Elijah Forrester (ferralsmile) wrote in genome_project, @ 2010-04-18 03:42:00 |
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Current mood: | artistic |
Entry tags: | april 2010 |
Who: Ethan and Lizzie
What: Lizzie finally gets to meet Ethan and show him her work
When: Wednesday afternoon
Where: Ethan's place
Rated: PG
Status: Completed
Max still wasn’t feeling up to travelling very far, which was fine as far as Lizzie was concerned because the fewer people around to see her mortally embarrassing herself the better in her humble opinion.
It was Wednesday afternoon, she’d finished school an hour ago and sprinted home to get changed and grab her sketchbook and the other stuff she’d promised her brother (and how dare he use his head injury as leverage to make her make a promise) she’d give Ethan to see, and headed out towards his apartment.
She was equal parts nervous and excited to be meeting a guy that she looked up to. Ethan was an incredible artist and she’d spent a lot of time looking at his last installation when he’d had it up in the local gallery. She hopped from foot to foot as she waited for the guy on the door to let her into the building, knowing where Ethan’s apartment was because he’d texted her the address, and hurried up the stairs.
Stood outside the door she knocked on it and then fiddled with her hair. She wondered if she just looked like a seventeen year old, over-enthusiastic fangirl or not. She hoped not. She brushed her hair back again and took a couple of deep breaths. She knew Ethan Walker, who didn’t? He was amazing and he sparkled (but not because he was a vampire, just because of the sheer power of his awesome), and he was a great artist, but she’d only ever seen him from afar. She’d never actually spoken to him up close.
And that? That she was kind of freaking out about a little. She checked her cell again just to make sure that she wasn’t stupidly early and then knocked again - just in case he hadn’t heard her the first time. She clutched the strap of her bag between her hands in a grip that was almost punishing and scuffed the toes of her left boot into the floor beneath her feet. Her heart was hammering.
She hated being nervous. Max said the guy was awesome and really friendly; why was she nervous? Well, maybe because her brother had told Ethan about her art and now there was a weight of expectation on her shoulders and oh God, what if it sucked? What if her art really was just awful?
Bag strap getting twisted between her hands she just waited, chewing on her lower lip.
Ethan was in the middle of throwing himself into his latest installation, meaning he was covered in paint and had a couple smudges of charcoal on his face, but he didn't care. He never did, not when he was creating art. It was all part of the process.
The music was loud, rough, and completely rocky. It was the sort of music he needed to get his head into the right space for what he was doing, enjoying every second he spent on the large canvas stretched out in front of him.
He just hoped he could show and it would go over well, he didn't want to fail, not at this. It was bad enough he was working in an office just to make ends meet without giving up his desire to show his art.
Ethan was broken out of his creative haze as he heard a knock at the door. "Coming," he hollered as he took one last look at the canvas and added a small touch, exactly what was needed. A quick look at the clock told him it must be Max's little sister Lizzie at the door, Ethan couldn't help but wonder what she was like and if she was anything like Max.
He reached up and unlocked the door, pulling it open to offer a dimpling smile. "You must be Lizzie."
Lizzie made a sound that was suspiciously like 'meep' when the door was opened and she saw Ethan standing there. Wow. He was tall. She swallowed and returned his smile hesitantly. "Yep, guess that makes you Ethan."
Wow, totally not smooth, Elizabeth.
He was really attractive. She blinked a couple of times, distracted by the smudges of charcoal on his face and on his hands. It was so good to see that someone else got dirty too. He was so awesome. She knew that already and she'd not even spoken to him properly.
"I'm- It's okay, right? I'm not interrupting the creative flow or a-anything like that?" she asked, tipping her head a little and self-consciously pushing her hair back behind her ear. Her bag knocked into her thigh.
"I guess so," Ethan responded with a chuckle.
He only realised he was covered in paint and charcoal when she pointed it out and just shook his head. "Yeah, it's fine. It'll do me good to have a short break. Sometimes you ruin your best work if you spend too long changing or tweaking it."
"Come on it and ignore the cat, she's in a weird mood." And she had been, all avoidy and weird.
"I know that feeling," Lizzie admitted after a moment, coming inside and shutting the door behind her. "It's when you've finished and you can't stop changing things that it gets really awful." She'd ruined many a piece just because she couldn't stop editing. She was relieved to know that other people did it too.
