Chapter 10

During the weekend, I emailed Esther but never got an answer. I didn't make a big deal out of it though. The project wasn't due any time soon. I just didn't want to put it off until the last second like the last time.

When I got to class that morning, I wasn't that early, but Esther wasn't there yet. I headed for the table where she usually sat, hoping that she wouldn't mind. I sat by the aisle, leaving her her usual seat by the wall.

She finally arrived when most of the class had filled up.

"Hi," I told her, when she stopped beside the desk. I got up to let her get to her seat.

"Hello," she answered, and sat down.

"Did you have time to see what I sent you?"

"No sorry, I was a little busy," she replied, digging for her things from her bag.

"No worries. We can talk about it later."

Class started then so I left her lone and I tried to stay focused, but I was jacked up on caffeine again and my mind wandered.

I kept sort of analyzing the girl sitting beside me.

She was wearing a similar getup as every time we'd been to class together. Long skirt. Long-sleeved sweater. Cardigan over it. Cross hanging from her neck. Big glasses on small face.

She wasn't wearing any make-up, I noticed too. I wondered of her fashion sense was a religious decisions, or if it was her actual taste. I really didn't care what people decided to wear for their religion, I just thought it needed to be their own decision, and not the one dictated by someone else.

She kept touching her cross, now and then, like she was making sure it was hanging right. I mean, I wasn't staring at her like a creep to see her do that, I just kinda noticed it because I was a little bored. And a little was putting it mildly.

I was seriously in need of a distraction if what passed as entertainment at the moment was the number of times the girl beside me was touching her cross.

When the lecture was finally over and we were getting up from our seats, I asked Esther, "do you have a class after this?"

She shook her head. "Not for another hour."

"Did you want to go to the library and start working on ideas for the project?"

She was looking at her shoes, playing with the strap of her bag resting on her shoulder. "I actually needed to grab something to eat..."

"Perfect, I could eat too. We can go to the cafeteria."

She started to nod a little, but she seemed uncomfortable. "Okay, alright," she agreed.

I hoped I wasn't overstepping my boundaries. Maybe she didn't want to spend her lunch time with me. The thing was, if she didn't want to hang with me, she needed to tell me. I couldn't guess it. And anyway, I wasn't planning on staying for too long, I just wanted to get the ball rolling on our project. I would have had the conversation in the classroom, but there was another lecture in there right after ours, so we couldn't really stick around.

"Lead the way," I told her, smiling encouragingly.

We walked in silence side by side with a good three feet apart. It was kind of amusing to me.

When we got to the cafeteria, Esther was kind of twitching, looking around herself constantly and obviously unsure as to what to pick.

The medical part of my brain wondered of she had an eating disorder, if maybe the fact that she was putting on so many layers of clothes and eating so little was because she had a problem. A more pragmatic part of my brain figured it was probably a money thing. She was poor, she couldn't afford more.

Either of these options were sad.

"Any food restrictions or allergies?" I suddenly asked her.

She frowned, confused. "Sorry?"

"What do you like to eat?"

Her cheeks reddened just a little as she stared down again. "Oh, I think I was just going to grab a soup, I'm feeling a little under the weather."

"Have you tried their lasagna? It's actually pretty good, and an amazing comfort food."

"Soup is fine."

"Alright, whatever you want."

I took a tray and started to fill it out. Lasagna. Little bread. A small salad. A chicken salad sandwich. Brownie. Oatmeal cookie. Muffin. Little bag of nuts. A cup of hot cocoa. A bottle of fancy apple juice. Two apples.

"You look hungry," Esther remarked, when she saw my full tray, as we waited in line to pay.

I grinned. "I like to have many options."

She only had a sad chicken noodle soup and crackers and a little cheap juice in hers.

We paid and then made our way to an empty table.

After we were settled in, I started to talk. "So I thought maybe doing something about female representation in religious art, with Mary or Eve for example. Maybe the evolution of Jesus' representation in art too," I took out books from my bag I had taken out of the library. I seriously had too much time on my hands when I wasn't having sex with strangers all the time. "He wasn't always a skinny white dude, so we could dig into that and do a chronological history of how his representation evolved. Here, I have examples," I said, taking out my phone to show her the pictures I had send her on her email already.

"It doesn't have to be something religious you know," she suddenly said, before I could show her anything.

I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little on the spot. "Oh yeah, I just figured..."

"Because I wear a cross and I dress like an Amish my only life interest must be Jesus," she finished for me.

I gave her an awkward smile. "Sorry."

She lets out a small breath. "It's okay. I am religious, but I didn't take art classes to talk about religion. If I wanted to do that I would have taken a theology class."

"Point taken." Did this mean I did all of this research for nothing? I felt a little silly. My younger self would be breaking out I sweat right about now.

"I thought about doing it on last work of arts. You know, like the last pieces an artist has done before dying. Maybe we could separate it between finished works and unfinished works, or maybe even just doing it on unfinished works."

I frowned a little surprised. "I like that." I honestly hadn't thought about doing something actually interesting, and this idea definitely picked my curiosity. Also, I kinda wanted to ask her to repeat what she had just said. Her quiet little voice was really nice and I didn't remember her ever aligning that many words in my presence. "Where would you want to do it?"

"I don't know. Any ideas?" she asked. She wasn't touching her food. I wanted to tell her to eat, but I didn't want to tell her what to do either. Ugh, I was so inept socially.

"Not really, but we can look into it. Maybe some architect's last projects before their death?" I offered. I was already thinking about the possibilities and the cool factor of that idea.

She made a surprised little face too. "Oh, great idea, I hadn't thought of that."

I smiled. "Well, I'd say this is a good start. We can look for art pieces and a venue on our own and maybe share what we found next week?"

She nodded, "perfect."

"Great. Well, I'll let you eat in peace now," I said, pressing both of my hands on the table, "have a nice afternoon Esther."

"You too Nickelback," she replied, with the hint of a teasing little smile.

I laughed. "Nice try."

"Shoot," she said and the tiny smile grew a little bigger. It was cute. "Well, another time."

"Yes, another time," I agreed, grabbed my bag and my book and got up.

I took a couple of steps before Esther called out, "Hey wait! What about your food?"

I turned to look at her, "I didn't touch it, you eat it."

I didn't wait for her to argue about this, I just walked away with a smile on my lips and a little spring in my steps. 

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A/N: Hey guys! Long time no see. 0_0 I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've started to make a schedule for my uploading, if you haven't noticed. I put it in my about me, sent it as a message and put it up on Instagram too (I'm at kaygiard) Do check it out. I'll try to include this story more often. :)

Also, I'm annoying and I keep mentioning it, but I'll do it again. I upload a story daily called The Holt Conundrum and I really really love the main character. It would make me a really happy gal if you guys could go give him some love too. <3

That's all for now. :D Until next time. :)