Jazmine's eyes are trained on Garrett's side of the room, but not really focusing on anything; just blank. Even as he sits back at his vanity, she doesn’t move or acknowledge him.

“I’m sorry if I overst—“

“Nah. You’re good, Cam. I’m just thinking, and my eyes are stuck.”

“Oh.”

Shaking herself, literally, Jazmine finally meets his eyes. They’re still kind, relaxing as they wander across his frame. He could finally take a breath. 

“Didn’t mean to make you worry. I’ve just been…” Jazmine teeters her head side to side. Cameron’s eyes catch on the way her teeth dig a little into her bottom lip as she thinks for a second. “Having a lot to ponder over when it comes to me and what I want for myself and my future.”

Cameron's nose scrunches in - what he hopes comes across as - a sympathetic grimace.“The life of a junior, huh?”

“Something like that.” A corner of her lip lifts slightly, much to his relief. Although he wishes it were larger.

“I know we don’t know each other well,” Cameron hedges nervously, “but I can listen if you want.”

“When I put my thoughts together, I’ll take you up on that,” Jazmine nods. 

It seems so sincere that the ginger couldn’t help but say: “I’ll hold you to it.” 

“Good. But you know what’s not so good?”

“What?” the ginger immediately straightened in his chair. 

Does she smell something weird? Did I miss a spot of makeup and have been looking stupid the whole time? Oh my god. I didn’t offer her a drink. Fu-

“Me crowding you out of your bed,” she laughs, gesturing to her spot on the bed. 

Jazmine obviously made an effort to take as little space as possible. He could tell she’d made an intentional gap from his pillows and stuffies. Furthermore, instead of stretching out, the junior sits upright with her back against the wall and her legs dangling over the edge. 

“I feel so bad. Here, why don’t you get up here, and I can move to the fl—”

“No! I mean, no y-you aren’t. Um. Crowding me. I just automatically sat here. I-I can...I’ll join you.” 

Not too fast, not too slow, Cameron chants to himself as he gets up. Jazmine doesn’t help his excitement as she pats the spot beside her. Got-dang. Biting his cheek to stop his smile, the ginger fiddles with his fingers as he sits at the foot of the bed, his knees drawn up to his chest. 

The junior gives him a soft smile, and he can feel his cheeks warm a little. He thought she’d say something, but Jazmine refrained—both of them letting the room lapse into silence as they stared at each other. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but Cameron didn't have the self-control to let it linger too long.

“I-I do have a question,” Cameron spits out unthinkingly.

“Ask away.”

Shit, I didn’t think of a question before this. No, I have one already.“What exactly is your project that you want me to model for?”

Her sigh is the loudest one he’s heard in a while, and all he can do is tilt his head in question as she turns to him with an apologetic expression.

“About that…I regret asking. You don’t actually have to.”

Confused and a little disappointed, a flicker of worry rolls through him. “Did I do someth—“

“Absolutely not. I think it's just a big ask and might be taken the wrong way considering…”

“Considering,” Cameron draws out, a frown forming unconsciously.

“Considering I just met you.” Jazmine didn’t murmur or soften her voice…but something in her weary expression made him pause. 

“What do you work on? An adult comic?” Seeing her guilty expression, Cameron couldn’t help but gasp excitedly. “Oh my god, you draw smut!” 

“I’d argue there’s more plot,” she immediately defends, even as she fights a grin. “Thus making it Erotica.”

“Mmm,” Cameron nods exaggeratedly. “You’re right. Totally different.”

Jazmine picks up on his subtle mocking, her eyes narrowing a bit. “….exactly.”

“Well. What exactly are you going for? As you’ve probably noticed,  I’m no Fabio.”

“Dude, Fabio is overrated. That’s beside the point, though. I need one last character design to get the author off my ass,” Jazmine admits. 

“Um, shouldn’t you be excited?”

“Tch. I would be if I was given more time. The character isn’t even gettin’ introduced until the third volume, but Lakan has been up my ass.”

“Ooof. You poor thing.”

“Yes, poor me because I’ve been going out of my mind tryna figure out where to start with this character after Lakan’s got-damn aesthetic board that was absolutely unhelpful…and then you showed up.”

It seems as though Nikki may have been sort of right in the sense that she thought he was attractive. Although this doesn’t guarantee anything, he tries to think to himself as his stomach flips. Fighting the smile that wants to creep up on his lips, he forces his head to nod in what he hopes to be a casual manner. 

“And what’s the character supposed to be like?”

“‘Ethereal’ according to Lakan.”

“Like a fae or elves.”

