The Smile Always Fades

15. Finger Nail Polish and Acrylic Paints

For the AMAZING new book cover!!! I am in love with it <3 Thank you once again Girly! lol XD

(A/N: And just a by the way, the picture to the left is a bit like what the painting is supposed to look like!) ------>

The beautiful thing about acrylics? You could paint over a specific part of the picture a million times and not even realize there's an entirely different creation under the fresh new layer of paint. Anna laid her brush on a sheet of old newspaper and looked down at her new image with content admiration; it turned out to be even better than she had pictured with her mind's eye.

The painting that was originally for Shane--with twinkling stars and the breath taking Milky Way Galaxy--was now a completely different painting for a completely different person. Anna heaved a delicious, well-earned sigh and landed into bed with an umph. Monday she would walk up to Bentley and lay everything out on the line. There was no turning back now, she had to make this right.

Saturday and Sunday were a total blur. Anna couldn't think of anything other than what she was going to say to Bentley, and how she was going to make the sentences coherent and true.

All of the thinking kept Anna at an excruciating level of paranoia. She was so afraid of how Bentley would react or what he might say, but she figured she deserved this pain, it was due punishment for how she treated Bentley.

Monday crept up suddenly though and Anna was so nervous that she couldn't even remember how to put one foot in front of the other. With her canvas in her bag, she pushed forward and made it through the school doors, trying to make it to her locker without having a panic attack or nervous breakdown.

Anna searched through the halls, trying to find Bentley before first period started, but she was unsuccessful and hoped to talk to him at lunch. She didn't see him then either though and she feared that he had skipped school for the day.

She was sitting in her usual spot in math class now and was expectantly waiting for Bentley to waltz through the doors. Even if he had a scowl on his face, Anna prayed to see him attend class, but he never showed.

After class ended and school was dismissed, Anna lugged her books and canvas back into her school bag and headed for home. She turned her phone on and it automatically beeped with a text message. For a split second, Anna thought it might possibly be from Bentley, but her anticipation diminished and her heart sank when she saw it was a text from Sandra. Anna had been so busy with her own problems that she had totally forgotten that Sandra existed, she felt a bit guilty but then curiously wondered, how did Sandra get my cell phone number?

She opened the text and saw that it read, Miss you! Let's get together tonight and give each other mani's and pedi's!        xoxoxo Sandra

Mani's and pedi's? Anna judgingly thought. Who still did that? Eh, what the heck, I could use the...somewhat relaxation that would result from it. Besides, Sandra couldn't possibly make my day any worse.

Anna hit reply and told Sandra she'd be there around 6:00.

There was an ulterior motive to visiting Sandra, but it didn't hurt Anna's conscience any. She was desperate to talk to Bentley and make it all right. If she could just explain then everything would go back to the way it was...or maybe even more than that.

Jason drove Anna to their father's place. She laid her painting in the backseat, she was trying to muster up the courage to knock on the Whittaker's front door and face Bentley all on her own.

"What's the garbage for?" Jason asked mockingly, pointing toward the canvas.

"It's not garbage! You're just jealous that you can't even draw a decent stick figure."