𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆, Short Stories (Completed)

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ 04 | basketball and paintings ˊˎ-

𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆
𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐞𝐳𝐢𝐚𝐡

𝐈 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 at my usual place at the usual time: the topmost seat in the bleachers of the basketball court at 5 pm. Everyday I come in here to watch the basketball players play and to draw them in my sketch book. They don't know me, and I don't know them, but they don't mind me and I continue on with my own business.

Today, however, my mind feels blocked. I don't find any inspiration to draw. There are players tossing the orange ball and squeaking their sneakers in front of me, yet somehow I can't feel any inspiration to draw anything.

With my face slumped in one hand and my mechanical pencil in my other hand drawing random lines on the sketchbook, I feel my eyes getting slowly drowsy. But they shoot open when I hear the girls and boys playing say something unusual.

"Eden's here!"

I look up from my sketchbook sitting on my lap to see a young girl enter inside. She has short dark brown hair and striking grey eyes, sporting a basketball jersey like everyone else. I have never seen her before in the court. As she walks inside, all of the boys and girls either high-five her or hug her, making her smile in their direction. I straighten my slumped posture as I watch her approach the bleachers and keep a water bottle and a hand towel on the lowest stair of the bleachers. Her eyes train up to mine, creating a short eye contact. She smiles at me and I can't help but smile back at her.

The small moment ends quite soon than I had anticipated, before I see her join all of her other friends and play with them.

And that is when I realise I have found my muse.

↶ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊˎ-

𝐀𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒, when I see all of the players sit down and take a break. All of them drink some water and wipe their faces with their towels along with conversing among themselves. I notice Eden is standing instead of sitting like everyone else as she drinks water from her bottle.

I pick up the sketchbook on my lap and gaze at the sketch I made in the past hour.

It's a sketch of Eden, shooting a ball in the hoop.

I look at it, quite longer than usual. I don't appreciate looking at my own art work for long. When I look at it for longer than usual, I begin to notice flaws and end up completely hating the art piece. But this time, I can't seem to find any flaw in the sketch. All I can feel is the energy Eden radiates radiating from the sketch.

I look up from my sketch to notice Eden is no where to be seen with the group. Sighing, I get up from my place and decide it's time I leave too. As I make my way out of the basketball, I pull out my sketchbook from under my arm and gazing at Eden's painting yet again. But walking while not paying attention where I walk has to be the dumbest thing I have ever done, because I slam into someone.

My sketchbook drops to the ground, and so do I. I groan in pain, my eyes shut, and I hear the other person groan too. I slowly open my eyes to look at my fallen sketchbook. The page with Eden's sketch lies open on the ground, surrounded by a mess of small slips of paper I keep tucked in my art book which have random drawings scrawled on them.

"Oh my god I am so sorry!" I look up to see Eden standing on her feet, her eyes wide as she looks at me and the mess of my sketchbook.

"It's okay," I groan, getting up from the ground, "I was the one walking without looking. It's my fault, not yours." Eden rushes to me, worry flashing over her face.

"Let me help you with that," she says, motioning to the sketchbook. It takes me a second to realise how wrong this idea is. She will see the sketch I made for her.

I never really like people seeing my art work. My art work is extremely personal to me. Everytime I draw, I tuck in a small piece of my soul in it, which can reveal many carefully hidden secrets of mine, if interpreted properly. Showing people my art seems like showing a part of my soul.

"No!" I say, a little to quickly. I shut my eyes close in horror. "I mean..." I begin, "I can clean my mess up on my own. You don't have to worry about it."

"Let me help you, please," she says, her noise hinting slight desperation. "I am the one responsible for this."

I sigh, knowing she has won and I have lost. I nod at her, making her face visibly relax. She approaches the mess of my artwork and begins to collect all the slips of paper and gathers them together, while I help her out. Once all of the mess is cleared, she reaches for my sketchbook.

My heart plummets out of my chest when I notice her gazing at the sketch, instead of shutting the book close and handing it to me.

"Is that... is that me?" She asks softly, looking up from the sketchbook. I feel my cheeks slightly heat up, making me drop my head and allow my hair to curtain my face.

"It's really beautiful," she mumbles, making me look up. "No one has never drawn me before."

"Thank you," I whisper. We both stand properly, and Eden hands me my stuff.

"Hope to see you around," she says, smiling.

I feel a smile tugging my own lips.

"You too."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This was originally a oneshot for my Coco Van Dijk oneshots book 'How I'm Feeling', but no one read it (except one person lol) and I really loved the idea so I unpublished the oneshot there and rewrote it for People Watching!

Anyways, I hope you liked and enjoyed it! Don't forget to vote and comment <3

WITH LOVE THROUGH HEALTH AND SICKNESS
KEZIAH