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Yara sat cross legged in the middle of her living room as she dragged the paintbrush across the canvas resting against the easel. The sun beamed through the giant panes of glass, it's fiery rays lighting up the room and making the walls blended with pearl and silver paint sparkle along with the ebony and snow white of the fur on the two animals like Yin and Yang.
The girl reached for a thinner paintbrush, signing her name in black as neatly as possible at the bottom corner of the canvas. Yara slowly stood up, pushing down on her thighs for support and stood back from the painting, admiring it.
Two cats with a golden crescent moon on their foreheads were across from each other, the tip of their small noses nearly touching, their porcelain whiskers extended outward and their ears flipped back like airplane wings. The black cat had glowing violet eyes and the white one had two azure eyes that sparkled as it gazed into the violet pools of the black cat.
She smiled at the painting. It reminded her of someone and if it were possible, she'd show this picture to them. Yara really loved art, it was something she excelled in the most and it was more than just a hobby she had. It felt like a job. Yara would sell these paintings. That was her one of two ways of getting her own money, rather than relying on her family, which were clearly no help to her at all. The girl was hesitant about selling her art and she was surprised everything took off the way it did.
Yara picked up the palettes filled with used paint and the brushed and washed them out, attempting not to burn herself because of how hot the water was.
Moments later, the doorbell rang. Yara sighed and turned off the faucet and trotted over to the door. She prayed it wasn't Kevin. Their last interaction wasn't very pleasant. The young girl was at the door now and she stood there contemplating if she should even open the door. She would glance at the visible bruises on her arms and quickly pulled her sleeves down and took her fiery red locs down from the claw clip she had it in. Yara extended her paint stained hands out to the doorknob and opened the door.
"Oh! Hey . . ."
Yara's eyebrows raised when she saw Namil. He wore a black fur zip up and black pants with a pair of fuzzy white shoes. She ignored her ex's odd style of clothing and looked up at him.
"Did you get bored without me or something? What you doing in Brooklyn?" Yara asked, still holding onto the doorknob. Namil smiled a little and just shook his head.
"Nah, I got a video to shoot real quick. I just stopped 'cus I knew you was on the way to the spot." Namil replied. "What's all that shit on ya hands?"
Yara looked down. "Oh, it's just paint. I was about to wash my hands off but I didn't wanna make you wait outside."
"Nah, it's fine. You could've finished what you was doing—but I didn't know you could paint. Lemme see."
The girl peered behind her, looking at the two cats on the canvas then back at Namil.
"No. You gone think it's—stupid it's kinda bad anyway. No reason to look at something that's sloppy and ugly, you know?" Yara beamed.
"Nigga you chattin' too much." Namil laughed, making his way past Yara and into the living room. She whipped her head around and quickly pushed the door closed, following behind the boy.
"Don't you have somewhere to be? You gone be late playing around." Yara advised. ". . And you know Kevin might randomly come in here and see you. Ion want that to happen."
Namil just shrugged, "I'm not scared of that nigga, but since you worried about him that bad, I'll be out in a lil bit."
Yara would give Namil a worried look and stayed quiet. The two finally arrived to the easel with the painting of the two cats. The girl gently pulled Namil back a short distance so he wasn't so close and they would just stare.
"You gotta be artistically inclined, like this shit clean as hell!" Namil smiled. Yara flushed a rose color, mumbling a "thank you". He was only seeing the painting as two cats but to Yara, it had more meaning than that. The girl gripped onto Namil's sleeve unconsciously.
"Ey, not so tight," Namil said, "you okay?"
She blinked, "oh, nothing! I'm fine. I just been really tired lately and I worked multiple days in a row—I probably just need to relax."
Yara finally let go of Namil and sighed. It was a little awkward now that they were in the room together for the first time in a while and there really wasn't much to talk about at the moment. She missed Namil and their conversations together but it's been so long, it was like they were meeting each other all over again.
"Um, you should . . get ready to go. I don't want you to end up being late to your video shoot. I know how you got about that stuff."
"Word, you right. I do not feel like doing this shit another day." Namil pulled out his phone, checking the time and the Uber notification that read that they would be arriving in a couple minutes. "You should paint me something one day. I'll use it as a cover whenever I drop again."
Yara smiled. "Yeah, I will."
The two walked to the front door, Yara leading the way. Namil peeked outside, seeing that his Uber was already waiting for him. It looked expensive, considering that it was one of those black SUV Ubers.
"I ain't buying this shit again. Niggas spending almost thirty dollars just to get around." The male rolled his eyes, making Yara giggle. "I'll talk to you another time, okay?"
"Yeah! Have fun at that video shoot. Don't look dumb and don't have your clothes hanging off you like a—"
"Bien, lo entiendo. I know. You always tryna be my mom or something." He chuckled before attempting to pull Yara into a hug. She flinched as if something was about to hit her. Namil only paused. "What happened?"
"Nothing. Sorry." She replied quickly before finally hugging Namil so he didn't ask any further questions. The smell of his cologne was intoxicating but comforting. She didn't really want to let go of him but she knew her place and it would be wrong to hold on any longer.
Later on that evening, Yara would hold an ice pack against her arm. The girl's hands shook as the encounter between her and Kevin flooded back into her mind. She didn't like to think about it but the memories just continued to appear. A tear trailed down her face but her eyebrows had been drawn together as if she were angry.
Moments later the front door opened. Yara quickly wiped her wet arm with her covers and the tears with her hoodie. She tried to suppress her feelings as much as possible so Kevin didn't have another reason to hurt her anymore than he already did.
Yara scrambled down the stairs, fixing herself up so it didn't look like she was crying in her room with an ice pack. She was obviously tired of how Kevin had been acting lately but she had to play it off so he didn't do anymore damage.
