Paintbrush

↬five.

  He anxiously walked across the street, entering alleys and ignoring people who gave him strange looks. His eyes were searching for one thing and one thing only.

The familiar signature.

But once again, it was nowhere to be seen. It has been a couple of days and he yearned for more spectacular street art. Except now he didn't want just any street art, he wanted P.B's.

  Letting out a frustrated sigh, he leaned on the wall and stared across the street. It was a worn down area with not as many people as there were in other parts of the city. There were simply a salon, a small drugstore, a cheap fast food restaurant, and empty warehouses.

  He squinted to look at the sign in the drugstore. "Fifty percent off if you buy a snack and drink combo? Count me in."

  The bell rang above him as he walked into the drugstore. He glanced up at it before looking for a small bag of potato chips and a bottle of Sprite.

After he found what he was looking for, he headed to the cash register, but there was no one behind the counter.

"Um, hello?" he called, placing his items on the counter. No answer.

He reluctantly went over to the back door, where an only employees sign hanged. Instead of barging in, he knocked on it and waited for a moment.

"What I do for food, " he sighed before sliding it open. Suddenly, something jumped up in front of him and he stumbled back.

"Whoa, what are you doing here?"

Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked at the small girl as she sauntered out of the employees room. "I–I wanted to buy some things, but there was no one at the cash register."

"Oh. Sorry, we don't get many customers, so I was taking a nap, " she shrugged and made her way behind the counter. "Thanks for not stealing. You totally would've gotten away with it, though."

"Uh, you're welcome?" he replied, unsure of how to respond. He thought the girl was quite strange, but she was stunning too.

The girl glanced at his items and smiled. "Ah, taking advantage of our fifty percent off discount, I see. Very smart of you."

"Yeah, " he chuckled softly while handing her five dollars. She stared at him for a second as they waited for his receipt to print out.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry?" he blurted, baffled by her bluntness.

"There isn't much you could be doing around here, unless you wanted to get a pedicure in the salon here. And not a good one at that, " she said, ripping out the receipt from the machine. "So, why are you out here?"

He hesitated. "I...was looking at the street art."

Her head shot up and she eyed him more carefully. A look of recognition passed over her face. "Oh! You're the guy who's always hanging by the alleys? I thought you were just creepy."

"Um, I'm not. At least, I hope not. I like looking at the paintings here. They're pretty incredible."

"Paintings?" she echoed as a smile spread across her face. "That's interesting."

"What's interesting?" he asked, tilting his head slightly in curiosity.

"You didn't call it graffiti. You called it paintings."

"Well, that's what they are. They're not just vandalism or whatever, " he told her and she nodded. "They're paintings with deeper meanings. It's art and it's beautiful."

His eyes flickered to the alleyway outside before returning to the girl. Her eyes were already on him, a beautiful smile dancing on her lips.

She leaned forward, against the counter between them. "Do you like chocolate? Hershey's chocolate?"

"I do."

"Great, " she smiled even wider before putting his chips and Sprite in a bag. Before he could ask her why, she gave him the bag with the receipt inside of it. "I hope you have a nice day."

"Thanks. You too, " he replied. Once he left the drugstore, he sat by the alley and peeked inside his bag.

He furrowed his eyebrows. "A chocolate bar?"

Lifting his gaze to the drugstore, he watched as the girl flipped the open sign to closed and waved at him. A lopsided grin formed on his face as he waved back at the pretty girl.

  Although he hadn't seen a painting, he had seen art in the most beautiful form: a person.