Art & Ink //Zauren?

•three

Lauren woke up with a killer headache and instantly blamed the bottle of vodka on the coffee table in front of her. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep next to Carlos. The sound of shuffling feet snapped her out of her sleepy state
Her blood began to boil when he emerged from her private room carrying two of her paintings.

"Carlos!" Lauren shouted, furious. The headache worsened.

The man shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. Tina walked out after him with another one. Lauren was fuming.

"Take it to the truck." Tina said.

Carlos looked to her and back to Lauren.

"Just following orders, chica."

Lauren blocked his way. "Tina, what the hell is going on?"

"We need to get your paintings down to the gallery so we can get them set up."

"I never said yes!" Lauren shouted. "You can't just break into that room, I told you how private some of my paintings are."

Tina began to feel guilty for picking the lock.

"So should I put these back or.." Carlos asked with an awkward stance.

Lauren knew she was ultimately going to say yes to Tina about showcasing her art but under some circumstances.

"There's a few that you can't take." She warned, approaching Carlos and examining her paintings. "You can take those." Lauren sighed.

They began moving several of the canvases out of her apartment. Lauren let them take the ones that she was kind of comfortable showing. Some of them were too personal. An hour went by and the two of them finished packing her paintings safely in the back of Tina's car.

"I'm gonna go set up and I'll come back to get you around 6. Wear something cute." Tina said, fishing her car keys out of her purse as she walked towards the front door.

"Sure." Lauren huffed.

Tina spun around to face her. "Tonight is about you, ok? Don't look so down."

She thought to herself for a second.

"Ok." Lauren nodded.

Soon after Carlos went back to his apartment and Tina left, Lauren took two pain pills and waited for her headache to subside. When it did, she had to raid her cluttered closet in search of something to wear. Based on the event, jeans wasn't an option.

The little back dress she managed to find in the mass of clothes was a perfect option. It's been years since it's seen the light of day. Lauren decided to try it on just incase it didn't fit anymore. It slid over her curves with ease.

Lauren stood in the mirror to see her reflection. There was a tiny part of her that wanted to say that she looked terrible just to convince herself not to go but her good conscience outweighed the bad one. Lauren knew she that liked what she saw in the mirror.

Six o'clock rolled around and Tina came back to pick her up as planned. The first thing she did was compliment Lauren's appearance and Lauren couldn't help but blush different shades of red.

"I mean seriously, you look great. I haven't seen you in anything other than jeans in a while." Tina said.

"Wow, thanks." The sarcasm was obvious. They took the elevator down to the lobby. Lauren was surprised that she could still walk in heels. The last time she wore a pair was at her sister's wedding. Oh how she loathed being her sister's bridesmaid.

"You don't look too bad yourself." Lauren added with a smirk. Tina sported a tight strapless dress that almost left nothing to the imagination. It came down to mid thigh, allowing her new tattoo to show.

"Do I look good enough to get laid? I kind of planned on getting some tonight."

If anyone needs to get laid, it's me, Lauren thought to herself as they walked to Tina's car. How long had it been? A year? Lauren was practically a ticking time bomb. Pleasuring herself was getting old and she knew sooner or later she'd need a warm body to do all the pleasing.

"Sure." She finally said before getting in on the passenger side of her car.

As they neared the venue, she became more nervous. What if people didn't like her paintings? What if tonight was a horrible idea? But after her conscience gave her a pep talk, she realized she was overthinking.

Arm in arm, the two of them walked towards the front of the small brick venue with the name - view - written across the top. Lauren had been there before to look at other people's works but never her own. Even though she was nervous, Lauren was thankful that Tina did all this for her. Ever though she felt like she didn't deserve it.

The first person she saw when the two of them entered the venue was Carlos. He was nursing a beer in one hand and was stroking his chin hair with the other. The next thing she saw was her paintings on display on the plain white walls, which made them stand out incredibly. The place was pretty hippie themed. Different designs decorated the floors and the lights hanging from the ceiling were orb shaped. There was a bar in the far back and the man behind the counter was preparing drinks. There were about ten people that she didn't know walking around examining her works.

"H-how many people are coming?" Lauren was suddenly nervous again.

"Maybe about fifty. Not too many."

Her eyes widened. "Fifty? Do I know any of these people?"

"Jeff is coming and Carlos is here..and you have me." Tina tried to not make it seem like she didn't invite a whole lot of randoms..which is exactly what she did.

"Three out of fifty people. Wow, I feel so much better now." Lauren crossed her arms in an uncomfortable state, gawking at the people judging her paintings.

"Lauren, stop overthinking. I know everyone coming and they're all cool, I promise. Come, you need a drink to loosen up." Tina took her by the hand and led her to the mini bar.

After two gin and tonics and a shot of tequila, she felt the same. Lauren wasn't a light weight and could definitely handle her liquor so the strong drinks hardly affected her.

More people started to pour in and she grew more tense. Thank God for the bar because alcohol was a must if she was going to get through the night.