See The Stars [Completed]

Chapter Twenty-four

The pizza came just when I reached my house. I told the delivery boy to wait while I ran inside to get the money. But when I came back, Ronan was coming inside with the pizza in one hand and the guitar he picked up from his house in one hand. 

“I paid for it.” He told me. I frowned and showed him the bills in my hand.

“But I was going to.” 

“I can at least do this for you. Since you are painting me.” He didn’t need to add the last part. I was completely happy with only the first line. He followed me inside my room and set the pizza on the table. I turned around to see him staring at the painting on the easel. His eyes were skimming past every detail. 

“This is…” His brows furrowed as he stared again. I walked up to him and pointed at the silhouettes on the hill. 

“These are us. This is the hill–” He cut me off. 

“I understand it completely. I just can’t understand how you made it. It’s so beautiful.” He was in awe. I smiled. 

“This is my painting style. It’s a bit jagged and abstract. But once you find the picture I drew, it all makes sense.”

“Paint me like this too.” He spoke, still staring at the picture. I sat down on the bed and opened the pizza box. I was feeling extremely hungry. Ronan sat in front of me after staring at the painting some more. He grabbed a slice and leaned back against the bed. His gaze surveyed every inch of my room. I bit my lip, trying to think if I should ask him about something that I was curious about or not. I silently ate the pizza as he got up to wash his hands. I was full too but half the pizza was still left. 

“Was Dylan joking when he said that you were celibate?” He halted when I questioned him. He tilted his head and stared at me curiously. I didn’t greet his eyes. 

“No. He wasn’t.” 

“What does that mean? That you haven’t been with anyone?” My heart beat loudly as I asked. He nodded.

“No one except you.” 

“Why?” I knew this was a dumb question because we both knew what the answer was. But I had never heard him say it. Never. 

“Why do you think so?” He waited for a beat before he looked at me. “Because I–”

“Don’t say it.” I blurted out. His whole face morphed into pain and my heart bled seeing the hurt in his eyes. 

“Don’t say it now. Say it when I want to hear it.” I knew what I said was extremely selfish but it was a hard feeling for me. 

Love was the ugliest thing in the world. I had found out the hard way. That was why people blind to the depth of it, dove in head first. Was I ready to be blind? 

“Alright,” he didn’t say anything else. I thought he might get angry or leave because of how absurd I sounded but he just smiled at me. And that told me that everything was alright. I took the seat on the stool and tried not to stare as he pulled off his black shirt. He laid down in the same position from yesterday and put the guitar to his left. I could paint him from my imagination but with him in front of me, the chances of me messing up were minuscule. I set up the paints and dipped my brush in them. Since he wanted an abstract, I didn’t really have to be that clean-cut. After fifteen minutes I sighed. 

“Stop looking at me like that.” I turned to him. He had his fingers above his lips hiding his small smirk. 

“Like what?” 

“Like that.” I pointed at him. Like he was picturing me naked. 

“I couldn’t help it. You look so beautiful when you paint in the flow.” My cheeks flushed at his straight compliment.