stars || Joe Sugg

30.) work of art

joe

When I wake up, the first thing I do is check to see if Ruby is beside me. At around eleven last night when I went to bed, Ruby told me that she would be down a bit later. I never woke up last night, and I usually do if Ruby moves quite a bit or if she screams from a nightmare. Surely she came to bed at some point last night, though.

"Joe!" Ruby screams from upstairs as I swing my legs over the side of the bed to go find her. I scream back up to her as I look around her side of the room for my stolen shirt. Stealing all of the towels from the bathroom was a nice idea for a new way to annoy Ruby, but she's found a few new ways to annoy me. For example, I still haven't got my shirt back from her. She just wears it constantly. For three straight days, Ruby hasn't worn any other shirt.

"Can you come here for a second?" She asks, while I'm already on my way upstairs.

"What's up?" I ask, catching sight of my girlfriend standing on top of the dining table. She's half barefooted, with a sock on one foot but not one on the other. She's still in the same jeans that she changed into yesterday. She's wearing a black tank top, but tied tightly around her waist is my shirt. Her hair is wrapped up in a very loose bun that is held up with a paintbrush. "What are you doing, love?" I laugh as she blows a piece of hair, that has fallen out of her bun, out of her face.

"Stand on that chair and look at this." She says, crossing her arms.

"Why do I have to stand on a chair?"

"Because it looks different this way. Just come help me, alright?" I pull out a chair and stand on top of it, making myself almost as tall as Ruby. I look down at the large canvas that is surrounded by unfolded trash bags to catch paint.

The background of the canvas is full of so many different colors all swirled and splatted together. Ruby had started that yesterday night while I edited my new video, and it's the reason that she stayed up later than me, but now I'm not even sure if Ruby got any sleep. The main piece of art is two people in a tight hug. I recognize almost immediately that one of the people is Zoe and the other is Alfie. Zoe's face barely peeks out over Alfie's shoulder as her arms cross over his bare back. Their pale skins are accented and shaded with pale pinks and purples. It's done a lot differently than anything she's done before, and I've noticed that she's been trying a lot of new art styles.

After a short moment, Ruby nudges me. "What do you think?"

"You didn't get any sleep last night, did you?" I ask her. She laughs, leaning her forearm on my shoulder before answering.

"No, I didn't, but that's not the point." She says, waving her finger in front of my face. "It's really different. I don't know if I like it."

"I think this is one of my favorite pieces you've ever done." I tell her, honestly.

"Really? I just don't know about like, all these different colors that don't really look natural." She comments, pointing at the long purple lines around the outline of Alfie's back. "I feel like now I'm just doing exactly what my mom told me would be a bad idea. Contemporary art." She makes air quotes when she says 'contemporary'. Another box came in the mail not too long ago with more paintings Ruby had done, and it was just filled with a lot of contemporary art type styles, a whole lot different from the flowers and people I'm so used to her painting or drawing.

"Your mom doesn't get to decide what you like doing. Did you like doing this last night?" I ask, lacing my fingers with hers that dangle off my shoulder. She nods slowly. "Then what else matters? It's like one of your tattoos. At one point you wanted it, so why regret it now?" We stand in silence for a few moments while Ruby just stares down at the painting, and I stare at her.