Rose 2-15: Sketchy

Warning! drawn, artistic nudity
and then some really 'good' angles and cropping
(Also, remember this is technically before Skye leaves on his magical journey to Dragon Valley.)

Donovan

     I happily convince Shauna to model for me. When she starts acting nervous, I look at her like she's crazy and remind her I've already seen her anyway. Still, I know what it's like to model and have someone stare at you that critically. After all, she did the same thing to me even if all I had off was my shirt.

    She makes a face. "You really want me to just stand here?"

    I smile to myself. "I'm not picky. Do you have something different in mind?"

    I nearly fall into a dead faint when she gets on my bed and poses for me.

    Quickly covering myself with my sketchpad, I sit down in the computer chair next to the bed and start drawing. I've never enjoyed sketching a subject more than I have tonight.

    I hope she likes it. She blushes and accuses me of taking poetic license to make her look better than she actually does. I threaten to get out my camera to prove her wrong. Honestly, the woman needs to stop thinking so negatively about herself.
      "I'm serious. Where did I put my camera?" I say and ask while looking around in my things to find where I put it when I moved into this room.
      Shauna backs up with her hands held out in front of her. "No, no. That's okay. Honestly." She bends down a little to pick up her discarded clothes, and I walk up to her.
       Taking the clothes from her hand, I ask, "What are you planning on doing with these?"
       "Put them back on. I can't go around naked all night."
       "Says who?" I ask now and throw her clothes on the floor before I draw her into my arms and kiss her trembling lips. "I've got you like I like you, and I want you to stay that way." I say, guiding her to my bed and undoing the buttons on my shirt. "You didn't even need to get up off of the bed."
       "Donovan... I don't know if..."
       "I do." I finish for her and claim her lips, stopping her unsure ramble. While I work on removing the rest of my clothing, I help relieve her of some of her tension the best way I know how.

     Not surprisingly, she's a virgin. I'm as gentle as I can be.

     I love watching her face as I make love to her. Everything is new to her, and I want to make it good for her.
      Shauna. Finally.
      She stays with me for the rest of the night before she decides to go home in the morning.
      I'm hanging around in the living room in my underwear when Ashley leaves Skye's room in hers, headed for the kitchen.
      ???

    A few minutes later, the smoke alarm starts going off, and Ashley starts screaming and running around like a mad woman in the kitchen.
     I hop up off of the couch, but Skye beats me to the kitchen, also in his underwear, grabbing the extinguisher on the way.

     Skye doesn't even stop to think, he runs straight for the flames coming out of the oven and hits them with the spray from the extinguisher. I start yelling at him to be careful and try to get Ashley, who's standing too close to the flames, out of harm's way.
      I'm amazed at my younger brother's brave expression in the face of danger.
      Clark and Karri come running up the stairs, also in their underwear, and go into the beginnings of a panic until they see that Skye has the blaze under control. Clark calls the fire department, and they come and take care of everything else. However, there really isn't much for them to do since Skye handled it so well.
      Ashley starts crying, blaming herself, and Skye pulls her to him to comfort her.
      I give him a 'what about Carmen?' look to which he wordlessly tells me to shut up.
      Who am I to judge anyway? Still, I purposefully don't go steady with my lovely ladies for this very reason.

      I hear from Skye later that he saw Tiffany at a class of his in the library. She was happily flirting with some other guy.
       I can't explain the irrational jealousy flowing through me with this news.
       Then, Skye launches into a tale about how he's got a thing for our roommate Ashley (like I couldn't tell otherwise). When I verbally ask him about Carmen, he scratches the back of his head and mumbles about how he needs to break up with her, but he feels bad about not doing it to her face.
      I wish I could give him advice on this subject, but again, this is why I don't go steady.

    I see Hanna at the party, and I walk up to hug her when she backs away. I make a pouting face and say that I was only going to hug her in a friendly way since I thought we were friends. Of course, I want to be more than friends.
    I received a dare from an anonymous person on my phone:

 

     I don't really care about the jock influence, but I'm up for that kind of a dare.

     So, I tone it down a little and talk to her about things she's interested in.
     After a while, I guess that my problem was I came on too strong in the beginning. I think she likes me; she's simply a little shy. I alter my actions the tiniest bit...

     .... and she's putty in my very capable hands.
     Her sorority sisters make hooting, cat-call noises at us. I feel a little surprised that girls do that sort of thing too. She doesn't act too bothered by them and makes sure I'm plenty busy making out with her on their couch the whole party.
     Still, I decide that that dare was a stupid thing to agree to, and I'll not do that to her.

     When it's time for me to go, she stops me from going out the door. I feel really surprised, but no way am I going to push her away.
      The shy Hanna invites me up to her room. Who am I to say no?

     We go upstairs to her room, and when I mention that I might should go (still worried about not doing that dare), she stops me.
      Hanna aggressively attacks me. I don't mind one bit and don't try to stop her.
      I'm really surprised. Never in a million years would I expect this out of her.... especially after I find out she's a virgin. Er, was.

      I stay the night.
      Early in the morning, I wake up to her crying.
      "What's wrong?" I ask, concerned.
      "I'm so embarrassed. I'm so sorry, Donovan."
      "About what? You shouldn't be embarrassed about anything." I brush her hair out of her face lovingly.
       Finally, I get out of her that she lost her virginity on a sorority dare.
       She had a dare too.
       She feels like she took advantage of me, and now she's trying to make it right.
       "I feel terrible for doing that to you." she says sadly.
       "Hanna, you didn't hurt me. In fact, I had the same dare. I'd decided not to go through with it because I couldn't do that to you." Oops!
       "But I could do that to you?! What does that say about me?!" she wails as she really starts crying.
       I groan, not knowing how to dig myself and her out of these holes we created. So, I simply kiss her until she stops crying, refusing to let her start bashing herself again.
        "It's okay. You picked the right guy, Hanna. If you're not mad at me, I'm not mad at you." I finish and tap the tip of her nose with the end of my finger playfully. Then I smile down at her in the growing light.

    By the time I leave in the morning, we have an understanding. She doesn't feel bad about herself at all anymore.
    And... I have a date for night after tomorrow.

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Alrighty, so here's the real sketch:

Somehow, this doesn't strike me as something an art major would smile about... unless they have a great sense of humor. And for that matter, she's wearing clothes! (and glasses wth?)(and where the hell did the dog come from? She could SO take that the wrong way!)

Gotta love photo editing :)

And, just because I did it and didn't end up using it. I was going to have a bit where Donovan wanted to hang the pic on the wall, but this one has her in her undies... that would've made a headache for me as far as explaining that... if it mattered.

And its original... I realized later I should've yellowed the replacement pic due to the lighting in the end picture, but after doing all that shading and then deciding not to use it in the first place, I didn't. I could have tho.

It's a still life sketch of Shauna in that pose, up close at her face. You can sort of make out her mouth, eyes and nose with white noise behind her. Oh well. 

So, when you see it in the background next to the door (yes, the front door -- now understand why Shauna would've gotten upset?), you'll understand why it's there. :)