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As he reluctantly dragged himself from between my lips, the soft, slow hiss of Seb’s deflating cock kissed the side of my neck with air. I smiled against his thigh, nuzzling it affectionately before standing back up. This was mine.Sebwas mine. The sweetness still lingering in my mouth wasmine.
Seb smiled lopsidedly, blissed out, and reached down to cup between my legs, pulling me into a kiss. His chest rose as he pulled in a deep breath, preparing to inflate me too, but I cut the kiss short with a gentle peck on his lips. He tilted his head with a quizzical expression, slowly exhaling the air he’d pulled for me with a raised brow.
“I’m fine, don’t worry about that. I want to get a good night’s rest so I’m fresh for research tomorrow. I don’t need to be halfway through a page and have some early bird visitor banging on the window for popcorn.” I smirked as Seb made a cute little noise of disappointment, pouting at me before giving a resigned nod. Distraction successful, I thought triumphantly. Hopefully he wouldn’t even remember the girl’s name tomorrow - Prissy, Polly, whatever it was. Her blue eyes were annoyingly easy to remember, but they’d fade just fine with time.
As we slid into one another’s arms and let the shift take over; a single intricate twist of red and purple balloons taking the place of our human forms. We preferred to rest entwined like this, and had ever since we’d escaped, now that Zina couldn’t force us apart any longer. Our joined balloon gently drifted down with a hollow, musicalthwonkto settle on the freezer lid. I pushed the annoyingly intrusive memory of the girl’s grey-blue gaze out of my mind as sleep claimed us both.
Chapter 3 - Poppy
After I’d gotten home and showered all the sweaty ick off, narrowly talking myself out of burning my sweat-drenched clothes, I flopped down in bed and actually got a full night’s sleep for once. I woke to the bright sunlight of early afternoon rudely shining through my blinds and stumbled to the bathroom to do my wake-up routine. Freshly scrubbed and brushed, I sank back down on my bed with my sketchbook. After blindly groping for a pencil in my bag, I flipped to a blank page and lines and shadows flowed with more ease than they had in awhile. My artist’s eye had gotten tangled in Sebastian’s loose, silky curls during the short time we’d spent together, and my fingers itched to sketch them. Surprisingly, however, the eyes staring back up at me now weren’t Sebastian’s bright ones, but the suspicious, narrowed ones of the man from the concessions trailer - Keane. His “friend” that I suspected was either more than that, or else Sebastian was completely frigging clueless.
Sketched-Keane’s angular jawline and dark eyes still flashed with anger at me as my pencil twitched, bringing him to life despite myself. Was he mad at me because I’d flirted with Sebastian a little? It wasn’t like I’d done it in front of him, so what the hell was his problem? Maybe he was just irritated from the heat and took it badly - lord knows I’d been on the verge of feeling that way myself. I couldn’t wait for fall.
Sighing when my memories failed to agree on what Keane’s nose actually looked like, I closed my book with a huff. I hated this part of the process, the visual equivalent of writer’s block. Could I sneak back to the zoo to get a good look at him without being a creeper? This sketch would work perfectly for my emotion assignment; Professor Ansen wanted us to find a “stern” model to work on this week. The kindly man with the cane and the exuberant little girl I’d created yesterday wouldn’t do, and they were the wrong size anyway. Keane, meanwhile, had somehow commanded two hours of my time and an entire page while I zoned out and sketched. It’d be a shame to waste the work, even if he’d been kind of an asshole to me.
I tucked my sketchbook back in my bag, mind made up. I’d already cut it too close to my assignment deadlines the last two weeks; finding a new model by tomorrow would be a hassle. I’m sure Keane wouldn’t be happy to see me again, which would work just fine for my needs. This time, when I left my water bottle behind on the counter, it was a deliberate move - one that made a smirk tug at my lips.
An unexpected jolt of nerves curled in my stomach and across my palms as I made the short trip to the zoo, moving to my spine as I walked in with a flash of my season pass. As I moved past my favorite spot on the tortoise enclosure wall, my heart sank a little - a bored-looking middle aged man was selling balloons where Sebastian had yesterday. I was hoping to add the attractive balloon-seller and his ridiculous eyelashes to my personal sketches after I’d finished Keane’s, but it looked like that would have to wait.
Once the concession trailer came into view, my nerves kicked up again. Was this creepy? I didn’t feel creepy sketching figures like the family or the older man, but this felt…personal. I straightened my shoulders and shook it off, reminding myself that it was a public place and it wasn’t like I was drawing nude fan art of him. Would it be more or less awkward if he knew I was there? I decided thatI’dfeel less creepy making him aware of my presence, so I slipped into the short line to grab a bottle of water.
