repetitive

nine

Alexander only tells me he had a long day. That's all. But I can't blame him with those crazy kids annoying him all day.

When I pick up Lily the next day, she does not look happy when she jumps in the car with me. I look up in the rearview mirror, looking at her as she crosses her arms with a pout and stares out the window.

"Uh. Hey, darling."

She just furrows her brows in deeper.

"What's wrong?"

"Wills."

"What the heck did he do?"

"He wasn't there."

"Maybe he's sick?"

"No. We have a new teacher."

"That was a substitute."

"No. It wasn't. It was a new teacher. Wills got fired."

I turned around in my seat, looking at her in more of shock now. "What?"

"Wills got fired. And the new teacher is a butt. She got mad at me for drawing outside of the lines, but I wanted to make the picture look like it was shining and stuff. And she didn't let me draw on the board during recess! I don't like her."

I face forward again in disbelief. Alexander fired? Why? He was weird, and eight years ago I never would have let a child near him, but he's different now. The way he interacts with Lily just makes me smile, and I trust him more than anything. The passion he shows for his art, and the effort he puts in to showing that to his students...

Before I'm aware of it, I start driving downtown to his studio rather than home. It's not like I don't believe Lily, I just need to see him now.

When I pull up in front of the building, I bring Lily with me. No way I'm leaving her in the car downtown. She holds my hand as I approach the big metal door, knocking quite loudly, because I know he likes to play his music a lot louder when he's working.

I hear the music shut off inside. Ten second later, ten long seconds, the door opens, and Alexander is full of paint. He takes his shades off when he sees it's just me, and ignores the way Lily gasps lightly at his eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask.

He sighs and shifts, rubbing his forehead with the back of his wrist. "I needed time. I could have handled getting my ass kicked out at BK or something, but not that. I loved that job."

I don't correct him on his bad language in front of Lily, because I know he's hurting. But I don't know what to say, either, so that just leaves more silence.

"Come in?" he asks, stepping back.

I nod and walk by him, Lily immediately running off to look at all the cool things in Alexander's studio. I follow Alexander over to his sinks so that he can clean up his paint-splattered skin. While the water is running, I lean against the wall and just look at him. I can tell he's hurt, and that hurts me.

I watch him dry off and shed his painting shirt, and I know it's a bad time to be thinking about how good he looks, but hey, I'm human. And a male. After he pulls on a clean shirt, he approaches me again, and I meet his eyes.

"You okay?" I ask.

He leans against the wall by my side, facing me, and trying to get close enough to where Lily doesn't have to hear us talking. "Yeah," he says softly. "I mean, I'll get over it. Just going through a moping phase here."

"Why did it happen?"

"Well..." He sighs once again, scratching the back of his head. "They don't like that I like you."