The Artist by L King
Alana he problems with her Art class, luckily her brother is able to help her out but just how far is he willing to go? , The Artist
I have three siblings. My name is Adam and I’m the 2nd child. My eldest sister is currently studying abroad, the apple of my parents’ eyes. Personally I thought she was too up herself. It’s nice that she’s abroad in France. She would fit in there. My little brother was wild even with our family being relatively well off. He chose to hang about with the local wannabe gangsters. Hopefully he gets out of that phase before he ends up dead or in prison.
My little sister Alana, is easily my favourite. She was always a bit odd in a nice way. She was still in school but her only love was art. Her enthusiasm for it is infectious, myself I struggle with stick figures. I love watching her paint and generally love her company. Often she would seek my advice on mundane things like learning to drive, how bank cards work etc. She is kind of detached from reality and often I’ve thought she should be tested for autism or I don’t know something.
My sister was short at 5ft2 dark long hair that she kept in bunches ever since she was a child. It’s still strange to me to describe her body to people. She looks underdeveloped even at 18 she didn’t have breasts to speak of, she was quite thin but her pretty face and stick out bum were pleasing to the eyes. She struggled to buy things because of her look, which was something I teased her about.
Myself, I am presently doing an apprenticeship with my father who runs a builders company. He is a good teacher but work has kind of dried up with the pandemic. I am 6ft4 and the work keeps me well in shape. I’m often described as quiet and closed off, in reality i’m a bit shy until you get to know me. My Father says he is the same and it’s a trait that helps him run the company.
Like I said the business has been on the slow side which meant spare time for me. My Mother took advantage of this and my driving now to the max. I was forever sent on errands, currently I was driving to pick up my sister from one of her classes. I didn’t mind my father was paying me anyway and I was saving to build my own home.
I pulled up just as she got out and she smiled as she saw me jumping in the car. ‘Heya bro, you my taxi today?’ ‘Seems like i’m gonna be your cab for a while, The contracts for next week are all gone’ ‘That’s great, but uh… I’m needing to practice some stuff, that class didn’t go well and I have to work on it’ she sounded a bit concerned ‘That’s not like you, you usually do great.. You know, aside from oranges..’ I should explain this was a tease, a few years back she went through a stage with oranges she had struggled to paint them during a class. Now to me an orange circle filled in with more orange is how you do an orange not so with actual artists.
‘Very funny, I just need to practice like I did with the oranges’ I laughed at that, cutting her off, “practice” was a dramatic understatement, days of painting and repainting the fruit occurred, oranges all over the house. She was frustrated and as close to tears as I’d ever seen her by the time her “practice” ended. She did though conquer the orange in the end. ‘Oh god another weekend like that will kill you, what’s the trouble?’
She reddened suddenly. It was actually quite cute to see her tense up. ‘Uhm… just a bit of a problem with natural life painting.. I’ll get it’ I had no idea what that meant. She soon changed the subject asking about what I was doing this week. We chatted about nothing all the way home. My mother was waiting for me when I dropped her off and she made straight for the garage to practice.
I was sent for more milk and some onions, thrilling stuff. Later that night I was sent to get her from the garage for Dinner and what I saw shocked me, she was holding a model in her hands examining it. It was unmistakably a penis and balls. She turned at the sound of the door, she reddened again. ‘Uh… it was a nude… today’s class.’ She said when she recovered I looked at her work discarded to the side all of it focused on the model that was in her hands, all slightly off somehow. Accurate yes but something was lifeless about them. ‘Uh… dinners ready’ It was a good change of subject and we went and ate with the folks and we never discussed her painting at all during dinner.
Once dinner was over Alana had disappeared back to her cave and I didn’t, for once, feel like joining her. The next morning I was woken by my Father unusual for a Saturday I was normally left to my days off. ‘It’s your sister, she’s had a crash in Paris, your mother has us booked on a flight out in a couple of hours so we need you to look after the house and your sister’ ‘Is she ok?’ I asked genuinely concerned for my elder sister, she might be a bitch but she was still family ‘She’s fine a broken leg and a bit banged up but fine’ They quickly left and I thought I should at least tell Alana about it.
I couldn’t find her in her room and I thought she was up early to practice more. I did find her in the garage but she was asleep surrounded by paintings of cocks.. It was an unusual sight. It was clear to me she had been up all night painting the thing. I picked her up from her chair and carried her to her bedroom. She woke up when I put her in bed, ‘Uh… sorry Adam did I fall asleep?’ ‘Its fine, mum and dad are on their way to paris. Sis is in hospital after a car crash… she’s fine just bit banged up’ answering her worried look. Get some rest and i’ll get you breakfast when you are up.
She curled up and slept only a few hours. I went for a shower and then my own breakfast before she woke up properly. ‘You should sleep more’ ‘can’t’ she yawned. I knew what she meant when she was obsessed like this she couldn’t sleep ‘So what did you do with the oranges that helped’ I asked trying to be helpful ‘I started eating them I think I got to the point where I broke them down and through using them as food I was able to understand them more’ She said earnestly I snorted a laugh back I tried to hold in. She looked at me curious and innocent ‘What?’ I paused and looked at her thinking she was joking but I was surprised she really hadn’t realised. ‘Uh… I mean.. It’s funny… it’s not like you can eat.. a bunch…. Of…’ She had cottoned on and went bright red at the thought of where I was headed.
‘I-I… uh I suppose I don’t have as much experience with that sort of thing as you’ I raised my eyebrows. She wasn’t asking it as a question but it was often assumed thanks to my size and features I was a girl magnet. ‘Uh… I’ve…. not as much experience as you might think..’ I was surprised at my own honestly. Usually I just allow people to think what they want but, this was my sister and we were close. ‘Really?’ she brightened at my confession and it was my turn to blush. I smiled ‘I just haven’t gotten around to it yet I guess’ That hung in the air as Alana seemed to get distracted by the thought.
‘A-adam?’ when she finally broke out her thoughts. ‘C..can I ask you a favour?’ ‘What’ ‘would you pose for me, I mean it’s fine if you don’t I just think.. A real ….subject would help… models are fine but i’m finding it… har…. Difficult to put life into it.. You know what I mean’ I had been drinking when she asked and she was really lucky I hadn’t spat it out all over her. She wanted to paint me nude and I was shocked at the thought. ‘Oh er… never mind… I’ll get someone else’ she reacted to the terror on my face. That said I knew Alana was a lot of things but a social creature wasn’t one of them.