𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭-𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬² | 𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 ✓

𝐕𝐈

"Sorry about the mess." Tobias apologized as he closed the door behind them. She shook her head, waving him off. "Trust me, if you saw my uncle Emmett's room, you'd think this was spotless." She laughed.

"The more you talk about your family, the more I want to meet them." He admits as he digs through some canvases he had lying against a wall. Ren sat on the edge of his bed as she admired all the posters on his walls.

She saw a poster of a band her father knew. "Hey, I know them." She said excitedly at the fact that she could recognize someone. He turned around to find her looking at his Nirvana poster.

"Yeah, their music's pretty good right?" He said before going back to his canvases.

"I've only heard a few of their stuff but my dad used to be friends with them." She said with a smile but Tobias paused as the words left her mouth. He turned to her confused. "Your dad must be pretty old to have known them back then." She shrugged. "Yeah, you could say he's pretty old." She said with a giggle but he let it slide with a nod.

He finally found what he was looking for, pulling out a painting he made of Lucine, except no one could tell who the woman in the picture was but him. She was standing on a cliff, like the one overlooking a beach. Her white dress flowed against the wind along with her hair and the sun shined too bright to tell any of her features but you could tell she was beautiful.

"Wow," Ren said with wide eyes as she crouched down to see the painting closer. It was a pretty big canvas.

"This is amazing Tobes." She said, looking up at him with a smile for a second before looking back at the painting. "Thanks, it took me two months to finish it."-"Wow. Hard work really does pay off." She says as she stands up again.

"Who's the woman in the painting? Your mom?" She asked but he just shrugged. "Something like that." He said as he put the painting back with the others. "Can I see some other ones?" She asks eagerly wanting to see her friend's talent some more.

"I don't know, they aren't really that good." He said awkwardly. "Oh come on, I bet they're just as amazing as the one you just showed me." She said with a smile that made him want to show her every piece of art he's ever made.

He hesitated but ultimately gave it, pulling out a landscape he made a month ago.

She looked at it for a second. "Tobes, you sure you've never been to Forks before?" She asks out of nowhere as she keeps looking at the painting. He nods, "Never but my mom grew up here for a bit when she was little." She hummed as she nodded. "Why?" He asked, feeling like there was more to her question.

She looked up at him. "This meadow is where my parents went to hang out when they were teenagers before they got married. Where my dad proposed to my mom." She said, sending chills down his spine.

He remembers Lucine telling him a story about her sister and how she loved to go to a beautiful meadow with her boyfriend. He didn't realize that he was painting that meadow.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence?" He questioned, hoping she'd buy it. She nodded and shrugged as he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"True, there's gotta be hundreds of meadows that look like this." She says with a chuckle as she puts the painting back from where he got it.

"So," He starts as he sits on his desk chair and she sits back on the edge of his bed. "Why haven't you gone to school with everyone else until now if you've lived here your entire life?" He asked; his curiosity growing by the minute.

She shrugged. "My parents didn't think it was safe. They wanted to wait for me to get used to everything before sending me away for a few hours." She said but it left him more confused than before. "Safe? Your family has lived here for years, heck, your parents, aunts, and uncles went to school here I'm guessing. Plus, one of your grandpas is the town's police chief. It doesn't get any safer for you than that." He said but deep down he knew that it wasn't for her safety that her parents were worried about.

"I guess your right but who am I to tell them anything? They're my parents and they just want what's best for me. Soon we'll be old enough to be on our own and make our own relationships but for now, I can just go along with them. There's no harm in that right?" She said, making a point that made him sigh.

"Are you gonna leave town after high school? Go to college out of state?" He asked as she nodded. "Yeah, I don't know where and I love this town but I want something new." She said making him hum. "Me too. We should apply to the same college senior year. It would be nice to go to a new place with someone you know." He replied making her smile.

Her original plan was to go to Italy. She didn't know why but, for some reason, Italy called to her. As cliche and dumb as that sounds, she really wanted to study there.

"I'm thinking of going to Italy. There's no better place for an art major to study art in than Italy, right?" He said with a laugh as she looked at him with wide eyes as if he had read her mind.

"Me too, I've always wanted to study in Italy." She said with a smile now.

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about how they would live there together, explore small towns and find odd jobs to work to make a living.

Ren couldn't help but smile brightly at the thought that she now had a friend like the ones her parents had. Tobias had become important to her in less than twenty-four hours and she didn't hate the feeling he sprouted in her heart.