&. checkmate

“Have you ever noticed that Beyonce’s eyebrows are cousins?” He said while sketching the other. "I use to think she was perfect when I was younger, and then I saw her eyebrows. Now, I’m convinced that there is nothing more perfect than that woman’s flaws.” He stated, glancing at them ever so often. “Like, I really dig the art of everyone’s face. I can sketch all the imperfections people try to hide, and when I show them how I see them, they usually embrace their natural beauty.“ He smiled some, thinking about some of the people’s lives he affected just by a sketch. "Hopefully, I can get you to appreciate a side of yourself more once I finish this sketch, and if I don’t consider paying me anyway.” He added jokingly. 

@eastcliffopens​

“See you hear that, baby?” Mollie brushed back the hair from her eleven-year-old daughter's face. “Even one of your favorites isn’t perfect.” Though her daughter, Layla, still didn’t seem to head the man’s words as. she shifted awkwardly, giving Mollie one of those famous stop embarrassing me expressions that just about every pre-teen had in their arsenal. While Layla had pleaded that she didn’t want to be drawn, Mollie well, she couldn’t pass up the offer. “It’ll go right up on the wall at home,” Mollie assured. Her attempts to constantly push her daughter’s hair out of her face had stopped momentarily as Mollie began to shuffle around in her purse and it wasn’t just for her wallet. Owning an art gallery had its perks, finding talent was certainly one of them. “So how long have you been doing this for?” She glanced up to meet. his gaze with a gesture of her free hand to supplies and other sketches out on display. 

Nicole peaked through the window of her car, she could see her keys sitting in the cup holder. “Stupid, stupid, stupid..” she whispered to herself while pressing her forehead against the glass at lightly banging her head against the window. Pulling on the handle as if out night magically done unlocked. She saw someone out of the corner of her eye. “I’m not stealing the car, though the ability to do that would come in handy right about now, it’s my car.” She explained pointing through the window, “I locked myself out of my car.”

“Oh.” Mollie acknowledged as she came to a stop in her tracks. The brown box she held in her arms filled with files shifted awkwardly in an attempt to keep it from falling out of her hands. “Well, even if it wasn’t that’s the best one I’ve heard.” She gave a slight nod as her lips momentarily pressed together. “Yeah, no last week this girl told me she was looking for her bunny in my car.” If she believed the blonde woman or not was still up for debate, but her circumstance did leave one pressing question for Mollie, “What year is that car? Don’t most have keyfobs now? If that’s the case,” she nodded her head towards the woman’s car. “Just press the button on the door. Opens right up.” 

     The girl was mostly an honest person, though there were these hidden layers that got her in trouble some nights. With a couple of drinks in her system, she found herself picking up her old college habits – hustling. Cue stick in hand, she breathed in slowly and focused on the remaining ball. With steady precision, she took her aim. Clank. And just like that, it became all too obvious that this was not her first round of pool. She leaned against her cue stick and smiled at her opponent. “So, what was that? You owe me twenty dollars now? Beginner’s luck, I guess.”

“Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be.” Mollie was unable to guise the smile that tugged at the corners of her lips. An indicator she was clearly impressed by Chey’s newfound (or not so newfound) talent. “You know,” her voice became sing-song like as the older of the two leaned her forearm on the wooden cue in her own possession, “if I didn’t know any better I’d say you played this a few times before. But uhh...” Mollie reached for her purse she had placed strategically by one of the pool table legs, away from grabby hands. After a few moments of rummaging through her bag, she pulled out her wallet and a crisp twenty-dollar bill from the side pocket. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that to me.” Despite her words, which had been nothing but light-hearted, Mollie handed off the money to her neighbor, but with one caveat. “Now this better go towards your next film. If you keep hustling me I can add it to my resume, film producer.” 

It was a sunny California day as Aurora tread along the beach; not too hot, though she had a few strands of hair matted to her face, but clouds were also starting to roll in. She was sure she could finish her walk before the rain would start up. The woman licked at a plain vanilla ice cream cone she held in one hand, her tongue never seeming to keep up with the melted ice cream that wanted to drip on her hand or in the sand. She was overall minding her business, when out of the corner of her eye she caught a glance of a volleyball flying through the air towards her. She gasped as she flung out of the way, the ball narrowly missing her. However, one save ended up creating another catastrophe as her foot caught against an object sitting on the beach and sent her ice cream hurtling into someone’s lap. “Oh, no! I’m so sorry,” she stammered, suddenly digging through the large tote bag she carried on her arm to see if there was anything they could use to wipe the ice cream off with. “I was trying to avoid some kids and their ball.”    

“Shit!” A shriek followed the less than formal vocabulary that acknowledged the shock of the cold treat coming to fall on her lap. Maybe Mollie wouldn’t have bothered to care if it were any other day, any other time and in any other outfit but it wasn’t and now that pure white dress sported a stain, a somewhat yellow-colored, off-white stain that was far too noticeable for Mollie to just let it go and throw her worries away. The sound her chair made as it was pushed back was shrill, a screech across the floor that even made her want to cringe but as she stood with the ice cream effectively falling to the floor, Mollie simply couldn’t take her eyes off the state of her dress. “So you throw ice cream on me instead. Next time go for the kids and their ball. Shit..” she repeated the same phrase as green eyes frantically searched for some type of napkin. “Do you have water or something? I can’t be late. I can’t go home and change.” And nothing was going as planned. “We need to fix this. You need to.” 

CHARACTER INFO

Full Name: Mollie Adelyn Franklin Nickname(s): Molls, M. Age: 39 Birthdate: June 7, 1981 Sexuality: Hetero-flexible Occupation: Art Gallerist Neighborhood: Coral Reef (formerly Northshore)

(a messy bio can be found below)