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"Now...about that painting."
She rolls her eyes and tugs on my hand. "Follow me."
Her apartment is curtained off on one side, and I'm aware that the other side of that curtain is where she keeps her art supplies. She tries to keep it cordoned off so that the fumes don't get to her--and I understand why when I'm hit with a wave of paint fumes as she opens the curtain. There's a window cracked open in the studio and I can hear the sounds of the city outside.
"Voila," she says with a wry smile. "Art."
My jaw drops open at the canvas: a rough sketch of a woman splattered with paint, naked and kneeling over something. At first, I can't tell what it is...then I realize it's a heart. The figure in the painting is stitching it up, embroidering flowers all over it.
I glance over at her.
"It's..."
"...a self-portrait," she finishes, running her fingers anxiously through her hair. "Yeah."
I turn back to the canvas. It's fucking beautiful.
"I don't know what to say, Piper."
She bites her lip, clearly trying to hide her nerves. "I'll explain if you want me to," she offers. "It's a bit heavy-handed, but--"
"Tell me everything," I cut her off.
She takes a deep breath, and I sit down on the floor with my back against the wall. I pull her to me and she sinks down, snuggling right into my chest.
"This woman is me," she says. "I'm stitching the heart up because I've spent my whole life with the broken, damaged pieces, and I've been trying to stitch it together. Last year was a hard year. I had to figure out who I was all over again, after losing Caleb and finally, finallygetting clean. I don't know if I'm happy, I'm definitely not perfect, but I'm...I'm trying."
I tilt her chin up. "Thanks for the explanation," I murmur. "And thanks for the--"
My phone rings from the kitchen, a special emergency tone I only use for my siblings and my mom.
I frown.
"I'm so sorry...I've gotta take this."
She nods. "I get it," she whispers.
I stand up and walk to the kitchen, scooping up my cell to find a call from Caleb. "Fuck," I curse, wondering if he knows where I am--but I pick it up anyway.
"Hello?"
"Hey Jess," Caleb's voice says. He sounds...I don't know. It's hard to explain, but it instantly kicks my anxiety into overdrive. "Do you have a second?"
"Of course," I tell him. "What's up?"
"Are you sitting down?"
Piper has walked out to join me, her arms wrapped around her. She looks almost as worried as I feel.
"You're scaring me, dude," I mutter. "Spit it out."
"Okay," he says.
He takes a deep breath.
It feels like the world is about to change.
"Mom is sick," he says. "You need to come home."
