Balance of the Skies (bxb)

CHAPTER 13

For a split second, no one moved. Then Melia seemed to be the first to recover, quickly grabbing Auryn's hand, while shoving the portrait into Koray's hands.

"Bring your boyfriend," she hissed and the three of them were gone, leaving the two boys glaring at each other.

Koray looked again at the portrait he was now holding and could not help notice the date at the bottom, next to a scribble he imagined to be the artist's signature – 2018-12-30. He winced again, holding his right side and glared at the young male in front of him.

"Seems I was not wrong when I had this feeling that I knew you from somewhere. I'm still waiting.... Have you been stalking me? Coz I'm quite sure I did not pose for you to draw this." He was taking short breaths while almost bending to his right.

Lorien tried his best to get his mind to think of something to say as he knew that the truth would not be believed. The young man in front of him seemed furious, eyes a cold, steely grey boring into his, causing him to clutch at his pendant beneath his shirt. This seemed the only way to stop the freezing cold running through his whole body. He gulped once, twice; he opened his mouth but no sound came out.

"I'm still waiting for an explanation. This is an invasion of privacy but I am giving you the chance to explain before I get you kicked out of the exhibition if not the programme itself," Koray snapped.

"I - I did that last December... I must have seen your photo somewhere... maybe an art magazine? Yes, that's it. I really don't remember now. I honestly did not know you... I erm..."

"Save it. Who do you take me for? An idiot? Do I seem stupid to you?" Koray was getting angrier, yet Lorien could not help but notice that he was sweating more and his expression was morphing into one of pain.

"N-no, of –of course not," Lorien was angry at himself for stuttering, feeling guilty yet not knowing why. He sure did not stalk the guy and would give anything to disappear right now.

"You know what? You have this toxic air around you. Being close to you causes me pain – and I mean actual physical pain," Koray hissed again, "but still somehow, I seem drawn to you Lorien, and I have no idea why. Drawn to you like a moth to a flame, as they say, which is hardly surprising, seeing as I have always had this fascination with flames and candles and... well, fire in general." Koray smirked, while Lorien just stood there, glued to his spot.

"You are a mystery to me, Lorien, and I can't wait to unravel you." Koray had stepped forward, standing really close to Lorien now. He stared into the black-haired boy's eyes and saw them change from dark to hazel with those flecks of orange and red that he found so intriguing. His gaze went down to Lorien's lips and he gulped before looking back up into his eyes, all anger seeming to have dissipated like early morning mist.

"I forbid you from exhibiting this," he ordered, shoving the portrait into Lorien's hands and turning around. He then shuffled out of the hall, clearly having difficulty walking.

Lorien let out a breath he had been holding, while clutching the portrait to his chest. How could he have been so stupid as to bring it with his other works? And what was all that tirade from Koray? Talk of fire and flames? Is that what he said? Lorien was not so sure, yet what he found most disturbing was the fact that the closer Koray got to him, the hotter his pendant felt against his skin.

"Shall we discuss your works Lorien?" his professor was standing right in front of him and he had not even noticed.

"Yes Sir," he cleared his throat and tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

~~~~~

Koray reached his dorm, throwing off his shirt as he closed the door behind him. The skin around his birthmark was inflamed, a patch of red skin that was hot to the touch. He rushed to the freezer and got out a bag of ice cubes that he immediately pressed against his right side, letting out a sigh of relief. He thought back to his latest encounter with Lorien. He had meant what he said. He would get to the bottom of this and find out how the boy had managed to draw such a detailed portrait of him. He knew the guy was lying saying he saw his face in a magazine. That was simply impossible. Koray frowned. Last December he wasn't even in the country. He was in America, so how in the world...?

Still, what worried Koray the most was not the fact that someone he did not know had drawn a portrait of him five months earlier. What worried him was not the fact that he was in pain each time he was in the same room with Lorien. What worried him was the fact that he was beginning to feel something else each time he thought of the boy – something he could not yet define but that was most certainly there in his heart – a sort of twisted attraction that he tried to shove somewhere at the back of his mind, digging a hole deep enough inside of him to bury it in.

~~~~~

On the whole, Lorien was quite pleased with the three works of art he would be exhibiting. He had returned to his room and was preparing to shower, so he took off his pendant, which had cooled off considerably, and was getting some comfortable clothes out of the closet, when there was a knock on the door. He was a little surprised to find Melia there.

"is it a bad time?" she asked.

"Well, I just got back and was about to shower but... come on in." He stood aside to let his friend in. "Look, if this is about the portrait, I really -" he stopped as he saw her eyeing the pendant he had left on his bedside table. Instinctively, he grabbed it, shoving it into the pocket of his jeans, feeling like a child who got caught with stolen candy.

"You don't have to hide the pendant from me Lorien," Melia said calmly. "You see, I know who you are."