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The front door opens across the house. Shoes stomp on the entryway carpet. The door slams, opens, then slams again.
Drew looks at my door. “Jenna having a bad day?” he asks.
“No.” I chuckle. “That’s just her way of announcing her presence in the house just in case you and I are...”
“Ohhh.” He smiles. “Have we been too loud?”
I hesitate. “Eh...”
“Whoops. My bad,” he says, not really sorry. He kisses me softly before sitting up on the bed and reaching for his pants on the floor. “I should head out, anyway. Seth thinks I’m at a study group right now.”
I snort. “You? Study?”
“Hey, 19th century imperialism ain’t gonna learn itself.”
“Such an elaborate ruse,” I say, impressed.
He pulls up his pants as he rises off the bed. “The things a man’s got to do to secretly date his best friend’s kid sister,” he jokes. He leans forward and kisses me goodbye. “I’ll text you tonight,” he promises.
“I’ll be here,” I say as I heave a sad sigh and sprawl out, “all by myself in this cold, cold bed?—”
“Stop it,” he scolds.
I wink.
CHAPTER 41
HEIDI
I stare at the oil painting in front of me. I tilt my head to the side. I squint my eyes.
“Nope,” I say to Jenna. “Still can’t tell what it is.”
Jenna bites her painted lip. “I think it’s a dog.”
“Maybe…”
“Or a duck?”
“What’s the title?” I ask.
We search the table beneath it for the placard.
Jenna reads it aloud. “Electric Ruin?” She scoffs. “Well, that’s no help at all.”
“We must not be smart enough to get it,” I quip.
She pinches her chin, nodding sagely. “Right, right…”
“Great technique, though!”
She gives a serious nod in agreement and we move down the line to the next exhibit.
As I move through this semester’s Art Fest, often shoulder-to-shoulder with bustling art enthusiasts, I feel a little better about skipping out. I don’t think I’m ready to have my work ogled and judged like this just yet. Maybe by next semester, I’ll have some thicker skin.
“Oh, now this,” Jenna says as she waves at what appears to be a sculpture at first glance. “This is art.”
I chortle. “Jenna, that’s a water fountain.”
