The night was so cold, but they didn’t care. Sidewalk chalk and cans of spray paint were piled in Dan’s backpack as they snuck down the streets. “Aren’t you worried your parents will get angrier?” he asked. Dan laughed a bit and continued on with a truly happy smile across his face.
“Why go out with a fizzle when you can go out with a bang?” That was something he would really miss about Dan—he seemed like a quiet kid, but when he spoke, it made up for any silence he’d been a part of. Phil smiled and nodded with agreement. They hopped over the gate into the park. “This is where it started, after all,” he had told Phil earlier when picking a spot. The bridge had long since been stripped of the bright pinks and purples and the lifeless feeling was all that remained.
He wrote messages out in bright sidewalk chalk on the paths as Dan spray-painted the stone walls around the park. ‘I’ll be armed with a spray can soul,’ was written in bright blue and purple across the pavement in front of the gate. Phil smiled at the message—that really summed Dan up, didn’t it? In just under an hour, the pavement was covered in motivational quotes and reassuring messages while the stones were colored in every color of spray paint Dan had on him. They ran out of the park as soon as Phil had drawn the last smiley face and Dan had left his final message in the center of the park. ‘Make your mark.’
They smiled the whole way back to Dan’s house. They threw the paint cans away in the bin and piled other recyclables over them to avoid getting caught, though it would be obvious that Dan had done it again. After their final run, the rest of the time they spent together was filled with talking, jokes, and having fun. Phil went with him to the train platform that Sunday and waved as the train car pulled away. He couldn’t quite grasp that Dan was gone, but it was alright—he knew it wouldn’t be the last time they saw each other.
YOU ARE READING
Hurts Like Heaven
FanfictionPhil is a no one living in a small town trying to get out. When he sees a vandalized bridge in the park, it leaves him thinking about the meaning. Everything after that is an exciting rush leaving him a new person than who he'd imagined himself to...
