A Typical Story

Um...hi?

I stirred the pot in the pan, faint music playing in the kitchen as Nan cleaned the livingroom. We were having a cosy night in, just the two of us, watching shit TV for the night.

Nan was a nursey assistant down the road, so she worked most weekdays, which concerned me, she was almost 70 and I was worried it was going to become too much for her. But she enjoyed working with the kids and I couldn't bring myself to try and convince her to stop, as long as she promised not to overwork herself too much I was happy.

"here is Spaghetti Bolognese's ala Alex" I announced, carrying her plate over to her and she thanked me before we settled onto the sofas to watch 'Kitchen Nightmares'. I told you it was shit TV.

It was coming up to summer break soon and I was looking forward to not having to study for a long time. Ned, MJ, Peter and I had plans to go camping together too which I was really looking forward to, and I needed to get a job.

I was kind of hoping a coffee shop or bar who would need staff, anything where I would be busy yet not too busy. I had worked at a bar for 6 months when I was 15, before I moved to America which I found really fun, mostly due to the regulars and the staff so I was hoping I would find that same joy somewhere here.

"How did your Math exam go today?" Nan asked and I sighed.

"better than I thought, but I'm not sure. Peter said I should be fine, we covered everything that was actually in the test, but I don't know."

"it'll be okay, as long as you did your best" that was such a typical Nan answer.

The spaghetti wasn't bad, it defiantly wasn't what I was going for, but it wasn't bad.

"So when am I going to meet Peter's Aunt?" I pursed my lips at Nan's question, wiping the suds on my hands into a tea towel.

"I'll message Pete and see if they're free next week." I whipped my phone out of my pocket whilst I was thinking about it.

A: Hey lovely xx hope you're having a good day x

A: Are you and May free next week for the dinner? Nan's been asking 😊

"I'll give you a shout when I get something back"

"Okay, don't forget I'm away on the 22nd so make sure it's before that" Nan called as she got ready for her shower, and I added it to my calendar.

"got it, I'm going to pop up to the roof for a bit!"

"Stay away from the edge" her warning was headed, and I grabbed my iPad, two bottles of Pepsi and a blanket, putting on my headphones before laying it all in a bag and climbing out of my window onto the fire escape.

Luckily it was mostly steps and one ladder to the roof, so it didn't take long for me to set up in my usual space, the waterproof beanbag I made sitting close enough to the edge that I could still see over the ledge without the risk of falling.

The blanket kept me warm, and I began sketching out things on my iPad, going between ideas for my final piece and random doodles.

I began doing portrait sketches to practise my skills and warm up my hands. MJ was one of my common sources of inspiration, her hair and her face really called to me, plus she was nice to draw. I was horrible at drawing blokes. They always turned out too feminine and facial hair was hard, no matter how many brushes I downloaded.

Peter was one of the hardest to draw, I could never quite capture his expressions the way I wanted to, but I guess that comes with knowing who you're drawing. His alter ego though was much easier.