Silence and Sound

The five guys stare at her. E.O. is deaf? That does kind of explain why she tries to stay so hidden. It could be because it might be hard on her... No. There has to be something more to her. It can’t just be that she’s deaf. They did all had to sign a contract just to make sure they never told anyone! Plus, their management can’t even come. The five of them have to come by themselves in the clothes that were picked out and a list that says what management wants. There is the possibility that she just doesn’t like fame, but there has to be something more, right?
“So,” the curly haired brunet starts, “can she read lips?”
“That’s why Coral said to talk slower,” the short brunette says with an Irish accent as she makes her way to the middle of the room where couches and chairs sit on the wooden floor. Echo sets her supplies down and motions for Coral to do the same. “Do you lads have a list of what to paint or something?” The one wearing the plaid button-up shirt pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to the artist. She glances at it, nodding. “Coral, can you sign their names for me?”
The manager points to each of the members before signing their names. Echo repeats each of their names to make sure the pronunciation is correct and to help her learn them. It’s best that she learns them. She isn’t fond of just pointing to people. It makes her feel even more deaf with the addition of being mute.
“OK, now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get started!” Echo claps her hands together. “The first painting they want is just one of the standing all together. Apparently they want you to model. When you get sore, don’t complain. I don’t want to hear it!” The little joke makes everyone more comfortable and lightens the atmosphere which had been somewhat heavy from the beginning. “Everyone go and stand in the corner over there however you want. When you’re all good, I’m going to put tape on the floor and take a picture in case I don’t finish.”
“Why don’t you just take pictures of us and paint that?” Harry asks.
“Normally, I would do that. However, I can see more details in person since you’re obviously bigger than a photo. Besides, that’s what management wrote down. Oh, and the photo and tape will work for when we take a break.”
The lads shrug but do as she says. Echo is the artist, not them. Plus, that’s what’s written down. The five of them try to find the most comfortable position. It proves to be a little difficult because they know that they will be standing for some time and they don’t want the picture to look boring. The brunette grabs one of the canvases and a portable metal easel that she had custom made. With that setup along with the tape and picture done, she looks at the image in front of her and starts to create the outline. One of the best parts of her artistic talent is the speed in which she can create things. That works greatly in favor of the models.
Echo has the outline of Zayn done when she gets a little annoyed. Yes, she likes concentration, but that doesn’t mean that all they can do is stand there. The artist looks up at them. She can tell how uncomfortable that they are. She sighs.
“You guys can talk to each other,” she tells them. “It’s weird just watching you stand there.”
They go ahead and start talking but making sure that only their lips really moved. The artist looks at the next person to make the outline of. It’s Niall. Her brown eyes almost start to see him in the form of lines. She sees the lines and shapes that are needed to make his head, face, arms, and legs. Echo starts to draw these lines and shapes. One of the other things that make her such a great artist is that she is able to see what creates an image. It’s almost like some kind of superpower.
When she gets done with the blond, she’s actually kind of disappointed. It’s rather strange, but she actually enjoyed drawing him onto the canvas. He just has something about him that makes her hand want to complete what she started. Echo has never felt like this before besides the sunset that she draws and paints. The brunette has no idea what this means, but she does know that she should just ignore it. Something like this can’t mean something good.
It doesn’t take her long to finish the basic outlines of them. She takes her phone out of her purse next to her and looks at it. It seems like a good time for a break. She turns the screen back off and puts the device back where it was before setting her pencil down on the nearby table that Coral was kind enough to move.
“I think it’s about time for a break,” she tells them with a smile on her face.
“Finally!” Harry exclaims.
“Coral, I have a job for you. I want you to get these fine young lads and I some food. I’ll pay you when you drop me off at home.”
“You don’t have to buy anything for us,” Liam tries to tell her, but she just gives him a grin. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, I want you to tell my lovely friend what you want. I’m going to go ahead and get my paint out of my bag and put them on the table.”
They do as she says while she starts to unpack all of her painting supplies. She didn’t realize that she had brought so many. The bag is filled with colors that she’s probably not going to be using in this picture. Echo grabs the first five bottles that she sees out of the bag before checking to see if they are the colors that she needs. Only one of them is. She sighs and starts to dig some more.
