The Ones That Got Away

The Artist

"All of the art in this building is done by one person." Sam says. Me. "It's incredible how dedicated he is." Sam continues. He? "How do you know the artist is a he?" I ask him. We had all gotten out of the car and started walking towards the fire escape. I have a key to the building just in my backpack but I'm not going to tell them that. Obviously.

"I don't know I just have a feeling." Sam explains. We climbed up the fire escape and into a window. The room we entered into was empty except for a baby blue painted desk and a battered office chair. Sam walks right up to my newest painting and stares at it. "Hey guys, look at this one." He points to my most recent painting. It shows two male figures standing on a blow up raft on a coursing river in the middle of nowhere and they're about to go over a waterfall. I'm quite proud of this painting, I painted it in a different style than I normally do and it turned out really nice.

  "Ooh, it's beautiful!" Laura says, more to impress Sam than to compliment the painting. "And new." Henry chimes in.
New? Have they been here before? "We've come here once a week every week since early last year." Henry explains. They do a damn good job of cleaning up after themselves then. Not that I'm complaining. "Ah." I say in response. "We've never come by the artist when we've come here but it would cool if we did." Sam adds. "I come because they come." Laura says sitting down on the office chair. Sam sits on the desk in front of Laura. The desk and chair are in the middle of the room, it makes it easier to paint. I watch as Laura smiles at Sam and Sam doesn't really notice. You've got to feel a little for Laura. She loves Sam but I don't think he feels the same way about her.

  While Laura sits in the chair and Sam sits on the desk, Henry and I sit on the floor in front of them. They all explain to me where they go on what days. On Monday they go to Sam's house. On Tuesday, here. Wednesdays, they just go home. Thursdays, they go to Laura's. On Fridays, Henry's. Saturdays, they go to mall and on Sundays they go to parks or the library. It's hard to picture them at a library. I feel like they'd be too loud.

  "Hey Sam." Henry starts. "Let's show her the first floor." Sam nods. We're heading down the stairs when Henry comes to a sudden stop. "What the hell Henry?" Laura exclaims after nearly getting crushed between me and Sam. Henry doesn't do anything. "Henry! Why the f-" Sam puts his hand over Laura's mouth before she can finish. All of a sudden, I feel a hard shove and I run right into Henry, making him stumble forward with a yelp.

  Now I see why Henry stopped.

  On the first floor, looking at one of my paintings, is a guy around our age. He's tall, has black, messy hair, and pale skin. He turns to look at us with his gray eyes. "Um... Hi." I say to the stranger. Sam steps forward. "What the hell are you doing here?" Sam practically shouts. "Looking at the art." The stranger says. "It's beautiful in case you haven't noticed." He looks at me. "And so is the girl who made it." I look down. No one's ever called me beautiful before except for my family. "How did you get in here?" Sam demands. "I picked the lock." The guy answers. Henry's just looking at me. I know that he's thinking about how the guy said I was the girl who made it. How does the guy know I made it? "Whatever. Just get the hell out." Sam tells him.

  Instead of walking out the door he walks right up to me and holds out a hand. "I'm Argent." He says. I shake his hand. "I'm Rome." I look Argent in the eyes, trying to see if I can recognize him. But I can't. "What are you doing?" Sam whispers loudly to me. "I'm meeting Argent." I whisper back. Henry puts a hand on my shoulder to pull me away from Argent. "Why did he say you are the artist in this building?" Henry asks me. "Because she is." Argent pipes in. "How come you didn't tell us?" Henry asks, annoyance filling his voice. "You didn't ask." I say flatly pulling away. Sam blinks at me, color rushing to his face. Laura's staring at Argent, because like... How could you not? He's beautiful. "Hot damn..." She mutters. Argent smiled at that.

  "You really are beautiful and incredibly talented." Argent tells me, taking my hand and leading me to one of my paintings. "Thank you." I say through a smile. "Hold up, douchebag." Henry and Sam say together while pulling me away from Argent. "What?" Argent asks also sounding annoyed. "How did you know it was her?" Henry asks. Argent points the signature on the painting and the doodle popping out under my sleeve. The doodle is of my art signature. "They're the exact same." Argent explains. Sam glares at him, his mouth slightly open. "How did you notice something so small?" Sam questions. "There's giant freaking black lines on her arm." Laura explains. Suddenly all eyes were on Laura.

   "What?" Henry sounds really frustrated with the conversation. "I said-" Laura is cut off by Sam. "We know what you said!" He starts. "We'd just like you explain yourself." Laura thinks about her answer. "There's nothing to explain really. All I saw were the lines, I thought she had a tattoo or something." She answers. Henry's done with this conversation, he walks upstairs without a word, we soon here the sound of an old office chair falling over... and the sound of one very startled Henry. "God... dammit!"

  Sam looks at Argent. Not a studying him or observing him look, a keep-your-nasty-ass-douchebag-hands-off-of-her-look. Argent understood and gave him a "don't worry" look. Sam slowly turns and goes back upstairs to check on his best friend. Of course, Laura follows. Now it's just me and Argent. Alone. Together. We both glance at the stairs, then back at each other, then back at the stairs. I don't know why I did it, but I started sprinting towards the stairs. I may be fast, but surely enough, Argent is faster. He grabs my wrist just before I reach the stairs.

  "Why are you in such a hurry to leave?" He asks with his head tilted. I look down at his hand completely wrapped around my small wrist. "I want to get to know you." He says with a small tug. He pulls me close to him, his hands wrap around my waist, his breath warm against my forehead. "But I already know you..." Oh God, no.  "And you already know me..." Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. "Don't you remember, Rome?" His grip around me tightens, pulling me closer to him. I feel his breath on my neck. "Back when you were all mine..." His lips brush against my neck. He's changed. He looks completely different. Acted different until now. "And I was all-" He gets cut off by my fist colliding with his face.

  "Get off me." I growl at him. I punch him again. This time he lands on the floor, blood on his lips and dripping out of his nose. "My, my..." He mutters. "She does remember me." Can I choke him? No, he'd probably like that.  "You've changed, Logan." I spit, hovering over him. "On the outside. But you're still the devil." He looks up at me and smiles. "Using my middle name was a smart move. You didn't recognize me at all." I roll my eyes at that.  "Nice body guards you got there." He nods toward the stair case. "They're not my body guards. They're my friends. Oh wait! You wouldn't know! You don't have any!" I swear I'm not a mean person. I don't know where this is coming from... But I like it. "Fair. But can they save you from this?" Logan grabs one of my ankles and rolls over, trying to take me down.

  I've had a lot of practice in fighting people, believe it or not. He has not. All pulling me over would achieve is a buying himself more time to save his ass. As he rolls over, I jump over him. I put all my weight on the ankle he's holding and use my other leg to stomp on his hands and kick him in he groin. They're rookie moves but I wasn't in serious danger. Quickly, I run up the stairs and open the window to the fire escape. I turn around to see Henry looking at me in confusion and Sam and Laura... making out. No time for this right now. "We're going. Now." Henry immediately gets up and climbs out the window. "Are you-" I start asking Henry. "I'm fine" he says, starting to climb down the fire escape. "Really." He adds. "You two." I yell inside the window. Sam and Laura break apart. Sam looking a little embarrassed and Laura looking proud of herself. "Would you stop eating each other's faces for a second so we can get the hell out of here." I continue. They both climb out the window and soon enough, we're half way back to my house.