Change

I travelled to the boot of my car and pulled out a plank, lifting it over my head. I was about to throw it in when I was stopped by a voice. “Do you need a hand?”

The floppy haired guy’s hazel eyes peered curiously into mine. I attempted to lower the plank but hit the boot door instead. I cringed “Help would be nice”

He took the plank from me and slid it into the pit.

“There, no need to lift these over your head” he stuck out his hand “I’m Jay”
I took it and replied with my name.

“Nice to meet you Eli”
What? Eli? I never get called that... a complete stranger gave me a nickname. Then again, Eli has a good spin on it, I like it.

“So what are you doing here?”

I made eye contact with the planks in the boot. “Well, this is the wood from my old tree house, being 18 I don’t need it anymore. Why are you here?”

Jay kind of sighed and took out a canvas from his boot. Jay straightened it up in his hands and showed me. It looked like swirls of red and white, like a strawberry and cream lolly.

“Is that blood?!” I asked before he could reply to my first question.

Jay laughed “Yeah... it’s my own though, i didn’t kill anyone to get it.”

“Why do you have canvases lying around?”

Jay threw a few more in the pit. “Well, I liked painting before the drugs and never got rid of the spare ones”

'I have a few friends who like painting. One of them I used to like. That was a mistake...'

'Just like my life'

'Pardon?'

'Just the things I used to do werent particularly... helpful?'

'Oh okay,'

Jay helped me finish dumping the rest of the planks in the pit and I shut the boot. As we were doing this, a thought came to my head. Jay sounds like a really interesting guy, i'd really like to go have coffee with him sometime. So i asked him. He seemed a little off put at first, but i reasurred him it wasnt a date and he calmed down a little.

'It's not like I have anything better to do on a Sunday'

So it was settled.