Small Town Love

Chapter 10

Every canvas is a journey all its own.

Helen Frankenthaler

The nap she had taken the day before at least helped some. Her back was still hurting but at least her head had seemingly cleared up and so when her phone made her presence known, she happily got out of the bed.

Luke and she had agreed that he would pick her up at her house and then they would do the one hour drive to Augusta and the next hardware store.

To be honest, Daphne still wondered why he was even bothering with that and hadn't found something more interesting to do than to help her paint the walls in her room. Well, she wasn't going to look a gifted horse in the mouth though. He had offered and she happily took that offer if that meant that she would have something else but white walls.

Otherwise, she would need to ask Caroline or Matthew to take her and they had already done more than enough for her.

She knew what she wanted. A wall mural. Nothing crazy coloured, something peaceful and serene. Something nice.

Daphne was leaning towards a forest as she was quite literally surrounded by them either way.

She looked outside and then couldn't help but smile as she saw that it had started to snow overnight, thick flakes slowly drifting to the ground.

There wasn't much yet, only maybe an inch or two on the floor but it already looked like a winter wonderland.

She got dressed quickly enough and then pulled out some of the money that she had carefully stashed in the very last drawer of her vanity table.

Some habits were hard to break.

And she also felt terrible about the idea of even using that money for something as....selfish as painting her walls.

Painting her walls had never even been a possibility before. Daphne could darkly remember that when she had been still in primary school she had used scotch tape to stick a few newspaper pages together...everything that was colourful...and had stuck that to the wall in the closet that had been her room at the time.

It had ended up being destroyed by her mother in another one of her drunken rages like so many other things but Daphne had had it for a few months.

But now...this here was her room. A room that actually had furniture, that had a door that worked and that she could close behind her...it was her room. Caroline told her that she could do whatever she wanted to the walls.

And Daphne had the money...she didn't need to buy the groceries herself anymore, didn't need to pay the rent anymore...

She had worked hard for that money.

And it was her room...she...she deserved something pretty, didn't she?

She took the money with shaking hands, putting it in her bag before she went down to the kitchen. The rest of her family didn't seem to be awake yet and Daphne wasn't about to wake them, so she took care to be quiet.

She made herself some toast, filled two reusable cups with coffee and then checked if she had everything.

"Daphne?" Her uncle's voice came from the doorway still sounding sleepy. He was still in his pyjamas, brown hair a curly mess atop of his head.

"Did I wake you? I am so sorry." She apologised but he just shook his head and then went straight for the coffee. She watched amused how he chugged a whole cup of it before he could think straight.