It Started with Skinny Jeans

(Ch 3) It Started With an Assignment

“What are you waiting for?” Raina asked, frowning slightly.

Scott turned then to face me. “Ah, she’s just torn.”

“Torn?”

“Torn between running or having to take the only seat available next to me.” he grinned.

I grimaced, hating that he could see so easily through me, and stepped forward taking the once vacate seat. “You think you’re so smart.”

“Actually, I do.” he said, taking a strawberry from my plate and popped it in his mouth.

“Hey!”

“I’d advise you not to take Aria’s food, man.” Tommy warned, lowering his voice. “She can get kind of crazy.”

Scott looked at me with raised brows. “Really? Well I’ve seen Aria crazy and I definitely wouldn’t want to mess with her.”

He was mocking me.

“And when might this have happened?” Tommy added curiously.

“Last week. She was a bit of a spitfire.” He leaned closer to me. “I actually liked that girl.” He was gazing at me so intensely I hadn’t realised he’d leaned in to steal another strawberry.

“Would you stop doing that.” I swotted at his hand.

“What? This?” he reached his hand toward my plate, but I pushed it away before he could grab one.

“That and pretending that we’re friends. We’re not.”

“Did we miss something?” Raina asked looking between the two of us.

“No-”

“Yes-” we said simultaneously.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re really going to pretend like nothing happened?”

He shrugged. “That’s because nothing did happen.”

There goes my perfect morning. I couldn’t believe that he was going to sit there and pretend that he hadn’t called me mediocre.

“So you calling me mediocre and telling me I’ll never be a great artist, is nothing?” I argued.

“I never said-” but I didn’t give him a chance to go on.

Getting up I grabbed my sketch book. “I don’t care what you have to say. Just because I’ve experienced the world in a different way from you doesn’t mean I can’t have the same emotional depth.” I could hear my voice trembling and I was pretty sure most of the students around us could hear everything I said. “So, screw you Scott, I don’t give a damn what you think.”

I could feel the tears well up, as they threatened to spill. But I wouldn’t let them see, wouldn’t let him see how much he had affected me. Why couldn’t I just be angry? Anger was so much easier to control than tears.

I made my way to the magnolia tree by the lake. I took a seat on the soft, green grass and I let the tears fall freely as I watched the water flow by quietly.

Only a few second went by when I heard someone approaching. I didn’t need to look up to know who it was.

“You shouldn’t listen to him. After all what does he know anyway?” Raina said softly, as she sat next to me.

“I know I shouldn’t care what he thinks, but then why do I? Why does his opinion matter to me at all?” I asked, wiping at the tears.

“Because no matter how much you don’t want it to, what people think about your work actually matters.” She explained. “You know how there’ll always be one person who doesn’t like your art and in the end you make it a mission to prove them wrong, well for you that person is Scott.” She held up her hand for me to listen when she saw I wanted to argue with her. “I get that you and Scott don’t get along, but did you ever stop to consider why he said the things he did?”