~Day Four~
I was half-awake when Vanessa woke up, so we she turned to her back to me, the first reaction was to pull her closer. By that time, I was fully awake.
It was still raining, making the room very dark. Maybe a day inside would be perfect to get to know Vanessa better.
I decided it was time to let her know I was awake so I moved around and buried my nose into her neck, more of just to smell the raspberry smell of her shampoo. She giggled.
"Thanks for comforting me last night." She said as she pulled away. I frowned inwardly, but smiled when she looked at me.
"Yeah." I said. "No problem."
"It's still raining. My 'fun things to do indoors' involves my writing...so..."
"It's fine." I smiled, getting up. "I'll just play solitaire and watch you." She blushed.
"Something wrong with that?"
"N-no!" She blushed again. It was cute when she blushed. "No one's ever watched me write before...it kind of makes me nervous."
I grinned and pulled her out of bed into the living room. I sat her down at the dining table and searched the kitchen drawers for a candle. When I found one, I lit it and set it in the center of the dining table, letting the light spread across the table.
I gave Vanessa her messenger bag and she sighed. She knew she was defeated. I grabbed the deck of cards and sat down across from her as she got everything ready.
She picked up a piece of paper with her handwriting on it. Her nose scrunched up and she pouted in confusion. I chuckled and started to deal out my hand of solitaire.
During the hour that she wrote, I noticed small quirks. She never pushed back her hair, even though she probably found it annoying and in her way. The way her hair hung over her face as she concentrated deeply made her even more beautiful, if that was even possible.
When she stopped writing to think, or look at something she just wrote, just before she started writing again, she'd twirl her pencil, making the lead marks stay dark the entire time she wrote.
When she stopped to erase something with her separate eraser, she never let go of the position of her blue pencil. She'd use her left hand to erase, probably to keep her right hand from cramping too badly.
When her hand did cramp up, she'd switch the way she held her pencil, but soon was back to the way she was writing before.
The more she wrote, the more her pencil would rub against her skin, making it shiny. I wondered if it hurt as it kept rubbing. Although, she probably never noticed.
The look of concentration on her face made me smile.
The position of her lips was neither a smile, nor a frown. It was just line. Every now and then it'd change position when she thought of something great, or when she got stuck.
"Do you want something to eat?" I asked her after the hour had gone by. I don't know if she was paying attention or not, but she nodded. So instead of asking again, I made her food anyway.
I made her one of my grilled cheeses, where I toasted the bread on both sides instead of just one.
When I finished making it, I pulled the paper out from under her pencil and set the grilled cheese in it's place.
"Hey!" She exclaimed.
"Eat." I commanded, smiling. She pouted.
"If I eat, do I get my paper back?"
I rolled my eyes, indicating a 'yes' and she smiled, setting down her pencil and picking up the sandwich. She took a bite and her eyes lit up.
"This is amazing!" She exclaims. I leaned up against the wall, watching her, and smiled.
"I'm glad you like it." I replied. Everyone usually did like my grilled cheeses.
I sat down in front of her and took that as my chance to take a peek at what she was writing. I picked up the first page, the farthest away from her, and she pouted at me. I held back a chuckle at her pout while she was chewing.
I started to read the first page. What she was writing was really well written. It had a lot of details, but not too many to bore me. Her characters had elaborate pasts and it interested me. Halfway through the page I learned it was a romance.
When I was done, I set down the page.
"Romances?" I asked.
"Guess you could say I'm a hopeless romantic." She shrugged like it didn't bother her.
"I think it's cute." I said honestly. "Is there other stuff you've written?"
"Yeah." She instantly got excited and pulled her messenger bag up off the floor into her lap. Two sketchbooks fell out. I grabbed them before she could and when she tried to take them from me, I kept them an arms length away from her.
When she learned she was defeated, once again, she sat back down, crossed her arms, and pouted. I winked.
One of the sketchbooks had a detailed picture of a girl writing at her desk as the cover and the other had cartoons for the cover. I saved the detailed picture sketchbook for last.
