Our Safeguard

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

~Nolan~

       Painting was one thing I could do to take me to my happy place, which wasn't a place I went to so often unfortunately. The fact that I was soon going to have a studio to paint whenever I wanted would definitely help me in the long run. Not just mentally, but with a career in the arts if I chose to pursue it.

       I still didn't even know what I wanted to do as a career. I didn't know if I wanted to go to university or if I wanted to just work on my talents at home. Either way, I should probably make a decision soon.

       Jerome and Brandon walked into the office/lounge, carrying a couch that was going to be staying in here. I went with Jerome to look at furniture and I pretty much fell in love with the couch. It was extremely comfortable, and I was tempted to just jump on the couch and nap.

       But I didn't want to interrupt Jerome and Brandon bringing furniture into the room. Besides, I was relaxed enough right now just by painting a mural on the wall.

       They set the couch onto the ground before Brandon wiped his hands. "Are you sure we should be bringing furniture into the room while Nolan is still painting the walls?"

       "Oh, the other walls are painted already," I said. "I'm just painting a mural onto this one so the room isn't so... bleh."

       "You know what we should add in here?" Jerome asked. "A ping pong table."

       "I feel like you're going to try turning this into a small arcade room instead of just an office and a lounge," I said.

       "That's... Okay, maybe it's a bit true," Jerome said. "But hey, I don't want to add a bunch of games. Just one or two to help unwind. Or for when I'm feeling competitive."

       "Well, whatever you do, don't challenge Alan to ping pong," I said.

       "Why? Is he that bad?"

       "Bad? No, no. Quite the opposite. It's next to impossible to lose against him. The only good thing about losing against him is that even though he can be competitive, he doesn't really rub it in the loser's face."

       "It's true," Brandon said. "The last party we went to together, there was a ping pong competition. Alan won. He even started off pretending he was bad at it at first so people would go easy on him."

       "Well, now I want to get a ping pong table to challenge him to see how good he is," Jerome said. "But in the meantime, let's get back to work in the studio. We need to make it look as good as it does in here. But that might be an overachievement because Nolan's too talented."

       "Awe, you flatter me," I said. 

       Jerome and Brandon went back to working in the main studio. Almost everything needed to be replaced in there; the mirrors, the floors, the lights, the blinds. They had already finished the flooring and repainted the walls, so now they were getting to everything else.

       The couch was the only piece of furniture we had bought for the studio. We wanted to make sure everything else was done before getting desks, chairs, benches, all that stuff. The only reason why we brought a couch was so we didn't have to sit or lie down on the floor when we wanted to take a break from working.

       Especially me. I got fatigued easily, even from just sitting on the ground as I worked on the bottom part of the mural. If I wanted to recover properly, I couldn't just rest on the ground.

       I finished on the part I was working on before deciding I needed to take a break. Besides, I needed most of this paint to dry before continuing on the mural.

       I wasn't feeling too fatigued, but I still decided to lie down on the couch anyway. I would have gone to bug Jerome, mainly to flirt with him, but I didn't want Brandon to feel like a third wheel after all the work he had done to help us out in the studio.

       I scrolled through memes on my phone for a bit before deciding to nap, if I could. I got into a more comfortable position before closing my eyes.

       I wasn't able to fall asleep before Jerome walked back into the office. "Hey," he said softly. "Are you asleep?"

       I opened my eyes to look at Jerome. "Not yet. Just wanted to nap, but not a big deal if I don't fall asleep."

       "I'm gonna order some food for us soon," Jerome said. "Anything specific you want?"

       I shook my head. "No, I'm good with anything. Just get something you feel like you can eat."

       Jerome smiled at me before he leaned down and kissed my forehead. He headed back into the main studio, so I tried to nap again.

       Once again, I couldn't really fall asleep, which was weird because of how tired I was feeling. It wasn't anything new, though.

       I laid on the couch for a few minutes more before getting up and heading to the main studio to go bug Jerome. I still wanted to flirt with him, but I was going to be considerate for Brandon. You know, even though he was never considerate when he was with Alan. Ever.

       "Good morning, sleeping beauty," Jerome said when he saw me walk in. He was currently taking down the old blings on the windows to put up the new ones.

       "I didn't even fall asleep," I said. 

       "Yeah, but you're still a beauty," Jerome said.

       "Can you, like, not flirt with me here?" Brandon asked.

       Jerome snorted. "Sure, so long as you stop making out with Alan in public."

       "Never mind. Flirt to your heart's content."

       There was a knock on the front door, and I was guessing it was the food considering Jerome hopped off of the ladder he was on before walking to the front door. He opened it, revealing Joel in the delivery uniform, carrying a bag. "Oh," Joel said. "It's you."

       "Uh, yeah, it's me," Jerome said.

       Joel looked passed Jerome and saw me, so I waved at him. He smiled and waved back before handing Jerome the food. 

       After Joel left, Jerome closed the door. "Food's here," he said a bit dishearteningly.

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "You okay?"

       "Yeah," Jerome said. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just hungry. Come on, let's eat so we can get back to work."

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ping pong is the one thing alan is good at. jk he's good at a lot of things. i just like making funny of my dummy <3