"You can come in if you want," Amanda suggested as she stepped out of my car. I looked at the clock on the dash; 11:23, enough time for a visit before I had to go back to Smith's apartment to work on the trailer. I accepted the offer and shut of the car, excited to finally get actual alone time without fear of getting caught by a nurse or doctor.

        I walked around the car and grabbed her hand, following her into the tall building. There wern't many students around, but those that were in the main lounge were young and juvenile looking, bringing back vivid memories of Portsmouth Uni. Amanda exchanged a quick word with the man sitting at the front desk and motioned me to follow her into the lift.

        She looked somewhat uncomfortable as she absently scratched the back of her head. The lift was quiet as it slowly creaked up the floors, dinging every so often as the red number above our head changed. I knew something was wrong by her awkward behavior, but I waited for her to speak her mind, knowing she was calculating her statement. "Sorry," she muttered after a minute.

        "For what?" I asked, startled that she would be apologizing for anything.

        "I live in a first year dorm... it's kind of childish and juvenile, not something a 24 year old should be doing," she said quietly, blushing from embarrassment. I had a few passing thoughts of it when I had seem all to young students loitering around outside, but it obviously hadn't bothered me as much as it did her.

        "I don't care," I scoffed, wrapping an arm around her waist to rest my hand on her hip while we waited for the slow lift. I didn't mind such trivial things, but she seemed genuinely bother by it.

        "Most graduate students own apartments," she continued, "or at least live in student housing off of campus... It's just I can't drive and I don't know the area..."

        "It's fine," I assured her as we stepped off at the fifth floor.

        "I get my own room though," she shrugged, giving me an apologetic smile and walking through the empty lounge and down the hall lined with identical wooden doors, pitted and chipped from years of use. The only thing that discerned them from one another were signs and posters with girly handwriting depicting stereotypical names in fluid handwriting. She stopped at one of them, though her door was plain and void of any glittery name plates, and pulled out a key. She butted her hip against the swollen wood, producing a silent grimace of pain, and then extended her arm to hold the door open for me.

        My jaw dropped at the state of her room. There were no walls; every square inch was covered in artwork. Canvases of all different sizes butted up against each other to form a patchwork of art that spanned all four walls. Even the window sill had a small easel and a stack of paintings on it. The rest of her room was quite bare and unlived in. Her desk had a few pencils and books scattered across it, and the single bed had a plain black duvet that looked crisp and brand new. However, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the paintings and drawings to look at such bland things for long.

        Some of them were dirtied with charcoal smudged across them, suggesting vague shapes and organic figures; other's were deftly and impressively done portraits and still lifes. Others still were of random things I could take days to list: Fan art of books and movies, paintings of animals, disturbing creatures and fantastic landscapes. I probably took 15 minutes just looking around her room. A Game of Thrones painting of John Snow caught my eye, as well as a huge canvas that took up a good part of the wall that depicted a rotting zombie and a crow picking at it's eye.

        I struggled with the words as I stared. Amanda finished putting her things away and stood next to me, looking up at her artwork. "I...I thought you were an animation artist..." I stammered, mystified.

       "Painting's really my passion," she said, clearly embarrassed by my reaction to her artwork, "animation is just so I can get a job..."

        "You're.... really amazing...." I balked, walking around the perimeter of her room and observing the talent she demonstrated in these works. I especially enjoyed the drawings that were concentrated around the far wall; there were objects ranging from popcorn to instruments, and I was about to compliment her again when I spotted a familiar face near the ceiling.

        Trott, Smith, and I were there; a black line split the canvas in half, a detailed portrait on one half and an equally impressive minecraft character mirroring the other side in bright flashy colors. I grinned, flattered by the fan art. I was used to cartoonish digital art or crude graphite drawing from kids and teenagers, so seeing the amount of work she put into painting my portrait made my heart swell with appreciation and pride.

        "I've never seen these before," I said, pointing to the paintings. "Are they online somewhere? Why didn't you show us?" I asked as I looked back at Amanda, wanting Smith and Trott to see their portraits as well.

        I watched as a deep red blush crept up her neck to leak into her cheeks, and she got this fearful look on her face as if she had forgotten they had been there. "Oh, yeah..." she trailed, "That was for a class, I really didn't want anyone to steal my idea before I sent them to you guys..." Her sentence trailed off as she turned her eyes back onto me, waiting for me to continue.

