"𝑷𝑶𝑽 "
MAJIA | gee
OCTOBER
Atlanta 📍
"Hey, Maj. We got a client all the way from Savannah that wants a painting from you."Ant came in the room and gave me a sheet of paper with details from the buyer.
Those words put an immediate smile on my face. I looked back at Ant and he was combing his newly faded hair in the mirror. Conceded.
"Oh shit, this is gonna be mad cool." The request was of a nude black woman, as long as I made it raw and angelic.
I had a vision in my mind already. I was going to use either yellow or orange as a contrast color and she was either going to an afro or a head wrap.
A couple more artists started to come in as I laid
out my stuff beside me. Today was a good day to pull
out my airpods and ignore everyone. I wanted to finish soon so that I could see about the next request that came in.
I had already decided that the one from yesterday was perfect when I first walked in. I gave it to Ant to sell to them for $600 which was kind of cheap to me. My goal was to make this one more expensive.
"Wasgooddd?" Savior came in today with some gray sweats and a plain black shirt that revealed his sleeve of tattoos. Wow.
"Hey," I gave him a small smile.
"What you doing over here? You sketching yourself?" He looked at my canvas and seemed genuinely interested.
"Nah, it's gonna be of a black woman with my own little twist." I told him softly as I sketched her waist.
"Oh, it's crazy how you drawing a body with no reference right in front of you. That shit gets hard." I liked how nice he was.
"I'm using my own nude photos as reference." I pointed to my phone. "That's the trick."
He looked surprised as he pulled out some brushes. "Bold," is what he said with a smirk on his face.
"What you got planned for today?" I asked him.
"Tryna get on my feet. I got some stuff out in the gallery today. I'm just praying that niggas will wanna buy it. Now, I'm finna do whatever and see what comes of it." I could tell that he was speaking with honesty. I looked over to him as he twirled the brush between his right ringed fingers.
"They will. That's just how it goes when you first get here."
He nodded and went to grab some more paint from the back. When he came back, Katie was with him.
"Hey, Jia. Whatcha doin'?" She asked me.
I still didn't like her.
"Work."
"Eh, looks okay. Could be better." She thought she was funny.
"But Katie, let's not forget that you haven't sold a single painting in three weeks, let alone gotten any requests. If you jealous, just say that."
"Nobody would ever be jealous of you. Just look at you," She looked me up and down.
"Bitch look at you! Your hair looks like burnt hay and you look exactly how you smell: musty." I just wanted to paint.
"Ant! Ant! Fire this bitch!" Katie called Anthony into the studio.
He walked in trying to be intimidating with his 5'8" stature which failed. "What's going on?"
I spoke first, "Your artist right here decided to start sum with me and got mad that I finished it."
He already knew of this problem, "Ladies, I've talked to you both before. You need to be professional. Ion wanna here no more of this childish shit."
I rolled my eyes and prayed that Ant took her away from me. Ant knew what was up with this whole situation, so he knew who was really the problem.
"Damn, she always like that?" Savior asked to the left of me.
"Yup. I just be minding my business."
"She on that hating shit." I agreed with him, but was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing.
He walked to the other corner, but I could still hear him clearly.
"Yo, what up?.... Don't worry about what the fuck I'm doing......Okay, tell Risky to put my shit up 'fore they come, ight?..... Bet." The person hung up.
I didn't ask him anything when he walked over and by the silence I knew he appreciated it.
We spent a while in silence. There was no need to talk over the sound of the brushes. There was no need to interrupt when our art could speak for itself. My work was coming out beautifully. The woman's arms reached up gracefully, displaying the desirability of her body. The orange in the background made her skin standout in its richness. I was proud.
But when I looked closer, I wasn't so proud. I saw every little mistake and mishap. Her afro wasn't symmetrical. I could see a spot where I didn't follow the sketch with the posing. In some places, the orange looked dull. All these mistakes were a reflection of me and I couldn't keep them there.
I was embarrassed to sign this. I was embarrassed to put name on something with so many problems in it. I couldn't give this to someone. Selling this art piece could've been the end of my career before it even started.
Savior noticed my apprehension to resume, and stared at me and my piece for a minute. I didn't know what his face meant. He was stoic.
"Youn look happy with your art." He told me.
"Cause I'm not."
"Ion know why. It's beautiful. Every thing about it is gorgeous." He lied to me.
"Ight." I didn't need to be lied to.
"I'm serious. The people that want that gon be so happy when they see it."
I stopped looking at mine at glanced over at his. It was abstract, but still controlled. It was a mixture of some blues, black, and gold. I loved it. In that moment, I could've bought it myself.
"Wow, Savior that looks so good." I met his eyes with mine. "You should definitely put it out in the gallery later."
