Work Text:
Elle sighs as she looks at the painting in front of her. It’s not quite how she would like it to be, and it’s driving her slightly crazy. “I can’t figure out where i went wrong…” She mutters for herself as the door swings open. It opens with more force than she would expect from Mr. Ajayi, so she cowers slightly in fear of her bullies finding her. Instead of one of the taller, more muscular boys coming through the door though, a scrawny boy with black hair appears instead. He looks around the room, seemingly unaware of her presence. He takes a deep breath and sinks down onto the ground. Elle looks at the boy a little longer and realizes she had seen him around before.
Charlie had been avoiding his bullies almost all day, with very little success. As he walked down the art corridor, he spotted familiar brown hair and ducked into the nearest room out of fear. He mutters things to himself in an attempt to calm down as he lets himself sink onto the floor.
“Are you ok?” The words make him jump up, quickly surveying his surroundings. He spots a girl across the room, with a somewhat familiar face. He nodded quickly, realizing what room he was in.
“Y-yeah i’m fine, just looking for Mr. Ajayi.” He assures her, though it’s obvious he’s lying. The girl nods and returns to her painting.
“He’s not here right now but you’re welcome to come sit and wait for him.” She replies, patting the seat next to her.
Charlie takes a second to process what she meant, and walks over to her. “I’m sorry if i bothered you while you were painting.” He looks at his hands. Elle chuckles and places her painting down once again.
“It’s quite alright, i wasn’t really painting. I’m Elle by the way.”
“Charlie.” He takes a seat next to her and looks at the painting for a moment. “You’re really good at this,” He looks at up her with a genuine smile, feeling bad for disturbing someone because of his own issues.
Elle smiles once more and looks around her for something to distract him. She spots a small clay figure on the counter, with a cartoonish version of Charlies face and it makes her laugh quietly. “Is that yours?” She points at it before continuing, “Is that what you needed Mr. Ajayi for? To continue working on that?” Charlie nods, getting up to grab the small figure.
“Yeah. He told me to come in whenever i needed to work on it, and today felt like one of those days.” He was lying through his teeth, and they both knew it, but it didn’t change anything. Elle pretended to believe him, and Charlie pretended to believe that she didn’t know he was lying.
The two continued to talk while working on their separate art pieces until the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Charlie got up to leave first, putting away his paints and washing his brushes.
“Hey Charlie? I’m in here every lunch period, so you can always come in if you want to talk to somebody or just hang out.” She offered him a smile, and was given a nod in response.
“I’d like that. I’ll see you tomorrow Elle.” He waved at her and walked out with a small smile in his face. This became a habit, Charlie running into the art room to hide from his demons and Elle acting none the wiser about his true reason for being in the room.