Calligraphy

One

Beep beep!

The headlights of Rafael Casal's car flashed on then off after he locked it with a feeling of disappointment due to his unsuccessful writing session down by the bay. Whenever he gazed at the twinkling city lights of Oakland's neighbor San Francisco, he always felt inspired; but tonight all he felt was empty.

He ran a hand through his silky brown hair as he moped inside of the apartment complex thinking about how much he hated writer's block. Rafael pressed the button for the elevator and dragged himself inside when the door opened.

He flipped through the pages of his notebook and stopped when he found the page he was writing on. "Let's see what I got here..." he mumbled to himself. The page read:

The

"Goddamnit," he muttered closing the notebook back. He really  hated writer's block.

The elevator doors opened and Rafael shuffled down the hallway contemplating ways to get inspired. He felt like his brain was totally empty with no ideas to write about and elaborate on. He needed a poem and fast but nothing inspired him at the moment.

"Yo, Rafa! Wassup?"

Rafael averted his eyes away from the floor and saw his best friend Daveed Diggs smiling bright as usual. His friend's smile was normally enough to get his spirits up but his lack of inspiration was really dragging him down.

"Nothing," he sighed, letting his eyes fall back to the carpet floor as soon as he recognized his friend.

"You good?" Daveed asked, playfully shoving Rafael.

"Not really," he stated simply.

"What's going on?"

"I can't write anything, Diggs. It's just not coming," he complained, crossing his arms.

"How about you go with me to the store to buy some liquor and then meet Jewel's bro?" Daveed suggested, referring to his girlfriend of two years.

"I guess so."

Daveed grinned and directed Rafael back toward the elevator. He looked around the space for something to write about but there was nothing.

"So how come over the two years you and Jewel have been dating you never told me that she has a brother?" Rafael inquired strapping himself in when he got in Daveed's car.

"Jewel has a brother."

"Oh wow, thanks for informing me ahead of time," he said sarcastically.

"He's pretty cool. He's got this girl with him and she's hot, Rafa. Like really hot. But you didn't hear that from me," Daveed joked, backing out of the parking space.

Rafael smiled and watched the scenery whiz by as Daveed basically sped down the street. He thought he felt inspiration hit from studying the world outside his window but when he tried to think of words to describe the moment, everything faded.

After buying about three too many bottles of alcohol, the two were out of the store and back home in a second. Daveed insisted that Rafael come meet the girl Jewel's brother brought with him and he complied. He told himself he'd stay for a couple drinks and then go back home to avoid getting carried away with the liquor.

"Don't stare, okay?" Daveed instructed, as he unlocked the apartment door. "I already got in trouble."

"I don't have a girlfriend so I can stare as long as I want," Rafael countered, walking into the living room.

Then he saw her and Rafael swore he had got hit by a bus. She was beautiful.

"Hey, Rafa!" Jewel exclaimed, interrupting his gaze. "I'm so happy you're here. This is my brother Cornell and his little friend Anais."

Rafael shook Cornell's hand but he was really focused on the beautiful brown skinned girl with the wild caramel colored mane. He looked into her eyes when introducing himself to make sure he made a good first impression. She smiled and Rafael knew she liked him already.

"I'm Anais. It's nice to meet you," she said with a thick Jamaican accent.

"Nice to meet you too." Rafael was overcome by her beauty. It was way too much for him at 8 PM.

"They just got here from Jamaica this morning. They were sleeping all day so now they're nocturnal," Jewel laughed pouring drinks for everyone. She still had a lingering Jamaican accent as well.

"Are you guys just visiting?" Rafael asked accepting his glass.

"No, we're staying. We have an apartment a couple floors up," Cornell replied to Rafael's dismay. He really wanted Anais to answer.

"Oh, so y'all live together. Nice," Daveed commented, slinging an arm around Jewel.

"I thought you weren't a thing!" Jewel cried to her brother. "You lied to me!"

"Maybe we are a thing. You'll never know," Cornell said, slyly gazing at Anais.

This hurt Rafael just a little bit. He scolded himself internally for latching onto this girl when he hadn't even known her for five minutes. He tried to shake it off and think of this as a little crush that wouldn't turn into anything.

It seemed as if Anais couldn't stop looking at him too but Rafael dismissed that claim as soon as it popped in his head. He knew his mind was only playing tricks on him to get his hopes up. Anais probably didn't even remember his name.

"Well, I mean since we're all best friends now, you guys can have my number just in case you need anything," Rafael offered pulling his phone out.

He looked at Daveed who winked. Good move, Rafa.

"Oh sure." Anais was quick to pull out her phone and exchange her number with Rafael. He appreciated that.

Cornell didn't look too happy as Anais typed in her information. He glared at Rafael before taking the phone from her and putting his number in.

"You can have my Snapchat too," Anais insisted eagerly. "And my Instagram."

"Well if you insist," Rafael sighed with a smile.

Cornell was steaming.

"Where do you live?" Cornell asked with a little bit of an attitude.

"I live a couple doors down. You can come visit sometime if you want," Rafael said refraining from looking at Anais.

"Oh that sounds so fun!" Anais cried looking at a stony faced Cornell.

"No, it doesn't."

"Cornell, we just moved to a different country and we only know three people. We might as well get close to them," Anais told him. She turned back to Rafael. "I'll text you."

Cornell looked like he was going to lunge at Rafael so he decided it was time to go home. He had already done enough damage to a relationship in one night.

"Well it was really nice to meet you both. Hopefully I'll see you again soon!" He downed the rest of the liquor in his cup and walked to the door.

"You're leaving?" Daveed asked, surprised at how fast everything happened.

"I have a lot of writing to do," he replied. "Goodnight!"

Then somehow Rafael wrote a poem just by thinking of Anais's face. He had found his inspiration.

A/N: Heyyyy y'all! I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! I usually don't tell people how to pronounce names, but I know "Anais" is pronounced a different way sometimes and in this story it's "ann-eye-ees". And Rafael Casal is pronounced "gorgeous". More soon!