"What a painting freak!"Ariana exclaimed with astonishment as she looked at the painting room. One might wonder what a "painting room" is. Well, Bianca was sort of a painting prodigy and loved painting as well as collecting world class paintings, hence, she had an entire room dedicated to different styles of paintings. It was on the top floor of the penthouse which also happened to connect to the helipad of the building.

This unique room of hers is just like me! Yeah... I am trying to call myself unique, if that is helping in anyway! Anyways, she always felt so relatable to it. Just the way all the paintings showed different shades of colours and feelings, life too has different personalities surrounding her and, she, like a headless chicken tried running around trying to decipher the various codes of these personalities. Also, the room's entrance was quite fascinating as the stairs that led to it were located behind the cupboard that held all of Bianca's favourite novels, placed in her room.

How did she come up with the idea of creating a secret passage sort of thing for the painting room upstairs? Well, it was inspired by some Barbie movie. And why did she want to do such a thing? Well, we are none to judge her.

"Gosh, did you make all these?", Ariana asked.

"No, I mean I have made some but mostly, I have bought them, I am not such a great painter!"
"Oh pu-h-lease, I have seen you paint and you are crazy good at it. You were not only a nerd, an introvert, a crazy laughing jackass but also a superb duper artist back in high school." Exaggeration again! Gosh, she hated extra attention and praise. Her cheeks couldn't take it any longer, they heated up. I will be honest, few of her paintings were good, pretty decent but they were nothing compared to the paintings she bought at auctions. This fact stays between you and me only, don't tell Bianca, she might end up pulling out my extensions even though I don't have any...yeah.

"So... Name the painters, or should I give you a special invitation!"

"Alright! So, this painting is painted by John Copperfield..."

She snickered beside her because, she found it hilarious how Ariana reacted at the name. She is a Somerfield, and Bianca had just listed a Copperfield!She supressed or at least tried to supress her snicker and continued,

"... This one is by William Arnaldo." She said pointing towards the right. As they moved further into the room, Ariana couldn't help but notice Bianca's cheeks fire up...again as Ariana was weirdly staring at her.

"Are you alright? You look like you've been baked with white cheese!"White, because of Bianca's complexion. Huh, can't do anything about it. She has been called a variety of things in her life. Some called her a white rat, some, a white ghost, some called her the bleaching powder, some just went around blabbering, "hey invisible" and some just totally ignored her but that is another tragedy story, forget it!

"Well, and this is the last painting, painted by...", she paused and tried to take out a few syllables from her mouth because saying that name made her feel a bit jittery."...by Josh...Anderson." she mumbled after a few minuts, yes minutes.

I am surprised why Ariana hadn't slept by then...but that is alright, as always, she was socially awkward. One would never get it that why with patients in the hospital, she never had this nervous feeling she had while she spoke to people outside the hospital? But, one may assume it happens to a lot of people as they are either too afraid and shy to put their point forward and say something or are just too thick headed to let their ego down for a while. In Bianca's case, it was the vulnerability that she had felt when she was too close to people in the past, who hadn't had the need to think twice before hurting her. Maybe, Ariana was one of them and she would remember all the tears she had shed in her stressful years.

"Jeez, I never knew Josh was such a great painter and you were his greatest admirer.", said Ariana after analysing Bianca's as always weird expression.

"Wait... What DO you mean by greatest "admirer". I am an admirer of professional art and not the artist! And don't tell me you didn't know about him being a painter.", Bianca said knowing that she was lying big time. Josh, the world famous artist, WAS the soul reason she bought the painting...

"So, I guess this is your favourite painting out of all those?",Ariana asked pointing towards the entire room.

"Umm...maybe?", she said, still mumbling.

"What is that you like about the painting?"

She could not exactly tell her what she liked about the painting because, somewhere in her heart, she was scared to accept the fact that she liked the painting because of a certain painter who had painted it. Josh had always tried to narrate a story through his fantastic paintings which Bianca could not help but relate each piece of his art work to his feelings and intentions. She hadn't seen him in years now and this, however, hadn't allowed her to stop thinking about him or the circumstances that had to part them in their grade ten. She had always been a shy kind of person and had never allowed her feelings get into the way of achieving her goals, yet, after much calculations and consultations with herself, she had come to a point where she could not deny what she felt, even if it meant his rumour of being dating a rich woman who owned a jewellery coorporation.In the particular painting of his, he had tried to show this really confused boy who with a questioning look looked at this girl busy admiring a grand overwhelming box, while a group of others, six of them to be precise, were crying their hearts out. It was a very tensed up painting but it surely justified its title, 'Don't Hurt Me'. Bianca had no clue what prompted Josh to make this painting but it definitely had a lot of emotions hidden in it and she believed that it had to have some history behind it.It portrayed betrayal of trust which was one expression that Bianca could never go wrong with.

Ariana snapped her fingers in front of her face,"Please don't do it. I freak out when people space out of reality.", she said, clearly shuddering.Bianca let out an unhearty laugh and apologized her for feaking her out.

"So, you were saying?", Ariana encouraged her to finish.

"Yes, what I like about the painting... pfft, I like everything about it. This isn't anything to ask about, is it?"

"Ah, I see, it isn't, no, no, certainly not. It is fine if you don't want to talk about it.", Ariana said with a smirk.

"Ugh, forget it. Anyways, how-is-your-life-going-on? Is-it- still-as-happening-and-adventurous-as-it-used-to- be? Do-you-still-speak-to-Daniel? I-heard-he-is-working- at-Jewelco. I-recently-spoke- to -Michelle,- did -you- know -she -has -moved- to -Beijing? Beijing -Ariana,- Beijing! I -cannot- believe- what- is -up -with -our -batch -mates! They -are- just- all- over -the- world. I-really-have-to-tell-you-this-one-thing..." She mixed up the words and told all this so fast that...

"Shush, just shhhhhhhhhh. God gracious, Bianca stop! Do you even know how you are sounding? You are sounding like a chipmunk wanting to go to the bathroom but has to wait up to give a speech because everyone is watching it in the middle of a conference hall."

"Is that supposed to make any sense?", Bianca blurted out, " because I don't think it makes sense."

"That is the point Bini, you are not making sense. You are speaking gibberish! And I don't speak it. Go on, and ask everything slowly.", Ariana said in the horrible, annoying accent of hers, just like she did in high-school.

Bianca leaned by the wall as she remembered all the craziness and care-free-ness they had back then. However, before she got nostalgic to the level infinite, she took in a deep breath as she saw Ariana mouth out, "I missed..", she couldn't say the last part because Bianca didn't let her say it. It had a lot of past behind it that she was in no mood to re-uncover.

Her lips pursed, her smile faded. She looked at her coldly as she thought it was the best thing to do with her awkward situation.

She pushed her aside gently, took out her purse and said, "Here is your tip ma'am for getting me squished dinner and the door is towards your 2o'clock from where you may leave and before you go just know that you have wasted a lot of my time. I have a patient to attend to."

Now that patient might be herself as every little feeling she had been running away from had come rushing towards her and had, unfortunately, caught up with her.Ariana kept quiet, slowly turned and left as Bianca held her tears back.

***