Graffiti Boy

Chapter 4 - The Party Incident

I rushed off of the couch and ran into Dad's at-home office.

"Val?" Eli called from the living room.

"Not now, Elijah!"

Eli walked into Dad's office, "What happened?"

"My Dad's a cop. And over the past week, the amount of graffiti has dramatically increased. Dad said he recognized the symbol that the vandal is leaving behind." I continued to rummage through files, "He wants me to see if I can find the symbol and send him pictures of the file that contains it."

Eli nodded, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

I thought for a moment, "Yes actually, you can. Go finish the script."

Eli pouted, "But, Val..."

"I don't want to hear it. You either finish it or you can leave my house."

Eli rolled his eyes playfully but went into the living room.

I looked at the symbol dad had sent me. It was a black outline of a crown with the letter X etched in the center. I continued to look through the hundreds of files, searching for the symbol. After perhaps an hour of looking, I finally came across a drawing of the symbol. Underneath the name, Xavier was written.

Who was Xavier?

I looked through the file and found photos upon photos of buildings that had been vandalized. Each one had the same symbol somewhere in the painting. There were also little notes Dad had taken, analyzing the images in the graffiti. Things like Murder and Woman and some letters and numbers. I was so confused. I would have to ask dad about it the next time I saw him.

I took photos of the entire files' contents and sent it all to Dad.

He texted back saying thank you and that he would be home soon.

I cleaned up the mess I had made from haphazardly tossing all the files. I walked back to the living room to see Eli had actually completed the script. He looked up and gave me a smile.

He yawned and stretched his arms, causing his shirt to rise, "I'm so tired. Thinking really drains me."

I wanted to turn away before I would start blushing, but then I noticed something. At the base of his torso. It was the symbol Dad had sent me. Only, Eli's tattooed crown had a letter E in the center of it.

"What does that mean?"

"What?"

"Your tattoo."

"It's just a tattoo."

"It must mean something." I urged on.

Eli snapped, "Drop it, Valerie."

The playful tone in his voice was long gone.

I crossed my arms and frowned at him.

He sighed and gave me an apologetic look, "Sorry, Buttercup. It's just some stuff from the past that I don't really want to bring up right now."

I was about to say something when Elijah abruptly stood up.

"Oh, look at the time! It's already nine. I better go," Eli started to get up to leave.

"Wait, Eli!"

He poked my nose, "Catch you later, Buttercup," and then he was out the door.

I rolled my eyes, him and his pet names.

Was it a just a coincidence or was Eli hiding something?

➸

I woke up in the middle of the night. I had been awoken by Dad kissing my forehead. He had arrived home at around three in the morning and immediately dozed off. I didn't get a chance to speak to him because he was gone before I had woken up. I was concerned for him. And I was also really curious. I wanted to know who Xavier was and what Eli's tattoo meant -if it even mattered at all.