marked.

Rants of Repeated Questions

"So what happens now?" Sean asks, trying to catch my attention. I sat there in silence and observed the slightly cracked concrete in front of me.

"I'm not sure. My purpose of going to the store is complete."

Even though my line of vision is not focusing on Sean, I could already knew I caught him by surprise. "What was your purpose?"

I sighed and finally made eyes contact with him. I laid my head against my still-risen knees, staring at his dark brown eyes. "To make sure you were okay. You haven't been in school for two days, I thought something might have happened."

He only nods as his grip clutches onto the paperback.

Instead of waiting for a response, I grew restless and jumped to my feet. Knowing that I wasn't too far from home, I decided to start walking. Sean stood up, on high alert now, and started following me.

"Where are you going?" He asks.

I keep walking. "Home."

"Home?"

I turn around a stare at him. "You're not the only one I care about," I tell him. "I still have Sam to think about."

He takes a moment to think, completely taken back of my comment. He then looked over at me with a strange look in his eyes, almost hopeful. He began to follow me as I walked a couple blocks to my apartment building and, surprisingly... In didn't stop him. Once he caught up with my speed, I glanced over at him and chuckled.

"What are you, a lost puppy?" I tell him.

He looked at me and made a quite aggravated face. "Let me at least walk you home."

When he "walked" me home, it turned out that he wasn't exactly dropping me off... He had planned to stay for a while. At first, I was quite hesitant, but it failed to bother me after some time. Sam automatically greeted me from her spot on the couch and continued to watch reruns of Criminal Minds. She hugged her pillow tight as her attention lay wholeheartedly on the TV screen.

"Parker?!" I half yelled, trying to get her attention. "Parker?!"

Instead of continuing my efforts, Sean took over to try to catch her attention. He looked over at Sam then the TV. A second later, he walked from the front door all the way to the front of the TV, completely blocking Sam's view of her entertainment. Now, she immediately forgot about the TV and focused on Sean.

Standing in the background, I notice that Sam kind of quivers in nervous-ness when she first looks at Sean.

"Hey," she whispers.

Sean's eyes are still faintly bloodshot, but his nerves calm down rather quickly and returns the hello. Sam begins to shove all her thick blankets over, making room for both me and Sean to sit, as we did so. Once I got comfortable, Sam turned her whole body at me, giddy with excitement and secrets. I raise my eyebrow.

"What?" I ask her.

She starts to giggle.

"Parker, what do you want?" I asked, now slightly concerned.

"I have the money," she bargained. "I just need to you to do it for me."

"Sam, what is you want?"

Samantha took a deep, reassuring breath before she talked. Obviously, she was up to something, but was to giddy to say anything. Instead of continuing my rants of repeated questions, I waited for her reply.

"I need you to draw an elephant for Arden," she said plainly.

I raise my eyebrow. "An elephant?"

"Yes!" She half-screamed. "I want YOU to draw it up so ARDEN can tattoo it on me."

I looked at her with complete and utter shock. "I thought the pain was too much for you, considering your the previous one you got."

Samantha shook her head. "No, I'm fine! I really need this one, Daniella."

Daniella... I thought. This name of mine was only used in rather serious matters. Before making my decision, my artistic eyes stared straight into Sam's pupils. One glance automatically told me that I needed to draw this up for her; something about this elephant will help her with the healing process.

I sighed. "Where do you want this done? Like, the placement?"

Sam gestures towards most of her right upper arm. "Can you help me fill up most of this space? I really need this to stand out."

I nodded as I stood up. "Lemme get my sketchbook."

As I quickly jogged over to my room to grab my sketchbook and some pencils, I could hear Sam clapping wildly and giggling in excitement. I shook my head, almost chuckling as I plopped my body in between Sean and Sam.

I spent a good three hours trying different methods of drawing an elephant. And in these three hours, I found out that Samantha can be rather picky. We kept going at each other's throats, trying to find the perfect way to draw this precious elephant. After gallons of annoyance finally bottled up in me, I half-ordered Sam to look in my iPad to see if she could find the perfect elephant. Surely enough, to prove me wrong, she found it. It was quite realistic, and contained a head-to-toe scale of the animal.

"Are you sure you want this?" I ask, before using another tired piece of paper.

Samantha nodded assuringly. I sighed as I took the iPad from her hands, placing it on my thigh so I can continue my observations as I draw the mammal. Sam returned to faithfully paying attention to FBI agents solving case after case as I finished my masterpiece. Sean, on the other hand, paid close attention to my pencil-work as his resting arm caused the hairs on my neck to spike upward; the continuing essence of his skin sending shivers through my spine as I draw.

Finally, after twenty minutes of drawing it up, the elephant was ready to go for tomorrow. Sam took one great look at it, and as far as I can tell, her eyes became quite moist. I never had a drawing conjure up such strong emotions, and this was definitely a first. I notice Sam just looking directly at the drawing, as if a piece of a whole in her heart was put back in its rightful place... Now, it is all the matter of getting it done.