The Art Of Love / l.h ✔️

3

~Fae's POV~

I felt my cheeks flush in embarrassment at his comment and hugged my backpack tighter, quickly taking my seat with my bag in my lap. Scooting beneath the desk, the guy I faintly recognized as Axel gave me a light smile that I hesitantly returned.

"Don't worry about Luke. He's just whiny." Axel said, a charming smile slipping onto his face. I giggled softly and set my backpack in front of me on the table, tucking a strand of my black hair behind my ear. "You're name's Fae, right?" He asked when I didn't verbally respond, eyeing me closely and curiously. I softly nodded and pulled off the flannel shirt that I had on over my sweater, shoving it into my backpack. For some reason, it was quite hot in this room.

"Yes, I'm Fae. And you'd be Axel." I responded, eyeing him closely. When his face lit up with surprise, I had sort of expected that, being that he and I hadn't spoken to one another even once before right this second. If it hadn't been for the fact that Mr. Thomason had said my name while listing off who sat at this table, he definitely wouldn't have known my name.

"How'd you know my name?" He asked me, looking lost and confused. I sent him a little smile and shrugged lightly. "We had a few classes together in the ninth grade." I said, remembering exactly which classes they were. "It was English, PE class, and biology, actually." I recalled, causing his face to slip into another expression of surprise. We were in the twelfth grade now, so obviously that'd been a few years ago. He'd probably not expected that I'd remember something like that, something so unimportant.

"Damn. You've got quite the memory." He chuckled, amusement shimmering in his light brown eyes. Even though our eyes were both brown, his were more of a honey brown whereas mine were chocolate brown. I knew that both of our eyes were brown, but I still couldn't help but to wish I had eyes like his. Mine just looked like poop.

"I guess." I responded, shrugging lightly. We both fell silent when Mr. Thomason hushed the entire class, a good portion of which had burst into their own conversations with the people at their tables, or even with those at other tables. Some people had stayed quiet, however. Like Luke, who merely laid with his head down on the desk.

"So," Mr. Thomason began, leaning back against his desk. "Today we will not be doing art. Instead, I'm going to give you all a list of things you'll need in this class by Next Monday. Make sure you remember. I don't care if you have to write them, but you need to remember." He explained to us all, each of us eyeing him and listening intently aside from the large boy in the chair beside me. That'd be Luke, of course. I was pretty sure he was actually asleep, to be honest.

"You'll need a sketchbook, two poster boards to be able to make a portfolio folder for the work you'll be doing in this class, and always be sure to have a pencil, of course. Otherwise, though, that's it. I provide everything else." He said to us, giving everyone a bright smile. It was then I realized he actually looked to be relatively young, perhaps thirty or so.

"Do you all understand?" He asked us, wanting to be clear that we knew what we needed to get. "Yes." All of us replied at once. Mr. Thomason pushed off of his desk and stood straight, walking around to the side of his desk with his chair. "Great." He said, pulling the chair out and sitting down. "You all can do as you please for the rest of class."

Almost instantly, Axel began to dive back into conversation with me for the rest of the class.

**

At the end of the day, I found myself walking down the very crowded halls, trying to navigate my way to the school exit. Specifically the exit to the area where everyone waited for their buses to arrive to pick them up. Because I knew just how unpredictable my bus driver, Ms. Harding, could be in what time she arrived, I was doing my best to hurry, but the halls were so full.

Ms. Harding had a bad habit of showing up either way too early or way too late, but almost never right on time. It was a little frustrating, to be honest, but at least she showed up, I guess. However, there had been one or two times where she hadn't even showed up at all, which left me to walk home alone. Those times had sucked severely.

Wanting to be as quick as possible, I began to skirt my way in between people as they rushed through the halls, cutting in front of them. I was sure that I pissed them off, no doubt, but I didn't really care. I had to get to there quickly, and these people were going far too slow for me to get there in time. Finally, I managed to get to a part of the hall that was not so crowded, fast walking around the corner. Because I'd been walking so fast, I didn't give the person coming any chance to pass, so we crashed into one another.

I gasped as I fell back onto my butt, a slight pain shooting through my rear. My head lifted and I pushed my black hair out of my face, peering up in surprise at Axel. "Damn. Sorry, Fae." He apologized, quickly grabbing my hands to help me up. "That's okay." I assured him, quickly about to side-step his large frame so I could leave. Before I could, he lightly grabbed my wrist. "You sure you're okay?" He asked, furrowing his brows.

Surprisingly, Axel and I had become pretty well acquainted with one another during art class. I was sure he and I would make great friends with one another. "Yes, I'm okay. I have to get to the bus, though, so I'll see you tomorrow." I said quickly, waving goodbye as I rushed around him. He barely even had time to wave back before I was hurrying off again.

When I busted through the exit doors, feeling the slightly cool air hit my skin, I was greeted with the sound of very loud chattering from the people crowded along the path. I shoved through them, wondering if some of these people had heard of deodorant when...odd...scents hit my nose. A gust of wind blew my hair and it was hard to keep down, the strands blowing into my face as I pushed towards the front. My eyes scanned the line of buses until, finally, I spotted my bus: bus number 23.

As quick as possible, I rushed towards the bus and began to get on, sighing in relief the second my foot landed inside the vehicle. If there was one thing that ever worried me like no other about school, it was missing the bus.

I made my way down the aisle after Ms. Harding told me what seat number I was assigned to on which side, of which mine was the very last one at the back of the bus, on the left hand side. What really, really surprised me, however, was when I saw that my seat buddy was already on the bus, sat in the seat. It was Luke.

Luke's frame was sat on the seat facing into the inside of the aisle, not the window seat like most people would've usually taken. Frowning, I went ahead and stopped beside the seat, looking down at him. "Would you mind moving so I can sit?" I asked politely, scanning my features over his face as his head leaned back against the seat with his eyes shut. He cracked an eye open and peered up at me before both of his eyes opened and he raised a brow. "You're my seat partner?" He drawled, his voice flat. Again, he sounded bored.

Shyly, I pulled the sleeves of my flannel down over my hands more, covering them, and nodded my head. "Yes." I confirmed, staring down at him while I waited patiently for him to move for me.

Not to my surprise, he didn't move. He just stared at me a little longer, his blue eyes looking at me closely, like he was inspecting me. "Fae, yeah?" He hummed, crossing his arms over his chest. Frowning now, I nodded my head once more. "Yes." I confirmed again. His lips twitched at one edge and he raised a brow. "Like a fairy, huh?" He asked, causing me to slowly nod my head again. "Like a fairy." I affirmed.

Suddenly, he stood up, towering over me. My heart jolted as I looked up at him, feeling a little bit intimidated by his incredible height. He was so pretty, and so, so tall. So tall. "You gonna move or what? You're kind of blocking my exit." He muttered, cocking a brow up at me expectantly. I quickly stepped back, realizing that I was, indeed, blocking the exit. He moved out for me and I quickly got into the seat, sitting as close to the window seat as I possibly could.

Then, Luke sat back down, his broad frame making it incredibly crammed in this seat. The touch of his shoulder against mine made me try to shy away from him, trying to press into the side of the bus. I felt the cold metal of the bus wall against my fingers and I kept my legs close to myself, not wanting to invade his personal space.

For the entirety of the bus ride, I looked out the window, silently watching the world pass by.