"There's only so many times I can put my heart back together"
"Why are you so sure I'll break it again?"
🖤🤍🖤
Andrew had a perfect life. Or so others would think.
Living under his father's control was a nightmare. Having his dreams ignored and bei...
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There was something soothing in the way one could bend and shape clay so easily. It was easy to mess up, but it was simple to start from the beginning. Anything could be made from it if patience wasn't lacking.
The creative side of it, rarely found in Alice's lessons, was her favourite part. She had been taught a thousand different ways to do vases and plates, but she preferred to let her hands lead the process, creating something spontaneous.
"That's not what I asked you to do," her teacher noted, passing by.
"Mmm." Alice nodded, keeping her eyes on her project. The woman sighed, used to it, and left her.
She recalled hearing something about a tall vase, but in her hands was the beginning of a figurine. Some details were already in motion as she had stolen a toothpick and was using it to carve them, but it was far from finished.
"Are you getting it?" she asked, not bothering to look at the disgrace that was Giovanni di Pietro.
He was by her side, struggling with the clay. It had taken a lot to persuade him to join her, but he had come. It might've been the fact that she banged on his door until he joined her, but he was still there. His face was smudged, getting dirtier and dirtier every time he wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand.
"Totally," he answered, "If the assignment was to make a mountain, I'm the best of the class."
She stopped to look at him. His glasses had slipped to the tip of his nose and the place where the frame connected both lenses was brown and sticky. He was a mess, and she was trying not to laugh at his state.
"You look adorable."
He scrunched his nose, trying to force the clay into the shape he wanted. It was another failed attempt, but he refused to give up.
"Let me help," she giggled and sat in front of him, abandoning her project. Her hands guided his, and though he offered resistance at first, they made a hole in his mountain.
"That is... progress. That is progress," he said, nodding to himself.
She giggled and kept helping him, moving his fingers up and down, at different angles, until a small pot took shape. He stared in awe as she pulled their hands away and stopped the spinning wheel.
"That is magic. It has to be magic."
She shook her head and went back to her seat, grabbing her figurine once more. He turned to her, wiping his hands on the grey apron that didn't save his shirt. That was probably his cue to clean himself, but he kept still.
"So, when are you moving?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," she muttered. "Dad said he would get me an apartment, but I haven't heard from him since that dinner."
Giovanni had heard all her complaints about it and how her sister left at the beginning of the dinner, how she was being so sceptical. He was quite grateful that she was getting her own flat, since now he had a place to stay when Jaime and his boyfriend were in his dorm.
