Graffiti Heaven

Chapter One

Ash

Wednesday, August 23, 2000.

Today was going to suck, but hopefully in the best possible way.

        Too nervous to look at Tiana, who was quietly sitting next to him, Ash stared out of the bus window as houses and trees flicked by, the urban landscape stuck in the past like a film from the early nineties—a South Auckland “Boyz n the Hood.” But unlike the movie, no Californian bungalows populated the roadside, just wooden boxes framed by grass, concrete and fences. But the style of painting was the same—a real graffiti heaven.

        Claydon Shopping Mall’s green and white supermarket and The Warehouse’s large red building drew closer, the only sign that the town had moved into the twenty-first century. The bus stopped to pick up a passenger, the wait making Ash irritable. He just wanted to get to Tiana’s house as quickly as possible before she changed her mind.

        Tiana’s shoulder rubbed against his as the bus started up again, the rumble causing him to shake rather than his nerves. For a second he smiled, still surprised that she’d skipped school with him. Normally Tiana gave him disapproving looks when he suggested cutting class. She was a good Tongan girl, and someone his cousin had warned him against going out with.

        ‘You’re kidding yourself if ya think she’ll go anywhere near your dick,’ Hunter had said. ‘The only thing she’ll touch is a Bible.’

        Yeah, Tiana was religious, the cross she wore between her breasts a warning to keep his hands to himself, but he liked her and was a real sucker when it came to the quiet girls. This was because the loud ones had a perverse way of humiliating him, like Jenna Hamilton did when she told his mates that he was lousy at sex.

        The bus turned right at the roundabout and headed down Tiri Road. He risked a look at Tiana. With long brown hair, caramel-coloured skin and almond-shaped eyes, he thought she was stunning. When his mates had found out he was seeing her, they had joked that the “Polynesian princess” was slumming it, and although he would never admit it to them, he agreed that she was too good for him.

        He took in her profile. She was staring up the aisle with her full lips pressed firmly together. He imagined those lips wrapped around his cock. Her back straightened as though she knew what he was thinking. He quickly glanced out the window. But she’d been the one who’d suggested it. He hadn’t even considered asking for a blowjob, his dreams only centred on what was below her skirt. Then again, maybe that was why she was willing to give him one, because she was probably sick of telling him to keep his hands out of her knickers.

        ‘I’m not having sex until I’m married,’ she’d said. ‘So, if ya love me you’ll wait.’

        As if! He was never getting married. She hadn’t seen what marriage and divorce had done to his parents. And anyway, why the hell did she want to get married? She was only sixteen, and he was barely that. Well, he would be next week, and about time, because he wanted that car his cousin had promised him. Okay, it was hideous looking, a snot-green Ford Escort, but with Hunter’s help he was going to give it a choice new paint job.

        Tiana took a hold of his left hand, distracting him from what images he could paint on the car. “I love you, Ash.”

        “Thanks.”

        She stiffened, making him feel like crap. He liked her loads, and at times thought he might love her, but wasn’t sure. He wanted to be with her, only her, but didn’t know if he’d always feel the same way. Plus, people who said they loved someone usually ended up doing horrible things to them—like his father had. Drugged out and in a rage, his father had taken a car jack to his mother over their divorce, probably would’ve killed her too if Ash and Hunter hadn’t stepped in. Ash looked down at his crooked pinkie finger, the only visible scarring he’d received apart from the one hidden under his mop of black hair. And in just over a week his father would be out of prison. The thought made him sick.