Canvas |'kanvas| noun; a strong, coarse unbleached cloth made from hemp, flax, cotton, or a similar yarn, used to make items such as sails and tents and as a surface for oil painting - The Oxford American Dictionary.

Chapter five; canvas

It's been almost a week since Arthur and I agreed to be friends and put everything behind us. Well...almost everything. I think he's pretty ticked about my pushing him in the lake. I'm pretty sure I ruined his cell phone.

Not that we've been acting all buddy-buddy since then. We actually haven't spoken or seen each other since last week in my bedroom. Even then we'd felt kind of weird and I think we both needed time to process the whole concept.

Plus he hasn't had another assignment since the watercolor painting (which he still hasn't shown me) and it's not like I want him to message me or anything.

"Earth to Lovely." Ray's condescending tone brings me out of my reverie. I ignore his mocking attitude and give him a bright smile.

"Yes, brother dearest?" I let the words come out soaked in thick sweetness just to drive him crazy. He rolls his eyes and lets out an annoyed grunt.

I look him over and can't help but notice that he actually got dressed today. His light washed jean distressed cut off shorts, lilac colored short sleeved V-neck and black converse sneakers absolutely wreak Ray. He's had the same taste for years and it doesn't look like it's changing anytime soon.

      I shrug this off, grabbing a bowl from the cabinet and pouring a generous amount of Lucky Charms in along with some vanilla unsweetened almond milk before dropping a spoon in and plopping down next to Ray. He surprisingly doesn't even move away which is both exciting and slightly suspicious at the same time.

      Why is he even up this early? He usually isn't out of bed until at least noon...sometimes, Saturdays mostly, even later.

He also didn't smell too bad. "Are you wearing Beckam?" I ask in shock, trying my best not to shuffle closer to get a better whiff. "Are you going somewhere? Perhaps to meet the queen?" I joke with a small snort.

This time he actually does get up and move but I appreciate the fact that he actually tried not to be annoyed...at least for the first the first few seconds.

"If you insist on being so nosy, Joey and I are going out with a few people." He says lowly, keeping his eyes focus on his phone.

"Oh." I try to be as discrete as possible in thinking about all the possible things a fifteen – almost sixteen year old could possibly be doing at nine AM. "What, uh, are you guys gonna do...if you don't mind me asking that is."

I'm trying to sound casual but on the inside I'm walking on egg shells here. This is the first time in years that Ray has actually spoken to me in full sentences while not yelling or disagreeing with me on something. Lately we tend to fight or, more usually, say nothing at all.

He looks up from his phone, his blue eyes boring harshly into mine and I try my best not to let them remind me of dad. "Actually," he speaks quietly and his cold tone makes me wince and slump my shoulders forward slightly in disappointment, "I do mind. Excuse me." His chair squeaks against the floor as he stands, leaving his bowl of cereal there for me to take care of and stomping upstairs.

I sigh and look down at my breakfast, my stomach now churning but I hate to waste perfectly good food so I eat all of it nonetheless. When I've finished, I pick up my bowl along with Ray's and rinse them off before loading the two bowls into the dishwasher.

A knock on the door catches me attention and I tighten my unruly ponytail, rebellious strands had escaped the confinement previously, before opening the door.

"Lila? Lila! Oh my gosh, I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow." I beam at my best friend and don't hesitate to throw my arms around her in a bear hug.

She laughs and hugs me tighter before I release her and examine her thoroughly, expecting something to be different, but she's still the same old Lila. "You're so tan, I'm so jealous." I glare at her.

She waves it off but doesn't deny it, a smirk lifting the side of her mouth. "Oh you know how Italy is; so hot and sunny. Everything really is better there. Even the sun seems to shine brighter. Which, technically, it does."

I laugh again and grab her forearm, pulling her inside. "Come on, we're letting the air conditioning out."

She doesn't put up a fight and lets me yank her to the living room where we plop ourselves down onto the cool leather couches, her on the loveseat and I on the full.

It's only been a week and six days since she left for Italy but it might as well have been a month. "Tell me everything." I insist.

"Of course." She says with a smile before looking over my shoulder at something. "Oh hey, Ray. How are you? I haven't seen you in a while." She smiles a little smaller for him seeing as we both know how he gets with overly happy people.

I look behind me to see Ray, shocked, as if he didn't expect us to speak to him. He clears his throat and gives her a tight lipped smile, "I'm okay I guess. How was Italy?"

My eyebrows rise at my brother in surprise. He's never put in any effort to speak to Lila before so this is new. The best she's ever gotten is a blank stare or, what happens most of the time, he just walks out of the room quickly to avoid any conversation.

I look back to my friend to see her throwing her mousy brown hair into a messy bun but keeping her gaze on my brother casually. "It was great. Next time we go, you and Lovely have to come." She smiles at him a little wider and I realize in shock that she's being genuine. She actually wants him to go.

