Paint A Picture (Left #2)

Chapter 14

I love art. It has been my passion ever since I was a little girl trying to color inside the lines in my coloring books. I was always known in school as the kid that's good at art, and majority of Keegan's art projects were done by me.

It's always come easy to me, but as I've gotten older, the more pressure I've put on myself to make everything perfect. Don't get me wrong, I still love art, but it becomes stressful when a time limit is put on it. This is exactly why I have spent the last few minutes staring at a blank sheet of paper in my sketchbook.

Photo realism has always been one of my favorites. I love capturing life and paying attention to the little details in a picture.

I have been instructed by one of my art professors to create a drawing of someone special to me, someone who has impacted my life and use our favorite photo of them. To add even more pressure, this assignment will be included in our final portfolio for the class. Technically we have until the end of the semester to completely finish the drawing, but she wants to see the progress we are making this week.

I've chosen to draw my mother.

She has and always will be my number one supporter, even though Dad tries to beat her in that area. Never once has she not been there for each of her daughters. Although, it can get a little embarrassing when she decides to come to your T-ball game with your face blown up on a poster. Keegan and I were only 6 at the time, and I already didn't want to be there. I've never been the athletic daughter.

The photo I've chosen to use is from when I was younger and we went to the beach one weekend. I was tired from a long day of playing in the sand, and Mom picked me up with ease allowing me to sleep on her shoulder.

I'm having trouble putting my pencil to the paper to even sketch out the drawing. I don't want to mess it up because it's my mom. There's never been a more important drawing. I don't want her to be disappointed if the drawing doesn't turn out good, especially since she was so excited when I told her about the project during our call earlier.

"Hey." I turned my head towards my bedroom door to see Colin leaning against the doorframe. "Why do you look like your about to pull out your hair?"

I didn't realize that I had threaded my hands through my hair and now have a tight grip on it. I slowly untangled my hands before replying to him, "I'm just having trouble with this project."

"Well, I'm not usually one to give advice, but it seems like you could use a break."

"How could I use a break when I haven't even started?"

"Maybe if you actually take a break from doubting yourself, you'll come back feeling refreshed and ready to work."

"Shut up." It still amazes me how well Colin still knows me after all these years.

"Come on." He pushes off of the doorframe. "I have an idea."

"Are you going to tell me your idea?"

"Nope, but we're going to need to go to Michaels. Hurry up and change into something that you don't care about getting dirty," he shouts as he makes his way to his own room to change.

"Splatter paint?"

"It's the easiest and most carefree art there is," Colin explained as he looked down at the masterpiece he created on the grass. Two canvas were laid out on an old bed sheet while bottles of paint and paintbrushes were thrown aimlessly around it.

"This way you can let loose a little and get out of that little head of yours." He quickly taped the side of my head, and I immediately swatted away his hand.

"Fine, but I'm only doing this because it's a nice gesture. I cannot promise that I'll enjoy it."

We both jump into choosing our colors and pouring them onto a plate before dipping our paintbrushes in. I started with a dark blue and flicked it on to the white canvas. Soon enough, the once blank canvas turned into a blob of different shades of blue. I then looked over to see Colin's progress only to realize that he's already standing next to me.

"How does your's still look so good? I feel like mine just turned into a big mess of ugly colors." I looked back at his canvas to find yellow, orange, and green splattered on the canvas. There also appears to be some brown, though I'm not sure how it got there when there's no bottle of brown paint in sight.

"Not everyone has as much talent as me," I laughed looking up at him.

"Oh, wow." He laughed. "And she's humble about it too."

As I go to look back at my piece, I suddenly feel cold paint being smeared on my cheek.

"Oh no you didn't." I looked over to a laughing Colin as I stood completely shocked. Before he could react, I quickly grabbed my paintbrush and smeared paint on his white t-shirt.

"Hey," Colin stated as he stopped laughing and looked down at his now damaged shirt.

Before I could even think about the possible mess we would make, Colin and I both grabbed tubes of paint as we embarked in a paint fight.

Eventually I ran out of paint, and Colin was already reaching for more, so I did the only thing I could think of. As Colin grabbed another tube of paint, I turned around and ran as quickly as my unathletic body would go trying to reach a nearby tree to take cover behind. I was so close to my destination when I felt a heavyweight pull me down to the grass.

"Did you really try to run?" Colin asked as I tried to catch my breath.

"It may not have been my best idea," I laughed trying to sit up, but Colin was practically laying on top of me. I looked up to tell him to get off of me and realized just how close we were. I could easily just lean up and our lips would be touching.

My breath caught at that realization as Colin stared into my eyes like he was trying to figure me out. I began to lean in without thinking while Colin did the same.

In this moment, it felt like no one else was around and it was just us in the park, but that just wasn't true.

Right as our lips were about to meet, I heard a dog barking and it broke me out of whatever trance I had been in.

"We should probably clean this up and head home." I quickly pushed Colin off of me and sat up before heading back to where we left our canvas.

I don't know what the hell happened back there, but it can't happen again. I can't get hurt again.

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It's been awhile and I'm really sorry. I'm going to try to get more chapters out faster.

Thank you for reading!!

Also here's a little reference photo that I found on Pinterest for what Bryn was going to work on.

Olivia