Potholes

Chapter 3

Meows were littering the air as L.A. trudged into the kitchen. He picked up Ace and Spade's food bowls from their corner of the kitchen and sat them on the countertop. He pulled the plastic container of cat food from the bottom of the pantry and proceeded to fill the 2 metal food bowls with a cup of dry food each. As he began to refill their water bowls, a hard series of knocks echoed through the house. L.A. walked into the living room and answered the door, moving out of the way as his best friend, Dakota, walked in.

"What's up, man." Dakota greeted as he made a beeline towards the refrigerator.

"Why are you here so early? I don't have to go set up for another hour and a half." L.A. followed his friend into the kitchen to finish fixing his cats' breakfast.

"I know. I wanted to come by early to see what pieces you're showing tonight." Dakota came out of the fridge with a handful of grapes.

"Fine, c'mon." He placed the two water dishes next to its respective food bowl. As the cats dived into their food and ignored the two men's presence, L.A. led Dakota into the bonus room he turned into his art studio. Along the farthest wall were 5 different paintings, each conveying its own meaning and purpose.

"Dope, man. How much you selling these for?" Dakota asked as he chewed on two grapes.

"I guess around 200 or 300. Doesn't really matter." He shrugged, looking over his works. He usually didn't sell his pieces, but Dakota talked him into doing this community showing to get his work out there and maybe make a few extra dollars in the process.

"Stop acting like this is some sort of torture. It's just a showing with some other artists. It might do you some good. You keep saying you've been in a 'mental rut' and can't think of new ideas. This may get some of the juices flowing."

"I guess. It wouldn't hurt."

"That's my boy. Let's load these up and go set up before all the good spots are taken."

"Okay. Let me get throw on a shirt." L.A. left the room to go throw a t-shirt on over his sweatpants.

"Throw on some underwear, too. Nobody wants your dick flapping around." Dakota yelled after him.

When L.A. emerged downstairs 3 minutes later, the 2 men began loading up the paintings and other accessories into the back of Dakota's SUV. Once everything was loaded up, they made their way to the local art gallery in town. When they pulled up 20 minutes later, they saw a couple of other artists and their friends moving their pieces into the gallery.

"I'll go see what spaces are open. Start grabbing your paintings." Dakota instructed as he turned off his SUV and hopped out, walking into the gallery.

L.A. got out of the elevated SUV effortlessly and went to the back to begin taking his works into the gallery. Once the first two pieces were inside, he went back to the trunk to grab the third one. As he was pulling the third painted canvas out of the trunk, he heard someone speaking in his direction.