Piper smiled as she watched the woman sit, then turned her attention to the long line of people who needed sustenance for the day. She took order after order, barely looking up to see who was speaking to her. It took a while, but eventually, the line dwindled.
“Who’s next?” She called, and looked up when there was no reply.
“Oh, it’s over,” she said and tucked a stray hair out of her hat. Now she was gonna have to sit around and wait for customers to come in again until lunch.
Her eyes slowly blinked open. "Tee," she breathed, rolling onto her back. She couldn't sit up. "How are you?"
"I'm good," he told her gently. "How about you? You look a little more tired than usual."
She shrugged a shoulder, smiling tiredly.
"What else is new?"
Abby came back over to talk to her. “So who’d you meet on the train?” She asked. She was very persistent.
Piper rolled her eyes. “Nobody. Honestly it’s not that important. He was this painter guy. His name is Theo.”
She decided to leave out the part about her going to hang out with him this afternoon.
Theo breathed a laugh. "I guess. Hey, so, I met someone," he told his mother, a shy smile playing across his face.
His mother's eyes lit up with excitement, and she sat up so fast that a coughing fit rolled over her. "What's her name? Where'd you meet her?"
"Her name's Piper, I met her on the way."
"Is she safe? Did you meet her in some random place? What if she's a murderer? Or a cougar?"
"Mom!" Theo exclaimed indignantly. "She's my age!"
Abby raised her eyebrows. “You know his name? What, are you two going steady now?” She giggled and playfully threw her hand towel in Pipers direction. Piper caught it and chucked it back at her.
“We only introduced ourselves, as you do when you meet new people. Honestly, I don’t know why you’re so interested.”
Abby places her hand on her hip. “Because. You never talk to anybody if you don’t have to, yet all of a sudden you meet someone who makes you smile and you know a lot about him? Did you get his number?”
Piper looked sheepishly from behind the coffee machine at Abby. “Yeah, but only because he wanted to show me some of his paintings.”
Abby’s face lit up. “You mean you guys planned to see each other again?” Piper nodded in reply.
(Bump)
(hey did you used to be @altogether_quite_impossible_to_describe?)
(Yeee that was me!)
Theo's mother watched her son for moment, before relaxing back into her cushions. "Will you see her again?"
He nodded. "She's coming to the studio."
TIMESKIP: THAT AFTERNOON
Piper hurried down the sidewalk in order to get to the crossing zone before any cars came. She crossed the street and went down a few blocks, until she reached the front of the building.
“This must be it,” she mumbled, and knocked in the door.
Theo was sat at a canvas, staring at one of the works he was proudest of.
Then the knock came. He was sprinting down the stairs and at the door in a moment, wrenching it open and smiling like a child.
Piper waved a tiny waved and smiled an equally cheeky smile. “Hey, it’s good to see you,” she started.
"You too!" He stepped backward, making enough space in the doorway for her to walk in.
She stepped in the room and removed her coat while her eyes adjusted to the lighting.
“So, is this your house and studio? Or just you studio?”
He sighed, scratched the back of his head. "Well… Mostly studio. But I sleep here," he told her, starting up the stairs.
"Ah, okay," she nodded and followed him. Then she smiled to herself. "It's really cool that you are so into your art. There are so many people that don't understand that that is where great art comes from, ya know?"
They walked up and past a rickety wooden door, into an equally rickety space. Old, creaky wood flooring, two of the walls made completely of cracked glass, thin red curtains, sparse tables and an army of ealses, canvases and rusted pots of paint.
"Not very glamorous," he muttered apologetically.
She didn't even hear what he said, she was just taking in the room. It looked like something straight out of a book; it wasn't minimalist by any standard, but there was so much stuff to look at. Plenty of amazing paintings were only about halfway visible because they were behind something or other. There was paint all over the place, the tables had it, chairs had it, everything had paint splotches all over it. It was perfection.
"Whoa," she breathed, turning around to take in the full room. She let her head fall back and stared up at the ceiling, where a beautiful light fixture was hanging. "This is amazing."
He looked up, blushing beet red. "I took that from my apartment. Was my mom's."
He awkwardly sat on one of the tables, watching Piper's wonder in confusion. "You know, no one except my mom's been up here."
She turned her head in his direction. "Really? Then why am I here? It seems pretty amazing up here, I don't want to mess anything up."
He coughed. "Amazing. The reason you're the first is because you've just called it amazing. What's so amazing about this chaotic space?"
She smiled sheepishly at him from behind her curly bangs. “Sometimes I can be a bit dramatic, sorry,” she cleared her throat. “But I really do think it’s cool. It’s like really cluttered, but it’s a good kind of cluttered. It seems like an area where you can focus your creative energy.”
He nodded after a pause, looking around. "Yeah. I miss this place." Then he stood up, walking to the nearest painting which was covered by a tarp, and looked back at her. "Anyway. Ready for the unveilings?"
“Yep, ready,” she nodded, and moved closer to the canvases that Theo was standing beside. “I bet these are gonna be awesome.”
He shrugged, desperately trying to deflect the nerves but failing miserably. He yanked the cover off, and it fell to the floor in a cloud of dust.
It was a small abstract painting, about the size of a suitcase. Vibrant swirls of colour ranging from the deepest red to the brightest blue, intertwining across a expanse of black, tracing untold emotions in their colourful wake.
She looked at it for a moment, then turned to him. "Do you have synesthesia? Because if you do this makes so much sense."