Theo's Pretty Painter (on hold)

Chapter One// Supermarket Hottie

With the first stroke of my paintbrush, I am immersed into a calming world of art. No amount of distractions could break away from the smooth canvas in front of me. My only thoughts were on the serene water I paint, calming the nerves that my roommate had worked up.

"I'm going to swing from the chandelier! From the chand-" I cut my roommate off.

"Abbi, shut your gosh dang mouth before I shove this brush up your nose," I threaten, keeping my eyes on my canvas.

A flash of movement passes me as Abbi runs in front of me and puts on her puppy dog face. Her blue eyes twinkling in the natural lighting of my painting room.

"You promised me that we would be able to go to the store today. The apartment is empty of anything good. No pretzels, chocolate covered almonds, ice cream, Cheetos, frozen pizza. I am being deprived of the joy in my life," she whines, falling onto the floor with her hand over her heart.

My stomach growls at the thought of pizza and Cheetos and I sigh looking down at my petite friend on the ground. Her black hair was thrown all over the plastic tarp covering the floor beneath my easel. She was probably going to have more paint in her hair than mine.

"Oh, the horror, but you're right. We ran out of vegetables for salad," I tell her while putting my brush down on the table next to me.

She jumps off the floor and puts her arms up happily.

"Thank you so much! I wanted junk for so long, you're stupid diet is getting on my nerves." She mumbles out the end.

I roll my eyes and turn off the lamp in the corner of the room. I walk past all the rooms in the hallway turning off lights.

"I'm not paying for the power bill..." I mutter under my breath.

Abbi waits for me by the front door where she is putting on her brown boots.  Her gloved hands were struggling with the zipper and that resulted in her whispering swear words under her breath.

I laugh at her struggle and pull out my gray fur boots, my feet sliding right in.

"Jerk, stupid jerk. You're laughing at me now, but one day I will become the fastest boot zipper in the world," Abbi mumbles putting her blue jacket on and slipping her hands in her pockets, fishing out her car keys.

She goes to open the door but her gloves won't let her which leads her to stomp on the floor and fling the gloves onto the wooden floor in the kitchen. Laughing at her harder, I open the door for the both of us and offer her to go first. She glares at me and storms out to our small white Honda.

I take my time locking the front door of the apartment and rush down to Abbi who was already in the driver seat.

"I'm going to go through the good food aisles-" Abbi starts to say but I stop to correct her.

"You mean the junk food aisle."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm also going to the frozen aisles, so you can take the crap aisles."

"The healthy aisles," I correct her once more and she groans.

She pulls onto the highway by the grocery store and turns on the radio. We both hum along to the song, the type of hum I do when I have no clue what the words are but still appreciate the song enough to try.

When we reach the store I turn the volume of the music down before we get out the car. Every time I drive with Abbi she turns the music on to 30, and when we get back into the car our ears get bombarded with unwanted music.

"I'll probably be done before you, so just come out to the car when you finish," Abbi says, shoving the car keys into her pocket.

She walks off without me and I sigh.

"Get me a coffee from the cafe if you get done early!" I yell past her, walking at a fast pace to catch up with her.

I gasp for breath when I reach the inside of the warm store, getting looks from older couples shopping. I smile to the one passing me and they just look away disapprovingly. Jeez, what did I ever do to them?

I start to blush as I realize they probably saw me running through the frosted glass. A lunatic, they probably think I am a lunatic now.

Turning to the left of the produce, I stop to get rye bread. Abbi and I usually never get bread but the holidays are coming up so we needed it to make stuffing; the non-liver, intestine filled type of stuffing.

"Tomatoes, lettuce, celery, broccoli, onions, peppers," I mumble off the list of veggies I wanted, grabbing them and balancing them in my arms. "Strawberries, bananas, blueberries." Continuing the list out loud.

I grab my phone out of my pocket carefully, not wanting to drop anything and start walking towards the cashier.

'Already done, only took me a couple of minutes, I'll get us coffee. :)'

I sent the text to Abbi and walk straight into something, dropping all of my vegetables and fruits on the ground.

"Sorry!" I squeak out, looking up at the object I bumped into. "You're really cute! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. Uh, I also didn't mean to bump into yo-"

"It's fine," he assures me. "You should probably take my basket, though. There's not enough hands in the world to carry all of this." He drops my items into his empty basket and hands it over to me.

I blush a shade of red probably only visible to robots and computers, and stare into the guy's green orbs. I blush even harder, pulling my gaze to the ground. I take the basket, brushing my hand against his warm one.

"Uh, t-thanks," I turn away as quick as I can, down to the front of the store.

"Wait! You forgo-" I hear a voice say, but I was too embarrassed to go back. I probably just left my onions or something.

Stepping into the 10 items or less line, I look around for Abbi, but she was probably still looking for useless junk. I unload my items onto the belt and smile at the old lady who worked at this store since I moved.

"Hi, Mrs. Walkins, how's your husband?" I ask her while she rings up my total.

"Better, he's finally out of the hospital. They told him to stay on bed rest, but I don't think it's going to help him stay here any longer." She replies while I hand her a twenty dollar bill.

"Don't say that, he's a strong man. The strongest I've ever met," I promise her, grabbing my bags and change and heading off to the cafe.

I see Abbi's petite frame waiting for her coffee and I wave at her. She looks up at me and turns her head.

"Abbi! Hey," I say to her when I reach her.

"Ew, who are you?" She asks me, pretending not to know me.

She laughs at me and then tilts her head backwards and wiggles her eyebrows. I try to follow where the head nod was toward but I only saw an old man.

"Ugh, be quiet, I have to tell you something when we get to the car. It involves a hot guy and me embarrassing myself," she squeals and grabs our coffee from the counter top.

She hands me my coffee and fixes the bags comfortably in her hand. I take a sip of the scorching hot liquid goodness and open the door for her. Popping open the trunk, I drop the vegetables and bread on top of the abundance of pizza and candy .

I slip into the passenger seat and look over at Abbi who was wiggling her eyebrows at me.

"So, I was texting you and then I run into a super hot guy. Like hotter than anyone. Ever. He had bright green eyes and dark brown hair. But I was so awkward! I told him he was cute and I kept apologizing."

"Oooo, new boyfriend? Were you too busy with him to not answer my calls?" She asks, wiggling her eyebrows for the second time in this shopping trip. 

"I didn't hear my phone ringing," I tell her looking in my pocket for my phone. My eyes widen as I search my pocket and jeans for my phone. It wasn't there. "My phone's gone."