beyond the monotonous city

thirty nine

"Then there's art in this disorganized chaos that I call my life." Lauren commented. Camila turned to her and smiled in approval.

Camila switched the channel and ended up stopping at a zombie movie on HBO. Camila turned to Lauren excitedly. "I love slasher films but there's nothing like good old zombie movies."

"Is it the gore?"

Camila shook her head, amusement on her face as she kept her eyes on the screen. Lauren could tell she's passionate about it. "Not even. It's the fragility of life in the characters, that they're fending off the zombies as they find a way to survive in a seemingly dystopian world. It keeps me on the edge of my seat and on my toes. I live for that shit."

"You love adventure so much. It courses in your veins." Lauren remarked, shaking her head.

"Courses in my veins but my poor old heart can't take a little rattling. Oh well." She said as she continued watching. Lauren offered no further comment on that.

Lauren discovered Camila was the type of person who wouldn't shut up in movies and would always give out little comments about everything. It was endearing to Lauren though. Camila picked a character from the start and stuck by her until sadly she never made it to the end of the movie as it ended.

"I can't believe Martina died, she was such a badass character." Lauren commented as the credits rolled on.

"It was fun rooting for her though. My favorite part of these zombie movies." Camila hung her head back in astonishment. Lauren followed suit and just stared at the ceiling of Camila's home. "So why did you bring a paint set, Lauren?"

"Uh thought I could you know paint some stuff here. Draw inspiration maybe here." Come to think of it, Lauren didn't know why she brought it, just that it made her feel comfortable and for her it felt right.

"Paint me."

The request came as a surprise, a burst in the wind, a draw of breath. For Lauren, it caught her completely off guard. It was not that she didn't want to, she know she did but she never thought of actually doing it and somehow those words seemed to have cast a spell on her. All she wanted to do in that moment was to paint the perfect picture, even if she'd never painted a person before.

She must have looked surprised because Camila smiled smugly, sitting up straighter. "What is it they say? Draw me like one of your French girls." Camila said dropping her voice low and sultry jokingly but even so, Lauren felt the hairs at her nape stand up. It was just a stupid joke.

"Um, I'll try." Lauren picked up the blank easel and placed it on her lap and got a pencil from her box and held it in position with her hand.

"What do you want me to do?" Camila asked, gently as if treading water.

"Just stay still and do whatever you like." Lauren said. Camila nodded and flicked the TV to the food channel and resumed watching. Lauren settled for drawing Camila's side profile since it was always one of the things she loved about her.

With shaky hands, she started her sketch. She looked back and forth, trying to get the right angle of her sharp jawline, the gentle curve of her lip and the slope of her nose. When Lauren was satisfied, she took out her paints, starting with the base color of Nude. She spread it on her palette and mixed with it a dab of light brown until she came with the perfect color of caramel which she thought to be the color of Camila's skin.

She held her breath as she started with the first stroke. She thought she messed everything up but she didn't. She continued until she could paint the entirety of Camila. She then started working on the background. She thought of making it abstract but to her, it felt right to copy the window and couch that was the view at that time. She wanted to do justice to the sight in front of her.