Black & White

Part Two

   "Me?!" I exclaim.
"Maybe..." He murmurs.
"Why me? How?" I ask.
"When I saw you at that meet and greet you stood out to me more than any other girl, you were prettier, more genuine. You didn't freak out when you met me, you didn't ask for a follow, you didn't even look like you were wearing makeup." He looks at me. I'm speechless.
"I wasn't." I laugh.
"So it's okay?" He asks.
"Yeah, it's a bit sudden because we only met yesterday. To be honest, I like you too but we've only just met." I chuckle.
"I understand." He breathes a sigh of relief and smiles again. A flash breaks his eyes away from mine. "Shit! Paparazzi!" He says and pulls my hood up. We run off, out of the park.
"How did they find us?" I ask, shouting as we ran.
"They must've been camping outside the gate."
"Oh jesus." I look behind us and they're slowly following us.
"There's like 5 of them!" I say, amazed.
"Keep running. The beach is down there." He points down the road.
"The beach? We live in Vancouver!"
"You'll see." He says as he slows down, he grabs my hand and pulls me into a little alleyway.
"Wh-" He puts a hand over my mouth. The paparazzi run by the alleyway a few minutes later. He takes his hand off my mouth.
"Sorry." He apologises.
"It's alright." He looks out of the alleyway and then steps out onto the street.
"That's going to be all over social media." He sighs, he walks up the street and I follow him. "The beach is a little area me and my old mate made, we called it the beach because we don't have a beach near us. Me and him have fell out of touch now but I keep going back there." He explains.
"Ohhh, okay."
"There's a shop near it where we can buy anything, sweets, soda, alcohol." He looks at me and smirks.
"Really!" I say, believing him but needing confirmation.
"Yeah, shopkeepers an old, old friend. Gives us anything and doesn't tell the press." He points to a small little shop directly in front of us. Shaque's Shop is printed onto a big board over the door.
    We enter the shop and a small, middle aged, plump Indian man smiles at us.
"Hello, Finn. Who's this?" He asks in his extremely heavy accent.
"Shack, this is Alex." Finn explains.
"Hello, my love." Shaque smiles at me warmly. "What do you fancy today, anything you want. I'm sure Finn has explained what else you can get except soda and chips." He raises an eyebrow at Finn, Finn laughs. I walk to the fridges and look at all the sodas, I grab a Coca Cola and a Pepsi and close the door. Finn wanders behind me, I walk to the chips isle and pick out a few bags.
"May I add, you can get as much as you want tonight, my treat." Shack shouts form the front of the shop.
"Oh, thank you!" I shout back. I skip along to the sweet isle and get a bag of Haribo's. I spy the alcohol isle and wander over to it.
"Want help?" Finn asks coming up behind me. I look at him.
"I don't know if I should." I bite my lip.
"Oh it'll be fine." He laughs and grabs a bottle of wine, a box of Budweiser and some plastic cups. He hands me the wine so he can carry the box. I take the cups too. Shack hands me a bag as we leave.
"Thanks Shack!" We shout as we leave the store. Finn leads me down another dimly lit alleyway.
"This way to the beach." He explains as he struggles to hold the box.
"Finn, give me the box." I laugh.
"No, I'm fine." He wheezes as his hand tightened around the edges.
"No, I'm gonna show you how to hold it properly without struggling." He sighs and turns around, he hands me the box.
"Hold your arms out." I instruct him to do. He holds them out. I put the box in the crook of his elbow and push him arms up around it.
"Oh yeah, that is easier."  He laughs and turns back around.
We arrive at the 'beach' and I see it's a well built tree house. Fairy lights adorn the rim of the door.
"How are we going to carry these up there?" I ask looking at the ladder.
"There's a bucket we can put it in." He explains pointing to a small crate dangling at the top of the tree.
"Oh ok." I reply. He puts down the box and loosens the rope making the crate lower. He puts the box in it and pulls the rope so it went up again.
