Pardon the Paint (713 views)

Chad didn’t want to drive today, so instead he hitched a ride from one of his friends who had a much cheaper car than he did. Sure, he said he hitched a ride with the guy but in reality Chad offered him plenty of cash to just drop him off and forget about it. He was sure he could get another ride later from somebody on his contacts list—everyone who had a spot there tended to do anything he asked if he dangled enough cash under their nose. Chad was currently dancing to the radio that his buddy had blasting out of his speakers, causing their car to be rather noticeable driving through the neighborhoods of Salem.

Chad felt a vibration at that moment and looked at his phone. Oh! Right, hadn’t he told Lils that he was going to text her before he left? He completely forgot!

Not too phased, Chad unlocked his phone and typed a reply for her.

ohhhhhhhh im on my way!! Can u hear us yet? o wo he sent the text just as his buddy rounded the corner and the loud sound of the bass echoed on the street. He buddy asked who he was texting, and Chad leaned over to show him the picture Lils had just sent him. The guy seemed startled, and hesitated when making the turn up towards Hawver.

”She… looks terrifying.” His friend said, not pegging Lils as someone Chad would normally be seen hanging around with, ”You sure about this, Chad?”

”Oh yeah! I talked to her last night, she was cool. We talked about condoms and then suddenly art came up!” Chad said, and though the guy didn’t look convinced, he knew Chad so he just shrugged it off and scanned the streets for Lils.

Chad was the first to spot her, running a stick through the fence links. Chad shouted over the bass, ”There! Stop, Kyle!”

Kyle stopped his car, and Chad threw a few 50s on the dash for his buddy. Kyle quickly leaned over and counted the bills, and Chad gave him a wink.

”Thanks for the ride!” He grabbed his bags from the back before he shut the door and Kylie pulled away. Perhaps Chad shouldn’t have abandoned himself in some random street in Salem with no ride… but like he said earlier, he was sure he’d secure a ride from another friend later. Chad turned around to face Lils, wearing a plain black tee shirt and a pair of faded, paint-stained jeans. Obviously if he was going to be painting at all, he refused to wear nice clothes. He didn’t like to wear this outfit in public, but ehh. When you had to work, you had to work, right?

”Lils! There you are! You shoulda seen Kyle’s face when he saw your picture! He looked like he was gonna piss himself!” He said, no tact whatsoever or concern that this might offend Lils.

”Well it sure looks like you got one of them down!” Chad said, grinning over at Lils, his smile white toothed and bright. When she called Kyle a wimp, Chad nodded his agreement. Yeah he was friends with Kyle but that didn’t mean Lils wasn’t right—the kid could barely lift a box of soda, let alone fight anyone! He was a total coward.

”He kind of is a wimp, if I’m being real. And I was kind of the one who asked him to blast the stereo!” Chad said though his friend always did that anyway. Well, he just picked the song and Kyle crankled up the volume, but whatever.

Chad walked down the streets with Lils, briefly remembering the time in his life that he designed images on the walls of buildings in his mother’s beat down neighborhood scheduled for demolition. It wasn’t very different in appearance, actually. Chad furrowed his brows at the buildings, wondering why it seemed so small and run down. He supposed it must just be that not every part of Salem was nice and clean… but he’d never been out here before.

”Aw, what, no cool hair contests?! You’d win them, hands down! Can you even fit a crown on your head?” Chad joked back, though his eyes did take in the shack before them. He looked a little too worn out for his pants. Chad shook his head and continued to walk, glancing at the buildings around before he found a smaller white one, a bit wider and taller, that looked a little cleaner. Chad wasn’t sure if it was populated or not. ”I like this one!! We’re painting this one!”

”Sparky? That’s a new one!” Chad said, though as she talked about not wearing a crown and instead wearing a belt or something, he laughed. That was a pretty fair point! If there was a cool hair competition, what would be the point in wearing a hat of sorts? He could definitely see Lils walking around with a huge belt buckle that said COOLEST HAIR IN SALEM on it in all caps. He laughed again at the mental image that Lils rocked too well, before they finally reached the building he was hoping for.