She caught sight of a cat running away and looked a little puzzled. "My kitten's just- he's breaking everything at the moment. Kind of hyperactive." She lifted her left hand. It was covered in scratches.
There was art on the walls and her attention was drawn to one piece that was hanging up not too far from where they were standing. It was dark and abstract and captivating. She stared at it for a couple of seconds before she asked, "Is this yours?"
Ethan turned his head and hissed in a breath at the look of Lizzie's hand. "Yeah, I remember those days. Thank God for concealer." He rubbed at the back of his neck and gestured. "Did you want a drink of anything?"
When she noticed his art he gave a small smile. "Yeah, that one's mine. Did it a couple years back, don't think anyone ever really got it, you know?"
Lizzie looked at it, the paint strokes could have come across as angry, but she felt that it was more than that, disappointed, sad and kind of free. "It feels kinda contradictory," she said softly, moving almost like she wanted to touch it but thinking better of it. "Like you didn't quite know how you were feeling when you started it, but then you felt better afterwards."
She glanced at Ethan after a moment, almost like she was embarrassed at having tried to analyse the picture. Abstract art was just that, abstract. It didn't always have a meaning. That one, just kind of... spoke to her.
"Uh, water, or juice, maybe? I walked here, it's kinda warm out."
Ethan folded his arms across his chest, clasping his upper arm in both palms and watched as Lizzie looked at his work. "I did that when I was eighteen years old and I'd just moved out of home after another argument with my mother." And that was all he was willing to say about his very dysfunctional relationship with his mother.
"I think I've got some juice in," Ethan said as he headed in the direction of the kitchen. Hopefully he had juice, he hadn't been shopping yet so he wasn't sure. Thankfully he did and Ethan rummaged out a glass.
"So, I hear you're quite the budding artist from your biggest fan, your brother."
Lizzie followed Ethan towards the kitchen, still clutching her bag between her hands. She wrinkled her nose, "Max has to be my biggest fan, I know where he lives," she smiled and leaned against a nearby counter. "What's your cat called?" she asked, not quite a subject change, but she'd forgotten to ask when she had the chance.
Thanking Ethan for the juice, Lizzie put her bag down on the bench beside her. It wobbled, uneven because of the sketchbooks in the satchel. She reached out and shifted the bag so that it balanced itself.
"I guess you could say that. I'm- I mean, I'm not as good as you. But you're awesome, so." Her cheeks flushed a little.
Ethan rummaged out a beer for himself, leaning back against a nearby counter as he twisted the cap. "My cat? She's called Sheba, figured it suited her given her Queen attitude." He took a sip from the beer and chuckled. "I can't be that awesome considering I'm still on this island." The rejection from the college he'd applied to off the island had been somewhat on the depressing side, but he was doing his best to put that behind him.
"But, enough talk about that, I hear you have a sketchbook?"
Lizzie flushed a little and rubbed the back of her head. "I-" she swallowed and wet her lower lip, catching it between her teeth. She was a little distracted - initially - because all the times she'd seen Ethan in the past, he had been so... he was this amazing looking man, glamorous and gorgeous and completely untouchable. But here, he was grounded and on her level (sort of). He had charcoal smudged on his face and on his hands. He did something she understood.
"Yeah, it's- I-" she fumbled for her bag, nearly knocking her juice over. Suddenly she had even more second thoughts about showing Ethan, but she'd promised Max and he'd played the guilty-trip card of 'I can't go with you to make sure you show him so you better show him.'
She held the sketchbook against her chest for a moment before she pushed it out towards Ethan, obviously nervous. It was her 'display' book. The one that she had only shown to Luke, and to Max. It had her sketches and her more abstract art in it. It had some of the drawings she'd made of her brother when he hadn't been looking, of her best friend, of people at school.
She was nervous, that much was obvious. It was kind of cute. Ethan offered her a dimpling smile that with makeup on was pretty damn distracting. "Relax," he murmured as he reached out and took the book. "My first drawing? Was like total stickman hell, I had them doing all kinds of weird and wonderful things in not so beautiful picture form. I'm kinda glad I can't find my first attempts at art. Nothing can be worse than that."
Ethan's hand went through his hair until his hands finally closed around the book and opened it up, taking the time to flick through.
Lizzie was all but wringing her hands together. She worried her lower lip and she tapped her fingers against the glass. She picked it up and took a couple of sips, trying not to watch Ethan's expressions because even though her art was anything but awful, she was so nervous.
