two doors down

art communicates

y/n pov

just before we left i saw a couple of teachers from school heading our way with sir so monica and i dipped. i do not feel like talking to them and monica linked her arm around mine sneaking past all the people. 

"finally fresh air" she said taking us to the courtyard where there was a couple of food trucks of fresh coffee, cupcakes and nachos?. anyway she bought herself a latte, and tried to buy me something but i told her not to waste her money.  

she ended up buying me a strong coffee and we went back inside to look at the competition. it was surprisingly busy and quite loud. with all the talking and music playing there was alot of noise. 

"smash" i hear monica say beside me taking a long sip of her drink and staring ahead of us. but as she kept looking she tilted her head. " do you think thats a guy or a girl" she paused for a second "eh either way they're hot and i want their number" 

"uh hes a guy named oliver" i said and she looks over at me and smirks.  

"i love how good your hearing is sometimes" i just laughed and told her about the name tags we were all wearing. she looked at me then the guy and laughed "still, should i go ask him" 

"if you want too" i shrugged urging her over. 

"come on then" she smiled linking our arms again and walking over. oliver was talking to the kid in the section beside him whos name was jordan, but turned his attention to us when we came over. 

"oh my god his hands" she whispered to me before greeting him. i zoned out of their conversation admiring his art. i noticed he was in a lot of the same categories as i was. and his art was really good. 

i could tell the message and it was clean and beautiful. naturally i started over thinking all my pieces. i completely zoned out until someone linked arms with me and i jerked away. monica looked at me concerned. but she had that look on her face which told me she knew. 

"are you okay y/n" she asks and i nodded. "do you want to go back to our spot the next round starts in 3 minutes" she advised. taking a breath i nodded and she interlocked our arms.

2 hours later

monica only had 2 more judging rounds of the day before she could leave and come back for awards later whereas i still had 9. the more people i saw the made me more nervous. we saw so many brilliant pieces and i felt like mine were not good enough for this competition. 

"theres so much waiting around" she said putting her phone in her pocket. i hummed in agreement drawing on my arm with a random sharpie i found. i shouldnt be drawing on myself with permanent ink but i really could not care less. 

"ooo wait theres my mother dearest, im going to go ask her what shes getting for lunch to see if i can upgrade us from the quarter of a sandwhich we will get here" she said getting up "are you right to hold down the fort to any intruders" she said dramatically. 

i laughed and nodded smiling at her as she walked away. going back to my drawing i was drawn away from my art again by a familiar face. 

"good morning sweetheart" i smiled at the woman infront of me. she was all wrapped up in a long brown coat with black tights under with her hair down. sunglasses rested on the top of her head as she had a warm smile on her face. "im not surprised your here, your art is very good" she complimented. 

"oh hi ms olsen? um lizzie, sorry i never know what name to call you buy but thank you for saying that" i smiled weakly "i dont think its winner material tho" i laughed seeing as her eyes drifted to some of my darker art pieces and statues. 

her expression faulted for just a second before she answered me. "you can call me lizzie outside of school hun, miss olsen makes me sound old when you say it alot" she laughed. "you really expression your emotions through art huh?" she prompted me to speak again as she admired the pieces. 

by now i was standing up fiddling with my fingers so i nodded. "yeah, its very therapeutic surprisingly"  

"yeah, i get that. im not such a good communicator myself" she admitted. she smiled at me one more time before wishing me luck and moving along. 

"mums going to go pick us up some maccas i already told her your order and your gonna eat as much as you can" monica shoots me her stupid grin before we go back to our mini game of handball with a tennis ball. 

judges come and go for the next 15 minutes before an announcement is made that lunch is being served outside. most of the competitors rush outside but the public is still around viewing the art. 

then all of a sudden my phone buzzes against my leg. 

its from my father.