Love Addict's RPG Ch. 24

Oliver manually drove his car for the first time since awakening his powers. The reason for that was simple: it meant more time with Mia. After she gave him the directions, they got in together, buckling up and leaving Payless Foods in the dust.

Oliver just wished he knew beforehand that having a girl in his car would overload his brain with so much dumb shit.

Man, Mia makes the car smell so much nicer.

Is she looking at me?

Am I supposed to say something?

Mia's not bored, is she?

God, I'm stupid...

Oliver wondered if they would've been better off just warping them to the art store since keeping his eyes on the road was so hard when he was like this. Fortunately, the tension eased up as the minutes passed. They made light conversation while he drove. She told him about her day, he told her about his. Things were mellow. Calm. No reason to get all worked up.

Mia always shopped at Rob's Hobbies, a local arts and crafts store. According to her, it used to be called Rob's Hobs until the owner changed it because no one knew what the hell a 'hob' was supposed to be. She claimed it was an excellent place to buy from, though. Especially when compared to some of the bigger chains.

"I wouldn't know. I think I heard something a while back about an art store that got in trouble for smuggling artifacts out of the Middle East, though?" Oliver said as he passed the dual palm trees framing the parking lot's entrance.

"Yeah, shit's crazy," Mia laughed. "I'm a lapsed Catholic myself, but I don't vibe with that evangelical bullshit. Like, I just wanna pick up a sketchbook, dude. Not looking to finance wannabe Indiana Jones villains in the process."

"So you're saying those artifacts belong in a museum?" He joked.

"Yeah, but not the one they were trying to put them in," As they parked, Mia turned to him and asked, "How about you?"

"Huh?"

"Believe in anything, or nah?"

"Oh. No, religion's not really a big thing in my family, so..." Oliver froze up, pausing in light of recent events. "Actually, I can't really say what's what these days. Might be more open to the idea than I used to be."

Mia tilted her head. "Why's that?"

"Been thinking that edible the other day gave me psychic powers, and that kind of blew the lid off of what I thought was possible, so who knows?" Oliver shrugged, undoing his seatbelt. He looked over to see that Mia was giving him an intense staredown. For a second, he wondered if she believed him. Then she started smirking and let out a soft laugh.

"Had me going there," Mia nudged him and exited the car. "Given the crap you said yesterday about hallucinations and shit, almost thought you were serious."

Oliver figured as much. Even someone as understanding as Mia wouldn't believe him if he just outright said something crazy like that. No one would. Not anyone who didn't regularly adorn their head in tinfoil, at least.

Together, they entered Rob's Hobbies. They both took a little handbasket to carry around whatever they picked up at Mia's suggestion. She was very familiar with the place to the extent that the guy at the nearest register politely called out to her by name and waved. Mia waved back, then started dragging Oliver through random aisles.

"Where's all the drawing stuff?" He asked, looking through shelf after shelf of diorama miniatures. There were little toy soldiers, fantasy creatures, cars galore, and plenty more.

Mia inspected a handheld Stegosaurus with curious intent, then dropped it into her basket. "Like to take my time while I'm here."

Questioning her decision, Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Getting your dino-fix?"

"Thought it might be good for some sketch studies. Why not give it a try?" She smirked and then picked up a matching Brontosaurus, tossing it for him to catch.

Oliver caught it out of the air, held it in his hands, and then set it back on the shelf with all its little plastic brothers and sisters. "Maybe next time. Plastic dinos might be above my level."

"If you say so," Mia clicked her tongue. "Play your cards right, and I might let you borrow one of mine down the line."

"Damn. Gonna have to start saving up my good boy points."

Mia smirked at that and then dragged Oliver through a dozen different aisles.

There were standard office supplies, scrapbooking junk, boxed science projects for children, stuff for interior decoration like plastic flowers, elegant photo frames, and a bunch of other junk. It was a world of possibilities, but for someone who had little creative drive, none of it meant much to Oliver. Maybe at the end of his stat training, he would appreciate this paradise of artistic delight for what it was, but at the moment, he was just happy to be hanging out with Mia, and there wasn't much more to it than that.

She continued showing off a playful side of her as they made their way throughout the store. Mia found wonder in the little things, picking up random crap off the displays to show him or make some joke about it. She was so open and talkative that Oliver worried about keeping up with her. He was doing great so far, managing to snap back and play off her silly observations, but he worried that his wit would dry up the longer they spent together.

It was a stupid concern, but he cared so much about this going well that Oliver could not push it out of the back of his mind.

"Here we go," Mia chimed, leading him to a rack of books at the end of the aisle. There were activity books, anatomical references, collections by famous artists, and, most importantly, drawing tutorials. She picked one up and flared it at Oliver, a devious grin hidden behind the cover. "Think this might be more your speed."

"Yikes, that's gonna be a solid 'no' from me, chief..." Oliver laughed, cringing at the most atrocious 'How to Draw Manga' book in all of existence. It was worse than the memes of such books he'd seen. Whoever the artist was, they looked like they were drawing in anime style after hearing about it once from a friend and then never bothering to Google actual references. On some level, he had to respect the shamelessness it took to just plain not to give so much as a single shit.

"That thing looks like it would actively make me worse at art."

"You're not wrong," she teased, turning around to place the abomination back from whence it came. Oliver would've preferred chucking it into Mount Doom, but that sadly wasn't on the table. "Now come on, drawing stuff is in the next aisle."

