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Who am I kidding? All I can think about is getting him naked again.
Yes. I’m definitely ready for this. It all goes together. The first time that I drew them in the collaboration class, it felt like I was opening a door. It is as though my training was a hallway, a series of rooms. I thought I had been in every room, but here was this new space that I had never explored.
Something about them made me see a door I had never seen before. And I walked through it. And now I can’t walk back.
The freshman pledges are outside the fraternity house, just like normal. A couple of them are getting downright sunburnt, but they don’t move. It’s a warm day, and they must be hot in those burgundy robes, but they still don’t even waver. I wonder if they lose a couple to heatstroke every now and again. That would make sense.
I follow Diego up the stairs to the suite, excited and happy to see that Spencer, Zeke, and Trevor are all here too. Spencer is running on the treadmill. Zeke is seated in a recliner by the window with a thick paperback open on his thighs. Trevor is playing Xbox in the corner.
They all turn when they hear me, standing up politely either out of good manners or waiting for more instructions.
“Guys, I think I know what we should do,” I begin.
“About the pictures?” Spencer asks, thumbing the treadmill controls and stepping off.
He’s shirtless and gleaming, his muscles tight and sweaty from the exercise. My mouth instantly waters.
“No, not the pictures,” I object quickly. “The class. The collaboration. I know what we should do.”
“Oh, that’s great!” Zeke smiles, closing his book and setting it on his desk.
I step into the middle of the room, my hands out, my eyes closed. I sort of want to act it out for them, but I’m hoping that my brief explanation will suffice.
“Okay, so imagine you are in one of the student galleries. Not a huge one. Like fifteen by fifteen feet, okay?”
“Got it,” someone agrees. Spencer, I think.
“The room is dark,” I continue, “but the spotlights are on the walls. And there are full, wall-size paintings on each wall, but…”
Words fail me. I squint my eyes closed tighter, trying to imagine it a little better.
“I mean, there are paintings. Paintings and drawings. A combination of both. And they are… huge? Really big.”
“Okay, large paintings,” Spencer says, clearly humoring me.
“No, I’m not saying it right!” I object. “It’s like… I mean, it’s a visual medium. Words don’t really describe it.”
“Can you show us?” Zeke says reasonably.
“Well, not really. I’d have to do the work. And you have to see the space.”
“Wait, hold on,” Diego interjects. “I can mock up the space. Will that help?”
“What you mean?”
“I mean I could do a digital rendering of a room with spotlights on the walls. If you can do a sketch, I can drop those sketches into the room and we can see what it will look like.”
My eyes go wide. “Seriously? You have that?”
He rolls his eyes. “Computer science major,” he sniffs. “Of course I have that. You just work up a sketch, and I’ll build your room real quick.”
The guys stand over my shoulder as I grab a newsprint pad and work up four quick sketches. I almost do it with my eyes closed, relying so much on the feeling I’m trying to convey more than the lines or contours themselves. Pretty soon, I have the drawings in acceptable sketch form.
Diego raises his eyebrows. “Like this? This is what you want?”
“Definitely,” I nod.
He snaps four quick pictures, then returns to the computer. In just moments it seems, he has a 3-D representation of a room, exactly how I imagined it. As he moves the mouse, it’s like we’re in the room, looking around. On each wall are dramatically lit, oversized charcoals of seething, twisting, intersecting forms. It looks like a battle scene.
