A Soul For Sale Or Rent

Whatever Comes Of You And Me

When the bell rang for lunch, Billie was in a classroom she didn’t want to leave. It was the only place she really enjoyed being in. However, her grumbling stomach eventually forced her to put the canvas she was currently working on on the drying rag, before she neatly put away the paint she had been using. Like every day she turned on the tap and thoroughly rinsed the brushes before putting them where they belonged.

She turned around and let her eyes wander over the room to make sure everything was in its place before she sighed and left the art room with hanging shoulders. A little unwillingly she made her way to the cafeteria to get some lunch.

She sat down at her usual table, surrounded by people who probably seemed like her friends, but if anyone looked closely enough, they could tell that the conversation at the table included everyone but Billie. She simply sat there and stared down at her plate, occasionally looking up and nodding when she deemed it appropriate.

A few tables away sat Brian, glancing occasionally in Billie’s direction and sighing exasperatedly. “I knew she would be no good,” he mumbled to himself. He shook his head and continued to work on the assignment they had been given.

Even though it was a partner project, the fact that Billie was still sitting at her usual table and not with him made him a little angry. But he wasn’t one to become violent or demanding, Brian just accepted the fact that his partner was like every other girl. She probably thought he was a big, creepy weirdo who wasn’t worth talking to.

Little did Brian know that that was far from the truth. Billie didn’t think Brian wasn’t worth talking to. The reason why she wasn’t working on the project with him was that she simply forgot. Her mind was so preoccupied with her painting that there was no space for something as trivial as a Physics project. But she didn’t do that in bad faith, it was simply who she was.

Billie swallowed the last of her food and looked around the cafeteria, studying her fellow students curiously. When her eyes fell on Brian, however, she froze slightly in her seat, remembering what she was supposed to be doing in that moment. Clumsily, she stumbled to her feet and grabbed her backpack, getting a few confused looks from the other students at her table, which she didn’t notice, because in her mind Billie was panicking about the fact that she had let her partner down.

When she reached Brian’s table, Billie was trembling slightly with nerves and timidly spoke up. “B-Brian? Can I sit here?” Brian looked up at with an emotionless expression on his face and shrugged. “If you really want to, go ahead. I can’t really stop you, can I?” Billie swallowed when she heard the iciness in his tone and timidly sat down at the other end of the bench, trying to take up as little space as possible.

Billie sat there motionlessly for a bit, before she gathered enough courage to open her backpack and take out the sheets of the Physics assignment she should be working on. Brian looked shortly at her, genuinely surprised by the fact that she did decide to join him and did start working on her own, without him having to remind her.

Even though Billie kept her eyes on the paper and held her pencil in her hand, she wasn’t getting much further with the problems she was supposed to solve. She was stuck and she was getting more and more desperate, realising how screwed she was if she didn’t soon miraculously start understanding Physics. However, she didn’t dare to ask Brian for help, keeping in mind how hostile he had seemed when she sat down next to him.

But luckily for her, she was partnered with Brian, and no matter how cold and distant he might have seemed, he always cared at least a little, whether he wanted or not. Sometimes he thought of it as a strength, sometimes it was one of his weaknesses. He couldn’t decide which it was in the situation with Billie, but he cared. That’s why he let out an almost pained sigh, causing Billie to look up with wide eyes.

“Are you okay?” Brian’s voice wasn’t as icy at it first seemed, which is why Billie could get herself to be honest with him. “I don’t know. I still don’t really understand this…” Brian could tell that she wasn’t trying to annoy him, she seemed genuinely lost. Hesitantly, he moved a little closer to her, oblivious to the fact that Billie stiffened beside him and took a look at the problem she was trying to solve. “Oh, that’s not really hard actually. You just started the wrong way. Look.” He took his pencil and made a few corrections on her paper, looking deeply concentrated.

Billie couldn’t help but let her eyes wander over his features, daring to let a small smile form on her face when she studied his expression. He looked adorable. But she realised that he was really trying to help her, so she forced herself to pay attention to what he was doing on her worksheet, and as by a wonder, suddenly she seemed to understand what that all was about.

She let out an astounded “Oh”, causing Brian to look at her. “What?” he smiled a little. “I-it’s.. I think I get it.. that’s not too hard.” Billie stared at the numbers and symbols on the paper, that now finally carried a meaning she too could grasp.

Brian’s smile got a little wider as he looked at her and he realised that his first impression of her might have been wrong, and biased. “Thank you,” she mumbled and met his eyes for the first time. Brian kept the smile on his face and pushed the paper more in her direction again. “No problem. I told you, it’s not too hard. Try figuring out the rest by yourself, okay? But ask me if you need more help.”

Billie nodded relieved and focussed her attention on the worksheet again, now finally able to contribute something to their project too. Brian kept his eyes on his partner for a little longer. Maybe working with her wasn’t as bad as he had feared at first.

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