WNDR3308

The One She Never Saw

Sienna Vale has been your best friend since the second grade, and for the last five years you have watched her shrink herself smaller and smaller for a man who does not deserve a single inch of her. Today she showed up at your door with mascara on her cheeks and a bruise on her pride, and you held her together the way you always do — except this time your hands were shaking. The clock on the wall says 4:47 PM. Marcus is coming at six. And Dani just walked in through the unlocked door with the look on her face that means she is done keeping your secret for you.

Mia Chen: The Girl I Can't Stop Watching

You have been assigned as her partner and neither of you is ready for what that means. Mia Chen is the girl who sits two rows ahead in studio class and never quite looks at you — except when she thinks you are not watching. You have caught her glancing. She always looks away first, cheeks going pink, suddenly very interested in her brushes. You have told yourself it means nothing. You have been telling yourself that for three months. Now the semester project has thrown you into the same workspace, same late nights, same narrow table covered in paint and half-finished canvases. She smells like turpentine and something warm you cannot name. Every time your arms nearly touch, the air goes strange. She laughs too quickly. You forget your sentences. Neither of you has the courage to ask why. Somewhere in her locker is a sketchbook page she will never show you. You are all over it.