Oliver followed Mia to their destination, a long aisle of traditional art applies. One wall was stuffed to the brim with empty sketchbooks of every shape and size, while the other had pencils, dipping pens, markers, erasers, and tons of other stuff he didn't know what to make of. The sheer amount of everything made him glad he wasn't doing this alone. Mia's presence and expertise would save him from having to research what kind of stuff he needed to buy to start giving art the old college try.

She stopped in the middle of the aisle and crossed her arms, looking into his eyes with a sudden, serious expression. "Here we are. Before I can give you any recommendations, got a couple of questions for you."

"Shoot," Oliver didn't back away, preferring to meet her with honesty and determination.

"Any idea what kind of things you're interested in drawing?"

"Not really. I thought I'd try some basic tutorial stuff off the Internet first. You know, those 'draw along with me' kind of videos?"

"Good place to start," Mia conceded. "No real ideas beyond that, though?"

"Nope..." Oliver scratched his neck.

"Hm. You actually interested in drawing, or did you just say you were to extend our conversation last night?"

Now he really felt called out. Mia cut straight into him, even if her suspicions weren't the whole truth. "You're half right. I did latch onto it for the sake of conversation, but I wouldn't come here and put money down if I wasn't serious about wanting to try it."

Mia's expression eased, and her body language loosened as a small smile appeared. "Okay. Only reason I asked is to make sure you know I'm not gonna think any less of you if you give it a try and it doesn't click. Don't feel like you need to impress me."

"Whew. You really scared me, there. Thought you were gonna rail on me for my shallow motivations."

"Nah. Not like mine are any less shallow."

"Yeah? Why do you draw, then?"

Mia turned around and started pacing, her hands behind her back as they held her basket and her eyes scanning the thousands of pencils on display. "It's fun. Also, I'm pretty good at it."

"Really?" He laughed. "That's it?"

"Not everyone needs a grandiose reason to want to make stuff. It's not that deep." Mia paused. "Though... I guess self-exploration is a big part of it for me, too. Getting to develop sides of myself that I otherwise couldn't. Know what I mean?"

"No, can't say that I do. Mind clarifying?"

She sighed. "Not gonna tell you if you don't remember."

"Starting to feel like I'm missing a few beats here..." Oliver stepped closer to her, watching Mia as she looked at him with mild disappointment.

"More than a few, but it's no big deal," the disappointment faded as quickly as it appeared, replaced by genuine warmth. Whatever bothered Mia didn't detract from the fun she had hanging out with him. "Now, how about we get you sorted, hm?"

Mia entered full-on exposition mode before Oliver could object and dig deeper into what was wrong. She led him through the aisle, explaining the different types of pencils from 2H to 2B and everything in between, teaching him about the different kinds of paperweight and feel, and showing him her favorite products. Throughout the lengthy monologue, Mia slipped in little tips and tricks, like how he should only use an X-Acto knife for sharpening or how he should draw with his shoulder and not his wrist.

It was a ton of information to keep up with, but Oliver was doing his best. He didn't know what he would draw when he got all this stuff, but Mia's passion rubbed off on him, and he felt fired up just from hearing her talk. Ultimately, she talked him into a starter kit that included a couple of every pencil type, a knife for sharpening that came with some replacement blades, a package of kneaded erasers, an organized pouch to keep all these in, and a 9"x12" sized sketchbook of her favorite brand.

It was a lot of stuff, totaling $75. Pretty steep, but Oliver could excuse such an expense thanks to his Free Ride. That, and it was just plain worth the investment. Not only would learning how to draw get him closer to Mia, but it would also help Oliver begin training up his spark stat. Mia might've said that he didn't need to impress her, but it was obvious that she was excited to talk about art with him.

Now if only she would show him more of her work...

It was Mia's turn when they were done figuring out what Oliver was buying. It went much faster since she knew exactly what she was looking for. Mia had a hybrid workflow. Most of her serious art was done on a computer with a tablet, while she stuck to physical media for sketch studies and early drafts. This meant she was only after a few specific things but was bulking up on them. She filled up her basket with a bunch of sketchbooks and pencils in particular, as well as cartridges of lead for something she called a leadholder.

"Is that like a mechanical pencil or something?"

"For pretentious people, yeah. They're used in technical drawings. Think architecture or engineering. As for me, I use them to make exact details in my studies."

"I hope everything you're saying eventually makes sense to me someday."

"It will. Might need to increase your exposure to me if you want any of it to stick, though."

"Already planned on it," Oliver smiled, thinking he'd said something cute and only realizing he'd given Mia another chance to do her thing after it was already too late.

"That so?" She stepped closer into his personal bubble, hands behind her back and tilting her head at him. Sleepy, bright blue eyes staring straight into his. "Looking to up your daily dosage of me, Ollie?"

He was onto her game by now. Though not immune to her teasing, Oliver stood up to Mia, mildly surprising her by taking a step forward and refusing to back down. "Why not? Plenty of things I could learn from keeping you around."

Impressed, Mia walked around him, placing her left hand on his shoulder as she did. "Not much of a teacher, but I'll do my best. In the meantime, you've got a lot of practice ahead of you. Better get to it."

As she passed him, the basket Oliver was carrying suddenly felt heavier. He looked down and saw she stealthily deposited the eye-offending 'How to Draw Manga' book from earlier. A glance over his shoulder revealed Mia smirking at him just as she turned the corner and left the current aisle. With a humble laugh, Oliver discarded the worthless rubbish on a bookstand at the end of the row and hurried to catch up with the little trickster.