Break In My Heart

Picture This: Tyler's POV (bonus chapter)

"This is awful!" I whined as I moved my brush against the canvas. We were in a community painting class, something Addi and I'd been doing for the past year and a half or so after my therapist suggested it to help me deal with my stress. I needed it now more than ever since our senior year was coming to a close and things at the studio were ramping up rapidly.

"Oh come on, Ty," Lilliana, our classmate that lived in our building, said as she left her easel and walked over to mine. "It can't be that ba..." Her words died on her lips as she looked at the abomination on my paper. We were supposed to be painting a tree that our teacher, Ophelia, had on a pedestal, and based on my eyes and Lilliana's reaction, I definitely hadn't made a tree.

"Yeah," I said, agreeing with her unspoken horror. I'd admittedly started off strong by utilizing the tips that Addison had given me by focusing on the general shape and then getting more detailed as I go, however, I think I tried to get too detailed and I ended up creating a huge mess.

She gave me a clap on the shoulder. "At least you're good at music."

"Ooh, let me see," her boyfriend, Silas, said as he approached. He and Lilliana were actually the ones that had introduced us to this class since Lilliana was an applied art major and he was naturally a good painter. I really liked him, and it was fun getting into cartoon lore with him since Addison would just laugh every time I'd bring up a new theory about the sociopolitical messages of cartoons.

Silas' brow corked as he took in what I'd made. "It's definitely..." he tilted his head to the side, "something. I wouldn't say art, but it's something."

Lilliana hit him, causing him to put his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I can't say shit. People sell stuff like this for like four point six million."

"Gee, thanks," I flatly said.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad," Rowan said as they approached.

"It really is," Silas warned, causing Lilli to hit him again. "What? As their friend, I need to warn them."

Rowan approached, twiddling their paintbrush between their fingers as their dark brows pulled together in concentration. We'd met at Windy City Sound when we were both social media interns. They were really good at it and have continued climbing the ranks within the media department while they went to a community college to study photography. Meanwhile, I'd luckily gotten out of the media department and was now a producer's assistant, something that truly made me happy and allowed me to learn.

They were really cool, so cool that they had honestly intimidated me. From their eyes that were naturally two different colors–– one grey and the other brown–– to their really cool sense of style and their overall cool vibe, they were just someone you'd naturally wanna be around. But as I got to know them, they turned out to be the sweetest person I'd ever met, other than Addison of course.

They twiddled with the ends of their dyed blonde hair whose roots had resorted back to their naturally dark color, but it looked cool. "Hmmm." Their attention fell to Addison whose easel was a few meters away. "Addison, come help your boyfriend. He's a lost cause."

I flipped them off before I started walking toward Addison, who'd been uncharacteristically quiet all evening. "Babe, can I see yours––"

"Stay back, don't come closer!" He said as he protectively stood in front of his easel. "I'm almost done."

"But baby, I need your help! And you can help me by letting me see the masterpiece you've created and giving me some inspiration."

"Il mio re, I'm sorry, but I can't do that." He approached me and wrapped his arms around my neck, a grin playing on his lips as he looked up at me. "I gotta let you be a big boy and figure it out yourself." He pressed a kiss onto my lips, despite my scowl.