I Broke The Girl I Loved

Handy Dandy Crafty

(Back to Jayce's POV)

I woke up with swollen eyes and a tired mind. My muscles felt heavy and moving seemed impossible but it had to happen. It took me five minutes just to sit up in my bed, took me another ten to get out of bed. I lazily made my way to the bathroom and stripped off my clothes before hopping in the shower. The cold water didn't surprise me the way it usually does but I payed no mind to it and continued washing off. Upon finishing my shower I dried off, put on deodorant, and threw my pajamas back on.

Evie was already munching on a bowl of cereal when I made it downstairs. We acknowledged each other with a silent nod and nothing more. I wasn't in the mood for a meal so I made a cup of orange juice instead. Evie watched me pour the liquid into my cup and down it in one go, not saying a word just observing my actions. When I looked at her she looked away.

"Be ready in five," I said, returning to my room.

For the next five minutes I stared blankly at the trees I painted along my walls. I observed the changes in the heights of them and the difference in the greens caused by me running out of paint and buying a lighter shade by accident. There was a lonely tree to the right of my window that was only half finished, signifying when I stopped painting.

The hinges on my door creaked and I turned my head to find Evie in the doorway with her backpack on. Neither of us uttered a word as she followed me to the car and we made our way to her school. I pulled to the drop off and set my car in park. Evie's hand hovered over the door handle and her eyes stared at it with deep concentration before she finally snapped out of it and swung the door open. She was careful to close it behind her, knowing how much it annoyed me when people slammed car doors. I watched her figure get smaller as she made her way towards the glass doors at the front of the school. Once she was safely inside I drove off.

I drove past my school without a second thought, making my way into town. At the corner of an unknown side street, a tiny crafts store stood alone. I pulled to the nearest parking lot and got out of my car. The cold air nipped at my bare arms as I walked to the crafts store. I stood in front of it for a moment, taking the insides in from the outside. The sign displaying the stores name, Handy Dandy Crafty, looked as though it was hanging on by a thread. I opened the glass door and the bell above it rung, the faint sound engulfing the surrounding space. It was a quaint and dimly lit store with rows and rows of shelf's stacked with all kinds of craft supplies. The cash register couldn't be seen from where I was as there were too many shelves obscuring it from my view. With every step I took the wood creaked beneath my feet and my foot prints appeared through the dust.

"This needs to go there... no no no, that can't be right..."

I followed the indecisive voice and stumbled upon a short, frail man with readers perched on the bridge of his nose. A scruffy gray beard adorned his face and wrinkles formed around the corners of his eyes as his shaky hands moved a piece of cloth back and forth. He was rambling on about how each spot he placed the cloth in looked worse than the last. I cleared my throat and his eyes found mine, his features growing softer as he stared at me.

"Hello young man, how can I help you?" he asked kindly.

"I was hoping you had some paint?" I responded with a questioning tone.

His face lit up as he set his cloth down and lead me to the paints. I followed him through the tight spaces between the shelves until we made it to a hidden corner lined with shelves full of every paint color you could imagine.

He fanned his hand out at the paints and said, "here you are."

I smiled and without another word moved for the paints. There were so many colors it was hard to choose. In the green section alone there must have been over fifteen different variations of the same shade, each only slightly different from another. I picked up paint after paint, observing the different shades and colors.

"You paint a lot young man?" The shopkeeper asked.

"I did," I said.

He moved to stand beside me and picked up a deep shade of green.

"This shade is great for shadowing, on forest scenes and greenery," he handed me the 2 oz paint bottle and I added it to the greens I'd selected in my other hand.

"Thank you."

He patted my back and walked away, leaving me to be immersed in the different colors that surrounded me. I started painting different images in my head using the colors in front of me to complete the work. All the inspiration I had before I stopped painting came back to me and I smiled, a genuine toothy grin, like a child receiving a gift from Santa. I grabbed different shades of blues, pinks, yellows, and browns, adding them to the collection of greens I was holding. Slowly, I made my way to the register where the shopkeeper was. I tried to set all the paints down nicely on the counter but instead they fell out of my arms in a scattered pile. The shopkeeper denied my provided apology and said it wasn't the first time something like this has happened.

He took each bottle and scanned the barcode on the left side before placing them into a brown paper bag. I counted them as he scanned and once he placed the last bottle of paint in the bag I had counted a total of 26 bottles.

"Each bottle costs $1.10 and you got 26 bottles, add the tax, so that totals out to $31.46," the man said as he pushed the bag my way.

"You take card?" I questioned.

"Yes. Here," he pointed to an old card reading machine and I swiped my card across it.

The machine beeped and read 'transaction complete'. I grabbed the brown bag and waved a thank you to the man as I exited the shop and walked to my car. I got inside and made my way home, running up the stairs with the bag of paints. I scattered them across my floor and rummaged through my drawers until I found my old paint brushes. Once I did, I searched for the old paint tarp I used to place on the floor and when I found it I spread it out in front of the wall. From there I let my imagination take over.