Ray seems beyond taken aback as well. His mouth stops half way open and his hand comes up to scratch his eyebrow as he looks down at his shoes. "That's, uh, really nice of you."

She nods once, never losing her kind smile and he ducks out of the room before he's forced to say anything else. She looks back at me with wide eyes, her smile now almost completely gone. "He spoke to me."

I nod. "I'm just as surprised as you."

She laughs a little at this, pulls her legs up onto the couch, and fixes her white blouse. "So...does this mean he's doing any better?" She whispers, concern flooding her features. She's my best friend so of course I tell her everything; including family issues or, in this case, Ray issues.

I sigh and look to the stairs where Ray disappeared. "I hope so. I mean, he still hasn't opened up to my mom or me. We're getting really worried. If he doesn't talk to someone soon I'm afraid he'll explode." I say quietly, voicing my mom and I's silent fear.

We sit in silence for a little while and I soon look back to Lila, her expression grim but determined. The same look she gave me the night of our Semi-Formal when Cindy Craw had ripped the bottom of her dress in anger. Apparently, without knowing, Lila had "stolen" Cindy's date. It all happened so quickly but long story short, Lila refused to cower and ended up ripping the rest of the bottom of her dress off and, albeit looking a little slutty, she was determined to not back down and we remained at the dance for the rest of the night. "What if – I uh...well, what if I were to...speak with him?"

The suggestion catches me off guard and if I had a drink I would have done a spit take right here. "What? Do you think he'd listen to you?" It's crazy for me to even think about letting her wonder into the lion's den like that but Ray needs someone outside the family to talk to and according to Ray, a therapist is out of the question.

"I-I don't know but maybe I can kind of say I need to talk and well....maybe then he'll open up if I open up. An eye for an eye." She shrugs a little shyly, as if I'll tell her no or something.

"That's..." I begin, thinking it over, "a great idea, Lila. You should go for it sometime." I know I shouldn't be surprised since this is the kind of stuff Lila does. She's helped a lot of people over this past year since she's been able to relate to a lot of people as of lately.

She smiles a beaming smile and I can't help but smile back. "I'm just hoping it'll help. I mean, ever since my brother died last year it's been really hard. But my mom and dad are really supportive and going to see a therapist actually helped me a lot in the long run. I'm not saying that therapists are for everyone, but I don't know where I'd be if I'd never let go of all the pain I was feeling. Even now I go every now and then. Sort of like a check-up." She smiles sadly and I get up and sit next to her, wrapping my arms around her in a tight hug.

When I pull away her eyes are watery but she quickly swipes the tears away and lets out a light laugh. "Anyway, I want to tell you about this guy in Italy. Ugh, he was so cute but so brain dead." She groans.

We laugh together as she tells me every little detail and anything she could have possibly left out in her texts and calls. After she finishes, I go into detail about anything and everything I've done while she was away. Specifically the whole Arthur situation.

"What kind of a name is Arthur anyway?" She jokes after I've finished. I know this is her way of reassuring me that my journal will be fine and everything will turn out the way it's supposed to.

"Well...at least we decided that if we're going to do this we might as well do it while getting along. There's really no use in ripping each other's throats out over the littlest thing, you know?" I say, shifting in my spot on the couch so my legs aren't under me. I can never sit like that too long otherwise I get a major Charlie-Horse.

I can practically hear the gears shifting in Lila's head, her lips pursed slightly in the way she does when she's thinking too hard on something. "Do you like, um..." She drifts off, waving her hands slightly around, not being able to think of the words and express what she's trying to say.

"What? Do I what?" I ask in confusion, my eyebrows furrowed.

"You know...do you like...I don't know –"

"What? Ew, no." I laugh loudly when I finally understand what she's trying to say, "He's just a friend. I don't...like – him like that...at all." I say truthfully, laughing.

She smiles, looking a little embarrassed. "Yeah, from the way you were talking about him I didn't think so but I was just making sure." I nod to this, glancing at the clock on the wall, just now realizing that we've been talking for over two hours.

"My mom should have been here for her break by now. It's Friday, she gets a break two hours early." I think out loud.

Lila swiftly pulls her phone out of her pocket. "Do you want me to call her?" She asks, looking a little concerned. Truth be told, my mom and Lila are pretty much as close as I am to my mother. Lila even calls my mom "mom." Don't get me wrong, it really doesn't bother me. Plus, I think my mom needs another child to take care of since Ray really wants nothing to do us it seems.

"Could you? My phone is almost dead. Speaking of, I'm just going to to find it and go plug it in. Let me know when she answers, okay?" I ask and she replies with a swift nod before I jog up the stairs two at a time.

When I make it to my room my heart is pounding slightly and my breath is way more eradicate than it should be for making a trip up the stairs. "I really need to start exercising more often." I mumble to myself as my eyes search the room for my phone.

