Through the Dark | ✓

Five

They reached two big white doors. When Ethan opened it, Danielle was greeted with the smell of paint, canvases and many other stuff. She walked in looking at everything put up in the walls and many supplies on the floor. Her attention then went to the glass wall, she could see the beautiful forest and the mountains barely being topped with some snow. Ethan just stood there, knowing that when he first entered the room it took him sometime to admire the beauty of Mother Nature.

"Danielle? I'll be back" Ethan says before exiting his studio. He knew that being in his studio in pants was a bad idea, so he decided to go change into some basketball shorts.

Danielle looked around getting a good glimpse of Ethan's paintings and some photographs that are pinned to the wall. She noticed that many of his things were dark and showed a sign of misery. She knew this because many of her own work was the same. A painting, sitting on a stool, caught the corner of her eye. She turned and it was a painting of a hand reaching out as it drowned into a dark lake.

"Should we begin brainstorming?" Ethan's voice startled her.

She held her hand to her chest, "shit you scared me" she turned to face him and her eyes immediately focused to his left leg. The metals fully describing how a real leg looks like when seated. She never knew that he had a prosthetic leg.

Ethan knew she was looking at his leg. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was slightly parted. Her eyes moved from his face to the leg, she didn't know what to do or say. She didn't want to ask how it happened, that's for sure, so she began walking to the sofa he was at. Danielle carefully sat and looked at him with a small smile. Any thought of him being a jerk faded away. She was finally able to register Ethan's features. He wasn't bad looking at all, he was actually very attractive. His dark blonde hair was in a messy comb over and his green eyes just deeply starred into her sky blue eyes.

"Sir your lunch" Jeffrey interrupted their eye connection.

Ethan quickly blinked and looked over at Jeffrey, "thank you, that'll be all for now"

He placed the serving tray over the table and left. There were sandwiches, sliced fruit and apple juice.

"Come, we'll discuss our plans as we eat" Ethan got up and walked to the table. Danielle looked at him as he walked, she didn't notice a limp or any sort of discomfort as he walked. She cleared her mind and followed. "You could grab what'd you like"

"Thank you" she shyly smiled.

They began talking about their plans for the drawing, "what about broken home?" Ethan brought up, without actually thinking it through.

"I like that idea" Danielle agreed.

"Great, so I could provide all the materials. Is drawing your only class on Tuesdays and Thursdays?" He asked.

Danielle didn't want him to buy everything because she would feel bad, but then she remembered how hard it was to convince her parents to buy her the materials that were required for the course. "Yeah, I go home right after. Why?"

"Do you want to work on the project those days after class? I could bring you and then take you home" Ethan assumed she didn't drive, because he didn't see any cars parked in her driveway nor in front of her home.

"Okay that could work" She said, as she cleaned her mouth with a napkin.

Ethan began standing knowing there was no more to talk about. "Great, I'll have everything by Tuesday." He checks his watch and it's a little over 3 o'clock. "Do you want to go home? Or...?"

She checks the time and tenses up, something Ethan noticed. "Please!" She immediately said getting up and practically speeding.

When he gets to her house, she quietly thanks him and runs to her house. He saw how nervous she got after knowing the time, but he couldn't ask her what was wrong since he had just met her.

Danielle quickly ran through the door knowing that her family would be there in less than 30 minutes and dinner was yet not ready. And if she doesn't, she gets hit. Figuring out what the quickest thing to make is, she looks at the refrigerator for any ideas. She finds everything to make a chicken soup and salmon, which is not a great combination, but there was no time to brainstorm.