Chapter 9

“I still can’t believe you put this off for so long,” Saige commented, grunting quietly as she lugged a can of paint up the stairs and into my room. “I mean, I was with you when you bought this, and I’m pretty sure that was almost two months ago.”

With a sheepish smile, I put down the can of paint that I had been carrying and tried to remember a time in the past couple of weeks where I would’ve had time to paint.

Before this week I was focused on everything but painting my room. First I had been focused on settling down into Byrendale and working hard when it came to track. Then, when history became a problem, I had been focused on studying and getting Parker to tutor to me, which brought me to the biggest cause for distraction.

I had been focused on getting to know Parker, and Saige, as friends. Up until this week any free time I had was spent hanging out with Saige outside of school or studying with Parker at the library or at the pond, when weather permitted.

This week, however, had been slightly different.

For the most part, I had let Parker be. I didn’t necessarily need his help in history at the moment, as everything was a lot easier to understand now that I was caught up, and after the scene in the cafeteria, I just wanted to give him a little space. I felt that it was partially my fault that he had been bullied again so openly, as I was the one who single-handedly forced him into the cafeteria, even though he didn’t seem bitter the last time we spoke, I still didn’t want to push him into revealing anything he wasn’t ready to.

However, as the days of the week passed, I did happen to catch him wandering the halls a few times, and after throwing him a smile each time, I would always find my gaze slipping to the sketchbook that always seemed to be sticking out of his bag.

I knew he had said his drawings were private, but that just brought out the curiosity in me, wondering what secrets he was hiding within the pages of his sketchbook.

Also, two days ago, while running on the treadmill, I saw the paint cans I had purchased all those months ago, and realized that it might be time to put them to use, rather than letting them collect dust in the dark corner of the basement.

Which brought me to my current situation.

“I just never found the time I guess,” I replied, walking around the room to crack the window open. “And now’s a better time than ever.”

Last night, my dad had helped me push all the furniture in my room to the center before draping a few layers of plastic wrap over it all. We had also put down old sheets to cover the majority of the floor, and he had taped both the bottom and the top of all the walls to ensure we wouldn’t accidentally paint the ceiling or the hardwood floor.

The sudden remodeling had left me to sleep on the couch in the living room, but I thought the uncomfortable nights would be worth it when I saw the finished paint job in a couple of days.

“And why exactly did you decide to wait until the temperature dropped to start painting?” she asked, pulling the old sweater she had tied around her waist on quickly. “Do we really have to keep the window open the whole day?”

Rolling my eyes at her questions, I picked up one of the tools that my dad had left me and popped open the first can of paint. “Yes Saige,” I replied with amusement, dropping the paint top to the ground, “My dad said that the room had to be aired out while we painted.”

Saige sighed in reply, but nodded reluctantly. “So, are we painting all four walls completely purple?”

I shook my head as I started to pour the paint from the can into a larger tin that would be easier to get the paint out of later. “I thought about it, but I figured that it’d be a bit too dark if everything was dark purple,” I explained, before nodding to the roll of painting tape on the floor. “My dad left me the tape to use, so I was thinking that if we tape a straight line across the room about three feet high, and only paint above it, I’ll still be able to see the white and it’ll look a bit brighter.”

Saige looked around the room, which was currently all white, and seemed to be envisioning what I had in mind. After a couple of seconds of silence, I figured she had some reservations about my idea, but when she spoke, a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

“I think it’ll look cool.” she stated, agreeing with me as she smiled. “But how exactly are we going to be able to tape a perfectly straight line?” she asked, picking up the role of tape.

“With a lot of help, that’s for sure.”

After locating a long ruler and a pencil from downstairs, Saige and I worked for the next half an hour on making the perfect tape line around my room, and after a couple of screw ups and slanted pieces, we stepped back from the wall slightly.

“Do you think it looks okay?” I asked, walking around the slowly as I scrutinized the tape, making sure I couldn’t visibly see anything wrong with it. I thought it looked decent, but I just wanted to be one hundred percent sure everything was perfect before I started painting.

