● above is the infamous Noah, taken by his friend after an early morning surf●
ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS a month was a lot more than I had originally thought. So when I received my bill in my mailbox, I was stressed beyond belief. Waitressing at Shrimp Shack wasn't going to be enough, I had to get more money coming in.
So I worked my butt off for the next few days, serving up my best smile, taking soft and slow steps, and cleaned my tables after I was done waiting. But my tip count after a couple days was only twelve dollars and five cents and Scarlett didn't seem impressed with me. But, to be fair, I'd only been working for her only two weeks so I guess I couldn't get a raise just yet.
But I was still frustrated that I couldn't make more. I considered taking on another job but that would result in five hours a sleep a night and my body can't handle that.
Feeling discouraged, I decided to go to the beach after work to calm myself down. It was a Wednesday evening, so not too many people crowded the sand and sidewalks. I slipped off my vans and socks and took a stroll along the shore. The warm grime eased through my toes and the soft breeze blew through my hair. I glanced at my surroundings. There were little kids building sand castles and giggling away, university girls lounged upon their bright beach towels and soaked up the last sun rays of the day, and surfers were catching waves.
On the sidewalk next to the sand, there were pop up tents and small carts. They served tacos, grilled shrimp kabobs, some served ice cream and smoothies, others dippy dogs. Most of the pop up tents gave goodies such as hand sewn bags or sweaters, henna tattoos, family photo shoots and some sold beautiful photos of the beach and city.
Then it hit me, I could sell my paintings and even offer portraits in my very own pop up tent.
I went straight home and organized my completed paintings and unfinished works into two separate piles, then into pieces I was willing to sell and ones I was not. I scrubbed my brushes clean, leaving a pool of purple in the bowl of my kitchen sink. I set five blank canvases by the door and labeled the ones I was going to sell with appropriate prices; I'd start cheap then work my way up.
I was excited.
I was going to do what I loved and even earn some cold hard cash in the process. This was the dream. Stroking my brush onto a blank canvas, next to the beautiful ocean.
I went to sleep, but it was hard to fall into REM. I was ecstatic and nervous at the same time. I just hoped that I would make enough to pay this month's rent.
☼
2pm marked the end of my shift the next day and I jolted out the glass door as soon as the hour hand hit the two. I was ready to paint.
I hurried home, my legs started to walk quicker and the next thing I knew my feet were jogging a little bit. I wasn't aware that my soul had craved this experience so badly until this moment. I skipped the elevator when I arrived at the complex, it was going to be far too slow for me. I sped up the five flights of stairs surprisingly with almost no struggle at all. My keys jiggled in my fingers as I tried to get my home key out and into the loop.
Finally, I cracked open the door. I tore my work clothes off and carelessly threw them onto the floor of my bed room then put on some baggy blue jeans and a white tee shirt. I slipped my feet into old flip-flops, scooped up all my supplies I had laid out the night before and opened the door.
The adrenaline was pulsing through me. Painting, well art, was my passion; why I lived! And I was on my way to create works of art, to paint a world within a 18x24 canvas, to give the sun, the moon and the ocean a world of color- and make money off it. This was the greatest day ever, there was no way anything was going to ruin it.
But I was wrong, very wrong. Because the next thing I knew, the paints I had planned to make beautiful portraits with, suddenly made art of its own all over my tee shirt.
"Oh, shit, my bad!"
I was too jaw dropped looking at my white tee shirt, which was now drenched in a mess of rainbow, to even notice that it was Noah who caused the mess.
After our recent encounter after work the other day, I wasn't too enthusiastic to hear his response to this. Maybe a "Watch where you're going next time" then walk off or "Wow, nice shirt." then blow me off and act like nothing happened.
"Wow," he started. Did I seriously just predict this? "I'm so sorry, ma'am. I wasn't paying attention." Before I could tell him who I was, Noah was on the floor picking up the paint brushes and canvas I had dropped when we had collided. I was sort of speechless, my bolt of intoxication of the thought of the day ahead was just screeched to a stop. A very dirty, but colorful stop.
