"Is he okay?"
Elise set the sleeping cat down, gently, as if it were a small sleeping baby. She scolded Prince from where she stood. "Yes, it's fine." She mumbles, strutting past him into the kitchen. "I told you to stop feeding it chili."
"I was trying to show Kim–"
Elise shakes her head without even looking in his direction. "You can go now. I'll call Owen to get his cat, you're not needed."
"Owen's in LA right now."
Great, Elise thinks to herself.
Ignore him. Elise decides to ignore him as she takes another seat at her table. Her paintbrush in hand, Elise focuses on the delicate strokes needed to make her masterpiece complete. Prince takes it upon himself to take a seat directly beside Elise as she paints.
He blurts, "Are you mad at me because I don't like you back? Or are you mad because I think Kim's prettier than you?"
"No, stupid."
Completely missing what Elise has told him, Prince long diatribe continues. Here he is again, accidentally adding insult to injury. "If it makes you feel good, I don't think she looks way better than you. She only dresses better... she's got a nice rack too. Well, yours are pretty nice. I actually like yours better than her's but, she still dresses better and she–"
"Prince, I don't care! Can you please go? Now!"
Pursed lips slightly shivering, Prince scoots back away from Elise as she still continues to paint his face. "You're hurting my feelings," he admits.
"And you hurt mine," she shoots back. "What are you going to do, cry about it?"
And just like that. There it is. A single tear streams down his cheeks, it has fallen directly from the green tinted eyes within his sockets. Prince quickly wipes it away but, Elise already seen it. She thanks God that the tear she'd lost control of a few words ago was on the opposite side of her face. That way, it saved her the embarrassment of Prince's questions.
Prince quickly bounces back from his emotions and pounces at the subject of new questions.
"Why are you still painting my face?"
"Why are you still here?"
Prince groans, rising from his chair. "Because I'm tired of you being mad! You've been gone all summer because of an accident that I said sorry for a billion times. You ignore my calls, you ignore me, and I haven't seen you around in months! You didn't even come to my birthday party, you just sent me a lousy card in a shade of green that you know I don't even like. Why are you being so mean?"
"Because you hurt my feelings by putting me in an uncomfortable position as a joke! That's why!"
Snarling as his eyes squint, Prince mocks her, "What are you gonna' do about it? Cry?"
"I already did!"
Prince pauses.
"I already do," she corrects herself. "It's not easy to love you. I stash it away everyday and for you to come and take all my control away is wrong! It's fucked up, Prince! You and your little games are all fucked up!"
Elise hadn't noticed that she'd spilt paint all over herself. Prince hadn't noticed either. He was too busy debating what he'd do next. He takes the two steps that are necessary to get closer to Elise, she takes two backward. He takes another two to fill the gap and she creates a brand new one with another three. The pattern continues until her back is up against the wall.
Prince presses her forehead up against Elise's. Her anger rises higher to its boiling point as he pins her against the wall to keep from moving. An outsider would call it sexual assault but, Prince would never do such a thing. Quickly, before she can shimmy out of his grip and hit him, Prince's lips wrap themselves around Elise to give her a feeling that melts her brain. It had only been two seconds before he pulls away from the kiss. He then tells her,
"That was a friendly one... to see, maybe, if you'd stop being mad at me. Sometimes you have to rip off the band aid."
Elise breaks down.
Tears flowing as her congestion levels rise. She can hardly breathe through this ugly cry. Prince smiles. "See, the band aid is gone! It hurt but you can see the healed skin! Can I come over tomorrow to watch you paint?" He stands before her, watching her tears release all left over anger and pain. He's confident that he'd hit the reset button.
"I'll think about it. You can leave... and leave the cat here." Now speaking calmly, Elise still cannot stop the fluently cascading tears. "Leave, now."
Prince throws her two thumbs up. "I gotta jet anyway. The kiss made me horny... I still don't like you though."
"Prince, leave!"
