𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭-𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬² | 𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 ✓

𝐈𝐕

The day felt like it was dragging on as Tobias sat in the lunch room, poking at his food as Ren talked about who knows what. She finally noticed he wasn't paying attention to her story so she shook him slightly, finally snapping him out of his head.

"What? Sorry, I was just thinking about something." He said apologizing immediately making her chuckle. "It's fine. I was just talking about the new English teacher, Ms. Leaf. She seems pretty nice so far." Tobias cleared his throat slightly at the mention of his mom.

"There's probably something you should know. Ms, Leaf is actually my mom but you gotta promise not to tell anyone else." He says as he sticks out his pinky. He held pinky promises very seriously.

She wrapped her pinky around his as they made their thumbs meet with a giggle from both. "I promise, not that I have anyone to tell anyways." She says before taking a sip of water. "What do you mean?" Now that she mentioned it, he realized it was just them two at their lunch table, none of her other friends there.

"I've lived here my entire life but it's been a bit difficult making friends. I mean, my parents didn't even let me go to school with the other kids until, well high school, so I'm almost as new as you are." She says making him nod. "Well, us new kids gotta stick together right?" He says, smiling at her.

"Yeah, we gotta stick together." She said with a smile so happy that it made him happier.

They stayed quiet for a moment, as he hesitated to ask her something. "By any chance do you know Ms.Cullen?" He asked, wanting to know more about the painting.

She nodded. "Yeah, she's my aunt on my dad's side." She said with a smile as he looks at her in mild shock.

Small town. Very small town.

"Oh, so then maybe you knew the woman in the painting she has in her classroom?" Ren just shrugs. "Not really, she died a day or two after I was born so I never got to meet her but my family talks about her a lot so it feels like I know her." She says fondly as she looks at him.

"Why?" She asked the one thing he didn't want to be asked.

"I don't know, it was just a cool painting." He lied, she looked at him for a second, making him nervous, before she just nodded. "Yeah, my aunt Rosie is really good. She took up painting to distract herself when aunt Lucine died. Uncle Jasper says it broke her into pieces. Told me she felt like she had lost half of herself that day."

"Does your aunt paint a lot?" He asks, becoming very curious about her family now. Hearing names that he felt like he had to tell Lucine when he sees her in his dreams tonight.

Ren nods, "Yeah, I mean, every time we went over she'd be in the studio painting. She spends hours on top of hours painting things, mostly Lucine."-"What else does she paint?" Not wanting to pry too much into the topic of Lucine, hoping that it would just come naturally.

"She likes to paint landscapes a lot too; mostly this one cliff that overlooks La Push beach. Mom goes up there a lot to talk to aunt Lucine, her sister. She said that cliff was her favorite spot, which I get because the view is amazing." She sat silent for a second as if contemplating something before finally coming up with a conclusion.

"I'll take you up there some day." She said making him shake his head. "That cliff sounds like a very personal and private place to your family. I don't think they'd appreciate a stranger being there." He argued but Ren just laughed. "It's a cliff Tobes, it's automatically open to the public. Either way, you'll be there with me." She said, hoping that last bit would reassure these odd worries.

After three seconds of thinking, he let out a sigh that put a smile on Ren's face. "Fine, but only because I want to explore this town a little more." She nodded just as the bell rang, telling them their lunch break was over.

They had their next class together, history, so they walked together as they laughed and talked.

"Hey Nessie, finally made a friend?" A girl said as she and her friends laughed and walked past them. Ren said nothing, keeping her head down.

"What was that about?" Tobias asks, now somewhat worried at her change in demeanor. She shook her head. "As I said before, it's been hard to make friends," she said before walking a little faster, leaving him behind a bit.

He kept his mouth shut on the subject as he took an away next to her near the window. It was foggy and rainy again, he loved it.

"Why don't you come over tonight? I could show you some of my paintings." He suggested, hoping that his paintings would cheer her up.

In his mind, his paintings were bad, not worth looking at but his mother loved them. She saw great talent in him.

She smiled, "That would be great." She held a small smile on her face. It was soft and warm and it made him want to smile too.

Her eyes were brown but it felt like they held more stars in them than the night sky did sometimes. He couldn't help but want to drown in them.

Her eyes reminded him so much of Lucine's starry eyes which only made him wonder how similar her mother would look to Lucine.

The teacher started the class fairly quickly after the late bell rang. He tried hard to focus but all he could think about was how Lucine would react to everything he wanted to tell her tonight.

Lucine was too important to him and she was just a fraction of his imagination.