The Painting

Chapter 8

I’ve got an uncalled-for weekend job—the only time I could’ve slept. Now it’s Monday morning, and I’m sleep-deprived, hungry, and stuck babysitting Night on the weekends. First thing I noticed? Night skipped morning class. That asshole—I showed up, but he didn’t? Then I spotted him in the cafeteria during lunch, probably planning to attend the afternoon class.

“Can I buy you a drink, sweetheart?” I said, sliding into the seat across from him. He was sitting alone. Where’s Lily?

“Why don’t you try finding an actual job?” he said, right through my heart.

“Dudeeee, that hurt,” I said.

“Glad it did.” He smiled, sarcastically.

“No, for real. Who are you waiting for?”

“I can’t have lunch alone?”

“Oh…”

“That ‘oh’ sounded full of pity. Wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, why would I lie? Anyway, let me join you. Excuse me, can I place my order?” I said, waving for the server.

“When was the last time you felt shame?”

“Don’t remember, baby.”

“Stop being so corny, or I’ll Walk off.”

“Anyway, let me ask you this—have we met before? Like, before the art gallery? It feels like I’ve seen you somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Fortunately, no.”

“Come on, Night.”

“What? I swear, I don’t think so. You’d have left an impact if we did.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

“I should probably learn how to use a gun and practice it on you,” he replied,

Damn, he’s sarcastic.

I once believed life was an endless loop-spiral of birth and death. Déjà vu, I thought, was a sign that my mind had broken through the matrix, remembering that time had no beginning or end and that we lived one life a thousand times. It was an endless cycle of suffering, pain, and tears. But when I saw Night, the déjà vu I experienced felt different. It was as if I had lived a thousand different beautiful lives, all of which involved him. I felt like I had met him somewhere before, perhaps in another lifetime. Déjà vu, I realized, wasn't so bad after all. Life wasn't a spiral of death; it was simply a time we were given to spend in the body my soul had chosen. And it was my stars that had decided to bring us together in this same world.

"Stop staring," Night called out, snapping me back to reality. I hadn't realized I was staring. "What are you planning to order?" he asked.

"I don't know. You order for me," I replied. He rolled his eyes and placed an order for me as well.

"Hey Canis, do you believe in souls finding each other in every universe?" the lecture was boring as usual so I asked the important question to Canis who was busy playing stupid Ad games on his phone.

"You mean destiny? I don't know, bro. All this stuff is beyond me. I don't like to have an opinion on things like that."

I rolled my eyes. "Boring."

"Do you?"

"I didn't."

"Past tense? So now you do? Why, you met someone?" Canis said, tapping my shoulder teasingly. My eyes drifted towards the person sitting two seats in front of me as Canis’s voice slowly started to fade. Night was so focused on whatever the fuck that professor was rambling about. Whenever I looked at him, the world around me seemed to shrink, and I could barely hear anything anyone else was saying, I couldn’t stop thinking about him since art gallery happened. What in the love movie was happening to me.

"Are you in love or something?" Canis asked, bringing me back to reality.

"Yeah, man. I think I'm screwed." I said rubbing my own head in confusion.

“so, when’s the wedding?”

“You sound like Moon”

“who’s Moon”

“My little sister”

“DUDE, YOU HAVE A SISTER?? AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME”

“what’s there to tell, well now you know” I said and we both continued playing that stupid ad game, I don’t know what I am doing with my life.