Marked for Darkness

The bristles dragged the paint across the canvas audibly. Simple colors bringing to life the scent of pine trees and snow. A cool stream trickled over rocks. Birds chirped from the warmth of their nests, while the frigid air bit at Harlow’s cheeks. She breathed it in deeply.

Snickers from the back of the room jarred Harlow from the snowy mountain landscape she was creating. Her cheeks heated as she realized every set of eyes were fixed on her. It was always the same reaction when she held a paint brush. She delved into the scenes as if they were real, and those that bore witness to her strange behavior, laughed.

It was clear only one student in the room was making any real effort to duplicate the techniques she had demonstrated. She cleared her throat and got to her feet, starting around the room to check canvases.

In her two years of teaching, few that sat in her classroom had true talent, and this year was probably the worst. None of them cared about art.

Not like she did.

At the back of the room, the group of sixteen-year-old boys whose laughter had snapped her back into herself, were now poorly attempting to hide their grotesque male-genitalia creations.

“Andrews. Connor. Delitae,” Harlow snapped. Their smirks remained but they sat a little straighter, as most hormone-ridden teenage boys did around her. “If you’re so interested in the male form, perhaps you’d do well from studying a live model. I can arrange a time after school for you all to really get up close and do some sketches. We can call it the extra credit you boys so desperately need.”

Their grins faded.

“I’d be more interested in studying a nude female model,” Ryan Andrews said, waggling his thick dark brows.

Holy shit was I ever this stupid, she wondered.

The other two boys burst into laughter right as the bell rang, dissolving the snide remark loaded on her tongue. Which saved her from getting an angry email from one of their parents. “I’ll set it up for you boys. Non-negotiable,” she called after them.

They mumbled something, then burst into another round of laughter before walking out the door.

Harlow groaned as she dropped into her chair, scrubbing her hands down her face.

“That good, huh?” A strong, feminine voice said from the doorway.

She smiled, looking up to see Lenae leaning in the doorway. All curves, olive skin and a wild, dark mane of curls made up Lenae Rogers. Eighth grade English teacher, and Harlow’s best friend.

Harlow simply pointed to the canvases at the back. Lenae pushed off from the wall, full lips curving before she even saw them.

“What is it about young boys that makes them feel the need to draw dicks and balls so graphically? Do they realize if they actually looked like this, women wouldn’t come anywhere near them?”

Harlow grunted in agreement. Not that she had ever had the pleasure to properly experience a man in all his naked glory. But that was a depressing topic she didn’t want to think about right now.

“Get a drink with me?” Lenae asked, her purse already slung over her shoulder.

She smiled. “Yeah, why not, just let me wash up.”

Lenae helped gather all the paint-filled brushes and palettes—most of them with far more paint than could ever be necessary.

At least a hundred dollars down the drain. Harlow tried not to cringe as she watched the murky water swirling at the bottom of the steel tub.

“Damn girl, this is really fucking good.”

Harlow turned to find Lenae studying her half-finished painting. She could have finished it, but Harlow had half a dozen just like it from her other classes.

“Thanks,” she said, knocking the brush dry against the side of the tub and laying it down with the others. Drying her hands on the towel hanging off the cabinet door, she scrubbed at the smear of white along the ridge of her pinky.

Her heart was like a lead balloon in her chest. She’d been offered the position of art teacher directly out of university. It had seemed perfect—a steady income, and a way to pass what she knew on to the younger generations.

Yet her heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

By the time she got home every night she was too exhausted to do her own paintings. She did a few here and there, but what she really wanted was to be a full-time artist. To have her art hung in galleries in New York City.

But she couldn’t leave California. She needed her teacher’s salary; however meager it was.

And she couldn’t just uproot her entire life to move clear across the country.

Could she?

“Ready?” Lenae asked, snapping her out of her morose thoughts.

Harlow nodded, forcing a smile and went to grab her purse from the drawer. Before switching off the light, she glanced around at the empty room and the canvases drying on their easels. The decision was made. She’d stay and teach. Her friends were here. Her life was here.

She’d just have to find more time to paint without the mocking stares of kids who only took her class because they wanted an easy A.

***

Harlow felt the music deep within her chest all the way down to her toes in her plain black pumps. Lenae’s harshly beautiful face split into a wide smile as they entered the crowded nightclub. Though Lenae was not typically a partier, Harlow had no doubt this was more her speed than a stuffy classroom discussing Shakespeare.

“I’ll get us drinks, you try to find us a table. Just bat your pretty lashes at someone if there isn’t one.” Lenae started through the throng of people before Harlow could object.

