Internal Organs

A Chance Not Taken

Ryan thought a little  as she grabbed he grey paint bottle and shook it as she leaned over the board with her drawing on it. There was a mini crowd formed for her, mostly guys, as she worked on her board explaining briefly on what she was doing and where she got things ordered from to do it. Wheels from Gorillaz Skate Shoppe. Trucks from Critterz online store. Decks from a friend of hers that gave them to her for very cheap and had great quality. Sometimes she'd make a board but she didn't own all of the saws, routers, sanders, and planers for it. She'd have to go around town which was a pain in her backside to accomplish so she'd just purchase the boards. It was better for business that way. Otherwise she'd be overly busy and wouldn't accomplish anything.

She squirted a little bit of the light grey paint onto the board and grabbed her big flat brush and painted it on in coat. She looked at the growing crowed and stopped, grabbing the paint brush between her teeth before setting up her easel and clamps. She clamped up the board and flipped the crowd a thumbs up. A few of the guys chuckled as she began painting once again, covering the inside if the rat  she was painting. She had already spray painted the mint green-blue color onto the board under her Queen Rat design in the center of the board. She hoped that she wouldn't have to touch up on that. She grabbed her paint splattered cup of water and rinsed the majority of the grey paint off before drying it on the multicolored, paint destroyed towel that hung from the back of her pants tucked in her belt.

She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead, wiping the sweat away that had accumulated there on her brow. It was hot she decide with all of the people in the building. She tugged up the sleeve of her arm warmers as it threatened to fall down, as she painted shadows with a darker grey. She worked quickly to keep up with her racing mind, a routine in her painting was formed. Dip brush into paint, paint, wipe paint on towel, paint, dip brush in paint, paint, repeat. She was just shading her painting, the rest of the detail would be done with much smaller brushes, but it had to be perfect.

As she finished with the grey she completely washed out the brush before rinsing it in clean water and tossing it into her bin of brushes. She grabbed a smaller flat brush and squeezed some  gold paint onto her palette before painting the scepter and crown in the painting. The color was a gold mixed with a little bit of black but it looked good to her. Made it look dingy but in a good way. Like it was sort of an antique of sorts. She looked over the painting and thought a little before adding a second coat to the gold color before adding a little more black so she could add details. She placed down her paint brush and turned to the crowd, wiping her fingers and top of her palm that was showing.

"Any questions?" she asked.

Beside her was Emmett overseeing all of the activities that Trenton had for the kids his age. They were painting and coloring. Emmett had passed out coloring pages and was helping sell the coloring books that the artists had made him so they could get money from that as well. Trenton was sitting by a little girl, probably only 5, while painting on a wooden board. Parents could buy wooden plaques or shirts for their child to paint of draw on for 8 dollars each. There was also bags and canvases which were a range of different prices so they could choose easily. It was an easy sell for adults with children and teenagers who wanted to be a part of the show. In the same area Eriko taught some kids origami swans and paper stars. All around you could hear Raven's band singing. They were named The Crooked Murderers and they were selling their new CD, The Drug That Revives, at their booth where they sold some of their merchandise and art that some of them created.

Helix stood at Ryan's booth and sold his and her art. Helix and most of the other guys were painters and drawers. Conner was a sculptor but he enjoyed making plush animals on the occasional. Jessie and Eriko specialized in plushies but Eriko make the occasional paper doll. Xander made fursuits and Justin made clay dolls. He also made clay figures that had fur on them, made moveable with wire. Each artist had something unique that they do but that just made them closer to a family. Each one with their differences and similarities.

Tristin looked over one of Ryan's boards before thinking silently to himself as Jace was talking to Xander yet about a design for a fursuit. Alicia Jace was well interested in Xander as far as Tristin could tell which left him out for his emotions to take ahold of him. His mind would linger to Kaelee, the Ryan that had been formed was still a mystery to him but he knew Kaelee. He had missed her dearly to the point he had spent nights trying to find her but no one had known. Why he hadn't thought of Lily or Alexis before still had bugged him. He should've even found out her ex's number because he was sure she was still in touch with him. He was sure of it.

They were her family. He even known the name of her friend Callum and he was a hundred-percent certain that she was still friends with him. He just blamed it on the fact that they didn't have social media but he knew that that wasn't it. Even typing someone's name into Google produced enough answers to locate them. He could have found her, he knew he wanted to. Did he though, in the end? Or was he just scared? Scared that she would reject him after all of these years of separation? Probably. Wouldn't you be?

 Helix stood next to Tristin, watching him look at the board as he was filled with this curiosity. Tristin just stared at the board with such an intensity like he was memorizing all the patterns and exact shades of color. Helix ran his fingers through his black hair before tapping on Tristin's shoulder, blue eyes bright and sparkling. Tristin jumped a little and swiveled around swiftly, looking to the male that had touched him. "Are you studying that board," joked Helix, "because I promise the test would be easy."

Tristin gave a half-hearted chuckle.

"I know. That joke wasn't funny. Seriously though. Are you okay?" asked Helix, looking up into Tristin's blue eyes with his own.

Tristin pursed his lips before placing the board down and turning back to Helix. "Have you ever had this chance and you've known that it's right there in front of but," Tristin paused as he thought, "but you didn't take it? And now you can't ever live it down?"

"Are you-"

Tristin only looked at him. "I made a big mistake."