Blood, Sweat and Tears

CHAPTER 2

Emily woke up with a throbbing headache that morning. She let out a grunt from the pain, put one of her thin hands to the place where the pain was coming from and closed her eyes for a moment. She tried to calm down, trying to forget everything that had happened the day before. After a few minutes she knew she would not forget anything so she dressed in the first dress she could find in her closet, put her hair up in a bun leaving a few strands of hair loose over her face and left her room with her notebook in hand. She went down to the kitchen where there was no one, it seemed early enough so she decided to take whatever was in the pantry, like a slice of bread and after eating it she left on her way to the city which was a short walk of about ten minutes.

Arriving at the square where the carriages passed by and the busy people going to work or just to run errands, she sat down on one of the benches, which was under a small tree that provided just the shade she needed. She left the notebook open on her lap and began to observe the place, the people and the flowers and various plants. She breathed in trying to relax before picking up her pencil so she could draw on one of the blank pages. She started by making meaningless lines, even she didn't know what was going to come out of it, but she was calm and at peace so it would surely be something worthwhile. Yes, her art was weird, but all her drawings had an abstract meaning that no one managed to find and that bothered her. It wasn't so hard to understand what she meant by that, no doubt people didn't want to think about things that escaped logic.

She rolled her eyes without thinking, she was so deep in her thoughts and drawings that she didn't even notice when a girl a little shorter than her with brown hair and brown eyes approached silently with a small smile before peeking over her head to see what she was drawing. When she felt the shadow in her sketchbook grow, she looked up and saw the woman's face, which caused her to grunt and continue drawing while the other girl sat on the other end of the bench.

一Wow, looks like the eloquent Emily Dankworth is speechless after admiring my beauty 一 she was clearly joking, she liked to tease her from time to time. She was not a snooty woman by any stretch of the imagination. Everyone described her as a real beauty with sharp features. She was elegant and well dressed, always in the most expensive dresses desired by all the local girls. Her family could afford it so she wasn't going to be the one to say she didn't want them. In short, she was a beautiful girl and one that everyone knew. Or rather a walking nightmare for Emily.

一Of course, I'm dazzled 一 she mumbled ignoring it completely, an image had come into her head and her hand was working on that. Sometimes it seemed as if the pencil and paper possessed her and she couldn't escape it 一 Can you go away? You're blocking my light and I need concentration, not some annoying mosquito bothering me.

一Ugh, I seem to have approached at a bad time, she's certainly grumpier than usual.

一I wouldn't be grumpy if once and for all everyone would just shut up and leave me alone with my silence and my drawings. And that includes you, Katherine Walsh 一 for the first time she looked up from her notebook, settling on the eyes of the other woman.

She couldn't deny the obvious, that woman was beautiful and it was hard not to gawk at those gorgeous brown eyes in that morning light but Katherine was her brother's friend, and like all of her brother's friends she was probably just as much of an asshole as he was. Which was why she didn't want her around. A pretty face was no good if underneath that wrapper there was nothing interesting.

一Well, I'm sorry. But I saw you drawing and I wanted to come over in case you finally let me see one of those drawings of yours. I seem to remember nagging you for weeks just to let me see one. I don't care if it's not finished 一 Katherine continued speaking when she saw that the other girl was silent for a few seconds, just looking at her.