I wanted to post some writing so here is the first chapter of my novel <33 I had to split it up in both siigh She was painting at night, it had to have been one or two in the morning. She kept looking at the portrait she was working on, dark hair, neutral clothes, blank eyes. She wanted the subject to have brown eyes, the lighting of the painting making them appear like liquid gold. She rolled her chair back to look at the painting before standing up, the chair creaking underneath her and headed to the window so she could return to the artwork with fresh eyes later. It was quite a surprise for her to see a person out in the street, he looked lost. "Excuse me?" She called from the first floor window, shutting her light off and heading outside to meet the person under the pinkish hued streetlight, "You look a bit lost Mr…" "Everett." He said, "Everett Farrow, and yes. I appear to have found myself in an unfamiliar area." "Well, Mr. Farrow, where are you trying to go? I know the area, maybe I can help." She started to pick at some blue paint on her fingernail as a car drove by, its headlights far too bright. Everett chuckled lightly, "I don’t have any idea. I only arrived in town this evening." She thought for a moment, it was well into the night and none of the motels open twenty-four hours were very accommodating, "Why don't you come in? I have a guest room, and it's way too late to stay somewhere in town. You can spend the night here and make a plan of action in the morning." "Ah- how kind of you. That would be lovely, thank you. I never got your name though." "Sydney Blue. It's a pleasure to meet you." She replied, offering a hand for him to shake. With another glance, Sydney noticed the shade of his eyes. They were the perfect shade for the painting. What an immaculate coincidence. They went inside and Everett settled in the guest room. "If you need anything I’m at the very end of the hall." Sydney told him before returning to her own room. The room was dreamy in the twilight. She flicked the light on and returned to her painting, the eyes turned out to be a brown similar to pecans. The rest of the portrait came along rather quickly, it was finished by four o’ clock. Sydney switched her lights off, not bothering to change out of her paint stricken clothes. She woke up when the sun wasn’t fully risen, so she’d guess it was around six or seven, meaning she hardly slept. After changing out of her painting clothes and into a t-shirt and jeans she made her way to the kitchen and saw Everett at the front door. "Leaving so soon? I was going to offer breakfast." He set his backpack down, "I can't say no to free food thank you, Ms. Blue." "Of course," they went out for breakfast, to a nearby diner, mainly due to the sorry state of Sydney's kitchen. The two set off for the diner, the rain from the day before collected into many puddles that Sydney promptly hopped into any chance she had. Everett followed suit, walking through the puddles rather than going around them. “I expected you to go out of your way to not get your shoes wet.” Sydney voiced. “I hardly think you know enough about me to speculate anything.” Came the reply, with a chuckle. “Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. Sydney came upon the diner first, her eyes wandered up the sidewalk, through the parking lot, to the door. It was small and vibrant. Compared to the greyscale buildings around it, it was a blast of color. The base of the building was white but there was a colorful mural of an astronaut eating a burger as well as a rainbow neon sign reading Cosmic Bites. Everett caught up to Sydney and stopped beside her, adjusting his shirt sleeve at the wrist. “That’s a cool mural.” “Thank you.” Sydney answered, slipping her phone into her pocket. Everett had a puzzled look on his face like he had no idea what she was talking about. “Why exactly are you thanking me?” “Oh. Right. I painted that mural.” “You paint?”
“Yeah, I take commissions. This mural was maybe a year ago. I don’t tend to do big work like this now, but I’ve always liked the mural. It is my favorite diner after all.” Sydney stepped up to the door, opening it, a bell ringing as she did. Everett stepped inside and looked around as Sydney started to chat with the waitress. The diner was small, the only patrons inside being Sydney and Everett. It had a black ceiling, white round lights built into it. There were a few tables but largely the establishment was littered with booths, their seats varying from pink to violet to blue. The seating was colorful while the tables and counter were black. It truly did feel like its name suggested, cosmic. The waitress seated them in a booth close to the front window and handed them both menus. “What’s your favorite on the menu, Ms. Blue? You said this was your favorite place to eat so you have a favorite meal I’m sure.” He said setting his own menu down. Sydney thought about it for a moment, seeming to consider her options. “Belle, we’ll both have my usual please. I’d like a lemonade and he’ll have-” He cut her off, finishing the sentence. “Iced tea.” The waitress took the orders down on a small notepad and walked away, returning with their drinks a couple of minutes later before leaving once more. “So…” Sydney began, taking a sip from her drink, “there isn’t a reason for you coming here?” Everett looked up from his tea, swirling the straw creating a tornado of ice cubes. “No, I travel around. No destination is ever permanent.” “And you travel on foot?” He nodded, “I do, I enjoy being physically out there, rather than in a vehicle.” Belle returned with their food, from the looks of it it was just a sandwich. “I’m sorry Ms. Blue, but your usual is a sandwich? A sandwich?” He looked at the food on his plate surprised. “Excuse you, it isn’t just a sandwich it is a BLT and it’s on toasted bread and it’s divine.” She said taking a bite. “Okay, I’ll give it to you, this is delicious.” Everett spoke reluctantly. Sydney celebrated, pumping her fist into the air. And then Everett’s white shirt was stained yellow. “Shit! Sorry!” She picked up the cup she’d spilt and rushed to clean up the lemonade with whatever napkins they had available to them. Everett called for the waitress and once she saw the spill she brought a cloth to clean it up. Everett waited outside while Sydney paid for the meal. It had started to rain. Holes in the sidewalk filling up creating puddles, some children nearby jumped into them with squeals of laughter followed by parents with an umbrella telling them they’d get sick if they kept jumping about. Sydney came out, still apologizing to Belle about spilling her drink. “Everett I am so sorry about your shirt I’ll buy you a new one.” She said, kneeling down to tie her paint covered converse. “Don’t even worry about it, I’ve always wanted a lemonade yellow shirt.” He spoke matter of factly before adding, “Is there a laundromat nearby though? It’s still drenched.” She nodded vigorously. “Follow me, it’s only a few minutes walking.” It was most definitely more than a few minutes walking. They were soaking wet by the time they got to their destination. “A few minutes.” He mocked. Sydney rolled her eyes and entered the building, it was small, filled with washing machines and dryers as well as a vending machine and some seating not much different from the chairs someone would find in a hospital waiting room. Everett sat down after Sydney and rummaged through his bag for spare clothing and some coins to pay for the usage of the machines. He pulled out a dark flannel, getting up to swap his stained shirt with it. He returned to the chairs, “Do you have change for a five? It only takes coins.” She took out some change and handed it over, returning to a magazine she’d found about cooking. The washer took around 30 minutes, as did the dryer. Sydney had made her way through more than one magazine while Everett was trying to figure out how many $1.75 cans of soda he could get with $23.00. When his shirt was finally finished he pulled it out, the yellow stain mostly gone. “Looks like the rain was a good stain remover.” Everett folded the shirt and put it in his bag, putting all of his money but $3.50 away. “Sydney, what kind of soda do you want?” “Soda? Don’t waste your money on a vending machine, I’ve got drinks at home.” “What kind of soda do you want?” “Root beer.” “Root beer it is,” He inserted the money, getting two of her chosen beverage. He proposed a toast, to lemonade. The rain had calmed down a bit by the time they started back to her house, a bit of sun coming through the clouds. There were even some people walking their dogs despite the muddy ground. She turned the corner onto Lichen street, where she lived, and noticed a piece of paper on her door. She got closer to her house, the paper was an electric looking pink. An eviction notice. Thank you for reading, have a lovely day ^^
