Ignescent

Chapter 2

I walked away with a disgusted look on my face. Not because he was unattractive, he was a lot more than that, but because he had the audacity to even think about approaching me. Jon was handling the situation for me like he always does, playing the whole "boyfriend" act to a tee. 

A small smile spread across my face. What a wonderful set of people I have shared my friendship with. 

Orange and red leaves blew across my path as I head over to one of the big Oak trees on campus. Surprisingly, no one it there so I sit down and begin to sketch it for the millionth time. Olivia or Jon should be arriving here soon too,hopefully.

I start with the trunk, etching marks and adding curves. Then, I move to the branches, drawing the twisted, elongated arms to their beautiful nature. In the end I shade and tint and add detail; normal things like leaves and shadows and layers of thick wood.

"You draw it everyday, but it never looks exactly the same."

I frown,  "That's why I keep drawing it Anastasia, to understand why."

She plops down next to me and looks back and forth between my sketch and the tree. Neither flawless. Absentmindedly, I begin to tug up blades of grass and watch them blow away with the current.

"I think the tree evolves a little each day.  That it twists and curves a little more than the day before. It has to be why they never look the same; because neither does the tree."

"You think too deep." Ana says with a smile.

I started drawing  again while she told me about her last date with Chris. Her (real) boyfriend. He can be a prick sometimes, but he's so sweet to her.

"I have solved all your problems my friends!" Jon shouts, one hand in the air and the other around Olivia's shoulder.

"So..." I drag on.", what happened?"

"You'll never believe this I swear. But we have a date on Friday." He smiled with triumph.

I could feel myself getting pale.

"A date? Why would we go on a date?"

"A double date to be exact."

"Jon, hun, listen. I will never again go on a date with you. My hair was sticky and green for a month!"

He smile grew as he tried, and failed, to suppress a laugh. That was a terrible night.

"Well, he apologized and suggested that we should have a double date to get to know each other better and to be on better terms. I thought 'This is one smart idiot.' So of course I agreed!"

"Besides," Liv imputed" that dude was cute."

I rolled my eyes and fell back into the grass. Jon, Liv, and Ana continued on about the guy-Henry?- and our upcoming "double date". Although I can tell it's gonna be less of a date and more of me ignoring them.

Things began to fall on my face making me swipe rapidly. I opened my eyes to see my friends throwing grass on either sides of me at one another.

Sitting up, I grabbed two handfuls and threw, getting up and running in the process.

"ATTACK!" Olivia roared, starting our little war of grass blades.

Laughter erupted between us. We all needed a distraction from something, causing us to act like children.

We played for a while before I tripped and fell on Ana, making Liv pile on too. Somewhere in his strange head, Jon decided that joining us in our pile was a smart idea.

We groaned and struggled to get free of his weight.

"Jon, get your fat ass off of us!" Anastasia groaned.

He rolled off, allowing us freedom to breath and move our limbs.

"As much as I would love to stay and crush your souls, I have to go to class. See you later!" Jon laughs.

Everyone says their goodbyes, but I stayed there in front of the tree.

I have come to an understanding that all things have to change. If not we'd be stuck in a life where all things have always been as they were before. That we can't improve and there's no way for us to worsen. Change involves sacrifices and mistakes in order to attain success. I have changed, I'm just not sure weather it was for bad or good.

-

"Today class, we shall begin learning to focus on a muse. You will work with film, not the digital equipment. This will be a assignment that will take up the remainder of this semester. Meaning, if you do it wrong you will fail this course. The goal is to learn about a pieces' centerpiece, and how to develop from the negatives. Now, you have 5 minutes to find a partner and get to work."

I walked around awkwardly, regretting how I don't interact with anyone out of my tiny circle of friends. Everyone was already paired up and it appeared that I would be left to work alone. I was okay with that. No one ever wants to work with me willingly.

"Hi." a soft voice says tapping my shoulder. I turn around to face him. He's tall, with creamy hazel eyes, black gruffly hair and facial hair, and lots of tattoos.

"Hi, l'm Eliza." I smiled softly.

"I'm Zayn. It seems like everyone has a friend in here but us so what do you say? Wanna be friends?" He chuckled, rocking back and forth on his heels with his hands in his pockets. 

"Sure, that'd be lovely." I smile up at his tall frame.

"Great! Listen, I want to apologize for my friend. He can be a bit of a douche sometimes." He sighs.

"Friend?"

"Um, yeah. Tall, long curly hair, annoying." 

"The Henry guy?"

"Yeah, Harry." Zayn chuckles.

"Oh you don't have to apologize for him. Some douche-bags just don't know when to end their ways." I laughed along with Zayn.

"Now, Eliza, let's get down to business. What would be a good centerpiece that yells ' Look at me!"

Zayn and I spent the remainder of class talking, laughing, and even getting some work done. He was very kind, despite the type of people he choose to befriend. I had a good feeling about him, but I was still worried that maybe this was all a trick. That there is a chance that all the events that are happening lead me back to what I've been running from. That maybe, it's just a nightmare, and I'm having a hard time waking back up again.