The Starry Night // Larry Stylinson

• 9 •

Change needed to happen, of course.

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it."

-Benjamin Franklin

I was definitely not a... homo. Indeed, I was not going to let Harry ruin my reputation.

The bell rung and I was angrier than ever, my mouth was uncontrollably whispering bad words, which completely surprised me when I realized that the 'F' word works as an adjective, adverb, noun, and even more. It can even make a whole sentence!

When I sat down in art class with my sketchbook, the acrylics and the brushes, I did my best to ignore Harry, wherever he was. My brushstrokes were full of rage, and suddenly, the paper became troubled waters, and I found myself drowning in it. Each brushstroke calmed me down even more. Even more. Even more. That was the case, until I could no longer listen to anyone else but me and my thoughts. Me and the infuriated river.

That happened to me a lot. Finding myself lost in the depths of my mind due to my temporal fierce of the moment. When I was little, mum embraced me and sang to me, in order to make my madness go away. In fact, it always worked. Mother Nature whispering soft songs into the earth, and the river calming down; everything back to normal.

But not anymore.

It was up to me to find the inner peace once again, but I never forgot the key: love. Love is what kept me happy. Loving everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of sun...

"Hello Louis, if you don't mind..." I heard someone say over my thoughts, with an extremely sensual voice that immediately made me look at the person. "I'll sit right next to you."

Indeed, it was Danielle, once again. Her hair was as free as the day before, lying untied on her chest and her back. This time, she had a v-necked and tight red shirt that was... Relatively low, as well as a black skirt that went perfectly with her shirt. An extremely coordinated outfit, I noticed.

"Oh, no." I chuckled, nervously taking all of my possessions that were all over the table so she could have some space to work. "It's perfectly alright. I don't care if you sit here."

"Good, because I was doing it anyways." She said, avoiding eye contact with me and opening her sketchbook. Her works were neat and extremely colorful. Most of them were realistic lips with lipstick, or nails with nail polish or eyes with extremely long eyelashes and eyebrows "on fleek". High heels, fashionable dresses and ever hairstyles. In my opinion, the combination of all those colors, shapes and pencil traces perfectly reflected her personality.

As soon as she saw my Starry Night, she deeply stared into it. A curve formed at the corner of her lips, indicating a smile that I was probably never going to forget. It was too precious, like her.

"It's truly amazing, Louis. Did you do it?" She asked, her finger pointing my painting while her whole arm was in a really feminine position, which allowed me to imagine thousands of sculptures with that pose. I nodded, joyous, millions of colours leaving my chest, splashing every corner of my personality, making a rainbow on my soul and reflecting my happiness on my face.

"Yes, I am currently working on it. I'm glad you like it." I mentioned, not forgetting that I felt obliged to compliment her and/or her masterpieces as well. "Actually, I consider your drawings utterly pleasing. They are very... Very nice. I like that."

I tried my best to make her feel as well as she did with me.

She smiled, blushed and moved her hair with one of her extremely fragile hands. "Well," she started, but was suddenly interrupted by a giggle, "thank you so much!"

I smiled at her, while she laughed nervously for herself, as I saw Harry sitting with other people, in another table. He was facing me, my side of the table, and he was able to notice that I was looking at him, therefore I quit staring. I couldn't see the facial expression he made, but I was sort of glad. What if he furrowed his brows? I was aware that I met him a day ago, yet I knew, for certain, he wasn't naturally serious.

What if he thought I was a homo?

In fact, I couldn't leave the things how they were. Something had to be done. By then, the one who was angry and furrowing his eyebrows was me. Somehow, Danielle managed to notice and slightly tilted her head to one side, questioning me and my behaviour.

"Is everything alright, Louis?" The pretty girl asked me, touching my hand as soft as she could in order to calm me down.

"Uhh... Yes. I just remembered something that made me feel angry. I'm sorry about that."

"No, you're fine. That happens sometimes." Danielle looked down. If there was something I learned by living with thousands of women, is that when they look down and finish their sentences by almost whispering the words, that has a "second meaning", which signifies that they want something else. Sort of. Perhaps that was the indicator that that was my 'moment to shine' (or die).

"Danielle?"

She looked at me, the veils of her eyes removing from her dark orbs, revealing curiosity and hope. "Yes?"

"I don't know you very well, but I maybe thought that I could invite you to eat something... Maybe today..."

The girl blushed even more than before and she wasn't looking at me anymore. Perhaps she was just thinking about it.

"Yeah! Sure! I just met you... But I think you're a nice guy. I'm following my gut. Today at seven? I know it sounds so weird..."

"It's weird for me as well, Danielle. No worries. So... Yeah, I guess."

We exchanged phone numbers so I could know when and where to pick her up. I was perfectly aware that what I was suggesting was way too soon, but I know that I could make her like me, if she didn't  already. Danielle was sweet, cute, loving, and fairly good in arts, so, what could possibly go wrong?

However, I felt like I needed to apologize just in case it was a little awkward for me to ask pretty soon.

"I'm sorry, it's very soon. I... Know. It's perfectly okay if you do not want to go. I understand. I've known you for a day or two, but maybe we could get to know each other better, isn't it?"

"Oh, Louis," she smiled and closed her eyes, carefully reaching for my shoulder with her hand, "you're very sweet. In fact, I think the same. It's never too early to make a new friend. And we have almost no homework in the first weeks so, yeah. I'm not busy tonight. I think I can spend it with such an adorable guy like you."

Oh my Lord. Sweet Jesus. For god's sake! Who was this girl and why was she making me feel this way?

And Harry. Oh my lord. Sweet Jesus. For God's sake! Who was this boy and why was he making me feel this way if he didn't even care about me and I potentially didn't even care about him too?

I was a walking paradox.

At least I was getting to hang out with the prettiest girl I've ever seen in my life.
I was extremely lucky. If they only knew I was the least homosexual person in like, the world... One day, I wished, they will see me and Danielle in a committed relationship. They'll  be jealous, because I "loved a girl, and she loved me back."

I responded with a muted chuckle, and, for the rest of the class I continued staring at The Starry Night, as it stared back at me, until I could no longer separate what real life and the painting were. It only took me a moment to realize that the painting had a soul as well. A mixture of kind colours floating around, an indescribable colourful masterpiece.

And we were sharing it.