Double Life: Through my eyes I

A/N: there´s no A/N... got nothing to say yet I´m saying it... oh, except that this is just half of the post

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Nichole arrived early at the Art Club room, she stared to set up the paintings, she had to go through many of her paintings. Mike had given her her own cabinet to keep them ones that had accumulated along the years. There was one drawing of her Josh project that she couldn´t find, she exhaled tiredly as she went through months of paintings and drawings until she got to an old one. It was a picture of a boy, he had a smirk on his face and there was a visible cocky confidence in his features.

“What happened to the model? –Mike asked walking closer- you never did any other portrait of him”

“He died” she said just barely above a whisper

“Oh. I´m sorry… You can take that picture home with you”

“I prefer it to be here –she put it back in the middle of the other paintings- Mike, I can´t find one of the pictures…”

“Oh, it’s on my desk. I was looking at it this morning. I really liked the concept”

“Thank you” she gave one last glance to the picture that had made it hard to swallow and then closed the cabinet

“Ok, who´ll go first?” Mike asked at three o´clock once both Nic and Josh were in the room

“I will” Nichole said and got up to take off the cloth of one of the paintings. Josh´s eyes grew wide

“That day on the roof…” he said

“I let you see me” she explained as he looked at the blue-gray sky with the sun setting and his own figure like a shadow on the sun, his hands were gripping the fence and his head was slightly turned to a side, he was mostly a shadow except for the side of his face that was turned to where she´d been seen him. He looked expensive and it was obvious all the details had been taken into account, the wrinkles of his white uniform and the sun on his hair, the tress on the background and he could swear that even the air was visible. He smiled.

“Wow” he turned to her without saying a word she removed another one of the cloth, this was a smaller painting. Joshua recognized his eyes that were somehow part of the background which was made out of green trees, there was some kind of transparence but then his eyelashes were there and somehow got lost in the shadows of the tree´s leaves. Next to this one, there was another small one made out of pencils only. The setting was that river she´d taken him a few months ago. He was on the large stone she´d been on. He was smiling a small smile but the slightly downcast eyes expressed something that was not happiness, once again trees were the background but less emphasis was put in this one. The main focus was him; clearly it was not a mere picture but a look at how he was seen through her eyes. This was entirely her doing because he´d never sat there not had her been far from him to see him that way. He stepped closer to this painting and saw himself even, great attention to detail had been taken, he could even see his almost invisible mole, it truly looked like some kind of painting taken out of a picture.

There were a couple more; one of them was in this very same room. Part of his body was covered by a female figure, he knew it had been Jill but this one was different, she was there but she could´ve been anyone. His face was tilted down with a small smile and his eyes were looking ahead with a gleam he´d never noticed but he´d seen it in his twin, his eyes were slightly smaller, his fingers on the girl´s right shoulder, from his other hand there was a red drop falling and where it was supposed to hit the floor there was a dead leaf.

Josh turned from the picture to her, a question in his green eyes. “Me” she mouthed and turned to the last and bigger painting. She uncovered this slowly, he took a step back.

In this last picture, there was a hand with a black glove touching a glass, behind it there was him, he was also touching the glass, the hands were not in the same place, his fingers were seen through the spaces of the other´s hand´s fingers, the sides of the painting were dark but some light outlined bottles and tables and even some human figures with hats that didn´t let their features to be seen. On the background, the room had no wall, it seemed that it had been destroyed, out there there was fog and barely noticeable there was a tiny figure of a person. It was dark and it had the feeling of fear and mystery.

“Alright, that´s it” she broke the silence

“Do you want to say something about the pictures?” Mike inquired

“Not really, just that they are portraits that are not portraits and it´s up to anybody who sees it to give them meaning”

“Very good. Josh, would you like to say something?”

“…No, not really” he said going back to eye the paintings and drawings. Mike chuckled

“Don’t worry, Josh, Nic tends to have obscure topics. I´m more admired by the one on the roof… I don´t know if you´ve seen her  ‘Ash Girl’…” The teacher said and Josh immediately turned to Nichole whose eyes were marginally wider

“Mike, don´t taint his own view of the pictures” she rolled her eyes to the man who chuckled. Josh gave another look at the pictures, tilting his head at the one of the roof, the one on the river and the very last one.

“Josh, I guess it´s your turn now –The teacher said after a few moments- Do you want to say something before starting?” The boy shook his head.