Impossibly His

Chapter Eight

Dedicated to Pizza_lover16 for the sweet banner. Thank you lots!

***

"What?" I asked, looking at him almost horrified.

"I said, are you ready to get started?"

"Reth, looking at vandalism is one thing, but actually vandalizing is a completely different story."

"I'm not asking you to destroy private property or anything. I'm just giving you the opportunity to help us make something boring and plain into art. You really don't want to be part of that?"

"Not if it's going to get me arrested!" I exclaimed.

"You'll only get in trouble if we get caught, and barely anyone ever drives over the bridge so were pretty safe."

"That does not make me feel any better," I told him with a glare.

"Come on, Clare," he said, holding the can out to me again. "This is do or die. Take a risk."

I stared at him blankly for a while before I bit my lip and took the can from him, a smile breaking out across his face. "I've never even held one of these before," I said, looking down at it in my hand. "So how exactly am I supposed to paint anything with it?"

"I'll show you," he replied, taking my hand once again and leading me closer to the wall. "I'm no good at art, but I do have some experience with vandalism."

"Good to know," I muttered. He stood behind me, us both facing the wall as he placed his hand over mine with the spray paint in it, aligning our fingers together on the nozzle.

"Alright so, for making a thin line, you need to distance the can close to the wall; the smaller the distance to the wall, the thinner the line will get."

"Okay," I said, already visualizing what I wanted to paint.

"Also, to make it clean and precise you'll want to tilt the can downwards a little bit, and don't hold it in one place for too long or it will leave drips behind."

"Since when are you suddenly some kind of vandalism professional?" I questioned.

"Oh I'm not just a professional," he chuckled, and I tried to ignore my subconscious telling me that I needed breathing space when I felt his chest pressing into my back. "I'm the vandalism king."

He was too close. I never let anyone get that close. It was an issue that I had developed within the past year, because my mind kept telling me that if I let anyone get too close, if I let anyone touch me, they'd hurt me just like he did.

I didn't want something so horrible to ever happen to me again.

"Now let's get started," Reth said, and guided our entwined hands towards the wall.

We sprayed a few streaks of black and baby blue, the outline of a picture forming, but at that point my brain was screaming for me to get away from him in any way that I could. I tried to shove it down-I tried to ignore it-but as my breathing became labored and my palms began to sweat, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Reth," I breathed out. "Could I have a little space?"

"Space?" He said in confusion, looking down at me with his eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm-I'm a bit claustrophobic," I told him, looking down at my feet. "And I don't really think your girlfriend would approve of you being so close to me right now."