When you look at me I just can't lie

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Zander spent the whole night developing all the rolls of film from all four cameras. It was so time consuming but very much worth it in the end. He had several photos to pick from and blow up for his project and maybe gallery showing one day. If he ever had to choose from his portfolio one image, painted or photographed, to show someone it’d be the Fallen Angel. Lena had given him what he wanted and then some.

There was one he had been staring at for the last several minutes. It was in the beginning of the shoot before everything had gotten too heavy. Her hair was curling around her cheek flowing forward on her shoulders, her fingers were relaxed positioned across the wall, and her back was arched putting her shapely body on display with no barriers to hide back the sexuality it carried. This photo looked like the broken angel was calling someone to hold her, kiss her, whisper that all the pain would get better.

The winning shot told a much different story, her body was more slumped, defeated, the tears were in clear view down her cheeks, her eyes were past sad, they were hopeless. Her eyes begged for the word across her chest; peace.

It was just past one in the morning when Zander called it a night and went to bed.

Lena was angry as she got ready for school. Zander had said the paint would wash off with soap and water but no matter how much she scrubbed there were still faint traces of black and red. To get ready for school she grabbed a pair of jeans and a tight fitting blouse with long sleeves. Thanks to Zander she was very covered up for a sunny spring day.

She stepped out of her room and checked in with Mel real quick. “Not going?” she asked about school.

Mel shook her head from where she was still laid up. “I thought about sharing all my germs but mom didn’t think it was a good idea.” She was nasally with her eyes red.

Lena could see why their mother had put her foot down. “Bye then.” She rushed down to the living room. “Bye mom.”

“Come here real quick.” Dana Lowell called from the kitchen.

Lena suppressed a groan, she hated to be late for school and if she waited anymore she was going to have to speed the whole way there. “What’s up?”

“I don’t want you out late tonight. I’m inviting the Marcetti’s over for dinner and I want you here by six.”

“Ok.” There was no reason to put up a fight, one her mother always won and two if the Marcetti family was coming that meant Eric would be there too and Eric was one of her best friends. There were a lot of times she wished for something deeper than friendship, she tried to keep that to herself though. Mel had picked up on it but so far no one else had and her sister wasn’t blabbing it to anyone thankfully.

Her crush on Eric Marcetti was getting better, he never showed interest in her and while it stung she was slowly getting over it and accepting that they’d only ever be friends. She was trying to take her relationship with Andy to the next level, something serious and less just hanging out, but every time she tried to bring up the subject he shot her down and got pissed off.

With a sigh Lena turned her attention onto the rode and less about her doomed relationships.

Zander arrived a good ten minutes early to homeroom, with time to spare he pulled out his sketch paid and drew a rough layout of his next idea. He had decided just before falling asleep last night that he was going to turn the Fallen Angel into a series. It would be nice to use Lena again but seeing as how she ran out of his house it’d be better to use a different model per frame and tell the story of the angels who have all come and failed to change earth rather than just the journey of Lena’s angel.

He knew what he had to work with and what the better route would be, yet as he sketched the angel was blonde with heartbreaking sad eyes.

This was odd, he thought, to find your artistic muse in a girl who could barely stand your guts and you could barely stand hers. Well that wasn’t fair, he actually liked the Lena he had spent time with last night. She wasn’t robotic or shallow, she wasn’t trying to fit any mold and because of all of that the real Lena came out and oddly enough she was pleasant.

He continued to sketch and make some notes. For the next frame he wanted the wings off the wall and completely real with sleek black arches. That was going to take some good planning and even better execution.

The bell rung and he shut his sketch book.

Lena came rushing into the room with the last small group of kids also running late. She was usually better about being on time. Zander stopped himself from wondering why she was late; it was none of his business after all.

Their eyes connected for a short second before she turned away and sank into her desk a row ahead of him.

He drifted off into his next classes barely paying them any attention. There was just two more months and this prison term would be over. There was nothing left for the teachers to say to hold any importance. Everyone was going through the final motions void of anything real.

He was alone for lunch again with Mel still out sick. He’d stop by later and see how she was doing even though she’d protest against the idea so he wouldn’t catch her cold. Whatever, he missed her and he wasn’t going to let some germs stop him from seeing her.

He was buried in his sketch book again when a shadow covered the sun light. He looked up surprised. “Isn’t there some social rule about being seen with me?”

“Is that me?” her eyes were glued down to his sketch book and whatever reason she came over to his table was forgotten.

Shit, he didn’t want her to see what he was working on. “It’s the angel from my idea who happens to share your face.” He mentally groaned at how stupid that sounded and even stupid it was the truth. He wasn’t drawing Lena, he was drawing the fallen angel.

She sat in the bench across from him. “Can I see it?”

He didn’t like the rabbit hole he felt like someone was pushing him farther down into. She ran from his place last night, she made sure to glare at him this morning, and now she wanted to see his sketches. “Why?”

“It’s my face you’re using and I want to see it.” She held out her hand and glared at him like it was the most normal thing in the world for them to be sharing a lunch table.

He shrugged and handed his sketch pad over. He didn’t think anything was wrong with her, the girl across from him was the Lena he knew for years, so what if she was suddenly interested in his art, she wasn’t sad and depressed like yesterday so that couldn’t be it.

The sketch pad was a new one he started that morning, the only three drawings in there belonged to the Fallen Angel series. He watched her face as she looked the sketches over, how her eyes moved across the paper and the subtle changes in her features when she saw something she liked.   “These are the ones you want to do next?” she asked after flipping through them all.

“Yeah.” He let the one word reply hang there instead of telling her he would use new models for each one. He wanted to know what she would say about it before he let her off the hook.

She shut the pad and slid it back over to him. “When do you want to get started?”

Well that was certainly unexpected. She was sure acting like her usual self but her words were a different story. “You want to keep working with me?”

She shrugged. “The paint didn’t come off like you said but it’s not that big of a deal. I want to finish what we started and we don’t have to get along to do that.” She was still upset with the way he pushed her tears last night and wasn’t afraid to show it. There was venom dripping from her words.

If that’s how she wanted to play it then fine. She was right they didn’t have to get along to have a business partnership. She wanted the money and he wanted his vision to come to life and son of a bitch if it wasn’t her face carrying the vision. “There are a few things I need to work on first. I’ll let you know when we can have another session.”

“Good.” She got up and walked away back to her clique of friends.