The short brunette squeaks when she feels an unknown hand on her shoulder. She quickly turns around to come face-to-face with the blond, Niall. His eyes are a little wide. Echo can tell that he didn’t mean to scare her, so she pretends to wipe sweat off her forehead with phew.
“You scared me there,” she giggles.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he apologizes with slight blush. “I just wanted to know if you wanted any help. I already told Coral what I wanted.”
“Well, aren’t you a gentleman. You don’t see that everyday in this kind of world. I’ll gladly accept your help. Just let me get my paint swatch.”
It takes her a second because she forgot that she put it in the front pocket where the paintbrushes and palette are. When she remembers, she unzips that part of the bag and pulls it out. Echo grabs the pencil off the table and circles the colors that she’s going to be using for this particular picture. Once Echo is certain that she circled all of them, she hands the swatch over to Niall. She glances at the other guys and notices that they are still telling Coral what they want. It turns out that that didn’t take as long as she thought it would.
“I need the colors that I circled out of the bag,” she tells him. He nods in understanding before helping her find the colors that she desires. “I really need to learn to take only the bottles that I’m probably going to need. I mean, I can just make a bunch of these colors, but do I ever listen to myself? No, because I actually can’t.”
Echo makes sure to look at Niall just to see if he’s going to say anything. He is just like she thought he would. “Right when Coral told us you were deaf, I never even thought that you would say a ton of deaf jokes.”
“Well, I’m not exactly the most humorous person. I don’t really know what people think is funny or not, so when I first meet someone, I just say some deaf jokes. They can’t hate or be offended about those. I’m deaf and the one saying them so... yeah.”
“How come you can talk so well? You seem to be having no trouble speaking clearly, and you’re pretty good at lip reading.”
“That’s because I didn’t lose my hearing until I was twelve. I make sure to talk a lot even just to myself to keep it all in my mind. I’m good at lip reading because I’ve always been very observant, so watching lips move just the right way isn’t that hard for me. Not to mention, I’m pretty intellectual if I do say so.”
“That makes sense. How did you lose your hearing?”
Echo looks away. It’s not that she doesn’t trust him. OK, it’s because she doesn’t trust him. Actually, she doesn’t really trust anyone. That’s why she’s never told anyone her story. She does her best to keep it hidden and only letting it out through art. Now that she thinks about it, that could be one of the reasons why she’s always recreating that scene. She looks back at the blond and finds that he is going through the bottles again. They are already half done. She bites her lip and plays with her locket a bit. He seems like a nice guy, and although she doesn’t like getting close to people, the nice side of her decides to go ahead and explain a little bit of why she doesn’t want anyone to know.
“I don’t really like thinking about it,” Echo finally says. “It was a terrible day in my life, and I try my best to forget it. Of course, it never goes away, but I still don’t want it leaving my lips. Coral doesn’t even know the story, so you can’t ask her if you were going to. You seem like a nice guy, and I figured that I’d at least tell you that.”
“Thanks. You could have just ignored me, but you at least explained that to me. You’re pretty nice as well.” He looks away and goes back to the sorting. Echo does as well.
Glances are stolen by Echo every once in awhile. She doesn’t know what it is about him that makes her keep wanting to paint him. The only thing that she can think of is that he is rather adorable. It is unusual for her to think that that about someone, but she has on a few occasions. Although, she still never got that feeling with any of those other guys and other cute things like puppies and kittens. Echo finally stops glancing over at him. It probably only has to do with the fact that his dyed hair is like the sun and his eyes are like the ocean. Yes, that has to be it. It’s not because she fancies him. It must be because he reminds her of the picture that she is cursed to create over and over again. Painting him would be the same as painting everything that happened again. If he had some orange in his hair it would be exactly the same as painting the sunset. Yes, she just wants to paint him for that reason and nothing more.

Notes

Sorry this is late. I got writer's block right in the middle of it. I kept thinking of having them all talk to each other, but I had no idea what they could all talk about. I came up with this instead. I like it better than what it was going to be. Of course, that will be in chapter three though. Also, the whole thing with the lines and shapes is something that happens to me a lot when I'm drawing or thinking of drawing. That's why I made Echo like that.
Hope you like it so far!