“Yea,” Saige said, running a hand over a part of the tape to flatten it a little more, “I’d say we did a pretty good job.”

“Now there’s only one thing left to do,” I said, picking up two paintbrushes and a roller from where my dad had left them.

“And how exactly am I supposed to use this?” Saige interjected, grabbing the roller from my hands and tossing it up and down slightly with a curious expression.

Rolling my eyes, I took the roller out of her hands and tossed her a paintbrush.

“Let’s get painting.”

In my mind, painting only half of each wall would’ve made the job easier, maybe even cut a couple of hours of work off, but I hadn’t realized that painting in general was a lot of work.

Two hours had already gone by and we were just finishing up the same wall we had started with.

“Can you hold the can of paint close to me?” I asked, looking down from the top step of the ladder I was currently on. I just had one spot left to paint before we started on another wall.

“Sure.” Saige replied as she lifted the half empty can of paint so that it was within my reach.

Soaking the end of my brush with paint, I finished up the wall, continuing a bit onto the next wall until my brush was once again dry.

“I still can’t believe that this is taking so long,” Saige commented, her words matching my thoughts as I climbed down the ladder.

“Maybe it’s because you’re slowing us down,” I said teasingly, dropping my paintbrush down onto the floor. “I did have to teach you how to use a paintbrush after all.”

“Hey,” she gasped, “It’s not my fault that I’ve never had to paint anything bigger than a piece of paper before, blame my mom.”

I rolled my eyes as a smile appeared on my face. “I’ll be sure to do that.”

Sticking her tongue out at me childishly, she didn’t reply, instead she just dropped her paintbrush to the floor like I had however, hers didn’t land with a clatter on the covered floor.

No, instead she dropped her paintbrush right into the open paint can that was rested beside her feet. As the brush hit the can, specks of paint were immediately catapulted into the air, going everywhere.

Closing my eyes in an instant, I screeched as I felt the wet paint land on me, as well as anything that happened to be surrounding me.

Opening my eyes seconds later, when I no longer felt myself being blasted with paint, I saw Saige standing across from me, in the same place she always had been, but now she was wearing a sheepish smile and an overall apologetic face.

“I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, “But on the bright side, none of the paint got on the walls.”

Surveying the room, I saw that she was right. Although the plastic covering my furniture had been covered in paint, as well as my face and stomach, the walls that were meant to stay white, were still white. The paint had splashed onto the top parts of the wall slightly, but since I was going to be painting those parts, I didn’t really mind.

Shaking my head, I couldn’t help the smile that somehow formed on my face as I brought my hands up to wipe the paint off of my face.

“Let’s just get back to work,” I sighed minutes later, having already given up trying to get the paint out of my hair. The paint had wiped off my skin easy enough with a damp cloth, but my hair was a completely different story. “And this time, try not to spray me with paint.”

“I’m making no promises.” she replied cheekily.

Amused, I picked up the roller from the side of the room and got to work.

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After hours of painting, a half-hour lunch break, and a few mistakes and laughs, we finally reached the bottom of the second can of paint as we coated the last piece of wall purple.

“Done.” I sighed, slipping down to the floor to lean against my furniture.

“Well, that was fun.” Saige stated, sliding down to rest beside me.

“More like tiring.”

She rolled her eyes at my whining. “Oh come on, you run almost five kilometers a day on those machines downstairs, and you telling me that painting this room took more energy out of you than running does?”

“Yes.” I replied simply.

“Well then you must be crazy.”

“Just lead me to the insane asylum.” I commented teasingly, causing us both to break out in laughter.

Amidst of our laughter, in which we must have looked like a couple of girls who had recently lost their minds, my stomach grumbled loudly.

Well, I guess that’s what I got for painting all day without eating anything more than a ham sandwich.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket as I brought myself out of my comical fit of laughter, the screen lit up and told me that it had just passed five ‘o’clock, which meant that we had been painting for seven hours.

“What time is it?” Saige asked as she came down out of her own laughter fit.

“Ten after five.” I replied, tucking my phone back into my pocket.

