“Um.” Echo doesn’t know why, but she feels her cheeks get warmer. Well, that’s not a side effect of the pain killers. She isn’t sure why, but she would put her money on the embarrassment that she feels and will feel when he takes her out. She has no idea how he views this whole thing, and she has never done anything like this before. It’s not like she even goes out much. She’s too much into her work to do anything “fun” outside of the house. Of course, would this even be considered fun?
“Just name a place, and I’ll take you,” the blond smiles widely.
“Um, I really don’t care. I don’t go out much so-”
“You don’t go out much? Well, then I’m going to just bit some place that everyone agrees is the best!”
“Niall,” Liam says, “I don’t think she wants to go to Nando’s.”
“You don’t think so? Well, I guess that I can find some other place. You guys can help me while she paints us!”
“Well, alright, but you’re doing most of the thinking.”
“That’s fine with me.” Niall turns back to Echo. “We’ll figure it out while you’re painting us.”
“Alright.”
“Can you maybe tell us something that could help?”
Echo knows one, but she decides to not tell them. “No.”
“Well, it’s not much to work on, but we’ll figure it out.”
The blond goes over to the others, and the deaf girl starts to get everything ready. It doesn’t take her that long, and eventually she starts the next picture. It’s another group picture, and she knows that singles should be coming up soon. I mean, she should be switching it up and giving breaks to everyone. Of course that does makes things worse for her when it comes to a certain single of a certain blond. He knows that he can’t talk to her, but she’s not sure how she’ll be while just focusing on him the entire time. Plus, she had been thinking about painting singles in a separate room, so everyone free can just do whatever without distracting her or the model. Her being in a room with just the Irish boy... How is she going to stand that?
Of course, how is she even going to stand going out with him? She has no idea what is in store, and she’s never done anything like this. What if she snaps? What if her true self is revealed? Hell, what would everyone think when everyone sees her hanging out with him? He’s famous, and no one knows who she is. She wants it to stay that way. Will this threaten that? It might not since no one knows that she has been hired to paint them, but there is still that small chance. Hopefully that doesn’t happen. It’s only one time, and they can just lie and say that they’re friends if they’re asked. It’ll be lying, but it’s better than nothing. Yes, hopefully this doesn’t end badly. If it does, it’s on his shoulders, and she’ll never forgive him.
~
Once the day is done, Echo puts everything away and waits for the blond to tell her what they will be doing. She starts putting the paint away, and finds that same guy to be helping her. She doesn’t tell him not to. She actually wants to get this over with. It doesn’t take them that long to pack everything up. When it is all packed, Niall approaches her. Here it goes.
“I’ve got a place planned out,” he says with a smile on his face.
“Alright. Where are we going?”
“I’m not saying. It’s a surprise.”
“Well, can you at least tell me when we’re going?”
“We’re going tomorrow since it’s a free day.”
Echo had completely forgotten that that was the free day for this week. Well, it looks like she won’t have some time away from them like she wishes that she had. Oh well. It’s not like she can tell them that. She’s trying to act nice and friendly. They would probably question it, and she might let the real reason slip.
“Is that OK?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Great. Em, how are we meeting up...?”
Coral steps into the picture. “I can drop her off. I know where it’s at.”
“That works. Well, I’ll see you there tomorrow. Bye!”
The boys leave the two girls. One of them has a big smirk on her face, and the other one is trying very hard to hold in her disgust. Coral turns towards her friend. Echo now sees how giddy she is. Why is she so happy about this? The deaf girl has no idea why her friend would be so excited about Niall taking her out somewhere. Did she know something that Echo didn’t? Was she just happy because she was completely insane?
If you ask Echo, she would say both.
“This is going to be so great! I was hoping that he would get those stains out!”
“Why?”
“You’re so silly. Now, I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?”
“It’s in the car. I’ll show you when I take you home.”
“Why can’t you show me when we get down to your car?”
“You’re so impatient. You can wait.”
“Fine.”
Echo does wait. She waits the entire ride home. She waits while Coral takes the bag out of the trunk. She waits while they climb up the stairs and into her flat. She waits, and Echo isn’t that fond of waiting.
“Are you going to show me now?” the brunette asks.
Coral takes out three things from the bag. The first is a sleeveless sky blue dress with a bow. The second is a grey cardigan. The last thing is a pair of white sandals. Echo has no idea why her friend got these items for her. Then it clicks. Coral got this outfit for her to wear tomorrow.
“Why did you get me this?”
“It’s for you to wear tomorrow.”
“I figured that, but why did you get it?”
“I wanted you to look nice on your date. Now, I think that this will look nice if you put on some blue eyeshadow and a little bit of mascara-”
“What date?”
“The one with you and Niall.”
“That’s not a date.”
“Well, it looks like one.”
“Well, it’s not. I never said that it was a date.”
“Well, it comes off as one. I’m treating it like a date, and he might be treating it like a date.”
“Why would he do that?”
Coral sighs. “I figured that you’ve read enough manga or something to catch it. He so likes you.”
“How do you know?”
“Trust me. I know, and you like him too.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Whatever you say.”
“He’s a client. That’s it.”
“Sure...”
“Sometimes I’m pretty sure that I’m not the deaf one! I don’t like him!”
Coral is taken back, but she has seen her friend like this before. Knowing that it would be best if she backed off, she drops the subject. Instead, she asks if Echo has been working on anything at home. The brunette says yes, but she doesn’t say what it is. That makes Coral believe that either Echo is drawing Niall and wants to deny that there is something or she is still creating that image again. It’s probably the second, and Coral has no idea why.
Coral doesn’t question anything else, and it barely takes any time for her to leave. Once she is gone, Echo goes right into creating that image again. She pulls out her sketchbook, pencils, and color pencils. The image starts to come to life just like it always does when she can’t help herself. It overtakes her, and she can’t stop it. Her hand moves fast as the stress of everything just adds to the memories that come from the picture. The tears come shortly after she gets the outline done. She’s not even sure why she even does an outline anymore. She knows exactly where each color goes. The image and hand strokes are imprinted in her mind. It’s truly become a force of habit that she cannot break to save her life. That last thought brings more tears which drop onto the paper. It’s ruined, but that doesn’t stop her from finishing it. Faster. Faster. Her hand flies as fast as the memories come into her head.
Once it’s done, she looks at it before tossing it across the room. She doesn’t bother to pick it up either. She simply gets up and goes into her room. In an attempt to make the current ones stop, she goes to sleep, but that does little help because more memories make their way into her mind.

Young brown eyes open to find that she is not where she should be. She should be with everyone, but she is alone. She looks up. Wait. She is not alone. Everything is a bit blurry, and her head is pounding. It looks like there is another figure with the first one and it’s yelling. Echo can’t hear it though. She must be too out of it to do so. The figures get closer to her. The water gets closer to her. It starts to sweep her up. That blue ocean is taking her and sucking her into it. She doesn’t know why, but this ocean is different than the other one. This one is hope. She watches as it gets closer to her.
“Help.”

Notes

This has been way too long.
Sorry about that. I took week off to get some much needed sleep, and then everything went downhill from there. This week, I keep getting taken away from my writing and computer. It's not like I can just say no. (I have a hard time with that.) I started this one on Friday and was going to finish it on Saturday, but I ended up not having my stuff because I was dragged over and ended up having to stay the night.
I know it's really my fault, but the world is not helping me at all.
Sorry about.

Anyway, it looks like I added a little bit more about Echo's past, and I really wonder what this "date" is going to be like.
I hope you liked it! I have to work on some of my other stories now!