Paint Me Like... (Accalia)

[Charlie Webster]

I'll see you then, then, Charlie? Those words were echoing through Charlie's head since he left the beach yesterday and he was seriously freaking out. Despite getting words of advice from his siblings and a good coaching from Dakota, Charlie didn't know what to expect from this little painting session. His stomach was a ball of nerves and he could barely eat at lunch, so he excused himself early to get the art cabin ready for Accalia.

And getting the cabin ready consisted of him rearranging the furniture at least a couple of times and fumbling around with his paint. He only did still life before and he wasn't sure how to go about painting a portrait. Especially one of Accalia... He shook his head to clear his mind as he laid out the different tubes of paint he was going to use on the table and played around with their order until she hopefully came in.

[Accalia Phillips]

What the hell was she supposed to wear.

She settled on one of her white dressed with a little pink sash around the middle. Nothing too fancy, just a regular sun dress. She had left her hair in it's natural wave. She wore light brown sandals, nothing fancy either. She was always told to just be herself in... a situation like this? A date? Whatever it was.

She approached the art building, her heart beating loudly in her ears as she did. She stopped, realizing she hadn't even put any flowers in her hair out of recent habit. She bent down, tapping the ground until some pink and purple ones bloomed. She lifted a few, placing them in her hair. They would bloom on their own depending on her mood, so it was better to start small.

She finally reached the building and slowly opened the door, "Charlie?" she called as she stepped in.

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie was so focused on the order the tubes of paint should go in, that he completely missed the door opening. He jumped at the sound of his name and the tubes went flying. He gripped the table and took a deep breath trying to fight the blush on his cheeks before he turned to looked at her.

And his breath caught in his chest at the sight of her. “Ac...Accalia,” he managed to choke out before he coughed trying to compose himself. “You’re here,” he said as he ran a hand through his hair. “Come in. You look beautiful.” He scrunched up his face and mentally smacked himself for that. She probably thought he was a weirdo by now.

He decided to turn back to his fallen paints, since that seemed to be the safer option. He started picking them up as he talked to her. “I have a chair for you to sit on. It’s in front of the easel.” But something hit him as he looked up at her with a slightly panicked look. “Unless you don’t want to sit down?”

[Accalia Phillips]

He almost sounded surprised that she had shown up, which caused her to smile a little. Was she really worth anticipating? As he invited her in and said she looked beautiful, she blushed. She closed the door behind her and stepped further into the room, holding her arms out and giving a little shrug. "Nothing special, really," she said, trying to will her cheeks to stop turning even more red then they already were.

As he turned back to the paints, she let out a breath, composing herself before walked toward him. She glanced at the chair he spoke of, nodding before he suddenly looked at her with panic. "No, no! Sitting is fine," she assured him, realizing that she was now standing right beside him. She bit her lip, her lips curling into a little smile before she tore her eyes away from him, moving to the chair.

"I mean... I'm not sure... is there a special way to sit for these sorts of things?"

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie took deep breaths as he rearranged his paints to they way he had it before Accalia came inside. During those deep breaths, he was trying to make sure that there wasn't an intense blush on his cheeks. He had to be a professional, right? He was just painting her... an extremely attractive woman... He quickly shook his head as he straightened back up.

Is there a special way to sit for these sorts of things? Charlie didn't know how to answer that. He didn't think about it at all with his nerves being all over the place. "Uh..." hes stuttered out as he tried to think of an answer. "I don't think so?" His voice cracked a bit before he coughed to compose himself. "Maybe... maybe you can sit there with like your hands on your lap or something? That's a standard portrait pose, right?"

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that neither of them really knew what they were doing in this situation. She turned to the side, crossing her ankles over each other and placing her hands in her lap. She tilted her head and gave a soft smile in his direction. "Okay, this should do?" she said before replacing the little smile on her face.

She wasn't sure if it was honest though, and she didn't want to be painted in a fake state. She shook her head, blowing air through her lips before looking back up at him. "Okay, tell me something funny," she pleaded, "otherwise I'm just going to look like I'm gramacing."

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie looked at her as she got into position and his breath caught in his chest. She's beautiful. he thought as he felt like he was struck with a lightning bolt full of muse. He had to paint her. He quickly scrambled to get his paints together on his palette before he grabbed a pencil and sketched out what she looked like in front of him.

Okay, tell me something funny. He paused for a moment as he looked beyond his canvas towards Accalia. She didn't look very comfortable in that situation and she was right. She wasn't looking very happy in the sketch and that made him frown a bit. How was he supposed to make her look happy? His sister's advice ran through his head as he chuckled and shook his head. "Okay," he said with a slight smile. "What happens to a frog's car when it breaks down?" His smile got a bit bigger before he said, "It gets toad away."

[Accalia Phillips]

At the horrible but effective joke, Accalia began to laugh. Her smile grew as she did so, realizing that she hadn't really laughed that this in month. The joke wasn't even that funny, but she was laughing like it was the best thing she had ever heard. She was getting carried away in the laugh, the flowers in her hair blooming a little more as she did. She felt an overwhelming sense of relief sweep through her. Like everything was going to be okay and for some reason, this boy was a part of that. He made her laugh, and that was a feat in and of itself.

