though.

Everyone around me seemed to have no idea of what was going on. It was painfully obvious, to me as much as to everyone else, that they would've never gone there if it hadn't been for me. The only one that had a slight idea about art was Louis, but he didn't particularly like contemporary art, and so he spent the whole time quietly making little judgemental comments that made me chuckle, until I realised that they were probably directed towards my paintings too, though.

It was no surprise that Nicholas wasn't enjoying his time there. Differently from Louis, that made it his mission to see every single artwork and comment on it, he just didn't care enough to look around, and when he did, he didn't seem to be entertained in the slightest. I wished he would've at least acted like he cared as there were many other artists around too, and nobody likes to see someone acting like that in front of something they created. Aside from that, I didn't mind that much, because I knew he didn't like art that much at all. We surely were an odd couple to an outside observer, but he was still supportive of what I did, and that was all that mattered in the end.

Liam and Violet tried their best to pretend they knew what was going on, but it was quite clear they didn't - not that I minded, though. Violet remarked again what a great idea it had been to get Harry to model for me as the paintings had turned out great, and Liam said he liked them too.

My parents, on the other hand, were quite surprised, especially when I disclosed the identity of the mysterious model with them. It took me over an hour to convince my mother that those paintings had been done recently, and that they weren't inspired by drawings I'd done five years before. My father wasn't that pleased when he discovered that Harry was back into my life, but he too couldn't help but say that he was a quite great model for me.

My parents left a couple of hours after, but everyone else decided to stay to keep me company. I wasn't even sure my presence was required at all, but I just thought it would've been best to hang around for a while. The exhibition was huge anyway, and it wouldn't have surprised me if Mrs Haynes had put more of her trusted artists on the same strict schedule she'd put me on.

After a couple of hours, though, everything started to get a bit too much. Nicholas wasn't on his best mood and the paintings of Harry surely weren't helping, Louis had already judged every single artwork in the rooms and was starting to get a bit more open about the fact that he preferred art from the Renaissance, while Liam and Violet had disappeared somewhere and were nowhere to be found.

After ten more minutes, I couldn't help to text Harry just to see what he was up to. Anything to distract myself a little bit. For that same reason, when he asked me if I wanted to get a coffee or something, seeming to sense through our texts that I needed a little break, I didn't say no. I told him that I probably wasn't allowed to leave for too long, and he told me not to worry. I could've never expected what happened next, though.

I didn't hear from him for the following half an hour. I pretended not to mind, because it kind of made no sense for me to want to talk to Harry while all my friends were surrounding me. It was kind of surprising to see how easily and quickly Harry had fit back into my life, as if he'd never left. Less than two months before we couldn't even be in the same room without arguing, now I was missing him because I was surrounded by art and he wasn't there.