“What are you doing tonight?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, probably cleaning up this mess a bit. My dad left some money downstairs, and he won’t get home until nine tonight so, I’m probably just going to order a pizza or something.”

“Why don’t you come to my house for dinner?” she suggested. “My mom won’t mind, and it’s not like your doing anything special.”

“I don’t know…”

“Come on Jill, leave the cleaning to tonight and come over.” she said, egging me on by nudging my side. “You know you want to.”

“And what about this mess?” I asked, picking up a section of my hair, referring to the paint that had dried right into the strands.

She shrugged. “Put your hair up in a bun,” she said simply, “It’s not like you’re trying to impress anybody, or are you?” Her eyebrows were wiggling suggestively, and I knew immediately what she was on about.

“I’m not trying to impress Parker,” I said with an eye roll, “But I would like to make a good first impression with your mom.”

“First of all, my hands are probably stained purple until I get around to scrubbing them clean, and second of all, my mom knew I was coming over here to paint. I think she’d be even more surprised if I showed up clean. She won’t care if you come over with purple streaks in your hair, plus, it gives you character.”

“Fine,” I conceded, pushing myself up off the floor. “But I’m changing out of these sweats.”

“Take your time.” she said, holding her hands up in mock surrender. “I’ll just wait downstairs.”

And that’s how I ended up heading to Saige’s house for the first time with spots of purple paint in my hair, looking like something the garbage man picked up from the side of the road.

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“Stop playing with your hair,” Saige commented from the passenger’s seat, “You look fine. It’s not like your meeting your boyfriends parents or something.”

Saige’s mom had dropped her of at my house early this morning, so I was currently driving the both of us over there. “I’m just trying to hide as much purple as I can.” I replied anxiously, looking at my reflection in the rearview mirror as I tucked another strand of purple hair into my bun.

As the light turned green, I abandoned my mess of hair and put my attention back on the road, continuing through the town towards Saige’s house.

The next couple minutes were filled with mindless chatter. The music from the radio blasted through the speakers and the two of us were either singing along or talking over top of the songs that played.

Before long, I was turning onto the side streets and pulling into the driveway.

“So, you told your mom I was coming over right?” I asked with an ounce of nerves as I climbed out of the car and slammed the door shut behind me.

Saige copied my actions, slamming the door on her side just seconds after I had, leaving me to lock the car quickly as we headed towards the front door. “Not exactly,” she admitted, giving me even more nerves than before, “But like I said before, she won’t care.”

The words left her mouth, and without giving me a second to reply, she opened her front door and headed inside, leaving me to follow behind her.

“Mom, I’m home!” she yelled, alerting whoever was in the house of her presence before she turned to me. “Come on, just put your shoes there.” she continued, her voice now at a normal level as she pointed to the mat next to us.

“In the kitchen!” a womanly voice yelled back in reply, which, to my knowledge, could only belong to her mother.

As we headed towards what I assumed to be the kitchen, our footsteps sounded throughout the house and her mother began to talk once more.

“So, Parker’s gone out for a while and I’m thinking that he won’t be back for supper, but just in case, I made enough for three, even though there are only two of…” she explained with her back to us, however, as she turned around to face us, she trailed off as her eyes landed on me. “Well, I guess there’s a reason I made enough for three.” she continued with a smile.

“Mom, this is Jillian. Jillian this is my mom.” Saige said, introducing the two of us.

“Hi Jillian,” her mother said kindly, wiping her hands on a cloth before holding it out for me to shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too Mrs. Morgan.” I replied, shaking her hand as my nerves started to disappear.

“Oh call me Susan dear.” she said, to which I nodded and smiled at her. “And I’m guessing you girls succeeded with the painting today?”

Her teasing comment left my cheeks tingeing pink, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that the only reaction Saige had was an eye roll, as if she was used to these comments, possibly even on a daily basis.

Although her mom had asked the question, Saige took it as a rhetorical one, as she changed topic in and instant. “Anyways, can Jillian stay for dinner mom?” Saige asked, looking as though she expected her to say yes.

“Of course she can, as long as she likes chicken and potatoes.” her mom replied with a motherly tone, looking at me with a questioning look.

