“Look.” He spoke showing me the piece of paper he carried with him from the table, it was a drawing of a rainbow, he had purple, yellow, green, and blue staining his fingers from the crayons.
“Did you draw this?” I mused, “Wow.”
Just then there was a sudden sound of shoes clunking against the stairs, the boy turned to me and the colour drained from his face, he placed a finger over his lips.
“Shhh.” He hushed, “He said I’m not supposed to show anyone.”
“Who did?” I wondered, just as another young boy made his way down the stairs, the very moment he saw the other talking to me and showing me his drawing he panicked and raced over to us. Silently shaking his head at him, and tears filled the other boy’s eyes.
“But you promised!” He scolded, taking the drawing and scrunching it up, throwing it outside the window at me.
I turned around and fetched the drawing on the grass, but when I opened it up, the colours had completely faded and the once radiant rainbow was tainted black and white.
The very next morning I woke up in my bed, Keomi had left early to go to her first class of the day, I didn’t have any until the late afternoon. I sat up in bed and begun to write about my dream in my journal, ink scattered on the page. I then sat down at my table and started to paint the scene that appeared in my mind; a beautiful boy at a window, holding colourful crayons and a looming shadow behind him threatening to take that brightness away. Just then my cellphone begun to ring, I saw River’s name on the screen and smiled answering.
“Hey, why’re you up so early?” I greeted,
“I’m at the store.” He told me, responding plainly.
“Yeah, did you go buy groceries or something?” I pondered wondering why he’d called to tell me this.
“No, I bought a puzzle.” He stated, sounding a little excited about it.
“You went to the store…to buy a puzzle?”
“Yes.” He explained then there was a pause almost as if he were trying to find the words. “I wanted to make it with you.”
“How did you know?” I sighed placing my hand dramatically over my heart, “I happen to love making puzzles.”
“Really?” He reckoned, “Are you sure, I don’t want to bore you?”
“I could never…” I assured him, “Be bored of you.”
“Okay, then I will come over to yours and bring coffee.”
“No bring tea, milk tea.” I prompted,
“Whatever you want.” He soothed.
“Is that so?”
“Mhmm, anything for you.” He hummed in response.
“I’ll see you soon, Kennedy.”
“I’ll be there.” He assured me and then hung up.
When he arrived at my door wearing a woollen scarf and holding the coffee cups from the cafe down the street in one hand and a puzzle box in the other. I held his hand and led him inside and we sat down on the floor opposite each other, I lay out the puzzle between us spilling the pieces frantically and he smiled, his eyes crinkling in the corners.
“You’re cute.” He commented, sliding my milk tea over to me. The cup readfor Armani,“I wrote that.”
“Thanks.” I nodded, taking a sip. “Can I admit something?”
“Consider me your vault.” He agreed.
“I don’t know much about puzzles, and I’m not that great at doing them either.” I confessed placing a few pieces together on the floor. “But I wanted to sit here, like this with you.”
“I know.” He commented, “I like just being here with you too.”
