Art Boy

2.

When Logan dropped Lila off at the house he gave her a look full of concern and for a moment Lila almost asked him to stay. Almost asked him to move back into the house with her and mother, and erase the five years they have been apart since he moved out; but she didn't instead she said bye and told him to be careful on the road.

She rang the bell to her house and waited for her mother to answer. The sound of faint foot steps approaching could be heard from the other side of the door. Lila took a deep breath to prepared herself for what was coming next.

"I called your cellphone" Lila's mom says before the door was fully open. She was wearing gray sweats and her hair was up in a bun. Her forehead crinckled in worry and her eyes was full of regret.

Lila hated this. She hated how she made her mother feel like all of this was her fault. How the relationship between them was becoming distant each day that pass.

"Left it at school" Lila says stepping into the air conditioned house. She took off her shoes and placed them with the pile near the door. "Logan gave me a ride home" she says redircting the conversation.

"That's nice of him" her mother says closing the door behind them.

Lila was heading towards the kitchen now. She didn't realize how hungry she was until her nosed picked up a delicious smell coming from the kitchen. "You cooked?" she asks entering the kitchen. To her surprise a woman was standing at the kitchen counter beating eggs.

"You don't cook" Lila says as if she was beginning to remember something she has forgotten.

The woman was thin with brown curly hair that fell below her shoulders. She wore a white apron and a smile that covered most of her face. There was something fragile but strong that screamed in the womans eyes.

"You're Lila, right?" the woman asks while whipping her hands off on the apron, "your mom told me great things about you."

"Yea" Lila says walking farther into the kitchen to look over the woman's shoulder to see what she was cooking. Her mother was close behind, and if it wasn't Lila's imagination she heard a deep sigh escape her mothers lips.

"This is Jada" Lila's mother says softly.

She wanted so badly to shout. To scream at her mother; but that wouldn't be fair to her or Jada. It wasn't their fault Lila felt miserable. "Where's dad?" Lila asks turing around to face her mother.

Silence fell between the three. Her mother eyes darted at the kitchens tiled floor.

Jada coughs breaking the silence, "where having dinner at the table, mind if you join us?"

Lila mothers eyes begged for Lila to say yes, so that's what she did. She said yes and went to her room with the urge to asks the question that still sits "what happens to father?"

When in her room Lila did the thing that always made her feel better. She painted. Lila painted a scenery so beautiful the human eye could only grasp onto the physical apparance but not the emotion that had so much more to do with it.

"It's not enough" Lila whispers to herself when putting the painbrush down. She looks at her painting with dread. She leans back in her chair and closes her eyes. To Lila everything was a process and this emotion she was feeling right now was eventually going to pass.

She got up from the chair and left the painting to dry. Lila walked over to her bed and pulled out a box from underneath that held all her drawing materials. She withdrew her sketch book and opened it to a fresh page. She took out a wooden pencil and sharpened it until it was no longer dull.

Her mind wondered as she sketched out a face. A solid thought took place in her mind and she was no longer wondering. Lila smiled as she remembered the encounter she had with the art boy.  "Art boy" Lila giggled to herself.