Hurts Like Heaven

Chapter Ten

The sidewalk was covered in ‘you are good enough’ and ‘nobody can judge you’ when the night was coming to an end.  It was the second time Phil had ever done it and he felt just as nervous (and perhaps even guilty) as the first time.  Dan laughed a bit at Phil’s anxious demeanor as he wrote more messages in the bright orange chalk.  He wondered a bit to himself why everyone was so hell-bent over the chalk and paint around the city—more times than not, they wrote out inspiring or uplifting messages.  If they weren’t, they were simply confessions.  Thoughts.  It wasn’t like the words were hurtful or threatening.

They had covered all the sidewalk squares on a street and walked back to Dan’s house to spend the night.  He figured it would probably be a better idea to hide away after doing things like this if they had one place to go to after the last time, anyways.  Dan hid the chalk under a staircase where a mass of spray paint cans resided.  “Where do you even get all of these from?” he laughed.

Dan smiled a bit.  “I have resources.” 

“Those must be some good resources…”

He nodded and closed the small door then motioned for Phil to follow.  “To say the least.”  Dan’s house really was nice.  That was probably the only thing he’d overheard about Dan that was true.  Without knowing Dan, he probably would have said someone ‘posh’ lived there but he quickly dismissed the idea.  Arti-cu-late, he remembered Dan stressing when they first met.  The memory still made him laugh. 

“How do your parents not catch you?  I mean, you seem to do this a lot, I’d guess they would hear you leaving at some point.  Don’t they notice you’re gone or something?”

Dan shrugged.  “I don’t always do it at night.  You should know that,” he rolled his eyes at Phil.

“After I caught you, I thought you’d stop doing it during the day."

“I’ve just been more careful, that’s all.” 

Phil laughed a bit.  “That’s good, then.”

“I don’t think my parents would really care if they did hear me sneaking out, though.  Just as long as I wasn’t doing anything bad.”  Dan commented.  “I don’t think they’d expect this from me.”

“I don’t think anyone could expect it to be you, actually.  I didn’t,” he confessed.

“Then I guess that makes me good at what I do.”  They talked all through what was left of the night, conversation straying from topic of sneaky vandalism.  The sun came up too soon and they still hadn’t slept.  Realizing they’d probably sleep through the whole day if they started now, Dan walked with Phil back to his house so he wouldn’t be late.  No one was on the streets, nothing as happening at all.  An average Sunday morning at its finest.

“That was a lot of fun,” he smiled as they neared his front porch.  Though it really had been a long walk between their houses, time passed fast.  Dan still seemed to have that kind of effect on his perception. 

“It really was!  Thank you,” Dan replied.

The words took a second to process and he looked over to Dan in confusion.  “Why are you thanking me?  You let me stay at your house and …yeah.  I should thank you!”

“You’re such an amazing friend, that’s why.  Nobody really knows this side of me except you.  You don’t ever turn me in, you actually understand what I’m trying to say, you… you’re just such a great friend.  Thanks.”  The words were honest and fast, probably trying to avoid some kind of rejection.

“I could say the same,” he smiled.  “Thanks, Dan.”  They said their goodbyes and headed their separate ways.  As soon as Phil went to his room, he felt more and more exhausted until he sat on his bed and slept the rest of the weekend away.