The New Boy- Completed

Eighteen

"Stay still." He giggled behind me. 

"No." 

"Fay it's just a picture. Stop making them blurry." 

"Then stop taking pictures of me." I continued wiggling until he gave up. 

"Never baby." He walked behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. 

"They're all watching." 

"Let them. I couldn't care less." 

"They look like they hate you." I turned around, my hands landing on his chest. 

"They wish they had you that's why." He looked over his shoulder quickly before looking back at me. "They told me about you, that first art class you saw me in. You were wearing these black jeans and white denim jacket. And you changed your water and looked at me. When you turned around I just watched you go back to what you were doing and they were telling me you were a bitch, rude, obnoxious, prude. Those are the nice ones. They said they'd heard rumors that you had slept with faculty members to get in, that's why you kept quiet so no one asked. Then some of them were saying you were stunning and they'd love to check you off their list whilst others were saying they couldn't think of anything worse because you were so up your own arse." I furrowed my brow at him. 

"Gee. Thanks for that." I chuckled slightly. 

"Wait, I have a point." He smiled. "I heard them chatting all this shit but I was looking at you, completely in your own world. Bopping to whatever you had on in your earphones. I could see you kind of silently singing. And I was like, you guys have got her all wrong. She's not a single one of those things. I looked in your eyes for like what? 3 seconds? And I knew you were something else." I blushed, smiling up at him as he moved my hair out of my face. "So let them realise that all they needed to do was persist with you. That they just needed to work for it and you won't going to hand yourself to them. Let them watch this new guy come in and steal the girl they've all been pining over for the past 18 months. You're mine now." He kissed my cheek and I burried my head into him. "You going shy on me?" 

"Maybe a little." He turned his head, bringing his hand up to grab mine. 

"Come on we're falling behind." He pulled me forward, dragging us to the back of the group. Once we were there he put his hand around my waist, holding me close. We could both hear them all chattering about us. Making their presumptions about what had happened behind closed doors. Every time they looked back at us he gripped me tighter and I'd look up at him smiling down softly. 

The guide was talking about the paintings as we stood at the back of our group. 

"What do you think?" I asked, leaning my head back against his chest. 

"That I want to take you back to the hotel and have only my eyes on you again." 

"About the painting James Dean."

"So I'm not Fred Jones anymore?"

"Well are you still trying to unveil my mystery?" 

"There's always mystery to find in you you Fay." He brought his face down, resting his chin on my shoulder. "I don't get why some of them are naked."

"There's one naked guy." I chuckled. 

"Exactly. I don't get why it's important to the painting that he is. All the other people are covered in cloth or some clothes." 

"Maybe the others with cloth on are also naked, so he's not alone." 

"Okay fair enough but still. What were they doing?" I chuckled against him as the group moved forward. "What did you think?" 

"Chaotic." He smiled. "Some of these are huge. I can't imagine working on things this big." He laughed and I hit his arm. "Very funny wise guy."  He giggled at me like a child, kissing the back of my hand as the group stopped again. 

"Ooo. She nekkid." I rolled my eyes as he moved behind me again, head back on my shoulder. He liked standing like this. I think he could speak to me without me needing to stand on my tiptoes and he was close. At least that's why I was hoping he was doing it. 

"The most scandalous painting of a woman in European history." I smiled. "I've read about this one." 

"You have?" I nodded. "Okay come on Miss critic. Give me the down low." 

"Ingres, the artist, gave her an extra 5 vertebrae. Specifically to make her look more attractive. Don't know sounds like more back pain to me. Also wouldn't that screw your proportions all out of whack?" He chuckled. "Like once you know, she just kind of looks weird right? And they put so much detail in. You can see the dimple at the bottom of her back, she's not perfectly angled, she's got her natural little belly rolls, which I love the representation, The way the sheets are curled around her. It's beautiful." He nodded and kissed my cheek before we moved on. 

No matter how far around this place we went, their eyes never stopped. I was trying. To deal with it. Ignore it and pretend everything was fine but I think he could sense I was off because he pulled me closer after every glance. 

"Would you ever do something like that?" I looked up at him. "A statue?" 

"God no." I laughed. "I could never. I'm great at painting. but getting all those little details onto something so solid. And if you take a little too much off? Imagine doing something that big, getting right to the end and you cut a finger off." 

"I'd be pissed." He smiled as the cold air hit us. "Ready to go?" 

"Now?" 

"Yeah. I've had enough of all the looks. I really want to snap their necks. I can tell they're pissing you off." 

"I just feel uncomfortable. Like if I move an inch too far I'm going to be shot." He looked back at them, shooting them a middle finger before pulling me in the opposite direction. 

"Fuck them." He wrapped his arm around me as we walked. I felt better already.