Chapter 14: Something To Believe In
The next day, Quinn had already left with Charlie when Talia woke up. Her clock, however, said it was only nine. She yawned, brushed her teeth and got dressed. She grabbed her keys and went across the hall to Rita and Farrah's room. She knocked but there was no reply. They'd probably gone out already. If they were out, that meant they had taken Wes and David with them. That meant she had to go wake Blaine up. She sighed and walked over, not bothering to wear proper shoes. She tried the door. It was unlocked. She opened it to find Wes and David's beds meticulously made, and Blaine's third of the room in near catastrophe. He was lying face down and spread eagle on his bed, the sheets twisted and exposed his bare back. Clothes and books were strewn everywhere, his swim trunks hanging on the door handle to the bathroom. Talia went over and took off her shoes. She stood lightly on his bed.
'Blaine. You have to get up now.' She sang. He groaned into the pillow. She started jumping up and down.
'COME ON. YOU HAVE TO START BUZZING AROUND AGAIN. LIKE A BUMBLE BEE. COME ON, BUMBLE.' She called, giggling at her own childishness. He rolled over, accidentally tripping her. She fell onto the bed next to him and laughed, exhilarated.
'Where's the fire?' He mumbled, eyes closed. His arm was under Talia's head, serving as a pillow of sorts.
'Not in you, apparently.' Talia said and sat up. She smacked his stomach, which made a loud crack. Her hand actually hurt as she hit the hard muscles.
'Come on. We have the whole day to ourselves. Let's go on a picnic.' She said excitedly. Blaine's eyes opened slowly and stared at her.
'Then we could just say here.' He said, raising an eyebrow suggestively and smirked. Talia rolled her eyes.
'Come on. Get dressed.' She said. He sat up and stretched his back. Talia had never truly appreciated Blaine's body, although she saw it half naked more than six hours every week. A light smattering of hair across his defined chest, the muscles in his back, chest and middle rippling, not as light and sinewy as the other swimmer boys but not entirely as muscular as the footballers. Just right. He got up and rubbed his face, pulling a Warblers grey tee shirt over his head of springy curls, he trudged into the bathroom. Talia picked her way across the floor, avoiding the dirty laundry. On Blaine's desk was a picture. Blaine was standing next to a tall good looking boy, dark hair and green eyes. They were both grinning and wet, standing on a beach where the sun was setting behind them. The boy was like a taller, younger version of Blaine. Where you could tell Blaine was mixed, his brother looked like any other American boy. The door to the bathroom opened.
'Is this your brother, Blaine?' Talia asked. Blaine walked up behind her. He sighed.
'That's Shane.' Blaine nodded. Talia looked up at his cork board. She grinned and smacked his arm lightly.
'Is this why you insisted on taking so many pictures?' She asked. She fingered the edges of the photos. All of them were of her or the both of them. He smiled down at her.
'You don't think it's creepy?' He asked. Talia laughed and turned around to face him.
'Well, yeah, I do. But you're in some of them so that's not as creepy.' She teased. He walked closer, making her lean back his desk. He put his hands on the desk, effectively caging her. She was smiling slightly, her eyes narrowed in anticipation, glinting.
'I'm going to kiss you.' He breathed. His eyes darted from her eyes to her lips.
'Do it.' She whispered back. His lips slammed into hers, the force knocking her back slightly. His hands left the table and held her waist quickly, he pushed her up to sit on the desk. She grabbed at his hair, pulling them flush against each other. They let go finally, breathing hard.
'Let's stick with the picnic.' Blaine said, panting slightly. Talia nodded. He picked up his guitar and an extra blanket and they went downstairs into the kitchen. In the cupboards, everyone had a cubby to put their own food in. Then, there was a public cupboard that was usually stocked with all assortments of candy and sweet snacks. The cooks had realized from the start that Windsor had a bit of a sweet tooth. From Talia's cubby, Blaine took a tupperware container of cookies. Talia usually baked three batches and donated two to the public cupboard. Those were usually gone in a matter of hours. One batch, she kept on hand for after swim trainings. She made a mental note to make more later. Blaine grabbed a box of Oreos from his own cubby and put it into a paper bag. Talia grabbed bread, tuna and mayonnaise and smacked everything together, creating two sloppy sandwiches. Grabbing the butcher knife from the block, she smacked it into the sandwiches and came away with two perfectly clean cut triangles.
