Page 6 of Costume Party Crush
José scrolled through. “Found it: dating app.”
“Guys…” I protested weakly.
José held up my phone. “Smile!”
“Wha…?”
“Perfect!” José proclaimed as the flash went off, then he strolled off with my phone, speaking aloud. “Frankie Harris, black hair, blue eyes, thirty-four. Class clown…”
A single chuckle escaped.
My friends were assholes, but good assholes.
Chapter 3 - Kaleb
Isat on the couch, knees up and with my tablet propped on them. On the screen was a scale representation of the city building windows, but I had yet to add an art layer.
The windows were huge. There were six sets of glass double doors with windows above them, then two full-height panes flanking on each side. The entire thing was fifteen feet high.
I worked fast, but it would still take several days to complete such a large piece, and every day spent on sketching was one day lost on actual work.
Rushing the draft wasn’t an option though. While I had enough clients that an average piece wouldn’t break me, the job could definitely rocket my business to a new level.
I stared at the rectangles that represented the windows, letting my imagination fill them with one idea after another.
Slowly my thoughts began to coalesce, and I started sketching on an art layer. The window-frames became the vertical bars to a haunted graveyard. I embellished with vines to make it clearer, then started to work on what would be inside.
A smile spread across my face as I worked. Soon zombies and skeletons were dancing next to a boombox on one side, while three green witches peered into an overflowing cauldron on the other. Crooked signs stating ‘Keep Out!’ and ‘Enter at Your Own Risk!’ decorated the centermost doors.
Gravestones and floating ghosts joined the mural, and a vampire poked his head out from a crypt.
Finally I stopped and looked at my sketch. It was rough, but the idea was perfect. It embodied the fun of Halloween, stayed family-friendly, and was going to be the most detailed set of windows I’d ever painted.
I also knew it was well within the realm of what I could do over the course of several days. I wasn’t going to fall into the trap of going overboard, then being unable to deliver. No, they would get my best, not some unrealistic expectation of myself.
I looked at the time, realized that I’d been working for a couple hours, and that I was hungry. I set the tablet aside and uncurled, my muscles protesting after being in one position for so long.
I was digging through the wasteland of my fridge when I heard my phone ringing. A smile crossed my face when I spotted the name on caller ID.
“Justin!”
“Hey Kay,” my best friend replied. “How goes?”
“Good. Just finished a sketch. You?”
“Meh. Wanna grab a bite?”
“You know it.”
“Cluck Hut?”
“Oh, you’re gonna talk about another bad date, aren’t you?” I teased.
“Why do you say that?” Justin asked, a note of indignant denial in his voice.
“Because you know I’ll listen to all your complaining if I’m eating their chicken pot pie.”
He chuckled. “Ok, busted.”
