Trapped (egobang trans)

Chapter 9 - Sketchbook Sharing

The first thing that Arin noticed in her first class was Danielle. She had her arm in a different sling to the one the nurse gave her, and she looked even more miserable than yesterday if that was even possible.

Arin felt something then. She wasn't sure exactly what it was, but it had her walking over even though she'd resolved to tone down her social interactions yesterday. Danielle caught her eye and glared, though one side of her mouth did pull up in a side smirk.

"Thought I'd scared you off yesterday," she said simply, and Arin blushed.

"Y-Yeah, sorry about that, I-I'm not-"

"Not the best at talking to people?" Danielle finished, her smile growing, "Yeah... You told me yesterday. I figured that was why you were ignoring me. Don't sweat it, dude, I understand. Talking is tiring."

"I'm not a d-" Arin barely stopped herself in time.

She covered her mouth quickly, tears building in her eyes at the thought that she'd almost revealed her secret. No, never again.

Danielle saw the change and her smile dropped. Arin was surprised that she actually looked concerned; she didn't seem the caring type.

"Whoa, Arin, are you okay?" she asked, "W-Was it something I said?"

Arin almost laughed at the irony.

"N-No, I'm okay," she choked out, lowering her hand and taking a deep breath to stabilise herself, "How's your hand, anyway?"

She changed the subject quickly. Danielle blinked, clearly noticing, but to Arin's relief she didn't question her and just went along with it. They still didn't really know each other, anyway.

"It's okay. Went to the hospital after school like the nurse suggested and nothing's broken. Still have the sling, but at least it's not too serious," she explained.

"T-That's good..."

"Yeah... Oh, thanks for helping me out yesterday by the way, I forgot to thank you before," Danielle said with a smile.

The genuine smile was unexpected, but Arin couldn't help but think that the expression suited her. Her face was made for smiling, and it seemed a very natural position. But for whatever reason the girl's features were almost always shaped by some frown or grimace. Arin wasn't about to delve into Danielle's personal life, but it didn't go unnoticed.

"N-No problem, Danielle."

Once again the smile fell. She seemed to bite her lip a little, as if holding back words. Arin wondered briefly what had caused this, but then suddenly remembered their conversation in the bathroom and her reaction to hearing her name before. Arin blushed again, stumbling over her words as she tried to rectify her reply.

"U-Uh, I'm sorry! I-I forgot y-you don't like that name, a-and-" she started to spurt out, but Danielle quickly stopped her.

"No, no, it's okay you don't need to apologize... Though, uh if you don't mind, my name's Dani," she explained, looking incredibly uncomfortable.

The expression was familiar to Arin and reminded her vaguely of herself and her awkwardness. Though Arin couldn't understand why it was so important; it just seemed like a nickname.

"Okay, I-I'll try to remember... Dani," she replied, giving a reassuring smile.

Dani smiled back after a slight hesitation and Arin saw her shoulders relax a little. At that moment the teacher walked in and they were forced to go to their seats, so they didn't get to talk further.

~~~~~~~~

Suzy: hey, this is Arin right?

Arin just stared at her phone for a moment. She'd never gotten a text from anyone but her parents really. This was a whole new experience for Arin, and she didn't know how to handle it. It was break, and she was sat under the same tree from yesterday. Thankfully Jon and his friends weren't there today, so she had some peace and quiet. She was drawing in her sketchbook when she got the text. With shaking hands she typed out a reply.

Arin: yeah, it's me. What's up?

Suzy: where are u?

Arin: sat under a tree outside, why?

Suzy: mind if I come join u? I'm bored :/

Arin: uh sure. See you

Suzy: see ya :D

It felt odd, texting someone her own age. Usually with her parents it would just be random questions like "what do you want for dinner?", but now it felt more like a conversation.

Arin waited for a few minutes, looking around to see if she could see Suzy. After a while she figured that she changed her mind and went back to her sketchbook. She was drawing another girl, not really planning anything and just seeing what happened. So far they were quite tall, a sassy-looking pose that Arin didn't know she could draw. When she was happy with the body she drew a face. The expression that she ended up with was a side smirk - it fit with the pose.

"You draw? Cool!"

Arin jumped. She looked up to see Suzy standing over her, wide eyes as she peered at the sketch. Dropping her bag down Suzy flopped onto the grass, sitting cross-legged across from Arin.

"Sorry I took so long. Turns out there is more than one tree outside the school," she laughed.

Arin blushed.

"Y-Yeah, sorry I didn't specify."

"It's fine!" Suzy brushed off with a wave of her hand, her attention then falling on the sketchbook again, "Can I take a look?"

Arin hesitated. Her sketchbook was something private, but that wasn't the best reason to refuse. Besides, it wasn't like there was anything bad in there.

"Uh, s-sure," she agreed, gingerly passing it over.

Suzy took it with great care, turning back to the first page. She started to flick through, actually taking time to look at the individual drawings. Occasionally she would make little remarks, mostly praise and "aw"s at the poor attempts at cats.

"Aw, I could never do poses like this!" she exclaimed at one.

"Y-You draw too?" Arin ventured, intrigued.

"Yeah, I've got a sketchbook in my bag too. Wanna see?"

Arin barely got a chance to answer before Suzy opened her bag and took it out. The cover was pitch black compared to Arin's bright pink one, but it was good quality. Opening on the first page Arin was greeted by an abundance of eyes, extremely detailed. Her mouth hung open in awe and Suzy giggled.

"These are really good! They look real!"

She continued to go through until the bell rang for next lesson. Each drawing was better than the last, and some were even painted. Arin couldn't help but feel jealous of Suzy's ability, but it was also inspiring to some extent.

To her surprise Suzy ended their small hang out with a hug, expressing that she had fun and would like to do it again sometime. Arin blushed at that, feeling unworthy of the attention. She felt the same, but she wasn't used to people actually wanting to spend time with her.