She let the laughing slow as he continued to work on the art, but the smile stayed. Something was waking up inside her, to the point that her heart hurt and her eyes started glinting with moisture.

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie knew it was a horrible joke and something that a seven year old could tell, but it was what he could come up with on the spot. He sat there nervously for a moment, wondering if Accalia would tell him that it wasn't funny and that he needed to do something else. His mind was running through all the different possibilities when his head perked up at the sound of her laugh. She was laughing and she looked even more beautiful. He didn't even think that was possible for her. He stared in awe for a couple of moments as he noticed her smile, how the extra flowers grew in her hair. It was beautiful and it was something he needed to capture.

He unwillingly pulled his eyes away from her as he quickly sketched out what he saw. Smiles. Flowers. Beauty. He managed to get a rough sketch down before he looked over his canvas at her and gave a very nervous and sheepish grin. "I think this is going to be amazing," he said as he gathered up his paints and started painting what he saw in Accalia.

[Accalia Phillips]

I think this is going to be amazing, he had said, and Accalia almost let her smile disappear. But no, she could tell that it was helping give him muse of sorts to put the piece together. Instead she just tried to keep thinking positive thoughts, "hey, I'm just excited to see if you're any good," she said. She held still for the most part is he painted her, but occasionally would reach up to brush hair out of her face.

After another moment, she spoke up again. "Have you painted anyone else before? I mean, do you have a lot of models you bring in here?"

[Charlie Webster]

As he painted, Charlie would glanced over his canvas at Accalia to make sure he was getting the paint colors just right. He would smile softly to himself before he turned his attention back to the canvas to mix up colors or add a detail he missed. He was in his zone and he didn't feel completely flustered being around her. "I would like to think I'm good," he said as he started adding the flowers into her hair. "But beauty is really in the eye of the beholder." He paused for a minute and his cheeks heated up from that thought. He mentally shook it off as he continued painting.

He didn't know how long he spent painting, since it was something he could get carried away with, until Accalia spoke up. He put down his brush as he looked over the canvas at her. He blushed a bit as he shook his head. "No," he admitted sheepishly. "You're my first person model. My other models are out there." He pointed out the window to the group of trees behind the art building.

[Accalia Phillips]

It was true, beauty being in the eye of the beholder. She really didn't think of herself as like a stunning beauty or anything, but she wasn't really insecure about her looks either. She was confident enough, and that was fine. As he mentioned not having any other human models, Accalias head turned toward the open window where he pointed. Her smile grew as she saw the trees and she let her shoulders hunch forward in a sigh for a moment. "That's real beauty," she muttered, half to herself and half to him.

She turned back to him, "at least in the eye of this beholder," she found herself winking at him with that comment. That was weird and uncalled for. Her eyes widened for a moment and she straightened up again. "I hope I'm not moving too much. That's probably hard to work with. Granted, plants don't sit too still either." At least, she could see their movement, their breath.

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie had to be imaging things. Did Accalia just wink at him? He stared at her for a few moments slack jawed before he straightened up and turned back to his canvas with an intense blush on his cheeks. He really didn't know how do deal with that little piece of information he got with her wink, but he found himself working on her eyes as he caught the different colors that was in them. Most people would see them being just brown, but he saw chocolate and honey and smoky quartz in them. They were a dazzling array. He was so lost in her eyes that he almost didn't notice when she spoke up again.

"Nah," he said as he shook his head. "You're being a better model than the trees. They're really bad when it's windy outside, but you're doing okay." He paused his paintbrush for a moment as he took a step back away from his canvas. He stood there a blinked a couple of times as he appraised it. "I... I think I'm almost done," he said as he glanced around the canvas and smiled at Accalia slightly.

[Accalia Phillips]

The wind was a bit of a problem when it came to the trees, that wasn't surprising at all. She sat still when he said he was almost done. After another moment she took a deep breath. "This is kind of hard, actually. Trying to sit here and be natural. If I think about it too much I feel like I'm acting more like a statue than a normal person. Do I look weird? I'm sorry if my talking is annoy-" she stopped herself, cheeks turning bright red. She really was making a fool of herself now, wasn't she? She had just been sitting there for so long she had almost forgotten how to function like a normal person. Still, at least he was almost done! She was oddly excited to see the picture, but dreading it at the same time.

Charlie Webster

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie went back to his painting as he finished up with the final touches. Accalia was talking to him and he shook his head. “Nah, you’re doing fine,” he reassured her as he worked a little bit of shading. There wasn’t a lot to do since they were doing this in the daytime, but there still some that needed to be done. But then she started going apologetic and he shook his head. “No, no, no. You’re doing okay. You’re doing perfect.” He looked around the canvas as he smiled sheepishly at her before he turned back to his painting.

He looked back at his painting as he gave it a final once over. He couldn’t find anything to add. It was perfect. She was perfect. He took a deep breath as he nodded his head. “It’s done,” he said as he moved to slowly turn around the easel so she could see. Hopefully she would like it.