My Ex Threw Me Away, Now He's Bleeding for Me novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Gallery

The senior exhibition opened for a private preview on Sunday morning, and Gideon drove me there.

He didn't mention the kiss.

He parked, got out, and walked around the truck to open my door, and I let him, because the lot was gravel and my leg was sore.

"Tell me if you want me gone," he said.

"I want you in the third row, quiet."

"I'm very good at quiet."

"You talk constantly."

"Only to you."

I stepped out and kept my eyes on the building so he wouldn't see that I was smiling.

The Garrity Gallery was the newest wing on campus, glass and pale wood, with the family name on a brass plate by the door.

Inside, the seniors stood in small groups around their work with plastic cups of wine.

My wall was at the far end.

My series, Mine, was three prints, each the size of a door.

I stopped in front of the first one.

I had made it, and it still hit me.

A woman beside her own leg, looking straight out.

People were standing in front of it very quietly.

Then I saw what was hanging on the wall next to it.

Paige's piece took up the whole facing wall.

It was a screen, four minutes long, on a loop.

She had cut the lawn into something slick.

There was soft piano over it, and white text that faded in and out: Bodies on display. Who gets to look? She had cut every pin hold and every laughing face out of the frame.

What was left was me on the grass, with my face turned toward the lens.

It looked like I was posing.

Under it, in neat gray type on the wall label, was my name, next to the words with consent.

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