"I'm sorry about that." He ran
his fingers through his hair and
sat down into the seat after trying
to put the baby back to sleep.
"It's okay," I shrugged with no
intention of meeting his eyes.
"Are you ok-k-ay? Is it s-something I said?"
"Hm? Oh, no." I twirled the paintbrush
in between my fingers. "We better start."
"No, tel-l-l me. W-What's wrong?"
"Forget it."
"No." He sat up and looked deeply into
my eyes, making me slightly uncomfortable
in the room as if the air started to slowly
vanish and the world pressed onto my sides.
"I think we should reschedule this. Looks
like you've got to take care of babies,
so maybe I can come when they're back with
their parents so we don't get distracted." I
secretly said their parents to see how he would
react.
Charlie tensed up. "I-I don't see how
they're distracting us. I-I mean they're sleeping
right now."
"How long are you babysitting them for?"
"Um, I d-don't know."
"Charlie? Why aren't you being honest with me? Do you think
I'll judge you? I won't, I promise. It is okay, I'm
not an awful person that's going to go run around
and tell people about you. If we are going to
be partners the entire time we have this class,
and to remind you for our majors, might as well tell me what's
going on. If not, then I can ask our professor
to switch us and get new partners if there's
something that I did that you're not okay with."
"I-I just..I.." His voice began to blur with the air
and nothing fell into reality.
"Let me know what you decide tomorrow, please."
I got up and grabbed my schoolbag. "See you
around."
YOU ARE READING
shades of red
Poetrywhen you have too many thorns, all you can do is paint them in red, because, maybe then, they will look like petals [sequel to shades of blue]