Chad shot another grin over at Lils as she spoke but this time the grin wasn’t charming. It was cocky, childish, and challenging, because now he wasn’t trying to be suave and instead was focused on the idea of creating something beautiful—though admittedly he shouldn’t be doing this on such a random house. Chad liked his work to be known, not hidden and erased and kept secret. But for this time… he’d make an exception.

”Nah, no daises. I was thinking a skyline.” He said, the mental image he had in his head practically engraved on the white wall of the house already. He was imagining a blackened city with some holes in the paint to be the lights, per say, and he was going to include some scenery around the city, as though the viewer of the art was standing on a hill, looking down into a vast city below, surrounded by bush and trees. He hadn’t had an ideas at all while walking down, but that idea just popped into his head as he stared at the canvas. There was nothing more inspiring than a blank canvas to Chad.

He pulled on his bags, taking out some of the paint. He was feeling a little lazy today—why bother outlining anything? He already had a perfect image inside of his mind! He didn’t know if Lils had her own ideas for painting or if she was here to just observe him in his natural habitat—he wouldn’t mind either—and he grinned over at her. ”Are you joining me in delinquency or are you just here to watch me work?”

”A body guard! Well, no offense, but I wouldn’t come within a foot of here if I saw you looking all menacing! So I think you just glaring at passerby should be plenty guard enough!” He joked, though he didn’t look over at her to gauge her reaction. Instead he shook his can of paint and kept his back to Lils. ”Feel free to stare at my back if you want though—it’s a pretty sexy back!”

Chad then started to work on the skyline of the city first. He was using the black and at first it definitely didn’t look like he was putting forth any effort to make something beautiful—it looked like he was just having a blast spraying random parts of the wall. But the image he saw in his head was basically already laid out… he just needed to fill it in.

As he continued to paint, the black sports slowly started to look more concise, like they had more purpose. The random spots father away from the main portion of the black where the outlines of cities were starting to take shape now started to look more like buildings in the distance—only they were farther away. The image Chad was going for was three dimensional, and he was going to make it come out that way. The holes in the paint that he left now looked more like windows than random holes in the design. As he went over the black with a second layer he left the paint around the holes he left for windows lighter, more faded, so that it looked like light was pouring out through them.

Chad grinned as he started digging through his bag again for another color and turned towards Lils. His pants were pretty stained up from his maneuvering while painting.

”Doesn’t this stuff smell delicious?” He joked, now taking a shade of brown and bending down, to paint a wide semi-circle at the bottom of the wall, to be the remainder of the hill, leaving some spots on the edges and center that he was going to fill in green later. He started to hum as he painted, completely in his own world.

Chad was completely lost in his own world, spraying the wall of the building he was at. He registered Lils comments and replied accordingly, with a laugh or a short little one word response but nothing was really sticking enough to form a conversation out of. Lils was watching him paint, and Chad was doing just that—painting.

By now, he had most of his work done. It had only take him a half an hour, but now he was on the green, spritzing a second coat over the bushes and grass spots on the 3D ground he’d finished. Chad wasn’t entirely done, but he threw his paints into the bag he’d brought and placed his hands on his hips, stepping back to admire his work before he went through with touchups and final coatings.

The wind blew across his face, wafting the scent of the paints into his nose. His black shirt was damp with spray and his jeans were now covered in green, brown, and black but he didn’t care. These were cheap clothes, anyway. What he did care about was that now he was looking at his work and it was like he was looking down into a city. He wished desperately he could create a foggy night sky above his work but he wasn’t tall enough to reach as high as he wanted without having to stretch his arms, and he certainly didn’t want to ruin what he’d already accomplished. A pleasant chill went across his body as he stared at the scenery that he created—at his art. He smiled as he took it all in. God. He could stare for hours.

He forgot that euphoric, adrenaline pumping rush he got back when he was a preteen and did this prior to getting discovered. He hadn’t even spray painted anything in Salem before… maybe he should start doing it more regularly.

…though any thoughts of that faded when he heard Lils say they weren’t alone. Chad blinked, caught off guard as he turned around to face one of the most terrifying sights he’d ever seen in his life. A wide assortment of people stood behind them, most of them men with beefier frames than himself and Lils combined. He swallowed nervously. Chad was not a fighter.

