Chapter Two:
In the end, he couldn’t do anything. They went outside.
“Let’s.. Let’s do our best, eh!” he nervously said to his co-artist.
Allie just looked at him and went away. Jerry was left alone in the corridor feeling stupid.
-
It was the first day of their work. Jerry and Allie went to the place where they needed to paint a mural. It was a wide wall.
“Now I know why we have to be excused from all our classes. This is a huge one!” Jerry thought. He stared at Allie for a moment.
“What was with her? I thought she would smile and say, ‘Yes, please take care of me’. It wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable if she did that,” he thought.
She turned her face to Jerry. He turned his away. “We better get the materials,” she said.
They went to the basement where the principal told them to get the paint, brushes and other materials they might need. Jerry took a can of paint and remembered something.
-
There was a special reason why Jerry fell for Allie. It was not because she was nice or beautiful or talented.
It began that late June. Jerry was entering his elementary years. He was scared and unprepared. Instead of going to school, he went to the park. He took out his crayons and papers. He drew a weird face. His drawings before were somewhat like abstract.
While he was drawing, his paper flew off. He searched for it and saw a lady looking at his drawing.
“What in the.. What a horrible drawing!”
Jerry backed away and was about to cry. Then, the little girl who was with the lady took the paper and smiled.
“No! I think it’s great,” she said.
After knowing that she was going to the same school, he was motivated to study. He even tried to improve his skills in drawing. They were not classmates but the thought of having a glimpse of her everyday was enough for him. She was very popular in their school ever since.
But when the third year of their high school was about to end, that girl started acting weird. She was smiling but when she was alone, she took out her sketch pad and sketched with loneliness.
That girl was Allie.
-
When they got the materials, Jerry asked Allie what to draw. She just took a brush and painted a girl sitting on a bench.
“Is she trying to work alone?”
Jerry just sat down looking at what his companion was doing. Then he noticed something strange.
“Uhmm.. Sorry to interrupt you, but why is the girl alone?” Jerry asked.
“What’s the problem with a lonely girl for our mural?” she bounced off the question.
“It’s just.. The.. You see, we are painting for Valentine’s Day. Isn’t it supposed to be love and not loneliness?” Jerry said as he grabbed for a brush then painted a guy beside the girl.
When he finished drawing, Allie took a white paint and splashed it to the wall. There was nothing but whiteness after that. Jerry was pissed.
“Wh-Why did.. you do that?” he said trying to be patient with the girl’s cruel attitude.
“I don’t think you drew it nicely,” was what she replied.
“Who is this person I’m with? Is this really Allie? Or maybe this is a bad spirit?” he thought.
Jerry who was a fearful guy took out some grass and started dancing around Allie. Allie, who was aware about the guy’s weird actions, couldn’t concentrate painting.
“Hey! What.. are you doing?” she asked with an angry tone.
“Aha! I already know what you are! You.. bad spirit! G-go! Go away from this pretty girl!” Jerry was shaking as he was saying those words.
She just looked at him with eyes saying ‘Is this man serious?’. It was the end of their first day. The wall was all but white.
-
The second day was the same. Then the third and fourth and fifth. Whenever Allie painted something which is not about love, Jerry would try to redo it. After painting it, Allie would just splash it with white paint. It kept repeating. They argued. They painted but their ideas weren’t the same.
“This isn’t just working! We only have five days to paint this mural! Aren’t you getting tired of this?” Jerry said while trying to erase the white paint.
Allie was painting a black raven with a skeleton holding a wilted rose.
“There she goes again!” Jerry thought.
He took her brush from her and said, “Tell me something. Do you know exactly what love is? Love is not supposed to be about dead bodies or lonely girl or a black raven!”
He took the white paint and as he was going to erase her work, she pushed the can of paint to Jerry face. His face was really white. She giggled. He was just standing there, looking pissed. She took the brush from Jerry’s hand and painted his face with a moustache. She laughed. Instead of being annoyed, Jerry smiled. Then he laughed too.
Allie, still hardly breathing said, “We better get more white paint,” then she smiled.
“There’s none left. I guess we need to buy some in the store,” Jerry replied.
Then Allie laughed again. “Aren’t you.. Going to clean your face first?” was all she said. Jerry was happy to see Allie’s smiling face again.
-
They went to the store. When they were about to leave, the rain started to pour. Unfortunately, they didn’t bring any umbrella.
“Wait here! I’ll bring an umbrella. I know a friend somewhere near here,” Jerry said as he ran off before Allie could stop him.
She smiled and looked around. It was raining hard.
“I hope he’ll be fine,” she thought.
Then she stopped. She saw a familiar face that made her frown. A guy was hugging a girl on the corner of the street. Allie knew the guy.
-
When Jerry arrived on the store, he couldn’t find Allie. He only found the cans of paint. He looked around. There she was, just on the corner of the street. When he was about to go there, she saw Allie slapped the guy. Then she ran away. Jerry followed her.
“Allie! Wait! Hey, can’t you slow down?!” Jerry shouted but it seemed that Allie didn’t notice him.
She stopped in the park. She fell down on her knees and started crying. As rain fell, Jerry saw the crying face of Allie. They were in the same park where Jerry has fallen in love with the girl he was with that time. He walked to her. She shrugged when she noticed he was coming near.
“I don’t know who that guy is and what he did to you,” he said. “What I know,” he continued, “is that he must be a bastard for making you cry!”
He waited for her response.
Then he talked again, “Stop thinking about what happened. He’s just an idiot who-”
Before he could finish, she stood.
“Stop..” she whispered.
“What?” Jerry asked.
“Stop talking like you know him!” she yelled and walked away.
Jerry was left in the pouring rain, unable to follow Allie.
What was wrong? Who is that guy anyway? Why was she acting strange when she saw that guy? All these questions pondered in Jerry’s mind. Find out the answers in the next chapter!
Spoiler: You will finally know why Allie gives the cold shoulder towards guys.
iF tHerE's sOmeThinG sToriEs TeLL, wHaT cOuLd iT bE?