Although I didn't bring myself to say a word quite yet, I did reach down to help Noah. But as I went down, he came up and our heads bonked. We both winced and met each other's eyes. He finally recognized me and his cheeks blossomed into red. I forced a smile to him and began to open my mouth but he interrupted me.
"Sophia, I am so sorry. I didn't mea-"
"It's fine," I insisted before he could blabber his apologies. I knew it was a lie, my afternoon was just ruined. "Its fine," I repeated. "I'll just go buy new ones, with the money I don't have...which I was supposed to earn with those paints." I trailed off in sarcasm, but it was the truth; however, I couldn't let Noah I was struggling.
Noah grunted over and over again, his hands fidgeting trying to decide what to do to help me. I waved him off, telling him that I got it. "No, please," Noah persisted, "Let me help you."
I scoffed, "Oh, you've helped me plenty enough."
I could tell he was holding back a remark to that statement I'd thrown at him, but he successfully resisted. "I'm sorry, please just-"
"I got it! Stop it!" I snapped. "I don't need your help."
Silence fell between us until room E7's door popped open. "Noah?" A deep voice called, a foot barely crossing over the threshold. "Mate, is everything alright?" The man finally made a full appearance, turning toward the pair of Noah and I but not exactly looking directly at us. His gaze fell a little above our scalps, like he was staring at the "EXIT" sign that rose above my head. He was a lengthy bloke, tall and thin. His skin was a golden brown, dark brown almost black shaggy curls sat atop his head. His torso was dressed in a white tank top and his bottom with emerald green swim trunks. His face was sculpted beautifully, a well pronounced jaw line and curved cheek bones. Plump dark lips spoke the words, and I trailed up to his eyes.
I furrowed my eyebrows.
"I heard a loud crash," the stranger continued, "And I knew you were out here so I wanted to know if you're alright." He paused, "Who's with you?" His eyes still didn't move.
He was blind.
I tried my hardest not to stare but I've never came so close to someone like this before. My eyes focused on his. He was blue eyed, but the cloudiness blocked the true color of his pupils. They looked as they just needed to be shined, like an apple, so the grey smudges could disappear. But he was blind. My mind started to wander.
"Oh, hey Coop." Noah's voice brought me back.
Noah cleared his throat. "Yeah, we're fine. We just got a bit of a jumble here." He referred to my freshly stained white tee, and I glanced down at the mess as well.
"Nothing too bad, just a few paint splatters and items that fell," Noah described the scene to his friend. "Oh, and this is Sophia. She's one of my coworkers back at the Shack; I might have mentioned her a few times to you."
Mentioned me? Noah talked about me?
Noah motioned his right hand toward his friend, "Sophia, this is Cooper. He's my roommate."
I wasn't sure what to do. Was I supposed to reach my hand out to shake it? But he won't even see that. Was I just supposed to speak? Not move?
Cooper figured it out for me as he flashed a pearly white smile in my direction, which took a small breath away from me. "Nice to meet you, Sophia." He held his hand towards my direction (well a little to the left of my direction, he couldn't see where I was obviously) for a handshake. I hesitantly reached toward it and gave it a squeeze. Although, his hand moved up and down eagerly.
"I've never seen you around here before." Cooper stated.
Eh.
I squinted my eyes to Noah and he just shook his head.
I shrugged off the quip and responded, "Yeah, uh, nice to meet you too." I tried to continue, "Sorry we worried you. I just have paint all over my shirt, thats all. Nobody's hurt."
Cooper's happy expression faded away, "Want me to get that stain out for ya? I don't think you'd want to walk down to the cleaners across the street with the mess all over you."
Come to think of it, he was right. I didn't have a washing machine back in my room and I definitely didn't want to walk out of this hallway displaying a vomit of pastels and neons all over my chest. But at the same time, I didn't want to intrude. And apparently, Noah didn't want me to either.
"Coop, I'm sure she'll be fine. She was obviously in a hurr-"
"Don't you start with me, Richards." Cooper rebounded, putting his hand up to Noah. "We're going to help her. She just moved in, didn't she? What kind of neighbors would we be if we just brushed her off in her time of need?"
Noah mumbled something under his breath as Cooper stepped to the side and signaled for me to walk into the apartment. I was confused as to why these guys-well, Cooper- was helping me. He couldn't even see what had happened but he still butted in to make it better.