”H—hey…” he said, before he turned to Lils, his expression a mix of worried and angry, a combination of two rare expressions to ever cross Chad’s face in the first place. ”I thought you were watching for this stuff!”

One of the men took a step forward once they were noticed.

”You kids got a lot of nerve… doing that to Mikey’s house.” The man said. Chad slowly nodded, as though agreeing with the guy, but he didn’t know who Mikey was.

”We just—“ Chad couldn’t even finish his sentence before the man who had spoken ran towards him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Chad let out a ‘meep’ noise, as the guy turned towards Lils with a sneer on his face.

”If you grew up around here, why are you watching this kid defecate our neighborhood?” He asked Lils.

Perhaps Chad should have thought before he agreed to come out here with Lils.



(( OOC//: also if you want, you can have Lils try to bribe them with money in your next post! I didn’t want to make this post too long, and you’re not online right now, so I figured I’d just mention this here rather than cbox. Or you can have Lils do whatever if you have other plans! It'd be pretty funny too if the house owner showed up and liked what they did to his house, also. xDD I was thinking that might happen to save Chad's face from getting punched, probably, and so the two of them can seize the distraction to run ))

As Lils tried to explain to the man that the spray paint on Mikey’s house was not rude or obscene the guy holding Chad did not seem appeased. The man glared daggers into Chad’s eyes and he felt terrified, his body shaking in a very uncool manner as the guy threatened him. Chad talked big more often than not, but he really wasn’t very strong or much of a fighter at all. He was an artist and a player and could not fight to save his life.

And… the man didn’t seem too appeased by Lils logic (though Chad thought it made perfect sense). After all, who would be offended by such a beautiful scene? Chad did not spray paint obnoxious things and in fact he hated people who did. He took his art seriously – even though he was kind of a ridiculous person in general – and thus graffiti never settled well with him. Though thankfully the man released Chad in order to go find Mikey and Chad breathed only slightly easier, turning to look at Lils.

”I… thought you said this area wasn’t heavily inhabited…” He asked, eyes scanning the crowd. When Lils offered to cover for expenses Chad felt a twinge of irritation. His art did not need to be covered over! It should be admired, by all! He didn’t even get to snap a picture of it with his phone… Though he was beginning to now see the consequences of defending his work to these angry people would probably not get him out of this unscathed.

No! Nothing could happen to his face!

”Yeah! I mean, if he really hates it I don’t mind paying for his… time!” Chad said, nervously, just as the confused Mikey approached the building. Chad’s eyes widened in fear as Mikey eyed up the mural, and he took a few steps back towards Lils, coming to a stop beside her. They should probably start running for it soon… by the looks of it, Mikey was not impressed.

Though what Chad didn’t know was that Mikey’s confused expression wasn’t only one of anger. Sure, he was kind of annoyed some kids had vandalized the older wall of his house, but it actually looked… pretty decent. And it wasn’t like he particularly cared about decorating his house, the yard surrounding it was very bland. But the mural looked pretty… decent.

”You kids artists or somethin’?” Mikey asked, looking over at Lils and Chad. Chad glanced back over at Lils, as that beefy guy who grabbed Chad’s shirt collar a few minutes ago cracked his knuckles behind Mikey. Mikey glanced back at the mural again, before he turned back towards Lils and Chad. "'Cos this thing actually don't look that bad."

It was a very agonizing wait for Mikey to say much of anything as he appraised Chad’s artwork. Chad was trembling with fear as Lils mouthed an apology to him and his life flashed before his eyes. He couldn’t die here. He hadn’t done anything on his bucket list! He wanted to go to Europe like his father took him over the summers, he wanted to create art in France and Italy and Germany and England and everywhere. His art career couldn’t be over here, his life couldn’t end here.

This was a very different situation than when he’d had a gun pressed in his mouth, but he still felt the same sense of fear and dread as Mikey appraised the damages to his house. Chad was ready to just throw his entire wallet at Mikey and tell him to live the rest of his life shrouded in luxury as the formidable men surrounding Chad and Lils growled.

