PERFECT CANVAS ━━━ luke patterson.

ix. adventures with ex-best friends

SITTING ON the chair at my desk I finish up the logo I had created for the band. It was nothing special, but I just hope it will be good enough for Flynn and that the band just likes it in general.

Just the thought of them not liking it makes me grow nervous, and second-guess myself. Maybe, I should tell them I lost the piece of paper.

"Wow," someone says behind me. Jumping, I turn around and throw the pencil I had in my hand at the direction the voice had come from. Do people find it fun to scare me? "Nice aim," the same voice speaks.

Looking at the voice I notice that it's none other than Reggie who had been speaking, and is looking down at his stomach-which is probably where the pencil had gone through.

"Can you guys knock, so I can at least get a little heads-up that you're here?" I question as my heart calms down from the scare.

"Whatcha working on?" Luke asks, completely ignoring my request. My eyes widen as I quickly hide the paper, careful not to smudge the pencil lines.

"Nothing," I quickly reply. But by replying quickly it made it obvious that it wasn't nothing.

"It's obviously not 'nothing'. Let me see," Luke steps forward with a grin as he tries to peak at the paper. Though I seem to be quicker as I sprint out of my desk chair and run to my bed.

"Um, can't you guys, I don't know . . . help me out?" I point at Alex and Reggie as I climb up onto my bed.

"No, we want to see too." Alex speaks for the both of them, amused by the scene in front of him. I glare at him, and when I look back to where Luke had been but realize that he is no longer there.

Furrowing my brows in confusion, I drop my hands at my sides as I look around the room. Though once I step out of where I was at the very corner of my bed in an attempt to figure out where the boy went, I feel an arm snake around my waist trapping the arm without the paper along with it. I fight back a blush at the close proximity as I try to squirm out of the hold. Though that does nothing except earn a few amused looks from Alex and Reggie.

Going to the next best thing, I stick out the arm that has the paper in it as far away as possible. But that doesn't help anything because Alex reaches out and is somehow able to take the paper from my hand .

Feeling the hand come off of me, I stand frozen in place trying to shake off what just happened. After a moment, I look anywhere but the trio of ghosts who are huddled and looking at the piece of paper.

"Did you do this?" Alex asks, and I still don't look at them as I nod.

"Yeah. Basically Flynn came up with a band name in French, and she was like 'do you want to do the logo' and I was like 'of course'. Then I came home, seeing that I usually skip last class because I don't like dance class, and started the sketch. You guys hate it don't you? I can always just burn that one-" I stop my rambling when I look at the boys and find them all looking at me with an expression I can't read. "You know you guys can just lay it on me, and just tell me you hate-" This time I'm cut off by Alex speaking.

"No, no, no. That's not what I meant. What I meant is that this is really good, Florence." I go to say something but I'm at a loss.

I have to take a few second to regain myself before I speak again. "You don't have to lie. I get that you are probably trying to be nice, but it's okay if you think it's bad." I manage to get out, but all I get is unamused looks in return.

"You really don't know how to take a compliment, do you?" Luke asks with a look on his face that has me rolling my eyes. I hop off of my bed and stick my hand out toward them. Alex understanding what I mean, he places the paper back in my hands.