Nodding, I replied. “Yea, anything’s fine.”

“Then you’re welcome to stay for dinner,” Susan agreed, “It’ll be ready in about thirty minutes so you girls can just hang around the house for a while. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

“Thanks mom.” Saige said as she turned around and headed out of the kitchen.

“Yea, thank you.” I repeated, and I saw her mom nod in silence, as if she was telling me it wasn’t a problem. Sending her mom a quick smile, I followed Saige out of the room before I got lost trying to find her.

“So, TV?” Saige asked, leading me into the living room as she nodded on the wide screen that was bolted onto the wall across from me, and as I nodded, we relaxed onto the couch with a repeat of The Vampire Diaries playing.

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As the show switched to a commercial twenty minutes later, I was starting to smell the scent from the kitchen wafting into the living room, and it was awakening my senses. Not only was I starting to get really hungry, but I also realized something else.

I really had to pee.

“Umm… where’s the bathroom?” I asked Saige as I saw a couple of cartoon animals advertising a cell phone on the screen.

Saige looked to me, and nodded towards the staircase behind us. “It’s just upstairs,” she replied, “Do you want me to pause the show when it comes back on?”

Shaking my head in response, I stayed quiet. Even though I wanted to ask exactly where the bathroom was located upstairs, I was too embarrassed, so I figured that it was just be a guessing game at this point.

Standing up, I could hear the show come back on as I reached the top of the stairs, but my mind was focused on the fact that there were five doors in the hallway I was currently standing in, and I was only looking for the toilet behind one.

Favouring the process of trial and error, I just started opening each of the doors slightly, and after coming across a closet, and what seemed to be Saige’s bedroom, I really hoped, as I turned the doorknob on the third door, that it was the bathroom.

At first glance, I was deflated, as the room I was looking at clearly wasn’t a bathroom, but as I saw the art supplies scattered over a desk in the far corner, and the darker colours taking up the majority of the room, I realized what this room was.

It was Parker’s bedroom.

Now, I’m sure that if the angel on my shoulder was there in that moment that she would’ve persuaded me to just close the door and keep looking for the bathroom, but in that moment, I was clearly under the devil’s influence.

My mind flicked to the fact that Saige’s mom had said that Parker was out at the moment, and that, mixed with my natural curiosity that seemed to pop up whenever his name was brought up, pushed me to open the door further and step inside.

If I were to imagine what Parker’s room would’ve looked like before this moment, it probably would’ve been fairly similar to this. The walls were painted a shade of midnight blue, and most of the furniture in his room was either white or grey. However, in my mind, I would’ve expected tons of art supplies and used up sketchbooks laying around, along with a couple of dirty clothes littering the floor and maybe a dirty plate or two, but other than the art supplies, his room was fairly clean.

Speaking of art supplies and sketchbooks, my eyes zeroed in on the open book that rested on top of everything else on his desk. Again, the devil on my shoulder was whispering in my ear, and I followed her influence as I walked towards the desk and looked down at the open page.

I was blown away the second my eyes landed on the first page. There, on the first page of his sketchbook, was the most beautiful drawing of a scene I’d ever seen. He had painted the pond area where I had first met him, and as my wandering eyes flipped the pages of his sketchbook, no matter how guilty my conscience was at the moment, I couldn’t help but be amazed.

Parker had a real talent for drawing, and although some of the drawings were a little dark, like the jail cell I passed and a few drawings of his sister’s grave, I could feel the passion seeping out of the pages.

However, what stunned me was the fact that as I flipped another page to hide a drawing of a cityscape, I uncovered a drawing that I didn’t expect to see.

It was a drawing of me.

It must’ve been drawn a while ago as, like most of the other drawings I had passed, some of the pencil markings had been smudged, which was what made the sketches so special now. It was a drawing of me running across the pond from him, making me think that he had drawn it from memory as he sat underneath that tree every morning, which made me smile and my heart skip a beat with affection.

Turning the pages of his sketchbook, I found a few more sketches of me amidst the others. There were ones of me close-up, as if he had drawn them during our study sessions, and there was one from the day he had made the trip to apologize to me at my track meet, which consisted of me crossing the finish line with a flushed expression and a content smile on my face.

