Butterswap

19

"How much do you like painting?" Keenan Drew asked as a wide grin spread across his face.

"What are you planning now?" I asked as I squinted at him.

He laughed as he held up the bag that held our dinner and along with it, a few bottles of spray paint.

"What do you think of beautifying the subway station?" He shook the bag of paints.

"That sounds like an amazing idea." I winked as I hopped into the car, following Keenan's directions. We arrived at an abandoned station and I parked the car outside before following Keenan.

He proceeded to pick the lock.

"Hey, wait. I want to try that." His grey eyes met mine and he shrugged, handing me the pin before shifting to allow me some space.

I twisted the pin around, trying to find the lock before giving up. I sighed exasperatedly.

"Here." He placed his hand on top of mine, angling my wrist properly. He craned his neck forward and frowned. After a while, the metal lock unlocked with a click and the door creaked open. Keenan lit a match before moving into the station, walking down the steps. He connected some electrical wires and the station glowed dimly. I caught sight of the murals on the wall and turned back to face Keenan.

"You're quite the artist."

"I try."

There were murals from angels to flowers to planes to city skylines. I was so absorbed in the beauty of the paintings that I could hardly register the soft paint spraying sound from behind me. The mural of a woman, though, caught my attention. Her sad grey eyes so clearly captured in the swirls of paint, her hands thrown up to the sky, fingers splayed out.

"That's your mother." I whispered and the sound of paint being sprayed stopped.

"Yes."

"Tell me about her. What was she like?"

"I think she would have been someone who made differences in the lives of others. She wanted to be a nurse, wanted to volunteer everywhere. She had written down a long list of the hospitals around the world that most required volunteers. Her eventual dream was to volunteer with Doctors without Borders. I think that's where she wanted to end up. But that was all before my father left her. She tried, she really did try to get over my father. But she just couldn't. She kept wondering what went wrong. Was she not enough? She couldn't stop blaming herself for the way things turned out."

I pursed my lips, patting his back awkwardly.

"I wouldn't have known how she was like in person. But I read her journals after she passed on. She'd wanted to go everywhere, like you actually. She wanted to go visit the pope in Rome, she wanted to go to Russia to build an igloo, she wanted to go to Japan just to learn their language. She loved how the language sounded so pretty."

"She sounds like a nice person."

"If only she had let me in, let me help her. If only she got over my excuse of a father, things wouldn't have turned out like this." He sighed deeply.

If only things could've been different.

He picked up his can and continued his mural. I picked up another color and turned toward an empty spot beside the railway track. I hopped down onto the track and began to squeeze the nozzle. Channeling my emotions into my work, I allowed my hand to take control and just drew, something I hadn't done in a long time. I stepped back to admire my work and bumped into Keenan's chest.

"Wow." He said, transfixed.

"Who the fuck knew..." I breathed. I had to admit. It was good. I'd drawn the sunset we sat through in Hawaii, a car parked by the side. We were facing the setting sun and I was leaning against Keenan's shoulder. The gravel road was unending because I didn't want to finish the drawing. I didn't want it to end. I wanted the road to go on forever and ever.

"The hues are amazing, you captured the essence of the sunset. Really, it's..." He was lost for words and so was I, the minute I took a look at his masterpiece. He was done much earlier than me, the paint had already dried.

"That's-"

"-you." He said, smiling at me. There was a sparkle in my eye and my lips were lifted into a carefree smile. My hair was half tied and half let down and I had on a gorgeous lacy, white dress. It had floral patterns at the sleeves and I had on a pale pink flower hair piece. I was half twirling in the mural and it was nothing short of stunning. I had no idea how he managed to do it, but he did.

No words came from my mouth as I continued staring at the mural.

"How are you so good at everything?"

"Maybe it's because I'm Keenan Drew?" He smirked at me.

"I think it actually is."

"What are your thoughts on sleeping here tonight?"

"Besides the fact that it's fucking cold, I don't mind."

"I take that as a yes?"

"Yes."

Somehow, we ended up cuddled up together, curled by the side of the cold walls while white snow fell outside.