A Blank Canvas by Reigh-Lee Greaves

Chapter One

A blank canvas, a clean slate, a new beginning. However, for its owner, it wasn't such a joyous item. He'd gone to the bathroom to splash his face to try and regain focus before rejoining his canvas. The young man's name was Khai.
Khai was a young man in his early twenties. He had dark red, shoulder-length hair that he had tied up in a bun before he started painting. His skin was a light, fawn beige and glowed in the sunlight that came flooding into the room after Khai had opened the curtains, letting the outside world see the chaos that was his art room.
Don't get him wrong, he loved his art but at the current time, Khai stood in front of his easel, staring daggers at the blank canvas that sat on the easel's ledge, like a smug cat taunting its owner. The brush that was gripped tightly in his right hand oozed with blue paint and shook slightly, causing the paint to drip onto Khai's sweatpants.

Nothing...

Khai could think of nothing to paint even though only a few minutes ago his head was filled to the brim with ideas, which swam around his mind like fish in a pond. It was as if the moment the brush touched the freshly squeezed paint, all of his thoughts and ideas disappeared, like smoke in the wind.

'Come on brain, think!' Khai let out a long sigh of frustration before cleaning and wiping his brush and pallet.
'Maybe if I take a break something will come to me' Khai thought to himself as moved to put away his paints.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, causing Khai to bang his head on the cupboard draw as he was crouching down to place his art supplies back into their respective places. Standing quickly Khai rushed to open the door to his art studio, where he revealed his closest friend, Liam.
"Liam, hey, what brings you here?" Khai asked while rubbing the top of his head.
Liam smiled at Khai, his slate blue eyes bore into Khai's chestnut brown eyes. Liam stood a few inches smaller than Khai, his short blonde hair was styled with wax and contrasted against his russet brown skin. Liam was wearing his usual work attire, which consisted of a navy blue polo shirt and black slacks. His work boots were polished to perfection as always.
Did you forget that we have to be at the animal shelter soon to start our shift?" Liam answered with another question and an amused look on his face, causing Khai's face to drop in sudden realisation. "Shit" Khai responded "I forgot hold on while I change".
Liam smiled at his friend's forgetfulness and watched as Khai ran into the walk-in wardrobe that was located at the back of the room.
"Remind me again how old you are Khai?" Liam yelled as Khai fell onto his arse, after hopping on one foot while trying to put on a pair of smart-looking trousers.

"I'm twenty-four, how could you possibly forget that, I'm practically a year older than you," Khai said once he had sorted himself out after his short trip.
"Give or take a few months, mate" Liam retorted.
He and Khai shared a look before bursting out in a fit of laughter. The pair had known each other since the beginning of high school, when they had been put together in P.E., after that the two became conjoined at the hip, if you ever wanted to find one of them, then all you had to do was look for the other one.
After the young men had composed themselves, Khai grabbed his bag that was sitting by the door, waiting for him, before turning to his friend.
"So who are we on with today? Since the rotor seems to change almost weekly" he asked as they left Khai's art studio.
Liam gave Khai a knowing look before answering, "Felix".

Felix?

Khai smiled to himself at the mention of his other friend and crush, which Liam knew about and took pleasure in teasing him about whenever said friend's name was mentioned between the two of them and Khai's other friend Lauri.
"I thought that would make you smile, maybe today you'll finally tell him how you feel?" Liam said as the pair made their way down towards Khai's car. Pulling out his keys, Khai glared at Liam before opening the driver's door and getting in. Liam followed and got in the passenger's seat, he then looked at his friend who was gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles.

"Look, Khai, I know that you're scared, but " Liam started to say only to be cut off by a frustrated Khai.
"I'm not scared Liam, I'm just not sure if Felix feels the same way, why would he want to date someone like me, someone who hid who he was for years because he was scared of what his family would do? Anyway let's get to the shelter, we're going to be late otherwise"
After that the pair drove off, Liam kept glancing at Khai now and then out of the corner of his eye.
'This is going to be a long car ride' both Liam and Khai thought.