Page 8 of Quiet
“It’s not a big deal, everyone.”
“It is if you’re going to be showing random strangers your ass, Isa.”
“It’s not going to be a nude painting, Emily!” Isa looked up at Briar. “Right?”
Briar’s silence was deafening.
“Right?” Isa asked again, this time with a note of hysteria in his voice.
Briar chuffed a soft laugh and kept working.
There was a beat, and the entire crew burst into laughter.
“Now that’s going above and beyond, Isa!”
“Oh my god, Isa, your precious innocence!”
“He really does love us!”
“I’m coming to watch!” Will somehow managed to gasp from where he was doubled over in laughter. There was a chorus of “Me too!” from the group.
“No one is coming to watch!” Isa cried. Was it too late to transfer to a school in Alaska? It was worth looking in to.
He worked hard to ignore the teasing until everyone got bored and went back to their jobs. Once the commotion died down, Isa did his best to compartmentalize the whole nude modeling issue with mixed results, but eventually, he and Briar managed to slip into a companionable silence as they painted. It was impressive how easily they worked together, considering the small amount of space they had to work in. Isa’s prop was wedged between Ryan’s door and the massive gear that had forced Isa to go paint panhandling. Their narrow work area forced the two of them to work almost on top of one another.
He started to shade in the last flower only to realize their shared paint jar was empty. Isa stood up. “Is there any more of the purple you mixed? We’re out.”
Briar nodded.
“Great! I’m nearly done, and it would suck for you to have to mix more.”
Isa was reaching for the empty jar when two large hands wrapped around his hips and lifted his feet off the ground. Isa’s mind ground to a halt as Briar turned around, set him back down, and took the empty jar over to the paint table.
Isa was still standing motionless when Briar returned and placed the half-full jar in his hand, picked him back up, and switched places with him. If the first time had been a surprise, the second time had sent his mind on an extended vacation.
Isa managed to stammer out a vaguethank youand set to making the ugliest flower anyone had ever seen. Fortunately, it was right at floor level so it wouldn’t be too noticeable.
“Isa, why are you painting the floor?” Ryan’s voice intruded on Isa’s hazy, confused little world and drew his attention to the lazy circles he was painting on the floor.
“Oh, um . . . no reason. I think I need food.” It was a good explanation for why his mind had gone off and decided to do its own thing for a while.
“Well, go get something. We need to get as much done today as possible if you’re going to be gone tomorrow. I know you can’t help assemble the carriage, but you can paint the mechanical shrubbery we need for Benedick to hide behind.”
Sara, the girl playing Benedick, waved a cruller at Isa from where she was perched next to a mountain of snacks.
It was going to be a long night.
Chapter4
Briar
He could leave if he wanted to. Briar knew that.
He could have left the moment the paint cans hit the table. Duty discharged, end of story.
Instead, Briar was sitting next to a trouble magnet wearing an offensively hideous yellow shirt and helping him create the dumbest prop in the history of theater. Briar wanted to ask what the point of a mechanical bush was, but it was beyond him at the moment.
He’d already done the word thing in front of strangers. Everyone here should be so lucky for him to do it again.