It amazed me that, even with a pencil and a piece of paper, that Parker had done such a good job of capturing my emotions at the time.

As I flipped through the next couple of sketches, I must’ve zoned out since I didn’t hear the sound of heavier footsteps coming up the stairs, and as I flipped yet another page, a voice from the doorway startled me.

“What are you doing?” Parker said, making my heart catch in my chest as I jumped, turning to face the guy that wasn’t supposed to be here.

I had just been caught red-handed.

“I said, what are you doing in here Jillian?” he asked once again, coming closer to me as he grabbed his sketchbook from beside me and closed the cover.

“I, umm…” I started, scrambling my mind for something to say that wouldn’t sound completely idiotic. “I was just looking for the washroom, and I… well I came across your room and I saw your sketchbook, and I just thought, you know, it wouldn’t be so bad if I looked at it for a second.”

My mumbling and blabbering didn’t seem to be helping, and as I looked up to face Parker, the disappointment, and what looked like fear, was evident. They lit the guilt in the pit of my stomach immediately.

“So you looked through my sketchbook,” he stated, his voice void of emotion. “Even after I told you that my drawings were private?”

“I’m sorry.” I mumbled in apology.

The next few seconds were full of silence, and as the time ticked on, the silence seemed to become even more deafening.

“You drew me.” I stated quietly, but also in awe. “Were you ever going to show those drawings to me?”

My words seemed to bring a blush onto his face, as if he were embarrassed that I ever laid eyes on them. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, making me scrunch my eyebrows in confusion. Why would he be apologizing for drawing me? “You weren’t ever meant to actually see them, and I know they aren’t the best or that they might be an invasion of your privacy but…”

However, I couldn’t let him continue when I realized that, in his mind, he thought I hadn’t liked the sketches.

“No, no, no.” I started, cutting him off mid-explanation. “The sketches were beautiful, in fact, everything in that book was incredible, which makes me wonder why you’re so scared to show off your talent. I mean, you’re really good.

And that privacy bit, don’t even worry about it, you know, since I think I just invaded your privacy as well.”

My comment was meant to be both praising and apologetic at the same time, and as I saw the side of his mouth lift up in a smile, I realized that I had done my job.

“Yea well,” he said, not really saying anything, but at the same time, saying everything at once.

“I really am sorry.” I repeated, biting my lip in apology.

“It’s fine I guess,” he replied, “Just don’t let me catch you sneaking around behind my back again.”

“Deal.”

One minute we were smiling at each other, seeming to have come to an understanding, yet the next minute, the atmosphere seemed to have shifted.

Parker was looking at me strangely, and I realized that as we stood face to face, my gaze might have flicked down to his lips once or twice. Suddenly, we were both moving closer to each other, leaning in, and just as my eyes were about to flutter close, they were wrenched back open as I heard his aunt call from downstairs.

“Dinner’s ready!”

And with that, the atmosphere had changed again, to one of awkwardness and uncertainty, at least on my part.

My eyes opened fully to see that a tear had built up in the corner of Parker’s eye, and as he pulled back, he looked at me with the most pained expression I had ever seen.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice raw with emotion, and before I could open my mouth and say a word, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I just can’t do this. You deserve something better.”

In that same second, he turned around and left his room. Seconds later, I could vaguely hear the sound of his feet hurdling down the stairs before I heard the front door slam, and then he was gone.

Parker had left me standing alone in his room with a whirling mind, a beating heart, and just one thought… what did he mean when he said that I deserved something better?

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So, that was quick! I literally started writing this Friday night and finished it late last night, but I guess that’s what happens when you actually know every single event that’s going to happen in a chapter.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and appreciate the fact that the update was so quick. Also, don’t hate me that I left it a cliffhanger because, although I don’t have every single part of the next chapter mapped out, I do have a vague idea. So give me another week, and hopefully I’ll have the chapter up by the end of next weekend :)

Drop a comment below to tell me what you thought of this, and click the vote button if you enjoyed it! Until next time x