"denzel, this piece is absolutely amazing! what inspired you?" denzel's art teacher asked.
"the—the ocean." he replied, watching his teacher run their finger tips against the page to feel the texture of the paper.
"i love it. have a seat." they smiled, carefully placing the piece of paper on their desk.
thankfully denzel ripped the page out of his notebook beforehand, otherwise they would've seen the mess he made on the pages after.
checking the time, it was almost twelve. he had a few more minutes to spare before lunch. though, he didn't know what to do within those few minutes, all he did was look around the room as he fidgeted with his pencil.
he never really had plans for any of his breaks, but since clementine invited him to hang out with her at the library, guess he suddenly had plans.
time felt like it was going by severely slow. maybe he was just bored, all he's doing is watching the clock tick to the next minute. he decided to open his notebook and flip to an empty page, brainstorming on what to draw next.
denzel took too long trying to brainstorm, the bell rang before his pen even touched the paper. he has an idea on what to draw, but he'll have to save that idea the next time he has the time to draw.
slipping his backpack onto his shoulder, he exited class and made his way towards the library.
he was nervous, yet excited, he was pretty interested in her—but not in that way. he was just glad someone willingly approached him. though, he was still stuck on the fact that he might be punked. but, he'll find that out soon enough.
a song was stuck in his head, but since he forgot his walkman at home, he couldn't listen to that song at the moment. all he could do was hum the tune. which wasn't a problem, just slightly embarrassing to him because of the amount of people that are around him.
entering the library, he skimmed through the signs that hung above the aisles until he could find the letter o. once he found that letter, he made his way towards the aisle that stood below the 'o' sign.
and that's when he saw clementine sitting at a table that was set at the very end of the aisle, she was skimming through a small thick book while taking notes in her composition notebook.
she was wearing a black tanktop with a brown and cream colored flannel, khakis, and brown converse. her hair was up in a half up-half down hairdo with two front parts hanging in front of her face, a pearl necklace, that same gold bracelet on her left wrist, and a pearl bracelet on her right wrist.
he could tell she really liked the color brown.
clementine soon noticed someone walking towards her. once she realized who it was, she gave them a smile.
"hey, stranger." she joked, "i honestly thought you wouldn't show up, but guess i was wrong." shrugging, she pulled a chair towards the empty space next to her, motioning him to sit.
denzel sat on the chair next to her as he placed his bag onto the table, searching through it in attempt to find the candy bar he got for her the day before.
he took out two bars, he placed one in front of him and placed the other in front of her. a note was attached to clementine's bar which caused her to immediately open it.
'you mentioned that you liked these, so i got one for you. i've never tried one, so i got one for myself as well.'
clementine turned to her right to find denzel taking a bite out of his candy bar.
"kinda surprised you've never had one of these, they're amazing." she smiled, unwrapping the candy bar before taking a bite out of it.
clementine noticed how denzel was wearing a sage green crewneck, khakis, and over-worn nike air force ones that had sage green painted onto the nike logo. two hair ties were wrapped around his left wrist while his right had a braided bracelet with earth tone colored strings.
"i like your outfit!" clementine complimented, causing denzel to look over at her, "the colors remind me of my zodiac sign; taurus."
denzel slipped out his notebook and pen to write his response to her.
he didn't exactly have enough courage to verbally talk to her yet, but he's getting comfortable enough to just communicate in general.
'zodiac sign?'
"oh, you don't know what zodiac signs are?" she asked, causing denzel to shake his head. "okay, when's your birthday?"
'may 25th.'
"oh! we're birthday month buddies, but you're a gemini, cool. i don't normally like geminis but, i'll give you a shot." she giggled, taking another bite out of her candy bar.
'are geminis bad?'
"well, i don't really have a big opinion on them since i've never actually met a gemini. but from other people's experiences, i'd say they're just not the best, let's put it at that."
'interesting.'
if denzel was being honest, he sees clementine as someone you can talk to for hours on end. the conversation doesn't even have to be on a specific topic, you could just talk and never get bored.
'how are you feeling right now?'
"if i'm going to be honest, i don't know."
'what's on your mind?'
"normal stuff; homework and responsibilities, you?" she responded, earning a shrug from denzel.
denzel found himself actually making eye contact with clementine. it isn't much, but he saw it as baby steps.
"this lunch period feels long, but i'm not complaining, i actually enjoy this, it gives me the chance to actually talk and stuff. but, it does make me feel bad that i'm not letting you say anything—or like—something. do you know where i'm coming from?"
'go on.'
AUTHOR SPEAKS !
crying i love them tbh