LIFE AFTER DEATH.

PAINT PLOT.

After having my bath, I found myself inside the kitchen making dinner. After observing what I called a ‘read all’, I did my homework and was fatigued and famished. I whipped out some noodles and sardines, being the only other fish I ate apart from stockfish, and wanted to incorporate them inside my meal.

Not going to lie, the house had everything, even down to soft drinks and snacks. My aunt was living life. I thought about my sister Frieda. She would kill to be in this house. As I served my food on a plate, I thought about my aunt’s conversation with Scott.

It was clear that they conversed about a girl named Lainie, and by the look of it, I figured, maybe she was ill. I was a highly inquisitive person, now I wanted to know more about Lainie and why my aunt knew her as being Scott’s friend. Oh yeah, Tess, that settled the second verse of my curiosity. I wouldn’t ask Scott about Lainie, then he would know that I was eavesdropping. But I could ask Curly.

I grabbed a coke and journeyed to my room when I saw Tess walk down the stairs and headed for the door. We don’t talk, me and her, but she got me worried at that particular moment. It was 9:30 pm, she was dressed in pink pyjamas and black puffy slippers and holding a big black torch. Where the hell was she going this late? I wanted to inquire, but when our eyes met, she just looked away and shut the door.

I had already begun eating my noodles before I entered my room, only to see curly inside, just the person I wanted to see. I paused at the doorstep for a while before proceeding and shutting the door.

‘’I’m not sharing with you,’’ I replied as I sat on my bed.

‘’that’s selfish.’’

‘’how dare you?’’ I casually said and turned to him.

‘’how are you?’’ he did his usual performance, bounced on my bed.

‘’you here for your girlfriend?’’ I thought of keeping the fact that Tess had just stepped out to myself.

‘’ I would have used the door,’’

‘’no, you wouldn’t’’ I slurped my noodles,. They tasted delicious.

‘’yeah, you’re right.’’ Both his hands relocated under his head.

‘’so, Scott and Jojo had a private… a private entanglement.’’ I glanced at Curly and his look had tightened, he also turned to me. ‘’it was nothing public and the school didn’t know, just close friends.’’

‘’he told you?’’

‘’I know that you guys were friends when you played football, and I know you don’t anymore.’’

He sat up, ‘’why?’’

‘’because of the fight you too got into, he was your friend.’’

Curly folded his hands and pitched me an intense look that later softened, ‘’well, now you know. The questions will stop now, thankfully.’’

I dropped my plate by my side, on the bed and opened my coke. After drinking it, I said, ‘’Gustavo, I need to learn how to skate.’’

I saw his hand glide over to my plate and picked up my fork. I relayed to him a slap with the intention of touching his wrist, but he was too fast. The food was already inside his mouth.

He laughed and swallowed, ‘’deliciaso,’’

‘’Gustavo__

‘’you wanna skate? You’re in luck, I’m the best there is.’’

I’ve heard that statement recently, ‘’how soon do we start?’’

‘’woah, slow down afro,’’ he launched at me and swerved by me, reaching the coke that was by my side. I let him have it. If I had protested, the proximity would have been awfully close.

‘’can we start tomorrow after school?’’

‘’sure, we can use the old fireman dump, it's close to school.’’

‘’a dump?’’

‘’don’t worry,’’ He dived back into my bed, ‘’it’s a nice place, I’ll get you a board.’’

‘’can I skate before Friday?’’

He huffed loudly, ‘’what the… relax, why do you want to skate so badly?’’

If he knew that Scott had invited me, that lightness would completely disappear from his face, ‘’well_

‘’wait a sec,’’ he flung back up again, ‘’Friday? The retro? How did you hear about that?’’

‘’I… I saw it online.’’

‘’now I see, who you going with?’’

I was stuck. What was I going to say now? As if the universe was on my side, my phone dinged on. I saw Melanie send another message. That was when I remembered the one she earlier sent. I hadn’t been online.

‘’Melanie,’’ I immediately said.

‘’oh, she skates?’’

‘’I suppose, who you going with?’’ Meanwhile, I hoped he didn’t say with me, although I knew he would.

‘’I’ll meet you there.’’

‘’really?’’

‘’yeah,’’ he laid back again.

I opened Melanie’s inbox and saw the picture of what she sent. It was a picture of a book she tagged as a new crime novel, ’The billionaire’s playhouse’ by Trisha Pabor. The second message was a reminder to check the first one. She had gone offline, but the message I had for her was dropped either way.

The halls were cold the following day, but they were also filled. I prepared for the weather by wearing a knitted red scarf around my neck, matching with my red pants and a black turtle-neck, long-sleeve shirt. My full hair, which was virgin, was brushed up and tied tightly with a bun.

I saw Suresh walk out of the past with Tyler the art kid, but when he saw me, he stopped, but Tyler proceeded. I didn’t know why the air around me and him was somehow awkward. We hadn’t had a conversation since the party incident, all we did was observe brief stale glances.

‘’morning friend,’’ Suresh greeted.

‘’morning,’’ I closed my locker.

‘’we have math.’’

‘’I hate math.’’ We began heading the same direction as Tyler, ‘’I see you’re getting friendly with your opponent.’’

‘’the art of war… I forgot who stated that,’’

‘’Nicolò Machiavelli.’’

‘’hmm,’’ he hummed impressively, ‘’Yeap. He said, keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.’’

‘’I don’t think he said that,’’

‘’I need to know what he has drawn; he’s hiding something.’’

‘’Suresh,’’ giggled and playfully shook his forearm, ‘’you’re also hiding something, you just want to see his painting to know where you stand.’’

‘’fine, I’m threatened.’’

‘’he’s not dumb, he’s not gonna show you.’’

‘’you don’t understand, I need to see those paintings, I can’t let him win again.’’ His tone declined, ‘’I’ve worked too hard on the push, if he’s gonna win with his familiarities, I might as well quit art.’’ With that said, Suresh advanced into the class.

I sat at the back of the class again, Suresh in front of me and Curly by my side. Tess sat in front of Curly and occasionally launched stiff gazes at us. The math teacher, Mr Bowen, was running late. My eyes met with Scott as he and the twins walked inside the class. I subconsciously sat up; Curly glanced at me. Scott’s seat was far from me. That was a bummer. As I tried gaining eye contact with Scott, Melanie approached me.

‘’hey,’’ she jumped at me and forced a place for herself in my seat.

‘’hey,’’ I was a tad displaced.

‘’I saw your message, you going to retro?’’

‘’yeah, I need you to come pick me up.’’ I needed to rephrase, ‘’I need us to go together.’’

‘’I don’t skate, and why do you want me?’’

‘’I need company, Mel, don’t leave me hanging.’’ I was desperate.

‘’can you skate?’’

‘’well… um, I will… soon.’’ I looked over at Curly, who threw me a dense look, ‘’if you go with me, I owe you one, anywhere and anytime, I swear.’’

Melanie smiled, ‘’deal.’’

Mr Bowen hurriedly walked into the class, sending Melanie back to her seat.

I heaved a sigh of relief and found Suresh in a state of dilemma, he was seriously and sternly staring at his drawing book, with his hand on his chin. I remembered his initial plight; the weight of the competition was weighing on his shoulders and that was no strange quarter for me.

It gave me a notorious idea, it was an uncharted boarder for me, what I was thinking of doing. Suresh was a friend. Aren’t friends supposed to help each other out? He wanted those paintings and maybe I could get them for him.

I knew where Tyler kept his paintings, I just had to get there and take pictures without him noticing.