Under The Bridge

Chapter 2: A Colorful Situation

Chapter 2: A Colorful Situation

Time passed, and it reached the point where I had been living at the Addison Apartments for two and a half months, and hanging out with Sal throughout nearly the entire time.

I loved being around Sal Fisher, we could do almost anything together. We played video games, watched movies, listened to music, hung out with Larry and Sal's other friends, Todd and Ashley, and even painted and drew pictures together. We laughed together, we explored together, and we had even cried together a few times. He had quickly become my best friend, and I had grown fond of him beyond even that as well, though I figured he was oblivious to it.

As the days grew shorter and the weather grew colder, Sal and I began to spend more and more time holed up in one anothers apartments, sprawled out watching movies, playing video games, listening to or playing music, and doing art things.

On this particular evening we were at Sal's apartment, sitting in his bedroom with an easel and some paint we had borrowed from Larry. I had been begging Sal to let me paint a picture of him for a while, and he had finally obliged, on the condition that I let him paint a picture of me as well. I had finished first, and while my painting dried in a random corner Sal had chosen, just out of his line of view, he worked on his. I watched him contentedly, imagining that under his prosthetic he was biting his lip in concentration. His brush strokes flowed over his canvas with the ease and precision of a true artist, his lithe fingers creating lines like butter. I felt my cheeks heat up every time he glanced up at me, trying to capture my image, but it came as a surprise when he suddenly paused, an amused  twinkle in his eyes. “Jade, you're blushing. How am I supposed to capture your real skin tone in my painting if your face is all red?” he teased, his somewhat deep, masculine voice filled with humor. “Y… You shut up, Sally Face! I am not blushing!” I gasped, practically squealing, and covered my face with my hands. “You are too. It's okay to have stage fright you know.” he replied, laughing quietly under his mask, and I had slowly started to withdraw my hands from in front of my face when the unthinkable happened. “Mrrow!” Sal's cat Gizmo had snuck in when we weren't paying attention, and he was now sitting just inches away from a large can of bright blue paint that was sitting open on his owners dresser. Larry had mixed it special, as Sal's hair, eyes, and shoes were almost the same color and I would have had a hard time repeating the same mixture over and over and achieving the right color every time. “Gizmo! No! Get down!” Sal suddenly gasped, and the cat complied, but at a cost. As he leapt down he kicked the paint can with his hind paws, sending the container and its contents flying towards me and Sal. Sal had just enough time to react and move his painting before the cold blue liquid hit us, startling me and causing me to stumble backwards into both my best friend and the borrowed easel. The easel, of course, was wood, and it collapsed in on itself, splattering the rest of our pre-mixed paints and our dirty brush water onto us. At this point I was no longer surprised, but I was very glad that Sal had thought to put down a drop cloth before we started painting or else his carpet would have been completely ruined.

“Gizmo! Bad cat! Shoo, go away!” Sal groaned, and I watched, bewildered, as he stood up, rubbing his back, and smearing it with more paint in the process, for a moment before reaching his hand out and helping me up. “I'm sorry, Sal.” I said, hanging my head, but he just shook his own head before slumping his shoulders in defeat. “It's not your fault, Jade. But we are in a bit of a pickle. Larry says this stuff stains skin, and I don't even want to think about what it'll do to our hair.” he replied, picking up the tip of his dripping wet ponytail, he had pulled his hair back while painting, as if it were some sort of dead animal. “So, can't we just take showers?” I replied, tilting my head at him, and he shook his own head in response. “It's not that simple. You forget that it's winter and there's only one hot water heater per floor in this apartment complex… And you also don't have any clean clothes. Mr Addison won't take kindly to us ruining the carpets in the halls by dragging paint through them either.” he replied, and slipped a hand under the base of his prosthetic, most likely pinching his nose bridge in thought. “Well… I guess we could shower together… If you let me borrow some clothes.” I replied, my face bright red and my voice barely a quiet murmur. “Um… Alright… If you're sure you're comfortable with that.” he almost choked. His ears and the sides of his neck were visibly red, and it was obvious at that moment that he had never seen a naked woman before.