Watercolour Smile Read Online Free PDF Page B

heard you swear before, though I’m not sure that word really counts.” He stood and moved past me for the door, closing it on my stunned face.
    “What the hell?” I asked the empty room.
    The phone on the piano buzzed and I reached for it. There was a reply from Quillan.
    I’m holding up a finger right now.
    I smiled, typing out a response.
    No you’re not. You can’t text with one hand.
    I liked that Quillan was showing me a lighter side, he was usually some combination of mild and serious. I appreciated it, normally, since Cabe had more energy than was technically normal for any person, and Noah had so much intensity to him that he could sometimes be exhausting—not to mention Silas, who was energy twisted into violence, and intensity twisted into severity, brimming over with each step until he seemed to walk around with a perpetual timer strapped to the back of his head. Even so, it was nice when Quillan lightened our interactions.
    Either way, you owe me now.
    I glanced at the new message and typed out a response without really thinking. I hesitated with my thumb over the send button, suddenly wondering if it was the right thing to say, but I didn’t have a chance to decide before the door opened again. My nerves were so shot that I jolted the phone into my pocket like I was holding some kind of dirty secret in the palm of my hand—which probably wasn’t too far off the mark, since I was texting a teacher—and faced Poison’s inquisitive expression.
    “Quit hiding.” She gave me a pointed look. “Nobody comes to school to learn anything. Come and help me play chopsticks on the xylophone.”
    I laughed at her and the phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and realised that I must have bumped the send button, because there was another reply from Quillan.
    You don’t mean that .
    I blinked, and glanced at the word I had typed to him. Anything . I had meant it in a friendly way… yet, somehow, the bond had managed to twist things into a different light. I didn’t know if he was right or not, so I didn’t reply. Would I do anything for him? Even if it wasn’t how I felt? Even if I knew, deep down, that it wasn’t how he felt either? I trailed Poison to the corner of the classroom where several students were sprawled out, lazily toying with hand instruments. I began to wonder if anybody took this class seriously, but then I remembered that the teacher was expecting a full, original composition by the end of the term.
    I curled onto my knees beside Poison, and we began to tap out a song on the colourful keys.
    “The Duchess is slumming it with the rest of the peasants today, huh?”
    I looked to the girl who spoke, and then turned back to the xylophone when I didn’t recognise her. Maybe she had been talking to someone else.
    “ Burn .” Someone else laughed. “Too bad, Kellie.” This was a boy, and I again raised my head before quickly lowering it.
    I realised, then, that the girl—Kellie—must have required some kind of a response from me. I really needed to work on my social skills.
    “Yes,” I eventually said, looking at her. Inwardly, I cringed, wondering if I sounded like as much of a robot to them as I did to myself.
    Her brows arched high, a stunned look overtaking the one of annoyance that had previously clouded her expression. Beside me, Poison snickered. I returned my attention to the little instrument, and the others seemed to fall into easy conversation around me, as though I had given them permission to relax.
    Strange .
    At the end of the day I returned to Quillan’s office and knocked on the door, not wanting to walk in on another encounter. He opened it and looked down at me. There was the tiniest smile hinting at his mouth as he stood aside for me to enter.
    “Get to work,” he said lightly, returning to his desk.
    I remained where I was standing as he sat behind his desk and started scribbling down notes on a stack of papers. When he looked up again, fixing me with a