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⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆A few days later⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆Porter Luxury Apartments, Chicago IL⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆
❝You be looking so pretty, and yo' ass don't even be doing nothing,❞ Makai's voice bounced between both of Ciyana's ears through her Airpod Pro Max's in the color starlight as she looked down at her notepad.
Butterflies fluttering throughout her stomach was the only way to describe the way his tone of voice made her feel. She would keep this to herself for now though.
All she had on was a white baby tee from Shein that read 'Boys make gr8 pets,' in pink letters and a pair of matching pink sweatpants. She wore no makeup aside from her lash extensions and some Aquaphor on her lips. Her hair was natural, thrown into a loose ponytail to be dealt with later.
On her face, she had on a pair of clear blue-light glasses. She actually had 20/20 vision, but wearing them made her feel like she was doing something productive with her life.
She honestly did look beautiful while she sat there. However, she wasn't sure if he really meant that, or if he was just sweet talking her.
"Thank you, Makai." She gave him a soft smile before carrying on with what she was doing.
That being, her drawing a sketch of a woman who had yet to be named. She had specific books for specific styles of art she did. In this one, she felt like she was capturing the essence of black girls in their ordinary & everyday beauty, refusing to color them in with any societal expectations.
Figuratively and literally speaking.
The sketches were all in black and white, never to be gone over with more than just the number 2 pencils she started with. She felt no obligation to add color or any other further embellishments either.
And typically, with every piece of art she made, she would write a detailed explanation of how she made it and what inspired her to.
Sometimes it was something in pop culture, other times it was the political and economic state of the wold.
Yet for these portraits, she felt no such need.
To her, being black, a woman, and proud of those two biological facts in today's society was a political statement in and of itself. And therefore, all the explanation needed.
Small personal projects like these were her odd way of escaping from her own struggles of being a brown-skinned woman in the cultural climate we live in.
Also, how she coped with all that came with her lived experience of being the darkest woman in her immediate family.
It was honestly a past-time that she would rather be engaging in alone. However, after almost a week of Makai practically begging to talk to her, she finally gave in since this was one of those rare times where she wasn't tied up with work.
