Graffiti Casanova

Not Enough

"Did you see it?"

"That woman's crazy!"

"It's flippin' awesome. We gotta get him to do our tour van."

"We don't have a tour van."

"Hey, we should get a tour van."

"Maybe you guys should worry about the label rep first," Otto interjected Jared and Davey's conversation with the voice of reason.

I was slumped over the bar, huddling over my second cup of coffee, muttering at it under my breath to work quicker. My eyes were still bleary and brain was still muddled from exhaustion, but I couldn't keep a ghost of a smile from my face at the boys' reaction to Casanova's latest piece.

"Did you know Lana was doing this, Claire?" Jared elbowed me, but I didn't have the energy to turn and face him.

"Dude, she's out of it," he turned back to the other two.

"Give her a minute, you know how Claire is before her coffee," Davy teased.

"She's on her second cup!" Jared complained. "C'mon, let's get tuned up." He shoved off the bar and they headed up the stairs to the storage room. "Meet you up there when you're finished, Claire!"

I just grunted in response. Otto eyed me with amusement.

"Looks like you're quite the party animal these days," he said.

I snorted. "Quite the opposite."

He leaned on his elbows and grinned at me.

"So no late night trysts? No secret lover? No passionate--" He held up his hands in surrender at my unamused expression. "Okay, okay." His stare turned suspicious. "This doesn't have anything to do with that question you asked me about the graffiti artist?"

My gaze flicked down for the slightest second, but it didn't escape him.

"And that question didn't have anything to do with this Lana's diner turning into some sort of raver's paradise overnight?"

I pressed my lips together, turning back to my coffee.

Otto's eyes were all-knowing, and he nodded like he understood. "Alright. I won't pry. If you were involved, though, I'd ask you to send a message for me."

I drained my coffee and slid the mug over the counter towards him. "What would that message be?"

Otto's hands wrapped around the cup, but he didn't pick it up right away.

"I want in."

His voice was quiet, I wasn't sure I'd heard right. My eyes were still bleary and sore from being awake too long, and I blinked to clear the fuzziness away. But Otto was still there, seriously gazing back at me.

"You..?"

He gave a sharp nod. "I want in."

No one else was inside, but the smell of paint, plaster, and scorched metal still hit Cas as he entered the warehouse. He left the door open to ventilate, and headed towards the grimy sofas to the right of the entrance. He didn't sit; if he did, he might not get up and there was too much to do. Papers scattered the table, and he shuffled through them, trying to put them in order.

Far too much to do.

"Cas."

He hadn't heard Mark come in, but he didn't look up. Mark shouldn't have been here, he should've been asleep like everyone else.

"Cas." Mark's stern voice was accompanied by a hand on Cas's shoulder.

Cas stopped, but didn't turn.

"You should be home."

"Can't sleep."

"You didn't try."

Cas didn't try to argue. "Did you see it?"

Mark sighed. "Yeah, I saw it." He knew Cas meant Sirena's newest piece-- her favorite silly, 1800's Casanova looking ridiculous at a rave in a diner. "How did she get it up so fast?"

"Must've seen it really early and responded right away." It was small, wouldn't have taken much time. She just wanted to make a point. Already, the news was covering both pieces together, and the public opinion was split pretty evenly on who they sided with.

Mark huffed. "Don't let her bother you. What you did--"

"We."

"--was incredible." Mark paused. "Stupid, but incredible."

"Not incredible enough."

Cas could practically hear Mark shaking his head behind him. But he said nothing, just scuffed his shoes on the ground as he stepped back towards the entrance.

"Go home, Cas," he repeated before slipping out the door.

Cas didn't move, just sat there staring at pages and pages of plans, the notes and shapes swimming before his sleep-deprived eyes.

It really wasn't enough. All he was doing was defacing the community until he did something of note. Something of consequence. Something useful.

He had to do better than this.

Got a request to show what Ricky's Diner looks like, so I included some pictures that look similar to how I imagined it :) Hit the star and say hey in the comments! <3

Chapter song is Story Of An Immigrant by Civil Twilight.