She took a deep breath, then regretted it. The stench of alcohol mixed with sweat and body odor made her nose wrinkle. She was fortunate at five foot seven—five foot nine in her current footwear—to be able to wind through the glistening, sticky bodies by being a few inches taller than the majority of the people in the club. Well, the majority of women anyway. Lenae was only five foot four but her hips parted crowds like the red sea.

People swayed and rocked to the beat, grinding their bodies on each other. It was wave after wave of undulating skin and feverish touches.

A large group of giggling girls leapt out of their booth and pranced off to the dancefloor. Harlow smiled as she took their place, ignoring the empty glasses littering the tabletop. She twisted around to look for Lenae, her eyes scanning for a familiar face.

And she found one in a shadowy alcove across the room.

Familiar grey-green eyes bored into her as though she’d disappear if he blinked. His shoulder-length blond locks looked artfully finger-tousled which only added to his excessive good looks.

Jacob. Her neighbor who always seemed to be in the same places she was. Though they rarely spoke, he was friendly enough, if not incredibly intense.

A blonde-haired girl in a tiny skirt and crop top that bared her bronzed midsection for all to see ran her hands up his chest, but he didn’t even seem to notice her. She stood up on her tiptoes trying to whisper something into his ear, but he was a good head taller than her, and didn’t lean down to hear whatever it was she wanted to say.

Harlow gave an awkward wave that Jacob didn’t return before his gaze slid to the girl who looked prepared to climb him like a tree. He dipped his head and muttered something to her that made her freeze. Harlow didn’t catch the girl’s expression as she stormed away, but she could imagine from her body language it was not a happy one.

She looked up to find Lenae sashaying toward her, tall glasses filled with colorful fruity drinks. A long path of head swiveled in her direction. Including Jacob’s.

Harlow tried not to snort in amusement. A waitress in less clothing than half the patrons, came and wordlessly cleared away the empty glasses as Lenae sat next to Harlow and handed her a drink that smelled as equally sweet as it did potent.

“What is this?” she asked before taking a sip. Sweetness coated her tongue. Then the burn of alcohol slid down her throat. Harlow tried not to cough but was unsuccessful.

Lenae chuckled. “I’m not sure, the bartender made it special for me.”

“I bet he did,” Harlow mumbled.

Lenae elbowed Harlow in the rips as they both laughed.

“So tell me what’s been going on with you lately, girl? I can tell something’s up.”

Harlow took another sip, letting the burn turn to warmth in her belly. She shrugged. “I’m just not really feeling it anymore, you know?”

Lenae paused her bobbing her head to the music blasting overhead to tilt her head. “Not feeling what? You’re gonna have to give me a little more than that.”

Harlow took a bigger sip this time, enjoying the overly sweet taste. Perhaps she should have eaten something first…

“Work. Life in general I guess.” She set her slick glass on the table. “Hey, should we have eaten dinner first?”

Lenae laughed. “I ordered us burgers.” She set her glass beside Harlow’s and turned her body, so they were facing each other. “What do you want to do, Har?”

Harlow didn’t need to think. “I want to be a full-time artist in New York.”

Lenae’s eyes widened. “New York, huh? That’s an awfully long ways from your bestie.”

Harlow chewed the inside of her lip and shook her head. “It’s just a dream. It’ll never happen.”

“Psh. Girl, I’ve seen you’re art. You’re damn good. But couldn’t you be a full-time artist here in Cali?”

Harlow’s gaze slid over her friend’s shoulder and noticed Jacob watched them intently. The same group of girls that had vacated their booth now gathered around him, all of them attempting to flirt. But he noticed them as much as a predatory cat stalking its prey noticed an insect on a blade of grass.

She looked away to pick up her glass again and took another sip, this time hardly noticing the taste of alcohol. “I’m sure I could, it’s just…you know I grew up in New York. It’s where my family was from. It’s where they…” The rest of her sentence crumbled. But she didn’t need to finish it. Lenae nodded in understanding.

“But are you sure that’s where you want to go? They get snow and all kinds of crazy weather. Not to mention the cost of living is basically double what it is here.”

Harlow sighed as a guy with orange hair and a beard to match deposited their burgers on the table. He winked at Lenae who blew him a kiss as though they were old friends. Or lovers. Lenae bit into hers first, muffling her groan of delight into the greasy, cheesy burger.

“I know, it’s not like I’ll ever do it.”

Lenae straightened, suddenly looking serious. “Listen to me.” Her dark brown eyes met Harlow’s. “If that’s what you really want, then go for it. Don’t sit around pining for the life you truly want. Go out there and get it. Only you can make it happen. Hell, quit your teaching job, buy yourself a ticket and go tomorrow.”

