Fight For Me ✔

Chapter 9

Caia

"But it's soooo cute!" Camille whines hugging the plate to her chest.

"Camille, it's for babies! It's made of cheap plastic and have a pink and purple elephants print!" Jade yells and throws her hands up in the air. They have been arguing about the baby plate for ten minutes now, neither of them prepared to give in. The funny thing is they haven't asked for my preferences, not even once. It's been like this during the whole shopping trip. Camille finds something utterly feminine and 'cute', Jade protest, they argue then they compromise. The cart is full of glasses, cups, towels, pots, pans and thousands of other stuff, none of which I have chosen or even been asked about.

I don't mind though. I'm having fun and between Camille and Jade, they have managed to find a golden middle way between Camille's colorful, flowery and at times childish style, and Jade's more raw, darker toned inclination. They even managed to find me some decorations. Some colorful, swirly pillows for my dark couch, a pop culture print painting like that famous painting of Marilyn Monroe - though not that motive - and some knickknacks to place around my apartment.

I'm thankful for their compromises. If Jade were to decide my home would look like a bachelor pad and if Camille had her way it would look like a three year olds princess bedroom. If I were to decide? I would have taken the bare minimum. Meaning no decorations and the cheapest gear I could find. Yeah, I'm not good at interior design.

"So?" Camille snaps. "You had your way with the flower pods! Why can't I have my plate?"

"Oh, you can. If you keep it at your place. No way am I allowing that... thing past Caia's doorstep." Jade says, disgust clear in her expression as she points to the offending object and lean away at the same time. I stifle a giggle.

Something catch my eye and I leave the cart to go to the hobby section of the store. A black wooden easel is on display along with a wide range of paint, brushes and canvasses. Despite my interest in art I have never actually painted. When on the run, big objects are typically left behind so I only ever had my sketchpad.

But... I'm not running anymore...? I can have a easel right? Timidly I reach out to run my fingers down along the veins of the wood. I reach out for a beginners set, which include four brushes of varying sizes, the bare minimum of paint and two small canvasses.

"Don't buy paint and stuff here, it's bad quality. We'll stop by a real hobby store on the way home." Camille's voice come out of nowhere, making me jump in surprise.

"Oh, but buy the easel, it's cool." Jade says, and pick an easel from the stack.

"And one of those flat thingies an artist have paint on." Camille grabs a palette and it joints the easel and the other stuff in the cart. "There. Is there anything we forgot?"

Both Jade and Camille look into the cart, searching the content with thoughtful expressions. Suddenly Jade snaps her fingers.

"Cutlery! We forgot cutlery!"

And with that Jade grabs the cart handles and Camille grabs my hand to drag me back towards the section with kitchenware. A quick look into the cart reveals that they compromised on the plate issue by getting me a seven dish set of plain white plates with grooves around the edges. Next to the set is my easel and palette and I find myself walking around with a silly and excited smile for the rest of the trip.

*****

Putting down the paint brush I sigh and behold my work. And it. Is. Horrible. The lines are blurred, the shapes uneven and it looks like a child painted it. I thought a 'still life' motive would be easy to paint and good practice, but I guess I overestimated my artistic skills. I'm so glad I used the small cheap canvasses, instead of the big 50x50. I'm probably gonna have to store it away until I have become better. No way am I wasting it on these childlike paintings of mine.