Snapping her mouth like a turtle, she bites the ankles of a lone student leaning against a photocopier. The kid is one she’s never spoken with. He seems pleasant enough, but so are his paintings, so she gives him a nip for good measure. Tossing a handful of paper into the air as she sinks her teeth in, falling pages shower their heads before she makes her escape leaving him to pick them up with his tail between his legs. The next to get a taste of her mischief is a woman who makes oversized sculptures of shoes. They’re as shit as they sound, and the woman’s dress sense is just as bad. Appearing from around the corner unaware of a looming Gretchen, the cup of coffee she’s holding goes all over her blouse. Flustered and out of sorts, she tries diving into someone’s studio space in a weak attempt at escape. It’s no good though for Gretchen grabs her manky ankle and lets her have it. The woman whines and wrinkles her face, but no one cares. Not even her shitty shoes that watch the event unfold from their decorative plinths ashamed at having been brought into existence by someone so bland. For anyone else, such behaviour would be regarded as scandalous, and expulsion would undoubtedly beckon, but Gretchen’s prodigious talent places her outside the realm of punishment. She might have a terrible attendance and attack the other students for getting in her way, but not even her worst enemies could argue that her paintings were anything but a thing of beauty. Every aspect of her life, from her mental health to her excessive drinking, is an accident waiting to happen, but when she stands before a canvas and paints it with the colours of her tainted heart, they know they’re in the presence of something special. Still, the tutors would surely pull her up on this latest little outburst. Navigating the studio spaces by sense of smell alone, she sticks out her tongue at anyone that crosses her, but luckily for them, they’re out of harm’s way as she comes crashing through like the ball of fury she is.

X and I: A Novel and A Journal for Damned Lovers on Amazon UK

X and I: A Novel and A Journal for Damned Lovers on Amazon US