61. Kendra
Kendra
NINETEEN YEARS OLD
The sun is hot on my skin, but welcome. Sometimes I need to connect with it—a throb of nature to make me feel like I am still here, like I won’t just float away.
In the summer it’s the burn of the sun, winter the harsh bite of the wind.
Pelting rain, prickly grass, cold rain, rough stones, scorching sand, tender snowflakes whipping around with a bitter lick-like lash.
Each season offers me something different.
Today . . . today is the sun because I miss her, and instead of being able to feel the warmth of my mother, I get the hard reality of Mother Nature laying her embrace on me.
My hand flies over my sketch pad trying to capture my turbulent emotions as they pour out of my pencil.
Some days they keep up and create something beautiful, other times it just comes out as a chaotic mess.
I growl in frustration at the jumble in front of me and flip to a new page to start over, closing my eyes, taking a deep breath.
“What are you drawing?” A deep, sexy voice rumbles out right next to my ear, making me jump from my place on the bench behind the library.
“What the fuck, Eli!” My heart hammers wildly from the surprise and the sight of his handsome face.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, sorry, sweetheart.” He flashes his dimple at me, and I melt back onto the bench.
“Thought you were gone for the next two days?” Eli said he and his best friend, Rem LeBlanc, had plans, and he was going back to school for a couple days to help him, then would be back in Fox Grove.
I felt like a lovesick fool over the fact that it made me get teary-eyed.
It was only going to be two days. And now I was feeling emotional all over again about seeing him come back early.
My lord, get it together!
“Apparently he and Cora got into some big fight, and he told me to steer clear of the campus because she canceled our plans on his behalf.” Eli rolls his eyes.
“That doesn’t sound too good.” I grimace.
“No, I would rather not be a witness to Cora not getting her way, or to be the reason Rem gets into trouble with her. We can do what we wanted when the semester starts back up. It’s fine.” Eli looks a little disappointed but more concerned for his friend than anything else.
“Hopefully they can work it out,” I say.
“Probably. They have been together since high school. Rem knows how to deal with her.” Eli shrugs.
“That doesn’t sound like a very healthy relationship.” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“I wouldn’t know,” Eli says, sitting next to me and putting his arm around my shoulders on the back of the bench. “What are you doing here?” He nods to my sketch pad.
Biting my lip I say, “Just working through some stuff, drawing helps sometimes.”
“That’s cool,” Eli says with zero judgment in his tone. He brushes a kiss to my temple quickly so nobody passing will see, and then asks, “Mind if I sit with you while you draw?”
“I’d love that,” I say, picking up my pencil and letting it fly over the sketch pad with ease this time.
When I’m finished a while later, a beautiful butterfly with delicate, intricate wings takes up the page.
One half is shaped more angel-like, the wing reaching higher up toward heaven.
The other wing is more classically butterfly shaped with a bird-like tip swooping toward Earth.
Both detailed and connected by being attached to the normal butterfly body.
“Holy fuck,” Eli whispers, taking in my art.
“What?”
“That is the coolest, most incredible drawing I think I have ever seen.” He leans down closer to examine it.
“Thank you.” I take his compliment with a blush.
“Can I have it?” Eli whispers.
“Really?” Disbelief washes over me.
“Sorry, shit. This is personal, you told me that. I shouldn’t have asked you that. Fuck, forget it.” He runs his large hands through his hair, tugging on it, like he’s punishing himself.
I carefully tear out the page from my sketch pad and happily hand Eli over a piece of my soul. It is easier to do than I thought it would be, but I suppose it’s because he already owns my heart.
“I will cherish this for the rest of my life,” he promises, holding it in his hands like precious treasure.