Secret Admirer- Vance Hopper

Art Project pt.2

I've never had anyone other than Brock in my room. It was really awkward. I tried cracking a few lame jokes to difuse the tention. Y/N laughed a bit at all of them. Then Y/N started mocking a teacher we both disliked. I bursted out laughing, I couldn't help it. The impression was very accurate. We were both just doing impressions of that teacher and laughing our asses off for about 20 minutes. Y/n's laugh was quite contagious which made me laugh even harder. I couldn't help but notice that they always covered their mouth while laughing or smiling. After we calmed down from our laughing fit, I decided to ask them. "Hey, why do you cover your mouth when you laugh or smile?" they looked at me and responded "Oh, it's an old habit. Didn't really grow out of it yknow" I nodded my head. I liked how chill they were right now. They wouldn't be caught dead laughing at school. I appreciated how they were warming up to me.

They cracked their neck a little bit. Holy shit that was loud. For a second I thought they broke their neck. "Sorry, I have crunchy joints" they responded with a slight chuckle before proceeding to crack their fingers, then elbows, then their back. I was dumbfounded. I can only crack my knuckles. They finished their little sesh with a stretch. That's when I noticed their bandaged arms. I noticed that they weren't wearing their usual fingerless gloves when they got here, but I didn't see the bandages. "Ah, I feel so refreshed. We can start the project now." with that, they got up from my bed and fetched their bag with supplies. I figured the bandages were a topic they didn't wanna talk about, so I didn't ask anything.

We were an hour into our project. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Y/N had this plan of splitting the canvas by tape. They read some sort of quote or whatever and said to paint how I inerpreted it. I took a glance at their side of the canvas, it was amazing. Mine over here looked like crap. I got frustrated and got up, pacing around the room. "Okay... I guess we could take a break. Are you alright?" Y/N asked while giving me a worried look. "I didn't even wanna do this in the first place. I have no clue what I'm doing!" I said, sitting down on my bed and placing my head in my hands. I didn't even understand the theme. 'Can a heart break once it's stopped beating' what the hell does that mean?! I felt Y/N sitting next to me. I looked at them, they just gave me a sympathetic smile. "What part are you having trouble with?" they asked in a soft voice. "The whole theme really. I don't fucking get it." I said, tired. Y/N sighed. "Try and invision it. Whatever picture comes to your mind first is what you paint, or something similar to that. I do agree that the sentence is kind of a brain-wrecker, but that's why it's fun. Seeing other people's thought process and interpretation on it is interesting." they said while not looking at me. I noticed that they always look at the ground while they're deep in thought or trying to express their thoughts through words. I liked that about them. I flashed a slight smile at them and got up from my bed." If it's easier, try closing your eyes to visualize it better. I know it's harder for some people to do it with their eyes opened." they said with a smile while also getting up and getting back to their seat. I did as they said, I repeated the sentence in my head and closed my eyes. It actually helped a lot. I finally knew what to paint. I opened my eyes and nodded my head at Y/n. They gave me a smile and returned to working on their side, while I returned to working on mine. I glanced at their side of the canvas again. They painted a skeleton in a dark grassy field with a realistic heart in its chest. The overall color scheme was gloomy. So I also decided to go with a gloomy color scheme. I tried sketching a realistic heart like they did, but failed miserably. I was a bit frustrated, but remembered what Y/N said. So I sketched a normal heart instead but still stuck to my original idea. After what felt like years, and little gossip breaks, we were finally finished. Y/N peeled the tape off. We both stood there admiring our work. I painted a heart which was half black and turning to dust, the other half of the heart was red with numerous old scars on it except a new white one which showed the heartbreak. "I really like your version of this" Y/N said while looking at my side of the canvas. "Thanks. But yours is absolutely amazing!" I replied. Their side of the canvas was very detailed. The skelton laid in the dark grass while being iluminated by a light from what I assume is a window. There was fresh blood on its chest, leaking out of the heart. In the window there were two lovers, only their shadows could be seen. Now I get why they said that it's fun to see how others interpret things differently.

It was now nearly 8pm. We figured we'd wait for my mom to get home to drop Y/N off, since we were bickering about who was gonna walk who home considering that one person had to go alone in the end. I felt uneasy with the thought of them walking home alone at night, but they also felt uneasy about me walking back to my house alone at night. Now I see why we get along, we're both frustrating. We already bonded over many things, but after today, I think we were closer than ever. We dislike pretty much the same people and stuff, have similar opinions and views on things, and some same interests. Apparently, they also have anger issues, but I don't really believe them that much tbh. I've never seen them angry, sure maybe agitated, but not full blown angry. They reasoned that they control it better, fair point.

My mom finally got home and dropped Y/N off. I honestly had a great time. I haven't seen them genuenly smiling or laughing since October. Y/N took the canvas since their parents will be driving them to school tomorrow. I went to sleep thinking about Y/n, I smiled slightly before dozing off.