Little Red (✅ COMPLETED)

CHAPTER [ 4 1 ]

Robyn decided to stay in her class during the lunch break. Her art assignment was due for next week and she had barely made any progress. Most of her time at school and at home went to art, it was the thing that kept her busy late into the night. And the thing that stopped her from focusing on her other two subjects.

She was working on the last couple pages of her sketchbook. The theme was human form & identity. It wasn't a particularly challenging theme for her since she had plenty of inspiration the last month and a half to work from. She questioned the human form and identity, or more so hers. Her work, at the end, would make for some interesting speculations.

As she settled on her stool, annotating her art, she found her mind wander off to that morning. She hadn't spoken to Ray since then. But she saw him a couple of times when she left and entered her classes. She saw him most of the times around the girls from his year. They were friends, she knew, and that was what made her heart burn. She wanted to know him like they did. Or better than they did. She wanted to know what he was like to hang out with, too.

He was well-known among the girls since the day he joined, and they didn't hesitate to jump on him like lionesses on a hunt.

Through the window directly in front of her, she spotted him standing with his crew. They were talking animatedly, laughing, sharing their lunches. Next to him was Jasmine. She was beautiful, her smile showcasing a set of perfect, white teeth. Robyn noticed her hand snaked around Ray's arm.

The pen nearly slipped from her fingers at the sight. She didn't like how close she was to him, or how she was leaning into him every time he spoke. Was it silly for her to feel that way? Ray and Jasmine were friends--and they were werewolves. Robyn was neither his friend, nor a werewolf. She felt insignificant, sitting there in her art room, all by herself, thinking about this boy who had beguiled her. Did she even fit into his world in the slightest bit?

Suddenly, she felt it in the rawest form how different their worlds were. She felt it in the silence of the room, the stillness of the atmosphere, in the sound of her own breathing. The doubts slithered into the corners and crevices of her mind. Before they could bloom, she put her pen on paper and shifted her attention back to work.

It didn't take long for her to be swallowed in by her work, how she normally did when it came to art. Even if she wasn't working with colours, what she was writing was a form of expression too. That was why, when the door opened behind her, she didn't notice.

It was when someone dragged a stool across the floor that her concentration broke.

"I didn't see you anywhere outside, I had to sniff you out," Ray announced, sitting opposite her. His deep voice vibrated through the emptiness of the room.

"Sniff me out..?" Reflexively, Robyn sniffed the air around her. No particular smell stood out.

Ray smiled, leaning towards her. "Yes," he looked at her with intensity, "you have… quite an intoxicating scent."

Robyn's cheeks burned. What did that even mean?

"Does it make you high?"

Ray laughed, his eyes momentarily closing. Slowly, his cheeks flushed in the most subtle way. Cocking his head to the side, he said, "more or less."

Unable to hold eye contact, Robyn returned back to her sketchbook. She felt his eyes on her. She wondered if he was taking this moment to get high off her scent.

"You're pretty talented."

Robyn looked up at him in surprise, "you really think so?"

He smiled, and Robyn nearly swooned at the sight. "Of course. I've come across many artists in the last century so--"