Molly's Stories 7. The Model
Molly and Stephen and their story-telling were introduced in "The Professor series," but they continued to write stories and share them with one another. Molly's stories will appear in the BDSM category, while Stephen's better fit under Romance.
The Model
Polly was restless. Her classes were going OK, but she had a hard time getting interested in Asian Postcolonial Political History, Political Philosophy of the Revolutions, French Literature, and Economic History. As a poli science major, she should be into these, but she was distracted. She had just broken up with her boyfriend, but that was more of a relief than a stress. She had pushed him away because the relationship seemed stale.
The wild card in her schedule was her drawing class. She hated it at first because she knew she was bad at it, but it fulfilled a liberal arts requirement. Yes, students were graded on improvement and effort, but she felt like a failure every time she started a new assignment. They started off with an apple. She had sat staring at an apple in her kitchen for a half hour before she saw more than a circle with a stem on it. She was finally beginning to understand light and shadow, but it was a month too late.
There were two students in the class who unnerved her. The first was Melissa Zimmer, her nemesis. Melissa had plagued her life since elementary school. She was one of those bossy flirty girls who delighted in putting every other girl down. She took delight in ridiculing Polly in public until Polly wanted to crawl into a hole. In high school she flirted with Polly's only boyfriend until she seduced him into bed, at which point she promptly dumped him. Polly thought she was free of Melissa after graduation, but they ended up in the same university. When a boy asked her out after the freshman mixer Melissa poached him again. At least they had not taken the same classes and Polly had mostly avoided her - until now. Melissa had shown up in her art class. At the end of the first day, as Polly was finishing up the cube they were assigned to draw, Melissa had come up behind her and said, in a voice loud enough for all to hear, "Isn't that the picture you drew in kindergarten?" Polly turned, wishing she had a comeback, but Melissa was already heading out of the room with one of the guys.
The other student who irritated her was Wallace. (Who names their son Wallace?) He was older, in his thirties. He didn't interact with the other students or participate in the endless drama and meaningless chatter of undergraduates. He worked by himself with an amazing focus and intensity. Polly was jealous and wished that she cared as much as he. But every once and a while she caught him looking at her. Never at any other of the other girls in the room - just her.
Today's assignment was to draw a building on campus. She packed her lunch and went out onto the campus laws to select a view to draw. Just as she was picking a place to sit down, she noticed Wallace intently sketching the administration building. She silently walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder. Her jaw dropped. His picture was light years ahead of anything else she had seen in the class. "My God, I can't believe you just drew that!"
He looked up, unfazed. "Hi, Polly. Care to join me?" He patted the ground beside him.
Polly set her bag down and eased onto the grass. "You know my name?"
Wallace smiled. "I've noticed you."
She changed the subject before her blush became too obvious. "How'd you learn to draw like that?"
"I've been painting and drawing since I was six. If I were good enough, I would have quit my job and do this full time."
"What's your job?"
"I'm a desk jockey for Data Ink. Boring as hell, but the hours are regular and leave me free for my hobby."
"Let me see." Polly took the green-covered sketch book out of his hand. The current year, 2012, was written on the cover. She opened it randomly to a picture of a girl. He reached to take it back, but she turned away from him so she could get a better look. It was a portrait from the back, showing mostly hair and bare shoulders. She looked more closely. "Is that me?"
It was Wallace's turn to blush. "Yeah." He took the pad back. "I think you're pretty. I like the way you put your hair up sometimes to expose the nape of your neck."
"But I was wearing clothes."
"Of course. I was more interested in the curve of your neck. I didn't mean anything by it."
"Can I see it again?"
Reluctantly he surrendered the book. She leafed through it until she found her picture, but the other pages impressed her as well. She recognized class assignments, but he had a lot other pictures of stone walls and trees. There was a faceless girl where he focused on the folds of her shirt.
"This is really good. I mean, I don't know much about art, but this is really good."
"Thanks."
She turned another page. This time there was quick sketch of her face.
She looked at him questioningly. He shrugged.
"You never even sit near me."
"I can see you better from across the room."
She flipped through a couple more pages. Another image stopped her cold. It was a sketch of a woman wearing a blindfold.
Her stomach clenched and her heart pounded. She wanted to stare at it but felt embarrassed. Like a guilty pleasure. She quickly closed the book. "I don't see anyone else from the class in here."
"No."
"I'm the only person you've drawn?"
"Recently. I haven't worked from live models. I have a lot to learn about drawing people."
No, you don't
, Polly thought, but she admired his modesty.
"Let's take a look at your pad." He reached across her lap to where she had laid hers on the ground.
"No, I'm terrible!" But she let him pick it up.
He turned to the most recent page, an outline of the engineering building that was half finished. It looked like a stack of boxes.
"Hmm. Maybe if you would darken these lines, here and here and here."
She took it back and touched it up with her pencil as he had suggested. The profile of the building seemed to jump out at her. "That's amazing."
"See? You do have an eye for the detail. Now you need to learn how to pull out the most important features." He took the tablet back and flipped through earlier pages - her various attempts at the apple and then other solid shapes the teacher had assigned. "Anyone can see you are making progress."
"You are very kind. Do you think you could give me some more pointers?"
"Sure." He turned back to the current project. For the next twenty minutes he described how the architect had envisioned the profile of the building and the placement of the windows and how the colored aluminum panels highlighted the dark limestone blocks.
