Beautiful, Grey World (Trillie)

18

Thursday, April 11th

I glanced at my watch. 5:34. Yep. Didn't get home any later. And yet, Tré's car was there. Well, really, our car, but whatever. He's home. Early!

I ran towards the front door, turning the knob. Unlocked. He's home! I felt myself grinning, and I pushed open the door. I started to look for Tré, but it didn't take me long. He was there, sitting on my couch. He looked up at me, trying his best to look nonchalant.

"Oh, hey honey. What's up?" Tré tried to keep his face straight, but a smile quickly broke out on his face. He got up from the couch, giving me a hug.

"Guess who finished his art project!"

I already was smiling, but it only grew bigger.

"You did? Oh, I'm so proud of you, baby!" I hugged Tré again, pulling him as close as I could.

"Thank you! Just a quick question: when I present it to my teacher, do you wanna come with me? Its a painting of you, and most people who do a painting of that bring their soulmates."

"Am I going to be standing in front of a bunch of people?"

Tré shook his head. "No, presenting the painting and the symbolism stuff is for the professor only, and then she hangs it up with a written paragraph underneath explaining everything for people walking by."

I thought about it for a bit. If I said yes, I'd get to hang out with my boyfriend at his college for, I don't know, an hour? And I'll get to see what he's been working on for so long. Sure, he already said it was of me, but I don't know what exactly it is of me.

"Sure! When are you presenting?"

"Next Wednesday, at 9 am. And, also, since I finished my painting, I don't have to go to my classes! I get to spend pretty much the rest of my semester with you! And then I'll graduate! And then I'll be done!"

I smiled at Tré. He looked and sounded so happy and excited. I was so proud of him. I couldn't even imagine going to college, and here he is, almost about to graduate.

"When is your graduation, honey? I'll need to know so that I can ask Adie for that day off."

"It's on a Saturday, baby. May 18th, to be exact."

"Oh, okay. I didn't know, Tré, I kinda didn't graduate from anywhere."

Tré giggled, kissing me quickly before walking into our kitchen.

"Also, I made celebratory lasagna! Come on, eat up!"

Wednesday, April 17th

I sat in the car next to Tré, watching the scenery change from familiar trees to unfamiliar buildings. My foot tapped nervously, and I kept flicking my head around, avoiding eye contact with the students (even though the windows were tinted).

"Honey, calm down. Everything's gonna be okay. We'll be outta here before you know it." He parked into some spot, getting out of the car. I followed, although a little hesitantly. Tré grabbed a bag from the backseat, slinging it over his shoulder. He held out his hand, making little grabbing motions. I took it with a smile, squeezing his hand.

Tré led me into some building, and I figured it was an art building because of, y'know, all the art around. So many different shades of gray! I would make a joke about 50 shades of gray, but that book series sucks and is terrible.

Anyways, Tré led me farther into the building, eventually stopping in front of some small little room, a row of chairs in front of the door.

"This is my professors office. Its where the presentations are gonna be done," Tré looked at time on his phone, drumming his fingers on his arm, "She said I could show her the paintings at 4, so I guess we'll wait here for another 10 minutes." I noticed that he said paintings; multiple.

Tré sat down on one of the chairs, putting his bag to the chair on his left. I sat down on his right and he slung his arm over my shoulders, pulling me closer to him.

10-ish minutes had passed, and the door to the office had opened. Someone, I assume Tré's professor, popped their head out.

"Ah! Tré, you're here, good." She walked out, holding the door open farther for us to walk through. Her eyes landed on me, and she smiled. "And I assume this is your muse? Your subject of art? Your-"

"Yes, this is Billie. Billie, this is Ms. Lavigne, the most annoying art teacher ever." He smiled at her, and it kinda shocked me. I'd never been friends or even just friendly with any teachers of mine, so seeing Tré just casually say his teacher was annoying and for her to be fine with it was crazy to me.

I walked into Ms. Lavigne's office, following Tré. There was a desk with 3 chairs around it, some paintings on the wall behind the desk, and an easel set up. Tré opened up his bag, but didn't take anything out of it yet. But from where I was, I could see two canvases. Two? Why?

"Okay, so, the story behind my painting is that Billie here is my soulmate. But, he is colorblind and permanently sees the world in grey scale. And, because of that, I decided to paint my final picture two times, one in full color, and one in grey scale, so that he doesn't get to miss out on anything." Tré pulled out the two canvases, placing one on the easel, and one propped up on a chair. He would do that? For me? Wow.

I looked over the two paintings, noticing some subtle differences. But it was still really impressive. Painting the same thing twice and getting the grey scale "color" scheme mostly correct. Oh! And speaking of the thing, Tré had painting a picture that he had taken of me on our (real) first date. The one where a butterfly had landed on my finger. I think it was a really cute scene, and I was really happy that Tré had decided to paint that. Even if that day wasn't exactly one of my happiest.

Tré was still talking to Ms. Lavigne, handing a picture (which I guess was the original photo) but I wasn't paying attention to him. I was still admiring the paintings.

"Tré, these are beautiful! And you painted something twice, very impressive. And considerate! I'm proud of you. So proud, in fact, that I would like to hang one of your paintings up in my office!" She gestured one of her hands towards the painting hung on her wall. So that's what those are for. "Are both of you okay with that?"

I waited for Tré's answer, but I guess he was also doing the same, since we sat in silence for a bit. I broke the silence eventually.

"Uh, I'm okay with it. Tré? What about you?"

"Yeah, I am too! I'm happy that you think my work is good enough for that, Ms. Do you want the black and white one? It has more of a story to it."

"Of course, Tré! Thank you for your painting and your time." Tré nodded, and handed her the painting on the easel, sliding the other one into his bag. He showed off the grey scale one. Wow. Wow!

"You two may leave now. Have a good day, boys!" With that, Tré grabbed my hand and led me outside, pausing only once to show off some cool art thing one of his classmates had done.

Once we were back in our car and on the road, Tré started talking. "So... did you like it?"

"Yeah. Your college is pretty cool, and your teacher-"

"I didn't mean the visit." Tré interrupted. "I meant the painting. Is it good? Did I get the colors right? Does it look like you? I didn't mess up, did-"

This time I was the one who interrupted him. "Honey. It's perfect. Really. There were a couple colors that seemed just a little off, but if I didn't have both pictures side by side, I wouldn't notice. I love it! So much."

Tré smiled at me, and I could feel his mood getting better. As soon as we got home, we took out the painting and decided to hang it up on the wall next to our TV. Perfect.