Like Buttons On A Shirt

Chapter 17

I followed Jessy into the back room and couldn't find anything special.
Okay... that sounded mean.
I meant to say that nothing in this back room seemed different than what I could find in the front of the store.

"Okay I think I know what you could gift your friend", she murmured and gestured for me to follow her to one of the shelves in the back.
"Do you know what art supplies he already has?", she asked.

I shrugged.
"I dont know"

"Well theres a lot of things you don't know...", she said and turned around to face me, "do you know if he has any art stuff at home? Like... brushes and paper or something like that?"

I didn't have to say anything for Jessy to know what the answer to this question would be.
She rolled her eyes but smiled at me.
"You're very weird"

Normally I would be slightly offended by a stranger saying that to me but I somehow knew that Jessy didnt mean that in a bad way.
"I know", I only said.
"Maybe you could find something like... a whole set of stuff for me? Something that has a few different supplies just in case he doesn't have anything at home... but not too much in case he does already have some stuff"

Jessy nodded.
"Yeah that's what I was thinking about. Maybe a sketchbook with some pencils? Or would you rather go for acrylics? Maybe some aquarell paints? Uh! How aboutoastel crayons?!"
I could tell that she was passionate about art and the different materials. Her eyes started to shine when she listed all the stuff Gerard could use.

I myself was a little overwhelmed...
"Uhm...", I started.
"Let me guess - you dont know?", she grinned and I couldn't help but smile while I nodded.
She turned around to one of the shelves and kneels down to get to the bottom of it.
"I have an idea", she said ind opened a little cabinet.

Her body kind of blocked my view so I couldn't see what exactly she was doing. But I heard a few rather heavy things being pushed around as Jessy huffed in annoyance.

I was just about to ask her if she needed any help when she let out a happy sound. When she got up again I saw a wooden box in her hands.

"We will make our own starter set", she said and patted the box a few times, "with different paints and stuff"
"That's a great idea!", I said and was just happy that one of us had... well... a brain.

And Jessy really looked like she had a perfect plan. With the box in her hands she started walking around the room, murmuring to herself.
"Okay so if we get the primary colours and a little mixing palette he can make his own shades and we have more space. And then we can make a customized aquarell palette! Uhhhh yes this is gonna be awesome!"

I decided to just let her do her thing and stay where I was standing. I watched her grab some tubes and a plastic plate and put it into the box. Then she went to the other side of the room to a big cabinet of brushes and looked through them.
"We should give him two fine bristled brushes and two of the others. A small one and a big one of each. And a few pencils! Maybe charcoal? But then he would need some kind of varnish... hm..."

While talking to herself, more and more things disappeared inside the box. Brushes, pencils and markers. All different colours and sizes.
I was impressed by her work because she really seemed to get everything in that box!
Her stacking game was strong as fuck.

Suddenly Jessy just left the room and I was all alone in the middle of thousands of art supplies.
I could still hear her walking around, rummaging through different things.
"Frank? Where are you?", she yelled from the other room.
I was slightly startled (again) because I had just found a very interesting brush that caught my attention. It had a thing black handle with three rose gold striped at the bottom part. The brush part was very light, almost white but more creamy and had the form of an egg going thin at the end.
I was really drawn to that brush to be honest.