The Timekeeper

Chapter Eight

The view from the apartment was actually stunning. It was abandoned as I had thought, but it wasn't a complete dump. There were old, worn-out couches placed in the centre of the dark wooden floor boards, and there was an old dining table in one of the corners. Two of the walls were made up completely of windows, and all that could be seen was the sun setting over the beautiful skyscrapers.

It could've been a pretty romantic moment actually, not that I wanted to admit it. But Ryan seemed to think so as well, and maybe he even planned for it to be. He sat on one of the couches, picking up a sketch pad before gesturing me over. I sat down beside him, noticing that the couch was a lot smaller than a normal two-seater couch; we were sitting quite close together. He opened the sketch pad then, and pulled out a couple of greylead pencils from his pockets. He handed them to me, along with the sketch pad.

"Draw me," he grinned, before pushing his dark curls out of his eyes.

I raised my eyebrow; surely he wasn't serious? I wasn't an artist, and I definitely wasn't good at drawing portraits. I could never capture exactly what I saw, and it always bothered me. So instead I would draw landscapes or create my own pieces; I found it a lot easier and it was calming at the same time.

The serious look that spread across Ryan's face told me he wasn't joking, which only made me laugh.

"I can't draw portraits Ryan, I'm hopeless at it," I sighed, but Ryan didn't reply. He was staring at me, his startling green eyes filled with emotion. I couldn't tell if it was sadness or confusion, but they looked so enchanting. I suddenly wanted to draw them, or at least try. Eyes were complicated to draw, but I had been practicing lately.

I picked up one of the pencil's and let it glide across the page. All my surrounding's became non-existent. The busy street with car's zooming past, the birds or the sound of people chattering, it all vanished. All that I could see was the paper and Ryan, staring intently towards me.

I hadn't even realised that I had finished his eyes and moved on to the frame of his face. I wanted to draw all of him, and I wanted so badly to capture everything perfectly. From the small dimple on his left cheek when he smiled, to the soft curls of his hair that seemed to frame his face in a way that I could only express through perception. He was intriguing and mysterious, and I was taking in all of his features one by one.

The light caught at his wrist then, reminding me of his Timekeeper. The blood red line stood out so much with his pale complexion, and I realised I had completely forgotten that he didn't have a soul mate. How on earth could I forget something like that? The realisation dawned on me then that while studying Ryan, I had completely forgotten about my own soul mate. I looked down at my half-finished work, and was actually impressed. Of course, it wasn't like a photograph of Ryan, but I had portrayed him in the way I saw him. I had noticed the small details about him, and somehow made them stand out on the paper.

I was still in a daze, until I realised it was almost night outside. The city lights were illuminating and made everything else around it seem to glow. I stood up abruptly, which startled Ryan.

"What's the matter?" he said as he stood up, sounding genuinely concerned.

I shook my head, before handing him the sketch pad, "nothing. It's getting late, I should probably go."

His eyes widened when they fell on the drawing. He looked shocked, and I was afraid he hated it. But he looked back up then, and grinned. It was a clumsy sort of grin, but it suited him perfectly.

"I thought you said you couldn't draw portraits?" he laughed, which made me smile in return.

We left the apartment then, and began silently walking along the street. We stayed silent for a while, but I didn't mind. I liked taking in our surroundings. The city at night seemed to come alive; it was such a different atmosphere to what I usually saw during the day. We lived too far out to come into the city at night, well so my mother always said. Honestly it wasn't that far, but mum didn't like going into the city after dinner. It was strange really, she was missing out on all this beauty, because she thought it was dangerous at night.