Concealed » j.b.

Chapter One.

March 23, 2016

Fuck. 

I slid my phone back into my back pocket.

The city bus was coming in about 3 minutes, if it's on schedule, and I'm on the other side of campus. Maybe if I'm lucky it'll be late like usual.

I bumped into several people as I pushed past the crowd and rushed as fast as I could to the other side of campus.

"Excuse you!" A girl shouted at me as I walked straight through a group of her and friends I'm assuming.

"Sorry," I mumbled, not even loud enough for her to hear.

A minute.

I began sprinting to the cross walk just where the bus stop was at. I could see it in range and a wave of relief hit me.

The cross walk light turned red, as I hit the button to cross. I used this moment to catch my breath, then I looked up to see the bus pulling up to the stop. 

Oh no.

The crosswalk light was still on red, so I hit the button a couple more times hoping it would do something, anything.

"That's not going to help man," A guy waiting next to me said, as if he read my mind.

As if planned right when the cross walk light turned green the bus pulled away.

"Fuck!" I couldn't help but voice. "God damn it!"

I took a seat at the bus stop and tossed my backpack on the seat next to me, I wasn't in the mood for a random stranger to sit next to me and try and make conversation.

"C'mon Nina, sit right here" Two girls walked up to the bus station.

I felt my backpack brush by my leg then fell on the floor.

"Are you fucking serious!" I snapped at the girls. 

"Sorry," A dark haired girl said emotionless. She went to pick up my backpack but I waved her off then picked it up myself.

I brushed off the dust, then pulled out my phone to distract myself so I wouldn't blow up on these girls.

I glanced over at the girls, they both sat on the bench in silence, probably just annoyed as I was. They were both beautiful girls, one had dark brown hair and her skin looked sun kissed. Her friend was the complete opposite. She had pale skin, light brown hair, she was very thin, and a pair of ray bans perched on her freckled nose.

"Hey," I spoke up, hoping the girls heard so I wouldn't have to repeat myself. "Sorry about yelling, I'm just not in a good mood today." 

The dark haired girl looked up and smiled, "It's okay, We understand."

Her friend just continued to look down.

"I'm Jai by the way," I said feeling as if an introduction was in order.

"Hazel," She stuck out her hand, which I took and gave a hand shake. "This is my sister Nina,"

She leaned back, to reveal the girl on the other side of the bench.

"Hi," She greeted.

"If you don't mind me asking where are you from? I noticed you have a bit of an accent" Hazel leaned forward to continue our conversation.

"I'm from Melbourne, Australia" I informed her. One downside of moving to another country was having every single person you meet ask you were you're from. At first it wasn't so bad but over time it got annoying. "What about you? Are you from Los Angeles?"

"No, we're from Sacramento. It's more up north." She told me, as if I didn't know. "Did you move here for school?"

"Yup, my brother and I moved here for college." I explained, "I go to Otis College of Art and Design and my brother is sorta in between schools right now."

"I see," She nodded. "In between schools?"

"Yeah, he used to go to Los Angeles Southwest College but I guess Hollywood got the better of him, so he dropped out to pursue being an actor. What school do you go to?"

"Otis, I study fashion design. But I didn't have any classes today, my sister and I were at the library." She says briefly.

"Cool," 

The bus pulled up, and everyone waiting at the stop stood up ready to go on the long awaited bus.

"It was nice talking to you Jai" Hazel gave a big smile, her dimples peaking through. 

"You too," I agreed, surprisingly it was nice, well it was okay. It didn't change the fact I was still going to be late to my interview.

"Maybe I'll see you 'round campus sometime?" She said as she locked arms with her sister. 

"Maybe" I returned the smile then walked to the line to get on the bus.

-~-~-~-~

I fumbled through my backpack to get the keys for my flat, as I dialed my brother's number on my iPhone. Successfully, finding my keys I unlocked my shared flat and rushed inside.

The dial tone stopped "Hello?" My brother's voice spoke through the phone.

"Beau! Where the fuck are you? My interview is in less than 20 minutes and It's a 25 minute drive!" I yelled as I flicked on the lights of the empty living room then went straight to my bedroom.

"Relax Jai. I'm coming down the street now" He said calmly. 

"You better be!" I replied then hung up the phone. I dropped my backpack on my bed then walked over to my closet. I ripped out a gray button up shirt, letting the hanger fall to the floor,a pair of black trousers, some black suede shoes. I got dressed as fast as I could, sighing as I heard my brother's car horn outside. I shuffled on the hardwood floor over to the easel located next to my window. I carefully took the colourful canvas off, then grabbed my portfolio off my desk. 

The beeping of the car horn continued. 

I marched through the apartment, not bothering to turn off the lights, and out the door. I raced down the stairs to see my brother parked along the sidewalk.

"Get in the back" Beau shouted through the open passenger window.

The back door flew open and I practically jumped in.

"Where the hell were you?" I said as I placed the painting on the seat next to me.

"I had a meeting with my agent." Beau said as he turned on the engine and began driving to the art gallery.

"So you had to take Daniel?"  I refereed to the dark haired boy sitting in the passenger seat.

"We got frozen yogurt" Daniel flashed a toothy smile. "Do you want some of mine?"