The outline of the couch and coffee mug formed on the white paper of the easel. Jayla studied Lance's face and noticed that he had very attractive features. His eyes were unlike any green she had ever seen; his jaw line was strong along with his flawless complexion, and ruffled spiky highlighted blond hair. She broke her gaze and drew his muscular build with his cotton gray shirt and khaki pants. The apple took shape in the palm of his hand that lay by his side on the couch.
After working tirelessly for two hours, she completed the charcoal drawing and used her fingers to blend shadows to it. For the past three hours, Lance felt relaxed yet bored beyond belief. His green eyes settled upon shoes, bags, and various art supplies placed around the room. Everything seemed interesting for doing nothing at all but lying down. He glanced at his silver watch and knew that his time was almost done. The ticking seconds echoed in his ears.
Madame Moreau glided through the rows of people making comments to the students about their drawings. She smoothed down her maroon pants suit, "Alright everyone, time is up. I want to thank Mr. Bass for giving this class the opportunity to do this contest and for being our art project." A round of applause rang throughout the room as people gathered their belongings and filed out of the room.
Jayla removed her leather date book from her bag and placed it on her stool to make room for her charcoal drawing. She didn't want to leave dark smudges on the drawing from shadowing so she removed a towelette from the left pocket of her cargo pants and wiped off her fingers. Lance thanked Madame Moreau and walked away from her desk. He stopped dead in his tracks as a cloud of dark hair disappeared behind an easel. There was something about her that captivated him. He needed to investigate this mystery girl.
Three dull charcoal pencils lay on the easel tray as a pair of eyes fell on Jayla. He crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight to watch her as she gingerly picked them up and dropped them in her bag.
"Can I help you with something?" She said brushing her raven curls away from her face to reveal her aqua blue eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. I'm Lance," He responded putting out his hand.
She laughed and shook his outstretched hand, "I know, I'm Jayla." Her laugh was like music to his ears, soft and beautiful.
"Would it be okay if I looked at your drawing?" She put her hand on her hip and sighed like she was deep in thought.
"Sure," She replied with a smile and gestured towards the easel. He came around from the back of the easel to focus on the drawing. Jayla stood next to him watching intently at his expression while playing with her red shirt; she usually didn't like it when people critiqued her work but there something in his eyes that told her to say 'yes.' Lance scrutinized every detail of the drawing. He never saw himself in a different light until now. He had that "Mirror, Mirror" effect, feeling strange to be looking at yourself and was amazed by this talent she possessed.
"This is really amazing. You have a great gift." Lance said as she nervously tugged on her shirt. He always did like the color, red.
"Thanks, it means a lot coming from the subject." He cracked a smile loving the way her blue eyes sparkled at him. She tried to hide the pink tinting in her cheeks as she unclipped the drawing and rolled it up to put in her bag. The way he looked at her made her want to spill her life's story if he asked her to. That scared her to think that one moment with a guy she didn't know could do that to her. "I hate to cut this short but I have some things to do. It was really nice meeting you, Lance."
She ran out the door before he could even say "goodbye." Then he noticed the leather bound book on her stool. He opened it to read the inscription.
Name: Jayla Mackenzie
Address: 150 East Side Lane
City: Irvington State: NY
The book was firmly grasped in both of his hands making sure it would automatically disappeared before he could find her. He was given another opportunity at love and he hoped that she would respond to him. The key word is hoped.
