"It's nothing, I'm fine." River said before untangling his hand from mine and proceeding to get up from the table, leaving and disappearing into the hallway.
"What's up with him?" Keomi asked me,
"I'm going to go find out--" Gene attempted to follow him down the hall but I stopped her before she could even get up as she once did to me.
"Justsitdown, Genevieve," I said to her and her expression turned frustrated but it was for the best to just give him space wasn’t it?
I hoped so.
Later on that evening, I decided to go over to River's apartment because he hadn't texted me back the entire day and It was getting on my last nerves. I drove across Paris to see him, so yeah I cared, I cared alotactually. The lady at the front desk let me up because she recognized me from the many times I'd come over. I made my way up the elevator and into his apartment, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"River?" I called but he didn't answer so I wandered down the hallway to his bedroom which I'd never really seen before, and there was another room right next to it. I pushed the door open and it was an art room, garnished top to bottom with supplies and blank canvases.
I wished I had a room like that, that I could just dedicate to my art. River was at the centre of it all trapped in a trace and painted with the utmost precision. His hands moving in a rapid blur of technique, he didn't even notice I'd come into the room, so when I cleared my throat he looked up at me and his expression softened.
"Didn't mean to interrupt Picasso." I teased and he paused and put his paintbrush back in the water, "You kind of bailed on me today, that wasn't very nice."
"I know and I'm sorry I just had a lot of work, and it gets hard to keep up sometimes," River admitted and I made my way over to him,
"It's okay, just make sure you're not biting off more than you can chew okay?" I reminded him and I pulled him into a hug and he wrapped his arms around me,
"Yeah I hear you, I will." He assured me by placing a kiss onto my forehead.
"Does that mean I can stay the night?" I asked, mumbling into his chest in the hopes that he'd let me.
"Uh yeah sure." He agreed and my heart felt full once more.
"River?" I asked my voice smaller than usual,
"Hm?" He replied,
"Did you eat today?" I asked,
"Yeah." He shrugged brushing me off,
"Did youreallyeat today?" I asked once more,
"No." He replied, and I sighed untangling myself from his arms and pulling him along with me, making my way to his kitchen.
"Armani, stop you don't have to." River protested,
"Yes I do, now what do you want?" I asked sitting him down at the counter as I flipped through the pages of a random cookbook I found.
"Nothing." He replied, "Seriously you-"
"Baked vegan feta pasta it is." I declared and his expression softened with gratitude.
I grabbed a pot and put the pasta on to boil while I sprinkled a bunch of spices to the feta to give it more flavour, because who the fuck wants to eat plain flavourless vegan cheese? As I did so River insisted on helping me and he thought I didn’t notice but he looked almost pale and absent-minded, but I decided not to think much of it. I tuned into the news channel and watched it while he ate.
"Monsieur Etienne was wrong to put all this pressure on you, it's unfair, you've got other classes too," I mentioned as he picked at his food,
"He was right, my painting wasn't good enough. Allard is paying the school thousands of euros for my commission and if I fuck it up it'll be the end of me." He told me and I paused,
"Jesus, you're overreacting I'm sure it's not as big of a deal as you're putting it out to be. It'snotworth it, you should take a break." I insisted, trying to minimise his stress to make him feel better, but maybe it came across as harsh and he didn’t say anything to that.
After Dinner I made my way into his room, the roofing was partly made of glass and you could see the night sky above it. Everything was so neat and orderly you'd think it was a hotel room, not one shirt was on the floor, not one pillow out of place and I immediately knew that he was such a perfectionist in everything. Not just in his artwork.
"I uh- I don't have anything to wear to bed," I told him and he gave me a half-tired smile,
