75

Exams were over the following week and the sculpture final year students heaved a sigh of relief on walking out of their studio that day, at the thought of having a breather, after strenuous school work.

"We are finally done."

"Should we have drinks tonight to celebrate?" Chris asked, draping his hand over Herley's shoulder.

"Man, we're supposed to start looking for jobs now. How can you think of drinking?" Herley asked, sounding serious and Chris scoffed.

"Don't make me laugh. Aren't you excited by the thought of drinking with Sol?" He asked.

"God, I'm screwed." Jennie whined as she walked out of the studio, running to meet Sol, who threw an arm over her shoulder, with a smile.

"What's wrong?"

"I messed up the final question, Sol. I'm really screwed." She whined again, burying her face into Sol's shirt and she smiled.

"There's nothing to worry about. I'm sure you did well." "Well, I hope you didn't." April teased, rolling her eyes as she walked over to her locker.

"April." She blurted and Sol laughed as Tahti walked towards her locker, to take out the rest of her things, which was left from packing all week.

"Who does this belong to?" April announced, taking out a green coloured notepad from her locker, while Tahti was clearing out hers and she turned to have a look, to see it was her drawing sketch pad, which she'd recently misplaced and had been too busy to look for it, because of exams.

"That's mine." She replied and April turned to her. "Really?" She asked, eyeing the book like she doubted the credibility for a second, before she tossed it to her. "Ah, thats right. Demir asked me to give it to you."

"Demir?" She asked.

"Aydemir Wilson? Why haven't I seen him in a while?" Jennie asked, as she partly hugged her girlfriend.

"Me too. Who's been keeping in touch with him lately?" Herley asked and Tahti's ears pricked up as she resumed clearing her locker.

She had noticed that Demir had gone MIA, for the past one week and had been so busy with exams, to have at least contacted him once, although she knew that was an excse. She had just been too scared to go back on her word.

"No one?"

"I heard a third-year student say he took his tools and his previous projects. His piece in studio B is gone too." Chris said.

"Come to think of it, I saw him talking with those Asian guys, the other day." Jasmine said and everyone, except Tahti, turned to her.

"Do you think he sold his pieces and went abroad?"

Tahti's mind uncontrollably went back to the last time she had seen him, which was the day they had parted ways in the studio. He had looked like he had wanted to say something to her, the moment his eyes has gotten all misty and such and she wondered what he wanted to say badly but he couldn't.

"I guess no one knows a thing about Demir after all." Jennie sighed and Herley snorted.

"April should know something." He pointed out and everyone's eyes moved from Jasmine to April, who was now leaning against her locker, watching them look at her with expectation, written all over their eyes.

"Don't look at me. I don't know anything." She replied and the crew, not looking convinced, arched their brow in disbelief.

"You don't?"

"That's impossible." Chris said.

"Well, it's not. Who would have thought a gossip columnist like her, would retire and end up dating a nerd like Derek?" Herley tesed and she lurched out her foot to kick him which he quickly dodged.

He was yet to stop teasing her, ever since he had found out about their relationship.

"Let's go now." Jasmine said, walking over to take her boyfriend's hand as the crew made to head out, when April turned to Tahti, who was still standing in front of her locker.

"Aren't you coming?" She asked and the crew turned back to look with her.

"No. I have a couple of things to do at home." She replied and April thinned her lips, with a shrug, leaving with the gang.

Her cellphone rang, the minute the gang had exited the highway and she struggled with her books on her arms to take out the her phone, from her back pocket before looking at the ID, which brought a smile to her lips.

"Hey."

"Congratulations on finishing your final examinations." Josh cheered from the other end and her smile widened. "Thanks Josh."

"Where are you? Are you busy?"

"Um... no. Why did you ask?"

"I was wondering if we could talk over a drink. It's been a while we met up, anyway." He replied.

"Sure." She answered, holding up her phone with her shoulder, so as to take out the rest of her textbooks into her arms.

"Where should we meet up?"

"Um... Kate's cafe should be fine. I was craving their strawberry ice cream froth, all day." She replied, propping up her books to close the locker shut, before she turned to leave the hallway.

"Cool. Kate's cafe it is, then. I'll meet you there."

She returned her phone to her back pocket, once he had disconnected the call, to walk out of the school and flagged down a taxi.

"Kate's cafe, please." She told him when she embarked and made to stuff in her books into her bag, when her eyes fell on the sketch pad which she had received from April earlier.

A frown settled on her brow as she slowly reached out to touch the sketch pad. April said Demir had told her to give it to her, which meant the sketchpad had been with him the entire time, it had been missing but why had he held on to it instead of giving it back to her?

Her fingers slot splayed over the front cover to flip the book open and to find the drawings she had made of Demir, while he had been sleeping at her place one night.

She had recalled he had slept while she had been working on an assignments and a distracted her had given up on her work to take up a pencil for a brief sketch of him, which had ended up in an art.

A brief smile crossed our lips and she flipped over to the next page, which was an act of a set of intertwined legs, a position made by a couple when making love. Demir had been the one who had drawn that, during one of their lessons on human anatomy and she had watched him with satisfaction, glad she had been such a good teacher.

How was she supposed to define when the feelings she had left for him, she thought as her fingers went over to the next page, to see a drawing of Demir sleeping soundly while clutching the bed spread himself after one of their rounds of sex. She remembered he had caught her when she was adding the final touches to the drawing and had kissed her hard, distracting her again from completing the drawing and leaving her with desperate need.

Could it be called lingering affection? She wondered as she went on to the next page, which was yet another drawing of Demir.

Regret? She sighed, flipping over to the next page, which was a drawing of him, when he had been doing the dishes, one night at her apartment.

Could it be hatred?

Or was it love?

Her feelings were still in a conflict so she couldn't be sure.

She snapped the book shut to flip through the rest of the pages, deciding to busy herself during the vacation, by drawing new things that caught her interest but her fingers, which had been flipping through the pages froze, on seeing an unrecognised drawing at the back of the sketch pad.

She opened the sketch pad to reveal a portrait drawing which somewhat looked like her and a frown settled on her face. She had never drawn herself before so how come there was a drawing of her in that sketchpad?

She flipped over to the next page of the pad, to see the full drawing of the girl, who looked like her, in an exhibition centre, holding flowers and standing in front of a sculpture art piece, which looked somewhat familiar.

Her eyes peered further into the drawing, searching for answers, as to where she had seen the strangely familiar scene before.

Then, it all came crashing down.