Even though I nervously ran through potential interactions in my head while I waited, I was still surprised at the vitriol in his eyes when Keane realized I’d returned.
“Can I help you?” The faint smile he plastered on looked dangerous, nearly unhinged, thanks to the complete lack of light in his eyes.
While I hadn’t done anything truly stupid - felony-level stupid, anyway - in my life, no one could accuse me on not being impulsive at inopportune times. Sure, I could say that I asked because I needed to see the emotion clearly, but in reality, I bristled at his doubling down on dickishness and felt like poking a soft spot.
“I was looking for Sebastian, actually. Have you seen him? Oh, and a bottle of water, please.” I smiled sweetly, resisting the urge to bat my eyelashes at him dramatically. They were amateur hour compared to Sebastian’s anyway.
Keane set the bottle down on the counter between us with more force than was strictly necessary, sending a spattering of ice-cold condensation drops across my arm and clavicle. “$1.50. And no, I haven’t.”
I dug the money out of my pocket, which he slid off the counter brusquely, his eyes flicking over my head before snapping a none-too-subtle “Next!”
I bit back a smirk as I retreated to a table, mulling over the mental snapshots I’d need to bring that swirl of emotion to life. My gambit had worked better than I’d thought - there was definitely something either active or unrequited going on between Sebastian and Keane with a reaction like that. Attending an art school, I was certainly no stranger to boy drama, but I wasn’t usually smack in the middle of it like this. As much fun as it was to poke the proverbial bear, I hoped I hadn’t made trouble for Sebastian - or even Keane, for that matter. He may have been a dick, but no one needed to feel off-balance about someone they cared about.
Shoving down a twinge of guilt, I flipped to the page I’d been working on, eager to get down a distinctive line I’d noticed between Keane’s brows. I noticed his glare twice more as I did my best to sit comfortably on the weathered picnic table bench, hunched over the table as I drew. When I was satisfied with the structure, I moved onto shading, sitting upright with a grumble of discomfort to stretch my lower back.
The quiet, hollow rustling sound didn’t really register to my deep-in-art-process brain before a familiar, amused voice murmured at my ear, startling me.
“Well I’ll be damned, Red. You’ve really captured the essence of bad-day Keane there.”
I felt my already sun-warmed cheeks get even hotter as I twisted in my chair to face him, trying to cover my sketchbook with an arm reflexively. DidSebastianthink this was creepy? That’d be a real let-down because I’d maybe developed a little crush on the guy. Don’t judge me, I was weak for curls.
“Oh! I, um, it’s just that he’s the right kind of model for one of my school assignments, that’s all. Sorry. Would this bother him? I’ll stop, I don’t want to-”
Sebastian laughed, dropping into the chair across from me as he shook his head. “You’re fine. It’s probably better to keep it between us though, he hasn’t had much of a sense of humor lately.” A frown tilted his lips as he glanced over at the trailer, vanishing as his attention turned back to me. “But lucky me, I get to see you two days in a row, hm?”
I smiled at him, momentarily confused when I noted his usual bunch of balloons was nowhere to be found. That was strange, I could have sworn I’d heard them when he walked up behind me. “Well, we’re getting to crunch time this semester, so I’m trying to get the work done I need to, and there’s lots of inspiration here.”
“I see.” He rested his arms comfortably on the table between us. “So my sour-faced friend over there caught your eye, did he?” Sebastian’s eyes glittered with mischievousness - I supposed it was karmic payback for my deliberately trying to get a rise out of Keane.
“Sure. There’s other inspiration too, of course.” I mirrored Sebastian’s pose, resting my arms on the table and leaning down as a grin stretched across his lips. “You know, like the tamarins.”
He laughed, clapping a hand to his heart like I’d shot him. “Ouch! Alright, alright, a man knows when he’s been soundly beaten by adorable animals.” His grin was infectious; if Keane was all dour shadows, Sebastian was closer to distilled sunshine. I normally didn’t warm up to random guys so quickly, especially after the allergic-to-polite-refusals assholes on campus, but Sebastian was different. I liked his energy, it was…lighter, somehow.
A quick glance at my sketchbook told me I’d made enough progress; I could tidy Keane’s image up at home and have it turn-in ready for tomorrow’s class. That freed up some time to flirt with Sebastian a little. It was liberating being playful with a guy that felt safe, honestly - I wouldn’t trust any of the idiots back at school not to follow me like an annoyingly persistent horny puppy.
“I guess you’re okay too.” I wrinkled my nose and tilted my hand back and forth in a so-so gesture.
