Colorful | Phan | Completed

44%

"But my feet are hurting! I don't want to go for a walk." Alessia whined, crossing her arms to pout.

"Please? We can have the tea party?" I compromised. Alessia nodded, breathily heavily out of her nose.

Alessia, Troye, and I walked to the lake, Mrs. Johnson's house being one of the many connected to the fence leading to the water. Color boy and I decided to meet in the same place the next day, and this job was a good opportunity to get out of the house.

By the time the kids had their shoes on, I was nearly 20 minutes late. I saw Phil sitting on a bench near the playground, staring straight ahead. I told the kids to go and play, and I took a seat next to him.

"Hi." I greeted.

He barked back incredibly fast. "Red."

"What?"

"I've been here for almost a half an hour.." He said, keeping his eye contact with the orange slide ahead of him.

"I know, and I'm really sorry, but-"

"PJ came over."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"I told him to piss off, but he insisted he had something to tell me."

"Oh?"

"Red." Phil repeated.

"What did he say? I swear I will knock him out."

"He said that you're only talking to me because he told you to." He replied. "That it's all for a bet."

"W-what?"

"I knew you never wanted to talk to me." Phil shook his head, looking down at his lap.

"That's not true."

"The bet? Or that you never wanted to talk to me?" He asked.

I stared at him. I couldn't lie about the bet, that was true and PJ could use it to bite me in the ass. But I had never wanted to talk to him.

"There was a sort of bet, but without it I would've never talked to you." I answered.

Phil scoffed. "Four years later."

"But you know what, Phil?"

"What?"

"I'm really glad I accepted it." I watched his features lighten. "Because then I realized how stupid I was to have not gotten to know you sooner."

Phil pressed his lips together, and I could tell he was trying not to smile. "Really?"

"I promise. And now you're leaving, so I'm really m... Red."

"You could always come with me." He glanced over at me finally. "Go to art school near it."

I shrugged. "There's an idea. I hadn't really looked at schools in America..." I admitted, looking over at the playground.

My eyes scanned for the kids. After I found both of them on the swing set, I felt Phil's fingers brush against my hand. "Sorry." He said suddenly. I smiled, grabbing his hand and lacing our fingers together. Phil gave my hand a squeeze. "I can't believe I almost let PJ get in my head again."

"Me either. I'm surprised you didn't hit him upside the head."

"Me too."