"You want to go up?" He asks.
"Sure." I say. And put the plastic bag down. I run to the ladders and climb them quickly. I slip inside the door and faintly see pillows and blankets and a tiny tv, my mouth makes the shape of an O. I crawl over to the window and grab the box, I place it down on the floor, I lower it back down and he puts the bag in it.
I place it down on the floor and watch Finn crawl through the door. As he sits on his feet he no longer looks like a 15 year old boy, he looks like a sweet 7 year old smiling at me.
"I've got candles but no lighter so we'll just have the light of the tv."He explains. I dig in my pocket and grab my lighter and light the candles on the wooden box. "Why do you have a lighter?" He asks scooting over to me. I dig back into my pocket and show him my packet of cigarettes.
"I smoke." I say and open the packet, he quickly grabs one and looks at it.
"Why?" He asks taking the lighter from me too.
"Oh, I'll tell you when we get to know each other more." I murmur, the reason flashing before my eyes.
"Okay." He replies and lights the cigarette.
"You gonna have a go?" I ask, laughing slightly.
"Will it make you like me more?" He jokes.
"Maybe." I laugh. He puts it to his lips and takes a drag, as he takes it away he splutters and hands it to me.
"Oh, my head." He groans.
"Oh yeah, forgot to tell you that." I say and take a big drag. He watches me.
"Are you okay?" He asks, worried. "Is this too much?"
"No! No! Of course not." I reassure him. "Today was just...a lot. What're we gonna watch on tv?" I ask changing the subject, he still looks at me.
"I left my laptop in here earlier so I could come back and watch films. I have Lion King, Jumanji, the Game of Thrones all downloaded onto it."
"Let's watch Jumanji." I say as I rest my hand out the window.
"Ok." He mutters as he logs into his laptop and finds Jumanji. I look through my Instagram as he sets it up on a crate and see an ad of a couple blowing smoke into each other's mouths. I wanna do that with someone I think, all of a sudden I think of doing it with Finn.
"Hey Finn." I say in a sing song voice.
"Yes?" He asks as he settles back down.
"Can we do this picture?" I ask him showing him the phone.
"If you want to. I want you to be comfortable." He replies, looking into my eyes once again.
"Okay." I agree. I turn the flash on my phone and take a big drag of my cigarette. I turn the phone around, hold Finn's face with my hand and blow the smoke into his mouth, I quickly press the volume button which takes the picture.
     I open my eyes and see Finn looking at me again, I couldn't stop myself, I kissed him. It was only for a quick moment. I look at the picture too embarrassed to look at Finn,
"It's a nice picture." I mutter. I feel Finn place his hand on my cheek and guide my face to his. He kisses me again, it was longer. I pull away.
"We've only known each other for not even a day!" I exclaim. I throw the cigarette out the window. He widens his eyes.
"I am so sorry." He apologises.
"Do you know what? Fuck it." I say and kiss him again, I pull away and kiss him again, short and sweet. "I want to watch the film." I say, he laughs and opens the double sleeping bag. "Since when was a double sleeping bag a thing?" I exclaim whilst climbing into it.
"Oh, my mum made it for me and that old friend. Little weird but it kept us warm." He shrugs, he crawls under it with me and zips it up. I didn't realise there was a thin mattress there until now.
I roll onto my side looking out the window, a sheet of thin plastic covers it while the window with the crate is only small and the window next to Finn has plastic too. I look at the sky and realise how many stars are out tonight, I listen to the film in background as I slowly fall asleep.
Just as I'm about to sleep I feel Finn's arm rest on my side, I slightly shuffle back into Finn's arms and feel the warmth resonating from him.
"You comfortable?" He asks me, his voice close to me ear.
"Very." I murmur.
My eyes open and close.
Eventually, I lose the battle of staying awake and my eyes drift close as I fall into a deep slumber.

End of chapter