haze / afi

part 4. paint war

violet is two weeks into living in california. things are going well so far. she's unpacked, all of her belongings from ohio that are with her, she's bought her own cutlery, bowls, plates and extra dishes, and, she's even been out to pick up a few pots of paint. purple, blue and yellow.

she lays down some sheets to ensure none of the paint would end up on the carpet, covering her bed too, not wanting anything to permanently stain her comforter. as she's about to move her mirror out of the bedroom, she hears a knock on the door. knowing already that it's ashton arriving to help her paint.

she and ashton have been texting back and fourth over the past couple of weeks. it isn't a lot yet, but it is small things each day, such as asking how they both are or what they're doing for the day. it's the small start of a friendship.

she quickly heads down the hall, unlocking her door to see ashton standing there. he smiles down at her, glasses lifting with the movements, dimples easily being shown. he's wearing light blue jeans with a white tank top. he looks better than her in her old ripped jeans and navy blue shirt that she doesn't particularly wear anymore, only wearing those incase she spills any paint.

"hey, thank you for coming on such short notice." violet steps aside, allowing ashton into her apartment. "please ignore the mess, i haven't had time to finish cleaning up."

"sure thing." ashton says as he looks around, seeing how violet has decided to decorate her new apartment. "this is a cosy place you've got here."

he looks over to the living room, noticing the way everything is laid out. the sofa centred with the tv as well as the small table. he sees some boxes out on the kitchen counter, understanding violet must still have things to unpack.

she leads ashton down the hall to her bedroom, as soon as he's inside, he sees her shelves full of vinyls, going over there first to take a look.

"you like led zeppelin? and metallica?" ashton goes through her collection, turning around as she walks over. "you don't seem like the kinda person to be into that music."

"i have a pretty varied taste in music," violet explains as she leans down to the second shelf of vinyls, pulling out a onerepublic and niall horan vinyl. "i think the question of genre is a little stupid honestly, people always ask me what genre i'm into, but each artist plays around with multiple genres, each type of music sounding different. there's a lot to like about the differences between a pop album and rock album."

she places those two vinyls back down, looking at ashton who has a weird smile on his face. he's fascinated in hearing violet talk about music the way she was only a second ago. she's passionate about it, he's never met anyone who looks at music in the same way as he does.

"you'll have to show me your vinyl collection one day, i'm interested to see what other music you like." violet tells him, he nods, being keen on that idea. "but for now, i think we should start painting."

ashton nods, seeing where violet has three cans of paint. all different colours. he picks up the colour 'violet' first. turning to her as he does.

"you want to paint your room violet?" he asks, a laugh threatening to escape his lips. violet can tell by the way the corners of his mouth are curving upwards.

"i like the colour purple," she shrugs. "i didn't ask to be named violet. i'm not even named after the stupid colour."

she folds her arms around her small body, watching as ashton places the paint back down to look at the other colours.

"so, if you're not named after a colour," he glances over at violet who's standing awkwardly as he opens the blue pot of paint. "are you named after the flower?"