The apartment was nothing like mine. It was clean, sleek and modern. It appeared to be tidied up recently, the whole room was spotless. The kitchen counters were a shiny white, the carpet was just vacuumed, decor on the walls weren't crooked, and there were no dirty dishes in sight. Their apartment was bigger than mine, I only had a one bedroom and I assumed they had two.
"Noah will be a gentleman and give you a shirt to change into," Cooper ordered as I leaned against the kitchen counter. Noah rolled his eyes but obeyed, he turned into a hallway out of sight.
Cooper had fetched a white stick by the front door and tapped on the wood flooring three times before taking a couple steps. "I don't usually use this around the apartment because I've lived here with the bugger for three years," He announced, referring to Noah in the other room. "But since you're here, I'll make sure not to step on you." He smiled towards me and my heart bounced. The flashing of his teeth was so genuine. He weaved past me and I scooted as close to the counter as I could, making sure I didn't get in the way of Cooper's path.
"I'll go get the stain remover, we'll just wash it in the sink right there," His head bobbed to my left. I agreed and before I could feel awkward standing alone in their kitchen, Noah emerged from the hallway to my right.
He didn't speak a word, but extended his fist straight out to me. In his hand, he held a white tee shirt, similar to the one that I was wearing before he bumped into me minutes before. Noah cleared his throat and turned his head away from me. I saw his cheeks were a rosy red. I smirked softly as I took the shirt from his palm.
"Thanks, Noah."
Again, he didn't say anything.
Cooper came back with a jug in his left fist. "This should work like a charm; you could imagine the amount of spills we've had if one of us can't see where he's going," He chuckled as he swifted between Noah and I and behind the counter I was leaning against.
"Bathroom's down the hall," Noah croaked, his head finally raising up. I was confused at first, but then remembered my shirt. I thanked them and hurried into the bathroom then returned wearing Noah's tee.
Noah immediately looked away from me when I came back out, paint drenched shirt in hand. I raised an eyebrow but didn't think anything of it.
I handed the shirt off to Noah and he flipped on the sink, his pointer finger under the water, waiting for it to reach the temperature he desired. "So, Sophia," Cooper began, staring at the light above my head. "What brings you to Carins? University?"
I coughed a little bit, I didn't want to tell these two guys that I was running from university rather than chasing it. "Well," I started, "I actually came here to pursue being an artist." I was wondering if that statement sounded respectable now that I was saying it out loud.
Noah raised his eyebrows and I continued before any sassy comment could leave his lips. "I was on my way to the beach when Noah and I bumped. I was planning to go paint."
I decided to leave out the reason as to why I was going to paint, to make money. Remembering the rush I felt when I was getting ready to leave my apartment earlier, I started to get antsy. I wanted to feel that again. And I wanted to go under my own pop up tent like I'd planned, and stroke my paint brush by the ocean.
My knee started to bounce as I stood, watching Noah finally knead the bleach into my shirt and suds started to build up.
"Interesting." Cooper commented, nodding his head. "I would love to see some of your work sometime, I bet they are all masterpieces."
I blushed at first but then realized that he had made another joke. I forced a giggle as Noah sighed once again and shook his head.
"Um, thanks," I urged. Cooper laughed and his voice was rich, I smiled.
After a few minutes of small talk, my shirt was finished and clean. "Just hang it over the balcony to dry," Noah instructed me as he folded my freshly cleaned top. "You can keep that shirt till then, give it back tomorrow at work. I think my shift starts as yours ends."
I nodded and thanked them both for their kindness and Noah apologized once again and Cooper did as well. Cooper had told me he was looking forward to seeing me more often and I laughed. I predicted that was a normal thing for him.
However, when I exited their apartment, I couldn't predict the amount of times I would walk back in.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
hey, everyone! glad to see you're still here :) i'm looking forward to the next couple chapters after this one, we'll explore Cooper and Noah more. also, are you liking Cooper's witty jokes about his blindness? i can't get enough of them :D talk to you next week!!
thanks so much for giving this a read! be sure to comment and vote, i'd love to hear feedback! love you all!
♡nicole robinson