The Quiet Ones

14. Contact In My Heart

I frantically ran into the house in order to be on time for the taggers. All of them were already in disguise and preparing themselves for the night ahead, including Levi. His face was painted grey with colors detailing his features, and his bag was packed with spray paint and stencils.

"There goes my chance of seeing him without his mask," I whispered under my breath.

"Hey Parker," he called out while waving me over.

"Hey. Pass me the paint," I demanded as I took a seat in front of one of the mirrors.

"So," I said as I began to apply the first coat of the cold, thick black paint.

"So," Levi followed.

"I had a good time the other night. I forgot to thank you for that."

"Oh, no problem. I had fun too. You're getting really good at tagging, I'm impressed rookie," he said while nudging me on the shoulder.

"It was going well until your boyfriend showed up."

I swallowed hard and placed my paintbrush onto a paper towel before I turned around to face him. His eyes brimmed with red as he looked at me, panic rising on his face while he hoped I wouldn't begin screaming. Although Nathan is technically my boyfriend, or at least I assume, I still need to figure out if I'm better off with Levi.

"Nathan's not my boyfriend," I lied, staring at him straight in the eye.

"Then what was that hugging-behind-a-tree-and-staring-off-into-the-night-sky thing about?"

"Two friends making up for lost time."

"Yeah, okay," he whispered under his breath.

As much as I wanted to fight with him about it, he really ended up doing me a favor by allowing me to lead him into my trap, a trap that will get him to agree to go on a date with me.

I quickly placed the last coat of paint on my face as I saw people begin to leave with spray paint in their hands. I looked at Levi over my shoulder as he sat behind me by the mirror. His face was full of color, with hues of blue, red, yellow, and grey marked across his face, covering the beautiful skin that I'm dying to know what looks like.

"If you really think that Nathan's my boyfriend, than I'll prove to you that he's not," I shot at him.

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"We go on a date and I'll show you that I'm not tied down to another guy."

"Fine. Let's go out tomorrow night. We can go for a walk by the lake at night."

I tried not to smile at the idea of walking by a moonlit lake in the middle of the night with Levi close by my side. The idea is so romantic, it's almost cheesy. But to be honest, he may beat Nathan. Although, I still hate the idea of thinking of this as a competition.

"Deal. What's your number?" I asked while I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

"Give me it," he said while he held out his hand. I squinted at him and his attitude while I placed the phone directly into his palm.

He typed away and gave it back in about four seconds flat, a record which I've never been able to beat.

"Wow, you're a fast typer," I said as I took my phone back and saw his name in my contacts with a winking face next to it.

"That's not the only thing I'm fast at," he said, winking at me.

"That's disgusting. Get up, we need to go."

Levi laughed while he stood up from the creaking floor and pulled me up by my hand. I brushed off the dust and dirt from the ground I had been sitting on, but when I looked up, Levi was pushing back his hair and staring at the ground while he appeared to be lost in thought. I studied his face and tried to look for any flaws or imperfections, just something so I won't be taken off guard tomorrow night.

"Like what you see?" He finally asked after I had been staring at him for longer than I had meant to.

"Shut up, let's go," I laughed as I pulled his wrist and ran out of the house and towards the woods in the dark yet comforting night.