My OCD tendencies usually make it rather easy to keep my room clean but it seems to me that summer vacations have a sort of full moon effect on me because right now, my room is anything but neat and tidy. This, for some reason, isn't making me hyperventilate right now. Hence the full moon effect.

"Phone, phone, phone." I chant in a whisper, my eyes running over each pile of clothes and every surface of the room before finally landing on the dresser. And there it is, lying face up on top of a pair of black and white polka-dotted Calvin Klein underwear. "Ah ha." I exclaim with a triumphant smile, snatching up my cell phone and jogging back downstairs, the trip down making me just as winded as the way up.

"Are you seriously out of breath? It was a trip up and down the stairs." Lila's dry humored tone makes me roll my eyes and I flop down onto my previous spot on the couch.

"Where's your charger?" She asks, looking down at my hands as if she missed something.

"What?"

"Your charger. I thought that was the whole point of going upstairs...to plug your phone in." She breaks each syllable down slowly and my head lulls back.

"Crap." I groan, "You wouldn't happen to have yours handy, would you?" I ask with an overly sweet toothy smile.

She laughs and reaches behind her to grab her black Michael Kors satchel on the coffee table. "Let me check." She ruffles through her bag for a millisecond before her hand emerges, a gold iPhone charger in her grasp. "I always come prepared."

"You're a lifesaver. I did not want to make that trip again." I whine.

Lila doesn't say anything and instead rolls her eyes, a ghost of a smile on her face, and looks down at her phone. "Oh look, you're mom just texted me. She says...that she's sorry she didn't let you know but she went to lunch with a friend."

"You had to interpret that into an actual full sentence, didn't you?" I guess and she nods with a laugh.

"Here. Plug your stupid phone in." She tosses the charger onto my lap and I quickly reach back to plug it into the wall, my back cracking a little. "Geez, you really do need to work out." She teases me with a smirk.

I ignore her and instead check my phone for messages.

LUCIFER:

Hope you're not busy. I need you this afternoon for another assignment. Does 2:00pm sound good?

This was almost an hour ago but I don't fret too much about it. I look up at Lila who is watching me with a smirk.

"Who's that? Arthur perhaps?" She coos.

I shoot her a glare. "He's just asking if I'm available today." Her eyebrows rise and I rush more than necessary to explain, "I mean, he needs me today – not needs me but more like wants to know if I'm willing to help him with an assignment. For his art class. Strictly for art."

She blinks at me a few times before her expression cracks and she's busting out laughing.

I don't wait for her to calm down before replying,

Me:

I'm pretty sure I'm available. At the park again?

I silently pray he says no. I don't think I can take another hour and a half in the burning hot sun and itchy grass.

A moment later my phone pings, a message lighting up my screen,

LUCIFER:

Nah we only went there last time because of the certain assignment. I actually need to be inside for this one so meet me at my place.

An address soon pops up onto our message feed and I screenshot it, not wanting to have to search for it later.

Me:

Good. I'm starting to think I'm not much of an outdoorsman.

LUCIFER:

Now, I don't believe that for a second. You seemed to be enjoying your time at the park when we first met.

Me:

True. Maybe you're the problem.

LUCIFER:

Mwah? Never.

I chuckle under my breath and put my phone in my pocket without answering.

"What was that all about?" Lila's voice brings my attention away from Arthur and our conversation.

"What was what about?"

She gestures to my phone and I shrug. "Arthur just said something and I found it kind of funny. But not really."

"No." She drawls out sarcastically, "Not at all. That's why you laughed."

"I chuckled." I huff defensively.

"Same thing. Hey do you have any Doritos? My mom and dad are on some crazy diet and won't let me eat junk food." She explains halfheartedly, standing and wondering into the kitchen. I stand and follow her, feeling like having a few Doritos myself.

"Then what did you eat on your trip?"

"What? Oh, we just started it when we got here." She waves it off, opening the pantry door and popping her head inside.

I give her a skeptical look. "Have you even had a meal since then?"

Lila comes out with an unopened back of original Doritos in hand and immediately tears open the seal, picking out a handful of chips and shoving them into her open mouth like a starving animal. "It's not about that. I need to have my fill before going home where there is nothing but organic everything. They're not even buying regular milk. There's crap like almond milk and cashew milk. I didn't even know you could make milk out of nuts. It's crazy." She speaks through a full mouth, a chunk of Dorito flying out of her mouth.

My nose scrunches in disgust at the sight. "Ew. Mouth closed when chewing, thank you very much." Sometimes I forget that Lila is only seventeen years old whereas I am I full year older. She was bumped up a grade in middle school therefore she graduated early. A year may not seem like a large age difference but, believe me it shows.

"Give me some of those." I demand, reaching my hand into the bag. She instantly jerks the bag away and sticks her tongue out.

"Mine." She tells me with furrowed eyebrows.

What did I tell you? It really shows.

I just laugh and snatch the bag out of her grasp. "It's good to have you back, Lila."