I flipped through the cartoon book and realized that the pictures were mini children's books. I smiled and looked at her, closing it. She bit her lower lip, making her look even cuter.
"Children's books." I stated.
She nodded shyly and I pick up the detailed picture sketchbook and I swear, her reaching for it is pretty much diving at me.
It was hard to resist the new pout that came across her face, but I managed to ignore it and start flipping through it. I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Personal sketchbook." She muttered. I smiled.
I turned to a page of two people kissing and flip it over.
'Happy two-year Miriam and Patrick!' It said on the back with a smiley face.
Once I finished looking at all of the pictures, I closed it. I could tell by the way she was acting about it, no one had ever seen it before. I felt privileged that she didn't get angry with me and let me see it.
"Well I think it's awesome." I told her. She shook her head.
"No it's not." She replied. She snatched it out of my hands and I laughed. She was protective over it alright.
"Yeah it is..." I paused. "You look really beautiful when your red hair falls over your face when you're writing."
I shocked myself. Why I just said that out loud, I didn't know.
She blushed deeply and looked away. She looked back up at me and grabbed a difference pencil and eraser out of her bag. She ran over to the couch and sat down.
"Lean back in your chair and act like you're having a good time."
I had an idea of where she was going with this, but I rose my eyebrow anyway.
"Just do it." She commanded. I rolled my eyes and leaned back, putting my hands behind my head. I was smiling because I was going to be able to see the quirks she had while she was drawing.
Throughout the next hour, I watched her intently. She was focused, so every time she looked up at me to look me over, she didn't blush. I frowned inwardly, but was most definitely smiling on the inside.
She did the same thing with her pencil when she stopped drawing as she did when she stopped writing.
This time, her hand positions changed constantly, so when she stopped, she used her right hand to erase something.
When she stopped looking at me and was working on details, she stuck her tongue out a little bit out of the side of her mouth, biting her lower lip every now and then and moving her tongue to the other side of her mouth.
After the hour went by, she leaned back.
"Done."
"Your tongue sticks out the side of your mouth when you draw." I told her as I stretched out of the position I was in.
"I never noticed." She said and shrugged.
She closed the sketchbook and I gave her a pout. I wanted to see the picture...
She cocked her head to the side, confused.
"I can't see?" I asked.
She smiled, now understanding, and shook her head.
I pouted again. Why couldn't I see it? She shook her head again and I sighed and nodded.
"You can look at it when I'm not around."
I instantly smiled and watched her look over at the clock. The power came on when I had asked her if she wanted something to eat, but went back off soon after. The power was still out and the clocks were run on back-up batteries.
Ten o'clock? That much time went by? Hm. Neat.
The raining had stopped when she was drawing. She walked to the front door and tried the porch lights. She had forgotten the power was out. I chuckled. She huffed in frustration and grabbed the nearly gone candle and went back outside.
I quickly got up and went over to the couch and picked up the sketchbook. I knew where the last picture was from looking at it, so I went to it and turned the page.
What I saw, shocked me.
She didn't draw any of the background, just me and the chair. Up in the corner of the page was a close up of the upper half of my body.
She drew me looking off in the distance, or what looked like off in the distance, smiling.
The picture had my exact features, making the picture an almost exact replica of me.
I heard her walk back in and I looked up at her, smiling. She blushed instantly and looked away.
"It's wonderful." I commented.
"I just wanted to draw something..." She mumble shyly.
I laughed and set down the sketchbook and went over to her and embraced her into a hug. She hugged me back and yawned.
I smirked and took the candle out of her hand and replaced it with my own, leading her to the bedroom.
We hadn't changed out of our pajamas all day, so it was easy for us to just crawl into bed.
I guided Vanessa to her side of the bed and she got in. I made my way over to my side and got in and blew out the candle. I pulled myself down so my head laid on the pillow.
"Goodnight, Vanessa." I said. I liked how I was the only one who called her Vanessa. It made me feel like I was giving her a special name just for me.
"Night, Jake." I could hear the smile in her voice.