Game of Love

Chapter 1

Addaline flicked her wrist, coating the canvas with another splash of colour. The sunset painting was slowly coming along, much like how her once white set of overalls was splattered with shades of yellows, reds and oranges. Even the easel was splattered with various colours from past paintings; a permanent reminder of the hard work and passion she put into each and every piece. This passion started from a young age, it was all she had to cling onto to keep her sanity as she went from place to place. Art became her safe space, she could lose herself within a sketchbook for hours at a time.

As she stared at the sunset that was quickly becoming one of her favourite pieces, she debated whether she wanted to sell it or not. One part of her knew she should sell it because they needed the money yet the other part of her wanted to keep it. Money wasn't a big issue for her and the two others who lived here but she preferred having more than enough to cover food, mortgage and bills as well as having plenty for her savings. She claimed that it was just to ease her anxiety but it was also just in case her many medical conditions decided to take her from the world early. She wanted her two roommates and best friends to have enough to give her a basic funeral and not have the funds come from their banks. A sigh fell from her lips as she heard the front door open and then slam shut, Luka had a bad day.

"Hey, Dollface. I'm home." Luka called, his voice hoarse, a stark difference from the sing-song voice Addy was used to, leading Addy to guess he had a bad experience at work with a customer either claiming that they hadn't actually fixed the car or he had dropped a tool and hurt himself or the third option, he'd had a 'Karen' who demanded to see a manager.

"Hey, Luka. Bad day?" She said, coming out of her art studio (the spare room in their shared house) and walked down the stairs to meet him at the front door. The studio's walls were covered in half finished or drying paintings and shelves containing a wide variety of acrylic paints, paint brushes and half filled water pots that had brushes soaking in them. Addy would claim it was organised chaos but Luka and Marcel just called it chaos whenever they came in, which wasn't very often in fear of ruining one of the artworks.

Luka sighed and ran his hand through his curly bubblegum-pink hair, raking a little grease through it, giving him racing car streaks. His hands had a thin layer of oil from the car he worked on and a new bruise was blossoming on the back of his calloused and dry hands. Addy assumed that the bruise came from him dropping one of the wrenches or spanners he uses whilst fixing a customer's car; according to him, being a mechanic was a painful job if you have a weak grip. His shoulders were hunched making him look much shorter than his normal 6'2 height, standing next to him Addy looked like a child at a measly 5ft.

He chuckled and muttered, "That's an understatement." His normally bright green eyes were seemingly a few shades darker and the bags under his eyes made him resemble a raccoon. He hadn't been getting enough sleep, instead he was taking overtime and extra shifts like he did when his aunt complained she didn't have enough money to raise her three children. She wasn't the best mother and she often focused on her oldest and youngest forgetting about her middle child except when she was mad and wanted to shift the blame onto someone else.

"Wanna talk about it?" She asked, wiping her hands on her already stained overalls.

"No thanks, Addy. I'm just gonna go shower." He pressed a kiss to her forehead before walking off, slouching as he shuffled up the stairs. About five minutes later the shower could barely be heard over the sound of bottles falling into the bathtub.

Addy sighed and walked away from the front door towards the kitchen. Her throat was dry and she figured a cup of honey and lemon tea could fix that. As she walked through the carpeted hallway her mind wandered to getting the letter that changed her life a few years ago, Luka's grandfather had died and he left Luka his house in England, the house they lived in now, which caused a lot of strife between his children, especially Luka's aunt. Granted Addy and Luka had decorated once they moved in and now the house looked more colourful, murals coated most walls and if there wasn't a mural it was a bright colour instead of a cream or eggshell.