"I went through the stickman hell phase too," Lizzie admitted, "though they were stick ponies and princesses. And stickman Max and Evan."
"Cute," Ethan muttered as he turned another page. "I think I would've paid good money to see a stickman Max." He looked up and offered her another grin and returned his attention to the book itself. This was good, really good. Lizzie had talent, untapped, but talent all the same. Max frequently ranted to Ethan about how stupid his step-father was for telling Lizzie she couldn't make something of herself off the island and now that Ethan had seen her art he was inclined to agree.
"Stickman Max was usually doing things like flying, or riding horses." Lizzie said, catching herself a moment later, how stupid and childish did she sound right now? She wrinkled her nose again and looked away, finishing her juice in two long mouthfuls. She put the glass down before she picked it up and started playing with it again. She rolled it between her palms. "I don't really draw stickmen anymore."
Ethan wet his lower lip and pulled it into his mouth as he neared the end of her book, lingering on the last page as it was quite the pencil sketch of her brother. It was good, really good. He closed the book and looked up at Lizzie through a dark strand of hair. "Well, Max is right, your father doesn't know what he's talking about. This stuff is really good."
Lizzie's cheeks flooded with colour and she looked up at Ethan through a curtain of her hair. There was a smile pulling at her lips, desperate to break out into a full mega-watt grin but she stamped down on it, didn't let it escape because she would probably just end up looking demented. It was one thing for your brother and best friend to tell you that you were good, they kind of had to, considering.
"Thanks," she said finally, voice kind of a squeak. She swallowed and finally looked up at Ethan properly. "I- it- yeah, thank you. I just-" she bit her lower lip to take a moment to pull that crazy grin back to something less insane-looking. "My dad- he-" she put her hands flat on the counter. Apparently her brain wasn't working. "Sorry, I'm not usually this stupid sounding."
Ethan closed her book and offered it back to her, figuring that might help as she seemed to be most nervous about her work than anything else. "Don't worry about it." He picked up his bottle and took a considerable swallow, throat muscles working overtime. "I have this friend, Aidan, who tends to lose his words as well. I'm kind of scared that I'm starting to understand him."
He gestured towards another door with one very long index finger. "You wanna take a peek at my latest installation? Let me know if it's as shit as I think it is."
Lizzie watched his throat for a second before she looked down again, taking her book back and holding it against her chest. She wet her lower lip and held it for a moment before it was put back into her bag. "Yeah? Maybe you just have that effect on people." If Aidan was the guy that her brother kept talking about - and there weren't that many people called Aidan anyway, so it was probably him - then she didn't blame him for losing his words around Ethan. Ethan was really attractive.
Her eyes lit up at the potential for seeing Ethan's work and her delight and excitement would have been obvious to see. "Yes! I'd love to see it!"
Ethan chuckled and rubbed his fingers through his very non styled hair. "Maybe, I've never thought of it that way." He pushed away from the counter and gestured for Lizzie to follow him, trailing through the apartment with apparently confident steps, but honestly he was nervous, always was when he showed his stuff to people.
"So," Ethan said as he opened the door to his recent work. "This is it."
Lizzie followed, footsteps light as she reached the door and came to a stop beside Ethan. Her hand touched his arm and she tilted her head as she looked at it. The bold colours were a stark contrast to the white of the canvas, complimenting and contrasting in equal parts and she just looked at it for a long moment, eyes drinking the piece in.
Her fingers moved off his elbow where they'd come to rest as she moved a little closer. She was tactile, she always wanted to touch things. Of course, she wouldn't touch it, but she wanted to. That was always a good sign.
"It's like a peacock," she said quietly. It was the first thing that came into her mind. Her fingers itched to touch. "I like it."
Ethan lifted his eyebrow when she touched him before he leaned against the doorway, arms folded. "You can touch it if you want. That's one of the reasons I put multiple dimensions into the piece. So people can have a tactile enjoyment and understanding of what this piece is."
Wow, how pretentious did he sound?
Lizzie looked back at Ethan before she moved closer, running her fingertips across the painting, feeling the surface design under her touch. She wet her lower lip, letting her hands do the seeing. If she wanted to touch something, that was a good sign. The fact that she was trailing her hand over Ethan's picture, looking somewhere between amazed and intimidated was definitely a good thing.