"Yea, I am or at least ima try to." He slightly tilted his head to look back at the canvas.
He had tattoos on the side of his neck too. The man was very much attractive.
I wanted him to put it out there so badly. It had so much potential to take him so far.
SAVIOR | 𝒔𝒂𝒗
Even from the corner of my eye I could see Majia getting all worked up over her piece. I didn't know why shorty was so upset about it. I thought it looked great.
The painting, to me, looked so similar to her. They both had glowing skin, pretty hair, and were overall raw as fuck. I couldn't see the problem in either.
I wished that I could've stayed to cheer her up, but me and my niggas had a lil deal to make with some other niggas from our hood. We wanted to stop all the animosity between us all so that we could better the neighborhood and what not. I didn't want anymore kids there to have to go through anything that I did.
"Yo, I'm outta here," I packed up my stuff.
Her pretty eyes wandered over to me, "Okay, i'll see you." Everything about her was pretty.
Driving over to our spot, there were a bunch of people standing outside. Sure, I liked how comfortable everyone was here, but if shit popped off they didn't all need to be standing outside like that. So, I got out my car.
"Yo! Clear the fucking block, man! Move out the fucking way." I tried to tell everyone to leave.
Most niggas here respected me. They respected my intentions and honesty with the people that I dealt with. I wasn't the type of nigga to lie and be deceitful and shit when there was no need for it.
I got inside and walked over to the brown couch that Rashawn and Messy were sitting at. I dapped them up and took a seat next to Messy.
These were my brothers. Rashawn was my real brother, but Messy was family too. Me and my older brother met Messy when we were in middle school and guess what the nigga was doing?: something messy.
I looked across the small wooden table we had in here and saw Risky and nem sitting across from us. I needed to get this shit over with.
"Where the fuck you been, Sav?" Risky asked me like I had to tell him something.
"I ain't call y'all over here to talk about shit besides business." I leaned back.
"Ight den."
"We needa start doing better around here. I'm not saying we gotta chill wit each other and shit cause we not going to, but I'm just saying we the ones fucking up the community with all these shooting and shit. I got a little brother that I don't want to get caught up like we all did. So y'all wanna make this truce or we still gon be repeating this fucking cycle?" I spoke sternly.
I didn't completely trust them, but I was trying to find a common ground. I still had my gun tucked and so did my brothers. I wasn't trying to be cool with them, or be friends with them, but I was trying to put shit in perspective. We all knew the pain that came with the streets.
Risky looked at me in shock, "I fuck witchu for that. We can call this truce, but if y'all fuck with us it's back on."
"It was always gon be like that anyways. Don't start shit, won't be shit." Rashawn jumped in.
"Then we ain't got nun else to talk about." Risky and his boys got up and left.
I was glad that it all worked out. I was tired of living the same repeated stories that my mother had told me. Things needed to change around here.
"Where you was at Sav?" Messy asked me and smoothed over his waves.
"Taking care of shit. Don't worry about it."
Art was something that a lot of people knew I was passionate about, but these niggas would black on me for working at an art gallery. I wanted art to be my ticket out the hood. It was something I enjoyed and I didn't need it to be ruined for me.
"Why you being all secretive? Reminds me of that time Messy was fucking his cousin's baby mama and was tryna hide it at the cookout." My brother laughed.
"That nigga only spoke one word sentences for a week," I did that stomp that we did when we laughed. "I could be like 'Jesus out there saying he got sum for you' and Messy would've been like 'Yes.'"I acted out Messy's face by just smiling and nodding.
"Bro, shut up. Y'all know my uncle would've tried to rock my shit if he found out I was fucking Lamar's baby mama. Ole stumbling ass. That nigga a whole crackhead and all. Who knows what I would've caught if that dude touched me." He looked scared just thinking about it.
"Ahhh," I laughed. "You caught an STD from the bitch anyways so why did it matter!"
"Damnnnn! You got crazyyy!" Rashawn couldn't catch his breath.
"Y'all gon appreciate a young nigga one day!" Messy stood up from his seat and left. It was time for one of his 'links'.
I said bye to Shawn and went back to my apartment. I had gotten it a few months ago and I was proud of myself. It had gray countertops a dark brown floor that was connected to paper-like white walls. I fucked with it.
Going into my room, I took a second to stare at all of my artwork that covered my walls. There had to be at least 10 of them that I put up.
Sitting in my bed, I thought about what Majia would've thought about them. I knew they were good, but to her they might've been horrible. It seemed like she had high standards.
I made a note to myself to ask her about what she considered art when we got into the gallery tomorrow. It was different having someone to talk about art with.
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Whew! Second chapter down.
Do you think Savior did the right thing with Risky?
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Much love💕