'When being a trained killer comes in handy.' Blaine said. Talia smirked and put away the mayonnaise, tuna and knife. He spun around and wrapped the sandwiches up. They stuffed everything into the brown bag along with soda. The couple trekked down into the deepest part of the garden, the part where no one but the gardeners went. They emerged into a patch of grass with trees dotted around it, hiding the walls that surrounded Dalton. Talia spread out the blanket and they sat down. Out of her messenger bag, Talia fished out a pencil, camera and sketchbook. Blaine had already taken out his guitar and was absently playing cords. She snapped a picture of him and then started to sketch out their surroundings and Blaine.
'What are you doing?' Blaine asked, feeling self conscious now.
'We're studying people in art. So I have to sketch you now.' Talia said, and blurred out the trees so that Blaine became the focal point.
'I thought you only had to complete twelve art pieces by the end of the year.' Blaine said. Talia nodded.
'I do. But this is kind of like an exercise so that we keep building on our knowledge.' Talia explained.
'Do you want me to keep playing?' Blaine asked. Talia nodded. They sat in a comfortable silence, Blaine playing his guitar quietly while Talia sketched him. She shaded in carefully and darkened lines, trying to be as detailed with his face as she could. Finally, after over half an hour, she finished. She smiled at her finished product.
'There.' She announced and flipped the thick sketchbook over to show him. He gaped. He sat in the middle of the grass, each individual blade drawn and shaded. He could even tell that in the picture he was playing a bar F chord. His shadow was liquid, spilling over the corner of the blanket. The trees in the background were drawn individually, but also seemed out of focus like it was a black and white version of a photo.
'It's brilliant.' He said, continuing to stare at it. Talia picked her soda and sandwiches out of the bag and bit into it nonchalantly, although she really wanted to say 'I know.'.
'I know what you want to say, Talia. You deserve it.' Blaine said, smirking lightly, not looking up. She grinned.
'Since when did you know me so well?' Talia asked, raising an eyebrow. Blaine smiled softly.
'I just pick up things. Like how, apparently, you own wristbands in every color possible.' He replied, raising an eyebrow without looking up again. Talia glanced down at her right forearm. She was wearing a purple wristband that day. The day before had been red. She did seem to have an obsession with them.
'How you always write your notes in perfect handwriting, or how you can do it with both hands. Or how you can only study with music playing.' He said. Talia smiled as she finished her sandwich. He was the first one to comment on her wristband obsession although she had been wearing one every single day.
'How do you pick up on all these little things?' She asked, taking the tupperware container of cookies out. He put down his guitar finally and picked up his package of sandwiches.
'Well, I wouldn't be your boyfriend if I didn't, would I?' He said, taking a huge bite of his sandwich.
'Is that what we are, then?' Talia asked thoughtfully, breaking off a piece off of her cookie. Blaine looked at her with a playful smile.
'I guess we are, Talia Reagan.' He smiled cheekily. She smiled and rolled her eyes. She lay across the blanket, looking at the clouds. She could hear Blaine flipping through her sketchbook. He flipped through the paper, thickly coated with slick paint and pastels, little doodles done every now and then in color pencil. He gasped as he came across two spreads all showcasing detailed drawings and measurements of a grand piano. It had been labelled Grand Piano Model (Media: Clay).
'You're making a grand piano out of clay?' He asked incredulously. She nodded, crossing one arm across her diaphragm, the other held to her mouth with the cookie in it.
'Is that even possible?' Blaine asked. The drawings already seemed incredibly hard to have been drawn.
'Of course it's possible. Anything's possible if you're working with clay.' Talia said, slightly defensive.
'How long have you been working with clay?' He asked. He grinned as he came across a perfectly replicated color pencil sketch of a Ferragamo shoe.
'Since... forever.' She said thoughtfully. 'I only truly took lessons when I was in Korea, and then I made things for fun in the holidays at the base.'
'Wouldn't drawing or painting be easier? All of these sketches and paintings are magnificent.' He said. She had sketched the street they had been on in Columbus, and then one of Windsor, another of the fountain at the entrance and the courtyard.
'How did you draw all of these? They're perfectly proportioned and everything. And you never just sat out there for hours.' Blaine said. Talia laughed and rolled over. She looked lazily up at him.
'Because I'm perfect.' She said simply and shrugged her shoulders. Blaine rolled his eyes and shook his head at her. Suddenly, from inside the trees an unnatural, loud rustle sounded. Talia's head snapped in the direction it came from, Blaine looked up just in time to see a flash of blonde. Talia sat up. She stared into the bushes in horror. It was Logan.
'Let's go, Blaine.' She said, and stood up, stuffing everything back into the paper bag and bundling the blanket. Blaine stood up confusedly but obliged, taking his guitar and holding Talia's sketchbook they walked briskly back to Windsor, to the safety of Talia's room.
'Why is Logan suddenly stalking us?' Blaine whispered furiously at Talia. Talia looked at him with indifference, her gaze almost cold.