        "I love them," I assured her, placing my hands on you're shoulders "You're so talented..." I let my hand slide down the outside of her arms until they fell into her grasp. I tried to lean my head in to hers, but she turned her head away.

        "I'm really not," she sighed. "You should see the work of some of the fine arts majors... like the girl next door is a first year under graduate and she did this Jan Lievens piece and..."

        I cut her off by threading a hand through the back of her curls and turning her face back to mine so I could finish what I had intended to do. "Hey, I don't care about her," I muttered as I closed my eyes, focusing on my other senses as I let the silence of the empty dorm surround us for a moment of peace. I hadn't been able to visit her a lot in the hospital this past week because of how busy our channel was right now, and it has just hit me how much I missed her. I couldn't deny the fact that she was now a part of my life, just like I couldn't deny the shock of electricity that radiated under my skin when I touched her, nor the dizzy happiness that made me feel like I was floating when I caught a whiff of her scent under the hospital smell of antiseptics.

        I felt her forehead and eyebrows twitch as her eyes reopened and she turned her head to look up towards me. She watched me, her eyes shifting micrometers as she looked between my eyes. At this close distance, I could see the flecks of green in her brown eyes, as well as the thoughtful emotion that swirled just under the surface of color.

        I was learning to adapt to her, learning her mannerisms and physical cues. Like when she lifted her hand to grip my wrist, letting me know she's made some type of eternal decision, though what that was I had yet to figure out.

        And I was learning more than just how to take hints from her. I found myself thinking over things, contemplating what I should say or do before I did it. It wasn't everything and it wasn't so often as Amanda did it, but it was enough for me to notice her already influencing me.

        Like right now, I was contemplating kissing her. I weighed my options quickly, deciding that I would deal with a potential awkward situation if there was the off chance that she didn't reject me and I could finally finish what we started that night on the roof.

        My eyes flicked towards the bed behind her, and I gently pushed at her hips, guiding her backwards until her thighs bumped against the bed frame. The only sound was the rustle of sheets and our increase of breath as I crawled onto the bed between her bent legs, placing my hand beside her shoulders as I hung over her. She grabbed at my cheek, bringing my face down to hers as my heart beat began to race at the contact. My arms quivered as I held my half push up, brushing my lips against hers to savor the moment before we closed the distance between us.

        "Ross Hornby," she breathed more than said, her voice quivering as it passed between her lips and onto mine, making the hair on my neck raise up in pure pleasure. I felt her knees press up against my hips as she threaded her fingers through the hair on the back of my head, and I relished the heat that circulated between our two bodies.

        I felt her jump as a painfully loud ringing filled the air, and I caught myself before I fell onto her and crushed her. Her eyes fluttered open and I winced, crushing my eyes closed and dropping my forehead into my forearm that was resting next to her head. She started laughing and I could feel the deep rumbling of her chest mix with mine as we giggled over the ruined moment. "I'm really sorry," I apologized, reluctantly pulling myself up and off of her as I reached for my phone. I silenced it, knowing that it was only Trott calling to tell me to get back over to the apartment work on the trailer.

        She sighed and sat up. "Do you have to go?" she asked, giving me a sad look that made me melt.

        I shook myself, knowing I'd never get out of here if I submitted to every look she gave me. "Yeah," I said sadly, fixing my rumpled clothes so I looked a little less suspicious as a 27 year old leaving a first year dorm.

        She jumped up and threw her arms around my shoulders. "Thanks for the ride," she said as I wrapped my arms around her back.

        "Are we going to talk to Lewis tomorrow?" I asked, knowing that he would probably be at Yogtowers but not very busy, being a Sunday tomorrow. I was afraid to find out the verdict of whether Amanda still had the internship or not, but all this waiting was probably killing her as much as it was me.

        Her smile faltered and fell, and she looked down at our feet. "Yeah," she said quietly, embodying my feelings towards the idea.

        My phone started ringing again as we stood there, and I quickly said my goodbyes and left, knowing I would get in even more trouble with my two coworkers if I didn't leave soon.

A/N Let me know if you actually want to see some of my artwork, though I'd have to figure out how to use the 'writer tools'. I was going to combine this and the next chapter, but then things go steamy and I had to split it up; expect the next update soon. Thank you, happy reading.