Then finally, Mikey spoke. He said he liked the artwork and had a smile on his face. When he dismissed the guys surrounding them Chad felt himself go weak in the knees. He was barely registering anything Mikey said except don’t actually look that bad and I’ll take it from here, alright. As Mikey started to walk away flanked by the rest of the sketchy neighborhood Chad probably would have collapsed had Lils not wrapped her arms around him in a hug – a hug that Chad returned with an extra squeeze and a yelp of half-joy, half-fear. He lifted her just slightly before he pulled back as she did, the scared expression gone from his face and instead replaced with one of absolute triumph.

”Neither! It’s my talent! That guy loved it!” Chad said brightly, gesturing to his art. He presented it to Lils as though she hadn’t been watching him create it, as though he was showing her a brand new creation. Which he felt like he was – now that Mikey had expressed approval for it existing on his house, Chad felt like it was a new piece that could now be shown off, rather than hidden behind shadows.

Chad stepped away from Lils and approached the mural, and at her suggestion to give him a tribute he thought that sounded pretty good! However, how to do it was the question. Chad glanced down at the bag of spray-paint, looking at the colors he’d brought. He then looked at the mural and cracked a lopsided grin as he grabbed a white and a red.

Then, on the hilly ground of the 3D mural, Chad included what looked like a stretched piece of cotton fabric clinging to one of the bushes branches. It made it look like the viewer’s robe had been caught on the bush and was being tugged on – and the robe was colored to look like Mikey’s robe might look like at night. With this detail added, it was implied that the viewer of the art was meant to be Mikey.

”How’s that for a tribute!” Chad said, proud of himself as he went over the finer details of the robe with a small brush he was using to spread out the dampened liquid before it dried. It was an unusual technique, but was useful for finer details that couldn’t be added appropriately with a sprayer. The end result was a more realistic look.

Chad then grabbed the red and signed what looked like a very messy variation of his name on the white wall to the left of the mural. He then pulled out his phone, but realized his hands were gross. Instead he offered it to Lils.

”Could you take a picture? My hands are messy. Oh! You can sign it too, when you’re done!” Chad said, figuring since Lils was here she was as involved as he was with his art. Chad grinned as he looked at the piece just as Mikey approached, this time with pants on though still in his robe. Chad wondered if someone would mind taking his, Lils, and this Mikey guy’s picture in front of the mural, too! Chad wanted to commemorate this moment forever!

When he was clapped on the back Chad grinned up at Mikey, glad that the guy appreciated his work. Hell, he was glad that the guy seemed super ecstatic about it! As self-centered as Chad was, it still made him happy to see someone else admiring his work, to see that his work made someone else happy. It was truly a humbling experience, even if Chad wasn’t very humble at all.

He watched as Lils signed her name and grinned, then when Mikey’s wife (or girlfriend?) pulled up to the driveway and got out, ecstatic to see the mural. And then the couple began to make-out. It was kind of awkward to watch so Chad just awkwardly wiped his painty hands on his jeans, taking his phone and unlocking it once he realized his hands weren’t soaking anymore. He had a few texts but it was nothing important so he ignored them and instead opened the camera app again. At Lils’ suggestion of high tailing it, he pouted. Sure, it was a good idea… but he wanted a picture!

So he got an idea. Snickering, he pulled Lils closer to him and held out his phone in a selfie-style pose, making sure to get his work of art and the couple making out behind them in the shot. He took a few picks before he snickered again. Both Mikey and his significant other were enthralled with one another and hadn’t noticed.

”I think we should get out of here… before those angry guys come back and decide Mikey’s approval wasn’t enough to get us off the hook! Lead the way, while they’re sucking face!”

Their escape was swift and went generally unnoticed by Mikey and his random girlfriend, who were too involved with one another to even realize or give the artist who had beautified their house another glance. Chad grinned when they were in the clear and exhaled.

Wow! He felt like he’d just escaped death narrowly! He glanced at Lils car, which wasn’t nearly as nice as his car but that wasn’t here at the moment! He didn’t want to get paint on his pretty seating. However he had no qualms about damaging Lils vehicle since she’d just invited him to sit in it anyway.

