Watch Me ✔️

Chapter 6

Work on Monday was extremely boring and I spent half the day going through ideas for my next youtube video. The one bright spot happened when Kiara came to the mall during my lunch break. I bought her lunch and we sat in a corner table people watching together.

"This counts as our second date right?" I asked after picking my tomatoes out of my salad and putting them in front of her.

"I think it does. Plus we are a real couple if you're letting me eat your tomatoes." She replied in the middle of a big bite. I giggled at her trying to cover my mouth and we were soon overcome with laughter.

I invited Kiara to join me to Mallory's Paint & Sip that night, but she had dance class and since she was the teacher, she couldn't skip. I told her there'd be another one she could come to, they tended to happen every other week. We made plans for a date the next day though to head to dinner and a movie, very classic.

I was really looking forward to getting home, showering, and relaxing before the Paint & Sip at 7pm, but I had gotten a text from Matt saying Mallory was running around the apartment flipping out and that I should get over there to help calm her down. He offered to an extra plate of their dinner, so I accepted.

When I got home, I changed out of my work clothes and took a quick shower. I chose not to shave and decided it was necessary to wear pants tonight so no one knew my legs looked like a forest. I put on my classic painting shirt, an old tshirt from a college program that was already half covered in paint.

Then I headed over to their apartment. Matt answered the door looking frazzled and said, "Thank goodness," and dragged me into the apartment. Mallory had all her paint supplies laid out on the living room floor and was clearly practicing her canvas for tonight. Her hair was up in her signature messy bun and her hands were covered in dried paint.

"Hey girl, how's the painting?" I asked her. Matt went back to the kitchen to finish dinner so we could eat before leaving.

"Good, good, good." Mallory replied, not looking up. She was jumping back and forth from painting to writing steps for herself for the class. She didn't seem to be freaking out in the way Matt had described, but she was frazzled.

"Would you like any help? Want me to write out your instructions?" I asked, sitting cross legged on the floor next to her.

"That would be amazing, I'll paint and say directions out loud." She replied. She handed me the notebook and pen. We finished up the painting and directions, and then ate dinner together at their little breakfast table.

We then headed over to the Paint & Sip studio together. I offered to drive all of us, so we piled into my car. Mallory filled my entire trunk with her supplies, but she looked pleased with her final product, so I didn't say a word.

We were doing a perspective painting with Mallory during this session. It was a mountain scene with evergreen trees of different sizes. While Mallory set up, Matt and I picked our spots in the front corner. I put my apron on and texted Kiara to let her know I was there.

"Hey gorgeous!" I turned at the sound of a familiar voice and say Harper waving to me. Peyton was just behind him surveying the room. They set themselves up in the stations behind us. I looked over at Mallory and she was looking back and me with a nervous expression. I knew Matt knew about Harper, but I didn't know if he would know his face.

"I haven't been to one of Mallory's sessions in awhile, this will be fun!" Harper said enthusiastically. I made awkward eye contact with Peyton, who smirked at me. I looked away quickly and saw Matt tense up. Maybe he did know exactly who Harper was.

The room filled up nicely and Mallory got started. We got our supplies together and I wet my brushes. She was great at teaching people how to paint and after more difficult steps she would walk around to offer help to anyone struggling.

She started us off with the background. I was mixing my colors and blending along. I took a big of water, bummed out that I had offered to drive and shouldn't drink any wine. I was proud of this painting, the moon I had painted didn't look too big and my trees weren't a total disaster. I had dried paint all down my right forearm, but that was normal for me.

During one of the later times Mallory was walking around, Peyton came over to my canvas and started looking at it.

"You do a great job with the background, but your trees are a bit blob like." He said after a moment.

"Well thank you for the that kind backhanded compliment." I laughed in reply. Then looking at his canvas I said, "You do a great job with your paint strokes, but your sky isn't super blended."

"Thank you for your feedback, I'll keep that in mind next time." He said coming closer to me, "So do you think there could be a next time?"

"Well Mallory usually does these every other week, so yeah I'm sure you could come again." I replied, wiping my hands on my apron.

"I meant a next time with you and me. I was asking you out on a date." He said.

"Oh," I said embarrassed, "Well, I'm kinda seeing someone right now."

"How do you know they're right for you? Maybe I'm your soulmate." Peyton said, nudging me with his elbow and accidentally getting paint on my apron. I laughed awkwardly and stepped back about a few inches. I hadn't heard from the unknown number in over a day, but the way Peyton said that comment immediately made me think of the most recent text. Was he the one sending me those messages?

"Umm, true, but I really like them, so rain check?" I said, taking another step back and returning to my painting. He nodded and went back to his painting too.

Mallory wrapped up the session and gave her final speech thanking everyone and announcing when her next one was. I started to move over to her to help her clean up, when I heard Matt start to say something.

"How did you know this was even happening?" Matt said to Harper, his eyes dark. Harper was not backing down as he moved around his painting to stand in front of Matt.

"Mallory invited all her friends on facebook." Harper replied, putting emphasis on the word friends.

"Stay away from Mallory, I'm warning you." Matt said, stepping closer to Harper. I saw Mallory say goodbye to one of her other friends and come over to us quickly.

With his hands up in defense, he replied, "Geez man, we are just old friends."

"I know exactly who you are." Matt said seriously, his hands in tight fists. His right hand still gripping a paint brush.

"I'm just here supporting her, doesn't she deserve that?" Harper said, a small smirk flitting across his face for just a second before becoming serious again.

"I think it's best if you just leave." Mallory said walking up to the conversation and putting her hand on Matt's arm, "Thank you for coming Harper."

"You are very welcome, and if you ever decide to return to dating a real man, give me a call." He said, turning around quickly, pulling off his apron, grabbing his painting, and leaving before Matt could say anything else.

Peyton turned to me and said in a rush, "Hopefully I'll see you later." Before grabbing his painting, taking off his apron, and heading out to follow Harper.

"I promise, he means nothing to me, I just happened to see him at the bar the other night, so he's on some weird crusade to get back into my life. It's you and me babe." Mallory said to Matt. I moved away from them and started to clean up some of the loose art supplies laying around. I also grabbed Harper's apron from the ground and rolled my eyes at his behavior.

My phone buzzed just then and I looked down at it. There was a single message.

Unknown Number: I missed you today.