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Authors: Lola Silverman
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model.”
“That was Shawn’s idea,” I said, beaming at him. I was so happy to have this to focus on, so happy to have my best friend back in my life again. A puzzle piece I’d thought I’d lost had returned. If only the other piece missing from my life, Patrick, would…no…that wasn’t what I needed to think about right now. Today, it was all about Shawn and me.
“Do you really think it’s the best?” Shawn asked quietly as we circulated. “I know we wanted it to be the best, but maybe we’re just projecting what we want to happen onto reality and warping it.”
“You saw how our advisers reacted,” I told him. “It’s the best. No question about it.”
That wasn’t to say that our classmates’ projects weren’t good. They were all strong pieces, all testaments to just how much hard work we put into our degrees here at the institute, but they weren’t transcendent. And God bless our tireless model. She stood still, on her raised platform, eyes forward as people ogled her and the art that Shawn had created on her body. She really took our project to the next level. Without her, there would’ve only been sketches and my photos to engage people—plus the pamphlets and book we’d created to document the project. She was the one people were talking about, and Shawn’s painting prowess was on full display.
“I didn’t know that you could have a partner,” one of my photography classmates was in the middle of complaining, as Shawn and I passed by, circulating. She fell silent as she saw me, but then decided she had something to say, after all. “It would’ve been easier if I’d known. Then I could’ve split the work and done it in half the time, like you did.”
I opened my mouth to retort. How dare she? She had no idea what Shawn had been through, what I had been through. Missing all of the class time that we had was harrowing and had almost cost us our graduation. We’d worked tirelessly, day and night, to create what we had done. We’d done it in half the time as everyone else because that’s what our lives’ circumstances had forced us to do.
But it was Shawn who cut in first. “Maybe your vision just didn’t reach as far as ours did, then,” he said. “We broke whatever rules there might’ve been—and there weren’t any rules saying we couldn’t—because we were inspired.”
My classmate narrowed her eyes, but I staved off any pushback. “Your black and white work looks really good, by the way. Mercedes urged you away from gray all semester, and you really did it with this body of work. It’s art.”
She looked cowed and surprised that I’d complimented her after she’d insulted our success, and it felt better to smile and drift away than to deliver an insult in kind.
“Look at you,” Shawn said, laughing. “You didn’t have to kiss her ass. She’s been jealous of you all year.”
“Her work was good,” I said, shrugging and grinning. “She was just angry that there might’ve been an advantage she didn’t exploit for the exhibition. I think some of your new positive outlook on life is rubbing off on me.”
Shawn replied, but I didn’t hear him. I’d glanced over to see how our model was faring and noticed Patrick, standing by our exhibit, gazing at me. It made my breath catch in my throat, the way he was looking at me, devouring me with those hungry green eyes. He couldn’t be here.
“Loren?”
I whipped back around to Shawn. “Yeah?”
“Did you hear me?”
“No, sorry,” I said. “I was just checking on the model.” No—damn it. That was a mistake. If Shawn looked over there, he’d see Patrick. I didn’t want to ruin our evening.
“I was wondering how our exhibit will work when it’s on permanent display on campus,” he said. “I was wondering what you thought about asking some of the sculpture students if they had any nude sculptures that we could incorporate. That would be another opportunity at collaboration, and it would get the
“That was Shawn’s idea,” I said, beaming at him. I was so happy to have this to focus on, so happy to have my best friend back in my life again. A puzzle piece I’d thought I’d lost had returned. If only the other piece missing from my life, Patrick, would…no…that wasn’t what I needed to think about right now. Today, it was all about Shawn and me.
“Do you really think it’s the best?” Shawn asked quietly as we circulated. “I know we wanted it to be the best, but maybe we’re just projecting what we want to happen onto reality and warping it.”
“You saw how our advisers reacted,” I told him. “It’s the best. No question about it.”
That wasn’t to say that our classmates’ projects weren’t good. They were all strong pieces, all testaments to just how much hard work we put into our degrees here at the institute, but they weren’t transcendent. And God bless our tireless model. She stood still, on her raised platform, eyes forward as people ogled her and the art that Shawn had created on her body. She really took our project to the next level. Without her, there would’ve only been sketches and my photos to engage people—plus the pamphlets and book we’d created to document the project. She was the one people were talking about, and Shawn’s painting prowess was on full display.
“I didn’t know that you could have a partner,” one of my photography classmates was in the middle of complaining, as Shawn and I passed by, circulating. She fell silent as she saw me, but then decided she had something to say, after all. “It would’ve been easier if I’d known. Then I could’ve split the work and done it in half the time, like you did.”
I opened my mouth to retort. How dare she? She had no idea what Shawn had been through, what I had been through. Missing all of the class time that we had was harrowing and had almost cost us our graduation. We’d worked tirelessly, day and night, to create what we had done. We’d done it in half the time as everyone else because that’s what our lives’ circumstances had forced us to do.
But it was Shawn who cut in first. “Maybe your vision just didn’t reach as far as ours did, then,” he said. “We broke whatever rules there might’ve been—and there weren’t any rules saying we couldn’t—because we were inspired.”
My classmate narrowed her eyes, but I staved off any pushback. “Your black and white work looks really good, by the way. Mercedes urged you away from gray all semester, and you really did it with this body of work. It’s art.”
She looked cowed and surprised that I’d complimented her after she’d insulted our success, and it felt better to smile and drift away than to deliver an insult in kind.
“Look at you,” Shawn said, laughing. “You didn’t have to kiss her ass. She’s been jealous of you all year.”
“Her work was good,” I said, shrugging and grinning. “She was just angry that there might’ve been an advantage she didn’t exploit for the exhibition. I think some of your new positive outlook on life is rubbing off on me.”
Shawn replied, but I didn’t hear him. I’d glanced over to see how our model was faring and noticed Patrick, standing by our exhibit, gazing at me. It made my breath catch in my throat, the way he was looking at me, devouring me with those hungry green eyes. He couldn’t be here.
“Loren?”
I whipped back around to Shawn. “Yeah?”
“Did you hear me?”
“No, sorry,” I said. “I was just checking on the model.” No—damn it. That was a mistake. If Shawn looked over there, he’d see Patrick. I didn’t want to ruin our evening.
“I was wondering how our exhibit will work when it’s on permanent display on campus,” he said. “I was wondering what you thought about asking some of the sculpture students if they had any nude sculptures that we could incorporate. That would be another opportunity at collaboration, and it would get the
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