I keep my attention cast down, continuing to work on the outline of my character’s jaw despite his audience, but eventually, I can’t take it anymore.
“Yes?” I ask.
“Do you love it? Drawing, I mean?”
“I wouldn’t major in art or spend my free time doing it if I didn’t.”
There’s a beat of silence before he murmurs a soft, “Yeah, I guess.”
My jaw tenses and my gaze snaps up to find his at the seemingly apathetic response. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I’m aware of the defensiveness in my tone, but I can’t help it. It’s my gut reaction whenever someone has that namelessthingin their voice—like they’re disregarding what I enjoy, having already drawn their own conclusions on whether or not it’s worth my time.
But Camden isn’t put off by the abrasiveness. If anything, his response comes from a place of understanding.
“Nothing, really. It’s just funny because I feel the same way about hockey, but even though I love it, sometimes I question if going pro is even the right call.”
I arch a brow, ready to ask him why the hell we’re even here right now if that’s the case, but he’s quick to explain further.
“Like, I’m going to try, obviously, because I do have this deep love for it. I think it’s more that I miss when it was fun,you know? Even from the time I was maybe six, I was out on the pond behind my dad’s house, all by myself, with a stick in my hand trying to get better. It very quickly became more about training and felt less like a…passion. I mean, I can’t even remember the last time I put on a pair of skates for any other reason than for hockey.”
It’s interesting, hearing him talk about it so differently than my dad or brother. I don’t think either of them once questioned if that was the road they were meant to take, and I know for damn certain they didn’t allow anyone else to question it either.
“I understand as much as I can considering I don’t skate at all, but—”
“Really?” he questions, brows drawn together. The crease between them only deepens when I shake my head, and he whispers, “That’s crazy, coming from the upbringing you do.”
Consider it another way the apple falls far from the Reed family tree.
Offering a non-committal shrug, I reply, “Not really. Just never wanted to learn.”
Okay, maybe it’s more of a refusal to learn on my part, but the fact remains, I’ve never set foot on ice with a pair of skates laced on my feet since Dad first tried to teach me as a little kid.
I expect a barrage of questions to come flying at me, as they often used to once people found out I’m the odd man out compared to the rest of my family. I’m so used to it. I’ve got the answers to them all poised on the tip of my tongue, sure to come out like a perfectly rehearsed speech.
Yet, to my surprise, Camden doesn’t press for more. He simply takes the comment at face value…and moves on. Or rather, he stops talking altogether. Probably not a bad thing, seeing as he has to turn in this last assignment when he walks into class tomorrow, and I still need to check it over with the notes he has from Theo and Holden.
“How’d you get into drawing?” he asks suddenly.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him to stop being nosy and start working if he wants to actually pass this damn class, but I bite my tongue and offer a clipped, vague reply.
“I’ve always liked it. This particular kind probably stems from all the anime I watched growing up.”
“Oh, nice. I watchedAvatar: The Last Airbender,and it was pretty good.”
My pen pauses mid-stroke and I lift my gaze to his. “That’sanimated, notanime.”
“They aren’t the same thing?”
“No, not at all,” I say, correcting the common misconception. “Anime originated in Japan and has a specific style of artwork. It’s still animated,but it’s different fromAvataror, like, all the Disney and Pixar movies.”
“So like a square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn’t a square,” he says, the statement coming out so confidently, I chuckle despite myself.
“Yeah, kinda like that.”
He nods toward the sketchpad in front of me, asking, “So that’s what you’re always drawing then? Anime?”
“It’s manga, technically, which is the Japanese version of comics. But unlike all the colored comics you see from Marvel or DC, manga is only in black and white.”
