Butterflies (boyxboy)

Chapter 8: Vulnerable

"So...shall I get dressed?"

☆

"What do you mean you haven't painted a naked man before? you just said all that stuff about wrinkles and emotions. I thought you'd done this kind of thing numerous times!" Blake now suddenly feels his confidence drop at the revelation that he was this guy's first male life model. He felt a little exposed, like he had gone to a party and was the only one in fancy dress! He now has the urge to cover himself up, heading for the throw still spread across the chair. 

Tamesh still has his back to Blake. The task he was busying himself with was long finished, but the presence of a naked man had been growing more overwhelming in his mind and now out of the artistic persona, Tamesh just couldn't turn around. "I've got enough to go on for today." He ends up saying. "I've been painting all day."

Blake stares at the back of Tamesh's messy brown hair, feeling rather confused. "Look, have I done something wrong?"

Tamesh now forces himself to turn around, grateful to see the blanket now wrapped around Blake. He sees the worry in Blake's eyes, making him look so innocent, so different from the smug confident guy only present moments before. He tries to reassure him. "No, like I said, I've been painting all day, I just want to rest now." 

"So...shall I go get dressed?" Blake questions, gesturing with his finger towards the door over his shoulder. 

Tamesh nods with a smile, with a slightly confused Blake turning away and heading out of the room. "What was going on with the artist? And more importantly, what was going on with him? It had been a few years since Blake had felt this vulnerable...

..."Hey what are you looking for?" Hannah asks, approaching her friend.

"Ah, just a good rock, you know, with a really pointy end." Blake replies, looking carefully in the entrance of the sea cave, before locating a suitable candidate. He tosses it a few times in his hand as he examines its suitability, before heading back to the smooth sand. 

They would often do this. Just the two of them. Take Hannah's father's fishing boat and head to the deserted beaches along the coast of Cornwall, just to relax, play ball, have fun. Two friends...but Blake hopes it may just be about to change. 

His heart begins to race a little with what he was about to do, but he was never that good at saying it out in the open. It would be better to write it. 

Hannah watches as Blake begins to carve and shape letters into the wet surface, his actions hurried and controlled, like he had it all planned out. 

"What are you doing?" She asks, but a hand is held up in the air, implying that she stays back. 

"No, don't come over yet ..I'm not done!" Blake says rather panicked, causing Hannah to halt in her tracks. 

A couple of silent minutes pass and Blake stands back up straight, admiring his handiwork. "Ok, you can look now, but..." he hesitates a little, taking a breath, before blowing a shot of air from his mouth. "Whatever you may say, just don't hate me." 

"Hate you? Why would I hate you?...oh..." Hannah steps forward a little closer to see what Blake has created in the wet sand, stopping short of the words...

Can we be more than friends?...

***

Tamesh lets out a heavy sigh of relief when he sees Blake disappear through the door, he was once again alone in the small studio. He looks at where Blake had just been standing and furrows his brow in question.

Tamesh couldn't quite grasp why he had just found Blake so difficult to look at. Again he reminded himself that he was just light and shade, shapes and lines, but there was something about the guy which made him lose focus. Maybe it was because the guy was so flawless! It was too distracting! 

He looks at the basics of the painting in which he had started. It looked like a mess. Tamesh curses at the state of it. "Damn! Why do you have to look so perfectly handsome?" He finds himself saying out loud, not realising that the aforementioned is standing by the door frame, that cocky smirk back on his face. 

"Thanks...so, can you let me out?"