You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Author:Rachel Lynn Solomon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

The art room has low ceilings and long gray tables and a kiln toward the back. Paintings and sketches and engravings hang from every wall space. I’ve haven’t been in here since Introduction to Drawing freshman year.

“This is my happy place,” Zack says, and tonight it’s mine, too. When he’s in a room with me, he completely fills the space, giving it a new kind of energy. His hair is spilling into his eyes, and I find myself wondering what it would feel like to touch. If it would be soft or coarse. If he’d like it if I ran my hands through it.

“I like it.”

A canvas board and paint palette wait at the table where Zack must have been working. Since all the chairs are stacked in the back of the room, I hop onto the table, my legs dangling off it.

Next to me, Zack leans a hip against the table. “We don’t have to talk about Lindsay and Troy.”

“I’d prefer not to.”

“You doing okay about Johns Hopkins?”

“From one sore subject to another.”

He turns his mouth into a guilty scrunch. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“No, it’s okay. Thanks for asking. I’m managing. I applied to other schools over break and barely made the deadlines. Obviously I’m still hoping I get in. But I guess I could really end up . . . anywhere.” It’s impossible, though, to imagine myself anywhere except Baltimore. I release the tension in my jaw. “Let’s talk about something else. Let’s talk about this.” I gesture to the canvas, which is half-covered with price tags and candy wrappers and even a math test marked with a fat red C-plus—all objects I’m sure Zack has found.

“Before you ask,” he says, “it actually does mean something.”

“Yeah?”

He plants one palm on the table, right next to my thigh. His thumb brushes against my jeans. Then his eyes trap mine and he says in a serious voice, “It’s about passing AP Studio Art.”

“Ha, ha.” I examine it. “It’s looking a little . . . sparse.”

“You wanna add anything?”

“Wouldn’t that be cheating?”

Zack sweeps his thumb back and forth across my outer thigh. If this single finger scorches my entire body, I can only imagine both his hands would explode me. “I won’t tell.”

I consider the colors, then dip the paintbrush into cobalt and streak it onto the canvas, forming the Hebrew letters chet and yud.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.