“Yup. Very close to it, but with our own twists. Lakan wanted a more neutral body type for this, which is almost always androcentric.”

Oh, so she thought I was androgynous, Cameron thinks, unsure if the tightening in his stomach was good or bad. Trying to play it off, he gestures to himself with a slight scoff.

“Ah. I don’t know if you haven’t noticed, but I’m not exactly, uh, as clean-looking without my stuff. Nor am I athletic like you. Take away the clothes and makeup, and I’m not exactly turning any heads with the body the good lord gave me.”

“Eh. I don’t know ‘bout that.” 

Cameron swears his heart skips a beat as Jazmine tilts her head slightly in his direction. Just before he could stupidly ask what, her eyes began to carefully take him in. A slight tinge of mischief warms her gaze as he tries not to fidget.  

“Yup. Still pretty as a picture.”

“B-but I’m not remarkable.”

“That’s subjective, and I disagree,” Jazmine shrugs. “If I wanted, high fashion looking beauty to be inspired by, I’d go drool over Naomi Campbell…Or Tilda Swinton.”

Cameron finds himself nodding without hesitation. 

“I would too,” he confesses with a wistful sigh. “I used to make collages of the supermodels–so jealous of their legs. Oh, and for the longest, I didn’t know Tilda was in other movies, so I’d watch the first Narnia movie over and over just because she was just so…breathtaking. God, what I would’ve given to be Edmund,” he tries to tack on quietly, but the junior’s laugh dashes his hope of that being true. 

“Ooooh. That definitely explains some things.”

“I’m not, like, a brat,” Cameron pouts defensively.

“Un-huh. Sure.”

“Wait, why didn’t you use her? Or another model-slash-celebrity. There’s plenty of pictures out there.” 

*I think those sets of features are fairly overdone in fantasy set stories, and for good reason. They are eye-catching. But I don’t want to fall into the conventional idea we have of fae-elven creatures in popular media. If it isn’t multicolored, hand-sized sprites, it’s very human-esque–like with very human standards of beauty.”

“Ahhh. You want a clear differentiation. Is there going to be humans in it?”

“Ish. There are multiple races. I don’t want to be redundant in my version of alternative sentient life. We’re largely pulling on insect orders and arachnids…specific bird families.”

“Oh, wow. And what's the character you’re struggling with working supposed to be inspired by?”

“Marine invertebrates. Specifically, Turritopisis dohrnii.”

“A turri-ta-what?”

“Turritopisis dohrnii,” she laughs. “Known as the immortal jellyfish. Ain't no bigger than a minute, but quite magical to me.”

“Hmm. You know, I always thought jellyfish were cool. Always jealous of how they could slip in and out of places. They’re just muscling through life without a damn.”

“Boneless, but not without strength.”

I wish I knew what that was like, he wonders for a second before shaking his head.

“And you think I fit this jellyfish profile?” Cameron couldn’t help but huff. It sounded light, but the bitterness was on the roof of his mouth, threatening to take away the sweetness of this moment—of the thought that she’d even compare him to something he’d never be.

“Jellyfish have sexes, but the average person wouldn’t know the difference. When I look at you, I think you are beautiful in a way that—I hope this doesn’t sound bad, but in a way that I don’t really see your gender.”

The sophomore barely hears the rest over the sound of blood rushing to his ears. 

“I don’t know if that makes sense. I just…I think you’re just beautiful, and I’d love to capture it. Or, had wanted to.”

Cameron fights the butterflies swirling in his stomach, trying to nod sagely even as the blush spreads across his face. 

“Ah. I don’t see a problem with you still doing it.”

“I intended to use you as a base and make changes to be more…alien-like, but as I sketched this week, I realized I really wanted to use your likeness outright.”

“And that’d mean drawing me in…very suggestive ways? Or needing me to pose in them?” 

The junior nods once, shoulders sinking as she glances away. 

“…Usually, Lakan arranges the references if we need something different, but I didn’t agree with the model he used this time. Getting to know you, and then asking a huge favor like this feels wrong.”

“To you,” Cameron says with a startled laugh. “Frankly, I’m taking this as a huge compliment. You’re making me feel like a muse.”

“You are a good one.”

“And sure it’s not because I look like a girl? Who knows, maybe you’ll feel different if I wore less feminine clothes,” he air quotes with a scoff.

“Do you want to be a girl?” she questions.

“…No. I just want to be pretty.”

“And you are. You’re a boy with impeccable taste. End of.”

If only more people made it that simple.

“And you don’t want me to model as one—a girl. Uh, f-for this.”

“I don’t want you to be anything you’re not, in general. Whatever that looks like.”