Heart Of Ice

Chapter 13

Samika's POV

"I've heard a teacher from Knoxville is here. Who is that in you?" He asks us, but Olive and I are too stunned to speak.

"Brent Foster?" I ask him.

"Me" he smirks at me.

"Andrew Larsen?" Olive asks him this time.

"Also me" he smirks at her as well.

Olive and I exchange looks and we sit down on the cough again. Brent Foster is that person in our painter/artist world who would mesmerize us with his work and yet, never really attends any art days or fests.

There were research programs for him while we were at college and that is how we know him. You people should see his skills, he will drench you in the sea of wonders. Especially with his speciality, painting with only water! Applying perfect amounts of pressure so the water leaves different kinds of impressions based on the pressure, to give a beautiful output.

"How did that happen?" I finally ask him when one of his maids serves us some tea and we are all sitting. It took Olive and I a few minutes to actually come back to reality where we are looking at Brent Foster for real.

"I just wanted to teach them. But they weren't worth it" he shrugs, taking a sip of his green tea. Olive and I have English tea with slices of lemon loaf on the side.

"But they must have recognised you as Brent Foster. I mean, you are no ordinary person for sure" Olive says and that's a point.

"You see Miss ..." he trails and looks at Olive.

"Olive. Olive Robshaw" she says and he nods.

"You see Olive, the education system at the moment is nothing but a business. They teach but most of the students don't even know what they learn. You know, the other day I randomly asked one of my maid Mrs. Whisker's kid, about who was the president of the country and he said Justin Bieber" Brent says.

Olive laughs but I just snort. Brent Foster looks at me amused but I just say sorry. By the way I am not at all sorry for laughing like that because maybe that's true. That's how schools are nowadays.

"Picasso could walk out of his grave and kids who are learning art will mistake him for Joe Biden, that is.." he pauses to take a sip of his green tea again,"if they know who Joe Biden is and even then they'd be wrong"

Olive and I cannot stop smiling and laughing at this point. This man knows how to talk, how to paint, is handsome, rich as heck.. very intriguing.

Another maid comes to us to collect the empty cups and plates. Once she leaves, Brent Foster looks at us again nodding his head. Olive then tells him about why we are here.

"Can I take a look around the paintings?" I ask him mid conversation because I am slowly starting to get bored. I have no idea what they are even talking about.

"Yes, sure. Courtney?" He yells and a ginger head runs out with a smile on her face but fades as soon as she sees Olive and I present.

"Take her to the art gallery. Make sure she is being treated nice" he smiles and I nod, following Courtney.

She is a maid here, and that is all I have established so far. Because these people look like they have a dress code. Not really the same dresses but they are all dressed in dark blue. And as far as I know, Brent Foster is not married.

As we walk to his art gallery, as he mentioned.. The ginger head gives me the kind of look that any girl can easily say it's out of jealousy. I don't say anything though. I just want to get to the gallery and take a look at the paintings. That's all for now.

Just after a two minute walk, she opens the door and turns the lights on. I see almost two dozen paintings hanging on all the four walls. They are of various sizes and all, breathtaking. There are few still on easels and few still need to be painted. There are easily 25 altogether and I am definitely going to take my time.

I turned around to see Courtney, but she had already left. I shake my head with a small smile and start from the wall to my left. Most of these are Brent Foster's paintings.

It amazes me how well he does all these. He is good at Dutch pour painting and acrylic paints as well. I take my time observing every single frame that is on the wall and the ones scattered in easels on the floor.

My phone rings as I just finished one side of the wall and shifted to the next one. I pull that out of my purse to see it's Nyle. My heart skips and beats and starts beating again at an inhuman rate.

I calm myself and I answer the call. If I ignore him now, then there's no point for all the heart skips and flip flops.

"Hi" he whispers and I don't even know what to say.

"Hello" I whisper too since this is the first ever conversation on call we are having.

"About earlier," he pauses and I close my eyes waiting to hear what he has to say. I don't know what I feel. Alright I might sound like Elena Gilbert from Vampire Diaries when I say I don't know what I feel, but that's exactly me right now.

"What about earlier?" I ask him.

"You left without having lunch" he says and I just had to put the call on mute and groan out loud.

"Oh yeah! My best friend needed me and I am currently at another artist's house. I am kind of busy so can I call you later?" I just say all of that in one go and hang the call up.