”Celebrating? I’m definitely in! You’re already reading me better than half my buddies are.” Chad gave her a white toothed grin as he opened the door and sat down in the passenger seat, closing the door afterwards. He didn’t bother to buckle – he wouldn’t unless Lils specifically called him out on it – and instead tilted down the visor, opening the mirror, looking at his face. He smiled at himself in the mirror, checking his face out from different angles. He had a little paint, here and there, but was otherwise fine. He then turned towards Lils, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. ”Though… is a victory drink all you wanna do, Lils, or are you thinking about taking a page from Mikey’s book?”

Chad grinned as Lils grabbed his chin and moved his face around, checking him out. He made a few kissy faces over at her as she seemed to consider his offer to make like Mikey and his girlfriend before she rejected it. Chad laughed and made himself comfortable in his seat, fake-pouting at himself in the mirror as though the rejection had really hurt.

”Aww. Did you find an imperfection somewhere?” Chad joked, looking at his face again from all the angles Lils had looked at. He continued to look at his face as they headed downt he road and towards the liquor store. He was glad he had his fake ID on him, though he didn’t know if Lils was older than 21 and would be able to buy everything herself. Hey! He didn’t even know how old she was!

”So Lils! How old are you anyway?” He asked.

Chad was pretty surprised to hear it was a lack of imperfections that turned Lils off to the idea of them hooking up – though even if it meant he was rejected, Chad still considered it a plus because Lils had just said he was practically perfect! He continued to grin even as Lils answered his question, though he was surprised when Lils mentioned she was 24! And then when she called him out on not being old enough to enter the store.

He puffed out his cheeks.

”I can get in! I have a fake ID.” Chad assured, though that probably didn’t make Lils feel any better. It was kind of odd though – he didn’t think Lils was that much older than him! Shit. They had a five year age gap? How exciting! ”I’m 19. Almost 20, though!”

That was a big fat lie, but who cared. ”I still drink, though, so i'm no lightweight!”

”You’re not going to try to take it from me, are you? And I’m not a kid!” Chad warily eyed Lils, though he relented and pulled his fake ID out of his jean pockets. He handed it to Lils. Chad had obviously gotten his money’s worth when he bought the thing – it was very convincingly made, well, it had to have been since this was how he got into clubs and liquor stores!

He rose his eyebrows at her offer. He snorted.

”Whaaaat? Make you pay? Nah I’ll pay! I’m the one who’s loaded, remember Lils?” Chad pointed out, not ashamed to flaunt his money like that. He hummed as he waited for Lils to appraise his fake ID, bouncing eagerly in his seat.

Chad puffed out his cheeks, making himself look even more childish than Lils was making him out to be. Even if Lils threw out his fake ID or kidnapped it or something Chad knew he could replace it by throwing money at someone – so he wasn’t really that concerned. He did dislike being called a child, though.

”I’m an adult!” Chad protested in a whiny voice, watching as Lils examined his ID. When he got it back, Chad cheered and slipped out of her car as well, bowing gracefully towards Lils when she referred to him as a gentleman. He followed her inside the store, glancing at the beers and liquors up for sale. He wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted, he figured he’d just look around and pick whatever seemed the best. He grabbed a bottle of vodka and grinned over at Lils, sloshing the bottle beside his head. ”I think I’ll be getting this!”

Chad said a brief word of thanks before they went up to the grumpy looking cashier, and placed his bottle on the counter. When IDs were asked for, Chad offered his fake one before opening his wallet, stacks of bills lounging comfortably in the space there. It was incredibly stupid and vain to show off how much money he had by making sure everyone in the vicinity could see, but that was just how Chad rolled.

Chad handed the man behind the counter a fifty and received change for it, about to stuff the bills into his wallet again. He glanced over at Lils, and then grinned, offering her the change as he put the clasped wallet back into the pocket of his jeans.

”Here! Think of it as me re-paying you for causing trouble today.” He said, though he really didn’t have to give her any money. He let himself into the passenger side of the car as he clasped his bottle of vodka in his hands. ”Where? Uh… I think my suitemates would kill me if I tried to take you to my dorm – oh! But maybe we could go to the park or something. Unless you have a better idea!”