𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 ⁽ ᶜᵃˡᵘᵐ ʰᵒᵒᵈ ⁾

XI.

( chapter eleven : art therapy & shopping )

"d'you like drawing?" naya sipped on her blueberry smoothie as she skipped along the pavement, her blue ponytail bouncing along behind her. her pale blue sundress flowed around her, its intricate patterns holding calum's attention.

"sorry, what?" he snapped out of his stare, realising that she'd spoken.

giggling, naya repeated her question.

"drawing? like art?" calum furrowed his eyebrows.

"yep."

"well yeah . . ?" he posed it like a question. "i guess? i haven't really thought about it before," he told her honestly.

nodding, naya kept her gaze on the cobbled path as she racked her mind for a way to tell him the next thing. if she was being honest, she'd rather not be here right now, but nimra yelling about groceries on the group chat led to naya saying that she'll get them after she dropped grayson off at nursery.

which then led to calum offering to help out.

now, this would've been fine. if today wasn't the day that naya had her art therapy class in town. she had planned to go grocery shopping after she was done at her class, but now she was considering skipping therapy so as not to make calum feel awkward.

mustering up some courage, naya eventually mumbled, "wanna do some drawing?"

leaning down, calum whispered, "i didn't catch that baby."

blushing, naya spoke up.

"what d'you mean?"

sighing deeply, naya decided that there was no going back.

stop being a coward naya.

naya pointed to a small building with a glass roof across the street. it wasn't especially new. naya liked to describe it as the grandfather of the otherwise modern street.

"come with me, in there," she grabbed his hand and led him across the empty road. taking another sip of her smoothie, naya took a deep breath and looked up at her companion with a weak smile.

"what are we doing here?"

calum didn't sound annoyed, just pure curiosity could be heard in his voice while naya lifted a finger to her lips and pushed the large, old, chipped doors open.

it was dusty inside, that was the first thing calum noticed.

but it was an admirable type of dust, lit up by the sunlight that filtered through the square panels on the glass ceiling above them. the specks of dust floated before them, shining the same gold colour as the sun. they seemed almost ethereal.

the next thing calum noticed were the easels and canvases that were set up around the large room. they were all equidistant apart, standing bold and waiting to be filled with colour.