Her Human mate |Sample|

Chapter 13

DANIEL couldn’t stop himself, his eyes continued to trail away from his own work to stare at Abagails. Her paper still an image of murky blackness as she went in, using the thin paint brush to draw in street lamp posts. The detail was absolutely breath taking - and she had only just started using a bigger paint brush. She still sat on the table, her legs crossed as she hunched over with complete concentration. If someone had told him that Abagail was better at him than something, other than terrorizing the community, he would have laughed. But Abagail was absolutely talented in another form other than being intimidating and brooding.

She was vulnerable.

Only now had he seen such a thing from her - sure, there had been signs of it before - but her artwork was her purest vulnerability.

“Do your parents know you’re an artist?” He found himself asking, lost in the moment and seeming to forget he was shy around her. Sure, because she had been trailing after him during school and sometimes, only once, outside of school, he had grown used to her presence. The knowledge that she wanted more from him than he was ever willing to give made him blush.

Her whole body tensed up and slowly, her eyes lifted from her work, fingers crusted in both dry and wet paint. Colours that vary from shades of blues to shades of blacks - even the odd magenta. Again he had distracted hed.

“I - I.” She gulped, her eyes staring at the page before her. She was at a loss for words, the paint brush fell from her hands as she leapt off the table, stuffing her notebook into her bag she stormed out the room.

Daniel stared wide eyed - what was he supposed to do? Obviously it had been what he had asked her, she definitely had a parental issue going on and he was determined to find out. But he had made her upset, unfortunately he didn’t know whether chasing after her was acceptable considering it was still class time. He didn't want to get in trouble.

Ms Freyer approached his desk, picking up the unfinished work and smiling sadly. “Daniel, you’re going to have to make a choice here.” She started, pulling out a folded piece of lined paper out her pocket. “You can either choose the girl who barely notices you - only doing so when another girl was involved." her eyes flickered to a gossiping Holly, her eyes trained on the foor Abagail had ran out of. "Or you can run after the girl who actually cares about you. Think about it.” Ms Freyer placed the folded up lined paper infront of him before slinking back to the front of the class.

Confused more than ever, Daniel picked the paper up with shakey fingers. Slowly, and unsteadily, he began to unfold it. He calmed his breaths, hands clamy, the paper was on it’s last fold. Pain stakingly slow, he brought it up, completely unfolding it.

Daniel nearly dropped it, somehow Abagail had finished the drawing of him - his portrait. His cheeks heated as he stared down at the work of art - they had done such extensive research on artwork and its hidden meanings and emotions. And again - it seemed Abagails art always revealed her hidden vulnerabilities.

Every inch of his face had so much detail - as if she focused on one part of his face for hours to get this drawing. All of it was done in blue pen and yet there was so much detail and shading.

His chin was jutted in as he clenched his jaw lightly - the muscle shaded on his cheek from the action. His glasses had slid down his nose slightly, the rims themselves were done with such precision and concentration he nearly forgot how to breath. His eye lashes were thick, his eyebrows even detailed to frame his eyes as well. His eyes - as if the windows of everything. The way she gave it flecks with the flick of the pen - light reflections and there was just something else. And his hair - it was tousled, no doubt from his awkward fidgets and running his hand through it while she had drawn him - but every strand had been done in it’s own way. Shades, textures and style all different and yet completely the same.

He didn’t look awkward - she had drawn him to seem confident and somehow calm. His lips - she must have stared at them forever without hm noticing. Every indent of them being pursed with a slight upturn made it clear - she liked him. And he spotted the few freckled she had done - all the ones she could see from where she sat without getting closer - without making him uncomfortable. His eyes brushed over the split on his lip the day she had started. He thought he had looked horrible, weak, but this made him look dangerous.

His breaths were uneven as he stared down at the drawing - was this how she saw him? It couldn’t of been him. The man in this picture was just that - a man - and he was handsome.

Doing the only logical thing now, Daniel stood abruptly, the metal chair scraping against the ground causing all eyes to land on him as he ran out the door.

He owed that to Abagail that much, he owed it to himself. Because Ms Freyers words echoed through his mind - she had made his choice so easy that it wasn’t even a choice.