Chapter Fifteen
An empty alleway tunnel. While nobody was in sight.
I let go of a long breath that I was holding inside my lungs and did not even realise that I was doing it.
It was an unusual sight. The tunnel. The walls of the tunnel seemed old and rusty, as if nobody used it in months. It was not long, in fact, it was one of those small ones. The sunlight was shining overhead but the shadow of the tunnel casted a long shade, creating a shade of sorts. Both sides of the walls were covered with graffities. Not professional ones, it seemed like it was painted by some punky kid or the rebel ones.
I was so immersed in observing the place that I didn't even see a black bag resting on the left side of the wall. It was a normal size bag, except for the fact that it looked stuffed that made it appear bigger than its normal size.
My eyes darted to Mike's who was observing my reaction from his side. Out of nowhere, I realised that we were alone. Fear was still there, but now I was more anxious than anything else. Was this allowed?
My feet begged me to back off and go back to the theatre. Ignoring that feeling, I asked him. "What's in that?"
"Why don't I show you?" He said, and leaving me behind he walked over to it. He picked up the bag that looked fully stocked. I had no idea about that. He picked the bag from one hand and opened it. Tilting the bag, he showed me what was inside it.
Painting cans. For graffiti on the walls.
"Surprise. Surprise. I thought you would like to draw on the walls of an empty alleyway with me." He said, and pulled out a can from inside the bag before extending in my direction. I was torn between following my heart and my brain. My brain argued with me to come back to my senses and go back inside the theatre, telling me to remember the advice of my best friend to never get alone with my first date alone, away from people.
On the other hand, my heart urged me to take up on this one time opportunity. It asked me to be brave and have a full experience of my first date. I debated in my mind, and thought about taking a reasonable reaction but my feet were totally opposite, they walked over to Mike and took the can from his hands.
I was getting surprised by my own self, by my own actions. Was this me? I, who, a few hours ago was having a nervous breakdown over buying popcorn. And now, here I was, stepping under a hidden tunnel, who god knows if anybody knew existed.
"Throw away your caution for a few minutes. And have fun with me." He said, picking a can for himself and taking it out, he shook it. I copied his moves and he smiled, a smile on its own stretched on my lips too. He gestured his head towards the walls.
"How do you know about this place? Did you plan this? Of us walking out of the movie theatre and coming here?" I asked him, coming to his side and thinking about what was wrong with me. I was ignoring all the warnings Shirley had warned me about.
"I used to come here with my friends. We used to hang out here. And, of course, I planned this. How would you find a bag of paint cans here, if that wasn't the case. Although, I was going to take you here After we finished the movie, but when I realised that none of our attention was on the screen, I decided it was best that I just pull us both out of our misery." He answered.
I hummed in my response. So, it was planned. He made it look like it was spontaneous. Especially, from the way he behaved earlier.
I turned my head and took a look at all the things, designs and figures, that were drawn on the walls. Inside me, a child was dancing, wanting to try something new and fresh. Excited to have a tool in my hand to draw something permanent on this wall. However, I did not know what I should draw.
My mind drew blank. I glanced at my side and I saw that Mike was also just staring at the wall, shaking his can, thinking about what he should draw, probably.
"I don't know what I should draw." I said, staring at the wall. "Do you have something in mind?" I asked him casually. Whoever, had drawn all these designs were very good at it. Pictures of a boy skating a skateboard, a girl playing football, a group of boys smoking cigarettes, some writings about deep thoughts - that I did not waste my time in reading. Everything was there. The wall was all covered with these graffities, there was hardly any place left for anyone to draw anything. I needed to draw something over these designs, probably. If, I decided to draw something on it. I mean, my mind was drawing blank when I tried to think about anything draw.
"Draw the thing that you find beautiful, or anything that comes into your mind." He said. "Find something beautiful ..." I repeated his words back to me, in whispers. I should draw something that I found beautiful. But, what did I find beautiful? Was there something that I could say, I found beautiful? Nah. My mind was still blank, and I was confused now, more than just drawing blank. Wasn't there anything that I found beautiful?