"Multi-dimensionality is always fun," she murmured, fingers catching on a streak of bright purple. "I think if people get it, they'll get it, if not, they'll just think it's pretty."
Ethan watched her with a smile and chuckled again. "Yeah, there's always that." His eyes slid over to the pure mix of charcoal and chalk canvas that rested against the side wall, noticing for the first time that it didn't need any more alterations. It was perfect as it was.
Huh, sometimes he just needed a break.
"And that's better than people not understanding it and hating it," Lizzie commented, taking her hand off the art. As she headed back across the room, she looked at the other pieces, eyes trailing over them. Finally, she dragged her attention away from his other - incredible - art pieces, she found herself walking back over to stand in front of Ethan.
He was really tall. She guessed he'd be nice to hug, the right kind of height. She looked up at him. "You're really good, like really good."
Ethan smiled again. "Thanks, I'm glad you like them. Here's hoping everybody else does as well." It was at this precise moment that he remembered something and just held up a finger, striding into the studio to rummage through his art supplies. "Max mentioned you can't find any decent charcoal in this godforsaken town."
Aha, Ethan pulled out a small box he had of charcoal and offered it to Lizzie. "Here, it's the best stuff to work with or so I've found."
Lizzie couldn't help the giggle that escaped her as Ethan gave her a small box of charcoal and she ducked her head, brushing her hair behind her ear. "I- thank you..." she looked up at him through her eyelashes and then swallowed.
"Where did you get it? For future reference, you know, so I don't have to keep running to you whenever I need supplies, unless you don't mind, I mean- I-" Oh crap, shut up Lizzie.
Ethan waved a hand. "I don't mind you bugging me, but I'll be happy to pass you the details. I got it from a site online and they shipped right to my door." He ushered her to follow him as he wandered out of the studio and found himself a slip of paper, scrawling the web address in decorative handwriting.
"Here," he said as he held out the slip.
Lizzie took the slip and looked at the web address for a moment before she looked up at Ethan again. "You have cool handwriting," she said finally, like she couldn't think of anything else to say. He'd broken her brain with his awesome.
"I- thanks again, Ethan, I really appreciate this. It's nice to speak to someone else, you know? I mean, my best friend's an artist too, but it's different speaking to someone who's actually... well, you've had the whole art installation thing."
Jeez, what was wrong with her?
"It's been fun," Ethan muttered with a smile. "And your brother's right, you have clear talent." He scratched at his collarbone and lifted his hand a second later, tugging on a pierced ear. "My installation opens this weekend, you should drop in."
"I will," Lizzie promised with a smile and an enthusiastic nodding of her head. "I'll spread the word too." She put the piece of paper in her pocket and figured she should probably start the leaving process. "I appreciate you taking the time to look at my stuff."
She moved past him and towards the kitchen where she'd left her bag. "And thank you for the charcoal, I'm sure it'll come in real handy."
"Anytime," Ethan assured her. "Happy to help."
He debated going back to work after Lizzie had left, but chose not to. Instead he pulled the door shut and figured he could always go back to the pieces later. Might do him some good to go outside for a while, he hadn't done that in the last week or so.
"Hope the charcoal works better for you than the last stuff you tried."
"Me too," Lizzie agreed as she put the box in her bag and slung it back over her shoulder. She had a nice walk home to look forward to, and she thought that maybe she could swing in on her brother, or on Luke. Both places were along her route home. Sort of. Wasn't much of a detour. She needed to drop in on Max anyway.
She tipped her head and looked at him. "And you know, if you ever worry about your art again you can call me." She grinned, bouncing up onto her toes for a second and kind of wanting to hug Ethan before she thought better of it.
Ethan gave a genuine smile. "I'll be sure to remember that. Same goes for you." Sheba at this point took a moment to rub against Lizzie's legs before she flounced off in the direction of Ethan's bedroom. "Well that's the first time she's shown any affection to anybody all day, you should feel honoured."
Lizzie grinned again. "I do, I really do." She wondered if, when she got home, Rembrandt would smell another cat on her. She didn't know if they could do that. She fiddled with her bag strap. "It was nice to meet you, finally," she added. "Thanks."
Her smile was huge and warm and genuine. This had been something she definitely needed, after Max. Just some genuine escapism. She walked towards the door and opened it, looking back at Ethan and looking like she wanted to say something else. Instead, she settled on a quick, "Bye," and slipping out the door before she said something stupid.