Chapter 5

Ronan hurriedly grabbed his phone and checked the caller ID. The dissapointment caused his shoulders to drop.

He silently berated himself and opened the door, waving hello to his brother and gesturing to his phone while answering the call.

"Hey! Alexander, whats up?" Ronan forced some cheerfulness in his voice.

"Hi Ronan... I'm calling to ask if you could stop by Saturday evening? Around 4. I need to finish grading three separate assignments from each student and put together a test. Could you swing by and help me for a few hours?"

Ronan smiled faintly when he heard Alexander's voice. The man sounded as if he had just rolled out of bed.

"Yes... I can be there at 4 but only if you order dinner."

Alexander chuckled, "Yes, I'll order dinner from the usual place."

"Then I'll see you at 4."

"Thanks Ronan..."

"Well... it is my job..." Ronan smiled a little and Alexander scoffed.

"I know... but still... In anycase, see you then."

They ended the call and Ronan collapsed onto the sofa and closed his eyes. His chest was aching and his throat was tight. His grip on his phone tightened and he let out a shakey breath.

"This is pretty good! What are you planning to do with it when it's done?"

Ronan opened his eyes to see his brother examining his painting. He stretched out on the couch, closing his eyes again, "I'll probably put it in storage with the others."

"How many do you even have in storage by now?"

Ronan tried to remember off the top of his head and shrugged, "I don't know."

"Are you ever going to show them off? you must have enough good ones for a few shows..."

Ronan smiled wistfully. His family always asked him this. They always wanted to know when he'd have a gallery showcase. They were even more excited about the thought than he was, but the idea a bearing his most intimate emotions with strangers was...terrifying.

Some of his painting were created in fits of extreme rage or sadness or pain....; the beautiful black and white painting of a rose soaked in blood he had done back when he was a freshman in highschool was something he had created at his worst, emotionally.

The red he used was the most vibrant and realistic color he could mix and when he occasionally came across the painting, he could still remember how he had stood infront of the bathroom mirror, razor in hand, panicked and broken, crying until he was heaving dry coughs infront of his mirror. The thought to use that razor against his skin was so overpowering at the time. He remembered thinking about his parents and how they'd cry at his funeral. He thought about his siblings and his friends at school. He remembered putting down the razor and marching himself to his bedroom to pick up a paintbrush instead.

How could he ever even hope to explain those feelings if someone asked him why he painted that?

"I'll think about it," he decided to just give his brother a noncommittal response.

"You always say that," his brother shook his head and dragged his suitcase to his room.

There were five bedrooms in the house and his sister made sure they all had one whenever they stayed over. Her house had become a kind of escape house for her siblings and her mom and dad also stopped by whenever they wanted to get away from their own house. Everytime someone would ask if she was really ok with this arrangement, she would just flatly say 'I didn't buy a five bedroom house to live alone.' Her parents and brothers even had their own keys.

Ronan wondered if this would continue after she had children... He chuckled and shook his head at the thought. His older siblings had all but sworn off marriage. Jerrica had never had much luck with men and at the last family get together, she declared that she could just get artificially inseminated if mom wanted grandchildren so much. Cameron followed suit and said he could just get a surrogate.

Was it a family curse?

Either way he'd get a surrogate but he had always imagined he'd have a parter to raise a child with. He had almost deluded himself in to thinking that Devin might be that for him, but the longer the man took to call, the more that thought mocked him.

"Sooo I have two presents for you from my trip..." His brother sat beside him on the sofa, holding a package.

"Oh? What did you get me?" Ronan looked at the package in his brothers had curiously. It was rectangular and quite long.

Cameron smiled and handed it to him, motioning for him to open it.

Ronan opened the package and when the brown paper had been opened her let out a surprised gasp followed by a sound of delight, "Oh Cammy you didn't...! This is awesome!" He hugged his brother tightly. He pulled away and ran his fingertips over the embossed case. His name was engraved into the case and the bronze surface was covered in leaves and vines. He gently popped it open to reveal six beautiful metallic inks and a fountain pen with a variety of tips. The corner of the inner case was stamped with a name he knew well. This case was apart of the new Emma Bolton limited calligraphy set release.

Emma Bolton was a well known artist that he had been fascinated with recently. Her hyper realistic portraits were simply magnificent to him. He was sure he wouldn't have the patience or skill for that type of art. He gently touched everything in the case, not daring to take them out.

"That's not my only gift..."

Ronan looked at his brother with a mixture or excitement, curiosity and disbelief.

Cameron chuckled at his brother's gaze. He was happy to see him like this. Recently he had gotten a bit too serious and that made him worried. The Ronan he knew was childish in his maturity and a free spirit. He was very responsible but he was also the type to randomly run away to a cabin in the woods for a week during summer holidays. He could still remember the look on his Dad's face while he tried and failed to talk a seventeen year old Ronan out of it. In the end, Ronan had won by bringing two of his friends along, a guide who doubled as a bodyguard and a satellite phone, just in case. Ronan had also compromised by picking a cabin a little closer to civilization and making sure it was accessible by vehicles.

By the end of the negotiations, his business tycoon father was exhausted and Ronan was happily sharing the good news with his friends.

Cameron laughed at the memory and handed his brother two tickets, "Want to go see Emma Bolton in person?"