Those hypothetical hypocrites.
And then, I see a dog. An Australian Shepherd, running towards a man, carrying a wood stick in his mouth. I squint—as the man is really far—to try and see him better.
He is shirtless, wearing old jeans. Brown hair, sun kissed skin. I can’t see anything more. If it wasn’t a little weird, I would get a little closer just to study him, because he looks absolutely incredible. Broad chest and shoulder, abs for days, lean but not bulky. God, I wish I could draw him from a little closer. I just love drawing muscles. All those intricate lines and curves… The last was Hot Grumpy Guy, and before that, I used to ask students in university to pose for me, so I could practice. I kind of miss those days… Staring at hot people for a couple of hours and drawing their shapes, their lines…
I groan and close my eyes.
I haven’t thought about university in a while. How because of me, Jack had a fight with his best friend. He did react like a mistrustful asshole though, and that’s on him. But I always feel like it was my fault somehow. Maybe I should have told Jack about Nate posing for me. Or maybe Nate should have told him. I never understood why he didn’t… Maybe he thought that Jack would not be okay with it. I knew Nate had a reputation of sleeping around, but I’d known him since I started college, and he never made a move on me—fortunately, even though I wished he would when I first met him. From what I’ve heard, he did sleep with most of the girls in my dorm.
I was surprised when Nate offered to pose for me. He had always been a little cold and distant, like I was a thorn in his side. The annoying best friend’s little sister. Not to mention what I’d heard him tell a guy who invited me for a date during my first month of college…“Is she really worth the trouble?”So no, Nate clearly wasn’t a fan, and the silly little crush I had for him turned sour. Which made me really skeptical when he first showed up to pose for me.
To this day, I still think that by helping me, he was trying to get closerto that girl I shared a room with—was it Sara? Olga? I can’t remember, and she only stayed for a couple of weeks before dropping out anyway.
With all these facts, it’s clear that Jack obviously overreacted, and he acknowledged that pretty quickly. But, did he make a move to fix things? No. Because he is sofuckingstubborn.
When I get back into the house, I’m welcomed by Jack’s grunts of pain and I wince.
I’m fifteen minutes late, which means he’s already with the physiotherapist, probably in one of the empty rooms downstairs.
I force myself to stay in the living room, no matter how much his physical therapy seems to be painful. He would probably shoo me away anyway.
I place my earbuds in my ears and turn up the volume of my audiobook as I pour myself a coffee. I might as well enjoy the terrace while I wait for them to be done. And from outside, I probably won’t hear Jack’s pain… Which I absolutely don’t want to hear.
I grab my sketchbook and a few pens and settle on the lounge chair.
A smile stretches my lips when the picture I’m drawing takes form. Two people doing yoga casting judgmental glances at someone eating a chocolate bar on the side. Their bags covered, but showing a hint of a bag of chips and a bottle of soda. I name it “Hypothetical Hypocrites” –Prue
I giggle like a schoolgirl at the scene depicted in my audiobook. The main character is stuck in an elevator after a fight with her boyfriend. But he is the one called by the emergency button as he deals with the security in the whole building. He asks her to apologize for what she said, but she refuses. So he doesn’t help, and just messes around with her. When she asks him if he’s going to do his job and help her get out, he tells her she looks hot in her business clothes and especially with a scowl on her face.
“Fuck you, are you going to help me or not?”
“I quite enjoy watching you squirm,” he said, his voice low and playful.
But Juliet knew she couldn’t let him win their argument like this. Who did he think he was? He was probably responsible for the elevator malfunctioning in the first place.
“So what, are you just going to sit there in front of your screen and watch me wait for hours? Aren’t other people watching and hearing this? That’s really childish and completely unprofessional of you.”
She heard him chuckling and felt her anger suddenly rising a bit more. “What an asshole”, she thought.
“Other people can see you, yes, but they can’t hear. As far as they know, you are just stuck and angry at the one who took the call.”
“Let. Me. Out, Paxton. Or I swear I’m going to break that fucking elevator.”
“Apologize.”
“No!” She yelled. “I didn’t do anything wrong, for fuck sakes.”
“You kind of did, though.”
She let out a frustrated sigh, but she froze, as she realized what she heard him say. No one was listening, but other people were watching. She lifted her narrowed gaze to stare right into the camera, and started to unbutton her silk shirt slowly.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice dropping lower.
“Giving other people a show, what does it look like I’m doing?”
“Stop. Don’t you dare take another… Juliet, stop!”
She smirked at the camera, reaching for the third button. She knew her black laced bra was now visible and she slid her bottom lip between her teeth playfully.
