Paint You Wings // Ashton Irwin [au]

Fifty-two

Emilia's POV

Details make a huge difference for many things including art. It's what makes a portrait lifelike or a painted landscape display its organic nature. They somehow heighten your senses and you can almost extract yourself from reality and dive into the scene created on the thick paper or canvas.

It's amazing what just a few lines and stokes can do to make a piece of art come to life before your eyes and tell a story that you didn't even know existed. Ashton puts so much work into his art and each piece has a story behind it. Who knew that looking through a sketchbook could be such an adventure?

The night Ashton sat with me in the living room was like a mini road trip inside his mind. Page after page I saw his subconscious revealed on paper and how the world is viewed through his eyes. He notices such tiny details in his surroundings and applies them to his work. Pretty much everything that I saw was of scenery, but as simple as it sounds, it is anything but.

The gazebo that's just outside the library on campus looks even more stunning on paper than it does in real life. Everything he sketched was spot on down to the slanted pillar that makes me question the safety of the structure, and even the rings of the wood were visible. He also included the little notches on the wooden rails and bench circling around the entire structure from all the skateboarders who try to grind against it but ultimately fail which always led to many laughing fits by me.

Aside from scenery, there are even a few sketches of random people around campus lounging around, though what I found absolutely heartwarming was the sketch of Luke, Michael, and Calum all sitting in their living room, laughing with each other. They all look so happy in each other's company and part of me wonders what it is they were laughing about.

Ashton told me that he drew it when he no longer felt the depression consuming him and actually had fun for the first time since moving to the states. I kind of wish that he included himself in the picture just so that I can see his bright expression from that day.  

As much as I would have liked to continue my guided tour of his sketchbook, there was no escape of our tired minds and bodies. Ashton and I barely made it a quarter the way through the book before we succumbed to exhaustion.

There is still so much more for me to see but I can't because my one track mind decided to forget the book in Ashton's room before I left with Julia to go back home to our apartment. These last few days since I've been home have been the ultimate form of torture because I finally had the sketchbook in my grasp and I let it easily slip between my fingers. Now Ashton keeps teasing me on the phone every time we call each other and tells me that there's some pretty damn good stuff in it and that I'm missing out.

I would go get it but Julia won't let me have a spare moment as she consults me with her online shopping spree. Day-after Christmas sales are still going on and the beginning of New Year's sales just made it worse.

"We only have until midnight to get the free shipping," she says as she clicks away on my laptop to add clothes to her already filled shopping cart.

"And if you wait a few days, they'll have another sale that gives you free shipping," I reply, falling onto my back and letting the mattress cushion the impact. Shipping, color, size, jeans, a thirty minute explanation of the difference between shirts and blouses; I'm at my wits end and if I hear another word about anything relating to clothes or fashion, I might have a mental breakdown.  

"True, but they won't have what I want in stock by then. It's called limited edition for a reason, Em," she sasses and then tosses the blue measuring tape at me. "Now make yourself useful and help me measure my waist so I know I'm getting the right size."