Indie-America

9

(((Edited•)))

Sunday was heated but I didn't witness it cause it got saved by the car, Luca's car.
We'd just finished breakfast. Mum came but didn't say a word, neither did Amara. Grandma talked mostly to herself but shut up when she realised no one cared. I swear I saw a ball of sweat roll down from dad's face once mum came downstairs all dressed up too. She glanced at Grandma's way and then dad's, giving him a blank look before entering the kitchen to make coffee. She wrote something on a sheet of paper and handed it to me before going out.
I read it out as instructed:
"Raj, you'd better get my kitchen set before I get home."
Dad stared at me, "Of course,"
"Such weird times," Grandma murmurs. Obviously, she's referring to the manner in which mum spoke to Dad because in the world she's from stuff like that don't happen. I let out a loud sigh. Her eyes snap to me but I keep on sighing morphing it into a yawn and looking away.
"Ra-"
His gray Audi pulled over on my lawn right that minute and I flew the door open.
"Bye!" I yelled as I ran across the lawn and jumped in before he even came out.
"Um...thanks for accepting my ride?" He said looking concerned for me but I smiled.
"Thank you for giving me one."

"Where are we going?" I asked once I'd forgotten all about the narrow escape.
"I remembered you were going to shop for art materials. Did you?"
"No. Family issues."
"Ok. By the way, your house is huge."
"10th century," I say easily and he chuckles then tilts his head to me.
"Gotta admit."
I nod but still say;
"Although it's actually quite modern on the inside, very artistic."
"Probably where you got your own artistry from?" It's a question.
"Uh, no. We just moved here recently," I explain.
"Oh? You blend well," he commends.
"I have lived in California all my life, no big difference,"
"Did you know I'm actually from California? Like I wasn't just born here my entire family from my dad's side is from Cali," he enlightens me.
"Really? Rare," I say and pause. "I'm from India but I've never been there before, my extended family have been though."
He turns to look at me with inspecting eyes. "You are?"
"Isn't it obvious?" I look at myself in his side mirror. I've always thought I looked very Indian for a person who's never been there but now Luca's making me doubt that.
"Now that you said it it makes more sense, I had a hunch that you weren't American though,"
I stare at him, "My name is Ravi,"
"So? I could be named Santiago right? People fall in love with names that's got nothing to do with their culture," he defends.
"Ok fine, well now you know I'm Indian. My mum is American though,"
"Again. That makes more sense," he says then pauses. "You mentioned your extended family? Do they live with you?"
"Yeah,"
"That must suck."
I think about it for a while, yeah my home usually never had arguments every single day but it didn't exactly suck.
"Nah. It's something I need to adjust to but it's not that bad," I say finally and he nods. Then he turns a corner and I'm about to question our destination when he says;
"So what are you?"
"What?"
"What religion do you belong to?"
"Why does that matter?" I ask, utterly surprised.
He shrugs and I shrug too.
"I don't have one. For several reasons that I'm not ready to dive into."
Again he nods and I look at him from the corner of my eye.
"Why are you so quiet?" I ask and he seems surprised by that too.
"I'm not. I'm driving," The moment after he says that we pull up in front of a huge store called Theo's.
As he unbuckles his seat bet he turns and looks at me with a smirk.
"Let's talk about art."