Harlow nearly choked on the bite of beef and stilton before swallowing. “I can’t go tomorrow. I’d need another job, a place to stay. These things take months. What about the lease on my apartment?”

Lenae waved a hand dismissively as she took another bite. “I’ll take care of everything here. The lease on my apartment is up next month, so I can stay at yours until it runs out. That way if you need to come back, it’ll still be there, and we can just be roommates for a while.”

Harlow’s heart thudded as a wild excitement fluttered in her chest.

“Well I’d have to buy a ticket; they probably won’t have anything for at least a week that isn’t mega expensive.”

Lenae set her burger aside and had her phone out, typing away furiously before Harlow had even finished her sentence. A moment later, she turned the device around and shoved it under Harlow’s nose. “Tomorrow night.”

Harlow set her half-eaten burger down and studied the screen, her mouth suddenly dry. “I-I’d have to pack, and…my car, I can’t just leave my car.”

Lenae rolled her eyes. “Tell you what. I’ll buy this ticket right now and you can pay me back whenever. I’ll make sure your car is looked after and you can just take with you what you absolutely need for starting out. Once you find yourself an apartment and you’re sure you’re going to stay, I’ll drive you your car with the rest of your things. Tomorrow we’ll pack as much as we can, and I’ll do the rest.”

Harlow’s lips parted as her mind spun for any further objections. This wasn’t her. She didn’t do things impulsively, especially something this major.

“There, it’s done, so no more arguing,” Lenae said as she stowed her phone. “Now let’s get you tipsy and laid and tomorrow we can waste time regretting rash decisions.” Lenae grabbed Harlow’s hand and pulled to her feet, their food and drinks forgotten. They laughed as Lenae led them through the crowd until they were in the heart of the pulsing club.

They swayed their hips and moved in wild abandon. For Lenae, it was as natural as breathing. For Harlow, only the ridiculous amount of alcohol that had been in that drink could have enticed her to dance as she did.

The lights flashed and the music was inescapable. As a particularly beefy man sidled up behind Harlow, she caught sight of Jacob standing still across the way, looking menacing. He was a statue, while everyone around him jumped, danced and kissed like tonight was the last night of their lives.

Still he watched her, and a chill slid down her spine like an ice cube tracking along her bare, heated flesh. The man whose hands sought Harlow persistently, no matter how far away she moved from his stench, finally found purchase on her ass and she whirled, only to find Jacob already there.

He shoved the man away with a snarl that didn’t sound entirely normal. The crowd parted, many people shrieking. To be fair, Jacob looked as though he was about to kill the guy.

“Jacob! It’s okay,” Harlow shouted over the music. Lenae was several feet away from her, unaware of the drama ensuing. An ebony-skinned man with well-toned biceps had her hips pinned against him and Lenae threw her head back against his chest and laughed at something he whispered in her ear.

The large, smelly man that had copped a feel of Harlow glared at Jacob but fled nonetheless, clearly reading the murder written on his face. Even Harlow found herself retreating a step when he whirled on her.

“Get out of this place. It’s filled with men just like him.”

Harlow blinked, stupefied. Never had he spoken to her so harshly.

“Well you’re here, so what does that say about you?” she snapped.

His jaw clenched as his eyes lifted to something behind her. Or rather someone.

Lenae.

“I’m here for work. I was just leaving. And you should too,” he said.

“Thanks for the tip.” Harlow spun and headed for Lenae. Though she didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t really interested in hanging around any longer. Her friend’s eyes were glazed with alcohol and lust.

“What’s up?” she asked. Harlow glanced back over her shoulder to see if Jacob was still standing there. She caught sight of him just as he slipped into the crowd. When she turned back to Lenae, she noticed her friend’s gaze lingered on the spot where Jacob had disappeared.

Lenae’s throat bobbed. The guy behind her whispered in her ear again and she smiled, though the desire in her eyes had clearly dimmed.

“Ready to go?” Harlow asked quietly enough for the guy vying for her friend’s lowered inhibitions to not overhear.

Lenae bit her bottom lip, clearly torn.

“It’s okay if you’re not, I just think I’m going to get a cab or something.”

“No.” Lenae shook her head and her tight curls clung to her sweat-slicked neck. “We can go.”

As they started back for the doors, Harlow thought she saw another flash of emerald green eyes and golden hair, but soon the cool night air rushed over her skin and cleared her head instantly.

Tomorrow she was going to New York.

Soon she’d be gone and there’d be no weird neighbor to watch her and tell her off when she went to a nightclub. No more ambitionless kids that mocked her passion.

Tomorrow she’d finally chase her dream.