Gray winced.
“I sort of help out Amanda during that time,” he said quietly. “It’s her busiest time of the day. I might get off at around eight-fifteen to eight-twenty-five. And I was thinking the school library, but we could hit the public library on 56th street.”
Night time. It'll be dark. He'll want to walk me home again.
Violeta forced her gaze elsewhere. "I–Fine. Yeah. Just—Text me when you get there."
Hurriedly, she turned to leave.
“I don’t have your number,” Gray reminded her before he sighed. “You know what? Never mind. I’ll talk to the teacher about switching partners.”
Violeta nodded curtly, and was gone.
Hearing Gray's words, one of their fellow classmates turned to shake his head. "I wouldn't try, man," he advised, "I just did. Didn't go down so well. Stay with the cute chick, it'll do you both good and will keep the teacher from giving you the death-stare."
Gray shot the guy a glare when he addressed Violeta like that before shakinf his head. What was wrong with him?
“Just great,” he muttered. “This project is going to be so much fun.”
[TIME SKIP - 8:30 that night]
Violeta was completely lost in her sketchbook by the time 8:30 rolled around, her pencil flying over the thick paper. Over the course of the past hour, a solid form had emerged from nothing, just an abstract idea plucked from the back of her mind. A woman, shrouded in black feathers, slumped on the ground with an arrow through her heart and a helmet made of a huge crow's skull.
After hours of teaching little kids to paint, she had decided to try the library anyways, just in case Gray—Grayson—hadn't been able to switch partners. And here she was, an hour later, putting her fantasies onto paper… blissfully oblivious to the rest of the world. Strands of hair, which was now up in a loose French braid thanks to one of her co-workers, fell across her face, which was bowed over a thick black sketchbook. Pencil graphite was smudged up the side of her hand, and a little had even ended up on her nose, and a baggy peach sweater hugged her relaxed body, which was curled up in an armchair in the back of the library.
When Gray found Violeta sitting there at the library, his heart nearly stopped. She was so engrossed in whatever she was drawing, but that make her stand out to him a lot more than it should have.
God, he was truly smitten.
The second Gray was free from work, he had run to the library in case she’d drop by. He smelled of food and Gray was sure there was sauce on his clothing, but remained completely oblivious to the sauce smeared on his cheek.
“You’re here,” he finally spoke when he was in front of her. “I didn’t think you’d come. I couldn’t change partners, unfortunately.” For you.
Unfortunately for Gray, Violeta's earbuds were pushed firmly into her ears, playing sweet, cutesy music she had turned up so loud that it could faintly be heard by any passer-by. Completely unaware of his presence, she ran her tongue over her bottom lip as if in thought. Her sweater, though extremely oversized and covered in strangely aesthetic paint splatters, was cute, almost as if she'd worn it on purpose.
Shit. Gray cursed when the girl licked her bottom lip, the little action slowly driving him crazy. He exhaled deeply, not knowing how to call her out.
Finally, he gathered his courage and and hesitantly tapped her sketchbook.
Violeta's head snapped up, her peaceful bubbly popped by the tiny action.
"Grayson?" She blinked to clear her vision, pulling her earbuds from her ears and hurriedly snapping her textbook shut. Here comes the flirting….. please, God, if you're out there give me strength.
"I didn't think you'd be here. What happened to the other partner?"
“Couldn’t exchange,” Gray responded, shrugging nonchalantly. “He scowled at me the second I approached him. Others were unsuccessful, too, so I suppose you’re stuck with me.”
For once, no flirtatious smirk accompanied the statement. Violeta merely frowned and nodded, doing her best to mask her disappointment as she slipped the sketchbook into the bag at her feet.
Gray took a seat on the other side, staying silent before deciding to talk.
“So what do you think we should do?” He finally questioned, looking at the girl. “In regards to our project.”
“I….” Violeta coughed awkwardly. “Don’t actually remember what we’re supposed to be doing. I was sort of half-asleep by that point…” She winced at the memory, subconsciously rubbing at her hand.
“Apparently we’re working on a problem-based assignment,” Gray started, taking out his laptop to open the guide. “We need to select an environmental problem that we can explain and give a solution to.”
Violeta turned this over in her head, reverting to a very business-like frame of mind in order to stay sane working beside him. “What about overpopulation? Or international trade?”
“Is that something we can actually fix?” Gray questioned, furrowing his eyebrows. “I think we should stick to something complex yet simple—something we can implement easily. Maybe in our community, or in the college.”
“Overpopulation, probably not, unless we decide to make the Hunger Games and actual thing. But yeah, I guess.” Ashamed at how quickly her suggestion had been turned down, she glanced away. “What do you think we should do?”
“Your ideas aren’t bad,” Gray quickly amended his mistake, noticing her reaction. “I mean, you’d easily be able to find information about those things. I don’t want to put everything on you because of my incompetence, and have you end up finding everything we need.”
Why was he doing this? Violeta’s thoughts ran on confused circles. Her body tensed instinctively, reacting to the subtle compliment she knew was just another way to get to her. I’m not lowering my guard, Grayson.
Even fake flirting was better than this endless enigma. Why wasn’t he doing that instead?
Having no idea how to handle the situation, she gave a terse shrug. “What ideas did you have?”
“Honest answer? Absolutely nothing,” Gray admitted, running a hand through his hair. He decided to pretend he didn’t notice her tensing up, mostly to save himself the hurt. “But maybe we could do something about pollution? Say… water pollution. Or something. Sorry, I’m a little blank here. We can use your idea.”
He rubbed his cheek, grimacing when he felt something sticky. Sauce. Amazing.
Violeta couldn’t help the tiny smile that tugged at her lips when she first glanced up and noticed the sauce smeared on the side of his cheek. She quickly looked back down, though, biting the inside of her cheek. “No, it’s fine. What if we did something that has to do with sewage systems, since you mentioned water? Plus, flushing toilets takes up a lot of energy and water. Blackwater systems could solve that.”
Okay, he was absolutely infatuated by the woman before him. Especially when she smiled like that. Still, he shook his feelings away, instead opting to dig out a tissue to wipe his cheek. He couldn’t find the stain.
“Plus the irrigation system for agriculture,” Gray added, furrowing his eyebrows as he tried to wipe his cheek. Was the sauce dried or something? “Though this might sound disgusting, but someone proposed using shower water to water plants in the gardens.”
Violeta nodded eagerly——too eagerly. She sobered up quickly, but retained an air of excitement nonetheless. “Yeah, I’ve heard that. Or putting a bucket in your kitchen sink to catch the water you use.”
But, once again, Grayson’s antics brought a tiny smile to her lips. “A little to your left, Grayson,” she instructed softly, referring to the sauce he was trying to mop up.
Her smile made it harder for Gray to keep his blush at bay. Still, he succeeded, but he was sure the tip of his ears were pink. He followed her instructions, moving left, looking at her in confirmation.
She was talking to him softly. She didn’t have any bite in her words. Was he making progress, or was she just making fun of him?