'Logan is a Tore. The Tores are the mafia family my parents have been wiping out.' Talia explained, taking her hand gun and stuffing it in her belt, the flannel shirt she was wearing covering it. She turned away from him and looked out the window. 'If you don't want to be dragged into this, you can leave now, Blaine. If you don't want to die.'
'I just don't understand why he has to kill you.' He said angrily. 'That's why I'm so frustrated.' Talia spun around, her expression was livid, so ferocious it was almost inhuman.
'Because he wants revenge, Blaine. He wants to kill me because my parents have killed his entire fucking family. Maybe he wants to hold me hostage so that when my parents find out they'll come here to save me and then he'll kill them. What part of this do you not understand? I told you all of this! The consequences! If you want to leave now, then fine, do that! Do that like every other person that I've ever known and loved in my life!' She yelled at him. Blaine was stunned speechless. Was this the real Talia Reagan? Come to think of it, if she had so many fake identities before, could the Talia in the gardens, at Warblers, Farrah Mitchell's best friend, be fake?
'Is this what you meant by "you don't know me"? That you're just cold and your personality's like a gun?' Blaine said. He cringed inside, instantly regretting his words. They cut like a dagger through his own heart. Talia's eyes widened for a millisecond, before she recovered and became steely. In her head, she remembered all the things Blaine had promised, vowed, had said about never leaving her and always being there for her. This only further strengthened her previous theory that no one ever meant anything they said and that the people you loved the most would be the ones to hurt you the hardest.
'Don't pretend to be hurt, Blaine.' She said. 'You knew full well that this could happen. And obviously, to you, my being able to hold a gun does make me a bad person.' She stormed out, the door banging loudly. She ran down the hallway and the stairs. She ran out the front door, letting the heavy wood bang shut by itself. Sprinting all the way to the art department, she went to her sanctuary, her safe haven. The potters' studio in the art building wasn't technically hers, but almost no one except the occasional art teacher and small group of freshmen and sophomores went in there. Talia was the only one out of all the junior and senior who were allowed to choose visual arts for their art subject, who used clay as their main form of media. From under the work table in the centre of the room, she took a bag of clay and cut a chunk out. She smacked it on the table and started to knead it. She worked out all of her frustration onto it. Taking one of the massive rolling pins, she rolled it out into three slabs, each thicker bit by bit. She took the sheaf of photocopies that she had made of her sketches out and started to make the main body of the piano. She was halfway through sticking the side onto the freshly cut out base when her sensitive ears detected the unnaturally quiet footsteps on the thin layer of clay dust on the floor. She looked up to find a blonde man, college aged. His skin was slightly tanned, four shades lighter than Talia's. He wore a tee shirt and cargo shorts paired with loafers, hair was in a long buzz cut, his hands in his pockets. He could only be described as a Californian frat boy.
'Can I help you?' Talia asked, smiling politely. He looked over to her as if he just noticed she was there and was astonished by the fact she existed. He gaped.
'Are... are you Talia Reagan?' He asked. She stood up from her stool, eyes narrowing slightly suspiciously.
'Yes.' She replied. He continued to gape, mouth twitching as if not sure whether to gape more or grin. He leaped forward and wrapped her up into a tight bear hug, his long arms making it around her shoulders to touch his shoulders again.
'Oh my god, I found you!' He exclaimed. She stiffened and easily pushed out of his grasp. His expression faltered a bit before he took something out of his pocket. It seemed to be a centimeter thick puzzle piece. It had the 'hyung', the Korean word for big brother on it. Her lips parted in astonishment.
'Gabby?' She whispered. He smiled tearily and wrapped her into his arms again. She held a hand to her mouth. She didn't know what to do. Attached to her scruffy messenger bag, was her own puzzle piece charm. Written in a neat, but still imitating hand, was the Chinese character for forever engraved on the front, and then a 'T' on the back. She knew that on her older sister's was sister in Thai.
'You've grown up so much.' He said tearily. He smoothed her hair back, like a father would. 'You've achieved so much. Better than me.'
'I don't get it. Is this safe?' She whispered. Gabriel looked quizzically at her.
'Of course.' He said.
'But mum and dad said that they still had one more to kill.' Talia said. Gabriel's eyebrows knitted closer together.
'They've killed everyone already.' He said, smiling softly as if she was a foolish small child. 'It's all right. They've killed all of them.' She stared into the distance as Gabriel hugged her again. Could Logan really be harmless? His name just a coincidence? If the twins had managed to find files on her, her CIA protected files, then there was no way Logan could do any better, right? If Logan was harmless... then that meant her parents had been lying to her. She didn't know which one she wanted to believe.