Chapter Five

Chapter Five

"Collin?"

He grunts acknowledging that he was listening. His jaw was set and he is looking ahead as we walk, not making eye contact with me.

I had never seen him this upset.

"I.." I begin awkwardly, "I just want to say thanks for standing up for me back there."

He still doesn't face me but I can see him looking at me in the corner of his eye, smirking. "That's why you love me, babe."

I roll my eyes, though a slight smile lifts my lips.

"Come on, let me introduce you to my friends."

When we enter the class, everyone else was already situated at their table, each table with a group of four. They all seemed to be fooling around; no one was drawing or doing anything related to art.

My eyes search for the teacher and I find him in the back on his computer. I begin to walk up to the him, but I am stopped by someone grabbing my wrist.

"Don't even bother. We don't do anything in this class," Collin grins. He notices my disappointed expression and his smile drops a little. He hastily adds, "Sorry to disappoint."

I was really looking forward to learning something new from this class. Guess not.

Collin drags me over to a table with two boys and two girls. I notice how the two girls were hitting on one of the boys, laughing loudly and flipping their hair over their shoulders during the process.

The girls chatting immediately cease once they are aware of our presence. "Girls," Collin says huskily. "I'm sure you won't mind if we take your seats?"

The girls giggles and nod. They get out of their seats, flashing Collin a smile. "Call me," one of them mouths to Collin and goes away.

I mentally gag, but I'm getting used to their behavior around him. Their sweet act immediately changes as they pass by me. They glare menacingly, bumping into my shoulder on their way by.

After being with Collin for the last hour or so, I realize that it was going to be like this all the time. But if I could spend even a few minutes with my childhood friend, it was worth it.

My eyes find its way to the boy the girls were flirting at, and I smile.

Tristan.

He sits with a dark skinned boy and is currently talking to him, the tips of his lips tilted upwards.

Tristan's hair, the color of roasted coffee, is the same as before; done effortlessly into perfection. Sitting down, I can tell that he has a lean build. He looks different somehow, not just physically but as if there is a physical weight on his shoulders that he can't seem to take off--something he has to bear on his shoulders himself.

"Hey man, what's up?" Collin greets them. Tristan's familiar doe-like eyes, find Collin's. They fist bump as if they were old friends.

I couldn't help but smile at this. They're still friends. At least not everyone in the group has broken apart.

I notice that when the boy sitting next to Tristan sees Collin, his face turns sour. He folds his arms across his broad chest, his lips set into a grim line. He doesn't seem to like Collin very much. However, being the way that he is, Collin was oblivious to it, turning to greet him. "Hey Ty!" Collin grins cheekily, waving at him. Ty responds with a grunt.

Tristan's eyes shift to me, his hazel eyes boring into mine, and I'm pushed into a short snippet of a memory.

"Dani! Please, stop!" I hear his voice call out to me desperately but I keep going, hefting my bag up higher on my shoulder. I bite my lip to keep from crying and force my feet to go further and further away.

As I take another step, I am suddenly jerked back and fall backwards, bumping into a hard chest. Hands hold tightly onto my arm. "Dani, listen to me," he pleads. I feel him looking at my face, but I don't have the courage left to turn and face him.

"You don't need to do this. You don't have to leave." His voice cracks.

I pull out of the unpleasant memory to find myself still looking into Tristan's sparkling eyes.

"Dani," Tristan breathes out. "You came back."

~~~~~

Deciding to do at least something that was a bit productive, instead of just fooling around, I sit with an assortment of paint colors beside me. I tap the tip of my paintbrush on my chin in thought, thinking of what to paint.

"Dani look," Collin says happily, tapping my shoulder, "I drew a picture of us."

I turn to look at his canvas and find two poorly drawn stick figures standing next to each other. One had a straight line going down the head, most likely to represent hair.

I hold back my laughter that is threatening to come out and manage to say a few encouraging words, "That's... pretty good Collin. But what happened to my hair?"

He brightens at my words, a childlike grin appears on his face. "I know right!"

Ty gives a derisive snort after taking one glance at the drawing. "Even I could do better than that."

"Hey!" Collin says defensively, "Just watch, I'm going to draw something even more epic!" He waves his arms in a dramatic gesture, flicking his wrist. A quarter sized drop of paint splats onto my cheek.

"Collin!" I gasp. I point to my cheek.

"Sorry," Collin says sheepishly.

I dab a good amount of blue paint onto my paintbrush, a mischievous smirk on my face.

Collin's eyes widen, realization dawning as he realizes what I was going to do next. "Don't you even dare think about putting paint on this face--"

In one quick motion, I swipe at his forehead, leaving a long streak of blue.

Collin gives a dramatic gasp, narrowing his eyes. He tries wiping off the paint but it makes it worse, spreading across his entire forehead. "Oh no you didn't. Let the games begin."

Before we knew it, Collin and I were in a full on battle of war paint. Paint was splattered all over me, a variety of different colors spread across my clothes and face. Collin was in the same situation as me, his hair a colorful assortment of colors and so were his clothes. He probably looks worse than me because in the midst of our battle, Collin had managed to get paint on Ty. Ty obviously sided with me and began throwing paint on Collin as well.

Some people who realized we were having a paint war moved quickly away.

"Okay, okay," Collin says, laughing, "Truce?"

A smile graces my lips, I couldn't remember having this much fun for a long while. "Okay, truce."

"Next time you get paint on me, I won't go so easy," Ty grumbles to Collin.

I turn to Tristan who was oddly quiet during our paint war. He was the only one at the table who was clean from paint.

"Tristan, you have something on you face." I lean in and swipe my paintbrush on his nose, leaving a dab of red paint.

I grin. "There, that's better."

Tristan chuckles, not bothering to wipe the paint off his nose. He didn't protest, but looks at me with amusement.

"Hey it's Rudolf the reindeer!" Collin laughs.

Class soon ends and when I turn to ask Tristan what class he has next, he wasn't there.

He was already gone.