You Can Run To Me

Forty-One

It was as though someone had borrowed her skin and left it lying out in the Arctic for a while until it was nice and frozen before kindly returning it to her. She quickly distracted herself, noting Sylvia's crestfallen face. She tried to say something, to make it sound like she didn't care, but her tongue was still a swollen block of ice. She didn't shout at her, though, much as it was probably partly Sylvia's fault - who else had had access to her room? – because it must have been an accident and besides, who would have thought someone would do something so strange and cruel?

She looked down again, telling herself she could be strong, and saw once more the achingly familiar face with its searching eyes, devil's horns and, of course, her own name scribbled at the corner. In fact, she was quite sure that wasn't even her handwriting, meaning the culprit had probably added it themselves. They had clearly gone to a pathetic level of effort for this. For her. Laughter bubbled up from somewhere deep inside her, melting all her frozen appendages, bringing her back to life. Sylvia gave her a concerned look. The corridor was very swiftly becoming silent, turning to stare at Natalie as they realized who exactly was laughing. It was hardly enough to dampen her laughter though. It was just so... ironic.

"Natalie?"

Natalie's laughter trailed off as she looked to see who was speaking. It was Ephren of course, large as life and striking as ever. Natalie's first emotion was sudden embarrassment. She had, after all, been the one to draw it. Surely he couldn't blame her for this? She found herself getting closer to him in a daze, a pleading look in her eyes, when his face suddenly broke out in a smile. For a moment she was sure he would mock her, but...

"Liking the art display," he chuckled.

She took a little breath, perhaps prematurely relieved but what the hell. "Yeah, thought you'd like it."

"What could be more flattering than sticking up scandalous paintings of a guy all over campus?" His friends had seemed a little uneasy at first, but now they seemed to get the joke. "Not sure I appreciate the demonizing, though."

"I was going for an angel, but I just couldn't get my hands to do it." Why was it so easy to talk to him all of a sudden? Normally she'd be so painfully shy she'd have run away by now.

"Well, as long as you really tried. I think I'd like to collect them all up and use them as wallpaper in my room. Not sure my roommate would like it." He abruptly turned to the chestnut-haired guy to his right, "You wouldn't mind, would you, Deacon?"

The guy laughed, "I'd rather stick with fit girls than you. No offense, just personal preference, you know."

Ephren leaned in close to her in a very alluring way that made her heart race just a little. Around them, the teacher was finally managing to usher people through his open door, but Nat's attention was completely limited to the sensation of fresh sweet breath on her cheek.

"Bit of a step up from notes, don't you think?"

He didn't give her a chance to respond, just loped off into the classroom to his seat which was too far away. Natalie followed him in numbly, the awful posters relegated to the past as a bad memory, but now so well-twisted with a good one that she could never hope to forget either. Nor would she want to forget. She slid into her seat beside Sylvia, apologizing her way past a dozen knees, and offered her bewildered friend a reassuring smile. Everything was going to be alright.

The free lesson finally came around and Natalie had that itch to plug her phone in, familiar to almost any teenager. However, Sylvia hung back, clearly wanting to talk. Natalie sighed internally, but she figured she really ought to put her mind at ease. It might be good to talk it out anyway. She would, however, try and lead the conversation to her room so she could revive her phone. Sylvia didn't seem to have any direction in mind, and simply followed Nat as she led the way through the corridors to her room.