literature

Painted Secrets

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Literature Text

I find myself looking at her, again, my wandering eyes naturally drawn to her pale face. Her dark eyes dart my way, painted lips turning up in a smirk. "Something on your mind, Oliver?" I barely hear her words, as I relish in the sound of her voice. It somehow reminds me of bells, and icicles, and echoing church towers, all at once. I don't know much, but I'm sure it's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard.

I shake my head, and she sighs again, letting her fingers trace their way up my neck. "Are you, at least, going to hold still for me, then?" Her scarlet fingertips tilt my head just the right way, and brush my chin like a breath of wind. I miss her touch the moment it's gone, but try to keep still, regardless.

I could watch her all day, the way her arms dance behind the empty canvas. They remind me of willow branches, too skinny, but positively heartwarming the way they sway, as if set in motion by a wintry breeze. Her eyes, a brown, darkened to a near charcoal, are intense, as she concentrates on the paper in front of her, immortalizing her subject with every stroke of her brush.

I've been graced with the opportunity to have her paint me, not once, but this being my fifth time. I can't comprehend why me. Her paintings, though she shows very few to me, stop my heart each and every time. It's startlingly beautiful, the way she captures her scene; whether a windswept ocean, thrashing to the beat of some unheard music, or just a single tree, branches entrapped in ice and leaves swept with a glittering glaze of snow. Even the finished products of me, she's somehow managed to make glamorous, and enchanting. She can, in some unlearnable way, pull out your most stunning features, ones you may not even know you have, and paint your face in a way no one's ever seen.

Trying desperately to hold still, I let my question escape my lips, "Why me, Kat?"

A tinkling laugh strokes my ears, and a whole new set of picture pop into my brain, that I associate with the lilting giggle. Marbles, on a hard wood floor, a thousand colors swirled into the glass. Coins, brass and silver and gold, being dropped into outstretched hands. The church bells set ringing, and the jarring echo that tumbles throughout the building. "Why you, what?" Even her topsy turvy sentence, turned upside down, and hardly understandable, sounds perfect coming from those ruby lips.

"Why do you choose me to paint?"

Her fingers find their way to my jawline, again, and she angles my chin upward, just slightly. For a moment she doesn't speak, her thoughts not put into words, but instead painted in brushstrokes and new, startling colors. I wonder if I've offended her, but don't speak, afraid to move, afraid to say something wrong, once again. Finally, she sets down her brush, "It's your eyes, Olie," Her words, though not a whisper, seem to set a silence upon the room that would be shattered, the moment I chose to speak. "There's something in them, something beautiful, that I've never seen before. I don't know what it is, I can't put it into words, but it's there. Maybe, if I paint you enough, I'll finally learn what exactly it is."

I lower my head slightly, and as she nods, to tell me it's okay to move, her hair falls across her face. It's a deep brown, something else about her that reminds me of everything beautiful in the world. It's not a brown that has a name, not a sienna, or a mahogany, or a chestnut. It reminds me of chocolate, that's been melted, and then painted across a dusk sky. It's the fur of a fawn, taken cover beneath a pine tree. Without a second thought, my fingers float up, and find their way to her face. Letting the pads of my fingers caress her cheekbone, for longer than necessary, I brush the lock of hair behind her ear. "Would you believe me if I said everything about you makes me feel that same way? There's mystery painted across your face, Kat. It shields your eyes, and masks you from the world outside. But it doesn't push me away, like it seems it might. It only makes me want to find out more about you. I want to know what's behind that mystery. I want to know the girl behind the easel, and the scarlet lips."

She glances down, and my hand falls from her face, "That's not mystery, Oliver." Her words seem to be coated with resignment, and pain, like cobwebs spread across ocean-smoothed pebbles, "That's misery."

I feel my eyebrows draw together, and slowly, I shake my head, "No..." I start quietly, "I've seen distress, and agony, and misery. That's not misery on your face. It's far too alluring to be pain."

She glances up at me, eyes just a little brighter, and gaze a little more hopeful. I'm finally able to stare deeply into those mystifying eyes, and I find myself not wanting to look away. Of every part of her, her eyes are by far the most breathtaking. Their dark brown, near black shade, remind me of embers, being thrown into the twilight sky by a crackling fire. They remind me of the sun, glinting enticingly as they catch the eyes of raindrops, splayed on blankets of moss. I don't have the right scene, the right adjective, the right word to describe how awe-struck they make me. "How about I make you a deal?" I let my fingers draw her chin upward, until we are eye to eye, faces only inches apart, "If we are together, always, we'll both eventually find what we're looking for. You'll find that beauty, hidden in my eyes. And I'll put a name to the mystery I see on your face. Just promise me, in order to get what we both need, you'll spend a forever with me." Finally, without realizing it, I've spoken the words that have been dancing behind my lips for years. It took all that time to realize I'd fallen for Kat, but only that split second of looking into her eyes, to know I wanted an eternity with her.

A whispered gasp flutters from her lips, a tantalizing, deep red. "I don't think it will take forever to learn what's hidden in those gorgeous eyes. Only several mornings of me waking up, with your head on the pillow next to mine. But I know, once I learn the beautiful secrets behind them, I will need that forever with you. I never want to give you up, Oliver." Her words, like everyone of her paintings, and every bemused look she offers me, warm my heart.

"So, forever then?" I whisper, and my lips draw ever nearer to hers.

Her warm breath caresses my face, brushing my cheeks with one single word, before our lips finally meet, "Forever."
Inspired by:

This picture: by: *xKimJoanne

This song: Say Anything - Alive With The Glory Of Love

And

This song: Green Day - Last Of The American Girls


Also, I know I kinda went over board with the details...it was supposed to be something that the guy did, it was sorta part of his character. But looking over it, it just sounds stupid. Ah well, I was in the mood for writing a lot of details. Take it, or leave it. =P

Hate the title...I fail ferociously at titling things. :shrug: What can you do?
© 2010 - 2024 SoImStillUnsure
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NadirahBlue's avatar
It's beautiful <3 Very well done :clap: :)