Once it's done, I exhale and close my eyes. Good thing I did not talk about it first. So this means the moment of heat meant nothing to him. Such a waste of my heated feelings and moments.

I just switched my phone off for a while. But then switch on again and text my dad that I'm fine but I'll be off for a while and then switch it off again. Because if Nyle is going back into prison again, this time dad is not going to listen at least to me. So I must be careful.

Just as I am watching the second wall, Olive and Brent Foster enter the gallery. I smile at him and he smiles back.

"Oh my God! Are all these yours?" Olive almost squeals and I look back at her who is at the center of the room, staring at a painting on the easel.

"Yes" I hear Brent Foster say and I finally look at him. What Olive did not see but I did, was the way he was smiling at Olive when she wasn't looking. I might be imagining things like I am doing recently, but I think it's different.

"Mr. Foster, this is by far the best one" I say pointing at a painting before me.

It's an abstract painting, I believe. It is a depiction of fall evening through various colors.

"Thanks. You can just call me Brent, by the way. And observe clearly for the hidden" he says and I just take a step closer to the painting.

After a couple of minutes, I finally saw it. All of this painting, the plain edges and white blotches depict a face of a woman. I smile in awe and wonder and look at him to tell him I found it but he was too busy looking at Olive.

So I just shut my mouth and move to the next one. I hear Brent talk about each and every painting of his and explain it to Olive and me. I slowed down just so they could catch up and I could hear what he had to say about other things too.

Courtney walks in and asks us all if we need anything. Looking at her disappointed face when Brent himself said he doesn't need anything, and also asked not to disturb him for a while.. It is pretty much obvious what kind of relationship they might have. Maybe not from Brent's side but she definitely has hots for him.

"The girl is eyeing you like a piece of meat" Olive says and I just laugh.

"Who? Courtney?" Brent asks and Olive nods.

"I just shut my mouth to respect privacy, but I think so too" I say and Brent looks at me as well.

He rolls his eyes and waves his hand in dismissal. Olive and I don't talk about it again. It's private and it's clear. But I notice here and there, the way he looks at Olive.

I cannot say it's out of love, but he definitely finds her attractive and interesting. Olive is not even looking at him and her attention is on his paintings. Moreover she has Matt so I think that is another reason why she is not even paying attention to other men or guys.

I pull my phone out when it vibrates and I see there is a text from Nyle.

Nyle : I don't speak the language of silence.

I rake my mind trying to understand what he's saying. Language of silence? When was I silent?

Samika : Was this text for me?

Nyle : Do I look like a social butterfly? Of course it's for you.

I start thinking about it again, and it finally hits me. I put the call on mute and said everything I said.

Samika : I was just busy. I will call you later again.

I will call him for sure. Because whatever I am doing, is definitely rude. First they were thrown into a cell because of a misunderstanding that they kidnapped me. And then I went to apologize and told them I'd stay for lunch, but just walked out. I should also talk to Nyle about what happened.

Olive and Brent are now next to me and we smile at each other. He explains to us about his recent painting, which is another Dutch pour painting. It is simple with red and blue colors and yet looks like sea meeting blazing fires.

"You do wonders with colors" I say and he smiles and nods at me.

Once we are done with everything, it is already evening and almost time for us to leave.

"I enjoyed your company. Maybe we can meet some time. Or you can come here and grab something for inspiration, I don't mind" Brent says.

Olive and I look at each other but we eventually agree. Brent takes both Olive's and my number and we take one last look at the gallery before turning around.

But something hits me. I stop and turn around. There is some space at one corner of this gallery where there are more easels, papers, paints and other stationery.

There is one particular painting that I missed earlier. Not just me but Olive too.

"Brent, what's that?" I ask him to point to that and he follows the direction of my finger.

"Oh that? Would you believe it if I showed you?" He asks and we walk towards it.

I stare at the art that is a simple painting. Not any abstract or Dutch pour or acrylic. A simple one with water colors and oil paints.

"I drew it based on the long dream I had when I was in a coma. I had an accident and had a head injury. I was in a coma for a couple of days and I dreamt of a man shifting into a wolf. Maybe it's because I was watching a wolf documentary before that. Whatever the reason, I remember that dream as clear as day. Astonishing even to me" Brent says.

I look deeper into it and the wolf is identical to the one I saw twice so far. The one that has Nyle's eyes. Am I dreaming all this or is this real? Is this concept of humans shifting into wolves real? If so, does that make Nyle a werewolf?