Leah Stone (reapinghavok) wrote in immune_ic, @ 2012-05-08 23:46:00 |
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We were cold and we were clear With no colors in our skin We were light and paper thin And when we first came here we were cold and we were clear With no colors in our skin 'Til we let the spectrum in |
Gift shops were typically the last places she would choose to loot, for the simple reason that nothing practical ever came from a gift shop. Whatever spontaneous interest caused her to enter that shop stayed with her as she looked around. Like so many other buildings on this block, the merchandise in the shop was either picked over or left to rot after exceeding the expiration date. Stuffed animals were still plentiful, but it was the array of colorful paints that caught her attention. These weren’t your average dull wall paints, no. These paints… this massive display of makeup and paint… glowed in the dark. Many of the bottles and cans had dried up from age, but some were still usable. Leah took all of these. She also grabbed a Buddha Board, a combination of her interests in Indian culture and Evan’s interest in art. It was also a gift of practicality in that it could be used for whenever the inspiration struck him. Who knew a gift shop in a small town like Ossining would have such appropriate things that would impress an artist? That is, she hoped he was impressed by the sudden idea all these glow-in-the-dark paints had given her. Next to the display of glow items was a rack of various articles of clothing in neon colors. Leah wasn’t allergic to color — her favorite candy was Skittles, after all — but she generally tried to stay away from colors that were that bright. For what she had in mind, brightness was necessary. Neon colors that glowed in the dark were necessary. Selecting an orange bikini top and a pair of turquoise shorts (the point wasn’t to match but to make a loud statement), she decided that she had everything she needed to pull off her spontaneous artistic inspiration. That particular looting trip happened a week ago, and all the second thoughts and doubts had played hopscotch in her mind since then. A non-artist trying to impress a professional artist with something artistic. Evan wasn’t the type to criticize her too harshly when she fucked up something he was trying to teach her to sketch, no, but this was entirely different. With this, it was her idea. She was seeing it through, expressing herself and putting herself out there for him to judge positively or negatively. Not to mention how self-conscious she felt wearing a bikini top and shorts. Admittedly, showing off her legs wasn’t a huge deal. She wasn’t ashamed of her body’s physical shape. Years of yoga and other fitness activities had kept her lean and muscled. What made her shy to showing skin were the scars. Leah hadn’t worn a bikini since before she was pregnant, and afterwards… forget that it was hardly appropriate to wear a bikini with zombies roaming around. It wasn’t even really the stretch marks that bothered her (she didn’t have many, anyway, and they were mostly faded now). What made Leah most self-conscious about her body was the horizontal slash across her lower abdomen, a constant and painful reminder of the baby she’d lost. Today, May 9th, she pointedly avoided having any contact with Evan to avoid spoiling the surprise she had in store. The only contact she allowed herself was a few minutes during the afternoon to leave a note to remind him about the surprise, as well as information on where and when to meet her, and the only thing he was allowed to bring.
For the next several hours, Leah secluded herself in what was called Building 9 and set to work. Unlike Building 5, which seemed to be getting new inhabitants each day, Building 9 was still relatively empty. A few people lived on the lower floors, but other than to go up to the roof, they didn’t bother much with the top floor. Leah had actually gone as far as to tell one of Building 9’s residents not to disturb her at all for the next several hours. The man was actually agreeable, which made things easier. Leah hadn’t been quite so sure her nerves would allow her to be polite about it. Clearing out the room she intended to use had been a chore on its own. By the looks of it, the room was once a small office, so there wasn’t much furniture that needed to be moved. It was chosen for that very reason, as well as for the fact that the room had no windows. The only trouble she encountered was the desk, which still had one bolt securing it to the floor. With the right tools, that problem was easily solved. After a bit of cleaning, it was time to break out the paints. Leah considered simply splattering the paint on all four walls. Limited resources, however, made her decide against it. One wall would be enough. Abstract was the easiest method to go about this when one wasn’t really an artist. Using paintbrushes and her hands, she began flinging paint at the wall, the splatters making glowing nonsequential patterns. Here and there she used the brushes to smear lines and create smooth strokes, combining colors and giving her wall canvas something more than dots. Not all of the paint was used on the walls. Four glass jars sat in the middle of the floor, each filled with about an inch of bright green paint. These would be used to provide a little more light than what the paint on the walls was giving off. Once Leah was finished with her glow-in-the-dark mural, she cleaned the paint off her hands. One paint-splattered wall provided the perfect backdrop to the main stage, which she dragged in and let fall on the floor near the center of the room. Covered in a white sheet, the mattress gleamed in the semi-darkness like a rectangular beacon, leaving very little doubt as to what Leah had in mind for the night. She wouldn’t allow her expectations or hopes to get out of hand, but they were there nonetheless. After the doubts she'd spewed at Evan the day before, Leah felt like she owed him something to make up for it. That wasn't her sole reason for doing this, but it was at the forefront of her mind. Knowing that she had probably hurt him by admitting to a few doubts had hurt her, as well. She wanted to prove to him that she trusted him without question. The words “too soon” kept coming back to whisper insecurities at her, but she dutifully ignored them this time as she set to work on the second canvas: her body. Being a smaller canvas, this took less time and when she was finished, the whole front of her body from the neck down was a glowing tapestry of colors. Her face, however, was colored with a lot more care, this time with actual makeup. She outlined her lips in neon orange. Her eyes — upper and lower lids — in turquoise. Colors to match her outfit. Checking her watch and noting that she had about twenty minutes before Evan arrived, Leah carefully tucked her pack and her shoes away in the office opposite the glowing room, where she’d been preparing her makeup and applying the paint to her body, and walked across the hall and into the dark room to wait. Three walls were pitch black, while the fourth wall, straight ahead of her, gleamed with its array of oranges and yellows and greens and blues and every other neon color. Her own body shone in the dark, too, and she felt herself grin with pride at her handiwork. The grin quickly turned self-aware again at the thought of how her boyfriend might respond to this display. It was definitely a daring move, one that put herself out there farther than she’d been in a while. If he didn’t like it... the room was dark. He wouldn’t be able to see her disappointment. After exhaling a bit of her nervous energy, Leah moved to stand behind the door with the intention of having the wall be the first thing Evan saw when he arrived. She didn’t have to wait long. When the knock sounded, she extended her hand to pull open the door, keeping herself hidden behind it while Evan entered from the dark hallway. The glowing yellow sticks around his neck told her for certain that it was him. She waited a few moments, before asking quietly, “Do you like it?” |