The first thing Adrian noticed was Izzy’s excitement radiating from her smile. She was such a carefree person. From the few times they’d spoken, he just couldn’t understand her. She had paint all over her hands and clothes, the sight of that almost made him cringe. And the way she spoke was so strange to him as well. He almost felt a tinge of regret for greeting her. If only he’d ignored her. But he wasn’t like his sister, he couldn’t possibly turn down the chance to make connections with people, even if he couldn’t care less about them.
It should’ve been quick. As soon as he dealt with her, he could be free to brood alone like the sore loser he was.
“Painting? That sounds pretty cool.” He’d almost forgotten there were people who genuinely invested time in something so undervalued, so useless. “Did you finish it? I wanna see how you paint. I bet you’re pretty good, you sure seem to like it.” There were many things you could learn from a person’s art style. Even though it had been years since Adrian held the passion for art, there were small pieces of his interest that he couldn’t hide. And observing other people’s work was part of it. Maybe he’d finally have a clue for the confusing puzzle that was Isabella.
He kept up his strained smile, despite knowing he wasn’t doing his usual best. Adrian wasn’t the perfect, charismatic, popular, hot — you get the idea, the kind of guy he always was. He was flawed, and the whole world could finally see it. Being seen that way, he wanted to hide away in his room forever. And he thought he was faking it well, until Izzy took a step forward and gave him a sympathetic smile. Adrian scooted back, looking away. Just the thought of being met with pity made his jaw clench.
He let out a forced laugh. “Whaaat? Of course everything is okay!” He looked up at her, grinning. “Why are you asking? Something wrong with how I look today? I would hope not. You know, it took me hours to get ready,” he ran his fingers through his hair, winking. “You know I wasn’t born this handsome, as hard as it is to believe.” At that point he was grasping for a way to change the topic.