"Or you could just start painting and it will turn itself into some great picture." He suggested, sensing my dilemma. My mind started reeling. He was right. I just need to start. I just need to take the first step and the path will cave itself in. Figuratively and literally.
He moved forward and shook the bottle in his hand and pressed. Yellow colour sprayed on the wall, creating a line on the wall. I followed his suit and did what he did. A blue line faced me back when I sprayed the colour. A sudden surge of thrill shot through me. It was exciting. I sprayed another line of colour before I bounced a little, feeling excited and unimaginably free in the moment.
I heard Mike chuckle beside me and I glanced at him, grinning. He drew a line of yellow on my blue one and let out a laugh when I did the same on his yellow light. And then the war was on.
Everytime he drew something on his side, I sprayed over it, creating my own design. And whenever, I sprayed on my side of the wall, he sprayed on my side. In only a few minutes, we were laughing our guts out. It was like a playful fight that was still borderline serious. Because, both of us were trying to top each other out. He was tall, so he had the advantage of spraying up high. But whenever he did, I would jump up and spray over all his paint.
At one point, I jumped to draw on his higher spray on the wall, when he caught me in my mid jump through my waist and put me on his side. For a few seconds, I was shocked but then I snapped out of it and sprang in motion. I bumped into his side and had him stumble to the side from spraying on my sprayed colour.
He appeared taken aback by my action because he glanced at me with wide eyes, hunched over. It all happened in a few seconds, before he lunged at me and had me pinned up against the wall. And then the time stopped as we stared into each other's eyes. It was like time stopped as we looked into each other's eyes. World around me blurred as we shared our breath. HIs whole body was pressed up against me, forcing my body to flatten up against the wall behind me. His face was bowed to my level and I could feel him inside me. One second both of us were glancing at each other's lips and on the other second, our mouths were devouring each other. I had no idea what I was doing but I didn't need to.
His lips moved on my lips and I followed their lead. Soon, we found a rhythm and kissed each other like we were longing to do it for a long - long time. Maybe, we were. After what felt like an eternity, both of us parted. I didn't even realise that I was lacking so much air that when I did finally take a breath of fresh air, my lungs burned. They actually ached when I allowed to inhale some oxygen.
We still stared into each other's eyes, chest heaving with the deep breaths we were taking. His eyes were hungry and he appeared like he wanted to pounce on me. And he did, this time, not only did he flatten me up against the wall but his hands slipped in and grabbed a hold of my thigh.
It was then that I snapped into reality. No - no - no - no. Stop. Stop. Stop.
"Stop." I said, and grabbed Mike's hand, halting its movement from going upwards. "Mike, stop." I gasped. My mind still was in haze but I knew where things were going. I can't let them go that far. Mike growled in protest but he withdrew back, wrenching his face back from my neck and his hands from my thighs. "Yeah, sorry. Sorry." He rasped, his voice heavier than usual. When he pulled back and met my eyes, desire was still prominent but he seemed to get a hold of reality.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to do that." He said, looking everywhere but in my eyes. I grabbed his shirt, even though my hands were shaking from desire and fear. Today, I had crossed a line that my family had drawn for me, one that I just broke. The fear of them finding out about this was heavy, still I pushed it down. For whatever reason, I wasn't regretting what I did. I was feeling a little guilty and afraid for sure, but regret? That was not there.
"No, Mike. You don't need to be sorry. There is nothing for you to apologise for. I just don't want to take things in a hurry. I want to take them slow. So, please don't think that you did something wrong." I told him, scared that he might get the wrong idea. He finally met my eyes. "You sure? I mean I totally understand if you want to take things slow. I just don't want you to think that I took advantage of you or something." He said, running his hands through his hairs.
I shook my head. "I promise, I did not think that way even for one second." I told him. I took a deep breath before I thought about what I should say next. I glanced at the ground before something jumped in my mind. "Let's sit down." I pointed at the ground. He nodded before taking a seat on the ground by the wall, I did the same and sat down by his side.
"So, let's talk about something." He said, both his hands on his knees. Jerking his head my way, he said, "You first." I thought about it for a second and decided, okay. I would ask him a question. So, I asked him the first question that entered my mind.
"Fine. What happened between you and Shirley?"