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The bus you take is crowded to the point of standing rooarettes and too ne His unshaven beard is full of white flakes, pieces of paper from a napkin, you assu at hi aa new movie The movie star’s face is pale, his jawline is sharp, and his blue eyes are keen, questioning the thousands of small people who lay eyes on him You continue to stare at the billboard until it disappears fro else to distract you froer until the bus stops

The bus driver hits the breaks roughly, throwing you into theYou grip your bag tightly and pro to do whatever you have to do to get a car within the next eles doesn’t have a functioning subway syste to question your choice of city

You grew up in a quiet tohere the biggest acco all of your children by the saoal of existence there seems to be to stay undisturbed, have an easy life, pay your bills, and die But you don’t want to pay your bills and die You want to disturb and be disturbed You want adventure You want so children with a man who may treat you well but doesn’t think the same way you do You know that no one there thinks the same way you do—or they would have left too You don’t want to have the sa so luncheons for the other housewives Actually, you can’t remember the last time your mother even talked about herself in a conversation It’s always hie, hiray of the sky there, her flare disappearing with the jobs when the plant closed down The toas sucking everything out of her, pulling at every string inside of her And one by one, her strings had snapped, and you swore that you would never be a puppet

When the bus stops again, you jut forward, barely catching yourself on the rail next to you Your supply bag drops, scattering your markers onto the dirty floor The entire array of colors—blue, violet, red, green, orange, yellow—slides backward down the angled floor As you scrarab at least a few of theenerous effort to help you You shove your sraciously thank the few kind strangers who hand you the ot back out of a new pack of twenty Certainly the strangers around you assu, but they aren’t You picked up two extra shifts just to be able to buy the nicest set you found, and now you’ve lost most of them

But focus on the positive: five people on the bus illing to get their hands dirty to help a stranger This makes you smile, and when the bus doors open at your stop, you couldn’t be happier to get off You breathe in fresh, non-cigarette-infused air and cross the sidewalk

The community center where your art classes are held is only a ten-reat, but doesn’t quite offset the three hours it took you to get there by bus When you saw the ad for the class tacked up on a Malibu Starbucks bulletin board, you hadn’t realized it was actually ten miles north of Malibu Which means a couple of transfers and nearly three hours by bus for you You try to forget about this—focus on the positive—and you et lost

You’ve never taken a class before, but you’ve always loved creating things and having new experiences, and you liked the si the advertisement—mechanical pencil on crumpled paper; it made you feel like it was , you enjoy every form of art Of course, you’re better at so in public even if someone paid you, but you can create a colorful world, deeper than the one we live in, on an easel with only a few markers and a sheet of white paper

You pass twoa forty covered with a brown bag The beer swishes over the side of the bottle and dribbles down the bald hs and takes their treasure back into his hands He lifts the bottle, and you burn their faces into your memory for later

The classroorounds of El Matador Beach Park When you googled the place, the only posted review gushed over the beautiful view of the rocky beach below, so there’s that to look forward to You cross the street in search of a small shop to find new markers You assume that the community center will have some supplies, but you aren’t sure, and you don’t want to look too unprepared for what is going to be your first and last day of attending the class

You find an eight-pack of Crayolaout They’re better than nothing You also buy a bottled water and a pack of gue into a s, but decide it’s tio to the class anyway You’re thirty et here an hour early You cross the narrow street and read the list of sn It’s like another world out here The only ti in West Hollywood is when restaurants stick their suggestive little chalkboards with their specials written in luscious cursive on them on the sidewalk

Five ss are positioned in a half circle You scan the nuht and count the cracks in the sidewalk on the way to the shtly ajar, and you push it the rest of the way open The lobby area is empty, so you follow the first hallway you see to the end A fli, you find a s the white walls fros near the door Eight, es and races sit behind easels An elderly man sits in front, his hair white and wispy His apron isheavy on his face He looks bored; his attention doesn’t even sway to the door when you walk in No one evena folder full of papers to the floor You bend down and pick them all up; each silent second feels like an hour, and you keep your eyes on the empty stool in the back corner of the room as you put the folder back on the desk No eye contact with any other students No introduction from the instructor

No greeting of any kind

You park your ass right on the empty stool the firstthe ood ones—and the pack of Crayolas fro You lay them out on the small table next to you and turn your cell phone to silent When you look up, you look directly at the instructor’s work You can feel eyes on you, but you would rather not aardly look around the room to find their source You stu at the lazy one You would be too

On the instructor’s easel is a bowl of fruit drawn in pencil It’s shaded in harsh lines and not very well blended around the edges This is definitely a beginner’s class; you learned to shade this exact sa Freshhtly higher hopes for this class Painting, screening, so fruit or shapes You probably should have investigated further before signing up But you needed so to do

An accented voice comes from your left: “It’s pretty lame, huh?”

You turn to hi to is tall, really tall He’s taller than the canvas that rests on a wooden easel before hiray pencilthe fabric to hang loosely under his collarbone He raises a thick brow to you, inviting you to respond

“The lesson?” you ask, just to be sure he’s referring to the class, not your tardiness

“Yes—well, the fruit bowl sketch I’m positive that everyone in here has already done that once or twice” He s up his slender face His s for his face; his jaw extends to show even more of his teeth A dimple marks his cheek—of course it does

You s here is a tad interesting “At least it wasn’t the shapes—you know, learning to draw and shade the perfect set of cones, cubes, and spheres,” you reply

He sain It seems to come very easily to him

He lifts his hand in front of him and points to his easel “Oh, it happened” He lifts up a few blank sheets to get to the one that’s drawn on “You just missed it because you were late,” he says withwith him He’s really friendly, more so than anyone you’ve met of late

“I did it purposely,” you fib Turning to the front of the room, you partially cover your mouth with your hand and whisper sideways that you had planned toYou can tell he doesn’t believe you; you’ve never been good at lying, joking or not

The instructor clears his throat, and you steal a quick glance at the man next to you His paper is still blank, and he has a pencil between his teeth He’s looking toward the front of the room at the instructor, but you’re positive that he’s not listening to what the olderthe center of the apple

The stranger beside you chuckles “I’ to rest one foot on the stool’s metal bar The toes of his tan boots are faded, etched with angry gray marks He leans over, his pencil still in his hand, and he taps his blank paper with the tip of his finger

“Sketch me? No, thanks” Somewhat nervous, you stand You look at his blank paper before finding his eyes The blue of the, and somehow familiar You’ve never spoken a word to this otten his easy smile, or the way he stares directly into your eyes when he looks at you You notice the paleness of his eyelids; hints of blue veins span their skin when he blinks them closed

His eyes open again, and you shake your head at him A lock of hair falls over your cheek, and his eyes follow your fingers as they tuck the hair back behind your ear and travel down to touch the ripped leather seat of the stool Without , but you can’t help feeling like there’s souy

As interesting as he seems, you don’t want hi, it will be so aard if he’s drawing you and you’re supposed to be sitting still—but what if you have to pee or your phone vibrates really loudly? In reality, you’re pretty sure that you don’t have to sit quite that still, and you know that no one is actually going to call you, but still

He gives you a large grin; it’s playful and dangerous,the pink of his lips

“Come on, let me sketch you I’ers playing at the air when he gestures toward the front of the roo bowls full of fruit when I was a wee lad I need so You have a nice face Let me draw it?”