"But," she added. "I'm not leaving or anything. I just care about your well-being and wouldn't want to be in any way, shape, or form responsible for hurting you. So I just wanted to let you know ahead of time what I intend to do should things regarding her go awry again."
You could hear Rylie shuffling around as she waited on a reply.
"Sorry for all the noise Delia. I'm just getting ready for one of my classes. I'm actually running late ........ ok look, let's just start communicating over the phone and talking more throughout the week. I will do my best to help out in any way I can in this situation. If we talk more I can get first hand information on what's going on much sooner and together we can do something about it in a much more efficient fashion. I will talk to Fran and take full responsibility for this situation. I'm the one engaged here. You shouldn't have to pay the consequences for mistakes I've made. She should be attacking me, not you. But listen, I have to go, ok ............ I love you."
Delia's heart skipped a beat. "I love you to Rylie."
When they said that sweet and long, heartfelt bye, and Delia and he hung up the phone, once again, Delia wondered how she could have even for a second, have considered letting that man go.
Delia somehow made it to her next art class alive and intact, to her complete surprise. According to Rylie though, he had not yet heard from or seen his fiance. He told Delia he had called her and left a message that the two of them needed to talk and that it was urgent. She had yet to respond or call back. He even said this was the first time it had taken so long for her to respond.
Rylie was actually at a loss for words. Delia just nodded and remembered when she went out in public to always have people going with her. Delia was not afraid to tell her friends the truth; that a psycho killer was out to get her.
Delia's art teacher had moved on from pottery making. Now the class had easels and special pencils. She was now teaching them how to shadow.
"By using this pencil alone, using this technique, you can create any work of art equal to or better than mine."
Delia had gone for creating a bowl of fruit. She had yet to really scroll professionally like the way her teacher had. Even with several different techniques it wasn't panning out the way she wanted it to.
"I'm going to fail this class," she told her neighbor, even though she did not know him. When she went up to sharpen her pencil using a special sorta knife, when she walked by Rylie's portrait and saw that he had drawn a gorgeous face of a lady with wings, and had nailed the shadowing technique perfectly, she literally grabbed his portrait out from under him and made like she was going to head straight to the dumpster area to chuck it.
His face had never shone brighter nor his smile wider.
"Excuse me! Don't blame me your portrait looks like leftover pencil droppings instead of an actual portrait one could hang in an art gallery."
"One more word, Rylie Deight, and this painting goes over my knee and into two pieces."
Before Delia could place his portrait back on his easel, he jumped off his stool and grabbed her. He manhandled her in such a way that it caught the eye of every classmate in the big studio, even the teacher. people teasingly cheered as if they had just seen two people in love for the first time ever in their life.
Delia's cheeks flushed. "High school all over again." Delia said.
Rylie smiled to, looking around. "You say it like it's a bad thing."
He released her and she placed his portrait back on the easel. She made eye contact with him and winked. Then she went on to sharpen her pencil. I wish I could sharpen my artistic abilities, she thought as she went back to breathing normally, from Rylie's always sweet manliness.
The café that night was unlike anything Delia had experienced since.
Sitting in her booth, Delia was seated facing the door. Her and Rylie had walked hand in hand two blocks as usual, laughing like school kids, having forgotten their troubles.
When Delia and Rylie placed their order in and the waitress walked off to key it into the computer, Delia's world stood still. Not a moment after she left, she saw the entrance door open and in entered a girl in a black leather dress and wearing a nice grayish black over coat. She wore cat woman high heeled boots, flawless make up, and her hair ran straight down her back, near to her buttocks. Red flawless hair. This time she straightened it, Delia thought.
One could see why Rylie hooked up with this girl. She was the epitome of the word gorgeous, even Delia was jealous. She didn't look like that the other day though, Delia thought again.
The girl stood infront of the hostess. And demanded something you couldn't quite make out from a distance.
"Rylie, I have to use the restroom for a quick sec. Be right back."