REVEAL

6 • Slow Down

UNLIKE KAI, AIDEN attends college a year later than him. When he first graduated High School, he didn't know what he wanted to pursue or maybe even an ambition to follow through. He had always been the least structural in whatever he perpetrate. Make plans, but rarely follow them, always down for anything unexpected, and would always absentmindedly follow his heart. He's a friend you need, if figuring is a hard thing to achieve at times. In his mind, there is a vague goal, but also, vivid dreams and dreams are what keeps him going.

But one thing he always secretly knew for sure, he likes art. Music, paints, human anatomy, nature, movements, touch. He had always been mesmerized by everything he sees and feels, some of his friends even called him naive, but that didn't matter an ounce to him. Because his opinions were the only thing matters in the end. Anything alive, or inspired by pure existence. He likes the story they carry, the monologues, the feelings they spark. It is simply beautiful.

So, he made up his stormy mind to give art a try, to feel the vast beauty by himself, perhaps, even spreading the love they bring, and not to commercialize what's priceless. His dreams are naive for this ignorant realm, a lot would say pursuing further studies is for future career
. But to him, that's because they are lacking of genuine purity and vast, simple thinking. Just appreciating,  learn, and trusting God's creation as simple as they are, yet full of meanings.

Dreams couldn't keep him away from assignments. Daydreaming was the most thing he ever desired at this moment, but the due date was early and he got tons of other tasks as well.

He sat under a wide-open window, in his washed-out jeans overall with a white t-shirt on the floor. The heavily humid wind of the storm's aftermath, sending in a few droplets of mist onto his bare skin. Few shades of color splattered on the wall, and the spread of thin layers of newspaper underneath, with brushes, pencils, and palettes scattered in every corner of the small room. Thankfully, he lived alone in a small apartment an hour away from campus, he couldn't imagine how it was going to be like to brainstorm ideas and what finding inspirations would be like with lousy roommates, when it was still hard to even do it alone. Thoughts could be loud.

It has been a week since the task was given, but all he ever managed to do was paint, crumple, toss away and repeat. The task was simple.

paint your muse.

And it should be easy for him, he had learned and mastered every skill any painter could ever beg for in such a short time. But the only problem was, he couldn't feel it. And Aiden would never, try to express fake feelings. Perhaps, he should've work extra time for more money and go for a random vacation like he would always do for inspirations, unfortunately too many things were going on.

Assignments, Kai, exam week, marks, Liberty, life... Esther, projects, rent

With a brush gripped between his parted lips, he moved a little backward and looked down at his painting. A picture of a woman, gazing back while sitting on a barstool in a dimly lit restaurant, it was a woman he met a few days ago, they randomly had a chat one night, that unknowingly drifted into a deep conversation.

Not my muse.

He groaned loudly in disappointment, had he spent 4 hours for nothing? Yes.

Frustrated, he rummaged his fingers into his platinum blonde hair, puffing out air, then his eyes jerked open. shoot!.
Retreating back his palms down his gaze in panic, he grimaced when he realized the vibrant splattered fresh paints, on both of them. He just soaked them in his obvious bright hair. Congratulations Aiden.

In one swift motion, he got up and storm to a rectangle mirror at a corner behind him, wiping the paints off his palms with a strong force using a towel, in the process. He cursed at the sight of the raw mess, then pierced his icy eyes at himself, up and down like he was the most despised person he ever met.