"How come I never knew there was a white house sized mall just for art?" I say mostly to myself, arms spread like I'm in heaven. It's marvelous.
"I'm just gonna wait here," Luca says pointing to a milkshake bar on the left where a man and two women sat, one younger than the other.
"Oh no you don't. You brought me here so I'm not gonna leave you all by yourself."
He snorts and says;
"I'll be of no use to you. 'sides, I won't be all by myself," He winks at me before bouncing to sit beside the younger girl. She's tall, blonde, fair and has glasses on. It makes me miss mine.
I swivel around and go off shopping.
****
"Seriously?!" Luca shouts when we get inside his car.
"What? You said to get whatever I wanted. Who knew money was a problem for you?"
He fakes a hurt face at the last part but turned it back to a frown as he started the car.
"Money's not a problem Ravi," He says finally and I nod firmly.
"But seriously, 10 bags of paintbrushes?"
"Oh no. The paint brushes are in one bag, the remaining 9 are for the paints, 6 paints to be exact, the palettes, the glitter, pens, pencils etcetera," I beam but he's staring at me.
"And where are you going to put all these?"
"My art studio."
"Your what? I didn't know you had one."
"I do."
He swallows. "Wow. You've got to show me som-"
"STOP!" I scream and he stops abruptly, almost hitting a cat.
"What the f-"
"Hold it! I've got to get paints. Bucket paints,"
I'm grinning, he's frowning.

******

"I'll never take you shopping again." Luca grumbles as he opens his boot and takes 3 shopping bags out. I take them from him plus 2 more and head towards the door. It opens before I knock.
"Is that Luca McQueen?" Mara asks and I nod, glad to see her incredible smile back on. She has her braces on so mum's home. Instead of helping me out she runs upstairs and calls Kendall, who comes downstairs as soon as Luca walks in, the other five bags in his hands.
Because Kendall is at least two years older than him and is already done with school she pretends not to care by smiling once and surveying my goods but the moment Luca goes back to get the paint cans she squeals and nearly pushes me.
"Why on Earth did I not know my little sister has Luca McQueen taking her shopping?!"
I frown, getting my stance.
"You haven't ask-"
"Shut up Ravi he's coming," Mara shout whispers and we turn to stone.
"So that's all," Luca says dropping 3 cans of paint. Mara moves to him.
"Hi," She says weirdly and I shudder.
"Ken where are the others?" I ask ignoring their conversation.
"They just left. Don't ask me where to," She rushes out and I turn back to Luca.
"Uh..Luca, meet my sisters Kendall and Mara."
Kendall smiles again but Mara's already practicing a handshake with Luca.
"Um...thanks McQueen. You can...go..now." I say weirdly and Ken punches me.
"What? Luca should stay for dinner. I mean he went through the stress for going shopping for art tools."
Luca nods at that.
"Only if he wants to though," Ken adds quickly and I warn him with my eyes.
"Sure. Mum's cooking stakes for dinner. I'm not a fan."
Mara's eyes widen.
"Stakes for dinner?Mmm," She gives me a sad look.
"That used to be us."
Kendall chuckles and I smile.
"Mara help me take the bags upstairs. I'll take the cans...Luca?"
He stops scanning my house and looks at me.
"Make yourself at home."

I had no idea where to start. I knew what I wanted; something that would give a statement about me to any visitor. But it's not easy for me to explain me.
It wasn't long after I started arranging the brushes that Luca came inside.
I yelped. I was in a pink jumpsuit that really gave a statement. He paused for a millisecond, looking at me but then his gaze rose to the cabinet I was struggling to open. He shook his head and walked to me, opened the cabinet and put the first pack of brushes.
"Who let you in?" I ask while passing the others to him.
"Mara. She showed me everywhere except for your parents room."
I paused. "My room?"
"Unfortunately no."
"Good. Great." I stop giving him the brushes and stared at the white wall.
"Your place is amazing just so you know," He says, still arranging the brushes.
"I want to paint it," I says mostly to myself.
"Obviously." He pointed at the canvases, the paints and brushes.
"I just don't know what to paint," I admit. Ignoring his ignorance.
"Why don't you start with a plain color and go on from there?" He suggests. I consider this and an idea starts building from there.
"What's your favorite color?" I ask and he blinks.
"Black?"
"Other than that,"
"White?"
I grunt, "what is the male specie's problem with loving neutral colors?"
"What's your favorite color?" He asks.
"Grey,"
"And that's not neutral?"
"What? Grey's a cool color. It signifies everything life signifies,"
He pauses, "One day you're gonna tell me what life signifies but today... you're gonna paint."