A Girl Named Blush (SAMPLE)

eight

~ Luca ~

The girl, Katrina, had finally left them alone. And from what Luca could tell, it was taking a while for Blaire to collect herself. Blaire's comet came to the surface several times in Kat's presence, but it wasn't the same as yesterday. The colors pulsed like an erratic heartbeat. They shifted chaotically between hues. It looked painful to say the least.

Luca thought of ways that he could comfort Blaire. It didn't take long for him to realize that comfort wasn't what she needed. There was something about that name, Blush, that was causing Blaire all of this distress. If he could only find a way to help her reassociate it with something positive – the opposite of what Kat intended – maybe the comet inside of her wouldn't be so knotted and hesitant to glow.

Once she got to a place where she was comfortable enough to talk, Blaire brought out a form and slid it in his direction. Thankfully, he didn't have to ask her what it was.

"So these are all the clubs that are available. They really want new students to get involved right away, so I know it's a pain, but you'll have to pick one to attend for at least a week. If by the end of the week you decide that the club is not for you, you're allowed to drop it."

Luca pretended like he was reading the slip of paper. "Which one are you in?"

"Well, none of them. I'm a peer mentor, which isn't really a club, but it takes up just as much time. Plus, I have my job at the cafe."

Luca anchored his arm on the table and leaned in her direction. "Okay, so if you weren't a peer mentor, which one would you choose?"

She blew out some air. "Shoot, I don't know. Probably Art Club. I used to be really into it in middle school."

Luca slapped his hand on the table. "That's it. Art Club. That's the one I want to attend."

Blaire scoffed. "Uh, no you don't."

Luca did not pull back. "When's the club's first meeting?"

"Well, it's after school today, but –"

"See you there." Luca stood up. He shrugged his book bag onto his shoulder and took a bite out of the other half of Blaire's pbj. "You have to make sure I go, right?"

"Luca, we are not going to that club meeting."

He lifted his eyebrow and tried something. "Why not, Blush?"

A pause from Blaire. Good? Bad?

"What did you just say?"

Bad. Definitely bad.

"You asked me what club I wanted to join. And I want to check out the Art Club, so why can't we go?"

After a tense beat, Blaire sighed in defeat. "Fine, Luca. Meet me outside of room 1500 right after school."

She breezed by him.

That was a close one.

***

Luca feared that Blaire would stand him up. He sat by himself again in the art room. Judging by the way sound reverberated off of the walls, the room was built more like a studio. He wasn't the only one there. Lots of kids had showed up, but none of them had chosen to sit next to him for whatever reason.

He gave a tiny applause when Blaire came through the door, the imprint of the comet faint, but enough to distinguish her among the other students.

She crossed the room and plopped down beside him. It was clear by her frosty silence that she was still annoyed with him for calling her Blush. That made him a little sad, but he wasn't sure if he was done pushing her buttons.

"Thank you for coming," Luca whispered as the presidents of the club started giving introductions. He felt the tension emanating from her body loosen by a fraction.

"You're welcome, Luca."

A voice shouted from the front of the studio, "Oh, wow. Blaire Sunderland, is that you?"

Reluctantly, Blaire returned the greeting. "Hi, Ellie. I'm not here to join the club. I'm just escorting Luca. He's new here."

But Ellie didn't seem to have heard her. She went on, her voice rising to new enthusiastic levels.

"Everyone, this is Blaire. She's actually the artist of the painting I'm going to show you."

Blaire panicked under her breath. "Oh no. No. No. Crap."

There was gasping all around as Ellie propped something on a wooden easel at the front of the room. Luca was one among the many collected breaths at the reveal of the canvas.

He could see the painting on display.

It gave off the same essence as Blaire's fallen star. So it had to have come from her.

Wicked.

A collection of smooth and rough strokes, bubbling over each other. Were they bubbles that he was seeing? The blue background towards the top could have been water. So bath suds?

Beside him, Blaire groaned, "Ugh, I painted those clouds in the sixth grade. I can't believe she held onto that."

So they were clouds, then. Luca kept admiring them, along with the accents of gold.

Ellie said, "You're looking at the winner of the Honeybrook Art Youth Award. Blaire took first place with this entry nearly six years ago."

Blaire's comet was coming to life again. Not quite as chaotic as it had been in Kat's presence. This time it was sort of locked in a constant foaming waterfall. She sat perfectly still, most likely counting the seconds for the attention to be off of her.

Luca couldn't help himself. "You really painted that?"

Another groan. "A long time ago, yeah."

He did a double take of the rosy multi-dimensional clouds.

"You are the most talented artist I've ever met."

+++

Welcome back, Blush Babies!

I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Luca and Blaire's journey is very special to me, so I hope you stick around if you're a new reader! And if you a returning reader, I appreciate you so much!

If you want more updates and artsy posts on A Girl Named Blush, follow my Instagram handle: @literally_coco

Stay true,

Coco