The Artist | #3✓

Chapter 22

My eyes peeled open at the sound of my phone ringing. My phone was vibrating on the bedside table, shaking every other thing on the table's surface and in turn causing more noise as things bounced about. I stayed on my bed a bit, sort of dazed by the noise and the bright sunlight that was flooding my room through my open window.

It was definitely not morning.

Eventually, my phone stopped ringing, and I got to close my eyes for a few more minutes. After a while I sat up on my bed, rubbing my eyes with balled fists before reaching for my phone that had started ringing again. I swiped up on the screen to unlock it, before answering the call without checking who was at the other end.

"Hello?" I asked with a yawn.

"Ah, you finally picked up." My eyes grew wide when I realized who was on the other end.

"Toby—"

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine..." I answered, wondering why I'd been cut off. I began to pick the lint on my blue duvet as I wondered if he was mad that I'd given his number to Silvia's father. He hadn't said anything about it yesterday, so I'd assumed Vlad hadn't called him yet, or might not even call him at all.

"Thank you for giving my number to Vlad Danforth," Toby finally said through the other end of the line while I remained silent on mine. "He called me yesterday, but I took time to think about it, and I think I've made a decision."

I continued to remain quiet, unsure if Toby's words were cold or in good fate. I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything at all. After Toby's words, the line remained quiet for a while, until Toby started talking.

"At first, he offered me a membership in a well-known artist circle, but I declined. The whole idea made me a bit nervous if I'm being honest," Toby explained to me as I just held on to my phone. I bit my lip as I held my phone to my ear, hearing Toby's steady breathing from the other end.

"He hung up after I declined, but he called me a few hours after that and asked me what I wanted instead. I had been tempted to hang up, but what I'd been thinking about for the past few months came to me..." he trailed before pausing. "I love teaching, you know that, don't you?"

"Yes," I answered, urging Toby to continue talking. I heard him sigh from the other end as a string of barks started to resound through the line. Duke was probably in the same room as him. When the barking died down, Toby continued to talk.

"Sorry about that," Toby said, making me chuckle a bit. Duke was one heck of a dog. 

"So, I told him about wanting to do a masters in arts education sometime in the future, and I told him that really was all I wanted to do. He surprisingly offered me a deal with a condition attached to it. He said the art circle could fund my masters program, meaning that I got to go back to school for free. All I had to do was join them and get linked to patrons — people who would fund my art. He promised that I didn't have to make public appearances and whatnot, and that would be handled by them personally if the need ever occurred," Toby said before pausing. "I said yes."

"That's a good thing, right?" I asked, unsure about whether he was happy about it from the sound of his voice. His voice seemed neutral and a bit shaky.

"It is, and I get to do the masters program in the college you're going to. The deal is great. I'm just worried about other things..." he trailed, excusing himself at the other end when his voice came out a bit choked.

"What are you worried about?" I asked after a while, and when I didn't get an instant response I backtracked a little bit, trying not to overwhelm him. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to—"