Infatuation // l.h

two

"Well, hey there Delilah, I'm Luke Hemmings"

She could tell how happy he was of the Plain White T's reference he had just made and because of that she couldn't help but giggle at his stupid joke. As he sat in front of her, he seemed so much more laid back opposed to what she had originally thought of him.

Delilah already knew who Luke was and so did pretty much everybody in West Shores High School, unless you were new in town or just didn't pay attention to what was going on around you. This made his greeting seem almost useless but she decided not to say anything since he seemed so proud of himself already and didn't want to ruin the mood. So instead she had went back to focusing on the painting she had in front of her, still keeping one earbud out, just in case the blonde headed boy tried to get her attention again; it was a portrait of her older brother, Derek, who had died when she was younger, around 6 years old.

Delilah never liked to talk about what happened 11 years ago, even back when it had happened. She didn't even cry during the funeral, she had managed to keep it all in and stay as strong as she could. Derek, though he was much older than her, almost 25, was her best friend and she loved to be with him all of the time. He would always joke around with her, take her out for ice cream at her favorite place and even ruffle her hair because he knew that she hated it. But now that her brother was long gone, she would do anything to get him back. Even if that meant having to deal with him messing up her hair when it looked its best, she just wanted to hug him and be around him again.

Mrs. Rose continued to walk around the room to glance at project by project. Helping out each student when they needed it along the way, making the best out of the 45 minutes that she had with all of them, just like she did everyday.

"Oh Delilah! It's so wonderful!" Mrs. Rose praised, clearly talking about the young girls portrait painting.

Delilah had went from being completely focused on what she was creating to grinning from ear to ear at her teacher's compliment, "Thank you Mrs. Rose," she began, still beaming, "That means a lot."

Her smiles were returned from the older teacher, "When you're finished I might just have to put it in the district art show this spring," Mrs. Rose gushed while walking away, leaving the two teenagers to go back to silence.

After a few minutes, Luke stood up and went around the table from Delilah's side over to the seat sitting beside hers. His curiosity had gotten the best of him thanks to the previous conversation that both Mrs. Rose and the girl just had.

He turned his head to the the right a bit and looked over to the canvas to see what she been painting all of this time; it was a man with dark brown hair, much like hers, painted on top of a pale yellow background.

"Hey, who's that?" Luke asked with a puzzled look on his face, looking back and forth at the canvas and Delilah. Delilah however, immediately felt upset, not wanting to answer the curious Luke who sat right next to her.

When she was painting, she never thought about the history behind it all, she instead kept her mind on making sure that the proportion was correct and that the paint was put where it was meant to go.

"Um, uh," she began hesitantly, she liked keeping it to herself, she liked keeping her brother to herself, "It's just somebody that I used to know, we were really close."

Luke looked at her and could tell from the sight that if he asked anything more, there was a possibility that she would be in tears. She was practically on the verge of them now, "Oh, alright," he said, grabbing his paper from the other side of the table and staring at the blank sheet, doing his best to ignore the awkward atmosphere.

"So," Luke murmured, still wanting to speak to the beautiful girl but not sure what they could possibly speak of.

"So," Delilah repeated, trying to focus on anything but what was almost mentioned.

Looking back down at his paper, although he liked doing things himself, he finally decided he would just ask what had partially brought him over to the table to begin with, "I mean, you seem to know what you're doing so do you think you could uh.. 'ya know, help me?"

All of a sudden Luke saw Delilah a slight smile appear on her lips from the corner of his eye. Looking directly at her, the tears seemed to be gone, "Sure, of course. What do you need help with?"

"I, uh- I just don't know what to do or how to even start this and I really can't fail this class," he confessed, finally admitting to someone other than himself that he actually cared about his grades.

Setting her paintbrush in the cup of water she had beside her small easel on the table, she began standing up, "I understand, just come back here with me and I'll help you find something on the computer."

Luke hesitantly got up and began following her to the back of the room. He didn't want to stop her from painting because he enjoyed watching her so focused but he couldn't pass down this opportunity for help.

While he could've asked Mrs. Rose, he found her to be overly helpful and even though she was one of his nicest teachers and art wasn't his forte, he liked to do most things by himself.

As time slowly, past a minute at a time, Delilah and Luke began searching for pictures and such that could help him ace his art project without a doubt.

Both of them unintentionally getting to know each other a little bit better along the way.